Who saw Dragon Ball before Dragon Ball Z?

[Hellspawn28]

Did anyone saw Dragon Ball before Dragon Ball Z in the US? I notice a lot of fans first got into the franchise because they first saw Dragon Ball Z on Toonami back in the late 90's, but I haven't seen many US fans that saw Dragon Ball before Dragon Ball Z. I first saw Dragon Ball on a VHS tape back in 1997 and I didn't know what DBZ was until around 1998 when I was waiting for Beast Wars to come on Toonami. As a kid, I remember watching the first few episodes of Dragon Ball and I thought it was pretty wired at the time.

[IIMaxII]

I think I saw both at the same time, I was born in 96.

[Super Sonic]

I saw the first 13 eps that aired in 1995 along with Curse of the Blood Rubies. Though didn't really watch Z until 1998 when it started on Toonami.

[Sebastian]

I started Z first, but during Vegeta's fight against #18, I realized things would make more sense if I watched the original first, so I switched.

[theoriginalbilis]

I have vague memories of catching the "Ocean" dubs of both Dragon Ball & DBZ at like... 6am on Saturdays? So, technically, I did watch DB first, if only because it aired 30 mins earlier than Z. I thought the art looked quirky and different, but never though much of it until DBZ aired on Toonami and I was able to watch the series in order.

[ShinRogafuken]

I watched Dragon Ball and DBZ on Toonami during the time when they were on back-to-back (I think around 2001-2003), so I saw both at the same time It was kind of weird watching the Red Ribbon Army Arc and Buu Arc at the same time.

[Hellspawn28]

They skip the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai - 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai saga after 1995. I always thought it would have been wired watching Dragon Ball Z before Dragon Ball since so much was skipped out and I remember one episode in DBZ had a flash back to Kami fighting Piccolo at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. I feel the same when Final Bout came out back in 1997 since that game spoils a lot to newer fans of the franchise at time.

[coola]

RTL7 aired series in correct order, from DB to DBGT, i started to watch DB regularly from 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai.

[soulnova]

They aired Dragon Ball on 1995 in Mexico and DBZ later on 1997. By that time, Dragon Ball was already a HUGE hit.

[supersaiyan DbZ fan]

I'm in South Africa and I saw Dragonball First and that was about 7 years ago when I was little

[Rukura]

Here in Portugal, we started with episode 1 of Dragon Ball, all the way through 64 of Dragon Ball GT, back in 95-97 (if I'm not mistaken). I believe the movies were shown in order as well (I just don't think they originally aired all of them over here).

[AgitoZ]

I think I did. The earliest memory with the series I can recall is the Goku and Jackie Chun fight.

[GotenDaisuki]

Since I was really late in the game with the fandom in 2009, the Dragon Ball season sets were being released when I became a fan. I had easy access to watch the series from the beginning. I thought it was weird to start smack dab in the middle. In fact, the first "Blue Brick" was the first Dragon Ball product I ever bought.

[fogdark]

I may be wrong, since I haven't checked, but the USA seems to be one of the few exceptions where Dragon Ball Z was more or less the one that got popular, as it's own series.
In most countries (that I know of), the series aired in chronological order. It was basically one show. Just like Sailor moon or Slayers, where just because they added a letter at the end of the title, it didn't mean that it was a different series.
I was born in Venezuela, and there I watched Dragon Ball starting with the episode where Goku meets Bulma, and finished watching it with the episode where Goku watches Goku jr. fight Vegeta jr.
Later, I moved to the USA, and I found it really weird how only DBZ was popular, when for me all of Dragon Ball was one single anime. So yeah, it is an interesting question, since by watching Dragon Ball since it's true beginning, by the time the Z part starts, you watch it with an entirely different mindset.

[Saiga]

I'm pretty sure Australia was like that as well. I'm sure Z starting airing before Dragon Ball ever did.

Actually I don't know if Dragon Ball ever aired on Free-to-air.

[Zestanor]

I binged the dub of Dragon Ball back in spring 2010, then I began watching subbed DBZ on the Dragon Box sets, as they came out, starting in fall 2011.

If I had watched DBZ first, I may never have bothered with the Japanese version, since it was that dub's lack of Kikuchi music that drove me it.

[songohan619]

I started reading Volume one, then I got volume 15, and then I bought volumes 30-42, while filling in the holes in my collection afterwards.

[Fizzer]

I was pretty young when Z aired in the UK, so I'm pretty sure I was deceived into thinking that the story started when Raditz landed, and the protagonists were some band of superheroes who just had superpowers. When I read the manga, though, I started with volume one. So I experienced the anime back to front, but then the manga the right way around.