If you watched Z first, how did it affect you?

[Suupaa Gohan 2]

My first exposure to the series was ironically the first or second episode of the old Ocean Group dub back when it was airing on Cartoon Network in...oh, I don't remember, but I was in 5th or 6th grade or so, and thinking back on it makes me feel really old. Either way, I had no idea I actually managed to by coincidence catch the 'first episode' (or second, I really don't remember with the way Ocean split the episodes up, but Raditz was kidnapping Gohan), especially since it seemed like I was jumping into a long-running series where I should have some idea of who the characters were...turns out, I was right, lololol.

Nonetheless, something about it drew me in. I remember that I was at my grandfather's house and just happened to catch it when I turned on the TV, but it sucked me in and I wanted to keep watching. This was back when they had two episodes back to back, so I ended up watching both and then started to watch it on my own every day after school. And we're talking about the ultra edited piece of shit that was the Ocean dub. You kids who grew up on the FUNi redubs have no idea how lucky you are. But somehow it was still more gritty and violent than any cartoon I'd ever watched. Yeah, Bugs Bunny used to get away with a LOT worse than the original dub of DBZ did with all the editing, when you think about it, but it always came off as obviously comical and slapstick...it never struck a cord with the little me as being 'violent'. This did, and I was reaching that age of puberty where I wanted more action in my TV shows and video games. DBZ satisfied that.

I think that if I had got into the original DB at that same age...it wouldn't have stayed with me. I probably would have seen it and forgotten about it pretty quickly. I was a little too young to really appreciate the dirty silly Japanese-style of comedy that is original DB, and even if it was all butchered and Americanized ala the Ocean dub of DBZ, I don't think I would have really 'got' it. It probably would have felt like another Pokemon or Digimon ripoff to me (just because of the art style and the fact that I didn't know those cartoons were Japanese back then when I was a stupid little kid and Anime was much more of a niche market than it is today), like some other stuff I'd seen before on Saturday morning cartoon lineups (ex. Monster Rancher, Zoids, Medabots, etc). The original DB would have been very forgettable to me. Because DBZ was so unique from what I had usually been exposed to at the time, even in its heavily edited form, it stuck with me and made me more and more curious about it, which eventually lead me to my first ever real fandom and the Anime that got me into Anime in the first place. I don't think that would have happened - or at least happened in the same way - if my first exposure was to DB.

So even though I'll look back and criticize the series being released out of order, honestly, I don't think a lot of those in my generation who got into DBZ for the reasons we did would have stuck with it the same way if it was the original DB. I may have ended up thinking Japanese cartoons were just too weird if I saw DB first, and lost interest completely. DBZ exposed me to a different side of animation from western cartoons, and got me into this fandom in the first place, so I guess I owe it a lot.

[AndoKomando]

Started with Z and to me all of them were like family when Ten, Yamchua, Chaozu, and especially piccolo died I was hella pissed and was ready to kick some ass myself haha. But then next ep. Son appeared and started whooping ass so I was relieved. But when he died against Raditz I understood that he had to do what he had to do and was sad, but also knew he would be back. When Son was fighting Vegita that was the most epic thing ever it was amazing. But for me there wasnt too much emotional impact cause I was the kid that knew everything that was going to happen later, I mean whenever I got on the computer all I did was look up japanese dbz stuff to find out what happened or to get the episodes from the net so yeah. Never was successful though lol.

[Hellspawn28]

By the time, I watch DBZ I was already know about DB (I watch DB before I watch DBZ) and most of that happen before it with the help of magazines. I know people who watch DBZ before they saw DB, and I find out who the other characters like Piccolo or Tein where just by watching the flash backs, and made lucky guest on what happen before.

[Piccolo Daimao]

DBZ isn't an emotional show.

I have to disagree with that. DBZ is nearly all about emotions. They're perhaps not well-informed emotions at times, and the emotions come into a world where death has much less meaning than in ours, but it is actually a very emotional program.

It has emotion in it, of course it does. But because the emotion isn't the main point of the story, it isn't very deep. Maybe I should've said "DBZ isn't a deeply emotional show".

[saiyanprincess]

Years and years ago... (Heck, it must be getting on for a decade, actually! ) I caught an episode of Dragonball Z on Cartoon Network, and from that moment on, I was totally and unconditionally hooked. I spent months recording the episodes onto blank VHS tapes, as they would play the same saga over and over. It took them so long to finally reach the Buu saga.
By the time I finally got to see Dragonball it must have been a good couple of years later, and even then I didn't get to see the entire thing until I finally got a job and bought the DVD's myself a couple of years back.

