Dragon Ball: Introduction into manga/anime?

[Piccolo Daimao]

Did Dragon Ball introduce you or get you more interested in other manga/anime?

For me, Dragon Ball didn't introduce me as such into anime (since I was already into Pokemon long before I knew about Dragon Ball), but it did introduce me into manga. Dragon Ball was the first manga I ever read.

It didn't get me more interested in other manga/anime, however. Dragon Ball is the only manga/anime that I'm interested in at the moment. I have yet to give other mangas a go.

[Thanos6]

Yep. Wasn't a fan of anime at all until my college roommate got me into DB/Z.

[SHINOBI-03]

For us ((The Middle East)), anime was known for us since what I believe the late 70s. And there were very well known old-school titles that are usually remembered by guys in their 20s or 30s like Grendizer, Captain Tsubasa ((A.K.A. Captain Majid)), Arabian Nights, Izenborg, Iga No Kabamaru, Voltron, Kimba the White Lion, Manga Sarutobi Sasuke, and many more.

But it had a boom in early 2000s and with the help of the internet, it got widely spread.

So, for the anime side, it wasn't the first.

Dragon Ball however, was the first manga I read. Sure, I started with the crappy scanlations, but the world is now more open than before, and I'm now able to purchase the official releases from manga to DVDs.

The manga was also my first step of my hobby as a fan manga artist.

[Kendamu]

Dragonball Z wasn't my first anime. There was a some stuff on Sci-Fi channel that can claim that title. In fact, the idea of it being "anime" didn't even really factor into why I liked it when discovering it. It was all the cool martial arts stuff that got me watching the show. I knew it was a Japanese show, but I didn't really care at the time.

What probably got me interested in seeing more anime was Gundam Wing. I got into that when it aired on Toonami and that's when I started becoming interested in other anime.

However, Dragonball (or Dragonball Z according to VIZ) was my first manga and, along with my slowly losing interest in anime and with manga becoming more available, it did get me to want to read more manga.

EDIT: Or maybe it was "Stret Fighter II: The Animated Movie" that was my first anime. I'm not sure. Seeing the Sci-Fi anime marathons and seeing the SFII Anime were around the same time in my life.

[the_abberration]

I'm an old cat from way back, so there were older anime that got me hooked on the genre before DB. Back then, Transzor Z, G-Force, Shogun Warriors, Gigantor, Star Blazers, etc were prominent.

However DBZ did make me aware of the original DB anime series through the flashbacks. At the time I didn't know the flashbacks actually referenced another separate show. Also, DBZ did get me started in reading manga for the first time. Mainly, because of finding out online about the differences between it and the anime.

[russ869]

Well, you could say that Dragonball introduced me to the idea that anime existed, it didn't really get me interested in anime.

The series that was really my intro to manga/anime was Yu-Gi-Oh! It was while searching online for information about future Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes that I first got back into DBZ and found my first episodes of "REAL" anime (meaning not Shonen Jump stuff. Evangelion, FLCL, etc...). So Dragonball was still there with me in the beginning. I usually found websites with info on other anime series when I was searching for Dragonball stuff, and that expanded the range of my knowledge.

Yu-Gi-Oh! was also the first manga I ever read. I was at my cousin's house and I saw the first volume on his shelf and was like, "What the heck is this book with the cover on the wrong side?!!" After reading through it I thought must have been some weird comic adaptation. Imagine my surprise when I learned that this was the original source of the story! I still to this day have read very little Dragonball manga, but I've seen most of the canon anime episodes.


Anybody else have the same experience when you found out, "Wah...?! Anime like Dragonball, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece are all just adaptations of Shonen Jump comic series?!"

[Kiyza]

I suppose Dragon Ball did introduce me anime more or less. I watched Pokemon for a month or two before Dragon Ball though.

But it did introduce me to manga. My friend was checking out all of this manga from the local library and told me to pick up a few volumes of whatever they had. The first thing I noticed was Dragon Ball (Vols. 4 and 5) and I really got into it. Another thing that I read was the first volume or so of Dr. Slump.

