Your introduction to Dragon Ball

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I believe if i’m remembering correctly that i was first introduced to the world of Dragon Ball quite young, as my earliest memories is seeing scattered parts of the OG in house FUNi dub of DBZ as it was airing on Cartoon Network/Toonami some time in 1999 when i was about six. I’m not exactly sure which episode was the first one i ever saw but i know it was for certain one of those during Goku’s fight with second form Freeza during the Namek arc.

[Michelle91]

Copy & Paste mine

I could have saw some DB related stuff before 1997, but the first time when I actually knew what Dragon Ball was back in 1997 when my Dad got two VHS copies of Dragon Ball for my birthday. They were these VHS tapes:





When I was 6, I thought Dragon Ball was pretty boring compare to the anime that I was watching on Sci-Fi. My two sisters (They were 4 and 2 at the time) did like it though. Sometime in 1998, I was waiting for Beast Wars to come on TV and I stumble upon the episode where Goku was being wished back to life. I had no idea what I was watching and I end up turning off the TV. I believe this was the syndication run of DBZ because I was still living at my old house in Columbia, MD before we moved out after July 1998 and DBZ didn't air on CN until August 1998. When I was in the second grade, I remember DBZ blew up and everyone was talking about it. I didn't bother to watch it until 1999 when I watched the episode when Piccolo was fighting Freeza. I remember hating it and I was like "This is so stupid. Why do people like this?". Even as an 8-year-old back in 1999, I can tell that the dub was awful. I was already watching other anime at the time, so I didn't see the point of watching anime on Toonami (I still watched it for some anime like Ronin Warriors).

From 1999-2000, I avoid anything related to Dragon Ball because I thought it was stupid and annoying. It was not until early 2001 when I was bored late at night and I decided to check out the Toonami Midnight Run. When I was a kid, I used to stay up late and did channel surfing to watch whatever I can find on late-night TV. I remember watching the episode where Goku teleported Cell to North Kai's Planet and I was now interested in Dragon Ball. The next day, I used the Internet at home to discover more about Dragon Ball and the first fan website that I went to was DBZ Uncensored. It did me want to check out the uncut episodes of DBZ in Japanese, but I had no idea how to. I was in the tape trading community, but I was mostly watching live-action movies from Japan and Hong Kong at the time.

When I move out of Ellicott City, MD during the summer of 2001, I moved to a new house in another part of Maryland and one of my neighbors was super into Dragon Ball. We became best friends and one of his friends had DBZ Legends on the PS1. This was my first time hearing Goku's voice in Japanese and it didn't bother me. When I started the 5th grade back in late August 2001, one person in the 5th grade had Japanese episodes of DBZ on VHS and he would start playground rumors of the series. He would tell people that DBZ in Japanese is a show for grown-ups and DBZ on Cartoon Network is the baby's version. After school, we sneak inside the TV room (It was a place where the school keeps all of their TVs) and watched uncut episodes of DBZ in Japanese. This was my first time watching Dragon Ball Z in Japanese and it was DBZ Episode 29 (Goku vs. Nappa). I would later buy a VHS fan sub-copy of DBZ Movie 8 and it felt amazing to watch something before it was dubbed.

Later that year in 2001, I found out that one of my cousins had DBZ stuff that he had before the series was dubbed. He had every episode of the Cell saga and Buu saga in Japanese with fansubs along with DBZ Movie 6, DBZ Movie 7, and DBZ Movie 12. I was also able to watch GT on fansubs tapes thanks to a friend of mine and a local Japanese collector's shop. I do admit that it felt cool that I was way head of everyone else when it came to Dragon Ball. The rest is history and I'm still a big fan of Dragon Ball. I never grew out of it or move on from it as I did with many other childhood franchises.

[angeldreamZ004]

I think my story is kind of a funny one. The first time I saw anything Dragon Ball is impossible for me to tell, as I can only remember that I was like 5-6 years old and I already saw some DB stuff at the time, so 2009 or 2010. But I never got to watch the anime (much less read the manga), the only material I actually got to watch in full around the time was the Bardock Special + a few old Z Movies which I believe were Movies 3, 9 and maybe 12 thanks to my parents buying a bootleg DVD.
But my main contact with the franchise was through some videogames, two official ones on my PSP, Tag Vs and Shin Budokai 2, two emulated on mobile which were Advanced Adventure and Kai Ultimate Butoden, and some fanmade ones on PC and later on mobile as well. Also watching a lot of videos about the other games on Youtube.
Other than this, I also constantly watched videos talking about the manga, the anime, facts about them just like I still do to this day.

