The Dragonballs, should I watch them?

[Elfgore]

So, after getting into the whole over the top action thing of One Punch Man, One Piece, Fairy Tail, etc. I decided it might be time to watch, or at least think about watching the king of them, The Dragonball Series. So, instead of asking a bunch of completely random people on the internet, I decided I would ask somewhat random people on the internet.

The questions are;

1. Should I watch the Dragonball series?

2. If yes, where should I start. The very beginning or elsewhere?

3. If no, any strong reasons as to why? Any other recommendations to sate my want?

I've seen quite a few avatars and quite a few people who talk about it, so hopefully I can get some good answers. Thanks to any of you helpful and sexy people who answer.

 

[Drathnoxis]

YES! Dragon Ball was great, it had a lot of charm and humour, was well paced, and had some pretty solid action in some of those tournament arcs. Definitely start right from the beginning. Honestly, if there was a part you shouldn't watch it's the Z portions. I didn't really like a lot of elements from that part of the series. The humour is almost completely gone by that point, the fantasy elements are swapped out for space fiction elements, the show is almost entirely focused on overlong fights, and worst of all is the filler. The filler is like, woven into the episodes, so you can't even skip it, and it just draaaaaags out the fights and is utterly boring. If you do watch the Z portions, watch Kai, unless you really want to see a 15 episode fight dragged out to 32 (I'm serious here, I looked this up.)

But yeah! Watch Dragon Ball! It's great!

EDIT: If you watch the original Dragon Ball DO watch the Japanese audio. The English dub makes my ears bleed. It's like the voice actors were trying to make the most annoying voices they possibly could. I never listened to the Z dub though, but I never had any problems with the Japanese audio.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Dragonball Z if you like extreme anime battles and superpowers.

Dragonball If you love old action movies and japanese fantasy.

Watch Both if you are awesome. But Dragonball has better content between fights.

 

[Fox12]

Hmmm. Hard to say. Dragonball ended up having the best fight scenes in any shonen style series ever, period. I think the best thing to do is break it up.

Dragonball: A lighthearted adventure series, like Onepiece. It has action, but the focus is on the humor and sense of adventure. Dragonball is a little more story driven. If that sounds good to you, then definitely watch it. That said, it lacks the over the top action your probably expecting. You can skip this without any trouble, but it is neat to watch the protagonist grow up.

Spoiler

Dragonball Z: Fucking metal. This series, at its best moments, is like an adrenaline shot to the arm. The fights are phenomenal and epic on a scale I've never seen. If you watch it with the English voices and soundtrack then it's an incredible experience. Avoid the Japanese dub, it's cancer. They had elderly women voicing large, adult men. That said, DBZ lacks the sense of whimsy and adventure that Dragonball had. It's less plot heavy, and more action oriented. Fights drag on for dozens of episodes at a time, and there's a lot more filler. Ultimately I would say it has higher highs and lower lows. Still worth watching if you want a large, epic fighting series. The Frieza and Cell saga finale's gave me chills. I would say the whole series is worth it just for those two moments.

Spoiler

There's a slight change in tone

Just remember. Don't watch the Japanese dub, don't watch it with the atrocious Japanese soundtrack, and don't watch the remake, Dragonball Kai. Just watch it in the original English dub.

 

[Scarim Coral]

1. Should I watch the Dragonball series?
Yes

2. If yes, where should I start. The very beginning or elsewhere?
Beginning

3. If no, any strong reasons as to why? Any other recommendations to sate my want?
If you had watched Z, Dragonball is quite different to Z! Dragonball was more abour martial arts than ki blast and flight. It also took REAL effort to deal the final blow to the villian than using some last powerup or attack moves.
Also Dragonball is influence from mystical lore like Journel to the West and the rabbit on the moon so if you know those, you will get some of the reference.

 

[The White Hunter]

1) Yes, you should, they're greata nd have a unique charm and there's just something special about it, even as old as it is now.

