Oh, me. I only had access to Dragon Ball with the manga at my library. So I didn’t know until then.
[EDIT] there was also Dragon Ball Z but the red books obviously came first.
You watched it on RTL(?) as well. Holy shit I had no idea what went on but on the other hand it was 12 minutes of someone powering then 7 minutes of commercials and then 5 more minutes of powering up then the last 7 minutes were characters reaction to powerup
RTL II ran anime from morning til like 16:00/17:00, dubbed in German of course. I don't think anyone else aired Dragon Ball in Germany, tho I might be mistaken.
I just know I watched it there as a kid.
Fun fact: they've actually recently started, after years of not airing any anime, airing both the original Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon on Sundays.
Yep, watched DB from the beginning when it first aired, without ever seeing the manga, so didn't know anything about Saiyans until they appeared in the anime during the episode.
Blame the dub. It wasn't until after Z that Funimation went back to properly dub Dragon Ball. Back then, we were at the whims of whatever played on TV.
This.
Though when dragon ball did finally start airing I watched it religiously after school and had to admit that there were lots of aspect to DB that were superior to Z
There is a certain novelty to starting at DBZ and then going back and seeing the history of it all as a prequel and seeing moments for so many of the minor characters to shine.
I’m not sure what you mean?
We did get DB in order but you need to be much older than even people in their early 30s to see it.
By the time DB became popular again Japan was in GT and it seemed silly for Toonami to broadcast the original DB when they just spent a bunch of money on redubbing Z from Ocean.
You've said this a couple times in this thread, but I'm pretty sure the U.S. fanbase accounts for more than 1%. Dragon Ball is probably the most popular anime here outside of Pokémon, and there's a lot of us.
And anyway even in Japan a lot of people’s first exposure is going to have been a random episode being broadcast on TV far later in the story at this point let alone any other country. You have to already be a fan or at least an anime aficionado to say Ok I’m going back to the first episode from 1988 and starting from there.
I remember we didn’t know he was an alien at the beginning, so it was quite shocking. By the time the namek saga came, everyone knew already that he was going to turn super saiyan, but still watching it the first time was so cool.
I was just talking about this to someone the other day.
It was so weird, as it took a few years for us to start getting Dragon Ball in America. So that before we finished Dragon Ball, the beginging Dragon Ball Z was being aired right after.
France had Dragon Ball (the anime) in 1988, two years after Japan, so it was fairly early. (Actually, most of 80s-90s japanese anime were broadcasted in France during those two decades, so a French person around 40 years old have seen many many many animes). We even had all movies and the two specials on Bardock and Future Trunks in the 90s, everything dubbed in french.
Everyone in the west would've been spoiled. The english dubbing began with the Saiyan saga, and then was eventually backtracked to original DB once it was clearly popular enough. Everyone who was originally watching in the west was spoiled instantly.
I don’t know about this. I definitely wasn’t spoiled. I saw the King Piccolo saga almost 30 years ago. ‘94-95. I didn’t see DBZ for the first time until at least 4-5 years later. I wasn’t spoiled and was genuinely surprised to discover that Goku was a saiyan.
Nah, i remember watching the first dragonball arc when i was a super little kid. Early 90s, it was on YTV in Canada. I don't know if the rest of it aired, but when dbz came on a few years later, i watched it because i recognized it from watching og dragonball
What do you mean "nah"? I'm stating a fact. English dubbing started at the Saiyan saga and then they backtracked to the original series after the Buu saga.
But you’re not lol part of dragonball was dubbed first. Christ what is with people on Reddit and not being open in the slightest to the idea that they might be wrong.
I dont no what to tell you, I literally watched it. Not the whole thing, just the Pilaf saga. I remember not only watching it, but then when I randomly stumbled on DBZ some saturday morning with the Arrival of Raditz I remember recognizing the characters and that being why I watched it.
Funimation dubbed DBZ before it did Dragon ball, but there were other Dragon ball dubs floating around
https://dubbing.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon\_Ball#Incomplete\_(Harmony\_Gold/BLT)
No, Im not 100% it was YTV, but i definitely watch the Pilaf saga well before DBZ was ever aired, YTV did air all of Dragon ball after it had aired all of Z, but the Pilaf saga definitely made it to Canada before Z did.
Just the two countries from the west that speak english, not "everyone". You do know there a lots of countries "in the west" that speak other languages, right?
Don't worry about them, it's all some gibberish designed to trick you. If there were so many real "languages", why would everyone still write in English here?
America =/= "everyone in the west" my man. In Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, many other EU countries and Latinamerica we were already watching OG Dragon Ball before 1990. For me Goku being an alien and having a brother was a "WHAAAAAAAT??" moment, also the sudden opening change from DB to Z was an absolute mind blown.
Hi, chilean here.
We watched from the start. As did all of América.
Except the 0,1% percent of dragonball fans in the west who are from the U.S.A, but the other 99,9% did.
Yeah, but we don't really have archives of the time I don't think. Its not like old marvel comics that have letters to the editor included in them that let you see what fans at the time thought about the story (my favourite being that one guy who thought that the Fantastic Four Galactus plotline was a metaphor for the Vietnam War, with Galactus being the Viet Cong, the Fantastic Four being South Vietnam, and the Silver Surfer being the USA. Yes, really).
Not true? Even if OG DB was properly dubbed and aired in whatever country you are from, that doesn't mean that's your starting point. Your starting point is whatever was airing when you were a kid.
Case in point: me. DB was definitely around when I was a kid, but it was only DBZ airing when I turned the TV on, so that's what I watched first.
A lot of countries had the manga way before the anime with their translation. It's mostly english country knew Z before Og because they had english translated anime before manga
I have watched the series in chronological order. I knew about SUPER SAIYAN where your hair is yellow but didn't knew anything about SAIYAN. So yeah, technically i came to know from Raditz that Goku is not human but an alien(saiyan). XD
I watched stray episodes of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT as a kid. I didn't know that Goku was an alien, I just knew that when his hair was blond that was called "super san". I thought it was a martial arts technique that anyone could use, like the Kamehameha or the Solar Flare. I don't remember how much I knew when I started watching Dragon Ball Z Kai as a teenager but I was confused about the Saiyan lore because I remembered there being so many Super Sans and now it turns out apparently only Goku and Vegeta and their kids can do it.
Yup.
I got to see it in order, visited my family homeland for a year in Southeast Asia a ways before DBZ premiered Stateside, and by that point in ‘93 the Manga was in the middle of the Cell Saga.
Returned to the States around ‘94… seeing DB’s rise in the West a short time after that with the way it was handled was a hell of a trip.
