Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

[CyberCubed]

At this point the manga is just glorified fanfiction so I guess it doesn't matter what it does. Super is over and Daima isn't covering any of these arcs so...

[IMJ]

Question for the Dragonball guys -

I think the likelihood of me actually getting around to doing this is next to zero, but if I wanted to watch the first season of the "original" Dragonball, what would I have to buy or download to do that? Meaning what was it called, etc?

Grassroots Dragonball - not "Dragonball Super Yayayaya" or "Dragonball Elite Power Zord Super No Dinero X" - just "Dragonball for Dummies".... What do I have to seek out to do that?

[CyberCubed]

The first series is literally just called, "Dragon Ball" and began in the mid-80's. It ran for over 150 episodes. The sequel series is called "Dragon Ball Z" and is basically the reason the franchise exploded into popularity as it was the main series. After that there's movies, spinoffs, sequel series, etc...but you can ignore those for now.

All of the series has been on DVD and online streaming for decades now, so you can probably just buy it or look it up wherever.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by IMJ

Question for the Dragonball guys -

I think the likelihood of me actually getting around to doing this is next to zero, but if I wanted to watch the first season of the "original" Dragonball, what would I have to buy or download to do that? Meaning what was it called, etc?

Grassroots Dragonball - not "Dragonball Super Yayayaya" or "Dragonball Elite Power Zord Super No Dinero X" - just "Dragonball for Dummies".... What do I have to seek out to do that?

if you want a more digestible version of DBZ, seek out Dragonball Z Kai, which was a partial remake/reedit that cut out all the filler (DBZ has a ton of it, sometimes the filler episodes lasted a month)

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

if you want a more digestible version of DBZ, seek out Dragonball Z Kai, which was a partial remake/reedit that cut out all the filler (DBZ has a ton of it, sometimes the filler episodes lasted a month)

Kai is the definitive way to watch DBZ.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

At this point the manga is just glorified fanfiction so I guess it doesn't matter what it does. Super is over and Daima isn't covering any of these arcs so...

... So you assume that because they are making what's (probably) a prequel set shortly before Battle of Gods, that they're just going to let Freeza run around freely? And speak for yourself, but the manga isn't invalid if Toei actually ignores it, Toei doesn't even care about what they do, most of the contradictions in the anime comes down to Toei ignoring their own additions to the series.

[IMJ]

Okay so the iterations that anyone cares about are basically:

Dragon Ball - the first iteration from the 80s where the characters looked like little chibi people
Dragon Ball Z - the 2nd iteration from the 90's where the characters looked like muscular anime drawings

and then there were a whole bunch of follow-ups after that, but if I want to watch Dragon Ball Z I can watch some edited version called Dragon Ball Kai instead.

It looks like the original 1980s Dragon Ball never got a Blu Ray release. I'd say I should just stick to Fist of the North Star, but that's a complex mess of releases too...

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by IMJ

Okay so the iterations that anyone cares about are basically:

Dragon Ball - the first iteration from the 80s where the characters looked like little chibi people
Dragon Ball Z - the 2nd iteration from the 90's where the characters looked like muscular anime drawings

and then there were a whole bunch of follow-ups after that, but if I want to watch Dragon Ball Z I can watch some edited version called Dragon Ball Kai instead.

It looks like the original 1980s Dragon Ball never got a Blu Ray release. I'd say I should just stick to Fist of the North Star, but that's a complex mess of releases too...

The original Dragon Ball show does have a great Blu-Ray release... In France only...

[sdp]

power scaling stopped mattering since DBZ. Even if they kept the Z fighters weaker than the Saiyans, the fact that they became as strong as Saiyans were just the last arc still didn't make sense.
Super is just more blatant about it than Z. This whole "Akira Toriyama" canon is BS, GT handled stuff far better and likely will give a better ending than Super ever will. Hell even the "what if" scenarios of video games in Dragon Ball Heroes and Xenoverse are far more interesting since at least they dont' try to break power scaling, they play around with stuff that already exists, like making fusions of characters already out there or putting SSJ4 Goku vs SSJ Blue etc. They aren't trying to outdo the previous arcs power but just play with what has already been created.
but fans will eat up Purple Piccolo, Magenta Freeza and SSJ Rainbow Vegeta boomer instinct Goku if Toei releases it with Toriyama's approval

.

[CyberCubed]

I'd recommend DBZ over Kai. DBZ has filler, but a lot of it actually adds to the lore of the show. Kai is basically a super-cut of DBZ spliced down to the key plots from the manga, but it doesn't flow as well since they just cut scenes from old episodes together and didn't reanimate the show from scratch.

Dragonball and Dragon Ball Z were the original run from Toriyama, from 1984-1995. Everything else is a sequel or spinoff or non-canon.

[neatoman]

Don't listen to Cubed. He's only correct about how Kai should have been a remake instead of a shortened cut, but the awkward cuts are a price worth paying.

Virtually everything the anime added in is garbage. The vast majority of it is extremely pointless flashbacks, many of which reuse footage from less than five episodes and is something Goku thinking back to how he dodged a kick or something. The second most type of filler are scenes that designed to be pointless, sometimes it can be kind of exciting if it's a bonus fight or something, but it's mostly going to be crap like Bulma turning Yajirobe's scarf into a diaper for Trunks. And despite the manga literally having nine time skips (some of which are so close together I might as well not even bother classifying them as separate) and the longest one being seven years, you'd be surprised at how little the shows bother to take advantage of them, leading to the more boring forms of filler I've already mentioned. This is of course also all on top of the problems you get with contradictions.