[IncompetentOverlord]

As Dragonball was not my first manga or anime(those honors belong to the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA and Beet the Vandel Buster respectively), I don't have that kind of nostalgia for the series. I was into Pokemon and Yugioh around that same time, like every 6-11 year old, but I refused to believe that either of them were japanese, and eventually shunned them.(Though I rediscovered Yugioh through the manga). Therefore, I don't really count them as my first. I found Dragonball during my transition phase, where a kid decides he wants to be 'adult' and stops buying trading cards by the truckload. It's probably what turned me into the irredeemable comics/manga geek that I am today. I think that Dragonball is a good introduction to manga and anime because it's representative of what's popular in American internet culture right now, but one should only try it if they're prepared to dive headfirst into Geek culture.

[nathantheguitarist]

While I would like to say Dragonball Z in 96-97 was my first anime, I think Sailor Moon may actually have been the first anime I've seen.

I'm not too big on manga though. I bought Volume 1 of Naruto, Dragonball, and Dragonball Z at the same time, but I'm not sure which I picked up first. I read most of the Naruto one though... I dunno why I haven't read either DB ones. I might have read the first chapter of each. I'm not sure lol.

[Hellspawn28]

Dragon Ball didn't introduce me as such into anime since I was already into manga and anime before I watch it. But DBZ did got me into drawing manga, and made me want to watch some more anime though.

[B]

Eh, I suppose it was a part of it. Slowly realizing Pokemon, Digimon, DBZ, Rurouni Kenshin, YuYu Hakusho, and the Tenchi series were quite different than other cartoons I was watching as a kid, I started to suspect some things.

[Chuquita]

Nope. That would be Pokemon and Sailor Moon. Dragon Ball was my third anime and second manga (Pokemon was my first manga).

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Technically, the first Anime I watched was Pokemon, but I didn't know its was Anime. Dragon Ball is what introduced me to Anime because I knew I was watching Anime. (wasn't that hard to figure out that it was japanese)

[Savage68]

My first anime would have been Speed Racer. Manga, I'm not quite sure.

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

My first Anime was either Digimon or Pokemon. I liked Cardcapters as well.

Then DBZ in either '98 or 99.

[Tweaker]

I was introduced to anime by Pokèmon, but the old Saban dub of Dragon Ball Z came in a close second. I didn't quite understand it at the time, though.

[Brad Redfield]

Technically, my first anime was Maya the Bee when it was on Nickelodeon but like Kendamu my primary exposure (when I realized this stuff was from Japan) was through various Sci-Fi Channel broadcasts and Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Dragon Ball came after that.

It was my second manga, however, right after Ranma 1/2.

[Hellspawn28]

I was introduced to anime by, then I think either Speed Racer, Dinosaur War Izenborg, or Voltron where afterwards. I can't really remember since it was like 94 or 95 at the time.

[sangofe]

Did Dragon Ball introduce you or get you more interested in other manga/anime?

For me, Dragon Ball didn't introduce me as such into anime (since I was already into Pokemon long before I knew about Dragon Ball), but it did introduce me into manga. Dragon Ball was the first manga I ever read.

It didn't get me more interested in other manga/anime, however. Dragon Ball is the only manga/anime that I'm interested in at the moment. I have yet to give other mangas a go.

For many years I didn't want to watch any other anime than Dragonball, however, some older friends I had kept saying I should check out other anime, so I did. Since then I've been what you can call an avid anime fan, even though nothing's as great as Dragonball in my heart.

[TripleRach]

My first anime would be Voltron and Robotech, which I used to watch when I was a tiny diaper person. Some other cartoons I watched as a kid also came from Japan, like those two Koala ones that used to air on Nickelodeon, and one called "Spartakus" or something (though that was a actually French/Japanese hybrid, I think...?). Then there was Pokemon, which was probably the first that I actually knew was Japanese at the time I watched it. Dragon Ball and a few other things came not long after that, during the big Toonami boom.

So it wasn't my first anime, but Dragon Ball definitely was my first manga. I didn't really read any American comics before that either, other than a few random issues, so it was pretty much my introduction into comics in general.