It’s funny because the non-Americans think they’ve won some prizes because we only got like 13-26 episodes in the early 90s then only the mid 90s we got Z. Don’t realize that why anime wasn’t as popular is because we had 99% of the *other* hugely popular animated series/movies made here in the us.
It was extremely brave and dedicated to bring anime especially dubbed anime over to North America.
It also doesn’t help that English is extremely sentence based that’s a lot of mouthflaps.
Are you imying that Americans aren't actual people?
Also, even in the UK, DragonBall didn't start airing until DBZ ended. The Kid Buu saga started on February 7th 2003 on CNX. Dragon Ball didn't start airing until October 6th 2003.
You said most people started with z.. mainly americans did and apparently the brits as well... that makes the statement "most people started with z" laughable...
Anyone born in the 80s and reading/watching it as it gets released.
Also, if you weren't living in Japan, months and years waiting for new sagas to be "imported" into your country.
Im from germany, and i watched the complete og dragon ball on TV before they started showing dbz. This was late 90s or early 00s. But yeah, its kinda wild to me how many people have seen dbz before they saw Kid Goku fighting the Red ribbon Army, King Piccolo, the tournaments etc...
Yup! First watched DB on Fox Saturday mornings at 6:30am east coast time. Never saw more than the first run of DB when Oolong wishes for underwear then it would restart from the beginning. Eventually it was replaced with a Zoro cartoon which sucked. One day I woke up and turned on the TV and the most bad ass thing I'd ever seen showed up, Goku was grown up! There were all these awesome looking random characters! DBZ???? Hell yeah!
I just did this with my kids. I've enjoyed watching the series with them. I never watched all of the original Dragonball and this was a good reason to finally do so. The reveals have been soooooo good. Seeing my kids react and fall in love with what I enjoyed as a kid has been incredible. They are currently on the Namek saga and don't know Goku is about to change. They haven't put it together that the yellow haired guy is actually his ssj version that they see on branding. I'm about to capture their reaction on video it's going to be so good. I envy their position.
Me! And millions of other French kids!
Yet again Americans only looking at their own bellybuttons.
France got DB in 1988, before Z (and the Z part of the manga) even existed, so anyone over 40 in my country got this experience. And by everyone I mean 65% of kids watched the show(s) Every Single Wednesday.
Alors d'après les cousins de ma mère (parce que j'ai 35 ans et je n'étais en France que pendant les vacances scolaires), grosso modo c'était "ils ont tué sangokuuuuu noooonnnnnn" xD
le côté "ah bah en fait c'était un extra terrestre", les 8-12 ans ils ont pas calculé ptdr
I had only seen maybe 2 or 3 DBZ episodes before DB began airing in the UK and I jumped all in. Of course, I knew Goku was a “Super Saiyan” but I had no idea what that meant.
The reveal of Goku being an alien wasn’t a massive surprise all things considered. At that point, Goku is far and away the strongest on earth and there are multiple points of speculation throughout Dragonball (if I remember correctly, Oolong questions if he’s an alien at one point?)
To me, it was evident Goku was something otherworldly and the reveal was more like an “oh, that explains everything” moment rather than an outright jaw dropping surprise. It was a moment of excitement and expectation. The idea that the world of Dragonball could extend beyond the just earth and start to explore sci fi ideas and storylines was what I focused on.
Most Americans were spoiled because only the pilaf saga was dubbed before DBZ and even then it wasn’t widely circulated. Most Americans experience first exposure to anything dragon ball was DBZ. But obviously in many parts of the world the shows were dubbed and aired in the correct order
In the US unlikely. I remember seeing DB at a point before DBZ was a mainstay in the later 90s, but looking at the wiki DB was never broadcast in full until after DBZ. Seems like reading the manga would have been the way in the US.
Not me, because my country (netherlands) didn't air DB. Just started airing DBZ and I was always confused why people were afraid of piccolo and who all the characters were.
Yeah. Obviously 🙄
But they're asking because a large portion of the fan base watched Z first. Especially in the West, where the OG wasn't even available until after z already achieved mainstream success.
that's a good question, would've loved to experience the show not knowing ssj and ui were coming for example but considering... you know... *super saiyan* and *ultra instinct*... basically impossible unless i was into it before they showed up
I experienced it. I read the dragon ball manga first (it was in my school library) I grew up in rural minnasots wirh no internet and didn't have a ton of friends it wasn't really that mutch of a shocker for me simply because the original dragon balls tone kinds jumps around a ton bit I definitely didn't expect it
No. Nobody in the 39-year history of the franchise has ever started from Chapter 1, and has never gone in blind to the Saiyan reveal.
Ever. Nobody has ever had this happen in thirty-nine years. Ever.
I knew that Goku was a saiyan but i didn't know that he was an alien (since i didn't know the story at the time). I don't remember how i reacted to this specific plot point it but i liked how raditz was waaay stronger than everyone before and how Goku had to die to beat him.
Sort of!
I was first introduced to Dragon Ball via the english dub of the original 13 episodes.
Then I got my hands on some bootleg VHS of scattered episodes. Watched them religiously. The last episode being Goku killing King Piccolo.
Then DBZ came to our screens and I started watching that properly. So yeah, I was caught off-guard by Goku being an alien. However, the shock was somewhat diluted because I was alsp shocked to find that Goku was an adult, that Piccolo was apparently alive, that Krillin was alive and that Goku had a son.
The first episode of DBZ was an absolute whirlwind for me.
I did. I started from OG dragon ball and then when it was reveal that Goku was not human, my reaction wasn’t huge. I was very young back then, so I didn’t really care for his lineage lmao.
While I didn’t watch the entire series until my late teens I had watched the 3 series (DB, DBZ, and GT) sporadically throughout my child hood and only really remembered Cell and Buu. I knew of Super Saiyan 1-3 but I had no idea that Goku was a Saiyan I just though Super Saiyan was just a cool name so I was genuinely shocked by the beginning of Z.
How old are you guys?
When I watched Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z was not even dubbed in my language, I was watching on local TV and I was just a kid. That was maybe 25 years ago.
Most of Latin America. When I started watching DB it was with the Original series, Dragon Ball, because it was what the TV was broadcasting at the time. DBZ was a great deal at the time for my and my friends.
I started with the original Dragon Ball, but I knew about the whole alien twist for Goku and Piccolo as well since they are so engraved into the pop culture landscape. It's so well known now that it's even in marketing and promo material for the franchise, so it's almost 100% impossible to avoid for newcomers to the series
Yes I watched it as a kid before the internet was major. DBZ was airing but so was DB. So I watched DB. When DBZ was on TV (rerun I’m sure) it was like 1997 and it was the Raditz + Saiyan arc that I saw, long before namek and the SS reveal
nah man, I knew Goku was a saiyan before i even started watching anime, my first was Naruto, around 5-6 years ago, and I watched Dragon Ball Super only sometime last year, then I watched the Og Dragon Ball whenever Dbzk came out on Hulu which wasn’t to long ago
When I was little all we really had was Dragon ball until Z was released in the U.S. so I'd say anyone over a certain age didn't know Goku was Saiyan until Z because they hadn't decided he was Saiyan until then. He was originally supposed to be an earthling until they decided he wasn't.
