I've yet to meet someone in real life who's like us

[Bardo117]

And by us, I mean, I've yet to meet someone who even knows the difference between the Dragon Boxes and the Season sets(Haven't met anybody who knows what Dragon Boxes are either), or the fact that the BGM for the show varies, haven't met anybody who knows that the season sets are cropped, or that most of the coloring/restoration is way off... There's just an abundant list of information we on this board know, and nobody outside of this small group seems to know or understand.

I've longed to actually meet a fan like me, and it's never happened. How about you guys?

[MajinMan]

Two of my friends are big anime fans (lowkey I haven't seen many anime other than big shonen like Naruto and One Piece) and they know plenty about Dragon Ball but not as much as I do of course. They know the whole BGM difference and how the Funi Dub was inaccurate and a lot of miscellaneous things.

[fadeddreams5]

I know a lot of funi-dub DBZ fans, boys and girls, who can recite lines from that version of the show. It was huge where I come from. That's about it. Good enough for me, really.

But yeah, I think the only people that know much about Japanese DBZ or the manga are located in this here site.

[Ajay]

Never. Not once.

I was browsing this forum in university yesterday and some guy stops behind me and goes 'VEGETA, WHAT DOES THE SCOUTER SAY ABOUT HIS POWER LEVEL?!' 'IT'S OVER NINE THOUSANDDDDDDD!'.

Yeah... that was cringe inducing.

My housemate last year walked in on me watching the show and said 'Eugh, I don't know how you watch that. It looks so dated and Goku sounds like a girl'. Not living with him this year so I'm sure that says something.

Maybe one day! I did plan to meet up with some UK members of this forum when we were theorising about theatrical releases of Battle of Gods. Unfortunately, that never happened outside of a dub screening in Scotland.

[dougo13]

Wow! Do posts like this remind me of my old fan days in comics and science fiction. Everyone wanted a friend who they could relate or who wanted a girlfriend who was into the same things. There were pitifully few I knew over the years. It's too small a subset of even regular anime and manga fans. Broaden your horizons or introduce people into it if they aren't now. But people are people I say. They all have good traits so concentrate on those. Maybe they'll grow to like your hobbies, just don't reject them because they don't. Most of the old time UK anime fans I knew weren't into DB anyway (c 1987) but that was before it aired on UK TV. I've been out of anime for 15 years now but I still maintain ties. Wish I could have got back just to meet people after all these years. Would be a blast!

[UpFromTheSkies]

I've only met a handful of people who are into the Japanese Dragon Ball, and most of them are Japanese. This is probably why FUNimation has no interest in releasing more Dragon Box sets.

[Ajay]

Broaden your horizons or introduce people into it if they aren't now.

That's definitely the best way to go about it. I introduced my girlfriend to the show last year and she's super into it now. She's currently making her way back through Dragon Ball (much to a lot of forum member's annoyances) and absolutely loving it. She keeps messaging me about how cool it is to see Goku meeting friends for the first time and how it's awesome to watch how things came to be. Though I do wish she'd done it differently, I'm glad she's finding it almost as effective as watching it in the correct order.

Tangent aside, the point is, you're right. If you want people to enjoy what you do, explain why you like it and introduce them to it. We share similar opinions on things nowadays, though she's far more aggressive towards the dub than I am. It's quite funny, really. She can't even watch Kai's dub without cringing. She can't understand why people don't like Nozawa, either. The show is the show to her and everything else is just strange.

So yeah, try and get people into the show. It's surprisingly easy. I just got another friend to watch the show in Japanese after agreeing to give One Piece a try. Though, I didn't exactly hold up my end of deal. I may have opted to watch and read Naruto instead.

[Big Momma]

I'm normally the "Go To" guy when it comes to Dragon Ball in my social circles. Even people who aren't into anime will tag me on Facebook if they see anything DB-related (Typically, it's stuff we've known here for weeks, but I don't want to be 'that guy' and say that ). I do have a few friends who are big into anime and stuff like that, and know the difference between Z/Kai and OrangeBricks/DragonBoxes. But they aren't really one's to care too much at the end of the day.

