What version did you start off with?

[ABED]

I was familiar with the first 53-episode syndicated Ocean-casted run, but found it offputting. I picked it up around the summer of 2001, when the Freeza arc was rerunning on Toonami.

What did you find offputting about the Ocean dub that you didn't about season 3?

[VejituhTheWarriorGuy]

Yes the Funimation dub aired for some broadcasts of the Fusion saga.

I would recommend watching original Dragon Ball and the rest of the series in Japanese.

So, some episodes weren't dubbed by Westwood or some weren't on their first go around?

I doubt it, because as far as I'm aware only the Westwood dub for these episodes aired in Canada and the random flip flop was UK/Ireland exclusive.

So, they started airing both dubs during the Buu saga in the UK? One dub for some episodes and another for others?

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

So, some episodes weren't dubbed by Westwood or some weren't on their first go around?

I doubt it, because as far as I'm aware only the Westwood dub for these episodes aired in Canada and the random flip flop was UK/Ireland exclusive.

So, they started airing both dubs during the Buu saga in the UK? One dub for some episodes and another for others?

No, if memory serves me the initial run of the Fusion saga was the Funimation dub and subsequent reruns were the Westwood dub, and only the Westwood dub was used for Kid Buu.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I was one of the people who got into the series at the end of the video game boom. I saw the show during one of its re-runs around the end of Toonami (before its revival). The first time a watched a significant part of the series was when Kai started airing (on Nicktoons I think it was). I watched most of the Artificial Human Arc, then forgot about it for a few years. Just this past year, I re-visited Kai, and was surprised at how much I still enjoyed it. I then decided that I would watch the whole series from beginning to end. After doing so, I was hungry for more. I wasn't satisfied with the end of Z, GT bored me almost to death, and I didn't know where to go. Planning to buy the whole series legitimately, I ran across the 2 most recent movies. I assumed it was just old material that I had somehow glossed over, but to my surprised, this was brand new content. Soon after, I discovered Dragon Ball Super, around the time that the RoF arc was wrapping up. Unfortunately, the series wasn't doing to well at the time, so I tried buying the VIZ Comics. I now own the first 16 volumes' worth of the manga, and DBS is reaching new highs.

I guess the rest is history...

[vegetaslegacy15]

My first exposure was toonami back in the 2000s. The episodes i remember from that was gotenks fighting super boo. Then i got all the budokai and budokai tenkaichi games on ps2. And became a pretty big fan of the franchise from the games

[email2003]

My 1st exposure to the series was back around 1996 or 1997 when the Ocean Dub was dubbing the series and it used to air here on before Kids WB world start on Saturday mornings. They used to air it on at around 5:50 or 6 AM Saturday mornings.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

It was october 1999. I was waiting for The Dreamstone but I got the first episode of Dragon Ball. I was hooked since the first minutes. It was French dub with Polish voice-over (strange edit with the original Japanese screams) and original score. Between 1999 and 2003, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT were broadcasted three times in a row. We never got the movies nor TV specials.

I started collecting manga in 2002 since volume two (very good Polish translation, contrary to the French dub, which was far from the original, not mentioning even dumbed down Polish voice-over)

When I first saw the original Japanese version (around 2005) , it just replaced the version I watched in my memory. I never got back and I'm not planning on watching any other version of the show.

[Android 50]

A reairing of FUNimation's Freeza arc dub, just before the Cell arc started airing.

It was quite a while before I saw any of the Ocean dub material, outside of the movies.

Kinda the same here although I watched the ocean dub over summer vacation of 2000 that year and then watched Freeza until the android saga aired.

I started in late 99 at the end of the frieza saga.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

A smattering of the Ocean cast. I remember the "The critics rave" promo, Piccolo's David-and-Goliath callback, and the three-episode Tree of Might split. I did not watch consistently until the Cell survived blowing himself up.

[MCDaveG]

German dub and then I went with Japanese dub

[VSVoidSpartan]

I first started off with the Japanese version of Dragonball Z. My very first exposure to the series was this particular VHS.



Afterwards, I started watching the original series in its English dub when it aired in the Philippines.

[Vorige Waffe]

Afterwards, I started watching the original series in its English dub when it aired in the Philippines.

By any chance do you have any recordings of the Filipino English dub?

[Fionordequester]

So I decided to create this thread to ask you guys what version of Z did you first watch?

Hmm...are you Japanese, by any chance? Those are Japanese characters.

[Anime Kitten]

Those are Japanese characters.

Funnily enough when you consider the avatar, it means "Goku Black". I found that out thanks to Google Translate a while back.

[DBZAOTA482]

Toonami version of mid-2002. It was mainly reruns of the some Namek/Freeza Saga and the Majin Boo Saga.

[Fionordequester]

Me personally? I started off with the Legacy of Goku games; I was forbidden from watching it at first (my parent's first exposure was to Cell having had half his limbs blown off by Gohan), so those, and Budokai 1 (with its awesome cutscenes) were when I really became a fan.

[DanielSSJ]

I actually got into Dragon Ball fairly late into the game. While I remember Dragon Ball Z from Toonami, it never grabbed me, since it was already well into the Boo arc by the time I started watching it and I had no understanding of what was going on. What actually prompted me to get into the series was when I saw an episode of Dragon Ball Kai on Nicktoons, and I sorta went "Oh so they're bringing DBZ back huh? I guess I should get on that." Since I wanted to start from the beginning, I started by looking up the Dragon Ball manga online, and, as they say, the rest is history.

[Hellspawn28]

I guess I'm the very few people who saw Dragon Ball before DBZ? I saw the 1995 dub first, not the 2001-2003 dub that air on Toonami.

[KinguKurimuzon]

My first watch of the anime was with the Orange Brick dub, though technically my first experience with Dragon Ball was with the first three volumes of the manga.

[Sailor Haumea]

Kai dub on Nicktoons.

I was like...11.

I got mad when they reran an old episode despite the guide saying it'd be a new episode that day. The Androids Saga was happening.

Did Kai actually finish its Nicktoons run?