New Dragon Ball Fan

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Dragon Ball is a great series, but just be careful not to read anything online that will spoil it for you. (It's happened to a lot of us)


One other major thing that you need to know, collecting the whole series is expensive. Between the 42 manga volumes and the 14 or so box sets, you're looking at about half a grand.

[Tempester]

Well, one thing I do know is that the way to watch Dragon Ball is the Dragon Box, and from what I can see so far it's ony avalible for Z.

So whilst I'm buying the manga, I'll watch Dragon Ball online and hold off for a Dragon Box style release.

I finished Volume 1 and am part way through Dragon Ball Volume 2. Very entertaining so far, best purchase I have made in a while.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Well, one thing I do know is that the way to watch Dragon Ball is the Dragon Box, and from what I can see so far it's ony avalible for Z.

So whilst I'm buying the manga, I'll watch Dragon Ball online and hold off for a Dragon Box style release.

Yeah, all of the Dragon Boxes aren't going to be released for about two years so I suggest you wait for those instead of buying the inferior season sets. (But if you really can't wait, watch it online, I guess )

[Tempester]

Welcome to the world of Dragon Ball!

Please leave your wallet at the door.

That's what I did in pub year ago, drunk as monkey. Three bus drivers denied me to board into the bus, so I slept on street car terminus.
I don't recommend this.

I did something simmilar. Me and a group of five friends went on a booze cruise to spain and if you've been to the part I went, you'll know that you can only have 4 per taxi, I drew the short straw. Then I went up all "smooth criminal" to a another taxi, but I'd left my wallet in the apartment, so I had to walk to walk back to the apartment at half past 2 in the morning...

-it took me 3 hours to get back. It was "fun" to say the least.

Back to Dragon Ball Land, will post a volume 1 review later.

[SHINOBI-03]

Well, one thing I do know is that the way to watch Dragon Ball is the Dragon Box, and from what I can see so far it's ony avalible for Z.

So whilst I'm buying the manga, I'll watch Dragon Ball online and hold off for a Dragon Box style release.

I finished Volume 1 and am part way through Dragon Ball Volume 2. Very entertaining so far, best purchase I have made in a while.

First, welcome to this world-wide club house.

Second, I'm astonished that you'll go with the Dragon Box and not the Remastered season sets! Looks like you've done your homework.

Third, I'm not a moderator here, but I don't think you should go and watch online episodes. The Dragon Ball season sets are sure not the best in quality, but they are better than the previous releases from what I've heard. You should get them.

And in case FUNimation announced the Dragon ball Dragon Box... maybe you can sell them online or to anyone you know and get some cash out of them.

[MCDaveG]

Welcome to the world of Dragon Ball!

Please leave your wallet at the door.

That's what I did in pub year ago, drunk as monkey. Three bus drivers denied me to board into the bus, so I slept on street car terminus.
I don't recommend this.

I did something simmilar. Me and a group of five friends went on a booze cruise to spain and if you've been to the part I went, you'll know that you can only have 4 per taxi, I drew the short straw. Then I went up all "smooth criminal" to a another taxi, but I'd left my wallet in the apartment, so I had to walk to walk back to the apartment at half past 2 in the morning...

-it took me 3 hours to get back. It was "fun" to say the least.

Back to Dragon Ball Land, will post a volume 1 review later.

Hehe, lucky you haven't been in Vasque region:D

Back to the topic: Damn I envy you for this kind of start in Dragon Ball series, when I first saw Dragon Ball on German TV years ago, when X was fighting X I was like: God damn it, what is this poorly drawn s**t. I wasn't familiar to anime at all:D And later when I fell ill, I saw ''brand new'' portion of Z on other channel and was like: Damn I must watch this. Those were my pubescent days, later I was caught by the story entirely from the first episodes.

[Tempester]

Well, one thing I do know is that the way to watch Dragon Ball is the Dragon Box, and from what I can see so far it's ony avalible for Z.

So whilst I'm buying the manga, I'll watch Dragon Ball online and hold off for a Dragon Box style release.

I finished Volume 1 and am part way through Dragon Ball Volume 2. Very entertaining so far, best purchase I have made in a while.

First, welcome to this world-wide club house.

Second, I'm astonished that you'll go with the Dragon Box and not the Remastered season sets! Looks like you've done your homework.

Third, I'm not a moderator here, but I don't think you should go and watch online episodes. The Dragon Ball season sets are sure not the best in quality, but they are better than the previous releases from what I've heard. You should get them.

And in case FUNimation announced the Dragon ball Dragon Box... maybe you can sell them online or to anyone you know and get some cash out of them.

Well the remastered sets are quite cheap, and I could always flog them. I know they're fullscreen and that doesn't bother me as much as cropped. I was flicking through the funi forums a while back, and saw all this dragon box stuff. So I looked it up and it seems they're pretty good.

[Hellspawn28]

Why would he watch Kai when only half of it has aired so far...

I know that, but after finishing the DB anime, then starting with DBkai is not a bad idea unless he wants to finish Part I & II of the manga first. The DBZ anime is not bad, but I think Kai is better in my opinon.

[Tempester]

So how bad is the filler in Z? That'd be a key factor in whether or not I watch Kai first, cause if the filler isn't that bad I'm sure I could put up with it.

[xzero]

So how bad is the filler in Z? That'd be a key factor in whether or not I watch Kai first, cause if the filler isn't that bad I'm sure I could put up with it.