[Bardo117]

Wow! Do posts like this remind me of my old fan days in comics and science fiction. Everyone wanted a friend who they could relate or who wanted a girlfriend who was into the same things. There were pitifully few I knew over the years. It's too small a subset of even regular anime and manga fans. Broaden your horizons or introduce people into it if they aren't now. But people are people I say. They all have good traits so concentrate on those. Maybe they'll grow to like your hobbies, just don't reject them because they don't. Most of the old time UK anime fans I knew weren't into DB anyway (c 1987) but that was before it aired on UK TV. I've been out of anime for 15 years now but I still maintain ties. Wish I could have got back just to meet people after all these years. Would be a blast!

I have plenty of friends or rather 'acquaintances' , just saying I haven't met a Dragonball fan like me. And it surprises me, cause I've met some huge fans, just of the show itself, they might own the complete series(Orange Bricks, Blu-Rays), but outside of that, nothing

[Kamiccolo9]

I'm normally the "Go To" guy when it comes to Dragon Ball in my social circles. Even people who aren't into anime will tag me on Facebook if they see anything DB-related (Typically, it's stuff we've known here for weeks, but I don't want to be 'that guy' and say that ). I do have a few friends who are big into anime and stuff like that, and know the difference between Z/Kai and OrangeBricks/DragonBoxes. But they aren't really one's to care too much at the end of the day.

Same. I had my old roommate tell me just yesterday that a new DBZ movie had come out where Goku turns into a god. I'm like "Yeah...."

[Drabaz]

I agree 100% with what each and every one of you is saying that it hurts. I met up with Tanooki Kuribo last year while he was in town and it was so great talking with someone from these forums face to face without having to hold back all the inside jokes that casual fans wouldn't understand. All of my close friends I usually hang out with are into anime and started out just like me watching it on Cartoon Network, but I think joining this site is what turned us all into the super knowledgeable fans we are today. It's a good and a frustrating thing

[VeggieXD]

I have two close friends that are really into Dragonball, they know a hell of a lot about the series but not so much about the differences in releases.

[Kamiccolo9]

I was playing Xenoverse with a friend today, and he says to me "yeah, I get what's going on. I spent a few hours on the DB wiki at work the other day."

My reply was just

[sangofe]

Well, my cousin got me to start watching anime in Japanese... Well, actually, his x-girlfriend. This was... 20 years ago. Sure, he's not super into releases of Dragon Ball, but he knows a good deal about it.

[Hellspawn28]

Hardcore fans like us are a niche group of people. Most DBZ fans that I know at my local community college only watched the anime and read bits of the manga.

[Chronic_mcduffin]

I know quite a bit of people who watched Dragon Ball Z when they were young, but nobody like us. Every time someone says they like the series, I start talking about all the things I know and they just have no idea what the hell I'm talking about.

It was already said, were a niche group.

[Hellspawn28]

It's the same other franchises too. I know people who like Godzilla but they are not into the movies like I do since they don't know the whole history behind the films and the people who work on them. Most mecha anime fans I know only know about Gundam, Evagelion and recent stuff from the last few years. They don't seem to know about the classics like Mazinger Z and Getter Robo.

[Super Sonic]

Maybe you guys should hit anime conventions. Might have guys you want to meet there.

[TheKingOfKamehamehas]

No I haven't met anyone in real life who is like us. These days, all the people my age (13-17) are more interested in modern anime such as Log Horizon, Sword Art Online, Attack On Titan, and even Akame Ga Kill. AOT tends to be the most popular...
If you ask anybody any manga or anime they know even if they are not into it, it would be Pokemon or Dragon Ball Z Kai so that's a relief

I really want to go to an anime convention because there a good few conventions in Nor Cal (Sac-Anime is the most popular) and it would be really cool to find people my age!

[NitroEX]

I don't think there's ever been a time when I've been able to relate to anyone IRL about anime outside of talking DBZ in school when I was a kid. Beyond that anime in general has always been a solitary thing for me outside of the internet.

The people around me have always either been into anime I have no interest in (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece) or they "just don't get it" and avoid it like the plague. No matter how many times I go to a comic/anime convention it's always such a culture shock to suddenly be surrounded by anime fans but usually the majority of them don't seem to care for old shows like DBZ, they tend to only want to talk about the flavour of the month anime.

It's not such a bad thing though when you're a member of Kanzenshuu. At times the discussions on here can feel like DBZ overdose and I often feel like I need a break from it.