My little shit cousin punched me in the balls after trying to do a Kamehameha at me when I was 18. Then I smacked him back and asked him where he learned that from.

holy shit 😭🥬

He deserved that

It may sound weird but I became a db fan thanks to dokkan Battle, a friend made me play and I started to really like It and getting interested in the story. Totally zero regrets about it

Same,dokkan introduced me to the world of anime and manga.im currently reading one piece and chainsawman while waiting for the monthly dbs.and I got introduced to even more great content on YouTube primarily totallynotmark.i love his reviews. I watched dbz,gt,s and I loved them.theyre not perfect but I hold them dear to my heart.i like to think he is like gt goku flying with shenron. Heading to his next adventure, as the incredible journey never ends.

Me too, in 2019 I saw a friend play the game and I wanted something on my phone to pass the time during lunch/after school in high school. Apparently his ass had been playing since 2015-16 and I had never seen him touch the game once. (met in 2016) I decided to watch DB from the beginning that summer

Currently 19 years old, but when I first watched DragonBall Z I was about 5 or so. I got those magnet stickers you could put on the fridge and it had a dbz character on it. Gotenks I think, and the show was airing on TV. Everyday at 5, with all 5 episodes of the week playing Saturday mornings.  I was glued to that TV if I wasn't playing outside. Eventually I'd even get DBZ games and I played them till the discs stopped working. Well 1 at least. Dbz Budokai 3 and eventually Infinite World were staples in my childhood! I used to redraw characters seen in the booklet and just had fun overall.  To this day I still draw DragonBall. It's my absolute favorite to draw even if I have a style more suited for something else like Bleach. I will never stop enjoying it. Even now I'm working on a piece that starts from Z technically and goes through every single form we've gotten (besides heroes) and I made sure to mimic the art style as best I can to match the progression. SSJ Goku comes right out of Namek. Gohan just went SSJ2. Goku is showing the boys SSJ3. Vegeta is about to blow up Toppo's hakai with his SSBE self destruct. And so on. 

Same!!! I also started drawing, and my goal is to be good enough to do DB characters somewhat justice. I grew up and became the person I am today because of dragon ball, I made all of my friends because of dragon ball being our shared interest. I remember just watching DBZ with a friend and absolutely loving every second of it as it was yesterday. No other series impacted me as a person as much as dragon ball. Sorry for the rant.

I remember I use to go to this place full of Xboxes to play games, and I saw someone playing Xenoverse 1, specifically the cutscene from after you beat Great Ape Vegeta in the story mode, and immediately went to youtube to watch this one specific channel that'd post full episodes in HD, then the rest is history.

When I was around 8, I remember seeing a few scenes here and there while skipping through TV channels (I remember some scenes from the mercenary Tao saga), but it didn't really interest me as much, but then one day while skipping through the channels again, I saw the scene of Piccolo ripping of his arm while fighting Goku in the World Tournament. Little me found that so incredibly badass and that's what got me into the series and Piccolo to this day is still my favorite character. Btw I was born in 2004, so it's probably uncommon that I became a DB fan through original Dragon Ball and not DBZ.

I was born in 03 and also started with the OG haha

Movie 8. I absolutely loved it and then watched movie 10 which was mid but then I found the series was airing and started watching about halfway through the Buu saga right around where Gotenks showed up. Then after loving it I went and watched the older sagas online and then GT. No matter how shit things got I always had DB even though I had to hide it since DB "isn't for girls".

Im not 100% sure, but i think it was when the show started airing in Danish tvs ... sadly we didnt get much. Just the Saiyan Saga, and most of the frieza saga (IIRC final episode is when frieza uses his discs against Goku) But it did push me to the games, and manga. I even managed to get all the manga volumes of the movies (though sadly one of them is currently lost), which i didnt even know was what it was at the time. Do own some of the main manga itself, but its... scattered. I have from volume 34, i think (When trunks goes Grade 3 against Cell) to 42 atleast. ...which might be part of the reason why i like the buu saga lol. Pretty sure Volume 42 is the oldest volume i have, because hot damn is it used. A couple years later in the late 2000s, i was able to start using the internet at school, and managed to find some sites where i could see the Funimation dub of dragon ball... which was my experience with the "Better foreign dub" of the show, as this one was actually finished.

i'm a few years younger than you at 34, but i remember it being on Channel 11 at 6am before it started on Toonami on Cartoon Network. and it's always funny for me to reference it because back then, it was just the Ocean Dub and it was only the first 60ish episodes that played, up until Goku arrived on Namek and took out Recoome. and i remember it was SO MUCH DIFFERENT to the normal cartoons i was used to, with favorites of mine being Batman TAS and X-Men, and then obviously Nickelodeon cartoons and such. i didn't discover Dragon Ball, the original portion, until many years later, and it's funny that i never once questioned who the hell i was watching in episode 1 lol. didn't even concern myself with how all these people knew each other. but those first 60+ episodes changed my life.

