Which is better for introducing people: Kai or the Original?

Raki · Post by **Raki** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:31 pm

Amigo Ten wrote:
Raki wrote:
Amigo Ten wrote:I do wish I could start from scratch and read DB from the beginning without knowing that Goku was a Saiyan or that Piccolo was an alien or that they'd eventually team up and all that stuff.
Personally when I'm watching Dragonball I forget all that stuff.
You can't really forget it though can you? Knowing that Goku and Piccolo will eventually become friends doesn't mean I can't enjoy their fight or anything, it just ruins the surprise of him showing up to suggest they fight together. Same with Goku's origins. I can still enjoy him as just a odd little monkey-boy, but there's no twist when his heritage is revealed.

For me, it's quite easy to blank out. I just watch it as if it's all to new to me and I've never see any of DBZ.

Kendamu · Post by **Kendamu** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:33 pm

Kunzait_83 wrote:
Kendamu wrote:Hopefully, with the original Dragonball finally making it's way to DVD proper for the first time in North America, more people will see that first in the long run.
Correction: it's making its way to DVD proper for the SECOND time in North America. In spite of the first 13 episodes being missing, FUNimation had already did a BEAUTIFUL release of the entire series on DVD years ago... that they yanked out of print suddenly, randomly, and out of the clear blue for no real decipherable reason whatsoever (as is their MO in such matters with Dragon Ball).

I don't think missing episodes counts for releasing it on DVD proper. Almost, but not quite. Doesn't cut it for me. That's like starting your DBZ collection right after Goku gets to Namek and, even after going back and getting a little bit of what happened before that, never being able to complete your collection of DBZ singles.

It's only because those duel disc sets got taken out of print that the upcoming season sets are as anticipated as they are. If the original sets were in print for longer, do you honestly think that people would be anywhere NEAR as anxious about the upcoming seasons sets (first 13 episodes notwithstanding) as they are?

That was part of my point you decided not to quote. They're been out-of-print, hard to find, and expensive for awhile now. This contributes to why a lot of people start with DBZ. People are anxious meaning that they wanna see it and that, if introducing Dragonball to friends in the future, they may start at the very beginning.

I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but let’s not ignore very recent history and pretend that original DB has NEVER been available here in any way shape or form until now with the upcoming season sets. People had from January of '03 to September of '04 to collect them in what was at the time VERY reasonably priced singles that contained NUMEROUS episodes (10 normally priced singles for 140 episodes compared to the lunacy that was about a billion and a half singles for over 270) in well-designed packaging.

Good thing they were so heavily advertised so that I would, in my small town where anime isn't really sold, could pick those up like hotcakes. I mean, I'm sure that everyone lives in great big places where lots of anime is sold and I'm just some minority that lives in a small area of the country called the Midwest.

These season sets aren’t some “wonderful opportunity” for fans to finally own this series. They’re a glorified double dip that FUNi has forced upon the fanbase by nixing their original release early on so that they can no longer be collected. They could have JUST AS EASILY kept the old singles in print all this time (since they were PERFECTLY FUCKING FINE the way they were), and then just released the first 13 episodes belatedly in the same format once they got the licensing clusterfuck sorted out.

If they never phased their original sets out of print, then the ONLY thing that would’ve remotely justified a double dip of this series in any way would’ve been a Dragon Box release.

So, what you're saying then is, in the past several years advertising, access to the Internet, shopping online, FUNimation's social networking with its fans, and anime becoming more widely available in stores like Wal-Mart has nothing to do with how available Dragonball will be now compared to how available it was back in 2003-2004?

This is a wonderful opportunity! Even after learning about the original release, I skipped out on them because I couldn't get the entire series. Why waste my money on something I can't complete? Maybe there are other people who are just the same. I can't be the only one thinking this way. Otherwise nobody would've been importing.

Really, why the pessimism? Let those damn kids play on your lawn if it's a game you like and they're not tearing up your grass.

Amigo Ten · Post by **Amigo Ten** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:42 pm

Raki wrote:For me, it's quite easy to blank out. I just watch it as if it's all to new to me and I've never see any of DBZ.

But you can't just forget things can you? Having seen Z first doesn't ruin DB, it just ruins the plot reveals in Z. They don't really mean anything when you first see them because you don't know preceding story, and after reading the preceding story they still don't mean much because you always knew they were coming.

Kunzait_83 · Post by **Kunzait_83** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:02 pm

bkev · Post by **bkev** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:15 pm

I'd like to point out that I don't recall Best Buy selling those sets Not like it means much, but this was before they'd downsized anime.

Kunzait_83 · Post by **Kunzait_83** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:24 pm

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:33 pm

Herms wrote:Well, why should Z have to be the center of everything? I never hear people say "oh, don't watch Z, it's full of characters who never do anything in GT". Instead, people hold that as a reason to not watch GT, rather than a reason to skip Z.

Well, that's just because GT only has one character. The humans in Z are only slightly more useless than they were in DB.

DragonBalllKaiHD · Post by **DragonBalllKaiHD** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:39 pm

Rocketman wrote:
Herms wrote:Well, why should Z have to be the center of everything? I never hear people say "oh, don't watch Z, it's full of characters who never do anything in GT". Instead, people hold that as a reason to not watch GT, rather than a reason to skip Z.
Well, that's just because GT only has one character. The humans in Z are only slightly more useless than they were in DB.

