The lack of respect Dragonball and its fans get.

[Jermyn]

Today I came upon this quote from another anime forum, that really got to me:
''Has anyone ever actually finished DBZ? I propose that anybody saying they did is a lying liar who lies. Or psychotic.''
Maybe I'm being oversensitive but comments that suggest that people who enjoy Dragonball are stupid muscle-heads with no appreciation of complexity or depth or are liars really make me mad. Why do so many anime fans looked down upon us and insult our intelligence? Is it because of the dub? Is it because of the popularity gets which makes the fans of less well-known anime series jealous? Is it because we have obnoxious fringe elements of the fandom like Bleach and Naruto and One Piece have? Or is it something else entirely?

[Chuquita]

There are people who complain about Dragon Ball being long when One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto are all longer than it? Bleach has the same number of volumes atm, true, but more pages per chapter.

If they really wanna get technical about length, is there anyone who's read all 160+ volumes of Kochikame out there? Now THAT would take serious amounts of time to read through.

As for people disliking things that are or have been popular, that'll always happen, and for a wide variety of reasons. It's not something that's unique to manga/anime. You'll have the people who genuinely dislike something because it doesn't interest them, you'll have those who dislike it purely on virtue of the item being popular they think they'll be considered "cool" and "edgy" if they don't like it even if they know nothing about it and simply want to fit in, and you'll have those who just like to bash stuff because they think it makes them feel superior.

There are other types too, but those are the big three I can think of off the top of my head.

[penguintruth]

It's a long, popular fighting shonen that's certainly on the low end of sophistication and on the high end of cheesiness, and is an anime most people used as a gateway into anime fandom. A lot of folks are overcompensating for their previous love of the show in the formation of their love for anime by dismissing their past entirely.

For this same reason, you get a lot of bashing of this or Pokemon from people who just want to find the earliest anime they can think of to make themselves seem like they've matured dramatically.

Does DBZ deserve criticism? I think so. But the harping on it every time its mentioned, non-stop, is a little much. I get it, it's not Monster, but it's a fun show.

[Scarz]

''Has anyone ever actually finished DBZ? I propose that anybody saying they did is a lying liar who lies. Or psychotic.''

I like to know the context this quote was taken from. Not to long ago, there was another member who started a thread asking if any one here had actually watched Dragonball/Z/GT in it's entirety. I replied that the only person who actually watched every episode was God/Zeus. Personally, I couldn't see myself watching EVERY SINGLE DB episode ever made. Sure I've watched a large chunk of them but I skipped plenty episodes, especially those that were filler or just plain boring.

Maybe, just maybe, that person who wrote the quote above was applying that no one could possibly watch every episode of DBZ unless they're lying or hardcore to a point that they were nuts for doing so. I just didn't get the impression that he or she was stating that DB fans were drooling re[no, we're not having this here] with no taste.

[Maphisto86]

HARUMPH!

I don't how many times I have heard complaints about Dragonball fans or complaints from said fandom that they are a downtrodden, oppressed caste of manga/anime geeks. I too have made the same mistake once or twice. However, just ignore it as an irrational alienation of a certain segment of popular culture should not be given much attention unless it is accompinied by valid criticism. As Scarz pointed out though, the user may have been joking in the context of how long Dragonball - Z - GT was on television (not counting the movies ). Hell, I have been a Dragonball fan for almost a decade, yet I have not read every single page of the manga nor viewed each episode of the three anime series. Though I am sure many of those on the forums have, I am willing to bet most have not.

[SHINOBI-03]

I like to know the context this quote was taken from. Not to long ago, there was another member who started a thread asking if any one here had actually watched Dragonball/Z/GT in it's entirety. I replied that the only person who actually watched every episode was God/Zeus. Personally, I couldn't see myself watching EVERY SINGLE DB episode ever made. Sure I've watched a large chunk of them but I skipped plenty episodes, especially those that were filler or just plain boring.

It was me who started it, and yes, I'll start the marathon of the episodes after I'm done with Evangelion.
For the record, I took about a month to watch all of GT episodes with the TV specials. That's about 66 normal episodes. And with the upcoming Dragon Box releases, it'll possible for all of us to start the journey.

B2T, The only place I see negative comments about Dragon Ball fandom is YouTube. And you know how good they are.

I don't visit other sites that much. But most of the comments are a mockery of the Japanese version rather than the dub.

