Funimation's Top 10 Dragon Ball Z Moments

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

As voted by the fans in a recent poll!
http://www.funimation.com/rojas/blog/10 ... ts/1126881
A little obvious if you ask me, but hey, what do you expect?

[Rory]

FUNimation's Top 10?
Transformations everywhere!

[Michsi]

Ha, I can't believe the driving episode made it into the top.

Is it just me, or does this top end at 3. I'm probably missing the next page somewhere but I just can't seem to find it. And it seems I can't navigate this site freely without an account.

[funrush]

Um... where's number one and two?

[VegettoEX]

They're still in the process of revealing the Top 10 on a semi-daily basis.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

I love how self-mocking some of these are.

Super Sayain 3:

Then Goku's like "AAAAAAAA!"
Then King Kai's like "OH NOES!"
Then Piccolo's like "Has he really found a way to surpass an ascended saiyain?"
Then Krillin's like "No man, he's tripping."

[DanielGClapp]

Oh hey, I saw this on facebook. They post them on their wall I think, because they show up on my news feed or whatever.

[KiddoCabbusses]

Something about them calling Goku an "All-American Alien" is somehow so audacious it's hilarious.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Something about them calling Goku an "All-American Alien" is somehow so audacious it's hilarious.

To be fair, I get the general impression that they purposefully wrote that with comedic intentions. If you look at the list of moments, all of the moments are given somewhat tongue-in-cheek descriptions. For example, in describing the "Father-Son Kamehameha To Defeat Cell" moment (which ranks at #2), they wrote...

"Cell was a bad guy. A historically evil bad guy. Perhaps one of the worst bad guys in the long and sordid history of bad guys. He had a creepy voice, leveled entire cities for fun, and even ate a couple of androids. These are things you just don’t do unless you are really and truly a very bad guy."

[penguintruth]

Psh. Mine was better.

[Scarz]

I did not expect #5 to be on that list! Sure everything else is totally predictable (almost everything is a "First Time" moment) but just the fact that they included Toonami on their list makes me feel all sorts of happy. Also, Piccolo and Goku's Driving lesson episode should be higher on that list.

[jjgp1112]

Nice touch how they used DBox screencaps rather than Season set.

[Cipher]

I did not expect #5 to be on that list! Sure everything else is totally predictable (almost everything is a "First Time" moment) but just the fact that they included Toonami on their list makes me feel all sorts of happy.

Why are you so surprised? This list was practically made to include that.

Read through a few of these and it becomes extremely clear it's just part of their overall Blu-Ray marketing campaign: cater to nostalgic Toonami fans. From the tongue-in-cheek descriptions clearly aimed at older nostalgic viewers who no longer take the show as seriously, to referencing "filler" that "old-school fans will remember watching on Toonami," this is all about bringing back the kids who watched it after school at 5 p.m. It's why the Blu-Ray trailers and menus have adopted the Toonami aesthetic as well.

And boy, are they ever getting it right.

This is what the Season Sets should've been. At some point within the last few years, FUNimation mistakenly conflated the Toonami crowd with some sort of "RAAAH! HARDCORE! WRESTLING, ROCK MUSIC!" group that simply never existed in as large a number (check the Season Set trailers for this aesthetic). Someone's really pointed marketing in the right direction with this one. Most American fans don't equate DBZ with "hardcore," as even this site is often guilty of assuming. It's just an action cartoon they remember fondly from Toonami. Make that connection again and you'll bring them back in.

Hell, even I'm getting nostalgic for these things. I want that menu music.

Nice touch how they used DBox screencaps rather than Season set.

They're pimping the Blu-Rays and the Dragon Box footage is a much closer match (it's at least 4:3) for those sets.

[Codarik]

It kinda doesn't make any sense to aim the blu-rays to the nostalgic Toonami fans. The Toonami fans should remember ocean dub for episodes 1-53, movies 1-3 and FUNimation in-house cast for the rest, not to mention the dub on the blu-rays, which was carried over from the season sets, have redubbed characters.

If I haven't watched DBZ since the Toonami days and decided to pick these up for nostalgia, I'll be saying to myself, "Why doesn't Captain Ginyu sound like the Narrator trying to sound tough?".