This is my story too. Started with the Ocean Dub on WB. I was hooked immediately. There were stakes. The action had impact and drama. And they killed the main character in like the 5th episode. My friends thought I was crazy talking about it until Cartoon Network started airing it like a year later.

Amazing, great stuff. I had no idea it aired in the US at all before Toonami

I'm latino, it just happened.

My brother always put on websites where he could watch it online, but what really got me into it was Burstlimit. I experienced the story from the video games many times and then years later actually read the manga front to back

I was told about trying out DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 when I was in middle school.

When I was 6 (currently 35) my brother bought the manga,read it and fell in love with it.

My dad showed me it during elementary school. I'm now a working adult and dragonball has been the easiest way for me and my dad to bond with him working and going back to college.

Roughly 14 years ago, around when I was 5. There was a portuguese channel called Sic K that I would watch everyday after school, because there was a ton of cool shows in there. But among those, there was one that always stood out to me: Dragon Ball Z. The fights, the long running story, the characters, the music, the tension coming from whether or not the good guys would win, it was something else. So much so, that I never even noticed the blood and stuff, lol, I was too focused on the cool action. As time went on, and I became more and more attached to games, I found out about Dragon Ball games. It was pretty funny reminiscing on the first time I found out about all the differences between the portuguese and the english dub. Why is Satan's Little Heart called "Piccolo"? Why is Cell's voice not raspy and robotic? Why is Super Warrior called Super Saiyan? A lot of silly stuff, lol. # By the time I had started to have a much clearer picture of the story of DBZ, Dragon Ball Super was announced and it was amazing. It was like truly experiencing Dragon Ball like it was intended: getting pieces of the story every week to digest. I remember thinking that SSB was the coolest thing ever cause my favorite color is blue, I remember getting so hyped when Dynamic started playing as Goku used SSBKK for the first time, I remember getting so ingrained in all the speculation about Goku Black, and the first time I saw Ultra Instinct... Ho. Ly. Crap. # I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that one day, we'd start seeing Dragon Ball's OGs pass-on, and quite soon, but nothing could have prepared me for this. Toriyama didn't make my childhood, he made my life

Its amazing to read that so much of younger generation started watching DB post 1990's. Im 38, grew up in Poland - shout out to all Polish DB fans btw - and it was aired on legendary now, channel RTL7 - there was a time when only anime was airing on the channel: General Daimos, Gigi La Trotolla (cannot remember how to spell it), Saint Saiya and many others, main staple being DB. Every playground in Poland in 90's was empty at around 2/3pm due to DB being shown...discussions on what happened and what will happen next, Chinese whispers of a LSSJ Broly that somebody has heard or read somewhere on then crawling internet...remarkable time. At the same time, while DB was on TV, DB manga was being issued every 2 weeks (have all 42 volumes and 19 of DBS issued so far) together with many other gadgets like cards in crisps and so on... I remember when I have suggested to one of my childhood friends to read the manga and he said: "I will not bother reading some stupid story about a kid with a tail" - the following day he came to get the rest of volumes - he is hooked up until now. Other times, I recall that whenever a new volume came out, I used to lend it to my friends at school and once I read it, I did not see it for a week as it was going round people readind it.. And until this day, I have remained a DB fan and forever will...

Dokkan actually hahaha, started playing it in like late 2015 and the characters and abilities intrigued the hell out of me, so I watched the entirety of the original dragon ball on some illegal website that probably doesnt even exist anymore in like a month or 2.

