First time watching DB...EVER!

[linkdude20002001]

Was it too crappy for you?

Yeah. Even in Japanese. And back when Funimation was first airing DBGT on TV (in which they skipped the Dark Dragon Ball arc), I got through even less episodes before I gave up. :/

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Yeah, the first GT arc is probably the worst arc in the whole Dragon Ball anime.

[geektacular]

I will say that after finishing all of DBZ, my absolute favorite single DBZ moment was the Kamehameha battle in the final Cell/Gohan fight. When Goku is yelling at Gohan, and he just can't seem to make any ground, then Vegeta comes from out of nowhere with a distracting blast and Gohan gives it one last push, and then just starts walking towards Cell. Seriously, I get kind of emotional when I watch that scene...I could watch it over and over, ha. It's just kind of the exact moment where I felt like Gohan really understood his power and stopped being afraid of failure...he kind of grew up in that instant. Personally, I think that was my favorite moment out of the entire series. I really have no concept of what are considered the "best" or "most common" favorite scenes, but I think I've decided upon that as my personal favorite.

And yeah, I've heard that a lot of people don't really enjoy GT, and that some don't consider it canon since it's mostly non-Toriyama and wholly non-manga-based. I'm still going to watch both seasons so I can judge it for myself (and because I'm a bit of a completionist by nature), but I'm definitely watching it with a grain of salt, given what I've read about it already. I'm going to go into it with an open mind and see how I like it, and I'll probably post some first impressions after I get to watch the first few episodes...

[Insertclevername]

I love that scene as well. It's a fairly popular choice but the Super Saiyan 2transformation scene with Spirit vs. Spirit playing is probably the most popular by far. With good reason of coarse, it's a powerful scene and the music fits it perfectly.

[Bussani]

And yeah, I've heard that a lot of people don't really enjoy GT, and that some don't consider it canon since it's mostly non-Toriyama and wholly non-manga-based. I'm still going to watch both seasons so I can judge it for myself (and because I'm a bit of a completionist by nature), but I'm definitely watching it with a grain of salt, given what I've read about it already. I'm going to go into it with an open mind and see how I like it, and I'll probably post some first impressions after I get to watch the first few episodes...

To be fair, the same can be said about a lot of the non-Toriyama, non-manga stuff that's in both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z themselves. If you go straight from Z to GT without even looking at the manga, you might find you take less issue with certain things that might bother other people.

That said, GT really had a lot of potential that it didn't manage to live up to.

That said, I've still re-watched GT way more times than either of the other two series'. Everyone should see it at least once to decide for themselves.

[linkdude20002001]

I was always excited to watch DBGT actually. It still sucked (and I was pissed that they skipped the first 16 episodes). I just chocked it up to being the English reversioning's fault, so I was again excited when I bought Funimation's first "season" set so I could watch it in Japanese...and then once again disappointed by DBGT. -_-

And yeah, I've heard that a lot of people don't really enjoy GT, and that some don't consider it canon since it's mostly non-Toriyama and wholly non-manga-based. I'm still going to watch both seasons so I can judge it for myself (and because I'm a bit of a completionist by nature), but I'm definitely watching it with a grain of salt, given what I've read about it already. I'm going to go into it with an open mind and see how I like it, and I'll probably post some first impressions after I get to watch the first few episodes...

Judging by your wording, I'd say that you have fallen under the impression that there are multiple seasons for DB, DBZ, and DBGT (Gee, Funimation, I wonder why...). There actually aren't seasons to most Japanese cartoons. The entire Dragon Ball series was produced one episode a week for nearly 12 years. Seasons are where a batch of episodes are made, then aired, then rerunned till the next batch is made. Funimation seems to think releasing "Volume One, Volume Two, etc" would confuse people, so they call them "Season One, Season Two, etc" despite it just causing more confusion. And it's not just them. I was talking to some huge Soul Eater fa the other day, and he was telling me about the "second season"... Funimation didn't even release that show as "seasons", tho... Grr, Netflix... -_-

[geektacular]

Yeah...I assumed that was more of an American thing in how Funimation chose to release them vs. the actual Japanese airing, just because they'd have to be doing it weekly to release THAT many episodes in that time span, ha. I think they should have just released them explicitly by saga and dropped the "season" part. Just do "Saga 1: Vegeta Saga", etc. I don't think people really needed exactly 6 discs for each brick...I would've been fine with a bigger set for a longer saga and a shorter set for a shorter saga, and just have them separated that way...it ends up being the same amount of content, ha...just an arguably more sensible way to package it, in my opinion. I guess once you have all of the episodes anyway it's slightly less relevant, but oh well!