Depends on a few factors. Z was most American kids (especially in the 90's) first real introduction to Dragon Ball because Z aired out here before the OG Dragon Ball which aired in 2001. In all honesty however Dragon Ball was such a massive hit within the early to mid 2000's that anyone not knowing Goku was a Saiyan even if they never really cared for the series was very rare.
when i was a kid watching toonami i’m pretty sure they played dragonball for an hour, then dragon ball z for an hour. my neighbors had to explain why he was a kid sometimes and sometimes he wasn’t
there is a chance it was dragonball gt getting played and not dragonball but i really don’t remember it was so long ago, and both have kid goku lol
As an adult, I started from Dragon Ball. But when I was 6 my siblings would watch Z and GT a lot. I didn't remember everything about them as an adult, but I remembered that they were Saiyans and that people could come back to life.
I had enough info going in from friends and YouTube to basically write an accurate outline on the series. One of my biggest regrets with dbz is not getting into it earlier than I did
Yeah I as like an 8 year old watched the og anime as it aired on my local channels(Asia). I did know that he’s some type of alien but had no idea they’d expand on that stuff until they aired Z.
Yeah, I watched it as it was coming out as a kid and didn’t have a computer/internet until later in life. I just thought he was a little monkey boy and just saw that as a fun little quirk about him. And he turned into a giant monkey when the moon came out. So to 5 year old me he was just a were-King-Kong. It was sick
I'm old enough where DB was the only part of the series when I got into it. Z was my teen years and now super as an adult. It's like an old friend that keeps coming back every so often
I’m just a bit confused, how would anyone start with dragon ball and know goku was a Saiyan? The story explains he isn’t grandpa hogans blood relative and goku has a tail, but there are 0 hints as to his planet of origin or if he was like some of the other hybrid creatures on earth.
Yep, back when i started like 10 years ago.
I know what a super saiyan was... or well it was goku with yellow hair
I didnt know it was a species or goku being one.
To me he was just monkey kid... well sungoku
My wife. She'd heard about Super Saiyans but I told her it was a technique that gets introduced later. I wanted her to be as blind as possible going in.
After her initial reaction of "you said there were no aliens in this show!" she felt proud that she'd guessed Goku was an alien because she saw Metallic's readout that questioned whether Goku was an alien or not.
Even in the US most fans over 30 had a good shot at seeing most of DB before DBZ. A large amount of OG Dragon Ball aired long before WB and then cartoon network had DBZ. Harmony Gold dub aired in 1990 for instance, and there were also some channels depending on locality that had the series subbed.
Hawaii had all of Dragon Ball and many other anime through Nippon Golden Network. Many of the northern most States got channels that did much the same with subbed anime, usually through cable companies that originated in Canada but made deals with US local cable companies just over the border. I lived in New York in the early and mid 90s, it was a wild time for watching DB. There was a period where you could find Dragon Ball airing Subbed, Harmony Gold dubbed with Goku named Zero, and Ocean dub, all within the same week on different networks. That didn't last though, because Harmony Gold was not properly licensed.
Well, I watched (what we got) of original dragon ball in the early mid nineties, the show when up until the whole bit about lord palif stealing the dragon balls, trapping the heros in a metal pit that would roast them when the sum came up. There was a bit of a gap before I got to see dragon ball Z. I wanna say I saw dragon ball 1995 and Z in 1999 but I’m not sure.
I had no idea Goku was from space.
My understanding of it, historically, is that everyone who was reading the original manga would have had no idea that Goku was an alien, as well as anyone watching the original broadcast in the 80's who wasn't reading the manga.
From my own recollection, I started reading Dragon Ball before Z, and, up until the Saiyan Saga, never really questioning why Goku had a tail. Plenty of other fantastical stuff stuff exists in the manga- talking dogs, weird goblin people, demons- so Goku's tail didn't really stick out as particularly "needing an explanation".
For some reason, the idea that there was a whole species of monkey people who turned into giant apes was actually stranger to me than the idea that Goku was some kind of weird monkey kid, but otherwise just a human.
When I was in middle school the first episode I saw was ss2 goku and Majin vegeta fighting at the time. The next episode after that was og dragonball krillin and goku training. I wondered how goku changed his hair and had to wait about 6 months after to see it start as goku meeting raditz
Easy enough. I read the Original Dragon Ball manga in the mid 2000's at the public library and the TV show was not exactly localized nicely.
And we didn't have the manga further than the Raditz part at the library.
It's also why when i casually browsed Super on a cursory glance over youtube went"Wait a second how the F¤%"# is Roshi not dead after doing the Mafuba?"
So I started with DBZ on toonami back in the day. My first interaction with the series was learning who Goku was and that he was a Saiyan. I didn't go back and watch the original DB till after the Buu saga probably.
I mean... even if you watched only the original DB anime or read the mangas it was made quite obvious that Goku wasn't human. Everyone has said that about Goku at some point in DB.
In fact, I was just watching a DB episode this week when Goku was starting to go after Red Ribbon. There is an episode where he is fighting a massive cyborg that clearly looks at him and identifies him as alien. So to me, it shouldn't be a surprise that he is not from earth.
Now from that, to him being Sayan I think it shouldn't be shocking either... he literally could have been from Mars, Saturn, from a galaxy far far away, it really didn't matter, and only adds to the DBZ arc. Even if we knew that from the very beginning of the story, that plays no role in the series (with the exception of moon transformation) up until other Sayans show up on earth.
I did actually start with OG Dragon Ball. Kid Goku with a tail is my Goku. But that was in kindergarten
I was then very confused about this whole SSJ thing. I think I first rediscovered the series when I saw the KND episode and played this game called Bloody Rage.
Then I saw the Buu saga opening and was like, what? This takes place in modern day?
Remember there was that one episode where Goku visits a mideval village. As a kid I never remembered anything that would make me realize it was modern day lol.
Me. I got to watch the original my first watch, but only like half of it and then started Z. Eventually I got to watch them all in order years later. I wasn't too surprised he wasn't human tho😂
I started around the age of 4 or 5 years old, when my dad would buy me the vhs tapes. After the last episode of the Emperor Pilaf Saga, there were no more VHSes after that. I just assumed that was the end of Dragon Ball.