(Edit: I remember I watched Evolution once on TV around that time, but can't remember if it was the complete movie, much less if I disliked or liked it)

But I really struggled to understand almost everything related to the story, so the characters and the way they look, the powers they use and the fights were what kept my interest.
I never watched Battle of Gods at the time but I can remember myself constantly trying to discover more about the movie around 2013 and was very curious about Goku's new red form. I recall watching some clips of it on Youtube.
In 2014, I remember getting excited and curious as I saw people who started to say that there would be a new Dragon Ball Z saga or anime series following up to Battle of Gods, and I truly believed it. People at the time used a lot of material from Heroes, Online, some promotional images, obscure games to say that it was related to this new series. I also remember seeing a lot of fanart, some which I can still find to this day.

Spoiler:

The last thing I remember seeing at the time was the first Fukkatsu no “F” poster with SSJ1 Goku about the mystery of the returning villain. I don't remember how I reacted to it and if I thought it was the new anime series or recognized it was another movie.
Starting from 2015 I can't exactly remember what happened, maybe I did see stuff related to Fukkatsu no F, but for the rest of 2015 I remember I was no longer seeing anything related to the series, as my interest shifted to other stuff. Super went just completely out of my radar for its entire first four arcs, I think maybe the reason was because of the first two arcs being the movie retellings, which made people not so interested in it, which also resulted in me losing contact. Not even Goku Black, which became very popular, reached to me. So 2015, 2016 and most of 2017 was a time without anything Dragon Ball for me.

My contact with the series would only resume at the end of 2017, when the Ultra Instinct was revealed. I remember the series was all over the internet at the time. The transformation and the clips I watched truly surprised me, but I would only convince myself to start watching it a few episodes later.
So I decided to start watching it when Episode 119 aired, marking the first time I watched a full episode of the franchise.
So I continued throughout the next episodes, until reaching 131. Those 13 episodes were enough to make me fall in love with the series, and as the teaser trailer for Broly was released I got very excited for it as well.
So after the Super anime ended I decided to watch DB and Z animes, then Super anime from the start, GT, The Movies, the manga etc.
Fun fact, I already watched anime prior to Super or any other Dragon Ball, I even remember I liked Pokemon more than it. But Dragon Ball was the first anime I watched in its entirety, and the only one I managed to complete as well lol (at least from the longer ones)

So I went from 3 Z movies and a TV special, to experiencing Raditz-Boo in a videogame only, Pilaf-Piccolo in another videogame, to having only fragments of Battle of Gods and other parts of the series, then the last 13 episodes of the Super anime. Only after this I started watching everything in the correct order + reading the manga + all the other extra stuff in the franchise.

When I decided to start watching everything in 2018, it was always sub only, and I keep that way to this day, which is why I only use the Japanese names for every character, techniques etc with very few exceptions, very little contact with anything Funi-related or international DB in general in my life, only prior to 2015, but I have almost no memory, only late 2017 and early 2018 onwards, which was always japanese for me since then.

I honestly wish I didn't lose interest in it after 2014. But i'm glad that the climax of the ToP caught my attention to it again, I ask mysef if I would be a fan nowadays or if I would be in this forum if Super never became very popular around that time. Since then I never stopped following the franchise, and it's pretty much the only series that I consider myself a fan nowadays, at least when it comes to actively follow the larger franchise and new releases, I don't have the patience to do that with any other big franchise nowadays and I'm fine with that lol (when there's something uninteristing, such as the Super Hero retelling in the manga, I'll either try to discover something new about DB itself or different series, but I never discover anything that convinces me to become a fan like DB did, there are other franchises I like, but I have a more casual approach to all of them, which results in me only seeing partircular entries in them. DB is the only one I'm very close to and try to see everything, so I'll probably die as a Dragon Ball fan only XD)

[Salt-sensei]

To me, it was either Budokai 1 or a rerun of the Boo Saga when I was around 5 at "TV Globinho" back in 2005.

