Toonami Led the Way as Dragon Ball Fans Shared How They First Found the Series

When I asked Dragon Ball fans how they first discovered the series, Toonami came out on top. Of the roughly 36,000 people who had voted when I looked, 46 percent picked Toonami, ahead of options like VHS, DVD and home video, playing a video game first, TV syndication before Toonami, or something else.

That confirmed what I suspected: most of the people who follow me first found Dragon Ball through Toonami and grew into fans as they got older. There are some pretty cool stories in the replies, and I want to go through some of them here and talk about how I relate.

Toonami was the gateway for most fans, though I found Dragon Ball before it

I discovered Dragon Ball before Toonami. I got into the series in the mid 90s, but I'm not a fool. I know most people in the West discovered it through Toonami, and I've covered that history before. I love reading how other people found it.

I get the Toonami generation, because I'm kind of from that generation myself. I also understand people who got into it through Kai. What feels weird to me is people who came to Dragon Ball through Super and have only seen Super, because they're missing really the whole story. More on that below.

Taking in Dragon Ball, Z and GT at once confused one fan, and the Portuguese dub made it wilder

One fan described seeing the original Dragon Ball and Z at the same time, then GT getting added into the mix, and said it took years to get the timeline straight: Goku was a kid, then an adult, then a kid again who turns into a half monkey, half man hybrid adult. If you're taking in all three shows without any context, I can see why that would confuse you. I don't blame you at all.

The same fan grew up with the Portuguese dub, which apparently referenced popular shows on the network it aired on, casually, during the biggest fights of the series. In the 90s, they had no idea Frieza wasn't actually telling Goku about the soap opera that was on at 8 p.m. every night.

I've heard about the Portuguese dub from a few other people, and it's wild. They're literally doing meta jokes. It's almost like Team Four Star before Team Four Star, except it was an actual official dub. A Dragon Ball purist would hate it, and I consider myself a purist, but if you go in knowing what it is, it's not really that bad. I kind of feel weird for the Portuguese fans who had no idea what was going on when it first aired.

A librarian, Raditz and Budokai 2 gave fans their first taste

One fan said their elementary school had the entire Dragon Ball manga, and the librarian was so fond of them that she let them borrow the whole series. I did not have that in my elementary school. That's a very cool librarian.

Another fan's first Toonami memory was Raditz obliterating a car with one hand while Gohan cried in fear. The Ocean dub actors were cream of the crop in those days. Someone else remembered their god brother playing Budokai 2 on PlayStation when they were maybe 8, and seeing Vegeta take a beating. Budokai and Budokai 2 were huge for bringing fans to the franchise. That fight was fun in the games, but the anime version is amazing. Go back and see it; the animators were top notch on that one.

One fan already loved the cartoon about a boy with a tail and his flying cloud, and years later had their mind blown when Z aired and they realized the protagonist was that boy all grown up. Their local broadcast of the original series didn't cover all of it. When Dragon Ball first aired in the United States, only the first 13 episodes were dubbed before things jumped to Z, so you didn't see what happened to Goku between being a kid and being an adult. That could cause confusion and leave a big gap in the storytelling.

Why I see Dragon Ball Super as DLC

A fan who first saw reruns on Nicktoons after elementary school got me thinking about the different generations. The Nicktoons run came about 10 years after Toonami, but a lot of younger folks got into it that way.

Then there are the people who've only seen Super. "Super to me is just DLC." The Dragon Ball story is Dragon Ball through Dragon Ball Z. That's what's in the original manga, and to me everything after that is DLC, whether or not you want to get into a canon debate. It wasn't the original artistic vision of Toriyama. Of course Toriyama was involved, but it wasn't the original, younger Toriyama; he's a different man. Super is just a small piece, a very small piece, of the bigger pie that is Dragon Ball.

Dragon Ball keeps getting passed down through families

One fan said their dad taped episodes before they were born so he could show them how great the series is, and they thank him every day for it. That's cool. I have a feeling he taped them for himself and just let you see them, because that's what we all did back then, but it's pretty cool that he showed you.

Another fan, who said they're only 20 and felt ancient reading everyone else's stories, was about three or four when they first saw their dad's VHS tapes of DBZ, and has rewatched nearly every year since. No, you're the young one here. Whenever there's a generational thing like a father showing his kids Dragon Ball, that always gets me.