[laserkid]

I like to know the context this quote was taken from. Not to long ago, there was another member who started a thread asking if any one here had actually watched Dragonball/Z/GT in it's entirety. I replied that the only person who actually watched every episode was God/Zeus. Personally, I couldn't see myself watching EVERY SINGLE DB episode ever made. Sure I've watched a large chunk of them but I skipped plenty episodes, especially those that were filler or just plain boring.

Maybe, just maybe, that person who wrote the quote above was applying that no one could possibly watch every episode of DBZ unless they're lying or hardcore to a point that they were nuts for doing so. I just didn't get the impression that he or she was stating that DB fans were drooling re[no, we're not having this here] with no taste.

I just finished a year and three months run of Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z in order, skipping no episodes, so I quite assure you it's totally possible without being insane.

[Bussani]

I just finished a year and three months run of Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z in order, skipping no episodes, so I quite assure you it's totally possible without being insane.

I somehow watched over 400 episodes of One Piece in about 3 months. I wouldn't really claim that I'm not insane though.

[Scarz]

Hm, maybe we should switch the words "insane" with "patience."

Recently me and my boyfriend try to watch all 64 episode of Dragonball GT, since neither of us have watched it in years. I popped in the DVD and we couldn't even get past episode one. I kept telling him (and myself) that the show get's better after ep. 10. But because of the negativity he heard about GT over the past few months (mostly from me) he has a hard time believing that. So I'm going to try to go backwards and watch every episode of Dragonball with him instead. Once I think about it, reintroducing my boyfriend to Dragonball franchise by forcing him to watch GT wasn't the best idea. (Oh god, that was terrible, terrible idea! Was I high?)

To sum this up, I tried, I failed, and I'm going to try again. Bussani and laserkid, I need your powers.

[B]

Why do so many anime fans looked down upon us and insult our intelligence?

I assume you haven't really discussed Dragon Ball anywhere outside of here too much, have you?

[caejones]

As soon as I finish the first Dragon Box, I'll have watched everything but the second half of GT, the Playdia footage, and the clip show that is the third TV special. Oh, and movie11.
I just spent the past few days trying to watch through Case Closed / Detective Conan up to the appearance of Ai without doing intensive research beforehand. I got to episode 130. Which is suspiciously close to the 15x episodes of DB pre Z.
And yeah, Bleach / Naruto / Onepiece are long.
And DB/Z has come out in bits and pieces in different ways for quite some time, now. If the comment was serious, .

As for disrespect or looking down upon fans of the franchise in general? Well, forget 'em, then. At least in such a context.
Once upon a Message Board, where the top four posters kinda ran off most of the population by being insane, there was a guy that showed up a few months after the big insanity-clique, was reasonably active, then disappeared for a while.
When he came back, he started posting about how he was an anime fan, and how DBZ was such a minor sort of thing (keep in mind, this entire "community" was based on a DBZ fanfiction website.). And then asked Versus questions that by his own admition were kinda trick-ish, citing some phantom list from gamefaqs' anime section.
(Though I make him out to be more of a snob than he actually is/was, hee. ).

So yeahs, I somehow turned this post into me saying that "anime" doesn't really work as an overall genre.

[laserkid]

Hm, maybe we should switch the words "insane" with "patience."

Recently me and my boyfriend try to watch all 64 episode of Dragonball GT, since neither of us have watched it in years. I popped in the DVD and we couldn't even get past episode one. I kept telling him (and myself) that the show get's better after ep. 10. But because of the negativity he heard about GT over the past few months (mostly from me) he has a hard time believing that. So I'm going to try to go backwards and watch every episode of Dragonball with him instead. Once I think about it, reintroducing my boyfriend to Dragonball franchise by forcing him to watch GT wasn't the best idea. (Oh god, that was terrible, terrible idea! Was I high?)

To sum this up, I tried, I failed, and I'm going to try again. Bussani and laserkid, I need your powers.

EEE starting with DBGT? Fun times. I watched the whole show with my roomate, who'd never seen it before, starting at the beggining worked pretty well for him, though he seems to like Yuyu Hakusho more then it now that we're watching it.

I've never seen the whole of DBGT myself, but thats from a lack of wanting to, I'm pretty sure I could watch 64 more episodes if I really had to.

[the_abberration]

So far, I have read the Viz manga and watched the whole series dubbed and subbed (save for season 1 & 2 subbed). As someone earlier posted, if you watched two episodes per day, it would take about a year and a half to complete the whole series.

Does, it make me psychotic? No. Just ask all the people I've killed for saying otherwise.

