Post
by TonyTheTiger » Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:24 am
I might pick this up. But I am torn on the issue of whether or not I'd actually watch it all the way through. First off, I legitimately appreciate what they're doing here. I'm really happy that they're going out of their way to appeal to every possible fan Dragon Ball has ever had in America. So this release is awesome just for that factor alone. But aside from just being able to say that I have the set, I'm not sure how much time I'd actually devote to it.
I think I have a rather unusual perspective since I had discovered Dragon Ball in both Japanese and English at more or less the exact same time. I think I had seen a few scattered Japanese episodes shortly before DBZ started airing on TV. When it started airing I was a regular viewer while also "skipping ahead" with any Japanese episodes I could find, trying to make sense of it despite the lack of context. Walking into both without any previous experience or expectations left me basically liking Dragon Ball in general, regardless of which "version" it was. And this was roughly when I was 11 years old so I fully appreciate the nostalgia factor of the old dub.
The problem is that it's not a completely different show. This isn't like Voltron vs. Go Lion, where separate releases are a necessity. This is, generally speaking, still Dragon Ball Z, which has never really gone away for long enough for actual nostalgia to kick in. This isn't a show that's been M.I.A. for the last 15 years. As far as I'm aware, I've never taken a break from it. How many times am I going to watch Raditz arrive? Plus, there's been a lot of water under the bridge. When they first happened, the cast and score changes were jarring, sure, but it's been a loooong time. So while I still have fond memories of watching those early episodes, I don't necessarily feel like I've a reason to miss watching them. In fact, now it's kind of the opposite problem in that the "new" cast is so ingrained that going back to the Ocean cast might be a bit weird if I'm watching it for any other reason than "cool, Ocean cast!" I absolutely love Ocean, sure. I think they have fantastic actors. But aside from catching up on some old Ian Corlett, Scott McNeil, and Brian Drummond clips on YouTube, I've never really had any overwhelming desire to "go back to the good ol' days" or something like that. To me it's always been DBZ from start to finish.