Only slightly. Mister Satan, who's a mere gag character, saved the earth.

Raki · Post by **Raki** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:02 pm

Amigo Ten wrote:
Raki wrote:For me, it's quite easy to blank out. I just watch it as if it's all to new to me and I've never see any of DBZ.
But you can't just forget things can you? Having seen Z first doesn't ruin DB, it just ruins the plot reveals in Z. They don't really mean anything when you first see them because you don't know preceding story, and after reading the preceding story they still don't mean much because you always knew they were coming.

Actually after watching Dragonball I had a greater appreication for Krillin, Yamcha, Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, and Roshi. Rewatching Yamcha's death scene was very tough for me being know as a character, he had more worth to me.

vershiris · Post by **vershiris** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:03 pm

Metalwario64 wrote:What ever happened to supporting official releases? Your friend needs to buy the first season of Dragon Ball, not download it.

I think of it like a demo; You watch the series and like it, you buy the series. If you dont like the series, you stop watching and dont buy it. (my friends already said he would buy the DVD's if he likes it, and i was going to fork out hundreds of pounds for all the Dragon Ball Dbox singles, but I'm selling all my remastered sets for the FUNi Dboxes and waiting to see if they will release DB ones

).

Big Momma · Post by **Big Momma** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:43 pm

I have a quick story, but be careful, it's pretty sad.

I have a friend who say she can't get into Dragon Ball...so I asked her if she had seen any of the movies. (Since they're shorter than watching an entire arc or somthing), and this is what she says is the only DragonBall movie she's only seen is:

I think...it was a guy in some kind of container and when he kcame out he was like...covered in buggers. oh and Trunks and Gohan (Goten?) showed their butts

Dear God....the horror....that's the ONLY movie she's seen...

Onikage725 · Post by **Onikage725** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:00 pm

Kunzait_83 wrote:Both myself and a friend of mine both bought one of our respective sets at our local Best Buy back in the day (he grabbed Piccolo Junior 2 I think, and I snagged one of the various Red Ribbon-era sets).

*Waves* It was FYE for me, and I think the price was under 30 bucks. It was after I moved, so a trip to Best Buy means heading to another county. And FYE is basically in my backyard

Scarz · Post by **Scarz** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:56 pm

I'm currently reintroducing Dragonball and DBZ to my boyfriend. He has only watched about a dozen or so episodes on toonami when they started to show re-runs. He got the gist of it but long winded out scenes eventually turned him away from the show.

I've started watching Kai and every so often he'll take a gander and ask me a whole bunch of question about it. I've told everything, the cuts and re-editing, he seems more interested in DBZ then he ever have before. Surprisingly he's more interested in Dragonball than Z. He once asked "I heard Dragonball was different from Z. Is it any better?" I said that Dragonball was extremely enjoyable to watch. Full great gags and adventure. He nodded and said, "I like to watch it."

My boyfriend is not an anime fan. He loves comics and the only anime he watched till the last episode was Full Metal Alchemist. To hear that he's actually interested in a show I can honestly say I'm passionate about, makes me very happy.

Moral of this story is, Kai is better to show to new watchers because most of the long drawn out hooey has been cut and a non-fan can actually sit through one episode without saying "Good lord, when is something exiting going to happen?"

Post by **Herms** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:22 pm

Rocketman wrote:Well, that's just because GT only has one character. The humans in Z are only slightly more useless than they were in DB.

"Only slightly more useless"? Goku is defeated by Earthlings 5 times throughout the original DB. Could you even concieve of that happening in Z or GT?

edit: (Well, actually Goku does technically lose to that kid in the Tenkaichi Budoukai episode of GT)

Kunzait_83 · Post by **Kunzait_83** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:46 pm

DragonBalllKaiHD · Post by **DragonBalllKaiHD** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:57 pm

Kunzait_83 wrote:
Herms wrote:
Rocketman wrote:Well, that's just because GT only has one character. The humans in Z are only slightly more useless than they were in DB.
"Only slightly more useless"? Goku is defeated by Earthlings 5 times throughout the original DB. Could you even concieve of that happening in Z or GT?
He lost to Yamucha, Muten Roshi, Tao Pai Pai, Tenshinhan... who else? Demons don't count (and I assume neither does filler) and Yajirobe didn't so much beat him as fight him to a draw. What other human character were you thinking of Herms? Grandpa Gohan?

Not to mention he lost to Tao Pai Pai.

Post by **Herms** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:10 am

Kunzait_83 wrote:He lost to Yamucha, Muten Roshi, Tao Pai Pai, Tenshinhan... who else?

He lost to Yamcha twice: once when they first meet, and then as an Oozaru.

DragonBalllKaiHD · Post by **DragonBalllKaiHD** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:30 am

Herms wrote:
Kunzait_83 wrote:He lost to Yamucha, Muten Roshi, Tao Pai Pai, Tenshinhan... who else?
He lost to Yamcha twice: once when they first meet, and then as an Oozaru.

He was just a wild barbaric monkey on rampage. That doesn't really count as a fight. It was just a way to get out of Pilaf's castle.

dragonfist · Post by **dragonfist** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:46 am

You count Goku's loss with Yamcha while in Oozaru? That wasn't even a fight.