What do you believe to be the series intended demographic?

[fadeddreams5]

It is orientated towards 6-14 year olds. I wouldn't put it less or more. If Wikipedia is correct, according to Japanese law, the term "shonen" refers to a person "from the time they enter elementary school until the time they are 15 years of age."

That said, it also appeals to a broader age group because, let's be real, 15+ year old boys love seeing people beat the shit out of each other and a mood that conveys the high stakes of the scenes. Naturally, any child or teenager who grows up with it will enjoy it as adults too. I don't believe that's purely nostalgia, but rather, DBZ is a timeless series, and that can be attributed to the characters and the fact that the series doesn't take itself too seriously. When things get serious, you have over-the-top action. When things are light-hearted, you get funny interactions. It's a perfect balance, but you do get a significant tone shift.

Super is also targeted towards that 6-14 age group, but unlike DBZ, it actually feels like a show for the lower end of that age range. Far too much slice of life and quirks. Its emphasis seems to be on its brand of comedy, and it's completely lost that edge the series once had, both in tone and comedy. Based on all the modern material of the franchise (Heroes, BoG, 2008 OVA, EoB, etc.), I can't possibly see this changing, even with Frieza's return.

[Lord Beerus]

Dragon Ball has always been meant for kids. Now, and forever. Just because its mass appeal is able to transcend its intended demographic, doesn't mean it'll stop trying to appeal to its main audience, which is kids.

[Akumaito Beam]

It's odd to me that somebody can look at a show like Dragon Ball and insist it's for mature audiences or even teenagers. I've always viewed the series in hindsight as the ultimate fantasy of any child. It's a series where buff aliens, robots and demons fly around, punch each other and shoot laser beams out of their hands. By and large it's pretty simplistic even as far as shonen series go. Just look at the endless merchandise for elementary school children. The intended age demographic is pretty undeniable.

Edit:
I don't mean action figures either. I mean children's desks and children's eye drops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MADQ4wpv1ZA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRAt85Rdnp4

[ABED]

It's a series where buff aliens, robots and demons fly around, punch each other and shoot laser beams out of their hands.

Those things also appeal to adults.

[DoomieDoomie911]

As Herms said, Dragon Ball is, was, and always will be a show intended for children. Obviously, though, that doesn't mean it can't appeal to everyone. I believe, as do many others, that the only two things that determine weather a series is enjoyable is writing and talent; not demographic.

[Akumaito Beam]

It's a series where buff aliens, robots and demons fly around, punch each other and shoot laser beams out of their hands.

Those things also appeal to adults.

It appeals to everyone but I think these elements are particularly attractive to children who treat them with more gravity than your average adult.

[GokuRules987]

Thru my perspective i definetly see that dragon ball was made and always will be for kids. And its not because its a shounen series but because it was just written by a gag manga artist that never cared about consistency and plotted out storyline. I mean when you watch DBZ do you really see anything serious in it? A lot of fighting in dragon ball was a done in way that didnt try to take its self to serious or too complex. Its also why every character in dragon ball for some reason is an expert at martial arts. I mean animes like Naruto or Saint Seiya are way more serious and made for older audiences. Dragon ball was always meant to be this silly series that had no storyline and crappy looking autistic villains that only knew how scream KAKAROT!! and eat candy like fat buu. Hell there are tons of Disney movies out there that have way more better villains that actually have a back story like Scar from lion king or Ursula from little mermaid Hell Darth Vader is probably one of my favorite fictional villains of all time with just how greatly he was written and retconned in the end to wrap up his story. Thats why a lot of people that first think of star wars automatically think of Darth Vader because he is advertised in almost everything including cereal to soda drinks and even birthday cakes.

[Hellspawn28]

The series also airs on Sunday mornings. Shows made for older audience don't really air that early in the morning since most people would grow out of kids shows by middle school and move on to more older stuff. I remember in Middle School in the 7th grade when I got Pokemon Ruby, people in my class where like "That game is for babies. You should have got Vice City instead". When you where 13 or older, did you still woke up watching Saturday morning cartoons? It's not much different here in Japan since I would imagine kids would move on to other anime and live action shows after the 5th or 6th grade.

[fadeddreams5]

One of the most things to consider about age demographics in regards to shows/movies/games is that, regardless of the intended age group, it's always adults creating these mediums in the first place. And they do so based on their perception of what kids will like or they themselves do--there are special individuals who never lose sight of what appealed to them in their youth, and specifically, why. It's that creative process that draws me to things way below my age range.