[Cipher]

It kinda doesn't make any sense to aim the blu-rays to the nostalgic Toonami fans. The Toonami fans should remember ocean dub for episodes 1-53, movies 1-3 and FUNimation in-house cast for the rest, not to mention the dub on the blu-rays, which was carried over from the season sets, have redubbed characters.

My experience has been that Toonami fans, actually, really got going with the series from the Android arc on, maybe later catching reruns of the Saiyan and Namek arcs. No one's going to care about the few redubbed lines in season three. And while people will probably remember there was a different cast for the early episodes, few will care about the update. Sean Schemmel is Goku. Chris Sabat is Vegeta.

Most of this board has zero indication of what the actual nostalgic, "casual" fanbase is like. Primarily because it seems to base its assessments on Youtube comments instead of, say, living on a college campus and talking to people.

[penguintruth]

I thought the Toonami audience is the same as the "HARDCORE EXTREME" bunch.

[Cipher]

I thought the Toonami audience is the same as the "HARDCORE EXTREME" bunch.

The Toonami audience is a bunch of normal, reasonable 20-somethings that just came home and watched Toonami because it was kind of bad-ass (you know, in the same way Beast Wars and Batman Beyond seemed bad-ass.) Looking back on it, it's less bad-ass than it seemed, but still fun and nostalgic.

I mean, I'm sure there's some crossover with that "HARDCORE EXTREME" crowd, but no more than there is crossover between the Toonami generation and this message board. A good chunk of posters here (myself included) were introduced during the Toonami run, right? Most people who get nostalgic for it are just like us, except they didn't continue to make it a hobby.

FUNimation's finally realized this.

EDIT--

The people in college now are from the very tail end of the Toonami viewership, so that would skew your data a bit.

Well, more like middle to end. The Android and Boo arcs are still a collective two-thirds of the series. Either way, I doubt the FUNimation redub is seriously going to prevent it from hitting that nostalgic sweet spot. Don't let a few hardcore dub fans on Youtube convince you otherwise; they're the actual "RAAAH, HARDCORE" crowd, and they're just as niche as we are.

[Gaffer Tape]

It kinda doesn't make any sense to aim the blu-rays to the nostalgic Toonami fans. The Toonami fans should remember ocean dub for episodes 1-53, movies 1-3 and FUNimation in-house cast for the rest, not to mention the dub on the blu-rays, which was carried over from the season sets, have redubbed characters.

My experience has been that Toonami fans, actually, really got going with the series from the Android arc on, maybe later catching reruns of the Saiyan and Namek arcs. No one's going to care about the few redubbed lines in season three. And while people will probably remember there was a different cast for the early episodes, few will care about the update. Sean Schemmel is Goku. Chris Sabat is Vegeta.

Most of this board has zero indication of what the actual nostalgic, "casual" fanbase is like. Primarily because it seems to base its assessments on Youtube comments instead of, say, living on a college campus and talking to people.

While I think you are mostly correct, I do want to point out your minor flaw is that your experience is based on a college campus now. I too was in college several years ago, and my age group was also the Toonami crowd, but several years older: early seasons, Moltar hosting, etc. The people in college now are from the very tail end of the Toonami viewership, so that would skew your data a bit.

[KiddoCabbusses]

I, for one, will admit that I do have a fondness for the Toonami-style marketing. I loved Toonami for many reasons besides Dragon Ball Z. I pretty much watched the block from it's initial incarnation with Thundercats, Voltron and Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, all the way up to it's end.
Toonami introduced me to the Gundam franchise, made me appreciate the DC Animated Universe, paved the way for Adult Swim entering into - and being a major part of - CN, and had an atmosphere that no other animation block had done before or since.
I miss it's departure from Cartoon Network (and CN's subsequent drop in quality - and ratings! - for the next couple years afterwards due to their obsession with trying to force Live Action programming in), and most of the anime I demand to see again were Toonami-broadcast. (Unfortunately, I doubt Bo-BoBo or Cyborg 009 will get the full releases they deserve...)
I hope FUNi finds some more ways to take advantage of the Toonami nostalgia.

[penguintruth]

But the version of DBZ played on Toonami was the "HARDCORE EXTREME" version.