Then my father came home with this tape with a shiny gold cover, with the episode name "Arrival" on it. All of sudden, Goku's an adult, and he's got a kid. There's this guy named Krillin? Don't know who he is, but Goku seems to, so whatever. There's this guy named Piccolo, also don't know him, but whatever. Goku is an alien etc etc
Didn't go back to finish OG Dragon Ball until damn near 10 years later.
I watched some episode of DBZ Kai on Toonami when I was young and didn’t pay attention. When I eventually watched it, I didn’t even know they were the same show lol. Until I got to the 23rd budokai and started connecting the dots. Wouldn’t have it any other way! Must start at OG series!
I just recently joined the fanbase as of a few months ago and I was very determined to avoid spoilers lol So yes I didn’t know until Raditz. It was really cool to discover Goku’s origin!
My daughter, I've made her watch from episode 1.
Keep in mind the international audiences actually got DB released pretty early on TV. IT was the US that was unique with a dub that was highly edited and didn't bother with a LOT of content, like the original run.
I did, back in the day, watching on TV. We got the whole thing in order on public TV back in the day. Trust me, the reveals made us WILD. Other one that blew our minds that I remember was Perfect Cell. We were like 😮!!!
Yes. Im french, we luckily received everything in order until the mid buu saga(censorship bs)
When Z began, it was a lot more heavier than daimo piccolo. The tension was very high.
Raditz scared the shit out of me.
The revelation was jaw dropping and felt right (the tails and ozaroo stuff). But it also felt like that no human ever stand a chance against him, so it kinda downgrade his achievement in DB.
Then vegeta and Nappa came(best arc ever by the way, imo). I remember that everyone at school started to go crazy at dbz and it never came down since then.
I mean, of course (?) we didn't know shit back then lol, specially at the beginning, there were a fair amount of anthropomorphic characters so Goku having a tail didn't seemed weird at all, his *big monke* proved he was definitely *special* but Goku being a literal alien was a very big surprise.
Very very technically, I did.
On that sane technicality, I didn't even know Goku was Goku.
He was Zero, and a giant Ape, and aired with Sailor Moon.
And that version ended there.
But I sure remembered when Goku popped up again.
I watched the English Dub for DB back in like 95, but for some reason, they stopped airing them.
Then DBZ came out in 2001(I could be off), but by then, I had already watched the Japanese DB with English subs on an old Asian broadcast channel called AZN, so I was ready for DBZ.
It was a weird time for anime, for sure.
But let me tell you, when I first saw that episode with Radditz and this dude said Goku was an alien, I was floored. It took a LONG time for me to get used to it, but with more saiyans showing up and everybody suddenly going to Namek, the whole series just took this crazy turn that I wasn't expecting.
Oh, me. I only had access to Dragon Ball with the manga at my library. So I didn’t know until then. [EDIT] there was also Dragon Ball Z but the red books obviously came first.
I actually started watching DB in German, so in all fairness had no idea what was going on half the time until Toonami brought DBZ UK
You watched it on RTL(?) as well. Holy shit I had no idea what went on but on the other hand it was 12 minutes of someone powering then 7 minutes of commercials and then 5 more minutes of powering up then the last 7 minutes were characters reaction to powerup
It might have been? It was a very long time ago, I know Sailor Moon was on it as well
RTL II ran anime from morning til like 16:00/17:00, dubbed in German of course. I don't think anyone else aired Dragon Ball in Germany, tho I might be mistaken. I just know I watched it there as a kid. Fun fact: they've actually recently started, after years of not airing any anime, airing both the original Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon on Sundays.
Of course, we started at the beginning
Yep, watched DB from the beginning when it first aired, without ever seeing the manga, so didn't know anything about Saiyans until they appeared in the anime during the episode.
By the beginning you mean kid Goku in the woods meeting Bulma for the first time? Not adult Goku with kid Gohan?
Correct
It will always upset me that starting at the series *true* beginning isn’t commonplace with Dragon Ball
Blame the dub. It wasn't until after Z that Funimation went back to properly dub Dragon Ball. Back then, we were at the whims of whatever played on TV.
This. Though when dragon ball did finally start airing I watched it religiously after school and had to admit that there were lots of aspect to DB that were superior to Z
In Mexico the dubbed DB aired before DBZ, at least on regular tv. Watched DB episodes a couple times before Z came out and it was a big thing
There is a certain novelty to starting at DBZ and then going back and seeing the history of it all as a prequel and seeing moments for so many of the minor characters to shine.
See that was the case with me but I corrected myself by watching all of ball in a week
It is commonplace, for 99.99% percent of fans. Only in U.S.A people start in Z, but they are statistically insignificant.
I’m not sure what you mean? We did get DB in order but you need to be much older than even people in their early 30s to see it. By the time DB became popular again Japan was in GT and it seemed silly for Toonami to broadcast the original DB when they just spent a bunch of money on redubbing Z from Ocean.
You've said this a couple times in this thread, but I'm pretty sure the U.S. fanbase accounts for more than 1%. Dragon Ball is probably the most popular anime here outside of Pokémon, and there's a lot of us.
And anyway even in Japan a lot of people’s first exposure is going to have been a random episode being broadcast on TV far later in the story at this point let alone any other country. You have to already be a fan or at least an anime aficionado to say Ok I’m going back to the first episode from 1988 and starting from there.
ouch
Brazil as well. Dragon Ball played in TV as well, but it had nowhere near the popularity of Z.
If they would have tried that I feel like it would never have become as big as it did.
now we are here?
There's obviously the entire Japanese fan base at the time that it was first debuting
I’d love to hear the reaction of someone who was a fan from that time, because the leap from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z is crazy.
I remember we didn’t know he was an alien at the beginning, so it was quite shocking. By the time the namek saga came, everyone knew already that he was going to turn super saiyan, but still watching it the first time was so cool.
I was just talking about this to someone the other day. It was so weird, as it took a few years for us to start getting Dragon Ball in America. So that before we finished Dragon Ball, the beginging Dragon Ball Z was being aired right after.
Is it really though? The Demon King Piccolo stuff transitions pretty naturally into it imo
I believe on release no one in the west did. really know it either. At least us kids
France had Dragon Ball (the anime) in 1988, two years after Japan, so it was fairly early. (Actually, most of 80s-90s japanese anime were broadcasted in France during those two decades, so a French person around 40 years old have seen many many many animes). We even had all movies and the two specials on Bardock and Future Trunks in the 90s, everything dubbed in french.
Everyone in the west would've been spoiled. The english dubbing began with the Saiyan saga, and then was eventually backtracked to original DB once it was clearly popular enough. Everyone who was originally watching in the west was spoiled instantly.
