Am I the only one who feels like I missed out on Dragon Ball?

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

FYI, I'm 14, and I've had these feelings for quite some time. Think about it. I wasn't around to see either the original Japanese or American broadcasts of the three series, I was a baby when Dragon Ball Kai came out, and I only got into Dragon Ball after Super ended its original Japanese run via Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters. I wasn't around to read the manga either or get much, if any, merchandise. Excluding video games, the only Dragon Ball merchandise I have is some shirts and a SSJ Blue Goku statue for 6 year olds. Not to mention that I never got to play any of the Dragon Ball games before Xenoverse 2, and the only games I got to play were Dragon Ball Devolution, the Legacy of Goku games, and Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butouden via emulation. As you may or may not know, Ultimate Butouden became my favorite Dragon Ball game.

TL;DR, I feel like I missed out on Dragon Ball and I don't know how to shake these feelings off.

[Vijay]

Well, you can always start jumping into DragonBall anytime you wish

Its cool your just 14 & yet got into Kanzenshuu. Its suprising how you're keen in getting to knw abt DB while most teenagers in ya age tend to lean towards latest series. But you've said how u missed out certain portions of the franchise. Try startin off with og DB if you've got time. Tbh, the pandemic lckdwn 2 years back would've been perfect for you to binge-watch the entire show

But you're 14, hopefully your online classes/exams schedule aren't tight so you can always watch an episode or 2 every other day

[Aim]

This is like some of us saying we missed out because we grew up on it in the 2000s, you haven’t missed out. You’re in a day and age where Dragon Ball is still growing and there’s a manga out continuing the series. Although the artist is subpar, it’s still exciting. There have probably been huge DB fans from the 80s who died in the late 90s or 2000s and have missed out on what we got. Basically what I’m trying to say is it doesn’t matter. You can easily experience what they got to experience by downloading the releases with BA on from certain groups and watching it on your TV. That’s what I did, I’m gonna go through and watch Dragon Ball again. The music, the entire feel makes you feel like you’re in the 80s, for full experience watch it on a tv. Connect your computer to the tv so you get the subtitles as well.

[ABED]

I get that feeling. It's great feeling like you are part of something as it happens for the first time. I would have loved to have seen Star Wars in 1977 before anyone knew what it was.

[PurestEvil]

I mean, it's not like you made the conscious decision to be born before you were old enough to watch DB Kai on your own.
Considering how you actually managed to watch all of DB anyways, you definitely did not miss anything

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I mean i have that same sort of feeling toward certain things too, granted i happened to have been born at the right time (early '90s) and thus got to experience such things as Dragon Ball/Z/GT and Pokemon when they were at their most massive heights of popularity here and during their respective dub runs on TV. Then there's things that were from before my time that i wish i would've been able to have experienced such as MTV (formerly Music Television) at it's height as a purely music video themed channel or the original Star Wars trilogy films during their initial theatrical runs from 1977-1983. The kinds of things that my parents grew up on which were really big during their childhoods and tween/teenage years.

[KentMan]

I get that feeling. It's great feeling like you are part of something as it happens for the first time. I would have loved to have seen Star Wars in 1977 before anyone knew what it was.

After seeing what kind of guys they turned out to be and what they did to Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd. No thank you I could never tolerate such bullying and hate they had for others. But back on topic yeah I’m in the sorta same boat or rather I never read the manga from the beginning and the end until a couple years ago. My goodness was that art that Toriyama drew good I was very impressed. I wish I was there when it was still ongoing.

[Cursed Lemon]

I hear that. Not being able to participate in a thing in its prime is disappointing, the community is half the experience. My favorite band of all time is Queen and Freddie Mercury died before I even knew who they were (I'm 35, for the record), so I'll never get to see them perform live as a whole band. I did, however, grow up right as DBZ was overtaking the States in popularity and that was a fun time, navigating all the disjointed DB communities online, the web rings, the silly factoids that got passed around for DB media that hadn't made it across the pond yet ("holy crap Nappa had hair once!"), so on and so forth. You'll probably find another thing you like and you'll get to enjoy it right from the getgo, I'm sure.

[MetaMoss]

Yeah, I remember having similar feelings of missing out on the heyday of some of the stuff I was into, notably the 80's era of Transformers. The only DB thing I'm really disappointed in missing the boat on was getting a full set of Funimation's Dragon Boxes when those were reasonably priced.

But on the flip side, being a latecomer gives you an opportunity that wasn't available for us fans from back in the day: an absolutely massive corpus of Dragon Ball material that is readily available enough for you to explore at your own leisure, as well as a robust and storied fan community that you can plug into if you'd like some recommendations or guidance on where to go with your exploration, not to mention resources (such as this here site) that can help deepen your understanding and appreciation of this series by providing you with greater context.