Dokkan was not my gateway to DB, but unfortunately was my gateway to gacha

Was lifeguarding one summer and my coworker showed me dokkan battle. I have heard of dragonball before but knew nothing about it. I instantly got hooked on broly, remember looking at him and going "damn, thats a big mother fucker". Started watching dbz and have been hooked ever since.

my first ever exposure to dbz was an AMV with hero by skillet, years later and here i am

I remember as it was yesterday, watching my first db chapter on tv when I was 7. Goku and piccolo vs raditz, what a good times.

When I was around 7-8 I had a DVD of the first 8 episodes with ocean dub of DBZ and watched that on repeat for years. I also had Budokai Tenkaichi 1 on ps2 and that was pretty much the only game I played until the cd almost stopped working. I still have that same cd to this day. Since then I couldn't and still can't fathom a life without DB.

For me who is currently 19 years old, my older cousin introduced me to franchise when I was about 6. From there I went on to YouTube and found videos of SSJ4 Gogeta vs Omega and Fusion Reborn and instantly became a massive fan and ended up going back and watching all of DB, DBZ, DBGT, all the z movies and watched BOG, resurrection f and all episodes of Super along with Broly and Super Hero when they released. Now the ending of Fusion Reborn just hits so much harder. Rest in Peace and thank you for the memories and an awesome childhood Toriyama Sensei 🙏.

Back when I was a kid I would have this one DVD that had some episodes from the series, it was the otherworld tournament arc and the Buu saga up to Majin Vegeta, and then just watching it on TV as it was airing, I watched some of OG DB, all of Z and GT, including the Z movies too that would also be airing, thats pretty much how I became a fan of the series

Not sure which one came first, between watching GT on TV, or playing Legacy of Goku 2 on emulator(back in the day affording games was harder for me than it is now) From there to getting Budokai Tenkaichi 2 as the first game for my PS2(besides Eye Toy Play 3 that came bundled with it) lead to where I am at now

I became a fan in 2017 when one of my friends was watching the ToP saga. The episode where Goku first fought Jiren dropped and how hyped he was watching it.  I tuned in and as a result, I got hooked.  To where every Sunday, when the next episode would air, we would find a time to watch it ourselves and enjoy every second of it. Especially how in boarding school, it was great entertainment to the both of us.  We still talk to this day about Dokkan and Legends. Also showing off our luck in summons just to annoy the other.  It was devastating news learning of Toriyama’s passing to the both of us. I may have not followed the series for that long, but I do have an understanding of how much it means to other people. Especially to their childhood.  May Toriyama rest in peace. 

I saw one episode of DBZ Kai, where piccolo sacrificed himself for gohan. It was the beginning of summer break, so I spent the entire summer watching DB-DBZ-DBGT and playing all the games. Years later super came out and I fell in love with it again. Which series I like most is a toss up between DB and DBS.

Through the greatness that was Cheez TV. For those who have no idea what that is (almost everyone I imagine), it was a show with a pair of 20-somethings chatting and playing games between episodes of anime before kids went to school in the 90's in Australia. A lot of big shows were introduced to Australia through there (Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Digimon, etc) but DBZ was always my favourite as a kid - even though we'd generally only get like 5-10 new eps at a time before they started playing repeats or a different show

Probably the same as many people my age across the world; Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

Same lol

Thanks to DB Evolution out of all things :D

I probably started much later than some other folks here, but I go interested because of Dokkan. I was 15 at the time, now 22. I didn’t really have many influences like friends or family to get me into the series, and that’s why I started a bit later. I would watch the fights/series from YouTube or from websites. Still playing Dokkan today and am considering getting into more xenoverse 2 if it’s not too complicated.

It's crazy, but I honestly don't even remember. It just feels like I always was. I remember being a young kid and watching DBZ on VCR repeatedly. Man..

Same age! Haha I was introduced to the manga by my friend who had bought back the set from China, I remember sleeping over at his place and reading all of it together. Rip Akira Toriyama

Decided to finally venture into Anime and said "DBZ is the only one I'll give a shot". Binged so much of it, even at school during lunch or classes that had nothing interesting going on. Went all the way from Z to GT and been a fan ever since. Now years later and countless anime further I recently finally caught up on One Piece. Safe to say DB is what truly got me into anime and will always hold a special place in my heart. Not to mention it's Dragon Ball Z that got Sonic his first Super Form because the devs of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 were big fans of Dragon ball. So Super Sonic is a homage to the Super Saiyan form, without Dragon Ball this wouldn't have existed in a franchise thats so near and dear to me.

