Editorial Thoughts - Strange Fandom!

[VegettoEX]

I've had the idea to write for a while, but it's really starting to seem more appealing to me, lately. Yes, VegettoEX actually feels like writing a new editorial!

My question to you is this:

What things do you see in DBZ (online?) fandom, today, that you just didn't see years ago? I'd like to go back as far as ten years, but I realize that not everyone's been around that long. Please state how long you've been "in-the-game" when you mention to me a particular thing that strikes you as bizarre compared to how it "used to be". It could be a particular point of view, opinion on a product, etc. Please try to limit it to one individual item, unless things happen to tie together.

Thanks for the help! I mostly just need my memory kicked a bit .

[Fuujin]

I'm not really that familiar with American fandom from obvious reasons, but I can tell you what changed in the Polish fandom... Well, it's pretty natural. DB ended a few years ago, no reruns, no new volumes of manga... So what happened afterwards is basically the dream of people around here, the "OMG GOKU SUXXORZ" fans switched to Naruto or whatever, or stopped watching anime altogether, whereas the hardcore ones that stayed are usually the ones that can put together coherent sentences and even have intelligent conversations not unlike the ones we're having here. The downside is, of course, less people to talk with, less sites... but I don't think they ever were of any real quality, aside from one fanfiction site that I like. We didn't get our Daizenshuu PL, unfortunately.

So the new thing I see is basically some real level of coherency, tell me that's not bizarre.

Edit: Oh right, how long I've been "in the game"... about 6 years.

[Jerseymilk]

Well I've stated it before, but I've been into DB at least six or seven years......now I feel old. I think the biggest thing that's changed and really struck me is the change in Funimation and how they're viewed. I mean , we all know that we ranted on about how Funi was the spawn of Satan years ago. I was definitely pretty vocal to the point of being obnoxious at times I'm sure.^^' Now Funi has actually done some decent work, not necessarily on DB mind you, but I never thought I would be defending them to others, but now I often do. And even if Funi still puts in things like bad music or bad covers, at least we got dual language and uncut versions. Not every company would go back and try to fix the mistakes that they've done with a series.

It's very odd seeing people these days online saying things like, "I just hope Funi gets the rights to Naruto because then at least we'll get uncut and dual language DVD releases. Yes I agree that much of the hype for all things DB has gone down, but there have always been those that looked down upon it. And I still see a lot of morons that are fans, for proof just visit the MFG forums some time. XD

[Super Sonic]

I've been part since 1999 while trying to avoid spoilers. But I managed. I recall guys on many sites complaining over some things that if they watched DB at the time instead of only DBZ they would not have complained so much. For example, I remember many guys on some sites complaining about Funi's naming of the kitty that hangs on Doc Brief's back, "Scratch". Heck Mr. Psaros on his site put:

"THE CAT" DOES NOT HAVE A NAME. IT IS "THE CAT." NOW THEY HAVE TRIED TO NAME "THE CAT." AND THE NAME IS REALLY, REALLY STUPID. Sorry, but I love The Cat. And The Cat should not have a name.

Though that's true for the manga, they apparently missed the DB eps where he and his wife are calling him "Tama". But like Jersey said, in other aspects, I recall hearing people fear that Funi would get One Piece and after what was said and done, they started to say they wished Funi had gotten it. Also you don't have the various sites saying weird things like "Piccolo is the son of Daimon". Don't know who the hell Daimon was (sarcasm) but at least you don't see the misinformed information as much anymore.

[Jerseymilk]

Except for AF. It will never die. 100 years from now, anime fans will gather around and whisper about the legend of the "lost DB series known only as AF".

[Zackarotto]

Well I've stated it before, but I've been into DB at least six or seven years......now I feel old.

Haha... I've been into it for at least 7 years, actually. I remember it getting really popular when I was in the 4th grade. I also remember coming back in the 5th grade wanting to smack every other kid who thought they knew anything about DBZ, having spent a large portion of the summer becoming a "DBZ guru".

Not really something I look back on with pride, though. I recall getting a little snobby about it. And of course the whole "OMG UR A DUBBIE, ITS SAIYAJIN NOT SAIYAN" thing. I never imagined I'd be going by "Saiyan" all these years later, but of course it's a sensible choice.

I totally remember that rant about the cat. Awesome.

[yuusha]

The fandom has changed significantly. Ten years ago DB had finished its run, hell at this point it had been completed for 5 months. The Dragonball fans were used to watching either raw Japanese episodes and movies or getting them subtitled through the old network (Chinatown Bootleggers, Fansubbers).

There are those of us that remain loyalists not just ot DB but Akita Toriyama in general and we've had to put up with th Anti-DB backlash that all popular shows go through. It usually goes in five year cycles as 5 years after Evangelion there was a huge anti-EVA backlash.

I never in a million years. in 1995, would've figured DB/DBZ to be so insanely popular in the states. Sure I have my gripes about the dubs. I miss hearing "Cha-la Head Cha-la" to open every episode. I miss the BGM, I miss hearing Goku having a high pitched voice etc, etc...

DVD has made getting DB/DBZ easy, cheaper than VHS in some cases. I miss getting the movies on tapes at cons just for the disc end specials (clean opening and closing plus with movie 3 for DBZ Toriyama Around The World! C'mon Kennosuke-sama was awesome).

