Chuquita wrote:Um, I don't really go to other DB boards aside from this one and the Salon, so I have no clue what you're talking about how people outside of Daizex's forums think Kuririn is a waste?
I have a friend who loved his character back when I was a newbie when we were watching Funi's dub on Toonami; and I know a couple people who have done amazing artwork and fics involving him, but maybe they're just in the minority?
Is there really a bunch of dislike for him on other boards?
(I don't associate Dragon Ball with any set of years at all, I associate it with my last three years of high school).
My own observations point to it having to do with when people got into the series. As a former dubbie from the Saban-era, most of the people I interacted with loved non-Saiyans. But back then, outside of the protagonist, that was just a handful of villains from the first saga. Kuririn has some of his most badass moments in the first Z Saga, and Piccolo shines as well (while exuding the kind of jerk anti-hero attitude that the second group I'll mention attribute to their love of Vegeta). The first half of the Freeza Saga Kuririn had a good amount of time in the limelight.
Without having seen DB, we had no backstory on Tenshinhan and Chaozu, but Chaozu did the heroic sacrifice thing and Ten had a cool standoff with Nappa before dying, and they had some respect. Yamcha was seen in the old Pilaf dub, and then whupped a Saibaiman before getting shanked, so people didn't really dislike him much either.
However, many people who were fans then didn't get Cartoon Network when the dub came back (it wasn't a nation-wide basic cable staple like it is now- it was a premium channel back then, similar to Sci Fi when it kicked off). So a chunk of these fans faded out, but a whole slew of new fans were introduced. Just in my high school alone, almost every boy became a DBZ fan to some degree. Our cable company offered CN and most of us were big on Toonami anyway.
These new fans, many of whom didn't previously get up at the crack of dawn to watch cartoons on weekends (and so missed the earlier stuff) met Yamcha and Tenshinhan as dead guys who don't do much (in Yamcha's case, ever again) and Kuririn as the lil guy who dies, comes back, dates the worst character in the series, and basically spends his time cheering on the heavy hitters. Piccolo had begun mellowing out, while Vegeta was taking on the role of gruff guy with attitude.
So what we had were people who, missing out on years upon years of backstory and love on these formerly important characters, met them in their background roles. It was also the rise of the "Super Saiyan Club" as FUNimation put it.
To this group that assings most of their nostalgia to the end of Freeza through to the Cell Saga, Saiyans were generally the dominant badasses and humans were basically there to get beat up. Opinion on Piccolo seemed to fall in between, with a common sentiment being "he's ok... if for some reason you have a problem with just being a Trunks fan."
To be fair, this is the only DB forum I go to these days. I really have no idea what the current state of things is, or how fans who get into the show through reruns or DVDs view these characters.
To show my appreciation, I'll only beat them half to death.
I try.