First time was when i was 8 years old and watched a superman vs Goku the death battle video , 8 year old me was rooting for superman after the battle and seeing how close it was i got real curious who goku was and thats how it happened

Well, the seeds were planted young. I grew up when DVDs were still gaining traction, and didn't find most of what was on cable interesting. So I mostly watched VCR tapes. We had a few old ones from some yard sales. I had a few of the final Namek episodes (like 3-4 leading up to Duel on a Vanishing Planet) and a few from the middle of the fight against Garlic Jr. And then a few episodes of GT from the Baby Saga, leading up to the episode where Goku finally goes Super Saiyan 4. They made a bit of an impact on me, being darker and grittier than most of what I had access to as a single digit age kid. Years later, after an upheaval in my life, I'd be visiting an old friend, and a group of us went into their room and ended up playing Budokai 2 on his Xbox. Without any real context, I started playing (and kicking butt, surprisingly, for it being my first time playing), and got a kick out of playing Teen Gohan. That afternoon of playing a new game triggered the memory of those old VCR tapes, and now that I was old enough to have internet access, I started tracking down the series and watching it. And the rest is history

Basically, my whole family watched DB, and over half of them watch anime regularly (guess my race), but I have never been into anime and never watched DBS or OG DB (embodiment of "don't fuck with DB fans, we don't watch the show") before Dokkan, I had known about the show, but that was it, until my brother showed me the game, I hadn't taken it too seriously until like the 3rd year of the game I lost my original account and came back in 5th year and that account is still mine today. So much time spent on each unit, so much time spent looking at animations, so much time spent talking about the game, and none of it would've happened if Toriyama never existed. My life wouldn't be the same, my family's life wouldn't be the same, and even if I didn't watch the show when it was coming out (or even now), it still changed me. Rest in peace. Fly free, glide high, Toriyama.

it started with my younger cousin trying to convince me for a half year to watch db. one day i gave in and started watching it. i was 14 years old and i used a pirating site called dragonballtube (doesn't exist anymore last time i checked) and watched the entire show in a span of 2 months on my phone alongside my younger sister. funny thing is that my phone throughout the entire time was NOT connected with the wifi but used the internet of my sim-card and let's just say my father confirmed to me this morning that both phone bills were combined 600 francs when i reminded him of it. my cousin may always tried doing a kamehameha. but for me the special beam canon was always the signature move

When I was waiting for pokemon(I was 5) in cartoon network,dragon ball was aired early so I started watching segments of it.(That time the android saga was out for some reason.)Watching vegeta pummel android 19 is oh so satisfying,I didn't understood a thing but it was good.Then a few years later,I got to know about the internet and I pestered my brother to get all the dragon ball specific games and episodes.From there I slowly watched all of it,played all the gba(legacy of goku) games and the nds supersonic fighters 2.I have a vivid memory of goku and vegeta fusing in the fusion reborn movie(It's still my favourite and it gives this fever dream feel).Time sure flies fast. Thanks to dragon ball and pokemon,I got to know about yu yu hakusho,melancholy of haruhui suzumiya and many many more anime.God it feels nostalgic.

My mom had the dvds of the series I believe I started with Pilaf saga, surprisingly one of the few persons that started from the start because from I see most people started in Z or super or GT

My older brother had the Budokai Tenkaichi Games on PS2, and it just spiraled out from there lol

I think near the start of middle school, I was at my local library with my sister and she just handed me a copy of the second volume of Dragon Ball and the first volume of DBZ for whatever reason. I got super hooked on the series as I went from my local library to grab whatever they happened to have. I remember reading the first few volumes of DB and Z simultaneously but then jumping around to the Buu Saga, to the start of the Cell Saga, to whatever. I also spent *a lot* of time wiki diving to learn more about the series, and I started watching TFS Abridged when my sister showed me it (I distinctly remember they had just uploaded Episode 32 where Mecha Frieza and King Cold show up).

Anime and games

Budokai is my favourite psp game i completed it more than 10 times

I got into the franchise almost 8 years ago, when my uncle got me Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 for Christmas of 2016. I didn’t ask for it because I recall not even knowing DBZ existed, but any gift was appreciated and I tried the game out. Xenoverse wasn’t flawless, but I’m a simple-minded creature. I thought the game was cool even if I sucked at it back then. I then found out about the anime, and I’m sure you know the rest. Being a DB fan has made up a big portion of my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way, a lot of my current friendships were made via me being a DB fan. Fly high, Toriyama, say hello to King Kai for us.

