DBZ feels better when watching it with someone, doesn't it?

[Bejiita]

I mean, it's always better to watch it with someone else watching too.

I started watching alone at first in 2001 after a friend at school reccomended it, then stopped, and just recently started again, but watched all the episodes in Japanese this time, with my brother, he now refuses to watch any dub material. After all the episodes he still enjoys watching some episodes again.

Now my friend who comes to my house and plays the computer game or brings DVD's and shit just got into Budokai Tenkaichi and got used to playing the game and learning the characters, and he tries to draw them because I can so I teach him, and he just was curious to watch the first episode of DBZ, which I showed to him 2 days ago, and he wants to watch more now, he loves it! This boy wasn't, say, the smartest at school, and he doesn't really keep interest in these sort of things(Japanese cartoons) but to my suprise he sat there reading subtitles eager to watch the next episode stoned as fuck (sorry about the language).

I don't really mind going through all the episodes again for some reason because there's somebody else watching it who hasn't seen it before, it's like I'm showing him the series the way I wish I was introduced to it, from episode one, in Japanese. So he doesn't know of any DBZ plot lines whatsoever and he's going to witness it for the first time the way everyone should have. He's lucky.

But more to the point, doesn't Dragonball Z feel a lot better when there's a bit of an audience there, so that one day you don't think you're not the only one sitting in the front room watching this mad Japanese 80's show that is older than yourself(well not to everyone) with a sound blaster on.

Sorry if this sort of thread deserves locking, I thought I'd say something that I think is quite true here.

[Kendamu]

Watching with a friend was always fun for me because all through my life the majority of my friends were martial artists. So all of us sitting around watching how hard the Dragon Team/Z-Senshi/whatever work to attain new levels of skill and power always motivated us to train harder together.

Of course, you can get that same feeling through a lot of Shonen anime. However, Dragonball Z was the case for me.

[Jodaku]

I dunno about feeling better, but it's certainly more of a laugh.

For the most part, I watched DBZ on my own (I don't really watch the anime much now, manga is where it’s at), but the times when I watched it with my friends, it really is the most fun you can have watching something with your mates.

I remember watching the episode where Cell reached his completion (UK/Canadian Ocean dub, if you really need to know) and there was about 8 of us, most of us were either major or casual fans and a few hadn’t watched it before. It was just wild, especially when Trunks and Vegeta were having their little skirmish, and since it was the first time that particular episode was being shown and we didn’t know what going to happen in the episode, most of us were just gagging for Vegeta and Trunks to have a full blown fight. My friend’s house was rockin' the whole time it was on.

I have a lot of fond memories about watching DBZ with friends, though you just can't hear a word of dialogue, which is why I couldn’t have watched every episode with my friends around.

[sangofe]

Sure, all anime is more fun to watch with other anime fans.

"But more to the point, doesn't Dragonball Z feel a lot better when there's a bit of an audience there, so that one day you don't think you're not the only one sitting in the front room watching this mad Japanese 80's show that is older than yourself(well not to everyone) with a sound blaster on. "
-Ha ha, I actually there are more fans that are over 20 years old of Dragonball, than younger
And DBZ is mostly from the 90's.

[The S]

I like to watch it alone, on my laptop, with headphones on. That way nobody bothers me, and I can screencap.

[Milton]

I've usually watched the show by myself, but when friends are involved it's pretty cool. I remember getting an old friend of mine to actually try the show back around '98...we marathoned through all the Pioneer tapes I had, then played Legends for a while longer. He never became as big a fan as I am, but he liked what he saw.

Now having random conversations with friends about GT in a Subway resturant, THAT'S fun. Customers and sandwich makers giving you odd looks, and all.

[Duo]

Similarly...I have a friend who watched 3-4 episodes of DBZ in all his life who thought it was really slow and stupid (and when I watch certain Anime episodes, I am inclined to agree) whom I intro'd to the Viz Manga. I got him hooked near instantly and now I have an ally with me who freaks out when a new volume comes out.

So, I took an 19 year old and made him a DB Manga freak in a month. He still hates the Anime though, when I show him my DVD's. He doesn't go online to DBZ sites or anything, so he wasn't intro'd to the idea of Filler or anything...he just naturally hates it...way more than I do...