2) Watch Dragonball first, it's much more character driven and gives a lot more growth and background to Goku; Z is great and all but Dragonball is the best place to start, starts a bit slow and goofy but hey so does One Piece.

GT is officially non-cano but honestly I find it fun and inoffensive, it's also short, I'd say it's worth watching.

Super I havent watched, been reading it monthly.

3) The english dub is fine mostly, barring a few translation hiccups, though I'm gonna say this: Fuck Goku's japanese VA. She's a talented actress but in DBZ I am not gonna buy that Goku, a guy with muscles the size of watermelons, sounds like a prepubescent middle school girl.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I definitely recommend the dragonball series in general.
Start from the first one, IMO. It had one of my all time favorite anime characters in it, Agent Mai. It also shows some humble beginnings, sets upsome background for many characters, and organizations, and has more comedy in it as opposed to the almost universally serious DBZ while still having some grand action.

After the first Dragonball, go Z. It has it' strong points and has probably shaped more people, and generations than Sephiroth. After that, Team Fourstar's DB Abridged is the way to go! In fact if you watch any Dragonball, I recommend that one. Unofficial, but generally pretty funny while not kneeing the DBZ plot in the nuts.

After that it branches off between the not really any longer cannon (But it'll still appear in videogames like Xenoverse), not super terrible, but generally the universal low point Dragonball GT, and the now cannon Dragonball: Battle of the Gods, and Ressurection of F and Dragonball Super which kinda fills in around the movies.... and has Agent Mai!

The movies are pretty good in general. Team Fourstar covered a few of them, and they're enjoyable.

Dubs are generally pretty good. Subs will probably have Goku's voice never changing from being a kid. It's preference really. I can go either way.

 

[Hazy992]

I would watch it right from the beginning, although just note that there is a big tonal shift between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball is more of a fantasy martial arts adventure, whereas DBZ is more rooted in sci-fi and is a lot more grandiose in its action. There's more comedy and goofiness in Dragon Ball as well.

If you do watch DBZ I would recommend that you just watch DBZ Kai instead. It's a lot shorter for one (they took out most of the filler), the voice acting for both the dub and the sub is better and the animation has been cleaned up. It's the best way to watch DBZ.

The original Dragon Ball is a lot of fun though, and definitely shouldn't be missed. Hell I'd say you should go back and watch it even if you've seen Dragon Ball Z already.

 

[Souplex]

Just do yourself a favor and don't bother with GT.

 

[Fappy]

It's the only shonen series (that isn't parody) that I actually like, so there's that. It definitely has its ups-and-downs in terms of quality but I think it's worth the effort.

 

[Kotaro]

I love the original Dragon Ball. It's a bit aged, but it holds up quite well as a really fun adventure story.
Dragon Ball Z, on the other hand... I never really liked it much. Martial arts action was a pretty big part of the original, but Z turned it into pretty much the only thing. Plus, the genre shifted from a sort of sci-fi/fantasy blend to straight-up sci-fi (with all the fantasy elements either explained away as "aliens" or dropped entirely), and it lost a lot of its charm as a result, imo.
Dragon Ball GT tried to return to the feel of the original Dragon Ball, and it... didn't work. At all. Even the most die-hard fans of the franchise tend to despise GT.
I do sort of like that one movie, though, the one about Goku's great-great-grandson (I can't remember the title). It actually managed to recapture the feel of the original Dragon Ball in the way that GT couldn't.
I haven't seen Super, because, well, like I said, I didn't care for Z.

 

[happyninja42]

So, after getting into the whole over the top action thing of One Punch Man, One Piece, Fairy Tail, etc. I decided it might be time to watch, or at least think about watching the king of them, The Dragonball Series. So, instead of asking a bunch of completely random people on the internet, I decided I would ask somewhat random people on the internet.