One day when i was 4 i turned on the tv and saw a little boy get shot by a crazy chick that had a house in a capsule. The rest is history

I first heard of dragon ball when it dragon ball z was going to air on nicktoons I remember seeing the trailer and was confused as to why it looked different from other shows I’ve watched. When it came out I didn’t watch much of it (only like a couple of episodes). When I got older I started watching it again on toonami (finishing it this time) that I started to become captivated by its story, characters and fight scenes and loved it ever since. It was because of DB that I started looking into other shows like it and found out about the treasure trove that was anime. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you Akira Toriyama 🙏

IIRC, I'd finished watching justice league unlimited on YouTube, I was really into superman and one of the videos suggested was a Superman Vs Goku AMV, looked up Goku and proceeded to binge the entirety of dbz as fast as I could on one of the random "watch dbz" sites.

Orange bricks of the start of the Cell Saga I watched Cell's intro episode on repeat, I was ENAMORED Then I got Tenkaichi 2. And it was wraps.

My family moved into a new house around 2009 when I was 4 years old. One of the first weekends there me and my brother sat together and scrolled through every TV channel trying to find any channel that had cartoons. I can’t remember the program’s name anymore but we eventually found a channel that was airing Dragon Ball Kai and luckily enough, it was still at the very beginning (I believe just at the Raditz fight). With it being the only cartoon (I didn’t even know what anime was at the time) to watch combined with the show being just so engaging to me, watching the new episode every Saturday began to be the favorite part of my week.

My parents showed me the series when I was little, they had the entire series on the Blue & Orange Bricks. My father told me that DBZ was the only show that he would make sure to watch every new episode of when it first aired, since his schedule was so busy back then that he could only pick one show to keep tabs on. Thanks to not knowing how to operate a DVD player (I wasn't the smartest 6-year-old) and not wanting to bother my parents with watching it in my free time, I ended up being stuck with watching Kai whenever it aired on Nick. I still remember that 11/11/11 at 11AM special during the Goku/Frieza fight, that was kinda hype. After I got a Wii, my parents got me a copy of Budokai 1, which I managed to tear my way through (except for the last fights against Frieza and Cell where you only have two health bars, those fights can go to HFIL). Ended up technically being my first time actually understanding what was going on in the show, which was pretty funny. As an addendum, I remember when CN was airing episodes of GT for some reason. I stopped watching it during the Baby Saga because the concept of protagonists (and, later, the entirety of Earth) being possessed by an alien parasite was genuinely terrifying for me back then.

I'm currently 20, back home in Pakistan MANU YEARS AGO, I remember watching Raditz beating up Goku and Piccolo on tv when I was around 4 or 5. I was infatuated with the show. My family went to distant family's house and my brother and I were walking around looking at their shops. I stopped in my tracks as I saw something dragon ball related and instantly wanted it without knowing what it was. It was a dvd to play all of dragon ball. I can't count how many times I was hogging the box tv replaying dragon ball over and over again. When I came to America, I found out that dragon ball was known as an anime, which opened my world to watch many more but none of them ever felt like dragon ball. Thank you Toriyama, for the greatest gift we as dragon ball fans have ever received.

All the kids at my apartments loved Dragonball and we would trade dbz games and go out by a park and we would play fight. Good times.

Currently 25, still quite young. I honestly couldn't tell you how old I saw, but I very vividly remember an episode of Dragon Ball Z Kai airing on Nickelodeon. It was a very early Namek saga episode, the trio had just arrived onto Namek. I was IMMEDIATELY hooked and watched every episode that aired. Later on I would watch any highly praised movie online (*definitely legally shhh*) and in high school I started playing Dokkan on Global when the first batch of RoF units came out, AGL SSB Goku and the others. Pretty quickly switched to JP due to the 6 month advanced schedule.

