Did anyone else get into Dragon Ball long after it had aired on North American TV?

[floofychan333]

I had no idea the Dragon Ball franchise even existed until a couple years ago when I stumbled upon the 1st volume of Viz's DBZ manga. I didn't get into it, but a year later I decided I'd give Dragon Ball another chance by starting at the very beginning of the anime, and the rest is history. I don't ever remember seeing DBZ on TV to be honest. Are there any other fans who got into DB after it had aired on North American TV (or before?)

[Dbzfan94]

It's always weird to me when people say they never even heard of Dragon Ball until (whenever) considering how huge it was from 1997-2003, and then got a 'boom' again in 2007-2008 with the season sets

[nickzambuto]

No, and I'm so glad I didn't. I don't hesitate to say that my life and personality would be significantly different if I didn't grow up watching Dragon Ball.

[qjz123]

I knew the franchise existed because of how huge it was while I was growing up but I never watched it consistently. I'd watch a random episode here or there but I didn't really know much about the story line.

It wasn't until 2009 that I actually started to watch the series all the way through. I started with Z first because I didn't know any better... to say I was addicted would be an understatement. I remember watching over 30 episodes in one day during the Freeza arc. After I finished Z I watched GT, then I went back and watched Dragon Ball, after which I started watching Kai which had just started coming to the US.

[HourglassIndigo]

Nope, I didn't get into Dragon Ball until around 2009-2010, when Kai was airing on Nicktoons. To think it's been so long is crazy. Prior to that I had only seen dragon ball in one other form and that was through a friend who owned BT3.

[Anime Kitten]

I started the franchise with Supersonic Warriors on the Game Boy Advance, but I didn't care much about the franchise by that point. I got into it with the Nicktoons run of Kai and GT, and got back into it when I started watching Z at some point last year (if my memory serves).

Simply, yes.

[MozillaVulpix]

Yep.

For me, I just didn't get into Dragon Ball when it was airing because I didn't think I'd like it. I feel like Funimation successfully marketed that it was a show strictly for boys.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

I had no idea the Dragon Ball franchise even existed until a couple years ago when I stumbled upon the 1st volume of Viz's DBZ manga. I didn't get into it, but a year later I decided I'd give Dragon Ball another chance by starting at the very beginning of the anime, and the rest is history. I don't ever remember seeing DBZ on TV to be honest. Are there any other fans who got into DB after it had aired on North American TV (or before?)

I got into the series a little while later. In fact, I've described my entrance into the series several times on this site, and thanks to my hazy memory, some of them even contradict. But if I can summarize quickly, I'll tell you that I started off with re-runs during the dying days of Toonami, played some video games, and some online interaction. All of this happened 2006 or later.

[IAmTheMilkMan]

It's always weird to me when people say they never even heard of Dragon Ball until (whenever) considering how huge it was from 1997-2003, and then got a 'boom' again in 2007-2008 with the season sets

Agreed. Since the early aughts, I have yet to encounter someone who hasn't at least heard of Dragon Ball.

[ShadowBardock89]

This is interesting reading about the generation of DB fans that came after mine.
I remember being on the FUNimation Forums around 2009 and there was a British user on there that was watching the ENTIRE franchise (DB, DBZ, DBGT, Movies, OVAs, etc. both Dub and Sub) for the first time and he was posting his reactions on the Forums. It was exciting watching a new fan grow right before the eyes of veterans like me. Near the end, we were talking about DBZ's heyday on Toonami and posted the Toonami bumpers for him to watch (he was impressed by the Vegeta bumper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrAtzNHCF6A ) and he wished he could have been part of the experience back then.
Now, in a shocking turn of events, DB Kai is ON TOONAMI!!!! I know its not exactly the same, but who would have thought in 2010 that both would been coming back to Cartoon Network after 2012 (I was speechless with that April Fool's Toonami tease). Now, I'm curious about the next generation of DB fans after this one.

[Ringworm128]

I'd watched DBZ as early as 2000 but I started watching the series in whole starting Christmas 08.

[Dbzfan94]

I'd watched DBZ as early as 2000 but I started watching the series in whole starting Christmas 08.

That's my scenario as well. I caught bits and pieces of Freeza and Cell but Buu is when I got hooked for some reason

[Bullza]

I did. I recall seeing some of the episodes when it originally aired in UK, I think I was 9 or 10 and I remember seeing some episodes with SSJ Goku fighting Frieza but then I missed the episode where Frieza lost and got chopped in half and I just never bothered watching it again.

It wasn't until 2007 when all these anime sites and video streaming sites started to take off did I decide to watch it simply because I wanted to watch an anime and Dragon Ball Z was one of perhaps 4 or 5 anime that I knew.

I knew very little about it going into it a second time, I knew it was an anime, I knew Goku, Frieza, that Goku could turn blonde and that there was another series before Dragon Ball Z with Goku as a kid. That was literally all I knew about it.

[Esfír Dedragón]

I used to have Dish Network many years ago after the last Dragon Ball-related episode aired on Cartoon Network. Every once in a while, they would often give my family and I some foreign channels that we would have for a short while until they were removed. It was a way for them to convince us to pay a little extra if we wanted to have those channels.

There was one English speaking channel that was unique amongst the ones I was privileged to have. It was called "COLOURS TV" or something like that. All they would air was anime; some examples that I remember were Kodocha, Spiral, Negima, and Dragon Ball. This was, like, mid-to-late 2000's and they would show episodes from the first arc. I distinctly remember seeing Bulma flick off Pilaf for the first time. They certainly censored THAT when the same episode aired on Cartoon Network.

Sometimes, I wondered if someone got into Dragon Ball from that same channel during that time. I doubt it though, since they never showed all of the episodes. Then again, it was a temporary channel.

[Xeztin]

I watched the series in the early 2000's [2002-3] when it was being aired on Toonami. It was really hard for me not to know about the series because I had about 7 kids in my neighborhood running around screaming Kamehameha! There was a lot at school too that was into DBZ at the time, so it was very very hard to miss. Episodes that I missed, the original Budokai games had me covered story line wise. I remember buying the Goku's Legacy, Buu's Fury and GT Transformation GBA games when they first came out. I suppose Dragon Ball has been a part of my life ever since in some form or fashion. It's funny because the only series that were "cool" around here back then were Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu Yu Hakusho, and DBZ. How times have changed, but yea DBZ was the Holy Bible to kids around here.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

I grew up without cable, so my real introduction was when I began reading manga regularly, through Shonen Jump & the public library. circa 2007 or so (Specifically October 2007's DBZ blowout issue). I only saw the show (Kai's dub) in early 2014, & honestly only saw the Buu arc last year. Kai+Z+occasional bits of the dub, to see how badly they screwed it up.

[thomas1up]

Considering I was only about 4 when it aired here, it's safe to say I didn't grow up watching it. However, when I was 12 I decided to watch it subbed, fell in love with the series and watched it again 2 more times the following years. I'm glad I got to experience the series in Japanese first rather than dubbed as I would've had to deal with the constant changing voice actors and the early westwood dub (even if I love the ocean voice actors)