Seriously, I've noticed that when people talk about sports, no one finds it weird when they talk about the stats of a particular team, can remember every team that played the Superbowl (scores and all), etc. Unless they're not intrested in sports. What it boils down to is, if you have no true intrest in the subject matter or genre you're going to be turned off, find people intrested in it weird, etc..

[VegettoEX]

Seriously, I've noticed that when people talk about sports, no one finds it weird when they talk about the stats of a particular team, can remember every team that played the Superbowl (scores and all), etc. Unless they're not intrested in sports. What it boils down to is, if you have no true intrest in the subject matter or genre you're going to be turned off, find people intrested in it weird, etc..

That's a great analogy, and certainly something I've brought up plenty of times before, but that's all about social norms on a greater scale, rather than narrowed down within just the subset of people that are already anime fans.

I think penguintruth summed it up well:

It's a long, popular fighting shonen that's certainly on the low end of sophistication and on the high end of cheesiness, and is an anime most people used as a gateway into anime fandom. A lot of folks are overcompensating for their previous love of the show in the formation of their love for anime by dismissing their past entirely.

As much as we love it, we have to acknowledge that DBZ is mass-consumption material that is just one-step above the bottom-of-the-barrel; DBZ is to Mandy Moore as something like Bakugan (which exists solely as a marketing vehicle) is to Britney Spears -- they're both totally just low-brow nonsense intended for wide audiences, but one's got the slightest bit of actual artistic integrity behind it.

Wear your heart on your sleeve proudly. Someone's dismissing it for either valid or non-valid reasons? It becomes clear rather quickly who the logical one is based on their comments. If you don't like what they have to say, don't talk to them. If the comments of non-associated masses then somehow influences how you feel about the franchise, then perhaps you're not as secure in your fandom as you think you are.

[laserkid]

I have to agree with Penguin Truth and Mike here, really DBZ's pretty basic stuff as far as anime goes. It's got plenty of flaws, and it can definitely be over the top on the cheese factor. These aren't really debatable facts, and we talk about these often on the boards as is.

It's the equivalent of a B movie, which is why some people have trouble getting interested in them. Does this mean DBZ's stupid? Of course not, it just means its not "high art" as it were. Now if people start bad mouthing the fans of the series, just shrug and laugh about it. If all the person can do is throw ad hominem at a fanbase, their opinion isn't really worth much.

[Velasa]

I've really never understood the way people seem to refer to Dragonball as just a touch above the simplest toy-commercials out there o_O Seriously. It's not the deepest thing ever, not by far, but my god there's at least a little more depth to it than people give it credit for. Even people here, who like Dragonball.

[MCDaveG]

This type of guy is for example me, enjoying tv shows and movies and have videly interests in art, culture and trying to have quite well life and future.
I can be anyone on this street


And on the other hand, there are otakus, most of them are caring only about anime, watching over 25 anime shows mostly because of the art (but only because it's cool to watching manga style things), their opinions are equal to elementary school kids (most of them are) and quality of anime is ranked by the awesome animation.
They are also incorporating words and phrases from Japanese to their language, mostly the comunication basics: Gomen, Kawai, Arigato.
Highest point in their life is making fandom clubs with idiotic games to play with their comrades and making themselves gothic and anime characters based costumes.......


I don't wanna insult anyone, but from what I know and encountered, these ''Europian'' otakus are something mutated and lot different from the Japanese ones.....

From point of art and storytelling in Shonen genre, Dragon Ball will be always No. 1 for me and if you're like it, who cares about opinions of people, who doesn't know almost anything about anime, Japanese culture (because they mostly claim that they are and believe in that) + don't have a taste.

[Miracles]

The lack of respect coming from an internet forum isn't really anything. The world knows and respects DBZ, a piece of dust on the net isn't going to make a difference.

[Kendamu]

I don't care if Dragonball doesn't get any respect amongst English-speaking anime fans. Most of the problems people have with it comes from how it isn't deep and mature enough for them (read: it doesn't have Gundam Wing-esque teen drama). However, I prefer Dragonball because it's light and fun. Even at the most dramatic points, it's still fun. If they have a problem with fun, it's their loss and it means less snooty people on DaizEX.

[Miracles]

I don't care if Dragonball doesn't get any respect amongst English-speaking anime fans. Most of the problems people have with it comes from how it isn't deep and mature enough for them (read: it doesn't have Gundam Wing-esque teen drama). However, I prefer Dragonball because it's light and fun. Even at the most dramatic points, it's still fun. If they have a problem with fun, it's their loss and it means less snooty people on DaizEX.

This is the truth!