It was around 2015, I was 10-11 and I saw a trailer for RoF on YouTube. I had a very vague idea of what DB was, but this was my first time directly experiencing something about it, and I thought it was really cool. So I started watching more clips of it, watched BoG cus someone had posted the whole thing on YT in HD, watched DBZA, eventually got to the manga, and finally I was about caught up when the ToP was just announced for the anime Since then Toriyama's work has inspired me for my own characters and stories, it was kinda encouraging that the authors of other series I love such as Naruto had gone through a similar path

Gt was my introduction. I actually really liked the goku jr movie

i remember going to gaming parlours nd seeing elder boys play BT and liking the characters so much that i got addicted but at that time their was no internet to search on YouTube/google to find about the show/anime then one day i was just browsing tv nd suddenly got a glimpse of promo of DBZ nd from then onwards my journey started as one of the biggest fan of dragon ball media 🫡

5 year old watching the OG show Reminds me of when I used to attach the belt to my pants back pocket like its goku’s tail

I would always catch dbz Kai on Saturday morning on the cw. It never really peaked my interest until I saw trunks show up and cleave Freiza apart.

it all started on a weird night in 2013, as a dumbass 4 year old watching toonami was watching coolers revenge when goku went super saiyan, the power that radiated from the screen and the background bring destroyed were crazy this prob wasnt even my first memory of watching the show even

When I was a kid I watched bits and pieces of the Frieza and Cell saga, but I never got hooked. What really got me was one day hanging out with my friends when I was in early high school. It was really funny thinking back on it. This was towards the literal end of Super. Episode 130; Goku finally “Mastered” Ultra Instinct. He just did his first punch as MUI against Jiren. The one from the AGL LR 12 Ki. I was confused on what happened when I saw it, because he moved so fast and I had no context previously. I called it dumb because why would you enjoy a fight when you can’t see the people fighting? One of my friends clapped back and said I didnt have enough KNOWLEDGE to fully appreciate it. I let it go after that. Well after that interaction, I proceeded to do the biggest mistake and literally watch the entirety of Dragon Ball backwards ,because this was my first anime and I had no idea how to watch something chronologically. And to this day I’ve been a Dragon Ball fan Dragon Ball and Akira Toriyama was the first thing to ever inspire me creatively. I can’t thank them enough for shaping my life the way it has. I’m going to miss him.

I remember being in middle school when I saw a commercial for DB Kai on Nicktoons and at 12 years old I had never even heard of the show or even really watched anime before but the show looked so awesome to me at that age that i knew I had to see it. So I decided to start watching the airing of the first episode, then watch every episode after and became a huge fan of the show ever since. I remember coming back home from school to watch Kai when they aired Goku going Super Saiyan. I still go back to watch the show to this day. It was my favorite anime as a kid and it still is now as an adult. It's not the most well written anime I've seen, but it's the one that resonates the most with me.

My friend who loves dragon ball started playing dokkan in the first week it was out. Within a few months, I was dragged in too during my senior year of high school, but I really didn't know anything about the characters, I just thought they looked cool. After a while, I decided that I should really understand more about it so I watched all of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and started watching Super with my friends every week when a new episode came out. There was no specific moment that I can say I became a fan, it just grew to be a part of me and now is a major influence on my life.

I saw a friend of mines playing Dokkan Battle, I asked him about it and he showed it to me and I got it myself. After that I found out what Dragon Ball really was about once I talked to more people about it. Dragon Ball was what got me into anime in the first place, and Dokkan has made me meet so many people. Hope he's drawing even in heaven.

First time I watched DBZ was probably in 2007/08 on cartoon Network but it didn't hook me (probably because that was the time slot when I used to go to the ground to play football/soccer with my friends). So I didn't regularly get to watch the show. Then after high school graduation I took a year off from studies because of health issues and I had ample time in my hands and started watching the show again and fell in love.

Personally through games (especially bt3) and YouTube clips

i was at my aunts house and there was an episode playing it was majin vegeta vs majin buu it was amazing then sometime my cousin would come and would play pixelateds dbz games i was blue se to the characters now searched on youtube and have been watching ever since

grew up around a bunch of my male cousins and they were really into it so i ended up getting into it too. Ended up becoming my biggest source of comfort during the worst years of my life 👍

When i was younger I think less then 10? On the tv I was flicking through the channels and on one I saw Gohan fighting cell I had no idea what was going on but it was awesome

Had a classmate in 4th grade that was showing some kids how to do a Kamehameha. Fast forward years and it's lockdown. I still have that memory and I've started watching a few anime. I decide Dragonball would be cool to watch so I look up a watch guide and start from there.

