Dragon Ball in a casual aspect?

[Perfect]

So I've been wondering to myself lately, "Is Dragon Ball the most casual/westernized anime/manga series today?"

I've often heard on many websites and forums one of the following,

"Dragon Ball is what got me into anime/manga" or "I like Dragon Ball, but not any other anime/manga series"

Of course I've heard this with other series, just not nearly as much. I myself learned about anime/manga through Dragon Ball and Yu Yu Hakusho, though I can honestly say after watching what seemed like hundreds of series, I really don't like anime. I mean there's a few I do like, maybe around six to seven titles, but Dragon Ball's the only one I'd actually buy/have an obsession with. I often don't even use the words "anime"/"manga" in a conversation with friends or strangers outside of the internet, I usually just say cartoon or comic. Granted those are just broad terms, I just really don't think of the specifics like now. I don't think I've ever met someone in the past five to six years that didn't at least know what the series was, rather it was positive or negative attention. It also seems that with every person (Well 90-95%) I know that lives within a hundred mile radius of me that likes the franchise, just likes Dragon Ball and not any other anime/manga titles. Maybe it's just where I live or the forums/websites I've viewed in the past; I don't think so though.

My questions for you guys are,

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?
II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?
III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?
IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

Edit:
Most of these are really just based on speculation around the person answering, so there's of course going to be a lot of unique and diverse answers. I feel that I didn't answer all four of my questions that well in my post so I'll take the time to do so below,

I. I don't really care for any other series, being I'd only currently buy Dragon Ball (As I said I only like five-six titles).
II. Yes it did, not only for knowing the genre but finding out some other interesting titles.
III. Definitely, here's a few examples:
*I was jogging past an elementary school awhile back, and I could hear a few kids talking about Dragon Ball Z on the playground.
*A few years ago there was this obnoxious overweight kid saying shit like, "FREEZA AND GOKU FIGHTING AAHAHAHAHA" at Burger King, he was making a mess out of everything and he was smashing his Goku and Freeza action figures into each other.
*A few friends of mine ask me now and then if I caught the new Z Kai on Nicktoons.
*I was at a library a few weeks ago and saw someone reading up on SSJ4 Goku on Dragon Ball Wiki.
*Awhile back I saw some people buying some Orange Bricks at Walmart, and more recently at Best Buy a little before Thanksgiving.
IV. Dragon Ball's just that series where people that don't even know anything about it just go, "Oh I've heard of that". So I believe it has, it's just something common, like Ninja Turtles, granted someone might not know anything about it or the names of the turtles, but they've heard of it before; so yes I believe so.

[dbgtFO]

My questions for you guys are,

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

I cared for Pokemon and Digimon a lot, when I was younger(before I even heard of DB) and Yugioh after DB introduced me to manga, but my interest in those have gone over the years, so DB is really the only manga I still have an interest in.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

It did. I was a huge Pokemon fan and Digimon fan before DB, but I didn't actually know nor care that it was anime. DBZ introduced me to manga and made me want to check out other series.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Not quite, some people recall watching it when they were younger, but that's about it.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

We got the entire manga and we got the Saiyan through Freeza arcs of the anime + all of the movies IIRC. My guess is that they dropped DBZ because it wasn't as popular as they wanted it to be, but I don't know.

[Eire]

Dragon Ball was for anime what LOTR adaptation was for fantasy.
Massive earthquake- that was a series that introduced genre to wider audience and caused a phenomena I doubt would ever happen again.

Back when DB was aired there were hardly to find anybody who didn't watch it, so it's understandable that most of the nowadays young adults have warm feelings towards that. Lots of them developed interesting for anime for some point, but just a small bunch become long-term anime fans. Similar with LOTR- ask random person about fantasy and he will probably say that and nothing more.

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?
ATM I'm dedicated Tezuka fangirl, so I guess that I care.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?
Particularly mine...maybe yes, but not DBZ alone. IIRC I started from Slayers, DB was aired just after that.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?
It's the most recognisable anime for sure, but people care about it as for every nice childhood memory.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I'm not sure if I understand you. It was extremely popular in spite of being aired in obscure TV station. IIRC there were three re-airings. Movie 12 and 13 got theatrical release with dub, 1 and 5 overdubbed VHS. There were no series release, but it was unthinkable back then. Volumes of manga were released twice a month- no series had so short spans. Special release of anime magazine, lots of small merchandise (stickers etc). Dr. Slump also had TV and manga release.