Some of it's okay. There's a storyline after the third major arc that lasts for a few episodes and was fairly interesting and amusing. A lot of it gets painful, though. The Namek storyline has tons of filler scattered throughout, and a lot of it is really boring. It is actually bookended by the two worst filler offenders (the first is worse than the second). You miss some of the better moments of filler in Kai, but it still might be the way to go. This is particularly true if you're interested in the dub, which is from all accounts far superior to the original dub.

[Hellspawn28]

Oh yeah I forgot about GT. GT is a sequel to the DBZ anime, and is not canon to the manga. It's not that great, but still worth checking out if you want.

[BobZ]

Welcome to to the wondrous world of Dragon Ball - once here there is a small chance you'll want to turn back.
It's awesome that you've started off with the manga... I envy you. I still haven't read it all myself and am slowly collecting it now. I'd advise you to read through the whole of it and turn to the anime version - both Dragon Ball and Z. Then you can give GT a shot and after all that you might want to consider seeing Kai, which is a shorter, closer to the manga version of Z.
That's how I would've done it if I had the chance to start all over again at least.

[Tempester]

Finished Volume 2, wish I'd bought some more.

And which version would you reccomed me watching first? Is the original better, or is Funimation equally as good?

[MCDaveG]

Original is way better, Funimation is innacurate and edited to ''western'' rather say US standards.

[Cipher]

Finished Volume 2, wish I'd bought some more.

And which version would you reccomed me watching first? Is the original better, or is Funimation equally as good?

If you want something that equates the experience you have reading the manga, stick to the subtitled Japanese option with any release you purchase. Funimation made a lot of scripting changes for the worse back when they were first doing the series.

As for the Kai vs Z debate, it's a moot point because you should be watching Dragon Ball first. Or reading all of the manga first. But if and when you do decide to watch the later half of the series, be aware of a few things. Kai is recieving a much better dub than any previous release, so that's a plus if you want an English version. It also has less filler. However, Kai's a bit of an artistic mess. It features redrawn frames that look absolutely terrible, and the music is extremely generic. Z has some awful filler and some really good filler, but in the days of massive DVD sets, when you can skip scenes or watch multiple episodes at a time, I can't imagine it hurting the experience all that much. I'd go with Z, Japanese and subtitled. Personal preference; others will tell you different.

Finally, if you're ever planning on watching GT (and I recommend it, way down the road), be aware that it takes elements from filler segments in Z. So it's techinically incompatible/out of canon with the manga and Kai. But it's nothing you couldn't catch yourself up on.

For the time being, though, I don't know why you're worried about anything other than finishing the "Dragon Ball" portion of the manga. Get through that and then decide how you want to experience the rest of the series.

[Adamant]

And which version would you reccomed me watching first? Is the original better, or is Funimation equally as good?

Given that you're asking in the first place, there's absolutely no reason for you to touch the English dub. It's horrendously awful, and the only possible rationale for watching it is that you're one of those silly "if they don't talk in my own language I'm not watching" people that unfortunately make up most of the American market. Thankfully, you're not, so ignore the dub.

[Tempester]

I watch most animes in original language, it seems kinda stupid that people won't watch it. It's probally because they're lazy to read subs.

I'll probally have a peek at the funi dub further down the line, but at the moment my main priority is finishing the manga.

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

From personal preference: I'd say watch the original Japanese version. Subtitled, of course.

And welcome to the fantastic world of Dragonball!

[Piccolo Daimao]

Welcome to Dragon Ball, an entertaining and action-packed series, and welcome to the fandom. Like many others have said, you've done well starting the series from the first Dragon Ball manga--you're getting the purest Dragon Ball experience there is (in my opinion). I will second that opinion which says that you should watch the original Japanese anime of Dragon Ball with subtitles, after you've finished the mighty task of reading all 42 volumes of DB. If you don't think you have the money there to spend (or the patience to save up, like moi) to buy all 42 volumes, I would try to watch the anime as well. Don't watch Dragon Ball GT until you've finished the whole of Dragon Ball, because, well, obviously, it'll spoil the story for you (don't end up spoiling the story for yourself via video games or the internet either). But aside from that, GT's pretty disappointing. It's riddled with inconsistencies, is non-canon to the manga and by the time you go through the whole of DB, it'll become clear to you that GT just doesn't have the essence of Toriyama's Dragon Ball.

[Gaffer Tape]

Wow, a new fan who's not only afraid of subtitles but is also self-motivated to inform himself about the new fandom and various releases he's getting into. I like this guy! Hope you don't mind if I throw a couple of more opinions your way.

Unless you're really eager to see the animation, maybe you should read the manga all the way through first. Less of a time commitment, much less of a financial commitment. It'll get you up to speed pretty quickly. Plus you won't have to worry whether or not a certain release is out yet.

As for the Z vs. Kai debate (when you get that far), I'd have to say go with Z, especially if you'd just gotten done watching the Dragon Ball anime. In terms of the anime, DB and Z flow into each other quite well... Kai, not so much. Z has the same musical score, all the same actors only a week later, and treats itself as a continuation. Kai has a new musical score, a good portion of the same actors but 20 years later, and treats itself more like a self-contained entity. I'm not saying any of those things are bad, but if you're watching the anime for the first time, and you think you can handle the filler (and if you've gotten through the DB TV series, it's pretty similar), it's a more cohesive experience. Besides, good or bad, I would think it would be fun to see what's new rather than see exactly what you just finished reading. But maybe that's just me.