When it all began for you

[DynasticHunter]

In November 2012 I asked my friend to borrow the vizBIG editions of the Dragon Ball manga (at that point I wasn't really familiar with Dragon Ball, I had caught some episodes of it when they were airing on Toonami but that's it) and I read those up to the Piccolo Jr arc but for the Z era I decided to watch the anime. Eventually I discovered Kanzenshuu, which made me realize that the Dub is actually crap, so I decided to start watching Dragon Ball in Japanese.

[omegalucas]

In 1995/96 with DB.

Same here. Though I feel like I watched the early DB stuff (I clearly remember the first Oozaru transformation) but then stopped watching until Z or something (not sure).

[Quebaz]

2002 with the portuguese VHS of Movie 12/13 (with the incredible awkward movie sypnosis on the back) and Budokai 1 for the PS2. These were gifted to me by my mom's boyfriend at the time who was a huge fan. Later I discovered my cousin was a fan as well and borrowed his VHS's of GT (with the awkward back ilustrations) and caught the reruns on Sic Gold. I kinda stopped caring when Sic Gold went off the air and my family didn't have cable TV with Sic Radical but in 2005 I bought the SALVAT DVDs of the first series and managed to get Budokai 2 and 3. After that PrisVideo went on to release the DBZ Movies in DVD and my familly finally got cable TV (TVCabo anyone?) so I was totally into DBZ craze again. I awkwardly remember watching GT'S Ending on TV as well as kid before any of this but can't remember the details.

[soulnova]

It all began for me the day I was born... 4 of December of 1984... as I understand, a day after Dragon Ball was published on Weekly Shonen Jump. I believe it was destiny. I was not meant to come to a world without Dragon Ball.

In all seriousness... back in 1995 I first watched the Ninja Murasaki episode and I was hooked ever since.

[omegalucas]

2002 with the portuguese VHS of Movie 12/13 (with the incredible awkward movie sypnosis on the back) and Budokai 1 for the PS2. These were gifted to me by my mom's boyfriend at the time who was a huge fan. Later I discovered my cousin was a fan as well and borrowed his VHS's of GT (with the awkward back ilustrations) and caught the reruns on Sic Gold. I kinda stopped caring when Sic Gold went off the air and my family didn't have cable TV with Sic Radical but in 2005 I bought the SALVAT DVDs of the first series and managed to get Budokai 2 and 3. After that PrisVideo went on to release the DBZ Movies in DVD and my familly finally got cable TV (TVCabo anyone?) so I was totally into DBZ craze again. I awkwardly remember watching GT'S Ending on TV as well as kid before any of this but can't remember the details.

That movie 12/13 VHS isn't a myth?
I wonder what the cover was, it's the only one I never saw anywhere...

[rereboy]

2002 with the portuguese VHS of Movie 12/13 (with the incredible awkward movie sypnosis on the back) and Budokai 1 for the PS2. These were gifted to me by my mom's boyfriend at the time who was a huge fan. Later I discovered my cousin was a fan as well and borrowed his VHS's of GT (with the awkward back ilustrations) and caught the reruns on Sic Gold. I kinda stopped caring when Sic Gold went off the air and my family didn't have cable TV with Sic Radical but in 2005 I bought the SALVAT DVDs of the first series and managed to get Budokai 2 and 3. After that PrisVideo went on to release the DBZ Movies in DVD and my familly finally got cable TV (TVCabo anyone?) so I was totally into DBZ craze again. I awkwardly remember watching GT'S Ending on TV as well as kid before any of this but can't remember the details.

That movie 12/13 VHS isn't a myth?
I wonder what the cover was, it's the only one I never saw anywhere...

Here:

Spoiler:

[TheLegend23]

Okay so it all began with me sometime back in 1998. I remember I was in kindergarten and every morning I would wake up at six and watch these two really cool looking cartoons. I didn't know much about anime back then but I thought they were so much cooler looking then American cartoons at the time. Anyway those two cartoons were sailor moon and Dragon Ball Z. The episode that stands out the most to me was when goku was When goku fell off snake way and landed himself in "Helf" I went to a catholic school at the time so I thought that was pretty funny. I fell in love right away and never expected the show to change my life the way it did ! So here It is 2014 I am now 23 years old, and still till this day I love everything about the series, it taught me to have confidence in myself, and even when things get tough there's always away to come out on top. When I was in that catholic school they would say the saying WWJD (What would Jesus Do) as I would sit there saying WWGD.