No, Kai is not by any means perfect and they really should have started from scratch there, but it is far less of a boring slog full of deliberate pointlessness that the original cut is.

[CyberCubed]

DBZ is much better. The filler in the Saiyan saga is the best part as it fleshes out Goku being dead in Snake Way, Gohan training, the humans training, etc. The Namek saga filler is some of the weakest/worst, but there's still some good stuff there.

Most of the Cell and Buu saga filler was good that you wouldn't even know it was filler unless you read the manga.

[Mad Dog McMutt]

I have to agree with Cyber Cubed here on this one. I love most of the filler in DBZ and I think it helps build atmostsphere to the DBZ universe. We get to see a fake planet Namek, Vegeta in space searching for Goku, the other world tournament and many other priceless moments. I couldn't imagine DBZ being the same without all of those moments. How boring would that be? I also can't stand the Voice of Gohan and Frieza in Kai. I know that I am in the minority, but I like the feminine weird reptilian tone that the original voice had. It seemed more fitting for him being an alien reptilian like being.

[TheCanadiandrome]

Originally Posted by IMJ

Question for the Dragonball guys -

I think the likelihood of me actually getting around to doing this is next to zero, but if I wanted to watch the first season of the "original" Dragonball, what would I have to buy or download to do that? Meaning what was it called, etc?

Grassroots Dragonball - not "Dragonball Super Yayayaya" or "Dragonball Elite Power Zord Super No Dinero X" - just "Dragonball for Dummies".... What do I have to seek out to do that?

CrunchyRoll or Funimation

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by TheCanadiandrome

CrunchyRoll or Funimation

Or you know… Once again… If you can read French, the single best release is out there…

[TheCanadiandrome]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Or you know… Once again… If you can read French, the single best release is out there…

French...pfft LOL

[Mad Dog McMutt]

Originally Posted by IMJ

Okay so the iterations that anyone cares about are basically:

Dragon Ball - the first iteration from the 80s where the characters looked like little chibi people
Dragon Ball Z - the 2nd iteration from the 90's where the characters looked like muscular anime drawings

and then there were a whole bunch of follow-ups after that, but if I want to watch Dragon Ball Z I can watch some edited version called Dragon Ball Kai instead.

It looks like the original 1980s Dragon Ball never got a Blu Ray release. I'd say I should just stick to Fist of the North Star, but that's a complex mess of releases too...

If I were you I would watch DBZ first and then if you like that check out the original Dragonball. The only thing you have to really know going into Dbz is that when Goku was a kid he and his friends had adventures searching for dragonaballs that can grant a wish once all 7 are collected. As Dbz plays out you will learn all you really need to know about the characters and their roles especially through flashbacks without needing to know too much about the original Dragonball series. A lot of people watched Dbz before the original Dragonball.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by TheCanadiandrome

French...pfft LOL

Yes yes, I know. "Sacre Bleu, nous nous rendons!" and what not, but dude, trust me, the French Blu-Rays of Dragon Ball have the best sound quality of any home release ever. And I mean in the Japanese language, not some dub but the actual original language sounds amazing on the French Blu-Rays.

[IMJ]

Good to know - thanks for the info. Simplified enough here given how much Dragonball is out there.

They do this "short recut" of seasons with Ghost in the Shell as well. Take seasons of the show and re-edit them into a single movie.

[sdp]

I think Kai might be a good recommendation for someone more casual that wants to check out DB. They really should've added the Piccolo Jr Tournament from DB to give a bit more context, it's still adult goku and action oriented so it would've fit as a precursor to Raditz. I've yet to check out Kai because I don't want to hear a new dub or a new soundtrack, so I'd rather watch the filler again, and yeah some of the filler can be good, not all of it but some of it. Didn't they reanimate some specific parts? I'd definitely want to watch those reanimated bits though.

DB and DBZ are very different shows indeed with DBZ being the favorite among most, but besides Japan and Europe I don't think many people got to enjoy DB before DBZ and I'm sure it hits very different. DB is just an adventure comedy with plenty of action. It starts to lean more action oriented towards the end but DBZ is pretty much just an action shonen. As many faults as GT had, I appreciate they tried to bridge the gap between both the original and Z in terms of tone.

The soul of who the characters are is all from the original DB the "Z" fighters which btw I'm sure it's an American only term, I don't remember it being used before the DBZ arrived in the US are pretty much worthless in Z, the reason they're even there is because of how important they were in the original DB.

The only reason the first episode of DBZ is so epic is because you know Goku is the strongest after defeating the demon Piccolo. So to see those two team up against a greater foe was crazy. Piccolo had been the baddes MF ever and he's only making this one exception join Goku. Seeing the Red Ribbon army return for the Android saga was epic because we knew all the crap Goku had to deal with to defeat the Red Ribbon army. Hell we love Master Roshi because of the type of teacher that he was during all of the original DB. I think watching DB after DBZ just wouldn't be the same, you have a different perspective of who the characters became. Yamcha will forever be seen as a loser when he was a great warrior, Piccolo will never be seen as the threat that he was meant to be, Tien would just be seen as another fighter Goku dealt with instead of one of his greatest challenges etc etc.