In other news, I did start watching GT yesterday, I'm a few episodes in. I really am not minding the plot currently. Although I did find the "find the balls in a year or the Earth explodes" stipulation to be kind of out of left field. Also, the art is noticeably different...the lines on everything feel lighter vs. the more bold/jagged look of DBZ. I'm not used to it yet, so it still looks weird to me, but I'll give it a few more episodes to grow on me. The only thing I hope is that they write the transformed Goku as Adult Goku who is just temporarily small, and not just revert him back to kid mentality just because he looks the part. That might annoy me if they start writing his character like he actually is a kid. To be fair, Goku is not a very mature adult either, but he does act differently as an adult than he did in DB as a child to some degree at least, IMO.

[linkdude20002001]

They did used to have "saga" box sets (DVD singles in a pretty box). However, even still...a saga is essentially a story stretching over a long period of time, so there's only one saga: the entirety of Dragon Ball. They could've released then as "The Saiyan Arc, The Namek Arc, The Freeza Arc, etc". Nowadays, though, they prefer to came even-ish numbers.

DBGT... Have fun. :p

[geektacular]

They did used to have "saga" box sets (DVD singles in a pretty box). However, even still...a saga is essentially a story stretching over a long period of time, so there's only one saga: the entirety of Dragon Ball. They could've released then as "The Saiyan Arc, The Namek Arc, The Freeza Arc, etc". Nowadays, though, they prefer to came even-ish numbers.

DBGT... Have fun. :p

Yeah, that's true, arcs would probably be even better. But yes, GT...I'll let you know how it goes, ha...

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

@geektacular That's because DBGT has better animation teams than DBZ had. When DBZ was animated, the best animators were pretty busy animating the movies two times a year so the animation quality tends to drop, while DBGT has most of the best animators animating the episodes which is why some of the episodes look a bit different. Also the animators in GT are the same ones as in DBZ.

[geektacular]

@geektacular That's because DBGT has better animation teams than DBZ had. When DBZ was animated, the best animators were pretty busy animating the movies two times a year so the animation quality tends to drop, while DBGT has most of the best animators animating the episodes which is why some of the episodes look a bit different. Also the animators in GT are the same ones as in DBZ.

Ah, I didn't even think about them having to do other things, such as the movies, at the same time as the show. That makes sense then...interesting! I think it definitely looks nice, just a little different. I think it's primarily Trunks that seems different to me for some reason...

[Attitudefan]

Time to get you familiar with Ocean dub and the dub wars!

No but really. Was it jarring for you to hear adult Goku well acted and then suddenly have his voice change to a poorly acted voice by the same guy. When watching the Orange bricks from when they first came out (which was my reintroduction to the series after I was unable to own the whole show before). I was shocked! Then all the voices changed by the 4th orange brick! Wow, was I shocked.

Anyways, Japanese is the way to go. But good on you for putting up with the dub!

And, yeah, I love the animation and art style from the Dragonball up to the part prior to the death of Freeza.

I'm excited for you. And now, if Ocean Kai comes out, you HAVE TO WATCH IT to understand DBZ in the English Fandom. (Or you could stick with the edited versions, or the Ocean dubbed movies...)

[Hellspawn28]

Good luck on watching GT. In the past decade, fans pretty much hate while others have enjoy it for being their first Dragon Ball show or for trying something different. I personally don't like it other then the music and some of the fight scenes.

[Saiga]

The only thing I hope is that they write the transformed Goku as Adult Goku who is just temporarily small, and not just revert him back to kid mentality just because he looks the part.

Prepare to be disappointed.

[Gaffer Tape]

Yeah...I assumed that was more of an American thing in how Funimation chose to release them vs. the actual Japanese airing, just because they'd have to be doing it weekly to release THAT many episodes in that time span, ha. I think they should have just released them explicitly by saga and dropped the "season" part. Just do "Saga 1: Vegeta Saga", etc. I don't think people really needed exactly 6 discs for each brick...I would've been fine with a bigger set for a longer saga and a shorter set for a shorter saga, and just have them separated that way...it ends up being the same amount of content, ha...just an arguably more sensible way to package it, in my opinion. I guess once you have all of the episodes anyway it's slightly less relevant, but oh well!

Well, it's not just that. The series actually WAS released in distinct broadcast seasons in the U.S. by FUNimation... but they in no way correlate to the season set "seasons." For the most jarring example, Dragon Ball Z in America had SIX seasons, not nine as the season sets would have you believe. So it's not just that the term is out of place. It's that it's a big, fat lie... just like everything else about the season sets. After all, if you picked up season 4 of any other TV series, you'd actually expect it be all of season 4, and not have to also buy "seasons" 5 and 6 to get it, right?

