How you found Dragon Ball, and what you thought it initially was

[RandomGuy96]

Recently I was listening to some old discussion videos with Herms in them, thinking he'd have some interesting trivia to share. In one of them (can't even remember which) he offhandedly mentioned that he was first introduced to the series by filler episodes of Goku traveling to Namek and dealing with hazards. There was a gap between that and him watching more of the series, so for a bit he thought that's just what the show was: Goku was a space captain traveling the galaxy and getting into space adventures.

I don't know why but I found that thought amusing. Something similar happened to me and I'm curious if it happened to anyone else when they first got introduced to the series as children, long before streaming or even omnipresent internet usage in general were the norm. Or even after, if you just didn't bother to look it up. If you had a similar experience share how you were introduced to the series and what you originally thought it was. I'll go first.

I got introduced to this franchise by the first Budokai video game, way back in 2002. A friend owned it and hyped it up as the most epic thing ever. I had no idea a show or comic existed and didn't own the game myself, and my friend and I would just play versus or tournament mode whenever I was over. Later, the first Dragon Ball thing I actually owned was Budokai 2, in 2003. Budokai 2 has a nonstandard story mode compared to most other Dragon Ball games: instead of replaying 'canon' battles from Raditz to Buu you pick your own preferred characters and move them around as pieces on a board game map, and events happen more-or-less randomly with a lot of additions and changes, such as Gero having a squad of Saibamen, Babidi recruiting Freeza and Cell as henchmen. It doesn't try to be coherent so, when I played it, I just took it at its word. Then in 2004 I got Budokai 3, which doesn't really have a main story mode per se, instead there's a set of battles (including what-if scenarios) and random sidequests on a (less abstracted) game map you take on depending on which character you pick. In both games, there was also the tournament mode, where everyone in the cast seemed fine competing with each other and following the proclamations of the announcer.

So until 2005 or so I both had no idea that Dragon Ball wasn't just a video game series, and that the series had an actual continuity. I thought it was like Mortal Kombat (the closest thing I could compare it to at the time in aesthetics), Street Fighter, or Super Smash Bros. No real plot, just Ladder Modes for specific characters and the general setting of a martial arts tournament to tie it together. Goku and Freeza fighting on Namek was no more "canon" than Ginyu and Krillin having a tournament match under agreed-upon tournament rules (to give one example of the random matchups that mode would generate) or Goku finding Super Saiyan Vegeta on Namek in Budokai 3. I never asked why plant goblins were fighting the scarred wolf-themed guy or why there was a lizard woman who could transform and shoot lasers from her fingers or why a robot with cannons for arms was fighting a giant bug man. I just assumed the developers created wacky character designs and movesets they thought were cool and then made up thin backstories for them later (if they did at all). I made up some of my own in my head. For example I thought Piccolo was a galaxy-traveling superhero, probably just because he was green.

My first experience with the series outside of video games was via the first few DBZ movies, which another friend owned on home video. These films are short, action-heavy, and have no coherent meta plot to them if you're unfamiliar with the main series. Goku and friends would just be dumped at random locations to fight random new bad guys with references to off-screen events that seemingly contradicted each other. So even at this point I thought Goku and friends were just like Bugs Bunny or something, they have shorts outside of the games where stuff happens but there's no real continuity between them. It wasn't until I got the the original Budokai 1 and played through its story mode, the same year the Budokai Tenkaichi/Sparking series (that I also started playing) started, that I got the idea that these were actually characters in a story. From there I read up on them on the internet and started catching broadcasts and later borrowing friends' home video of the series.

This actually made the first views of the series as a kid interesting despite being spoiled on core plot points as I genuinely didn't know at first what was in the show/comic and what was made up by the games.

[Yuji]

My first impression was with the first Shin Budokai game when I was a child. My English knowledge either wasn't the best, or I skipped through the dialogue, so I thought ultimate Gohan was Goku's father for the longest time. I remember I was super confused a few months later once I actually watched something of the anime (I watched Super Android 13) and Gohan was a child, but I don't think I even caught his name or recognized him as Goku's son. All I thought was "where is Goku's dad in all of this?" Kid Gohan is in Shin Budokai but it's his Cell Games variant, not the early Cell arc design, so I think once I figured out Gohan was both the child and the adult I knew, I presumed he was the protagonist.

Shin Budokai's story is an original story so if you're not familiar with the characters' relationships, I guess it can come across as confusing to a child. I also remember thinking Vegetto, Gotenks and Gogeta were their own characters and never caught that they were fusions.