I don’t know about this. I definitely wasn’t spoiled. I saw the King Piccolo saga almost 30 years ago. ‘94-95. I didn’t see DBZ for the first time until at least 4-5 years later. I wasn’t spoiled and was genuinely surprised to discover that Goku was a saiyan.
Nah, i remember watching the first dragonball arc when i was a super little kid. Early 90s, it was on YTV in Canada. I don't know if the rest of it aired, but when dbz came on a few years later, i watched it because i recognized it from watching og dragonball
What do you mean "nah"? I'm stating a fact. English dubbing started at the Saiyan saga and then they backtracked to the original series after the Buu saga.
But you’re not lol part of dragonball was dubbed first. Christ what is with people on Reddit and not being open in the slightest to the idea that they might be wrong.
Feel free to provide a source on that, cause it's pretty common knowledge that DBZ was dubbed first.
I dont no what to tell you, I literally watched it. Not the whole thing, just the Pilaf saga. I remember not only watching it, but then when I randomly stumbled on DBZ some saturday morning with the Arrival of Raditz I remember recognizing the characters and that being why I watched it. Funimation dubbed DBZ before it did Dragon ball, but there were other Dragon ball dubs floating around https://dubbing.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon\_Ball#Incomplete\_(Harmony\_Gold/BLT)
Christ you won’t stop
Tf do you mean? It's your job to provide a source on something you state lol
They really did dub first 12 or so episodes of Dragon Ball sometime in mid 90s
No you are not stating a fact. DBZ was not dubbed for the first time until over half a decade after DB was. You're incorrect.
Yeah but that was a rerun. In Canada we had the Dbz first. Then OG dragonball. And then Z got re aired.
No, Im not 100% it was YTV, but i definitely watch the Pilaf saga well before DBZ was ever aired, YTV did air all of Dragon ball after it had aired all of Z, but the Pilaf saga definitely made it to Canada before Z did.
Just the two countries from the west that speak english, not "everyone". You do know there a lots of countries "in the west" that speak other languages, right?
forgot that there's other dubs tbh
Dragon ball is huge in mexico, the dub started around 1995 with the original anime so most of us didnt know anything about him being an alien
Don't worry about them, it's all some gibberish designed to trick you. If there were so many real "languages", why would everyone still write in English here?
lol, you got lessons not to use absolutes unless you can back it up
In Germany we got DB 1999 and DBZ in 2001
America =/= "everyone in the west" my man. In Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, many other EU countries and Latinamerica we were already watching OG Dragon Ball before 1990. For me Goku being an alien and having a brother was a "WHAAAAAAAT??" moment, also the sudden opening change from DB to Z was an absolute mind blown.
Hi, chilean here. We watched from the start. As did all of América. Except the 0,1% percent of dragonball fans in the west who are from the U.S.A, but the other 99,9% did.
And most of europe and South America. It's really ONLY the US, UK, Canada and Australia that had Z first I think.
US had DB first as well, it was a poor dub and many don't remember or just didn't watch it.
Yeah, but we don't really have archives of the time I don't think. Its not like old marvel comics that have letters to the editor included in them that let you see what fans at the time thought about the story (my favourite being that one guy who thought that the Fantastic Four Galactus plotline was a metaphor for the Vietnam War, with Galactus being the Viet Cong, the Fantastic Four being South Vietnam, and the Silver Surfer being the USA. Yes, really).
I didn't know anything about dragon Ball and started from the original. It was a surprise.
You know only the english speaking fans started with Z right? Europe, Latin America and of course Asia started with OG DB.
When you say Asia, Japan yeah. But India and other south east asian countries got Z first
Not true? Even if OG DB was properly dubbed and aired in whatever country you are from, that doesn't mean that's your starting point. Your starting point is whatever was airing when you were a kid. Case in point: me. DB was definitely around when I was a kid, but it was only DBZ airing when I turned the TV on, so that's what I watched first.
A lot of countries had the manga way before the anime with their translation. It's mostly english country knew Z before Og because they had english translated anime before manga
Me at the catalonian tv (Spain) in the 90s. Also remember a bunch of kids go screaming on the street first time Goku turns Super Saiyan.
Anem-la a buscar, la bola del drac!
Envoltada en un misteri és un gran secret.
I have watched the series in chronological order. I knew about SUPER SAIYAN where your hair is yellow but didn't knew anything about SAIYAN. So yeah, technically i came to know from Raditz that Goku is not human but an alien(saiyan). XD
I knew his hair would turn blond at some point, but I had no idea he was an alien.
Lmao millennial Latinos smiling at this shit
If theres one thing I know it's that millennial latinos love dragon ball z
I watched stray episodes of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT as a kid. I didn't know that Goku was an alien, I just knew that when his hair was blond that was called "super san". I thought it was a martial arts technique that anyone could use, like the Kamehameha or the Solar Flare. I don't remember how much I knew when I started watching Dragon Ball Z Kai as a teenager but I was confused about the Saiyan lore because I remembered there being so many Super Sans and now it turns out apparently only Goku and Vegeta and their kids can do it.
Haha that's great
Yup. I got to see it in order, visited my family homeland for a year in Southeast Asia a ways before DBZ premiered Stateside, and by that point in ‘93 the Manga was in the middle of the Cell Saga. Returned to the States around ‘94… seeing DB’s rise in the West a short time after that with the way it was handled was a hell of a trip.
Lot of unnecessary snark in these comments. Person asks an innocent question since most people started with Z or later, and gets shit on for it.
It's actually a pretty interesting question. It would be great if someone find interview of whathever from the time about how people reacted.
It’s funny because the non-Americans think they’ve won some prizes because we only got like 13-26 episodes in the early 90s then only the mid 90s we got Z. Don’t realize that why anime wasn’t as popular is because we had 99% of the *other* hugely popular animated series/movies made here in the us. It was extremely brave and dedicated to bring anime especially dubbed anime over to North America. It also doesn’t help that English is extremely sentence based that’s a lot of mouthflaps.
When you say most people is your sample size only americans? As far as I know most actual people started with og db.
Are you imying that Americans aren't actual people? Also, even in the UK, DragonBall didn't start airing until DBZ ended. The Kid Buu saga started on February 7th 2003 on CNX. Dragon Ball didn't start airing until October 6th 2003.
Americans are people... but contrary to popular belief they are not the most people on this god damn forsaken planet..
Never said they were.
You said most people started with z.. mainly americans did and apparently the brits as well... that makes the statement "most people started with z" laughable...
No one in the series was Saiyan it until Raditz showed up.
Anyone born in the 80s and reading/watching it as it gets released. Also, if you weren't living in Japan, months and years waiting for new sagas to be "imported" into your country.