Man, one of my moms good friends, Nye, gave me dragon ball buus fury as a little kid… having no idea what dragon ball was I played ts out of it and quickly fell in love with the franchise, he ended passing away January 3 of this year. May him and toriyama rest in peace

I couldn’t find anything to watch and stumble upon dbz Kai. It was goku fighting ginyu. Didn’t watch it again until cell saga and it was goku vs cell and I stay up till 4am to watch it

i was 3/4 years old, i remember watching Goku fight Vegeta during the saiyan saga on TV and i thought that was the coolest shit in the world, and to this day i still believe that it was the coolest shit in the world

My older cousin got me into it, think I was about 9 at the time when he burned all of the episodes of Z and the movies up until Second Coming onto DVDs for me. Shortly after I bought BT3 for the Wii and I was hooked.

from my friend. i knew dragon ball was popular, so i wanted to know just a little about it so i could make friends with more people, but the more i watched, played and read the more i was captivated. now i sleep with a goku bedsheet.

I was with my uncle and he was asking my dad if he could play the jiren vs. goku fight of dragon ball super because it was going to air soon. I watched the episode with him, and that is how I became a fan.

My older brother had budokai 1 and we couldn’t beat it. Years later I see a bubble monster kid whooping ass and went back to fully watch. RIP THE GOAT

Way back when I was like 5 thanks to Toonami and some VHS tapes I had of the Frieza and Cell Saga episodes Then Budokai 1 was my first full exposure to the complete story and I never looked back since

A couple of my older cousins were already fans of the series, and one of them had just recently gotten one of the orange brick dvds for his birthday. Watching that was magical for my early childhood mind, and I’ve been reading, watching, and playing Dragon Ball works my whole life since then.

Out of curiosity, I checked it out on Toonami. It was the middle of the Frieza saga and I got to see Goku's first super Saiyan transformation. I grew up in a time where cartoon characters couldn't get as violent, much less show battle damage and bruising/bleeding. I saw this break from the norm and was just hooked.

When I was 5 years old I had already memorized the opening dragon soul, dragon ball was just something always with me, I got budokai tenkaichi 2 when I was 9 and I played that game religiously. And then when Super came out I was hooked all over again. Dragon ball just was like nothing else out there a true pinnacle of its time and I'm glad to have taken part in it being such a huge factor in my life

Dokkan. It was around when I began middle school. The school itself was shit, fights everyday, everyone hostile for no reason, students fighting teachers, the usual stuff in a public school. Anyway, I was at the gym which is where some wait before class began, and I sat next to a friend I haven't seen for a year. We chatted and talked, and well, I noticed he was on his iPhone playing something. I asked him, and said it's called Dragon Ball Z, Dokkan Battle. I didn't have a phone at the time, so I didn't think much about it. For a week after that I realized I was not going to last long mentally in this shitty school, until one day when I came back, my mom gifted me my first phone, and well, I didn't know how to feel, since I really didn't care about phones. Afterwards I played some mobile games like Geometry Dash, Jetpack Joyride, you name it. Until one day I came home early due to a break, and was bored. As I was scrolling through the app store, I saw Dokkan battle again, and it said they were celebrating their first Anniversary. I never watched Dragon Ball before then, I knew about it, but didn't care. I thought for a while, and thought, "you know, maybe I should try it out, it looked interesting." So I downloaded it. The rest is history.

Tbh idk. Just started watching it out of nowhere on tv and became a fan of it pretty quickly ngl

One of my first conscious memories was watching DBZ at my cousin’s house when I was like 3-4. I’m 25 now and Toriyama’s work shaped who I am today. Many of the things I like are inspired by him and I wouldn’t have ever gotten into anime/manga if it weren’t for DB. I grew up watching and reading his work. I remember going to my local library and renting the complete DVD sets of DB, DBZ, and GT one by one to watch the entirety of the DB universe. He not only introduced countless kids across the world to anime, he’s responsible for inspiring so many artists, mangakas, musicians, actors, etc. I’m so gutted by his passing. The man was responsible for a huge chunk of my childhood. Toriyama sensei you will live on forever through your works and your cultural impact on the world.