By all means, if you're wondering what it was like to be a fan back when DB was more new, you're at perhaps the best forum to have that question answered. But there will be as many answers as however many people respond, because each and every one of our journeys with Dragon Ball is it's own unique thing. You have the tools to make your own journey with Dragon Ball the best it can be for yourself, and while it won't be trading fansubs in the 90's or watching the Toonami run in the 00's or being excited for the revival in the 10's, it will still be its own awesome thing that you will able to tell stories about in the years to come.

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

Say, did any of you guys create Dragon Ball fanfiction growing up? Because I sure as hell did, and I even made two "animated" fanfiction series; one of which is still ongoing and has even gotten into its second season!

[mute_proxy]

Say, did any of you guys create Dragon Ball fanfiction growing up? Because I sure as hell did, and I even made two "animated" fanfiction series; one of which is still ongoing and has even gotten into its second season!

I used to draw DB comics all the time, full notebooks, but almost all of them had no text or text bubbles, I had the dialogs in my head lol.

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

Say, did any of you guys create Dragon Ball fanfiction growing up? Because I sure as hell did, and I even made two "animated" fanfiction series; one of which is still ongoing and has even gotten into its second season!

I used to draw DB comics all the time, full notebooks, but almost all of them had no text or text bubbles, I had the dialogs in my head lol.

Sounds like you had some fun doing that

I also used to make comics in my spare time

[VegettoEX]

I missed out on 60s/70s prog-rock, but that's not stopping me from jumping in head first! I actually like things I wasn't necessarily around for, because the world is my oyster.

I will say that part of my (our) goal with Kanzenshuu is to make you feel like you've always been a part of the fandom, whatever "fandom" means to you.

I want to tell people about the fansub days, how people talked to each other before message boards (nevermind social media), what existed before FUNimation, what resources exist in Japanese and what they actually say, and everything in between and up until now. It probably (read: definitely) sounds a little arrogant, but I actually see my role as someone who's been around so long as pretty essential: I can be the one to say "that's not true, I was there, here's what happened". But I don't see it as a constantly nagging source of correction... It's weird to try to put this in words. I actually think those of you that follow Kanzenshuu can probably explain it better than even I can.

[Xell]

At risk of sounding like an old fart - You have to keep in mind that you are talking to a fair few people on this forum who are deeply nostalgic and look back on the days when they were 14. Just try to enjoy it!

Besides, you have witnessed Dragonball's recent resurgence in relevance and popularity with Super, as well as various video games and movies. Whilst you did miss out on that original explosion from the late 90s to mid 2000s, you've been able to experience the revival!

[Koitsukai]

You are always going to feel that way about something. Sports, TV shows, historical events, you shouldn't dwell on it, in fact you might enjoy that everything is now available and you do not depend on a TV station's schedule. Back in the day, you'd have to wait ages to just get to the android arc, and be Indiana Jones to get ahold of GT.

You might think you missed on the chit chat and the excitment of the following episode while the show was on the air, but... really it's been 25 years and we are debating the same beats over and over lol, only now there's DBS to talk about, too.

I think you have a pretty sweet deal. The show is still there, the manga is still ongoing, movies are still coming out, videogames come out every year, and hopefully the anime will return too.

So, yeah, it sucks to not have witnessed the "birth" or whatever, but at least you can see the product as an adult, now.

[Majin Buu]

I want to tell people about the fansub days, how people talked to each other before message boards (nevermind social media)

As a fan of Japanese Dragon Ball, I feel like I missed out on the fansub experience. For as inconsistent and inaccurate as the subs could be, I would have liked to have had that as one of my formative experiences as a fan. The closest thing I have to that is getting the International Channel around 2003 or 2004 and watching the tail end of the Buu arc unsubbed (with fansubs printed out from the DBZOA), at which point I had already been a Dragon Ball fan for a good couple years and had watched the majority of the Z dub (between what the Ocean Dub covered and Funi's in-house dub from "Season 3" to the latter half of the Buu arc).

Same with the early web community experience (for as bad as it got at its worst). I frequently visited Dragon Ball websites but never took part in message boards so I feel like more of a bystander to that era than an active participant.

[ChronoTwigger]

Reading the replies is fun. I experienced all the people are quoting! Yeah, I'm probably along the older users here.

At a given point in time, a number of kids and guys were all about Dragon Ball. Please don't misunderstand me. Not ALL people around, but a very small fraction of nerds. In fact at the time manga and anime were a male, nerdy exclusive.
Forget forums, girls, anime culture, streaming, publications and all the millennial aptitude of replicating the SAME comment to feel smart ("All: / Me: Yesss" - 700k likes, I never understood why).
There was only you, a comic shop and a number of pals you'll play kicking each other asses figuring out to be powerfull warriors like Vegeta, Piccolo or whoever. There wasn't any science of DB, no actual computing of power levels and no extra materials.