[Bejiita]

I'm foreign, I live in England by my parents aren't from here, they are from Greece and Italy, my Mum and Dad have always listened to foreign music, so when I hear Japanese music it's not really wierd for my ears, if anything the language of Japanese is much more different to the rest of Asia's languages.

But anyway, my friend is from England, both he's parents are English, and he still enjoys watching the Japanese DBZ, he said it's more interesting to watch, it has more significance than the dub does, scenes are better to watch. As soon as he heard Vegeta's dub voice, all he said was 'turn this off'. That was it. He laughed too. So do we, because now the dub is like listening to some type of joke thing, all the characters have this comedic happy sound in their voices, laughs sound dumb, screams are irritating too.

[Li'l Lemmy]

I don't really mind going through all the episodes again for some reason because there's somebody else watching it who hasn't seen it before, it's like I'm showing him the series the way I wish I was introduced to it, from episode one, in Japanese. So he doesn't know of any DBZ plot lines whatsoever and he's going to witness it for the first time the way everyone should have. He's lucky.

God. He doesn't know just how lucky. I myself would have loved to have seen the show uncut and in its entirety, in chronological order with the original Japanese language, and then I would have gone through the individual sagas again as I liked. Maybe for curiosity's sake I would have even exposed myself to the dub at some point to see how the two versions sync up.

Instead I saw the dub first and watched it out of order . . . with no clue that it was a secondary version of something Japan had come up with long ago, and not knowing the history behind scenes that were well into the latter part of the series. (What did Vegeta have against Goku, ect.) I would trade my entire collection for the chance to have my memory wiped and be introduced to Dragonball from start to finish.

Though I love the dub, and grew to know the series through those particular voices, knowing the original version's charm as I do now leaves me with some conflicts with regards to the FUNimation version . . . and when I find myself thinking that I should commit to either one or the other (as so many of us already have), I find it hard to pick between the two. I would have prefered to know of only one or the other so that my loyalties were not so divided.

As for watching the show together with a friend . . . well, there's a friend of mine who was an avid fan of Dragonball for years, and definitely we had fun watching through the sagas together. But when I tried to get him into the original version, he wouldn't stand for Masako Nozawa's Goku and didn't care for subtitles in general; he was just too much of a FUNimation person.

A nephew or a son . . . whichever comes first. I hope I can enjoy it with them instead.


(Li'l Lemmy, who suddenly feels a bit saddened.)

[Chaos Saiyajin]

I rarely watch DBZ with someone else...I grow tired of people asking questions...If they would just shut up for one second, they wouldn't have to ask!

Let's see...I've watched DBZ with my brother, mom, dad, stepmom, nana, aunt, granny, grandpa....What's funny is that I actually got my grandpa to learn the character's names.

Now the manga's a different story...whenever I get a new volume, my friends at school always snatch it from me and read it. Doesn't really bother me though...

[Bejiita]

Li'l Lemmy, I too didn't start from the original. My first episodes(excluding the clips I remember watching on cable ages ago of some Namek episodes) was 'The Newest Super Saiyan', and it was the Ocean dub, and I loved it, I continued to watch these 2 episodes every day up to the Energy Drain episode, and I was instantly hooked, I loved DBZ! After they stopped showing episodes, my friend hooked me up with the next set of episode on a disk, the quality wasn't great, and those went up to the Goku Vs Vegeta battle.

I did notice the difference in these episodes, because they were the Funi version, and I was used to the Ocean one, so it was like some set of completely different episodes, new BGM, new voices(it took me a while to even notice, the voices are actually quite similar to the average viewer). Anyway, they then showed the whole Freeza saga in one day, and done the same with the rest, and that's how I saw most of the series, dubbed and cut. Shame really.

I did however, know the whole time this was a dub of a Japanese cartoon, the fact that the ending credits say based on the Japanese original by Akira Toriyama clarified that thought too. And this friend of mine has been shown the original from the start, so his interpretation of DBZ is Japanese, he was quite suprised when he saw the dub, he actually started laughing, and that was followed with more laughter as I let a bit more of Yamucha, Tenshinhan and Chaozu's fake 'laughing at' Kaio sama's jokes play. (I must say it's extremely funny in the Japanese version too, especially the way Yamucha's voice overtakes everyone else's, volume-wise).