I think in the end DB fandom is strong and always will be. Hell its still being rebroadcast in japan and the US... around the world!

James

[Eclipse]

I've only been as much as a DB fan as you guys for the past few months, before that, I only knew general knowledge. I guess the reason people hate it is because, according to them, it is "childish". When they watch DBZ, all they see is guys grunting loudly, energy blasts, and the classic "fast movement of hands and legs". They don't see the apparent story, or the relations the characters share. They don't see what you guys, and now me can see.

Perhaps that's why?

[VegettoEX]

I've only been as much as a DB fan as you guys for the past few months, before that, I only knew general knowledge. I guess the reason people hate it is because, according to them, it is "childish". When they watch DBZ, all they see is guys grunting loudly, energy blasts, and the classic "fast movement of hands and legs". They don't see the apparent story, or the relations the characters share. They don't see what you guys, and now me can see.

Perhaps that's why?

This isn't a thread to discuss why people may not like a/the show. Thanks!

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

I've seen more and more people start using 1337 romaji names these days.
Someone on GameFAQs thought Jheese, Butta, and Reacoom were mistranslations of Jiisu, Batta, and "Rikuum"

[Duo]

Though there is a large gap in my experience - back when I got into it was 1997. At that time, I was recording the Ocean Dub of DBZ and watching it over and over at the humble age of 10. When I would go online to look up DBZ, I would find a few people like me, and even more people talking about such things as "Vegotto" and "Majin Buu" and it kind of led to a big gap in the community, from what I saw. This was, however mostly on AOL Chatrooms.

2 years ago I became pretty heavily involved with MFG, and I found that most of the discussion revolved around Dragonball GT speculation, and now it's evolved, well...to a lot of frivilous, repeating arguments about the same things over and over. Everyone has seen most of every Toei Animation DBZ product, whether it be dubbed or not. And now, there is a Manga community rising and kind of trying to take over it all. So now, the community seems to be divided into 3 directions, as opposed to the 2 it was 8 years ago.

[Dayspring]

I've been into DB since 1995. Ironically, as much as I hate the anime because of inconsistencies (due to filler and due to dubbings), it was the Pilaf saga dub of DB that got me into it.

Anyhoo, what I always thought funny was people's obsession with "calculating" precise PLs. Especially when their means of "precisely" calculating them basically involved pulling them out of their asses. As you know I'm a fan of PLs, and have even entertained hypotheses provided they're backed up using some kind of logic. But pure guesses just so one can have the most complete PL guide, and then claiming them to be official simply because one spent a lot of time guessing at said PLs is pure crap.

Actually that's not what I found weird. Weird is how all these people now simply hate PLs with a passion simply because they exist. It's like claiming to hate DBs since "all they're ever used for is to wish someone back to life." Doesn't make the DBs any less present.

[veshira]

Well, I'll start by saying that I was not into Dragonball Z 10 years ago. In fact, I had no idea it existed then. I first started watching 8 years ago, (my first sight of DBZ being the "Pikkoro-san Dai Suki!" scene ) though I wouldn't consider myself an "in-game fan" until the height of DBZ's popularity in the USA, which I suppose was whenever they aired Goku first going Super Saiyajin and first had the toys at Burger King out. Though I only watched the dub at the time, I wasn't that limited: fandom was all over the internet, and mostly I read fics, many of them "chat-speak" written, portraying Goku as a complete idiot, Vegeta as a total asshole, and Chichi and Bulma were both bitches, armed with a frying pan and rolling pin respectfully. Many fanfics had Freeza's gender confused due to the dub, and Krillin and Gohan were kicked around a lot in battle fics.

DBZ fandom hit my area pretty hard. At school, all of the boys were into DBZ, collected the toys, cards, folders, backpacks, t-shirts, binders, ect. and I'm sure VHS's and manga, though the anime was definately more popular than the manga at the time. A big thing was that kids would find Dragonball pictures on the internet, especially Z though sometimes GT, and would bring them to school and copy them in class - we had many great artists in class. Another big thing was saving all DBZ pictures on the internet you could find to your computer, including gifs, fanart, and midis, sometimes coming across the rare (gasp!) MPEG 2 files. ([edit] Actually, I just realized that the podcasts are all MP2s. Wow.)

Many kids didn't know what GT was for a long time, but over the years (or maybe it was just one year), kids went around talking about GT and AF, talking like they were experts. Dragonball Z fandom was never strong among the girls, though personally I liked it enough to watch it whenever I had the chance, and spend hours writing and reading many meaningless, OOC fanfics about it, many of them involving Sailor Moon and Pokemon. (Actually, Sailor Moon was "the girls' DBZ" in my area, and Pokemon had hit everybody hard, though it wore off quite a bit. Everyone still has their old cards. )

Actually, what surprises me the most about Dragonball's fandom is that it hasn't changed all that much. There are still people, though fewer in number, who are just getting into the series, writing crossover fics involving Sailor Moon and the occasional Pokemon, some of them IC, some of them OOC horribly, though "chat-fics" aren't qutie as common, with FF.net not allowing that sort of thing anymore. The only major change is the decrease in active fans.