First experience with Dragonball

[PatPat]

I'm not sure if this has ever been asked before but since I'm new around here I wanted to hear people's stories on this subject. So what was your first experience with DBZ? Anybody have any interesting stories to tell?

For me the first time I watched DBZ was when it first started airing on Cartoon Network. I was watching tv in my room and since I didn't have a remote, when I wanted to change the channel, I had to get up and walk over to the tv and change it.

Well, I was flipping through the channels and I came across DBZ and stopped. My first thought was, man this looks SO lame. How can anybody like this shit? At the time I hated anime and thought it was stupid but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to change the channel.

Well, I stood there at the tv watching it for like 10 minutes till I was finally like, this is getting pretty good lol. So that's when I decided to go sit back down and finish it. After that I was hooked and it opened up a whole new can of worms for my new anime obsession. xP

[ShonenKnife]

It was around 2000, I was at a friend's house helping him find Power Stars in Mario 64, when he suddenly shouted "Crap, I'm missing Dragon Ball z!" At that point I'm like "Huh? Yeah you go watch TV, I'm busy."

Then the next day my younger brother and I were in my Dad's car and he said he was gonna "Dragon Ball Z punch" me (he was 7 or so then), so by this point I'm going "What the fuck is Dragon Ball Z?!" until later that week when I sat down and watched the time room filler episode on Cartoon Network, and for some reason it just fascinated me.

Then it was a case of CN's Sunday Rewind marathons, which I eventually started taping until I had all the old Ocean episodes on tape. Haven't stopped following the series since.

[Kendamu]

Back before Season 3 hit Toonami, I stepped in on the last dub episode they had at the time where Goku drops down on Namek, gives senzu to Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta, gets caught up on the situation, then starts moving around so fast you can't see him move, takes out Recoome, and then continues being fast and junk.

I thought the fast maneuvering and the one-hit takedown was so cool that I had to watch from there.

EDIT: Actually, I do remember watching the show one morning in '96-ish after I was recommended it to me and I saw it a few other times between then and the Toonami days, but I wasn't a huge fan until the Toonami days.

[Hellspawn28]

I got a Dragon Ball vhs type for my birthday sometime around 1997 or so from what I can remember since it had the first three episodes of it. I was too young to care for it, and I forgot about it until like 1999 when DBZ became a huge hit then I hated DBZ since it look so stupid since I remember I watch the battle between Piccolo and Freeza at the time back in 99. I did not watch DBZ until 2000 when the Cell saga appear, and I finaly give it a chance, and I loved it. Since then I became crazy for the series, and 2001 I would get beckett DBZ in the mail, and watch both DB and DBZ after school. Everything else is history.

And people say that the early 2000's can't be Nostalgia .

[LilKokuLink]

Back before Season 3 hit Toonami, I stepped in on the last dub episode they had at the time where Goku drops down on Namek, gives senzu to Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta, gets caught up on the situation, then starts moving around so fast you can't see him move, takes out Recoome, and then continues being fast and junk.

I thought the fast maneuvering and the one-hit takedown was so cool that I had to watch from there.

I started around there too, but there were so many repeated episodes whilst more episodes needed to be dubbed that I stopped watching and missed the super saiyan transformation haha. I started again when Goku landed on Earth and everything took its toll from there.

[Kendamu]

And people say that the early 2000's can't be Nostalgia .

Well, if Ninja Turtles became "nostalgic" between 2000 and 2002 when it was on the air from 1987 to 1996 then obviously Dragonball can be nostalgic to American dub fans by now.

[Kiyza]

Back in the late 90's and early 2000's, my cousin, my friend, her sister, and my granny's neighbor (and sometimes his brother too) all got together to watch Toonami every weekday. It was almost like a party, but with more bagel bites. That's when I first started seeing Dragon Ball. We didn't do it all the time, and I was to young to care any about the plot.

I started getting seriously into it when the afforementioned friend introduced me to manga that she had borrowed from the local library. A little while later, I started reading a bit of Dr. Slump, and soon followed by Dragon Ball. (Vol. 1 of Dr. Slump and vols. 4-5 of Dragon Ball if I remember correctly.) After that, I actually started to buy the series.

[Optimus]

Mine was in fall 2000,I'd just entered third grade. I went to a friend's house and it was first time I watched DBZ,I probably would've seen it sooner if I had cable TV. I finally got cable in 2002,just in time for the Buu saga to start.