On the other hand for younger fans DB is a kind of legend from times when Net was available just in school and the main source of information was magazine. Old, animation even not average for nowadays standards. It's hardly to find anyone who was hooked by Kai or by watching DB for first time.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

Actually, I'm big on a lot of anime and manga, and have a pretty large collection of it. But, despite how some seem to view people with a large collection, I don't watch something JUST because it's anime. To me, it's just the medium that has the most entertaining stories to me, just like how comic book fans have theirs. There's a lot of crappy anime and manga out there too yeah, but I've really gotten into the fanbase more than I ever have anything else.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Yeah, though not really sure I'd phrase it as just for the sake of knowing the genre. I got into DBZ via the FUNimation dub, so when I would get some tapes, there'd be advertisements for Yu Yu Hakusho and other stuff. So via an interplay between FUNimation ads and other shows running on Toonami, I slowly got into more and more shows. DBZ certainly helped a lot by being my first show though, I dunno if I'd be able to handle long-running stuff as much as I do if it weren't for getting into it first.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Hmm...probably not, except from my generation maybe. I've been out of school for a good few years now so I dunno if Kai is watched a lot in town or not. Even in my generation though, by the time of high school, most people had 'grown out of animation' despite watching Spongebob and Family Guy. Most from my age group had at least heard of it though, yes.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

In a way, yeah. It's died down quite a bit, but just as you said, there's an entire section of the DB fandom that are not anime fans particularly. There's few other shows that can say they've got that sort of fanbase, especially few with such a long list of media, and though it causes issues to crop up from time to time, I think it speaks volumes that it's attracted such a diverse fanbase.

[theoriginalbilis]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?
II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?
III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?
IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I. I'd say it's quite the opposite for me: There are several anime that I enjoy more than Dragon Ball, and that I feel deserve more attention than they get. Dragon Ball's fun and all, and quite possibly the most successful anime out there, but it's not the greatest thing ever. I'm actively trying to pursue a career in animation, basically because I want to to tell the kinds of stories that Japanese artists aren't afraid to tell.

II. It opened me up to the shonen action formula, but I was already pretty familiar with anime before I saw any DB stuff. I was already interested in shows like Macross/Robotech, Guyver, Sailor Moon, and various Madhouse works before I saw DBZ in '97-'98. I still read older stuff like Tezuka manga, and am currently catching up on some of the defining titles of the 80s & 90s (Gundam, Fist of the North Star, Gainax works, Galaxy Express 999), all because of my interest in the genre. I do watch other things besides anime, but the medium itself fascinates me because of the types of stories and mature content that are told that American animation doesn't seem to allow or care about. (Though, shows like Avatar are slowly changing that.)

III. Yeah, whenever DBZ is brought up, many folks I know around the same age group are like "yeah, that was a great show back when I was a kid and watched it all the time." I know my cousins (around the ages of 8-16) are watching Kai right now and enjoying it. So I'd say the term Dragon Ball = childhood classic.

IV. Lots of nostalgia going for it. Most of my friends from high school watched it daily on Toonami. Like I said before, for many people, Dragon Ball = childhood classic. And then again, there's something about space monkeys beating the snot out of each other that attracts the casual viewer as well. That's why it's the best-selling anime franchise in America...

[AgitoZ]

I often don't even use the words "anime"/"manga" in a conversation with friends or strangers outside of the internet, I usually just say cartoon or comic.

Probably cause you don't have to in the first place.

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

No.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Yes and no.

At first I was just watching cause I thought it was a cool cartoon, I didn't even know there was a term to distinguish it from others, nor did I really care. Not to mention I was already watching other series from the land of the rising sun along with it, Digimon, Detective Conan, Saint Seiya (It was before Shin-chan), etc.

Later on, when I got back into the franchise I say it helped on the print side of things, but otherwise I was already watching other shows like it. But, I can see how the series was a and still is a "gate-way drug" to people.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

I guess so. Although, I think there's a better term than, well, term to describe it. Title, maybe...?

Anyway, it's definitely remembered fondly back at home and by several others in my current area. People are still discovering it now thanks to Kai. It's definitely one of the most acceptable titles to be into it seems.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I'm not sure I quite understand the question. If you mean it's been able to become a bit more mainstream than other titles, then yes.

As for where I used to live, it's still on TV...all the time. So people still remember and catch it. There's even a podcast as well...O_o

[DarkGokuZ]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

I love a lot of anime/manga series. I read stuff like One Piece, Bakuman, Reborn!, Toriko, Eyeshield 21, Vagabond etc.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Yes, but Pokemon helped a lot too. Before I read and watched Dragon Ball, I thought that anime and manga was just some american cartoon (Like Johnny Bravo). But it mostly opened my eyes for shonen manga in general.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Its not really known here. Well people remember reading or watching it when they were kids, but thats it.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

Well as dbgtFO said, we got the manga and the anime up until the SSJ Goku vs Freeza. We also got the most of the movies. But the only thing today that is "new" is the video games I think.