[jjgp1112]

Fox Kids reruns before shcool in 1999, though i only know it was Dragon Ball Z in hindsight - the episode where Vegeta steals the Dragon Balls from Frieza's ship after Zarbon revives him, specifically the scene were he's hiding behind the wall and says, "This is like taking candy from a baby!" His spiky hair, mean face and squaky gremlin voice just immediately stuck out to me.

It'd be another year before I became familiar with the series by name, because it was everywhere but since my cable service didn't carry Cartoon Network I was the bitter bitch hating from outside the club until I got DirecTV in 2001.

[dudearnav]

Fox Kids reruns before shcool in 1999, though i only know it was Dragon Ball Z in hindsight - the episode where Vegeta steals the Dragon Balls from Frieza's ship after Zarbon revives him, specifically the scene were he's hiding behind the wall and says, "This is like taking candy from a baby!" His spiky hair, mean face and squaky gremlin voice just immediately stuck out to me.

It'd be another year before I became familiar with the series by name, because it was everywhere but since my cable service didn't carry Cartoon Network I was the bitter bitch hating from outside the club until I got DirecTV in 2001.

I remember the image of Buu (not sure if it was Super Buu or Kid Buu)’s red eyes being burned into my mind and then years later in 2011 I remember hearing about my friends raving about Dragon Ball Z, which while I did know visually, I didn’t get into it years later, coincidentally with Vegeta on Planet Namek. I don’t remember what he was doing but his voice was the same voice as Ash Ketchum in my dub which to me was a bit funny, and then I was hooked.

Great replies, everyone!

[dudearnav]

But my main contact with the franchise was through some videogames, two official ones on my PSP, Tag Vs and Shin Budokai 2, two emulated on mobile

I remember getting into the Dragon Ball series in 2016 which is when I also discovered the concept of emulation so as luck would have it, my first few Dragon Ball games were Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai, its sequel, Another Road and Tenkaichi Tag Team, in that order.

I actually was very confused by GT and Shin Budokai since they had elements of the Buu Saga, like Gotenks and Kid Buu. When I was playing these games, I was on the re-airing of the early Android Saga; I did remember those red eyes from somewhere so I knew Buu was a future villain. But I was really confused by Gotenks and the concept of Fusions as he called both Vegeta and Goku “dad” in the localization. And as for Final Bout there were a lot of characters who I hadn’t seen at the time, though I didn’t get far in that game since the gameplay was a bit crappy.

[Luso Saiyan]

I was introduced to Dragon Ball when the anime started being broadcast in my country, back in 1996.

[Zephyr]

I was introduced to Dragon Ball as a 6 year old in 1998, via Cartoon Network's initial run of the 1996 "Ocean dub" of Dragon Ball Z. The earliest Dragon Ball related memory I have is agreeing with a friend of mine in thinking that it seemed stupid. I can't remember if this was based on what we heard people talking about at the bus stop, or on what we saw promoted on TV. The earliest visual memory I have is episode 2's title card, so my best guess is that I started with episode 1 or 2.

I love unexpected team ups, so Goku and Piccolo teaming up was likely one of the things that hooked me, even if I didn't really know who they were yet; that they dramatized it was enough. TMNT and MMPR were two of my favorite things at the time, so I was already inclined toward martial arts action. The art and character designs were also really striking. This was the first serialized TV show that grabbed me, so that aspect was really novel to me. Not shocked that I became a fan.

[Saiya6Cit]

Hello Newbie and thank you for asking. I hope you like to read and you are enjoying the wonderful written material Kanzenshuu has to offer you.

My introduction to Dragon Ball was my schoolmates' obsession with the show. Sadly, my parents did not allow me to watch it, under the argument of it being satanic and violent. So, from first grade to 4th grade I obeyed them, that is from 1994 to 1998. Until puberty hit. And I started to watch DBZ right at the Android-Cell. Then I became an addict. I am addicted to DB.

Thankfully I am Mexican and my love for Goku and company is shared by almost everybody here.

[dudearnav]

First of all, thank you for your posts once again, everyone.

