The way I got into this series was from watching Dragon Ball Z Abridged.
what do you mean I didn't win, I ate more wet t-shirts than anyone elseThe first I was introduced to it was when I got a Goku trading card in an issue of K-zone (and Australian kid's magazine) and the complete lack of context for it (there was just a brief description of Goku and his Kamehameha in the magazine) made me interested. Then I caught the first episode of Z on TV, and the complete lack of context kept me interested.
I just watched it on TV as I was growing up, and read the manga from my library (which is how I read Dragon Ball). I went in and out of it for a while until my sister bought me Burst Limit for my new Playstation 3, and I enjoyed it so much it really revived my interest in the franchise. I haven't dropped it since then, but the new material is really weakening my interest.
Yeah. They did have some very knowledgeable people working on the Dragon Ball sections though, considering they had a lot of information from Japanese materials before it was widely available on the internet.
But I do remember that they stated a lot of power levels that weren't official at all. Not sure where they got them from, but they were in-line with a lot of power levels on fansites which went off the 100% Freeza 12,000,000 / SS Goku 15,000,000 mistranslation and didn't use any multipliers at all.
They had SS4 Goku and Vegeta at 18... something. Either 18 million, 180 million, 18 billion, whatever. Then they just combined them for Gogeta, despite that not being how fusion works (to be fair, a lot of these fanlists had tiny gaps and as said before, didn't use multipliers - so going off that system just adding power really is a huge powerup).
@IANCE The Latin American dub was great, I can confirm this. I actually started casually watching Dragon Ball in Spanish but I didn't start to get into it until I watched in Toonami in English.
Also I was surprised when I went to Mexico that their dub was actually ahead of the English Dub.
We were at the end of the Freeza Saga/ Garlic Jr. saga when I went to Mexico on vacation. I flipped the channel and bam Mexico was a little after the Android Saga and I thought Super Saiyan Vegeta and Trunks were so cool.
I got into the series same as Bacon Mania 500 - DBZA. Because I thought it was a strictly boy's show. And honestly, I doubt I would have liked the show if I didn't know about the Japanese version and Kai.
The *Legendary* Super Saiyan is motivated by a crying infant! He is a literal giant f***ing baby!I got into the show watching TV as a kid. In France there was a show named Club Dorothée which show animes as Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Captain Tsubasa and City Hunter. I mostly remember watching Freezer Saga or Cell Saga. But since I was watching Dragon ball movies at the same time and because of merchandising I knew about super saiyans before seeing them first appear in the show proper. I even confused the Kaioken for a super saiyan form at the time.
I've never thought that DBZ was strictly a boys' show.
I mean, sweaty, well muscled men wrestling each other? Obviously female oriented fanservice.
Seriously, I do recall at least two or three girls, back when I attended school, giving me that exact reason as to why they liked DBZ. It's not a series that has ever lacked fangirls.
himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimariI give Toriyama credit for not making Trunks a massive Mary Sue considering he seems to hit a lot of points on the scale.
Not bad for a guy who pretty much made everything up as he went along.
One Strip! One Strip!![]()
Well, his introduction was pretty blatantly like an OC stand in.
- Shows up literally out of nowhere.
- Has a power up that was only exclusive to The Hero at the time.
- Made short work of a previously established and powerful villain.
- Is the future son of two characters who had barely interacted at that point.
I'm glad he did make it work eventually, but that stood out to me even as a kid. My reaction pretty much mirror'd Goku's when Trunks said who his parents were.
edited 14th Nov '15 9:59:42 AM by BlackYakuzu94
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.Future Trunks worked because Toriyama is an absolute master at making ridiculous and stupid things work, and it even goes into his art design. Many of his designs would look positively stupid if anyone else had done them, but in Toriyama's style, they just... they just kinda work.
himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimariI wouldn't call him a "master", but he is pretty good at Writing By The Seat Of His Pants compared to other authors.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.I think one reason Trunks worked in the end is because, despite one-shotting Frieza, he was completely powerless to stop his own troubles. Most Gary Stus overcome their own personal rivals effortlessly, too; Future 17 and 18 reigned supreme until Trunks returned after dealing with (and still being helpless against) something much worse.
Also, he also had the Gary Stu common trait of having an Up To Eleven just-for-him transformation in Ultra Super Saiyan; the series took care to show how quickly that bit him in the ass.
"It's liberating, realizing you never need to be competent." — UltimatepheerOh my god are we praising this series for something?
And did anyone really want to see a "high school arc" in Dragon Ball. I'm glad they ditched that for magical, bubble gum monster, Gohan didn't need a degree anyway. With all of the studying Chi-Chi forced on him, he should've GED'd that shit and gone into full-time superhero'ing or accounting.
edited 14th Nov '15 11:04:12 AM by Soble
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

I saw some of the Android, Cell, and Buu sagas as a young kid, then mostly forgot about it. Then my brother purchased Raging Blast 2, which I found I greatly enjoyed. That rekindled my interest, then I discovered the Abridged version.
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!