[ricecake]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

Dragon Ball is the one I care the most about at this time, but I've been slowly getting into others. I remember thinking Voltron was really cool when I was a kid, so now I'm watching through Go Lion. I want to watch the Gundam series soon. My girlfriend also got me into others, like Beck Mongolian Chop Squad and Natsume's Book of Friends.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

The first anime I saw was Akira, and that initially got me interested in "Japanimation", so from there I went to Bubblegum Crisis, but then my interest petered out. It wasn't until I was in college when my friends and I started getting into DBZ on Cartoon Network, at which point I got interested in anime again.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

I think people know about it. My girlfriend made me a lighter with Goku and Gohan on it and I showed it to a guy on my bowling team, and he recognized them because his kids are watching Kai.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I think people here in the US consider it as just another action cartoon.

[Adamant]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

I do like a good number of Japanese series, but it's typically not the stuff the people calling themselves "anime fans" tend to be into. Pokemon, Sailor Moon, One Piece, Time Bokan, Detective Conan, Cutey Honey, Fist of the North Star, Casshern, Gatchaman, Devilman, Getter Robo... it kinda steers in the direction of "comedy/action that doesn't take itself all that seriously"...and there's a lot of older stuff there because, well, focus isn't really on this sort of stuff all that much anymore.
They're not "anime" to me, though, they're just "cartoons... Japanese ones"

That's where a lot of this "I don't like anime apart from Dragonball" comes from. No matter what nerds on the Internet say, "anime" is not a genre, it's not a "unique and distinct thing" - it's just cartoons from Japan. Of course these people would like other series if they just got to see them, but when most self-proclaimed "anime fans" tend to represent the word as largely referring to creepy softcore cartoon porn... you can't really blame them for thinking this "genre" is far outside their interest point.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

It's not a genre. And nope, that was Pokemon, I believe.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Not in the slightest. Most people who aren't hugely into comics wouldn't even know the name, and this is a nation where comics are pretty big.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

Again, no. It's just a comic book that popped up, sold reasonably well to its intended audience, and then disappeared again.

[Perfect]

I suppose'n that all depends on how you define genre and whatnot. I usually go by "A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter."

It is a category of artistic composition, it does differ from American cartoons stylistically and artistically in its own way, but to each his own. I wouldn't say it just disappeared, but it did take a dive (Though the Orange Bricks in 2008 were FUNi's best seller when they came out; that's about the time Toonami started showing DBZ again too, I reckon).

[AgitoZ]

I wouldn't say it just disappeared, but it did take a dive (Though the Orange Bricks in 2008 were FUNi's best seller when they came out; that's about the time Toonami started showing DBZ again too, I reckon).

Adamant doesn't live in the US.

It is a category of artistic composition, it does differ from American cartoons stylistically and artistically in its own way, but to each his own.

But it's still a cartoon. Why do series from Japan get/are distinguish from others? I sure don't hear French cartoons by their own separate terms.

[MCDaveG]

Dragon Ball is my most favourite Shonen genre series, but I like other series a lot as well. Don't see anything deep in this series and I'm enjoying and discussing it maybe much more than casual viewer but you will never see me in In-universe discussion section
I think that U. C. Gundam is more complex for example, as Shonen series are rather simple. But damn, how I enjoy One Piece for this past year since I started to watch it for the first time some time around January, Oda made up quite catchy and complex story. Still the core is this Dragon Ball cliché, but I must admit that the story itself is a masterpiece.

[Perfect]

Adamant doesn't live in the US.

My apologies.

But it's still a cartoon. Why do series from Japan get/are distinguish from others? I sure don't hear French cartoons by their own separate terms.

I consider French cartoons just as different as any other country's, Code Lyoko comes to mind in that respect (Not to mention Space Goofs). I guess that's just me, regardless the context of genre being used is really just for stylistic categorization in the aforementioned post. Especially given that normally I just say cartoon or comic, because that's really, all they are.

[JulieYBM]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

Yup. After being a Power Rangers fan for my earliest years Dragon Ball and Pocket Monsters were what initially got me into collecting Japanese comics/animation. As the bubble of the late nineties/early 2000s grew I fell into more and more fandoms that caught my eye. While I only really actively dip my foot in the Dragon Ball fandom I do follow Gundam, Naruto (which I'd name as being the one modern JUMP title that's surpassed Dragon Ball in an overall sense), and Bleach fandoms. I also recently fell into the Super Sentai fandom, but that's live action so it doesn't really matter here.