Then... Internet.

This was probably the moment DB ramped on the peak of his hype and become a commercial monster in Europe. DB manga was so successfull that you cannot figure out. DB tropes, parodies and merchandise everywhere. The day DB manga was sold first in my country I was in the National Comics Fair. The **ENTIRE STADIUM** full of people stopped walking, reached for the seats, start reading Dragon ball and laughing at the same time. Like dragged by a magnetic force. A show I'll always remember with a smile.
Despite what you can think, DB wasn't the best show, and many artists, writers and comic artists of renown were against it, and for a reason. There was too much of it. And had consequences on people taste on other products.

DBZ was broadcasted. And DBZ is even more perfect to play "ass kicking acting". Orphans of Hokuto no Ken massively turned to DBZ.
The apparently easy drawing style allowed people of any age to grab it, and for most people to copycarbon Goku and variants. A lot of artists began by emulating Toriyama art.
Even more, the plot of DBZ is so "scarce" in density that everyone can figure out new stories. It was very easy to dress orange, tint your pal green and have a strange adventure against any alien you can figure out.
DB imaginary was wide, open and familiar, and the story of anyone flying, fighting, teleporting... was very easy to empathize with. Who doesn't dream of flying and reach any distance?

As every bubble, DBZ... just popped. People were too exhausted to follow the same tropes once again, kids pretending grown adult and there was another incoming success that changed the entire universe.
EVANGELION.
Evangelion was DB killer, as introduced to the anime wave one segment of the market with absolute power on any nerd.
Girls.
As girls aren't so much driven to shonen (guess why), the world twisted to a new direction. Instead of debating who was the stronger, you debated who was the most contrived, what actually Shinji mean and WTF the entire story was about. Nerds tried to finally have sex with such girls, and forgot about shonen stuff to debate on prissy stuff.

So, what you missed?
More than the story, you missed a cultural boom that had great pikes and terrible moments.
If you like me hate people continually debate on asbtract subjects like "power levels", like that was the purpose of following a story, you'll understand how bad that period was. Continual debates that drag to infinity when is clear that "he's more powerfull!" mean nothing the moment you can shake dimensions.

There was also a regressive education on quality. DB teached the same japanese industry that showing two kids bashing each other is the whole entertaiment people want. So, Japan knowhow on plot devising regressed a lot. That's why quality on writing is so scarce today and you see many show simply die after a while; new writers are unable to keep up a decent narrative. They aren't teached about.

By reading Dragon Ball starting right now you'll probably see that original DB is quite fun, more "dirty" and imperfect than recent shonen. Is also less based on duels to determine who's right and who's not. Enemies are evil monsters to bash out. It's a magical adventure.
You will not find anyone that want to stage fights in the park, so the experience will be way more personal, and spare you from the worst side of that nerd culture I've told you.

DBZ surely will hit you by his smart pacing. There's a continual sens of danger, of some twist coming. The continual front change was perfectly timed. It's hard to find something alike in the new generation of shonen. It was very well written on such sense (not on a prosaic sense, but on a structural sense).
So, DBZ will be surely fun to you even as an individual experience.

Whatever came next, to me can be simply ignored. You don't need to be knowledgeable as many people do there to enjoy the franchise, you don't need to learn to know all the spin off data, and mostly you don't need to step in the war of those claiming that you have to understand power levels to get the most out of DB.
Keep your experience personal, the community isn't about who know the most, but just to share a passion or ideas.

[Magnificent Ponta]

Yeah, a lot of the sentiments in this thread feel familiar.

While finding stuff out about the series and discussing it in the early 00's was a lot of fun (along with the progressive feeling of satisfaction as more information became available, particularly through official channels), Dragon Ball was already well over before I even knew it was a thing; I was picking over a dead thing and the delving that felt like such a rush at the time was kind of like doing an autopsy, in retrospect - once the in-universe debates and whatnot had been done, it felt like there wasn't really anything else to say.

But on the upside, like others have said, in the present day Dragon Ball is alive again, and discussion can be about a living, developing thing again, and I appreciate having that opportunity, which wasn't there for me the last time around. It's not at the same level of quality as its peak, obviously, and the broader context is different as the world has moved on, but if you're talking about capturing the basic feeling of being part of a still-emerging Dragon Ball experience, the present day is as close as it gets - take the time to enjoy it!

[WittyUsername]

I got into the series through Toonami, so I guess I missed out on being part of the initial wave of Western fans who watched the fansubs and hated the changes FUNimation made. That seems like it was an interesting time to be an English speaking Dragon Ball fan.

[Anonymous Friend]

I didn't miss out in all the craze when everything exploded in the late 90s/early00s. But I did miss all the discussions and whatnot both online and IRL. I was the only one I knew who was into anime at the time. It wasn't till around 06/07 that I found my first Dragonball related forum.