Question about how to watch Dragon Ball

WeedZ

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Hey, I like them all. But my dudes.. years worth of anime. The kid just wants to be caught up to super. That's Raddits through Majin Buu. Boom. Done.

The rest can be watched later.
 

ThoD

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I looked at your profile to help in forming this suggestion, you're 14, right? It's really hard to recommend Dragon Ball to anyone who hasn't watched it before that is already an adult. With all the anime out there now, it's just a really hard sell, only if they want to try to give the old school a chance, but then they'd have to be committed with time. Watching it since 2000, following the series on TV was easy, binge watching it as an adult when I was in between houses following a tragic event 5 years ago...was great, an escape. Following it now through Super is somewhat painful, especially this arc. Painful because I have to wait for a new episode. I never had to do that before, waiting a whole week. Waiting a day? Fine. A weekend? No problem? A week as an adult with access to instant entertainment in various other means? It's painful.

I was shaking and had goosebumps over the most recent episode, Vegeta-driven, I was scared something bad would happen, but it seems to be a part 1 deal.

For someone as young as you coming in, if you have the time, watch it now. It's not going to be any easier. I'm now 25 and I will never watch One Piece, or even finish Naruto, gotta start young. But, if you're only coerced into this because it's "cool," don't bother. That's why I hadn't watched Rick & Morty until a few months ago, I wanted the desire to watch it. I hate hype shit. If you don't truly want to watch, don't bother.

If you do and don't have time, just skip to Super. Actually, just go to the movies first. They introduce all the characters to you, especially in Battle of Gods, you get some funny stuff there, serious dramatic action closer to the second half. The second movie is more Z-oriented, lots of action and stuff. Then you can decide whether Super's worth it, though you'd have to go through 27 episodes of rehashing the two movies. If you have the time...

Start with Dragon Ball, then watch DBZ Kai. Now if you have no life? Go watch the original 291, watch Super, so that it gives you some space, then watch Kai and realize the differences. Z has filler, you have to wade through some serious fluff, but come on, the driving episode. That cannot be unseen, that's one of the best filler episodes ever, and that was right between Frieza's invasion of Earth and the androids' arrival. The filler before that, yeah, good luck with that. The filler with the otherworld tournament, that was awesome, look forard to that. Either Kai or Z, after that, watch the two canon movies, Battle of Gods and Resurrection F, then watch Super. Maybe watch GT if you are curious about the alternative, because that's what it is, an alternative. A lacking, flawed alternative, but yeah.

Another thing, if you've watched quality anime through Crunchyroll and other internet sites, Dragon Ball will probably be too dated. Keep an open mind for that, if it's not your style, don't bother. You don't HAVE to watch Dragon Ball, much like you don't HAVE to watch Star Wars. I'm over the Star Wars hype, after I first saw it, I would say "WATCH IT," but now? Fuck that. Give it a try though, the good thing about anime in general is you watch one episode, then another, and another and you're hooked, have to watch what happens next. I think Dragon Ball is the best example of that, hell I followed it and am now about 500 or so episodes deep? That's counting GT and Kai.

Also, what isn't highlighted here, the voices. English and Japanese, you may not like the stories or creative decisions, but man those voice actors put so much into it, the quintessential screaming anime. I was just watching DBS 39 where Goku goes Kaioken over his Super Saiyan Blue, and I kept picturing the raw voice of the English Goku, Sean Schemmel. Something really piercing and powerful, and in the show, there's some mixing and engineering, echoing work, peppering it up, but at the core, is one man in a booth screaming like mad for a few minutes, which on paper doesn't sound difficult, but sustain that second to second, it's insane. Really the last few years I've gotten much more appreciative of the voices, and I think Kai and Super have that edge, especially in the US versions because now the cast are experienced, screaming for almost 20 years. Japanese cast, most of them date back to Z in 1989, Masako Nozawa voiced Goku from the very beginning of the anime, 1986, over 30 fucking years, she's such a sacred cow, can't even shit on the voice, even if it's an old woman voicing this iconic character. In hindsight, I'd probably recommend Dragon Ball to an older person if they want to hear voice actors swing for the fences and hit homeruns.

That's ultimately why I can't even have a dislike towards Dragon Ball (well, I get more sour about the DBZ ending, fuck Uub and stuff). For example, I was really confused and almost angry at the Vegito return and how it transitioned to Trunks being such a Deus Ex Machina at the end of the Goku Black arc, but man the voices were on point. Trunks' little speech about "we" and having a sword imbued with strong and wavering spirits, the Japanese voice of Zamasu's death scream, it puts to rest those negative feelings because the acting's so fucking good.

So, don't just watch the show, listen. Even if Dragon Ball and even Z are archaic in sound quality, that rustic charm is endearing. I spent way too much time typing this out, but that's because I love Dragon Ball so much. Given that, it sounds like a show to try out, right? A one sentence "Because it's Dragon Ball" doesn't work. An essay? Yeah, I think it does. Fucking Hell, I've been watching panel shows with the English voices of the show for about 5 hours now, I paused one to type this post out. So, yeah, actually this panel has the Japanese voice of Vegeta, Ryō Horikawa, that's cool.
You forgot to mention how the English VA fainted during recording from screaming too much when doing the Super Saiyan transformation against Frieza, lol:P
 
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RustInPeace

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You forgot to mention how the English VA fainted during recording from screaming too much when doing the Super Saiyan transformation against Frieza, lol:P

One of the panels I watched last night had him saying he passed out or nearly did after doing the episode 39 powerup.

 
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Nerdtendo

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On the topic of DBZ. I'm not into anime myself, but I used to watch DBZ Kai on 4-kids. I don't remember any swearing in it. I had assumed that Z Kai WAS the censored version. What gives?
 

DRAGONBALLVINTAGE

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On the topic of DBZ. I'm not into anime myself, but I used to watch DBZ Kai on 4-kids. I don't remember any swearing in it. I had assumed that Z Kai WAS the censored version. What gives?


This should do it

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Lol yes, very censored.

(The 4kids version)
Don't forget about this
hqdefault.jpg
 
D

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As someone who watched through the whole series for the first time recently and have no nostalgia towards it, I have to say that I really don't recommend skipping the original Dragon Ball. Many say it doesn't matter at all in DBZ, but that is sort of like saying that nothing in pre-time skip One Piece matters or that nothing in the original Naruto matters. It is true that it's possible to watch DBZ and DBS without watching DB, but you will have missed quite a lot. It's also important to note that while Dragon Ball split up into both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z as animes, it was still the same manga with the same name because it is the same exact story.
 
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ThoD

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GT was pretty amazing, not gunna lie
Nobody said it isn't, it's pretty good and the SS4 transformation had some sweet music playing with cool visuals:P It's just that it's not actually part of the story and rather a spin-off, so it can be ignored if you are speeding through things as you can watch the stuff that are actually part of the story.

But a prior post said that Z Kai was an abridged version that added unnecessary swearing.
Not true AT ALL! The Japanese one has almost identical dialogues with the manga and 4-kids one is heavily censored. The only one with the unnecessary swearing is the US non-4kids one, where they put swearing and useless shit in order to fit the mouth movements. Just gonna say one thing though, if you actually watch anime dubbed, there's something wrong with you... Go watch american cartoons instead...
 
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ThoD

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This just doesnt make sense at all.
It does. What's the point in watching anime dubbed? You miss the majority of the jokes, you don't get the puns they do (Japanese has a LOT of puns), you experience the anime with greatly inferior voice acting and so on. There are four main things in an anime, visuals, voice acting, music and plot. Watching dubbed anime is like watching 3/4ths of what it really is as a whole.
 

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