One fan said their dad introduced them to it at about three or four and that they're 12 now. I didn't know some of you were that young. That means you've been a fan for about eight years, which is a long time, and you'll probably appreciate it more when you get older. Another fan's older brother woke them up every Saturday at 6 a.m. for DBZ. I love it when it's the dad, the brother or even the best friend who gets you into it. One fan remembered their grandpa, and it really is a generational show.

And one fan's father launched them across the water on a sunny beach day while yelling kamehameha. They asked what that was from, and their life changed for the better. I'm picturing it like when Piccolo grabs Gohan by the hair and throws him into that mountain in early DBZ. It probably wasn't like that, but that's how I want to picture it.

Ninja Scroll never aired on regular TV where I lived

A fan said they found DBZ getting up around 5 or 5:30 a.m. for Saturday morning cartoons, alongside other Japanese animation like Ninja Scroll. They never aired Ninja Scroll on television where I lived, and I don't think it ever aired on TV in America. It has a sexual assault scene and lots of violence and gore that just wouldn't make it anywhere near regular television.

So either the memory is off, the fan was in a country that aired that kind of thing, or maybe they saw it on a premium network. The other title the fan mentioned did air, but it was very censored. If Ninja Scroll aired censored somewhere, I wouldn't know about it; I've only seen the uncut version.

Back in the day, fans just watched the filler

One fan was hooked during the Frieza saga when Frieza impaled Krillin with his horn and laughed. You're a pretty sadistic dude, I'm just kidding. Another said they heard friends talking about DBZ in 10th grade in 2010 and binged every episode, filler included, in a week on some shady sites, saying it was worth the viruses.

It's funny they said filler included, because when I got into Dragon Ball, people just watched the filler. I feel like it was the same with Naruto. I'm sure there was something out there, but there was nothing like the guides that tell you what's filler and what isn't. With Dragon Ball Z, we got a lot of anime episodes before the manga had even come out, so many of us didn't know what filler was as kids. We just saw every episode, because we loved it so much, even Garlic Jr. and Paikuhan.

Reruns, bootleg tapes and three different dubs

A fan remembered it being on in the morning while getting ready for school, looping the same saga up to the first bits of the Frieza saga and then going right back to the beginning, over and over. That was the pain we dealt with in the 90s. We're all spoiled now, with Hulu, Funimation and other sites carrying the whole series, plus DVDs and Blu-rays. Back then you literally couldn't get the whole series without pirating. I had bootleg Japanese tapes. I gave away a bunch years ago, but I still have a few.

Another fan's first episode was in Spanish, when Gohan went Super Saiyan 2, and the Cell Games saga is still their favorite. As a kid in the 90s, I saw DBZ in English, Spanish and Japanese. The English dub was the easiest to see, the Spanish dub on Telemundo let me see episodes uncut, and Japanese was the only way to see what hadn't come out yet, like the Cell and Buu sagas. Once I started with the Japanese version, I got hooked on it, and that's why I became a purist in that sense.

One fan from 1996, about five at the time, didn't understand the Cell saga, but by the Buu saga finally understood the plot. Well then you had to go back to Cell to understand it. I can relate to that.

Dragon Ball had everything, and Toonami did a lot for us

One fan was six or seven playing Raging Blast at a friend's house when the friend explained the plot, and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Dragon Ball has time travel, magic, dinosaurs, aliens of all different species, monkey boys, martial arts and robots. You have science fiction mixed with fantasy mixed with martial arts. "Toriyama covered everything in this little series."

Another fan remembered DB, DBZ and Gundam Wing on the old Toonami block. Toonami did a lot for us. I've criticized the DBZ dub because it had issues, but "the content of Dragon Ball superseded the dub," and the way it hooked people can never be ignored.

One fan remembered the Saturday morning airing of the original Dragon Ball in 95 or 96. I saw that too, and the treasure hunting aspect is where I really got hooked. A fan in Canada found it on YTV, which is sort of like Canada's Nickelodeon; I'm very familiar with it. Another remembered seeing Dragon Ball more than Z early on Toonami around 2000. I think Dragon Ball began on Toonami around 2001, so that's probably what they remember.

A lifelong obsession that turned into a career

One fan said coming home from school to Kai started a lifetime obsession. For me, I was able to turn it into a career, and I'm very thankful for that.

I read through a lot of these stories, though not all of them, some of them between sets at the gym. They remind me of being younger and of what brought us all together. We can debate this series every week, but I like that it brought us all together, and I'm never going to forget that. Toriyama did a lot for me without even knowing who I am, and that's always appreciated.

How did you first discover Dragon Ball?