[Gokufan]

It was around 2000? I had a UK Cartoon Network on my cable TV. When I first saw DBZ, I was annoyed, because it replaced Ed, Edd n Eddy in schedule (i was 6 years old!). It was on Toonami, with Ocean Dub - i still have some VHS recordings . Then, around a year later, my friend introduced me to the original Dragon Ball on a Polish channel RTL7. I still remember this episode - it was around the first Tenkaichi Budokai. Now i'm over 20 years old, and still enjoy Goku's adventures.

[voltlunok]

97. I stumbled upon some saiyan saga reruns on TV from Ocean dub and got enthralled. But it wasn't until the funi dub started that I became a true fan!

[VSVoidSpartan]

When it all began for me...

The only thing I could remember, relating to how I became a fan of the series, was when I first possessed the VHS copies of Movies 6 and 7 (in Japanese), as well as several Super Battle Collection figurines. I don't remember what year I started to become a fan, but I could have sworn it was before Dragon Ball's BLT Dub's debut. I actually started watching the series via TV Broadcast in the Philippines.

[TheGmGoken]

Either 2001 or 2002.

Goku vs Piccolo Jr.

Bootleg Dvds.

Good times.

[Lord Beerus]

Hate to bump an old thread, but it seems as though I was a bit misinformed about the circumstances of when I first discovered DB. According to my father, I discovered the VHS tapes in the summer of 01 and not 94. And he remembers it was that year specifically because that was year our next door neighbours moved out and they gave use their assortment of old VHS tapes as a goodbye present. The first VHS tape my dad and me watched was a bootleg Japanese version of Dragon Ball Z. My dad wondered what he was watching and I apparently told him, "I've seen this on TV. It's called Dragon Ball Z. It's really cool." My original story has turned out to a little bit skewered from what my older sisters had told me. And naive old me actually believed them when they told me it on April 1st last year. I should have know better as I was born in 94. I always had a feeling something was wrong with that story. What an idiot I feel like.

Anyways, it was only after a visit to my cousins house that he played a VHS tape of the first Dragon Ball Z episode on Cartoon Network back in March 2000 that my parents had recorded for him while he came to visit my house, as he was going to Nigeria that year in the summer and wanted recording of an few episodes of an animated show to keep him entertained while there. I asked what the show was and he said Dragon Ball Z. I watched the show for myself that year and rest is history.

So it turns out that I've really been a Dragon Ball fan since 2000.

[Dyno]

Early 2000s, I guess.

[Polyphase Avatron]

1998, I believe.

[Vegitofaxx]

DR started rerunning DBZ in the late 00's and it peg'd my interest.

[VeggieXD]

In 2000 when it first aired on TV in the UK.

[moochfloatjr]

Embarrassingly enough, 2010. Had to get up way earlier back then and caught 6am reruns of Kai on Nicktoons. Believe it was the Ginyu Force subarc.

[Demon of Light]

Late 1998 or early 1999, a friend in school had volumes 15-18 in... Spanish, I think? He graciously let our group of friends "read" them during breaks (none of us actually knew Spanish). Then my interest was on the back-burner until I got to watch the anime in 2002.

[Soccerjam]

Seeing Gohan go ballistic, headbutting Raditz like a rocket. I was in kindergarten.

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

I don't remember *exactly* when I started watching the series, maybe early 2000s? I definitely remember watching the Cell Games on TV and liking it.

I also remember watching the early Saiyan arc episodes with Gohan headbutting Radditz, so I'm just gonna say late 90s/early 00s.

I also bought a VHS tape of english subbed Movie 2 from my local Acme, so that was my *official* first exposure to the Japanese version - aside from random clips online.