I don't think it affected me in any way, although by that point I had kind of been spoilt by the Super Saiyan action, and the pro-longed fight scenes. I did enjoy Dragonball, but in my personal opinion I still, and think I always will, prefer Z.

I love Dragonball for the little humor clips. (Especially Roshi. *giggles*) But somehow, I still find myself getting dragged back to the Saiyan and Namek sagas, and watching Buu try and eat the world... Satan getting his head kicked in by a purple haired boy... Vegeta self-destructing... I just love Dragonball Z.

[SparkyPantsMcGee]

Watching Z first didn't have a big effect on the entire series as a whole, in fact it helped make more sense of Dragonball. Let me explain.

Watching Z, it was kind of Obvious that Piccolo and Goku were enemies before the start of the show, and it was obvious that everybody feared him. As for Tien, Yamcha, and Krillian, it was obvious that they all trained with Goku at the Kame House with Master Roshi at one point.

When they died there was no sentimental moment for me, I was young and it was a cartoon so it really didn't phase me. Even if I started at Dragonball their deaths would have been sad but its not like I would really care all too much.

The only thing watching Z first ruined was the whole shock of Goku's back story and the Red Ribbon Army. Everything else felt like answers to minor questions I had. Things like character back stories and seeing Goku go up against the Red Ribbon army helped make more things clear for DBZ.

I would have rather seen Dragonball before seeing Z, but seeing Z didn't really hurt.

[Raki]

Seeing Z didn't matter because I totally zoned it out when watching Dragonball.

[IncompetentOverlord]

Some of the first episodes I saw were of Chaozu and Ten-san's deaths in the Saiya-jin arc, and I gotta say, it mad me sad. It was during a Z marathon where I only got to see about 4 episodes, and that was the first I'd seen of them. Even then, I had somehow attached myself to them. Tenshinhan's brave assault against that bastard Nappa seriously moved me. To this day I see Nappa's degeneration into a drooling idiot in the minds of the fanbase as retribution .

[Chuquita]

There's definitely less emotional impact death-wise, I can say that about starting where I started (Ginyu part of the Freeza arc).

Honestly, knowing myself, even if I had started out at the beginning of DB somehow, I would've gone and researched the daylights out of the series like I did back then anyway. ^^;


Maybe my character preferences would've been different (my first real glimpse of Goku was of him saving Kuririn, Gohan, and Vegeta while disposing of Jeice and Burter with ease, which cemented a first impression of "cheerful badass" in my mind) and maybe they wouldn't have. I have no real way of knowing.

[Velasa]

What affected me in DBZ is a somewhat complicated mix. I stepped into the series first partway into Freezer- everyone was already dead before I met them- and stepped back in during the fight against the Saiyajin with just a vague idea of who these people were, but all the same there were a few factors that made me connect to what was going on, though not nearly as much as I do nowadays.

The first thing that helped catch my attention and emphasize with these people was a deep love of Chrono Trigger. The second was a deep love of Beast Wars. And the third was Gohan. I mean, I had no idea who these other people were walking around on this weird backwards-colored planet, but this little kid in the purple was just a nice kid. He was sweet and simple enough to understand and I liked him instantly. So Gohan was the connecting figure- I liked him and I felt these new confusing situations through his lens. I mean, Gohan barely knew any of these allied fighters either and he had the reactions most of us would have- when he was scared I was scared, when he was joyful I was joyful, when he was crying over the body of a man who reminded me of some strange amalgam of Dinobot and those three young men I had seen slaughtered defending their village in my second episode I felt loss, even if I didn't understand the things that connected any of those circumstances. I'm not entirely sure the sequence I caught after that but I basically started running forward into the show from that point and never looked back.

It's absolutely a fact that watching Z first heavily altered my perspective on things. The parts of DB I've watched feel less like an independent show than a prequel to current events, as another poster put it. When I receive my second Dragonbox to span the gap between the Pioneer disks and the FUNi singles I have every intention of marathoning the entire series through properly, but I don't think this concept of Z being the main story with DB just another part of it will ever really leave me. I may have learned to call the show proper Dragonball instead of referencing it all as DBZ, but changing the semantics is easier than changing the mindset.