Hello Newbie and thank you for asking. I hope you like to read and you are enjoying the wonderful written material Kanzenshuu has to offer you.

My introduction to Dragon Ball was my schoolmates' obsession with the show. Sadly, my parents did not allow me to watch it, under the argument of it being satanic and violent. So, from first grade to 4th grade I obeyed them, that is from 1994 to 1998. Until puberty hit. And I started to watch DBZ right at the Android-Cell. Then I became an addict. I am addicted to DB.

Thankfully I am Mexican and my love for Goku and company is shared by almost everybody here.

Oh that’s great. I’ve heard about the Latin American DB Fandom a lot. I did actually make my account because I kept reading all of Kanzenshuu’s Resources as they were quite informative, and I still do, lol. I also only got into DB once I was 11, and thankfully that’s something I’m still into, currently going through the original Dragon Ball anime and it’s interesting to see stuff that wasn’t in the manga, such as the Pilaf Gang’s multiple appearances. Thanks for sharing!

[TheGreatness25]

Welcome!

I’m not sure what date/year it was, but I actually saw the first two (I think) episodes of DBZ that aired in syndication in the US. I don’t know if it was a rerun or if I just coincidentally watched the first episode airing on TV for the first time, but I’m pretty sure it was a Saturday or Sunday in 1996. It was different and unique, but I wasn’t super in love with it until it hit Toonami and everyone at school was going insane over it.

This was right when it first landed on Cartoon Network, so this was still when the it was dubbed by Ocean. And kids at school would start getting all sorts of weird knockoff merchandise and they’d be reading summaries on the primitive internet. The series developed this mystique (that I feel the actual series never lived up to, but that’s not the point) that it was infectious. So, I think those memories kept my love for it to this day because I’m just a very nostalgic person and love to think about those feelings. Digging on the internet to find music (because, you know, it’s different than what we had on TV) and being blown away seeing adult Gohan or Goku’s granddaughter or Freeza looking so different than what we were getting at the time.

Good times.

[PowerPhantom245]

I made a topic on how I was introduced to the franchise.
viewtopic.php?p=1771920&hilit=introduction#p1771920

[MasenkoHA]

Some point in first grade when the Ocean dub was airing on Toonami. I believe it was “A Fight against Gravity..Catch Bubbles” was the first episode I saw. I definitely remember the exchange where Gohan invited Piccolo to his birthday party but says his mom doesn’t like fighting.

I was basically a casual watcher until the Goku and Frieza fight after the Texas cast took over (I don’t think it even registered in my head there had been an entire cast and music change even though I definitely noticed when a similar thing happened in Sailor Moon a year later) and I didn’t become super hyper fixated on the show until the Trunks saga premiered on Toonami in the fall of September at the point the show evolved from “Number 1 rated hit on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block” to the “Biggest hit imported from Japan for the 6-11 year old crowd”

[Kamiccolo9]

A day in the late 90s, when I was scrolling through our 64 channels, and came across a dark title card saying "Goku vs. Vegeta: A Saiyan Duel."

I maintain that, if one has to start with a random episode in the middle of a series, that's a good one to grab your attention.

[Peach]

Cartoon Network when it ran the Ocean dub of the Tree of Might.

I became obsessed after that. I begged my parents to get us satellite so I could watch the android and Cell saga after school until they caved.

My grandma would buy me the VHS tapes for Z and GT. It was really cool being able to watch episodes before they premiered on Cartoon Network. I had tapes of Trunks killing Frieza in the desert and waiting for Goku with a vending machine, the entire great saiyaman saga, the junior tournament, and all of the machine mutants and baby saga of GT.

[MCDaveG]

RTL II aired Dragon Ball before Pokémon at the end of 90s.
Me being ill out of school and checking cable channels getting stuck on martial arts show with everything I was used to in kung fu movies, but in show for kids… somehow, it apealed to me more than cute critters tackling each other and getting stored in balls

But also, to be honest, I was fan of the GB games and thought that the show is kinda ass compared to the “source” material even back then. But it was cool to see some Gen 1 Kanto locations out of the 8-bit realm at least.

[bahhma]

Toonami, 1998. I was eight years old and did not know anything about anime at the time, but I loved cartoons (particularly TMNT, Cartoon Network originals, and Rugrats). I don't remember which came first for me, Pokemon or DBZ, but my fandom for both feels simultaneous.