I think the first time I was old enough to grasp the series I caught an episode of Pure Boo vs Goku on TV. My first, second and third impressions of the series were of superheroes fighting weird monsters, which I guess isn't too far from the truth.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I don't remember the exact moment I found Dragon Ball, but I recall becoming aware of it sometime in late 1999 when my dad's job brought myself and my family to America as it only premiered in Ireland a few months after we came home, at which point I knew what it was.

My initial impressions were that it was very violent, of course much of it is but I got the impression it was super brutal and gory, probably because I was exposed to some Toonami commercials with rock music that spun that side of it.

I was apprehensive at first as I didn't want Dragon Ball Z (the particular series that was airing at the time) was violent for the sake of it, but of course as I gave the show a try I learned there was more to it than the heavy, flashy action and that this was a show that had a lot of heart to it. It's been my favourite series ever since.

[kemuri07]

I definitely recall watching DBZ back during the old Ocean days, and I def remember watching DBZ even before it came to Cartoon Network. I think it's around 1999 - 2000 is when the series crystalized for me as "my favorite thing" as a big chunk of my childhood was spent looking up power guides, arc summaries, and AMVs. my big go for those was Vegeta Insane (later Ginga Giri Giri) and this very website!

So yeah, I was very much aware of Dragon Ball long before the video games started coming stateside. Though I do recall being very excited when I got my hands on the first Budokai game for the ps2.

[Rory]

Original UK run of the Saiyan arc. Pretty sure it was the Gohan in the wilderness story-line. I was a huge fan of anything that looked remotely like Pokémon at this stage, so I was completely in the pocket for it. By the time the actual Nappa/Vegeta fight went down, I think I was literally jumping up and down on the sofa - I was totally hooked.

[AliTheZombie13]

First contact was through Cartoon Network in the 90s. My brothers loved to watch DBZ. First impressions were not positive, not helped by the fact it was dominated by reruns of the Cell Saga. I thought the show was a boring-fest where characters just talked, and talked, and talked, and repeated the same "Punches and kicks super fast" animation until the episode finally ended. I couldn't wait for it to end so I could watch Tiny Toon Adventures.

Years later down the line, the OG Dragon Ball came to Toonami, and I was like. "Wait, there's an original?" I ended up liking it a lot better. The comedy fantasy adventure vibe ended up sticking with me much better than DBZ's faux-serious sci-fi space action. I thought the original at least, was a good show filled with fun adventures, good comedy, good characters and good music.

[Ronin]

My first impression was also different from what the show was actually about. I first saw DBZ on TV when I wanted to watch cartoons to make myself feel better after watching a horror movie late at night. I flipped the channel to Cartoon Network and it was the episode where Goku was chasing Bubbles on King Kai's planet. I only watched for about 5 minutes or so before I was made to turn the TV off and go to bed. So my first impression was a guy chasing a monkey for 5 minutes on a tiny planet lol. I was entertained by it, though, since I watched a lot of different kinds of cartoons back when I was 8 and it reminded me of Roadrunner Looney Tunes cartoons a little bit. I had heard of DBZ before, but didn't know much about it.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Original UK run of the Saiyan arc. Pretty sure it was the Gohan in the wilderness story-line. I was a huge fan of anything that looked remotely like Pokémon at this stage, so I was completely in the pocket for it. By the time the actual Nappa/Vegeta fight went down, I think I was literally jumping up and down on the sofa - I was totally hooked.

Funnily enough, to add to my story I vividly remember first seeing Pokémon around the same time and thinking "this looks like a show that would be on Toonami", so seeing glimpses of Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon I began to recognize anime was something distinct from American cartoons.

I probably missed the ending of the Raditz fight with Goku being killed as I remember wondering how Goku got to Snake Way and why he was running down it. I thought there was some massive country beneath since Goku didn't land in the ocean. Moving from Ireland to America it blew my 8 year old mind how much bigger the latter was than the former, and in a weird way I associated Dragon Ball Z with this realization.

[RandomGuy96]

My first impression was with the first Shin Budokai game when I was a child. My English knowledge either wasn't the best, or I skipped through the dialogue, so I thought ultimate Gohan was Goku's father for the longest time. I remember I was super confused a few months later once I actually watched something of the anime (I watched Super Android 13) and Gohan was a child, but I don't think I even caught his name or recognized him as Goku's son. All I thought was "where is Goku's dad in all of this?" Kid Gohan is in Shin Budokai but it's his Cell Games variant, not the early Cell arc design, so I think once I figured out Gohan was both the child and the adult I knew, I presumed he was the protagonist.