I also watch and read other titles, even if I don't participate in the fandoms. Right now I'm loving the Bakuman comic and the Bentou animated series, for example. I'm also trying to catch up with Toriko's TV series and the new Hunter X Hunter series. I also recently became a fan of Shin Seiki Evangelion. I can't wait for the next Eva movie!

I own a few other titles, too. I picked up Cowboy Bebop because I'd missed the initial craze and to see if it was really that good (it was okay). I also fell into N.H.K. ni Youkoso! which is probably the best Japanese cartoon ever.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Just for the sake? I wouldn't say that exactly. If it catches my eye it catches my eye. It doesn't matter if it's from Japan or not. That's why I've watched Lost something like four times and call it the best TV series ever!

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Eh, not really. Even in school I only heard it mentioned once or twice by non-geeks.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

Nah, I think more modern titles are still more prevalent in the minds of our youths. My local library (and other libraries in the county) has a huge selection of Japanese comics and animation and Dragon Ball is only a small part of it.

[Adamant]

Adamant doesn't live in the US.

Indeed, I live in Norway. We got the entire manga (with a kinda embarrassingly bad translation), the animanga adaptation of the Saiyan and early Freeza arc, and a couple multilingual AB Groupe movie DVDs with so piss poor distribution most people don't even know they existed in the first place (which is probably for the better, since the dub was "so bad it's good" at best).

As far as Japanese comics go, Ranma was clearly the most popular release here.

[Perfect]

Naruto (which I'd name as being the one modern JUMP title that's surpassed Dragon Ball

Eh? I really don't see Naruto being anything close to surpassing it, I mean One Piece is really the title that's stood out as the successor. Naruto's sales, worldwide really don't come close to either series... Even the TV ratings are/were lower. All I've really seen for it is having a 100+ million copies of its manga sold (Total) and being number one on occasion via the US manga charts.

[Eire]

Naruto was quite popular among kids (and provided some fresh blood) while OP seems to be praised by people already in comics and animation.

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I. I love many anime/manga series. Some even more than DB.

II. I wouldn't say that. If I happen to like what I see, I like it.

III. Eh, not really. Even I rarely bring it up outside the internet.

IV. Well, one thing's for sure, it definitely has more mainstream presence than most anime out there (don't know whether I should consider that good or bad).

[JulieYBM]

Naruto (which I'd name as being the one modern JUMP title that's surpassed Dragon Ball

Eh? I really don't see Naruto being anything close to surpassing it, I mean One Piece is really the title that's stood out as the successor.

It's surpassed, not succeeded, in my opinion. Once the gears of the Chuunin Exams get into motion Naruto surpasses Dragon Ball in the plot department, sets up just as great a cast of characters if not better than Dragon Ball's, and delivers great art and storyboarding to tell its story. Granted, it's not without its faults, but Kishimoto's dedication and love for his work shines through despite obvious signs of exhaustion (twelve years is a long time to live his schedule, after all).

Although, I'm still a 'bigger fan' of Dragon Ball for a plethora of reasons (mainly because I've been a fan longer, discuss it more and own a mountain of merchandise), but I can look at a supposed poster-boy of Toriyama's influence like Naruto and feel confident Toriyama's influence only runs superficially with things like transformations, spirit-base powers, and light-heartedness. If it ran deeper than that we would be stuck with guys with talent who didn't know how to use it and then burned out after seven years of doing the same comic.

[Perfect]

Naruto (which I'd name as being the one modern JUMP title that's surpassed Dragon Ball

Eh? I really don't see Naruto being anything close to surpassing it, I mean One Piece is really the title that's stood out as the successor.

It's surpassed, not succeeded, in my opinion. Once the gears of the Chuunin Exams get into motion Naruto surpasses Dragon Ball in the plot department, sets up just as great a cast of characters if not better than Dragon Ball's, and delivers great art and storyboarding to tell its story. Granted, it's not without its faults, but Kishimoto's dedication and love for his work shines through despite obvious signs of exhaustion (twelve years is a long time to live his schedule, after all).

Although, I'm still a 'bigger fan' of Dragon Ball for a plethora of reasons, but I can look at a supposed poster-boy of Toriyama's influence like Naruto and feel confident Toriyama's influence only runs superficially with things like transformations, spirit-base powers, and light-heartedness. If it ran deeper than that we would be stuck with guys with talent who didn't know how to use it and then burned out after seven years of doing the same comic.

Ah, I misunderstood completely. I thought you meant succeeded, in which that really isn't too subjective given sales, but surpassed is for sure. :p