How was it watching a Dragonball series as the episodes aired?

[Anonymous Friend]

I only got to experience this before with the english dub back in to Toonami days. I had ine friend who was kind of into the show as well, but not as much as me. I didn't have a community to discuss things with back then.

Was anyone here around during any of the original shows airings in Japan?

No matter how many may feel about the overall quality of this series, I was a really cool experience to watch new episodes week after week.

[Kamiccolo9]

Can't speak for the original version, but rewatching Raditz to Ginyu ad infinitum got really, really old, really fast.

And then the Freeza stuff that came after was so mind-numbingly dull for me that I dropped the show when Garlic Junior rolled around. The Freeza fight was a nightmare, having to wait for episodes where nothing happened.

[KBABZ]

I personally have always wondered what this was like for the original Japanese airings. Spoilers from the manga aside, it must have been really frustrating to have the story inch forward at a snail's pace due to the one-episode-a-week schedule. Or maybe the franchise was so popular back then they didn't much care?

[MasenkoHA]

I personally have always wondered what this was like for the original Japanese airings. Spoilers from the manga aside, it must have been really frustrating to have the story inch forward at a snail's pace due to the one-episode-a-week schedule. Or maybe the franchise was so popular back then they didn't much care?

Running 52 episodes a year is better than running 52 episodes in 2 years like Saban/Funi did. And honestly at least Japanese viewers probably weren't getting too many spoilers. Since Dragon Ball Z ended in Japan before it even started in the U.S there was pretty much spoilers for the entire series (and GT!) by the time the internet became ubiquitous. Wading through the crappy filler and reruns when you know more interesting stuff was suppose to come was excruciating.

Oh wow all this stuff about Buu transforming and his different forms and absorbing the characters and Mystic Gohan and Vegetto sounds super cool! Oh but first we have this afterlife tournament filler arc, and these Saiyaman episodes, and the World Tournament arc and oh look finally Fat Buu oh we're only a few episodes in and the season has ended and we're going into reruns just when all the interesting stuff is suppose to start...

[sintzu]

I can only talk about Super as that's the one I saw. It was really fun and exciting as we got to see the plot unfold in front of us and try to guess what would come next. On the other hand the pacing and wait for each episode and arc was very annoying.

[KBABZ]

And honestly at least Japanese viewers probably weren't getting too many spoilers.

I disagree actually because of the ubiquity of the manga at the time. While I obviously wasn't there (born in NZ in the 90s), I can very much imagine that if you were watching the anime, chances were high that you were also reading the manga because the story was further ahead.

As a point of comparison, in Dragon Ball Krillin was killed by Tambourine in the manga shortly after the Baba Yaga Saga began in the anime, Piccolo Daimao is killed before Krillin's death in the anime, Goku is revealed to be an alien during the Heavenly Training filler arc, and the manga was also consistently done with the Tournaments before the anime started them. For DBZ we have the Vegeta Arc (where Yamcha, Chiaotzu and Tien are killed) ending in the manga during the Saiyan Training filler, 16-18 awakening at the end of the Garlic Jr. filler, Gohan going SS2 during the Cell Games filler, and Goku departing with Uub before the manga gets to Vegito! If you were reading the manga at the time, you were getting full-bore spoilers months before the anime covered them.

[dougo13]

Just watch One Piece. The current arc with Sanji's wedding is supposed to take place over the course of 3 days. It's been something like 8 months since we last saw the other half of the crew! So, much of DBZ was like that. Planet Nemek's destruction supposedly taking seconds is stretched out so lots of dialogue can be added. How many MONTHS of television did it take before it finally happens? Way too many...

[MasenkoHA]

Just watch One Piece. The current arc with Sanji's wedding is supposed to take place over the course of 3 days. It's been something like 8 months since we last saw the other half of the crew! So, much of DBZ was like that. Planet Nemek's destruction supposedly taking seconds is stretched out so lots of dialogue can be added. How many MONTHS of television did it take before it finally happens? Way too many...

Freeza vs Goku started on episode 87 and didn’t end until episode 104. There was four months of just Goku and Freeza fighting. By contrast Kai took two months.

[PacificOceanDub]

Watching DBZ on Toonami is one of my favorite memories from growing up. The fact that it was a serial hooked me from the beginning! I had never seen a cartoon that picked up where the last episode left off. Anyway, the constant re-runs of batches of episodes didn’t bother me nearly as much as it seems to have bothered others. I remember watching all of the Great Saiyaman stuff multiple times and not really minding, because I was 7 or 8 and it entertained me nonetheless.

I didn’t start watching religiously until Funi’s “Imperfect Cell Saga” so if I have one gripe, it’s that I wish I could have gone back and watched it diligently from the start. I had to do a lot of catching up by playing games like Budokai as a kid because I missed a lot of the early series.

[successoroffate]

It was Amazing. I was in loved with the show since day one. I identified myself quickly with Goku's personality, how noble he was as a kid (and still). Every episode was a roller coaster ride for me. It would air on my country Monday to Friday from 4:30 to 5PM. I would get extremely sad when they would not broadcast new episodes. I was on a hiatus for 2 years because of reruns until I made a family trip within my country and while staying at a hotel there was a channel broadcasting an episode that I've never seen before and I was happy again! it was the one where Goku was fighting his Doppleganger dummy while training to get stronger before his final showdown with Piccolo Daimao.

[Gligarman]

Frankly, watching DB and DBZ on Toonami was cool at first but after a while it became a chore. Not just because of the slow pacing, despite syndication, but mainly because of the poor dubbing and blatant censorship. Sadly streaming was not an option at the time and I couldn't afford to buy the DVDs.