When it all began for you

[Lord Beerus]

This is gonna be a simple topic but I'm sure this is a question asked by many people in regards to Dragon Ball, which is, when did you officially become a fan. I'm not talking about what got into the franchise, I'm talking about when. If possible, keep you answer short and sweet like:

Dragon Ball fan, circa 99

or

Dragon Ball fan since the age of XX or X

But if you want to elaborate more about when specifically you got into Dragon Ball, go right ahead.

I'll get the ball rolling.

Dragon Ball fan, circa 2000 and still going strong.

[Videlphia76ers]

Like 2000. Saw it on Toonami's Midnight Run I think. First I saw I became an instant fan because violence to a 5-9 year old is automatic entertainment. Didn't realize it had actual story-writing qualities until I was about 13.

[samuraix123]

Watched it when it came on Toonami for the first time. but I don't think I was really really hooked until the Freeza saga.

[Sin]

I saw some adverts just before it aired in the UK in 2000 and then found my older brother watching an episode of the Saiyan Arc (it had Raditz in so was an early episode), he explained the characters names to me and I was hooked. I can remember it felt like forever until new episodes came out, in the UK Cartoon Network would rerun the same arcs non-stop for months until the next arc was available.

[Low Tone G]

In '97 with the first DB series.

[thomas1up]

Late 2012, friend bugged me to watch DBZ, loved it.

[ABED]

I first saw DB somewhere between 91-93. I can't remember exactly when, but I lived in Japan and caught a glimpse of it. Plus my friend had a DBZ game for Super Nintendo. Technically it was Super Famicon, but you can play Famicon games on the SNES. However, I didn't really become a fan until September 13, 1996 (i.e., the day it first aired on American TV)

[dbgtFO]

On september 9th 2001, when we were about to head to a restaurant to celebrate my mom's birthday, I turned on the tv, while waiting for the others to get ready and the 3rd episode of the Danish dub of DBZ was showing.
I was hooked.

[Tatakae!!Ramenman]

2003. I was six years old and got the first Budokai game for the Game cube.

[Kamiccolo9]

I'm wanting to say 98-99. Whenever they were first airing the Ocean Dub on Toonami. My first episode was the beginning of the Goku-Vegeta fight, so whenever that episode first aired.

[RandomGuy96]

I wanna say 2002-2003-ish, via a video game I played with my cousins.

[NitroEX]

Honestly I was a fan from the first episode I saw on Cartoon Network in 2000 which had Piccolo vs Imperfect Cell (specifically Piccolo getting his arm absorbed). Was the coolest shit I'de ever seen without a doubt.

I remember buying a Goku toy a day or two later and I hadn't even seen him fight yet. I jumped on that bandwagon without a second thought which was the same for a lot of anime I got into back then. I'm far more cynical nowadays than I was as a kid.

[Hellspawn28]

In '97 with the first DB series.

Same here. I remember getting a VHS tape of the original first three episodes from my dad and I had no idea what it was. I didn't became a fan until early 2001. I got DBZ into much later then most people did. When I was growing up, most people became DBZ fans long before it aired in the US due to DBZ's popularity on the imported market or became fans when DBZ first aired on TV back in 1996. For a while, I was scared to tell fans that I just became a fan a few years ago. Now it been 13 years since I've became a DBZ fan and I follow DBZ on the web since then. I did grew up watching the series on bootlegs since I knew ways to watch them early on in Japanese. It's a shame that old school DBZ fans are rare these days.

[Darknat]

I was a fan since I saw the first episode of DB in Canal 9 (valencian dub) either on 89 or 90. I can't remember which year it was aired exactly but it was around that time

[FortuneSSJ]

In 1995/96 with DB.

[dae428]

I'm gonna guess some time between 1997-99.
When I was younger my family would go to Korea every year during summer and we would crash at random relatives' homes during that time. One of my cousins, who back then I thought was the coolest guy in the universe, happened to be a fan of Dragon Ball Z during that time and he would rent Dragon Ball Z VHS tapes from his local video store. So I would watch it along with him during that time whenever I got the chance.
One of my first memories was actually watching the Freeza arc with him. It was the scene where Piccolo was rushing towards Freeza and the rest and when Freeza was undergoing his first transformation. I remember back then thinking that Vegeta and Piccolo were teachers and that Freeza, Gohan, and Kururin were their students. For some reason I believed that Freeza was infected with some disease that transformed him into a giant monster and that Vegeta was spazzing out because he didn't know what to do and that he was waiting for Piccolo to come in and help him. Oh yeah I also remember always getting Yamcha and Goku confused too.

[bkev]

About 2000, I think, I saw the FUNi redub of Boss Rabbit's Magic Touch. I was hooked on the original series from there on. It took me until the later part of the Buu arc to get really into Z, though.

[InfernalVegito]

Around 98 and 99 I guess which was when Dragon Ball first aired after Sailor Moon dominated the anime scene here years before.

[Valerius Dover]

Saw an ad for one of The Legacy of Goku games in one of the Nintendo Power Advance magazines way back in 2002 and thought it looked stupid. Hey, I was only 6, and was very pacifist compared to most guys my age.

I then started doing research around Fall of 2012, having gained somewhat of an interest in anime. I started watching Dragon Ball Season 1 on the Blue Brick shortly after Christmas.

[MajinMan]

Around the year 2000 or so. I remember I had 1 vhs(yes only one)that was at the Goku vs Frieza fight before he went super saiyan. It always ended right before the kaioken x20 so back then I didn't know what happened and kept rewarching it. The budokai games especially the first one really got me familiarized with the story.