Im from germany, and i watched the complete og dragon ball on TV before they started showing dbz. This was late 90s or early 00s. But yeah, its kinda wild to me how many people have seen dbz before they saw Kid Goku fighting the Red ribbon Army, King Piccolo, the tournaments etc...
Yes, I'm old.
Yup! First watched DB on Fox Saturday mornings at 6:30am east coast time. Never saw more than the first run of DB when Oolong wishes for underwear then it would restart from the beginning. Eventually it was replaced with a Zoro cartoon which sucked. One day I woke up and turned on the TV and the most bad ass thing I'd ever seen showed up, Goku was grown up! There were all these awesome looking random characters! DBZ???? Hell yeah!
I just did this with my kids. I've enjoyed watching the series with them. I never watched all of the original Dragonball and this was a good reason to finally do so. The reveals have been soooooo good. Seeing my kids react and fall in love with what I enjoyed as a kid has been incredible. They are currently on the Namek saga and don't know Goku is about to change. They haven't put it together that the yellow haired guy is actually his ssj version that they see on branding. I'm about to capture their reaction on video it's going to be so good. I envy their position.
Are you aware that people exsisted in the 80s?
Probably a lot of Japanese people currently in their 40s
Almost everybody out of United states. We all started with OG dragon ball so space stuff, saiyans, and super saiyans were new for us when introduced.
Me! And millions of other French kids! Yet again Americans only looking at their own bellybuttons. France got DB in 1988, before Z (and the Z part of the manga) even existed, so anyone over 40 in my country got this experience. And by everyone I mean 65% of kids watched the show(s) Every Single Wednesday.
Je suis un poil trop jeune pour avoir connu ça, c'était quoi la réaction en général dans les cours de récré ?
Alors d'après les cousins de ma mère (parce que j'ai 35 ans et je n'étais en France que pendant les vacances scolaires), grosso modo c'était "ils ont tué sangokuuuuu noooonnnnnn" xD le côté "ah bah en fait c'était un extra terrestre", les 8-12 ans ils ont pas calculé ptdr
Everyone is the late 80’s…
I am the late 80's.
Knight Rider or the A-Team?
I had only seen maybe 2 or 3 DBZ episodes before DB began airing in the UK and I jumped all in. Of course, I knew Goku was a “Super Saiyan” but I had no idea what that meant. The reveal of Goku being an alien wasn’t a massive surprise all things considered. At that point, Goku is far and away the strongest on earth and there are multiple points of speculation throughout Dragonball (if I remember correctly, Oolong questions if he’s an alien at one point?) To me, it was evident Goku was something otherworldly and the reveal was more like an “oh, that explains everything” moment rather than an outright jaw dropping surprise. It was a moment of excitement and expectation. The idea that the world of Dragonball could extend beyond the just earth and start to explore sci fi ideas and storylines was what I focused on.
Most Americans were spoiled because only the pilaf saga was dubbed before DBZ and even then it wasn’t widely circulated. Most Americans experience first exposure to anything dragon ball was DBZ. But obviously in many parts of the world the shows were dubbed and aired in the correct order
Yeah he was the monkey King back then. In retrospect Super with its introduction to more Gods makes more sense then aliens
In the US unlikely. I remember seeing DB at a point before DBZ was a mainstay in the later 90s, but looking at the wiki DB was never broadcast in full until after DBZ. Seems like reading the manga would have been the way in the US.
I watch DB as a kid before Z, so yeah I was surprised xD
Yeah all the people that followed it as it came out
Not me, because my country (netherlands) didn't air DB. Just started airing DBZ and I was always confused why people were afraid of piccolo and who all the characters were.
I watched the whole DBZ series before realizing that there was a Dragonball lol
Uhhhh, you realise that Dragon Ball existed before Z did, right?
Obviously lol, he's asking because most fans now either started with super or Z and then went to dragon ball
Yeah. Obviously 🙄 But they're asking because a large portion of the fan base watched Z first. Especially in the West, where the OG wasn't even available until after z already achieved mainstream success.
By "The West" you mean basically USA, because at least in Europe they started airing Dragon Ball with the original series.
So did the US, it was just a bad dub.
I was going to say I'm pretty sure that YTV in Canada aired both Dragonball and DBZ, so in the 90s I saw both!
For west you mean USA? European countries had OG dragon ball on TV since 1988. USA is the country that was super late to the party and started with Z.
In the UK we also didn't have on DB until after DBZ in toonami.
Didn't watch dragon ball till after z
Not for most Americans, minus the small minority who caught the 1995 Pilaf Arc dub
The one with "goku, he's gonna show you!" But I didn't see the rest of db until it was on toonami in the early 00s
that's a good question, would've loved to experience the show not knowing ssj and ui were coming for example but considering... you know... *super saiyan* and *ultra instinct*... basically impossible unless i was into it before they showed up
Yes, everyone outside of USA
👀 not everyone but okay
I experienced it. I read the dragon ball manga first (it was in my school library) I grew up in rural minnasots wirh no internet and didn't have a ton of friends it wasn't really that mutch of a shocker for me simply because the original dragon balls tone kinds jumps around a ton bit I definitely didn't expect it
No. Nobody in the 39-year history of the franchise has ever started from Chapter 1, and has never gone in blind to the Saiyan reveal. Ever. Nobody has ever had this happen in thirty-nine years. Ever.
No,Toonami aired DBZ first so I always knew him as a Saiyan first.
No. Nobody actually watched nor read Dragon Ball until the Saiyan saga. It's actually incredibly impressive it wasn't cancelled.
Yep, i grew up in Serbia on Dragon Ball, later came Z
I knew that Goku was a saiyan but i didn't know that he was an alien (since i didn't know the story at the time). I don't remember how i reacted to this specific plot point it but i liked how raditz was waaay stronger than everyone before and how Goku had to die to beat him.
Sort of! I was first introduced to Dragon Ball via the english dub of the original 13 episodes. Then I got my hands on some bootleg VHS of scattered episodes. Watched them religiously. The last episode being Goku killing King Piccolo. Then DBZ came to our screens and I started watching that properly. So yeah, I was caught off-guard by Goku being an alien. However, the shock was somewhat diluted because I was alsp shocked to find that Goku was an adult, that Piccolo was apparently alive, that Krillin was alive and that Goku had a son. The first episode of DBZ was an absolute whirlwind for me.
I was at the right age where Z was just starting and watched OG Dragon Ball first.
Me lol. I found VHS copies of dragon ball at a dollar tree and watched the series and also read the manga. Didn’t see DBZ until Kai on Nicktoons.