Oh, and Chaos Saiyajin, I see what you mean getting tired of questions, since I'm like some DBZ dictionary, I'm quick to answer whatever question any newbie to DBZ has, that's the good thing about DBZ, there's many questions to be asked, but there's usually always an answer, and the plot holes take simpletons the knowledge to even notice the fact that something wrong has even happened at all, so maybe no questions asked .

What I don't like is idiots asking me why that white boy turns to a black boy on the first Simpsons episode, I'm like, 'how the heck I'm I supposed to know, I didn't draw this!'

When my Dad see's me watching it he says 'ain't you got nothin' else? You're always watching that crap!'

My mum has only recently become quite curious to the mentioning and involvements of the after life, which DBZ explores and explains in its own way. And my mum is one of those who are interested in Supernatural things, ghosts, what happens when you die, and even he the existence of chi and how we can use it.

[Chaos Saiyajin]

since I'm like some DBZ dictionary,

Yeah, same here. If any member of my family/friends needs to know anything about DBZ, they come to me.

The first episode of Z I saw was the one with Goku and Piccolo fighting Radditz, the Ocean version. Now that I look back, I don't even see how I liked the Ocean dub (I hate the voices).

[Bejiita]

since I'm like some DBZ dictionary,

Yeah, same here. If any member of my family/friends needs to know anything about DBZ, they come to me.

The first episode of Z I saw was the one with Goku and Piccolo fighting Radditz, the Ocean version. Now that I look back, I don't even see how I liked the Ocean dub (I hate the voices).

I actually don't mind the old voices from Ocean's Saiyan Saga dub. The voices were alright mimics of the originals. The tried to keep Kuririn's voice the same, and although it sounded a bit whiney it was acceptable, you would have gotten used to it, isn't much different Funi's. Even Goku's got the teenage voice sort of that makes him sound a bit more high pitched, the music wasn't all that bad, but neither is Funi's, I got tired of the tune that played when the episode title appears, sounded a bit too dramatic.

Also to add, Kaio-sama's voice is way better than Funi's, while it may not be that similar to the Japanese Kaio it still has some sort of deepness to it, and it's better than Funi's gobbledy goop sounding King Kai; he sounds like a clown on class A drugs or something. It's funny when he shouts Goku loudly.


Still, the Ocean movies are wicked.

[Chaos Saiyajin]

Still, the Ocean movies are wicked.

Too bad I can't remember a damn single one of them. 1999 was so long ago...

I do, however, remember that Movie 3 kicked ass.

[Bejiita]

Still, the Ocean movies are wicked.

Too bad I can't remember a damn single one of them. 1999 was so long ago...

I do, however, remember that Movie 3 kicked ass.

I haven't even seen every movie. The ones I haven't seen are movie 7 and Bio Brolli. I've seen the rest. The Pioneer ones are better than Funi's ones.

[Great Saiyaman]

Acctually I enjoy watching it alone, free to make any comments I want, curse at the TV & not have people give me that "it's just a TV show" look.

[Magica]

When I was younger, I used to be on the phone with my best friend who lived on the other side of town when we'd watch DragonballZ. We'd comment and make fun of some parts when it was right to.

I half brother who's about 15 or so years older than me used to watch it with me. Now since i'm 21 it's kind of embarassing to watch it now, especially since it's just me and my mom that live together. (Offtopic: She does watch FMA with me, though XD)

[Chaos Saiyajin]

I have one really good friend who's watched DBZ as long as I have and hasn't lost intrest either. If she every becomes dis-interested in DBZ, then Daizex is all I'll have left.

Oh, well! Daizex kicks total ass and I hope it isn't going away anytime soon!

[Bejiita]

I have one really good friend who's watched DBZ as long as I have and hasn't lost intrest either. If she every becomes dis-interested in DBZ, then Daizex is all I'll have left.

Oh, well! Daizex kicks total ass and I hope it isn't going away anytime soon!

Believe it or not I already had in my mind that somewhere between reading the words 'who' and 'have' I already thought I saw the word 'she' despite the fact I hadn't reached that part of the sentence! It's like I already knew that it said she before even reading it. I ain't even trying to be funny. Wierd things have been happening to me lately, like I think something and it happens.

It's like I already knew you were reffering to a girl without even catching a glimpse of the word 'she'.

[Chaos Saiyajin]

It's like I already knew you were reffering to a girl without even catching a glimpse of the word 'she'.

I didn't know Daizex doubled as a psychic hotline...