For those of you who saw DBZ first...

[Kamiccolo9]

Krillin's early design creeped me out.

[sunsetshimmer]

Honestly, the fact it exists and that it looks so old and outdated.

The reason is i had no idea it was a thing. I started watching DBZ on TV shortly after Raditz fight, when Goku was on snake way, even before the Princess Snake appearance. After Z of course came GT and i though that's it, but then they aired first episode of OG series and i had no idea what's going on.

But if we talk about plot, then probably a fact that characters like Yamcha and Tien were antagonists and a fact King Piccolo existed and that DBZ Piccolo was just his reformed son.

[precita]

One thing I thought DB did was explain a backstory for Tenshinhan's third eye and his relationship with Chiaotzu. Besides them training at the same school together, we got nothing.

[90sDBZ]

Honestly, the fact it exists and that it looks so old and outdated.

I don't think it looks any more dated than Z.

and a fact King Piccolo existed and that DBZ Piccolo was just his reformed son.

Z actually had a few flashbacks of King Piccolo, and an explanation from Kami about Piccolo Jr being the formers son.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Definitely how antagonizing characters like Yamcha, Tien, and even Chaoitzu were initially.

Speaking of the UK broadcasts coming off the ominous Wasserman score, the heaviness of Faulconer, and the ambience of Keenlyside in Z, as well as the operatic Tokunaga GT score Kikuchi sounded dated by comparison to all the rest when OG Dragon Ball aired (although at the time I had no knowledge most of these were replacement scores). Of course the score ultimately grew on me and became my favourite Dragon Ball score as I saw the Big Green dubs and years later Pilaf-Buu in Japanese and uncut dubbed, but it was a gradual process of coming to appreciate it.

[MasenkoHA]

Definitely how antagonizing characters like Yamcha, Tien, and even Chaoitzu were initially.

Speaking of the UK broadcasts coming off the ominous Wasserman score, the heaviness of Faulconer, and the ambience of Keenlyside in Z, as well as the operatic Tokunaga GT score Kikuchi sounded dated by comparison to all the rest when OG Dragon Ball aired (although at the time I had no knowledge most of these were replacement scores). Of course the score ultimately grew on me and became my favourite Dragon Ball score as I saw the Big Green dubs and years later Pilaf-Buu in Japanese and uncut dubbed, but it was a gradual process of coming to appreciate it.

Funny you mentioned that. As a kid I never thought too hard about the music. I just sort of accepted that the electronic techno rock music was Dragon Ball Z’s music and Dragon Ball’s music was more light hearted and upbeat. But even back then something about Dragon Ball felt more anime-y to me (for lack of a better word) than Dragon Ball Z even though I knew DBZ was anime. I associated the original Dragon Ball more with the likes of other anime at the time like Tenchi Muyo, the Cloverway produced seasons of Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, Case Closed, etc. DBZ felt more aligned with action cartoons like ReBoot, Beast Wars, Superman the animated series etc.

[sunsetshimmer]

Honestly, the fact it exists and that it looks so old and outdated.

I don't think it looks any more dated than Z.

and a fact King Piccolo existed and that DBZ Piccolo was just his reformed son.

Z actually had a few flashbacks of King Piccolo, and an explanation from Kami about Piccolo Jr being the formers son.

Yeah but DBZ kept looking better and different. Goku didn't have such round head and eyes. Also GT continued that and made everything even more detailed. Now imagine going from last GT episode to first DB episode, especially seeing kid Goku so chubby and round compared to his GT counterpart. It felt different and weird.

I was either too young or could've skipped those episodes or didn't really understand everything from flashbacks. It was over 15 years ago so it's hard to remember.

[jjgp1112]

I already knew some of the general beats - obviously, Krillin dying to kick off the Piccolo arc. But seeing just how abruptly it happened shocked me as if I didn't already know beforehand.

Funny you mentioned that. As a kid I never thought too hard about the music. I just sort of accepted that the electronic techno rock music was Dragon Ball Z’s music and Dragon Ball’s music was more light hearted and upbeat. But even back then something about Dragon Ball felt more anime-y to me (for lack of a better word) than Dragon Ball Z even though I knew DBZ was anime. I associated the original Dragon Ball more with the likes of other anime at the time like Tenchi Muyo, the Cloverway produced seasons of Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, Case Closed, etc. DBZ felt more aligned with action cartoons like ReBoot, Beast Wars, Superman the animated series etc.

I had already become acquainted with the Japanese music from DBZ fansubs for the Buu saga, so I figured with DB being more goofy, FUNimation was trying to stay truer to the quirky Japanese-ness of DB and also show that it's the older series, not a prequel.

[KBABZ]

I had already become acquainted with the Japanese music from DBZ fansubs for the Buu saga, so I figured with DB being more goofy, FUNimation was trying to stay truer to the quirky Japanese-ness of DB and also show that it's the older series, not a prequel.

I don't know the reason for this, but my suspicion is that it was simply cheaper to leave the music as-is rather than re-compose the music to try and capitalize on what they wanted their market to be. So in a way, Funimation being cheap lead to a slightly more authentic final product, if my theory is true.