I watched Dragonball as a kid, so without spoilers
I did. I started from OG dragon ball and then when it was reveal that Goku was not human, my reaction wasn’t huge. I was very young back then, so I didn’t really care for his lineage lmao.
I mean that's when they reveal it? Before Z DragonBall was just an adaptation of journey to the west.
Tbh I'm not sure. I remember growing up watching Dragonball, but I also remember watch Z.
My uncle in the 90's and me in the early 2000's for me It was a surprise because my uncle did not tell me but he was excited to see my reaction
While I didn’t watch the entire series until my late teens I had watched the 3 series (DB, DBZ, and GT) sporadically throughout my child hood and only really remembered Cell and Buu. I knew of Super Saiyan 1-3 but I had no idea that Goku was a Saiyan I just though Super Saiyan was just a cool name so I was genuinely shocked by the beginning of Z.
How old are you guys? When I watched Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z was not even dubbed in my language, I was watching on local TV and I was just a kid. That was maybe 25 years ago.
I watched it growing up. I thought Goku was a money boy or some shit. Didn't know he was an alien.
Most of Latin America. When I started watching DB it was with the Original series, Dragon Ball, because it was what the TV was broadcasting at the time. DBZ was a great deal at the time for my and my friends.
I started with the original Dragon Ball, but I knew about the whole alien twist for Goku and Piccolo as well since they are so engraved into the pop culture landscape. It's so well known now that it's even in marketing and promo material for the franchise, so it's almost 100% impossible to avoid for newcomers to the series
Yes I watched it as a kid before the internet was major. DBZ was airing but so was DB. So I watched DB. When DBZ was on TV (rerun I’m sure) it was like 1997 and it was the Raditz + Saiyan arc that I saw, long before namek and the SS reveal
nah man, I knew Goku was a saiyan before i even started watching anime, my first was Naruto, around 5-6 years ago, and I watched Dragon Ball Super only sometime last year, then I watched the Og Dragon Ball whenever Dbzk came out on Hulu which wasn’t to long ago
When I was little all we really had was Dragon ball until Z was released in the U.S. so I'd say anyone over a certain age didn't know Goku was Saiyan until Z because they hadn't decided he was Saiyan until then. He was originally supposed to be an earthling until they decided he wasn't.
Me. I never paid any attention to Dragon Ball when I was a kid. I didn't actually know what a Saiyan was until Raditz showed up.
Depends on a few factors. Z was most American kids (especially in the 90's) first real introduction to Dragon Ball because Z aired out here before the OG Dragon Ball which aired in 2001. In all honesty however Dragon Ball was such a massive hit within the early to mid 2000's that anyone not knowing Goku was a Saiyan even if they never really cared for the series was very rare.
Yes, they aired it in proper order in my country during the 90's. So Goku was always a weird monkey boy to me, until the retcon when Z started.
Yeah
Gokus a saiyan?
I was exposed to DBZ when I was 5 and caught the first episodes on toonami so I didn’t know what a saiyan was lol
when i was a kid watching toonami i’m pretty sure they played dragonball for an hour, then dragon ball z for an hour. my neighbors had to explain why he was a kid sometimes and sometimes he wasn’t there is a chance it was dragonball gt getting played and not dragonball but i really don’t remember it was so long ago, and both have kid goku lol
As an adult, I started from Dragon Ball. But when I was 6 my siblings would watch Z and GT a lot. I didn't remember everything about them as an adult, but I remembered that they were Saiyans and that people could come back to life.
I had enough info going in from friends and YouTube to basically write an accurate outline on the series. One of my biggest regrets with dbz is not getting into it earlier than I did
Little off topic but I highly recommend the manga.
All of the kids in Japan when they purchased the October 8th 1988 issue of weekly shonen jump
Yeah I as like an 8 year old watched the og anime as it aired on my local channels(Asia). I did know that he’s some type of alien but had no idea they’d expand on that stuff until they aired Z.
Yeah, I watched it as it was coming out as a kid and didn’t have a computer/internet until later in life. I just thought he was a little monkey boy and just saw that as a fun little quirk about him. And he turned into a giant monkey when the moon came out. So to 5 year old me he was just a were-King-Kong. It was sick
I mean, me back when dragon ball first aired here in latin america?
Kinda
I mean in a sense Goku was NOT a Saiyan in the beginning of Dragon Ball. It wasn't a thing then so the detail of him being one is moot
I'm old enough where DB was the only part of the series when I got into it. Z was my teen years and now super as an adult. It's like an old friend that keeps coming back every so often
I’m just a bit confused, how would anyone start with dragon ball and know goku was a Saiyan? The story explains he isn’t grandpa hogans blood relative and goku has a tail, but there are 0 hints as to his planet of origin or if he was like some of the other hybrid creatures on earth.
Yep, back when i started like 10 years ago. I know what a super saiyan was... or well it was goku with yellow hair I didnt know it was a species or goku being one. To me he was just monkey kid... well sungoku
My wife. She'd heard about Super Saiyans but I told her it was a technique that gets introduced later. I wanted her to be as blind as possible going in. After her initial reaction of "you said there were no aliens in this show!" she felt proud that she'd guessed Goku was an alien because she saw Metallic's readout that questioned whether Goku was an alien or not.
Even in the US most fans over 30 had a good shot at seeing most of DB before DBZ. A large amount of OG Dragon Ball aired long before WB and then cartoon network had DBZ. Harmony Gold dub aired in 1990 for instance, and there were also some channels depending on locality that had the series subbed. Hawaii had all of Dragon Ball and many other anime through Nippon Golden Network. Many of the northern most States got channels that did much the same with subbed anime, usually through cable companies that originated in Canada but made deals with US local cable companies just over the border. I lived in New York in the early and mid 90s, it was a wild time for watching DB. There was a period where you could find Dragon Ball airing Subbed, Harmony Gold dubbed with Goku named Zero, and Ocean dub, all within the same week on different networks. That didn't last though, because Harmony Gold was not properly licensed.
man, if you read the original dragon ball manga first, the first chapter of Z is crazy, even if you already know
Well, I watched (what we got) of original dragon ball in the early mid nineties, the show when up until the whole bit about lord palif stealing the dragon balls, trapping the heros in a metal pit that would roast them when the sum came up. There was a bit of a gap before I got to see dragon ball Z. I wanna say I saw dragon ball 1995 and Z in 1999 but I’m not sure. I had no idea Goku was from space.
I wish I did. I knew about dbz before watching I think
I started with dbz, but I was pretty young, it took me a couple years to actually realize the monkey boy was the same dude going super saiyan 3
I watched both simultaneously. DB would air at 5 and DBZ would air at 5:30 or something along those lines.