Shin Budokai's story is an original story so if you're not familiar with the characters' relationships, I guess it can come across as confusing to a child. I also remember thinking Vegetto, Gotenks and Gogeta were their own characters and never caught that they were fusions.

I think the first time I was old enough to grasp the series I caught an episode of Pure Boo vs Goku on TV. My first, second and third impressions of the series were of superheroes fighting weird monsters, which I guess isn't too far from the truth.

I remember thinking that Goten was adult Gohan's son when he first showed up in the video games and that the bigger Trunks was the smaller Trunks' older brother who died at some point.

[ABED]

My dad was a Naval fighter pilot, so we lived in Japan from August 91 to September 93. We lived on a Navy base in Atsugi, so we got a mix of American and Japanese TV. That was the first I saw of DB. I didn't watch it, but I saw bits and pieces of it. My first real exposure was through some collectible cards and Super Famicom games. After moving back to the states, I still remembered it and one day in 96 I was watching Saturday morning cartoons and heard some woman say the name Gohan and Goku. I've been watching ever since.

My brother knew more about the show than I did early on. He remembered Trunks. I saw Trunks in the opening credits of the Ocean dub and wondered if I had missed something.

[MasenkoHA]

Toonami airings of the Funi/Ocean dub circa fall 98/early 99. I was aware it was a Japanese cartoon like Sailor Moon because..come on.

[Hellspawn28]

Didn't we just had a thread just like this a few weeks ago?

[demonontheleft]

First exposure to Dragon Ball was on Nicktoons when I was a kid, I remember a lot of the Saiyan and Freeza arcs but I don't think I saw anything of the Android arc when it was airing. Years later DBS was coming out and I kept up with that for a small bit, eventually though after years of looking at fan made stuff and clips from the games I decided to read the entirety of Dragon Ball digitally.

It paid off a lot, from what I saw of the original version of the dub I don't like it's writing and Kai only gives you a small amount of the full story.

[TechExpert2021]

Didn't we just had a thread just like this a few weeks ago?

I believe we did.

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Anyway...

I first heard of the Dragon Ball franchise via pop culture osmosis as a 2010s kid, mostly DBZ. My very first introduction to the Dragon Ball franchise was the Funimation dubs of DBZ Kai and DB Super airing on Adult Swim’s Toonami back around 2017-2020. I was 10-13 during those times. I've become a fan of the franchise since 2021, after getting into playing the mobile game Dragon Ball Legends and discovering OG DB and DBGT.

Late 2023 is when I took a break from the Dragon Ball franchise, but after hearing news of Akira Toriyama's death on March 8, 2024, I resorted to this thread on Reddit to pay tribute to Akira Toriyama. Since then, I've returned to being a fan of the Dragon Ball franchise and I still am right now.

[JulieYBM]

My neighbor introduced me to the franchise by showing me an episode on Toonami in October or November of 1998. From there, I slowly began collecting some of the edtied Pioneer released before eventually picking up the uncut Double Crossed VHS release from Suncoast Video. It was kind of wild to finally have 'new' Dragon Ball Z after watching that goddamned Episode #1 intro repeat over-and-over for a year.

[Zephyr]

Anything I can say results from doing detective work to place fuzzy memories on a timeline relative to externally-verifiable world events, and making inferences from there.

The first key memory is that my family and I moved from an apartment to a house only a couple of weeks into my 1st grade school year, prompting a change in schools as well, which would have been in September of 1998. I remember being at the bus stop outside of the apartment complex, thinking about DBZ (having watched it). It's well known that "Season 1 and 2" of DBZ did a few loops on Toonami before finally airing the rest of the Namek arc. If the data on Swimpedia is to be believed, it looks to be 5 loops which aired over the course of a year. Since the second loop didn't begin until November of 1998, this means that I started watching DBZ at some point during its first airing of the Saiyan arc on Toonami, either in August or September of 1998.

The second key memory is that, in 2002, after I'd already been a fan of the show for years, I was at the house of a friend who had a VHS tape with some episodes from the Raditz section of the Saiyan arc (which I want to say is the "Arrival" tape). I remember that at the time I mentioned "these were the first episodes I saw", or something to that effect. I do not know if this was actually true, but I remember saying it. The episodes on the Arrival tape first aired on Toonami on the following dates: 8/31, 9/1, 9/2, and 9/3. So, if Zephyr (2002) is to be believed, then I started watching DBZ in August or (the very beginning of) September of 1998. Months-wise this doesn't narrow it down any more than the first key memory, but story-wise it does.