[Corporate_Nothing]

The first time I can explicitly remember watching DBZ was at my step-grandparents' house on Cartoon Network around...1999-2000. It was the Captain Ginyu Saga, and I recall being confused as hell, either because the last episode I saw was an early Raditz episode, or because the next episode I saw was a rerun of the first season. Either way, the first time I started watching the show regularly was when Toonami only had the first 53 edited episodes and the Captain Ginyu Saga to work with. The next thing I remember is going to Sam Goody to buy The World's Strongest, Dead Zone, Tree of Might, The History of Trunks, Bardock: The Father of Goku, Mystical Adventure, and Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle on uncut VHS. I didn't buy them all at once, of course, but my parents would give me the money to buy one or two every two weeks. Soon after, I started visiting DBZ fansites online, collecting the trading cards, and, almost a decade later, I'm still a fan.

[Kid Buu]

Summer of 1999 I think it was, it was a rerun of Nappa fighting Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo. I didn't really start watching until the reruns of the fake Namek saga started. Can't believe its been over 10 years since I started watching Dragon Ball!

[ShiningMoon]

I think I posted this elsewhere recently, but my brother and I got some Vegeta figures from Burger King long before we saw the actual show. Then when we finally got cable (~summer 2000), we saw him on TV and recognized him as the figure long forgotten. From then, I think the overall weirdness of the show compared to anything else I'd seen before was what sucked me in.
For the record, when we played with our Vegeta figures (before seeing the show) we got his personality down perfectly. XD

[DBZfan29]

My brother and cousin were fans of DBZ. My brother even owned "Budokai 1." I played it one day in 2003 or 2004 (I'm not completely sure) and by the first battle with Goku and Raditz, I fell in love with the series. I don't even know why!

[Shiyonasan]

I believe I started watching the series in 1997, but didn't start watching it semi-regularly until 1999. The episode that got me into the series was the one where Kuririn and Gohan sneak off with the Dragon Balls while Vegeta is taking a nap. Lots of suspense around that part.

I became an avid viewer during the Artificial Human arc. I would say during that arc is when I became a fan of the series. That's probably why that arc is my favorite (and why Gohan is my favorite character).

And people say that the early 2000's can't be Nostalgia .

I've actually never heard anyone say that. 2000 is 10 years ago now, so it has to hold a lot of nostalgia for people who remember that era.

Man, that's hard to believe 2000 was 10 years ago now.

Can't believe its been over 10 years since I started watching Dragon Ball!

Tell me about it.

[Hellspawn28]

I

And people say that the early 2000's can't be Nostalgia .

I've actually never heard anyone say that. 2000 is 10 years ago now, so it has to hold a lot of nostalgia for people who remember that era.

Man, that's hard to believe 2000 was 10 years ago now.

You can tell that to the people on the That guy with the glasses forums. I find it hard to believe the 2000's started 10 years ago, and hard to believe I have been a DBZ fan for almost 10 years.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I can't remember an exact experience, but I do remember coming home from school everyday and watching DBZ on Cartoon Network in 2000-2001. The first episode I remember watching was in the Cell saga, I think.

[Dr. Casey]

Any time that feels divorced from the present can be nostalgic, it doesn't have to be a very long time ago. I miss 2007 like hell and that's the pretty recent past.

[DMaarten]

I was with a couple of friends at a friend's house. One of them said that there was a show on Cartoon Network he watched, and if he could watch it there. We watched it, and I was hooked. It was the gang vs Nappa fight.

[Envy]

Probably around 1999. I saw Dragon Ball Z on the TV. I didn't really watch it actually, I just saw like part of one episode. It was right before the Majin Buu saga, I think.

Back then I used to make fun of it because I was a loser who didn't watch things before they judged them. D:

In probably early 2002 I actually watched Dragon Ball and grew to like the series.

[Velasa]

It was spring of '99, I was 13, flipping channels when something pops up and it looks like Chronno Trigger so I leave it on. It was Gohan, Bulma and Krillian spotting and landing on Nameksei Like someone was trying to tell me something. It was interesting, but mostly because of the art. When I saw the episode shortly after (during the DBZ20XL runs) where the three young Nameccian warriors die trying to defend their village, it pushed all the right epic buttons in me and I was quickly hooked. Haven't looked back since.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

It was spring of '99, I was 13, flipping channels when something pops up and it looks like Chronno Trigger so I leave it on. It was Gohan, Bulma and Krillian spotting and landing on Nameksei Like someone was trying to tell me something. It was interesting, but mostly because of the art. When I saw the episode shortly after (during the DBZ20XL runs) where the three young Nameccian warriors die trying to defend their village, it pushed all the right epic buttons in me and I was quickly hooked. Haven't looked back since.

I hate to be an asshole and dissect your post, but I just couldn't help myself. First off, it's "Chrono Trigger" with one "n" only.

Second, "Krillian"? Where are you getting the "a" from? The last part of his name ends with an "in" sound, not an "ian" sound, which is pronounced differently.

Last, it's Namekku-sei, and if you're going to call it that, you might as well say Namekian with a "k" also.