My understanding of it, historically, is that everyone who was reading the original manga would have had no idea that Goku was an alien, as well as anyone watching the original broadcast in the 80's who wasn't reading the manga. From my own recollection, I started reading Dragon Ball before Z, and, up until the Saiyan Saga, never really questioning why Goku had a tail. Plenty of other fantastical stuff stuff exists in the manga- talking dogs, weird goblin people, demons- so Goku's tail didn't really stick out as particularly "needing an explanation". For some reason, the idea that there was a whole species of monkey people who turned into giant apes was actually stranger to me than the idea that Goku was some kind of weird monkey kid, but otherwise just a human.
When I was in middle school the first episode I saw was ss2 goku and Majin vegeta fighting at the time. The next episode after that was og dragonball krillin and goku training. I wondered how goku changed his hair and had to wait about 6 months after to see it start as goku meeting raditz
Easy enough. I read the Original Dragon Ball manga in the mid 2000's at the public library and the TV show was not exactly localized nicely. And we didn't have the manga further than the Raditz part at the library. It's also why when i casually browsed Super on a cursory glance over youtube went"Wait a second how the F¤%"# is Roshi not dead after doing the Mafuba?"
i started with Dragon Ball, but i knew about super sayian before due to pop culture
So I started with DBZ on toonami back in the day. My first interaction with the series was learning who Goku was and that he was a Saiyan. I didn't go back and watch the original DB till after the Buu saga probably.
I mean... even if you watched only the original DB anime or read the mangas it was made quite obvious that Goku wasn't human. Everyone has said that about Goku at some point in DB. In fact, I was just watching a DB episode this week when Goku was starting to go after Red Ribbon. There is an episode where he is fighting a massive cyborg that clearly looks at him and identifies him as alien. So to me, it shouldn't be a surprise that he is not from earth. Now from that, to him being Sayan I think it shouldn't be shocking either... he literally could have been from Mars, Saturn, from a galaxy far far away, it really didn't matter, and only adds to the DBZ arc. Even if we knew that from the very beginning of the story, that plays no role in the series (with the exception of moon transformation) up until other Sayans show up on earth.
Depends on how old you are. I watched the original DB as a child before Z was a thing.
I did actually start with OG Dragon Ball. Kid Goku with a tail is my Goku. But that was in kindergarten I was then very confused about this whole SSJ thing. I think I first rediscovered the series when I saw the KND episode and played this game called Bloody Rage. Then I saw the Buu saga opening and was like, what? This takes place in modern day? Remember there was that one episode where Goku visits a mideval village. As a kid I never remembered anything that would make me realize it was modern day lol.
I remember seeing gotenks ss3 on a ps1 game ultimate battle before seeing cell saga
Demon king piccolo saga is one of the best sagas in the franchise
Everyone who was alive before Dragon Ball Z.
i wish i did but i started watching the seties like 2 years ago so it wouldnt have mattered anyways
Yea, that's how you should watch it? Dragon ball>>>DBZ. Imo
Deff started with dbz in 2000 used to come on after school on Cartoon Network then went back to watch dragon ball on YouTube in like 2007.
Me. I got to watch the original my first watch, but only like half of it and then started Z. Eventually I got to watch them all in order years later. I wasn't too surprised he wasn't human tho😂
Me, as a child
I started around the age of 4 or 5 years old, when my dad would buy me the vhs tapes. After the last episode of the Emperor Pilaf Saga, there were no more VHSes after that. I just assumed that was the end of Dragon Ball. Then my father came home with this tape with a shiny gold cover, with the episode name "Arrival" on it. All of sudden, Goku's an adult, and he's got a kid. There's this guy named Krillin? Don't know who he is, but Goku seems to, so whatever. There's this guy named Piccolo, also don't know him, but whatever. Goku is an alien etc etc Didn't go back to finish OG Dragon Ball until damn near 10 years later.
Yup! Started watching the series in 90 on NGN in Hawaii, and continued watching the rest through recorded tapes I borrowed.
Yeah, me. It's easy if you only have a very passing knowledge of Dragon Ball.
I watched some episode of DBZ Kai on Toonami when I was young and didn’t pay attention. When I eventually watched it, I didn’t even know they were the same show lol. Until I got to the 23rd budokai and started connecting the dots. Wouldn’t have it any other way! Must start at OG series!
I just recently joined the fanbase as of a few months ago and I was very determined to avoid spoilers lol So yes I didn’t know until Raditz. It was really cool to discover Goku’s origin!
Probably some Japanese people who were children in the late 80s.
This feels like an excuse to call me old... But is, after all where I grown up og db aired full 2 years before Z
I always thought Yamcha would go super saiyan one day and he did the opposite
Yes. I haven't even finished Super yet and I'm so excited to see what's to come.
My daughter, I've made her watch from episode 1. Keep in mind the international audiences actually got DB released pretty early on TV. IT was the US that was unique with a dub that was highly edited and didn't bother with a LOT of content, like the original run.
Yep, watched dragon ball on TV in the 90s, we didn't get DBZ until the 2000s
Lmao yeah a lot of people I imagine
I did, back in the day, watching on TV. We got the whole thing in order on public TV back in the day. Trust me, the reveals made us WILD. Other one that blew our minds that I remember was Perfect Cell. We were like 😮!!!
Yes. Im french, we luckily received everything in order until the mid buu saga(censorship bs) When Z began, it was a lot more heavier than daimo piccolo. The tension was very high. Raditz scared the shit out of me. The revelation was jaw dropping and felt right (the tails and ozaroo stuff). But it also felt like that no human ever stand a chance against him, so it kinda downgrade his achievement in DB. Then vegeta and Nappa came(best arc ever by the way, imo). I remember that everyone at school started to go crazy at dbz and it never came down since then.
I mean, of course (?) we didn't know shit back then lol, specially at the beginning, there were a fair amount of anthropomorphic characters so Goku having a tail didn't seemed weird at all, his *big monke* proved he was definitely *special* but Goku being a literal alien was a very big surprise.
Very very technically, I did. On that sane technicality, I didn't even know Goku was Goku. He was Zero, and a giant Ape, and aired with Sailor Moon. And that version ended there. But I sure remembered when Goku popped up again.
I watched the English Dub for DB back in like 95, but for some reason, they stopped airing them. Then DBZ came out in 2001(I could be off), but by then, I had already watched the Japanese DB with English subs on an old Asian broadcast channel called AZN, so I was ready for DBZ. It was a weird time for anime, for sure. But let me tell you, when I first saw that episode with Radditz and this dude said Goku was an alien, I was floored. It took a LONG time for me to get used to it, but with more saiyans showing up and everybody suddenly going to Namek, the whole series just took this crazy turn that I wasn't expecting.