The series also airs on Sunday mornings. Shows made for older audience don't really air that early in the morning since most people would grow out of kids shows by middle school and move on to more older stuff. I remember in Middle School in the 7th grade when I got Pokemon Ruby, people in my class where like "That game is for babies. You should have got Vice City instead". When you where 13 or older, did you still woke up watching Saturday morning cartoons? It's not much different here in Japan since I would imagine kids would move on to other anime and live action shows after the 5th or 6th grade.

It's funny. In 6th grade, Yu-gi-oh! was huge in my school. Everybody played it. I mean... everyone. Over the Summer, I think everyone reached puberty, and not only did this abruptly stop, but all I heard was these 12-13 year olds talk about was sex, racist jokes, and movies with sexual humor (e.g. Scary Movie). And yeah, GTA. Dark times. lol.

[Akumaito Beam]

It's funny. In 6th grade, Yu-gi-oh! was huge in my school. Everybody played it. I mean... everyone. Over the Summer, I think everyone reached puberty, and not only did this abruptly stop, but all I heard these 12-13 year olds talk about was sex, racist jokes, and movies with sexual humor (e.g. Scary Movie). And yeah, GTA. Dark times. lol.

Even in my decidedly dorky elementary/junior high clique we had to convince each other (and ourselves) how "tight" and "raw" our choice of entertainment was.

"Oh yeah,Pokemon is totally gay but the games are still fun y'know?"

"Oh yeah, Power Rangers is dumb but Ninja Storm is way more serious and mature than that old shit."

"Oh yeah, Back Street Boys are shit...but like that one song is pretty catchy"


etc. etc. etc.

[Hellspawn28]

I remember in Middle School, DBZ was not as talked about as much compare to the 1st-5th grade (1997 - 2001) for me when I went to the 6th grade (Yu-Gi-Oh was popular though). More people in my school in the 7th - 8th grade where into Inuyasha and other anime on Adult Swim then DBZ. People grow out kids stuff after 10 or 11 then start to feel nostalgic about it when they become adults. I'm pretty sure it's not much different over in Japan.

[Deathbringer]

It's always been aimed at young boys, being a shonen series, but it's been enjoyed by boys (and indeed girls) of all ages. The Japanese standard of things that are "aimed at children" is quite the culture shock for everyone else since Dragon Ball was able to get away with puerile jokes and a healthy amount of violence (even had racist caricatures but that's a whole other cultural difference conversation), that's just because shonen is great, it's for kids but it has a very no-holds-barred feeling at the same time. I think non-Japanese viewers would think of it as adult because the shows for kids we're used to don't have as much violence as Dragon Ball did, definitely one of the big reasons why DBZ became popular in the US despite being quite a few years old, the kids watching we're excited by seeing more awesome fighting than most american cartoons had.

Like remember Batman: The Animated Series? Kids loved that and so did teenagers because it didn't treat its viewers like kids, it didn't act like a kids show, there's nothing wrong with shows that do act like kids shows but it proves that kids are fine with shows that treat them more like grown ups.

The idea that Dragon Ball is supposed to be for adults is an illusion, it always has been and always will be a shonen series. At the same time, there's nothing stopping anyone from loving Dragon Ball, it's meant to be aimed at boys technically (I'm saying this because shonen means young boy just to clarify, I of course think that calling something exclusive to boys is outdated now) but there are many female Dragon Ball fans, meaning the demographic doesn't have to stop anyone from watching it.

[ABED]

It's always been aimed at young boys, being a shonen series, but it's been enjoyed by boys (and indeed girls) of all ages. The Japanese standard of things that are "aimed at children" is quite the culture shock for everyone else since Dragon Ball was able to get away with puerile jokes and a healthy amount of violence (even had racist caricatures but that's a whole other cultural difference conversation), that's just because shonen is great, it's for kids but it has a very no-holds-barred feeling at the same time. I think non-Japanese viewers would think of it as adult because the shows for kids we're used to don't have as much violence as Dragon Ball did, definitely one of the big reasons why DBZ became popular in the US despite being quite a few years old, the kids watching we're excited by seeing more awesome fighting than most american cartoons had.

Like remember Batman: The Animated Series? Kids loved that and so did teenagers because it didn't treat its viewers like kids, it didn't act like a kids show, there's nothing wrong with shows that do act like kids shows but it proves that kids are fine with shows that treat them more like grown ups.