[JulieYBM]

@geektacular That's because DBGT has better animation teams than DBZ had. When DBZ was animated, the best animators were pretty busy animating the movies two times a year so the animation quality tends to drop, while DBGT has most of the best animators animating the episodes which is why some of the episodes look a bit different. Also the animators in GT are the same ones as in DBZ.

Not really. The only real differences between the rotations for Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT is that the latter had more Douga Koubou. Studio Cockpit left Dragon Ball Z after episode #279 and Kino Production left after Dragon Ball Z #267, so it's hard to hold that against them. Studio Cockpit was quite involved with the movies, too. Yamamuro Tadayoshi and Inagami Akira began leading Toei Animation animators while the three Studio Live episodes were supervised by Kan'no Toshiyuki, rather than Ebisawa Yukio. For the most part staff did really change. The big difference is actually between Dragon Ball Z episodes #164-291. After Maeda Minoru was animation supervisor for episode #164 (11 November 1992) and TV Special #2 (24 February 1993) he left the series. The next in-house Toei Animation episode was episode #199 (Miyahara Naoki; 01 September 1993). After that the next in-house episode was #280 (Miyahara Naoki; 18 October 1995).

The movie never quite affected the television series. Yamamuro disappears for a while during the Majin Boo arc but Kino Production takes for him when needed.

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

I think you misunderstood. I was talking about animation teams as a whole, ya know, as in GT has mostly the same animation teams as in Z. Just that some of their styles has changed a little bit, but it's nothing new. Mitsuo Shindō in Shindo productions who did the "Evil Eye" style left before Trunks was debuted. That commpany has changed after Yamamuro took over. Same with the other teams. Still, the same teams animated GT. Last House animated it, Shindō Productions still was there. Seigasha looks like they haven't changed their style from Z to GT.

But like you have mentioned, some individuals did indeed leave Toei Animation company. As mentioned above, Shindo left. Minoru Maeda also left. Yukio Ebisawa no longer worked for Studio Live by time DBZ almost ended.

The movies do affect how the TV series looked. Toei had to produce DBZ movies 2 times a year, one in spring and one in summer. That's a lot of times to produce them. They would use the good quality animators to animate them, leaving the lesser animators to animate the TV series. DBGT didn't have movies so the better animators could animate more for GT, thus better animation quality.

[geektacular]

Viewing Update: I finished watching the BSDB saga the other day. I see why Funimation originally compressed it into a single intro episode for US TV airing. It starts out a bit slow up until about the Luud fight, but then I felt like it picked up a bit, especially once they get to M-2, leading into the next saga. It would be weird to gloss over the whole start of the journey maybe, but if they covered the majority of the first episode, then cut each DB acquisition down to a few minutes, maybe that would work. Still, I'm glad that I saw all of the episodes in their entirety. I like seeing all of the content at least once so I can get the whole picture, even if some of it is fluff (as I guess GT can't have proper "filler" since it's not based on anything external, ha).

It started out with a rather boring "travel to new place, vignette about helping the locals, rewarded with Dragon Ball" formula, which got old pretty quickly, ha. But I'm rather enjoying the M-2 story, although I think that General Rilldo's power to just materialize into anything on the planet was a little lame. It also didn't seem like he was stronger than Majin Buu, but Goku explicitly says that, so I guess its just an accepted fact in GT-land? Not sure if it's any different in the Japanese dialog or not, but he barely had to struggle against Rilldo, who didn't seem so much "powerful" as just having a lame over-powered special ability. Also, unrelated: Dolltaki...creepiest DB villain ever.

I'm currently right around when they foil Dr. Myuu's plan and open the door to his "secret chamber". Dragon Ball loves including super-powered fetuses in tubes, ha, which is what I imagine is going on here...but alas, I have not seen it yet, so I guess I'll find out soon enough!

[Bussani]

It also didn't seem like he was stronger than Majin Buu, but Goku explicitly says that, so I guess its just an accepted fact in GT-land? Not sure if it's any different in the Japanese dialog or not, but he barely had to struggle against Rilldo, who didn't seem so much "powerful" as just having a lame over-powered special ability.

It's in the Japanese version as well, but I suppose it's worth noting that we're not sure which Buu he's talking about. The Buu that Goku's friends with is quite possibly the weakest, although even the weakest Buu is still pretty strong, I suppose. But yeah, characters in GT are sort of as strong or weak as the writer wants them to be at the time. It can be a bit jarring, even if you don't normally care that much about who's stronger than whom.

[oXdanXo]

I would love to have the ability to magically delete my memories of Dragon Ball temporary, and then re-watch the whole thing again. Oh, and welcome to Dragon Ball!

I would never do that, after a month or so of ringing in sick you'd end up wih the sack, then you couldn't sign up to benefits because you couldn't leave the TV long enough and you'd starve to death.