Yeah, so did my country and most of Europe. I recall the series took off here around the Saiyan-Freeza arcs and not before.
I never said that. Just that it wouldnt be one of the most popular anime series in the world. I'd be at best as popular as Saint Seiya or YuYu Hakusho, which would still be pretty good, but way below than "Z" ended up being.Z may have been more popular but saying without it people would have never heard of Dragon Ball seems pretty clueless.
You’re right, I was actually mistaking ratings with Shonen Jump's readers polls from back in the day which showed that DB was at its most popular during the Freeza arc. My bad.Sorry chief, the numbers don’t back up your claim. Not only was Dragon Ball a hit from the word go it pulled better viewership ratings in its first half than all of Z.
Still, the Hunt for DBs and 21st TB arcs having much higher ratings than the likes of the Saiyan and Namek arcs, probably has to do with the former coming out in 1986 while the latter aired in 1990/1991. I wouldn't be surprised if Dr.Slump had better ratings when it aired than most of Dragon Ball, yet it's a way less popular series, even in Japan.
Without these three arcs, most western DB fans would never had heard of pre-Saiyan arc DB.
They wouldn't, since the fandom would be much smaller. Again, it'd be as popular as Seiya or YuYu Hakusho. Millions of fans who got into DB thorugh "Z" would never hear about the early arcs of the franchise in the first place.]They almost definitely would have