Was the dragon ball series your first anime ?

[FortuneSSJ]

Yeah. Together with Sailor Moon and Saint Seiya.

[NitroEX]

I didn't know it was an anime at the time but some of my earliest memories are watching reruns of The Jungle Book: Shonen Mowgli on TV in the early 90s when I was around 4 years old. I also saw Pokemon a few years before I discovered DragonBall Z and I'm pretty sure I knew that was Japanese due to the games.

[Friezacooler]

Super pig, detective flint time travellers. Seen Shinzo Mushrambo same time as DBZ I guess.

[Gyt Kaliba]

Super pig, detective flint time travellers. Seen Shinzo Mushrambo same time as DBZ I guess.

Oh my god, I thought I was the only one that actually remembered Flint the Time Detective! Super pig...that wouldn't happen to be the same as Tokyo Pig would it? Cuz I remember that one too, heh.

[Kid Buu]

Super pig, detective flint time travellers. Seen Shinzo Mushrambo same time as DBZ I guess.

Oh my god, I thought I was the only one that actually remembered Flint the Time Detective! Super pig...that wouldn't happen to be the same as Tokyo Pig would it? Cuz I remember that one too, heh.

And I thought I was the only to remember Shinzo/Mushrambo. I've been wanting to track down the original, since Yūko Minaguchi plays the lead.

[ParkerAL]

I didn't know it was an anime at the time but some of my earliest memories are watching reruns of The Jungle Book: Shonen Mowgli on TV in the early 90s when I was around 4 years old. I also saw Pokemon a few years before I discovered DragonBall Z and I'm pretty sure I knew that was Japanese due to the games.

Coincidentally, I recently purchased the Shonen Mowgli Japanese DVDs after looking up the series on YouTube. As a longtime Jungle Book fan, I always wanted to own a more faithful animated adaptation after being underwhelmed by the Disney version for years (though I do have fond memories of watching the derivative Jungle Cubs cartoon back in the day). I had to order the discs from Japan because Shout! Factory sourced a cruddy master for their English DVD release of the series, which makes Funimation's Orange Bricks almost look pristine in comparison.

Spoiler:

[Super Sonic]

I don't think we got that series. Only first heard of it while in Canada passing by a channel on hotel tv. Will say the talk of the older series had me look up intros and if you guys thought going from Cha-La to "Rock the Dragon" was odd, seems there were others that went from way different sounding themes between going overseas. Little Koala in Japan. What we got in the States. Will say that my Dragon Ball fandom is what started my anime collecting and led to me starting to go to anime conventions. Which led me to cosplaying and nearly getting a girlfriend.

[Psionic Dragon]

The first anime I watched was actually Cyborg 009 and the anime that kept me as a fan was Tenchi Muyo and Project A-ko in the 90s. Back then in Chicago we'd buy tapes of various anime and the ones we liked we kept buying the tapes of later episodes or movies if there were any.

[Dbzlove1993]

I grew up in Canada and had no idea what anime was as a kid. I can't remember which one I watched first but my first two anime were pokemon and Dbz. I was much more a fan of dbz.

[Lord Beerus]

Yeah, for me Dragon Ball series was the first anime series I ever watched, via bootleg japanese VHS tapes circa. 94, and got me into anime as a whole.

[Valerius Dover]

It wasn't the first anime I saw (that goes to Sonic X or, if we're counting movies, Spirited Away), but it was the first uncut dub of a series (not counting movies) that I saw....so that sort of counts.

And yes, I started with Dragon Ball.

[Dayspring]

I grew up in Canada and had no idea what anime was as a kid. I can't remember which one I watched first but my first two anime were pokemon and Dbz. I was much more a fan of dbz.

I was in a similar situation in that I'm also Canadian and also had no idea what anime was as a kid. If people insist that Hasbro's TOEI-animated shows are anime, then my first anime were Transformers, G.I. Joe and Conan The Adventurer. After that, it was Samurai Pizza Cats and Ronin Warriors, having no idea they were anime shows. Next came the Saban dub of the Pilaf-era Dragonball show, still not knowing it was anime.

It was only when Sailor Moon came on TV that I learned what anime was. Not long afterward, DBZ started and I would hit up Blockbuster and local video rental stores for their VHS anime. Once rented hardcore tentacle hentai by accident because neither I nor the clerks had any idea it was pornographic instead of just another fantasy anime.