[MasenkoHA]

I had already become acquainted with the Japanese music from DBZ fansubs for the Buu saga, so I figured with DB being more goofy, FUNimation was trying to stay truer to the quirky Japanese-ness of DB and also show that it's the older series, not a prequel.

I don't know the reason for this, but my suspicion is that it was simply cheaper to leave the music as-is rather than re-compose the music to try and capitalize on what they wanted their market to be. So in a way, Funimation being cheap lead to a slightly more authentic final product, if my theory is true.

Keep in mind retaining the original Japanese music for Dragon Ball was part of FUNimation's PR for that dub (along with letting fans vote for the voices of Pilaf, Shu, and Goku)

Q: What are future plans for Dragon Ball?
A: Dragon Ball will begin airing on Cartoon Network July 23. DB will run in time slot immediately after Dragon Ball Z. The first 28 episodes will be broadcast. These episodes will contain the original music from the Japanese series. Remember, if these episodes are successful CN will pick up the entire series, so tell you friends to watch.

https://web.archive.org/web/20010902204 ... ?flash=yes


And while obviously just keeping the Japanese music is the cheaper route than composing a brand new score especially for a series that Funimation seemed to write off as "it might not do great but it's more Dragon Ball Z related content to profit off and Dragon Ball Z is already basically printing us money at this point" to Funimation's credit 1. They did go through the trouble of recreating the instrumentals for Makafushigi Adventure and Romantic Ageru Yo and actually have English adaptations produced when they could have just as easily recycled the 95 intro and outro (which is exactly what they did for Sleeping Princess's dub) or use the Japanese songs as is 2. Z and GT are outliers at the end of the day when it comes to treatment of music. At least to my knowledge every other anime Funimation license keeps the Japanese music.

With Z changing the score was more along of the lines of "We're a brand new company and if we make our own score we can profit off that even if the show doesn't do well plus this seems what our focus groups like better with wall to wall music and rock and electronic music!" and with GT it seemed to be "Well GT didn't do well in Japan (that fact is debatable but it's definitely what Funimation believed to be true) we'll skip right to the action and repackage those episodes later as "lost episodes" dump our monster truck announcer narrator for a "this is serious dark stuff going on guys" narrator and create a brand new "edgier" score to appeal to our audience of 13 year old boys who make Linkin Park Z AMVs.

With Dragon Ball they had nothing to lose so they probably figured they would treat it the same way they were treating the other new licenses they were acquiring. Along with Blue Gender and Yuyu Hakusho Dragon Ball seemed FUNimation's sincere attempt at being more faithful with the anime they acquired instead of completely rebranding it even if they still had a long way to go.

[Captain Awesome]

For me honestly, it was how similar it was.

I'd read the discourse online in the early 00's and people (I would argue disingenuously) referred to it as a more comedic series. Post RR it's basically the same show as Z.

[TheGreatness25]

My exposure to Dragon Ball was after Z, but before many people in the US. I got familiar with DBZ during its run in syndication. So, I was really excited for it to get into Toonami. That's when a lot of people I knew started getting into the series big time.

At a mall, they had a store called "Suncoast Video" (I believe). And there, I came in contact with VHSes of Dragon Ball (episodes 1-13, movie 1, and movie 2). Of course, my parents bought those VHS tapes for me and I watched those things more than I could count.

So, from that, I just remember being pretty surprised at how Goku met Yamucha, Pu-erh, Oolong, Chichi, and Gyumao. I had an idea of how he met Bulma when Bulma had that little flashback sequence during the Namekian crab episode. And him meeting Muten Roshi wasn't a surprise to me either. I was familiar with the Nyoiboi because of DBZ movie 1 airing (though I thought it was weird in DBZ movie 1), but did find it odd to see Goku outside of his traditional orange.

I was really surprised at the music, but thought the opening theme was catchy (though cheesy) -- we're talking about the Peter Berring score because I was a kid and didn't really know better. Since movie 2 was included, I also got a taste of how Goku met Kurilin and Lunch. Now, I thought how he met Kurilin was clever, but had no clue who Lunch was lol I only knew her from that picture that Bulma held during the Saiyan fight and also from the bar scene that I saw on Telemundo's airing of DBZ.

Anyway, I'd say that because of that, I was better prepared for Toonami's airing of Dragon Ball than most of my peers at that time. For them, I imagine it was a sharp shift, while for me, I already had familiarity with a small portion of the series.

I was really surprised at how Goku met Tenshinhan, but other than that, nothing really caught me by surprise. I think I had a handle on the story either from Z or reading summaries online.

I think the biggest thing that always boggled my mind was Oolong and Pu-erh's shapeshifting abilities. They're never featured since the original DB, so it kind of took me by surprise and I still am not sure why they were never seen or spoken about again.

[KBABZ]

(along with letting fans vote for the voices of Pilaf, Shu, and Goku)

Oh I know about Pilaf but Shu and Goku???