The idea that Dragon Ball is supposed to be for adults is an illusion, it always has been and always will be a shonen series. At the same time, there's nothing stopping anyone from loving Dragon Ball, it's meant to be aimed at boys technically (I'm saying this because shonen means young boy just to clarify, I of course think that calling something exclusive to boys is outdated now) but there are many female Dragon Ball fans, meaning the demographic doesn't have to stop anyone from watching it.

Batman was aimed at children, but the writers wrote for themselves. I would simply say it pushed the boundary of kid's TV. While this might be a semantic issue, but the show didn't treat kids like grown ups, it just didn't talk down to them. There isn't much in the show that its target demo couldn't understand. Unfortunately DBZ in the states did go after the lowest common denominator.

I can't say it any better than what's already been written in this thread, the story's appeal extends beyond it's target demo.

[Cipher]

It does happen, there are some of them here, and they'd be more than happy to talk about that experience getting into it as adults...

... but that's also a VERY self-selective audience considering what you're asking of them and what to describe. None of the new generation of kids are going to come HERE to tell us about getting into it and how awesome the characters are and zang boom pow.

So yeah, I do want to acknowledge the incoming adult fans, but they're kinda hilariously small compared to what the marketing machine is up to on the younger scale.

As an anecdote, I did get my previous girlfriend into the series, and we watched it all the way through, but we always watched it in the vein of, "Yeah, this is a charming kids' show," and most of her enjoyment came from its sense of whimsy (and, sure, at times the way it built up into genuine tension).

I think the Star Wars analogy is spot-on here. Because it's so unpretentious, in ways that allow it to be both whimsical and thrilling, it has a lot of all-ages appeal. But its primary demographic will always be children, and keeping that in mind may actually be the best way to experience it.

In the case of Dragon Ball, too, it's quite clear that Toriyama was writing a lot of the time to amuse himself as much as his audience, and I think that comes through and helps quite a bit.

[TheGmGoken]

It's Shonen so it's easily whateva Shonen targets which is 10+ maybe 7+. It's many grown ups love the series. It's similar to the DC animated shows from the 90's to 2000's. They're aimed at kids but people of all ages love the story.

[Hellspawn28]

Even the DC and Marvel animated shows are made to sell toys since Young Justice's toy line sold like crap and made CN think that kids don't like serious shows anymore which is why they made Teen Titans Go (a show made for younger kids from 4 - 8 going by the creators of the show). I think 4 - 11 seems right for the DB series given by the time slot it airs on and how much merchandise that they made for children to be played with. That's the same age group as other Sunday morning shows like Kamen Rider, Yokai Watch, Precure, Case Close and Yu-Gi-Oh seem to go for.

[Kakacarrottop]

In western English countries at least, the tween to young adult market (12 to 25). Although 15 years ago it was probably aimed more at the kiddie market (5 to 12).

[Hellspawn28]

Kai was on Nick Toons and CW a few years back. However Funimation likes to market their anime from 13+ because it's easier to keep their anime uncut. The market is way different now then it was 10-20 years ago because the people who grew up with anime as kids in the 90's are now grown up and fans hate things being edited. Not to mention the TV channels like CN and Nick these days want to air something if they feel like it will sell well. Gundam Build Fighters could work on CN on Saturday mornings, but they might not want to put any risk to it. There is hardly anime kid shows in the US compare to Japan. You have Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon Fusion, Little Battlers Experience, Doraemon and coming soon Yokai Watch in the US as far kids anime goes.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Kai was on Nick Toons and CW a few years back. However Funimation likes to market their anime from 13+ because it's easier to keep their anime uncut. The market is way different now then it was 10-20 years ago because the people who grew up with anime as kids in the 90's are now grown up and fans hate things being edited.

I've often wondered if this was one of the reasons that FUNimation's dub generally grew in quality over time. It's not *the* reason, of course, there are a multitude of reasons...but I wonder if it was *a* reason. Sort of like, FUNimation realized there may not necessarily be a new audience of kids coming in, and so they decided to make their dub more loyal--and in effect, more mature and a tad more dark--in an effort to keep the people who got into the show as kids interested in it. I mean, if my Resurrection F theater experience is any indicator, I want to say 95% of the people there were in their mid-late 20's.

[DBZAOTA482]

8-18 is more accurate.