How did you come to know about dragonball?

[Civic]

About 2000. I was really into Pokemon and I couldn't watch the cartoon fully in the morning before going to school, so I would tape it on VHS (does that date me?) One day I kept watching after Pokemon (this was on Cheez TV for any Australians reading) and DBZ was the next show. At that point they were up to SSJ Goku fighting Frieza on an exploding Namek, and it got me hooked.

[Ringworm128]

I have much older siblings who were into it when DBZ was big in the west, back in the late 90's/early 2000's. So Dragon Ball is something I've been aware of for literally as long as I can remember.

[floofychan333]

I kind of knew of Dragon Ball for a few years before I really discovered it, though I never actually watched the show when it was airing on North American TV. I once tried to read the manga from my local library when I was 13 but I couldn't get into it, but the next year I decided to get into anime and thought that Dragon Ball was a fairly standard one to watch. This was at a time of my life where I was extremely disaffected and unhappy and the original series just kind of filled a void in my life, giving me a long series I could obsess over and enjoy. I spent a few years being seriously obsessed with DB and posting on this forum numerous times a day, and in recent years my obsession has seriously died down though I still enjoy the franchise.

[Kakacarrottop]

I have much older siblings who were into it when DBZ was big in the west, back in the late 90's/early 2000's. So Dragon Ball is something I've been aware of for literally as long as I can remember.

This applies to me as well. If I was a single child or an oldest child then I might be able to recall the exact moment I discovered Dragon Ball. But I had an older sibling that was into it around the turn of the millenium, so it's just sort of always been there in my life.

[Xeno Goku Black]

I remember catching it in the middle of the Goku and Frieza fight back when it was on Cartoon Network. I used to watch that channel a lot as a kid for things like Batman and Justice League.

[kei17]

I was born in Japan in the year that DBZ started airing, so... It was hard NOT to know it by living there.

[JulieYBM]

I was born in Japan in the year that DBZ started airing, so... It was hard NOT to know it by living there.

Wow, you're only a year older than me? For some reason I thought you had an extra year or two on me.

[Matches Malone]

This felt like I discovered some grand treasure. It seemed to fill some kind of entertainment void that other shows I've seen before couldn't even begin to compete with. The characters, the world, the animation, the music, the general feel of it. All the qualities I look for just magically clicked together in my head.

This is exactly what happened with me. I've seen shows before getting into DB, and shows after, but nothing worked for me as well as DB does. To be clear, I'm not talking about the franchise as a whole, as there are parts I'll never visit again, but Toriyama's original manga (and the BOG movie a decade later). Everything about this story just comes together perfectly for me.

[Koitsukai]

I was too much of a Saint Seiya fanboy to even care about Goku, and heavily disliked the non-armor thing for the main cast unlike Saint Seiya. But at one point it was everywhere(also Saint Seiya slowly began to disappear), at school, at football practice, too much peer pressure and I gave it a shot. It was being aired the episode Krilin attacks Vegeta and Nappa and they casually come out of a cloud of smoke and I fell in love.

Magic Kids used to air it 4 times a day and I used to watch it every single time every day.

[ArmenianPepsi]

This felt like I discovered some grand treasure. It seemed to fill some kind of entertainment void that other shows I've seen before couldn't even begin to compete with. The characters, the world, the animation, the music, the general feel of it. All the qualities I look for just magically clicked together in my head.

This is exactly what happened with me. I've seen shows before getting into DB, and shows after, but nothing worked for me as well as DB does. To be clear, I'm not talking about the franchise as a whole, as there are parts I'll never visit again, but Toriyama's original manga (and the BOG movie a decade later). Everything about this story just comes together perfectly for me.

Agreed 100%. Dragon ball is truly the kind of thing that only happens once in a lifetime, and I feel lucky that Kai was even made. Because if it wasn't for Kai back then giving me the first taste, I probably would've never had any interest at all in this world Toriyama crafted.

[Matches Malone]

I feel lucky that Kai was even made. Because if it wasn't for Kai back then giving me the first taste, I probably would've never had any interest at all in this world Toriyama crafted.