[MasenkoHA]

(along with letting fans vote for the voices of Pilaf, Shu, and Goku)

Oh I know about Pilaf but Shu and Goku???

Yep

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/2008/01/18/f ... ao-voices/

[Planetnamek]

For me it was how much more of a comedy it was as opposed to an action show, sure there was plenty of action later on but it did take some time to get to that point. I was also surprised by how much more sexual humor there was, no wonder Harmony Gold stopped after episode 5, episode 6 would give most people a heart-attack with how inappropriate it was.

[Hellspawn28]

I saw DB before I saw DBZ and I do remember being confused when watching DBZ because I felt like many stuff was missing. I had to do my own research when DBZ was still airing in the United States.

[Yuli Ban]

I wrote off Dragon Ball at first way back when it first aired on Toonami, even though I watched every episode. My friend and I liked it quite a bit, but we were fully immersed in FUNi DeeBeeZee so this was more of a "Hey, Goku's in it!" than anything. I remember that I didn't mind the music and it made the series feel more "Chinese-y" (hmmmmmmmm, how strange, I wonder why). Funny that I specifically thought it felt "Chinese," but then again knowing the time period and my age, it's far more likely I was of the whole "China and Japan are pretty much the same, right?" I sure as hell didn't know Dragon Ball actually was Japanese and used loads of Chinese motifs and references, I can tell you that (I can distinctly recall that a lot of people in my grade who knew of DBZ thought it, Pokemon, Yugioh, and others were American shows).

As I was a kid and this was 20 years ago, I don't remember my initial feelings about it in any detail other than that we were both indeed frustrated by the lack of so many things that became staples in DBZ. I guess the closest I can recall would be the sense I had that "Dragon Ball is like Chinese Teen Titans" and "Dragon Ball Z is cooler than everything else." Ah the early 2000s!

[Planetnamek]

I wrote off Dragon Ball at first way back when it first aired on Toonami, even though I watched every episode. My friend and I liked it quite a bit, but we were fully immersed in FUNi DeeBeeZee so this was more of a "Hey, Goku's in it!" than anything. I remember that I didn't mind the music and it made the series feel more "Chinese-y" (hmmmmmmmm, how strange, I wonder why). Funny that I specifically thought it felt "Chinese," but then again knowing the time period and my age, it's far more likely I was of the whole "China and Japan are pretty much the same, right?" I sure as hell didn't know Dragon Ball actually was Japanese and used loads of Chinese motifs and references, I can tell you that (I can distinctly recall that a lot of people in my grade who knew of DBZ thought it, Pokemon, Yugioh, and others were American shows).

As I was a kid and this was 20 years ago, I don't remember my initial feelings about it in any detail other than that we were both indeed frustrated by the lack of so many things that became staples in DBZ. I guess the closest I can recall would be the sense I had that "Dragon Ball is like Chinese Teen Titans" and "Dragon Ball Z is cooler than everything else." Ah the early 2000s!

I thought the exact same thing about those shows as a kid, it wasn't until I was in high school and stumbled across all those "uncensored" anime sites that I learned the truth. Didn't diminish my enjoyment of them but it did explain certain things i'd always wondered about.

[ABED]

Nothing really. After I got into DBZ in the late 90s, I looked up anything I could and eventually found Curtis Hoffmann's manga translations so I knew what happened in DB. Nothing came as a surprise

[Polyphase Avatron]

I wrote off Dragon Ball at first way back when it first aired on Toonami, even though I watched every episode. My friend and I liked it quite a bit, but we were fully immersed in FUNi DeeBeeZee so this was more of a "Hey, Goku's in it!" than anything. I remember that I didn't mind the music and it made the series feel more "Chinese-y" (hmmmmmmmm, how strange, I wonder why). Funny that I specifically thought it felt "Chinese," but then again knowing the time period and my age, it's far more likely I was of the whole "China and Japan are pretty much the same, right?" I sure as hell didn't know Dragon Ball actually was Japanese and used loads of Chinese motifs and references, I can tell you that (I can distinctly recall that a lot of people in my grade who knew of DBZ thought it, Pokemon, Yugioh, and others were American shows).

As I was a kid and this was 20 years ago, I don't remember my initial feelings about it in any detail other than that we were both indeed frustrated by the lack of so many things that became staples in DBZ. I guess the closest I can recall would be the sense I had that "Dragon Ball is like Chinese Teen Titans" and "Dragon Ball Z is cooler than everything else." Ah the early 2000s!

I thought the exact same thing about those shows as a kid, it wasn't until I was in high school and stumbled across all those "uncensored" anime sites that I learned the truth. Didn't diminish my enjoyment of them but it did explain certain things i'd always wondered about.

I always knew they were Japanese, especially since the dub often missed censoring Japanese text and words. One example in particular that I remember was when Android 20/Dr. Gero was scanning the Z fighters and his readout displayed data including their special techniques, which were actually written in Romaji (i.e. Roga Fufuken instead of Wolf Fang Fist for Yamcha).