As for manga, it was actually a Street Fighter series of eight monthly comics, again, not knowing it was manga/anime at the time (it came out when SF II Turbo was coming out). My first purchased manga - knowing it was manga - was indeed Dragonball, though. Funimation was running into licensing issues with YTV, so in Canada we kept getting the same episodes over and over instead of keeping up with the US. Because the French-language manga was at book 24 when the anime wouldn't reach Namek, and since I'm fluently bilingual, I dropped the anime (minus the movies, Bardock and Trunks specials for some reason) and focused on the manga instead.

And yes, I was part of the VHS Fansubs era. My first was Bardock, second was Trunks (the fansubber I bought it from didn't realize he sent me a copy with both on one tape. Woohoo!) and the third was movie 12. Those were amazing in quality, the rest I got, not so much.

[sailorspazz]

I almost feel like this is a "how old are you?" thread, because I find myself gauging people's ages based on what they saw first. Pokemon = born in early 90s/possibly late 80s. Robotech = born in early 80s (though this method probably works best only for American members, since shows came out at different times in different countries).

Dragon Ball was not my first. In terms of watching shows and being aware they were anime, my first was Sailor Moon, and it rocked my world (hence, why I'm in my 30s and still using the Sailor Moon related username I came up with at 13 ). That was in 1996, and I started watching Dragon Ball Z in 1997 (well, I did see a single episode of Dragon Ball in '96 when a friend and I stayed up all night to watch Sailor Moon at 6AM, and Dragon Ball happened to air at like 5AM or something).

For anime that I saw as a child before I knew what anime was, I enjoyed both Voltron and The Littl' Bits very much (and I'm happy Super Sonic mentioned Littl' Bits earlier in this thread, since I rarely come across anyone who remembers that show). I remember noticing that they looked different from the other cartoons I watched, but didn't know they were from Japan until many years later.

[TheKingOfKamehamehas]

I might have forgotten, but I think Pokemon was my first anime I knew. The first anime I got into was Fruits Basket..(Yes I know I was only 7 lol.....) and then I got into Bakugan and Beyblade after that. (I have grown out of that toy crap). A little bit before Bakugan ended, I found Dragon Ball which was miles better than the toy anime I used to watch except maybe Fruits Basket could rival Dragon Ball.

If you want to know my first movie, its Princess Mononoke.

[Man-Child]

Most likely. I can vaguely remember watching the Saban-era DBZ every morning as a kid before getting ready for school. Right after Sailor Moon. I always thought it was weird for those shows to air at 6:00am, but funnilly enough, knowing they were on did more for waking me up every morning than any alarm clock ever did.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

Space Runaway Ideon was my first, I watched a lot of anime before DB but hey caught it by the buu saga in JP at least...
If only I had a time machine, could have caught the entire Freeza saga but... I'd be lying even if I could have remembered that part being 2 in all...

[Pantalones]

First was Sailor Moon, then Pokémon, then Digimon. I think I saw a handful of others around the same time as Pokémon and Digimon, but didn't really get into them, just watched a handful of episodes (DBZ itself was in this category until I was in high school and gave it another chance, though I saw it for the first time in the years between Sailor Moon and Pokémon.)

So I guess Dragonball Z was the... fourth? anime series that I really got into. Third if you don't count Pokémon, since honestly the only reason I watched the Pokémon anime in the first place was because I was obsessed with the Pokémon games at the time and pretty much looked into everything that was connected to the Pokémon series in any way regardless of whether it was actually any good or not (and even with the general Pokémon obsession, I only managed to tolerate the anime for 40-50 episodes before I lost interest. Basically... Pokémon anime is to Pokémon games, as Dragonball GT is to original Dragonball and/or DBZ. Except GT only has a relatively tolerable 64 episodes rather than a number which can only be described as "too-many hundred" since it's still going. XD)

[sangofe]

Yes, at the end of the 80's I saw Dragon Ball, and I'm pretty sure it was my first anime. It might have been Saint Seiya, but I have much more memories from Dragon Ball.

[Vaughngief]

Yes. Along side Ranma 1/2.

[Shiyonasan]

It's been way too long for me to remember for sure, but I believe it was either Dragon Ball Z or Pokemon. I first saw Dragon Ball Z in 1996/1997 on Toonami, but never watched through a full episode until September 1999. The Pokemon anime debuted in America in September 1998, so I believe I watched through a full episode of Pokemon around that time or at most a couple years after.

Strange to think it's been that long. Been a fan of Dragon Ball now for more than two-thirds of my life.