This isn't very surprising. I was already watching Toonami for Voltron and Sailor Moon, so it makes sense I would have caught DBZ when it started. As for what I thought it initially was, I do not know. I remember a close friend and I thought it looked dumb (presumably based off of the promos?), but I was clearly instantly hooked upon watching it; I wanna say the aforementioned bus stop memory is me talking with said friend about how it was actually pretty good. DBZ was much more serialized than the cartoons I usually watched, which was one of the things I remember finding really cool about it.

[Koitsukai]

At school, classmates were watching it but I didn't care mostly because my closest friends weren't aware of it, until my teammates at footy practice kept talking about it and there was really no other subject, just "Goku this", "Goku that". There was no other choice, either change club or watch DBZ.

I don't recall much of my initial thoughts except that I was under the impression that I was going to be seeing more armored people (I was introduced to the episode where Vegeta and Nappa come out scathered from a dust cloud), like in Saint Seiya. And Namek sorta reinforced that...

[90sDBZ]

Is it just me, or has this topic been posted like 5 times this year already? I swear somebody asked this question only a couple of weeks ago.

To answer the question, I started watching Z shortly after it started airing on Cartoon Network UK in 2000. I think my first episode was the 'Bulma's bad day' filler episode on Namek. I had seen several promos prior to this, but this is the first episode I actually sat down and watched. I then remember watching random bits here and there, like Goku vs the Ginyu Force, and a rerun of Goku vs Nappa.

The episode were Vegeta gets killed by Frieza was the one that made me obsessed with the show. Seeing a major character die, and the setup to Goku vs Frieza was just so instantly engaging. Vegeta's speech to Goku really left an impression on me. After that I tuned in every single day, and followed the Goku vs Frieza fight obsessively.

[EF2024]

Saw dbz on Cartoon Network in 2002 but wasn’t a fan. Saw it proper when my family got sky in 2003 and it was on CNX eventually got into it watching the frieza saga and seeing goku turn ssj. Actually enjoyed watching GT more at first but eventually saw all of Z. Saw super on dvd but Didn’t watch original dragonball proper until 2 years ago. They all had enjoyable moments.

[jjgp1112]

I first saw it on Kids WB reruns in the mornings before school back in 2nd Grade around 98/99, though I didn't know the name. I just remember the short, gremlin-like spiky hair dude laughing it up in some spaceship and stealing shit. But our cable provider didn't have Cartoon Network where I lived so I didn't watch it on Toonami until we got DirecTV in 2001. Otherwise, I only heard about it or happened to catch it if I was at a cousin's house where they had Cartoon Network and I'd just watch whatever was on just to say I watched something on that damn channel I knew it was some show of Asian origin (I assumed Chinese lmao) just from Goku's appaearance.

My older brother, who was in high school at the time, was familiar with the show though and I remember one time him and all his homies were watching Japanese fansubs in the living room once (black guys in New York in the 90s loved their Asian bootlegs) and I was like "Oh, so that show really IS Chinese "

Funnily enough though, my mom bought me a DBZ bookbag before 3rd grade because it was the only bag in the story that wasn't girly...and for whatever reason I got mad and declared I HATED Dragon Ball Z . I think it was sour grapes because I was the only kid in my school who couldn't watch it, so I was like "Pfft I don't even like that dumb Chinese show anyway "

Anyway, in 01 we get DirecTV in the house, the first day of Spring break too so I didn't have to worry about school and so I had all day to make up for all the hours of Cartoon Network and DIsney Channel that I missed because of my bumass cable over the years I flip to Cartoon Network at 5:30 and I instantly recognize that DBZ is on because of the guy in the orange gi like on my bookbag and changed the channel. But then, I noticed the guy had blonde hair and green eyes instead of black hair like on my bag. I had seen a random episode on Toonami at my aunt's house a few months earlier where it was the same thing (the one where Goku and Gohan get out of the time chamber, I'm pretty sure), so I flip back trying to figure out what the deal was with that. Guy on my bag is smirking at the green bug like villain and says "I quit," everybody's shocked, and then he throws his kid who also had blonde hair for some reason into the fight...and ngl I was pretty much immediately intrigued and knew I had to tune in the next day to see where this was going. When Gohan went SSJ2...I was hooked. Within a week I went from "Fuck Dragon Ball Z" to not being able to shut the fuck up about it with my friends