I don't remember how many episodes it took for me to fall in love with the franchise, but not that many. It took a bit of time to realize that Goku and Yamcha were different people and that Cloud Strife wasn't SSJ2 Gohan (who I only knew of because the friend with the older brother/cousin who introduced us to the series had a mini-fig of SSJ2 Gohan and Oob).

One of my most vivid memories from that "don't know what any of this is but I'm very fascinated" era was a store in the local mall called Robotica that was filled with anime merch. They had an arcade machine where you could play that first-person split screen DBZ V.R.V.S.. I bought my first poster from that store - it had SSJ Goten, Trunks, Great Saiyaman, Goku, Piccolo, and I think Vegeta on an island.

[Kunzait_83]

My earliest ever memory of first having heard of Dragon Ball was from I think reading a usenet discussion about DBZ Movie 3 sometime in late summer/early fall of 1990. The short takeaway at the time: people seemed to really dig the movie, even amongst some portion of (what I would later better understand were) the Toriyama/Dr. Slump lifers who were long losing patience with the lack of poop jokes and over-abundance of kung fu mayhem.

It all sounded super interesting, so I made a mental note of some of the names that were being tossed around and filed them away in my head for later reference (something I typically did with lots of anime and manga I'd read about on usenet back then).

My first proper exposure to the series that got me to actively watch/read/follow it full-throttle was seeing Z episode 146 on a fansub tape sometime in the latter point of 1992. The one where the short little Shaolin Monk guy (who immediately became my favorite character because he was basically "Anime Gordon Liu", and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was the object of my obsession in kindergarten several years prior**) fought a giant kung fu Brundlefly in an airport, culminating in a totally out-of-pocket Twilight Zone: The Movie reference.

"Oh, so like this is basically a zany, demented Wong Jing-produced wuxia flick, but as a long-running anime?" was my immediate first impression.

I was sold instantly and never once looked back: though the general vibe of the U.S. fanbase circa 1999 - 2003 made it fairly tempting to eject and pull chute at times (every single time people on this forum wax longingly and wistfully for those years, I simply just have 'Nam flashbacks of cringe Nu Metal douchebags in high school dying and spiking their hair to look like SSJ Vegeta while speaking almost exclusively in The Rock's Attitude-era catchphrases).

**The only reason I couldn't dress up as San Te for Halloween that year like I desperately wanted to was cause I couldn't get away with shaving my head bald in a Catholic school: so I had to settle for the Michael Keaton version of Batman (which had just come out a few months prior: holy fuck I'm old) instead.

[dbs fanboy]

I was a toddler when i was introduced to Dragon Ball in 2003 , not so much through the show but through the DBZ chess version
I remember being like, idk 3 or 4 and thinking Super Saiyan Goku and regular Goku were different characters, i always saw regular Goku as being more cool looking.

I also believed Kid Goku was a different character, like i assummed he was regular Goku's son.
I too had a few GT pogs with some character art, i remember founding Baby to be so creepy.

The chess game came with various cards with art from the show and info about the characters that i did not understand because i couldn't read

It wasn't until i was like 6 that i finally found DB airing on TV, i remember that we would get reruns of the entire thing, from OG db to Z to finally GT.

I would watch it each morning before going to school while having breakfast.
But since we had episodes airing everyday and the fact that during this time in Spain, we had very specific schedules were cartoons would air, if you missed one single episode, you would have to wait until the entire series reached GT's ending and then start again from OG Db until you reached the one episode you missed.

I remember how it took me years until finally managing to watch the one scene where Goku does a kamehameha with his feet.
And it took years to watch the last GT episode, i would hear all my friends telling me that "Goku becomes a God in the end" without being able to watch it, until a cousin of mine recorded it on VHS and lended me a copy.

I remember how hype it was to see DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3 being announced on TV, and playing it with the ONE family member that had a play station 2, only to get my ass absolutely handed every single time.

Heck i remember the amount of times i got notes sent back home from my PE teacher because as a 6 yo i would make fighting stances imitating the show and attacking my classmates, tbf all of us played like that, but adults simply thought i was a violent kid


Man, those were the times!