Rock The Dragon Intro Spoilers, Questions, and Thoughts

[ATA]

Howdy!

It's often joked how the original JPN titles lowkey had major spoilers in the title. However thinking about it, didn't the Rock The Dragon intro show SSJ Vegeta, SSJ Trunks, Mecha Freeza, and SSJ Goku in the Saiyan arc? Talk about showing the food before it's fully seasoned. Funimation was more accurate spoiling than they was with dubbing

My earilest memory of Dragon Ball I was 3 years old. So for those who were old enough to remember, did you make the connection once Goku turned SSJ? Did you notice at all? Looking back what do you guys think overall of the Rock The Dragon intro?

I'm not rey(rey is similar to finna/gonna in my language) hold you. Rock The Dragon still one of my favorite intros. Even if it doesn't really capture the atmosphere of the show. That shit was GAS when you hear it as a kid stu. Instant excitment. Even hearing it on Budokai 1, niggas knew what time it was once that beat drop. I do wonder why they didn't use the animation for Cha La Head Cha La intro. Maybe they thought the intro was too boring for English Speaking countries?

[VegettoEX]

It sure did! There were a couple layers to it for me, though.

(1) When I was first getting into the show, I had no context for any of that, so the opening meant almost nothing to me. It was a cool collection of scenes, but I had no idea that most of it was scenes from movies, some of it was from the Japanese opening theme, and there was the random Nappa shot. Just no goddamn clue what I was looking at! It was pretty visuals that I figured maybe eventually I'd learn more about.

(2) Once I was into the series, I thoroughly spoiled myself on everything by looking more into it. There were only the first batch of episodes for me (for those who don't know, I got into it in September 1996 via the syndicated broadcast, so there wasn't much to actually watch en masse!). Whether it was looking at some of the earliest fansites, or more over the course of 1996 and 1997, reading back through video game magazines and seeing all the import coverage... that was where I got all the "real" spoilers! Once I saw and read all that, THEN I could go back to "Rock the Dragon" and start piecing things together like, "oh, that's Goku turning Super Saiyan." I've shared this often, but this six-page-spread from EGM was gospel to me for quite some time.

I guess it's worth noting that beyond just the couple later "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" variations of animation with the transformations (Vegeta, Trunks), they did use the whimsical Gohan dragon running... for the ending!

[MasenkoHA]

To my understanding Toei originally only gave Funimation the final version of Head Cha La to use for their dub. When Funimation started releasing the Japanese subs they had to rip the Dead Zone version of Head Cha La, which is why it miscredits the writers and directors as complained by Chris Psaros here:https://dbzu.3gkai.com/editorial/editorial17.html


Funimation probably didn't have to show that shot of Vegeta going Super Saiyan in space or Future Trunks bringing his sword down on Mecha Frieza, but if they wanted to use a cool group shot to end the opening, they were stuck with one that showed Goku turning Super Saiyan and Vegeta and Future Trunks being part of the group.



As for Rock the Dragon well the song is 90s kidvid cheese the opening itself is fine, it's like 90 percent Tree of Might footage with a little Head Cha La, Dead Zone, and World's Strongest thrown in and a single shot from the actual show.


It's definitely preferable over the half-assed slapdash poorly put together opening they used for the Faulconer theme until the Buu saga.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I just find it funny how RtD featured those clips from version 3 of Head Cha-La, and how someone watching the syndi broadcast back in 1996/97 without prior knowledge of the original Japanese version (granted that kind of material in any wide form was far and few between, given how primitive the Internet was then) would've been confused with the shots of Vegeta, Trunks, and Goku as Super Saiyans, especially considering that FUNi wouldn't actually get to those parts of the story until two or three years later after they went in house.

[Civic]

I never really questioned it. I just watched it and thought it was cool. Goku turning SSJ didn't mean much when you didn't know what SSJ was or looked like.

[Gaffer Tape]

The interesting thing is, if you were introduced to DBZ through the Toonami reruns, you'd almost never see the opening anyway since they discarded their shows' openings in favor of their own in-house intros (except for Johnny Quest for some reason). They only first showed the intros when they aired the movies as part of their Toonami Movies line. I honestly can't remember what I thought the first time I saw them, if those were spoilers, if I didn't have enough context to understand, or if I had already begun researching the Internet and had found out there was far more to the series than just those 53 episodes.

[TheGreatness25]

In 1999 or so, I decided that I wanted to own Dragon Ball Z. So, as a kid with zero dollars, I used what I had around. I recorded every episode (of the Saban dub, of course) on VHS. And luckily, the first episode I recorded was from the Midnight Run. So, I kicked it off with the actual Rock the Dragon intro... after Barney Rubble walked over to the Cartoon Network sign and took a circle from one of the O's to replace his eyeball with it. Anyway, what a weird thing that no kid would understand if I explained it to them lol

I don't know what the Japanese open spoiled, though.

[Super Sonic]

The interesting thing is, if you were introduced to DBZ through the Toonami reruns, you'd almost never see the opening anyway since they discarded their shows' openings in favor of their own in-house intros (except for Johnny Quest for some reason).

You cannot excise the opening of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. It hit at a point so well you can't picture the show airing without it. A great update to a great update of a show that is better than its original.

Will say at first I was confused about Yamcha and Trunks due to the former's hairstyle at that last pose was different than the long bad boy hair he had.

[JulieYBM]

I remember first seeing the Rock the Dragon intro when Toonami aired the merged version of the three-episode edit of Dragon Ball Z: A Super Decisive Battle for Earth. As an eight year old girl it was quite a hyping experience! The spoilers personally never bothered me because I was already aware of the Super Saiyan forms and the character of Trunks from fandoms and browsing the internet. I personally don't subscribe to spoilers being a big deal, especially for the series like Dragon Ball. There aren't exactly any Oshi no Ko-level plot twists in Dragon Ball, sadly.

[Jord]

I wasn't bothered by it. It just looked fucking awesome. The ending of the 1st Cha la opening looks way more dorky.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Never thought anything of Goku turning Super Saiyan until it happened in the show. I actually think the first episode I saw was on Namek when Goku defeats Freeza and he is cut in half. I don't recall thinking anything of his hair turning from blonde to black or the reverse in the opening. To me it was just an awesome show that I still love to this day, but for different reasons.

When the opening we know as Rock the Dragon came on I basically just turned my brain off, sat back and enjoyed the show. Having a damn fun opening just added to the excitement. Weekdays at 5pm and 9pm on the British Cartoon Network for me was just "Dragon Ball Z Time", better yet when we had those weekend long marathons and it was like that all day long.

I think it was a creative decision to use shots from the first 3 Dragon Ball Z movies rather than the Head Cha-La animations, as Funimation probably thought they would make the action sequences in the former look more "badass" to kids and the latter was better suited for closing off the show.