The questions are;

1. Should I watch the Dragonball series?

2. If yes, where should I start. The very beginning or elsewhere?

3. If no, any strong reasons as to why? Any other recommendations to sate my want?

I've seen quite a few avatars and quite a few people who talk about it, so hopefully I can get some good answers. Thanks to any of you helpful and sexy people who answer.

1. I would say NO, but that depends on your tolerance for anime stupidness. Which, seeing as you listed other animes as being something you enjoy, then you will probably like it. I personally, have a very low tolerance for just about every single trope commonly seen in anime, so I can't really watch the majority of stuff out of that genre.

2. Uh...no clue

3. I would say, skip out on the actual DBZ stuff, and just go straight to DBZ Abridged, by Team Fourstar. It's fucking hilarious, and you don't have to know a damn thing about the show to get their humor.

 

[EyeReaper]

Definitely start at the very beginning. You can't truly understand the pain of Dragon ball until you've been through having the characters you've grown fond of (like Tien, Krillin, and Roshi) drop down to being absolutely useless at best, and completely written out at worst... Yamcha

Though I'd also recommend finding a list of filler episodes and skipping them, especially if you choose Dragon Ball Z over kai. Though it isn't all bad (particularly the episode where Goku tries to gt a driver's license) most of it isn't worth the time. Especially in a show with as many episodes as this one.

Personally, I'd say don't bother with GT, or with any of the movies. Again, they're completely inconsequential to the plot. Just head right on to Super, and maybe after you've finished your Manly marathon of muscles, then double back and watch a few of the movies, if you can stand more DB at that point.

 

[xaszatm]

Currently, the 'canon' Dragon Ball anime order is Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z (Kai), Dragon Ball Super. I would recommend watching it in order. Also, none of the movies are canon. The only real contention is Dragon Ball Z vs Dragon Ball Kai. Dragon Ball Z is twice as long due to filler and you can skip many episodes because nothing happens in them or filler is used. However, some of the changes in Dragon Ball Z from the manga make more sense or is expanded upon. Dragon Ball Kai follows the manga more closely and cuts out lots of the do-nothing episodes but suffers from a poor digital upgrade (its VERY obvious when the digital touchups sucks) and for some reason is in 6:9 aspect while the original DBZ is 9:16. In addition, the music in DBZ(K) depends on what dub your listening to. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands, you should watch Kai but I would recommend Z over Kai personally. Honestly it doesn't make much difference.

As for dubs...it really depends. There is a reason why so many memes came from the English version is because its very narmy but that same narm gives it a lot of charm. It helps that most of the voice actors for these characters don't change for either version so pick one you like and you'll probably like the rest of the episodes in that dub/original voice.

 

[anthony87]

I see a couple of people in here saying to watch Dragonball Super and just skip the Battle of Gods and Resurrection of F movies but I'd do it the other way around. Watch the movies and skip those arcs in Super.

Maybe its because I saw the movies first but the DBS version of them were kinda crap. The pacing of them was glacial even by Dragonball standards and the animation has been pretty sub par. I'm hoping that they've just saved the good stuff for the actual new content.

 

[Fappy]

I see a couple of people in here saying to watch Dragonball Super and just skip the Battle of Gods and Resurrection of F movies but I'd do it the other way around. Watch the movies and skip those arcs in Super.

Maybe its because I saw the movies first but the DBS version of them were kinda crap. The pacing of them was glacial even by Dragonball standards and the animation has been pretty sub par. I'm hoping that they've just saved the good stuff for the actual new content.

I'd give DBS more credit than that, but I definitely agree that you should watch BoG and RoF before Super. Those movies are just straight up great.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

If you've watched One Piece, I'm pretty sure you can handle what passes for filler in Dragon Ball/Dragonball Z.

If you've watched either Naruto or Bleach, I'm doubly sure.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

That's a bit lewd but to each their own. I'd just say don't stare at Dragon Balls in public spaces.

[sub](I started with Z, watched until Cell's defeat then went through the original. Honestly couldn't tell you where to begin.)[/sub]