Kai was never intended to be made, as it only happened because Toriyama turned down getting involved in a completely new show back in 2008, resulting in Toei deciding to just re-show what they already had. I'm also happy Kai happened as it's my go to version for the Z part of the story.

[kei17]

I was born in Japan in the year that DBZ started airing, so... It was hard NOT to know it by living there.

Wow, you're only a year older than me? For some reason I thought you had an extra year or two on me.

The user name "Kei" was already registered by a different person, so I added "17" because I was 17 years old when I registered. Now I'm in my 30s and feel old.

Dragon Ball was already big when I became old enough to understand what's going on around myself, so I naturally got into it.

[Matches Malone]

The user name "Kei" was already registered by a different person, so I added "17" because I was 17 years old when I registered. Now I'm in my 30s and feel old.

Age is just a number. How old or young you are depends entirely on how you yourself feel.

[Neo-Makaiōshin]

Imported japanese VHS of some Z movies, two of them being the Cooler movies.

[ArmenianPepsi]

Imported japanese VHS of some Z movies, two of them being the Cooler movies.

Oh wow, that must've been pretty pricey in the days before ebay was commonplace

[dougo13]

I was born in Japan in the year that DBZ started airing, so... It was hard NOT to know it by living there.

Wow, you're only a year older than me? For some reason I thought you had an extra year or two on me.

The user name "Kei" was already registered by a different person, so I added "17" because I was 17 years old when I registered. Now I'm in my 30s and feel old.

Dragon Ball was already big when I became old enough to understand what's going on around myself, so I naturally got into it.

Wait until you hit my age. In 2 months, I will be 64. And among many of my sci-fi and comics loving friends I am the pup (youngest).

[dougo13]

This felt like I discovered some grand treasure. It seemed to fill some kind of entertainment void that other shows I've seen before couldn't even begin to compete with. The characters, the world, the animation, the music, the general feel of it. All the qualities I look for just magically clicked together in my head.

This is exactly what happened with me. I've seen shows before getting into DB, and shows after, but nothing worked for me as well as DB does. To be clear, I'm not talking about the franchise as a whole, as there are parts I'll never visit again, but Toriyama's original manga (and the BOG movie a decade later). Everything about this story just comes together perfectly for me.

Agreed 100%. Dragon ball is truly the kind of thing that only happens once in a lifetime, and I feel lucky that Kai was even made. Because if it wasn't for Kai back then giving me the first taste, I probably would've never had any interest at all in this world Toriyama crafted.

Well, I dunno. Star Trek was also like that showing things that were unheard of in the 1960s like racial tolerance, no animosity towards Russia, and all that tech that influenced so many things as well as a hopeful future...

[dougo13]

I knew about the series as an offshoot from Dr. Slump though I wasn't big on it like I was with kung fu movies out of Hong Kong (though that also became a big passion over time). I was given a copy of the first collected manga for Dr. Slump which I enjoyed, even though I could not read it because many things were obvious sight gags. The early Dragonball story did not intrigue me, so I ended my collecting that after the first season and did not pick up with it until near to the end of the show. By 1992, I was getting the show from Hawaii in subs, so I was able to finally figure out what was going on. But I had got my friends in Japan to get me a lot of merch, some of which was sent unsolicited by my main contact in Nagasaki. I lost track of him in 2000 and have not heard from him since. I hope he is well but there is no way to contact him anymore. Anyway, as you can see, I've been into the series for a long time. Hey! I just realized, it's been 40 years since I got my first tapes in from Japan, in June of 1980. Time sure flies...

[JulieYBM]

Wow, forty years in fandom is really interesting. I'm just two years over half of that and I can tell just how much has changed. I'm looking forward to seeing how things change in the next twenty years. The 1980s and early 1990s fandom sounds supremely fascinating. I know of a fan from those days who helps run a local anime shop up here in the Pacific Northwest and he's always got these hilarious stories about those days.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Hard to believe there's a fan here twice my age...