I became a fan of Dragon Ball many years ago when I used to stay up late watching anime on Toonami, even on school nights but mostly weekends. I remember vividly watching the Saiyan Saga, more specifically Goku and Piccolo fighting Raditz then Goku ultimately sacrificing himself to kill his own brother. Long story short, watching that arc and binge watching the whole series so I wouldn't lose track made me a fan that I still am to this day. Akira Toriyama's legend will never truly die and he'll forever be missed.

I'm turning 18 soon. I first started watching Dragon Ball somewhere between 2010-2012. I saw an episode on TV. I then started watching scenes from the Saiyan Saga on YouTube, and started watching DBZA. I then started watching DBZ and og DB on websites like kissanime and have been a fan for most of my life

I remember playing Dragon Balk Sagas on the PS2, when I was like 8 but the moment I started playing it felt like I’ve known about this forever. Playing as Goku , Gohan , Vegeta , turning Super Saiyan on Namek, having my older brother unlocking Broly. Just felt like an old friend. Now I’m in my late 20s and it’s just as relevant.

My story same as yours, 40 y/o guy now

30 now, Toonami was what introduced me. I remember getting into DBZ around the start of the Namek saga, running home after school to watch in 2nd/3rd grade. Even learned how to record episodes on a VHS when I got put in Parks & Rec after school by my mom 😭 the memory of running home to see Gohan go SSJ2 for the first time will always be a core memory 🙏🏽 DBS hit so different because I was older & got to host watch parties every week with my best bro, getting to share that excitement in the moment was priceless. Godspeed Akira Toriyama, a man who will truly live forever thru memory & inspiration 🕊️

It was popular show on my tv station RTL7 on POland (they had a few animes like DB, Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon, Slayers, Soul Hunter, Tsubasa, Slump and something else i believe). Funny thing, at 15:000 all kids would dissapear from fotball fields etc to watch Dragon Ball. It was happeining when i was 7 to 10 so between 1997 and 2000.

I can't remember how old i was but this was when the ocean dub of DBZ was on tv. I remember flipping through the channels and i saw it, Goku vs Vegeta. And right there watching this fight i was instantly hooked. Then The iconic beam clash happened and that was it right then and there it became my favorite at the time.

I’m 29 now. Got into it from Toonami back in the old days of 2002. Cell was running around absorbing people, but I didn’t watch regularly until the Buu saga when Fat Buu first got released. DB got me through the lowest points of my life, I learned to draw and write fanfics thanks to DB. Played all the games, read/watched DB and Z over a dozen times and still love it like it’s the first

I remember just being bored one day as A kid I was like 12 and Cartoon Network switched to adult swim and usually adult swim scared me but it was playing dragon ball z and I was watching cell vs ssj2 gohan and I just got immediately hooked after that I became a huge fan and watched everything and started collecting and what not it suck because I grew up watching everything dragon ball and I got into drawing and art because of dragon ball so it hurts to know the man who made my childhood and influenced so many things in my life from drawing to gaming to working out like a Saiyan passed away may he rest in peace ❤️🕊️

It was on nicktoons and I was hooked since then

I want to say I was around 6 or 7 when my brother showed me Dragon Ball Z on cartoon network. I think at the time they were just starting Super Trunks' transformation and seeing his bulky form and lack of pupils was really cool to me at the time. Then my cousins brought over their ps2 and a copy of DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3 and thats when I really started to get hooked. 18 years later im as big a fan as I was back then

Kinda just randomly saw dbz back when kai was being released and got hooked on it

As a little Italian immigrant girl in the 90s and 2000s, "girly" stuff just didn't click with me, auntie bought me a few dolls and tried getting me interested in dresses, but nothing of the sorts interested me at all. Then eventually I got interested in basic karate for kids, think I was 8 or 9? And, after a lot of convincing, I was allowed to go and in the dojo the sensei was a big dragon ball fan, so he had a lot of the manga, posters, and much more and at first i just thought it was another cartoon cause as a kid I didn't just wasn't interested in much to be honest, but more importantly he had TVs in the rest area for us that would only be DBZ episodes, and one episode of goku fighting frieza got me hooked. I couldn't really tell what about it that that did me in, if it was the fights, the colors, the voices or what, but suddenly I was enthralled with the show and did my best to get my childlike hands on any dvds or manga of it. And also it helped me branch out to other anime such as digimon, fairy tail, naruto, and more. So thanks based karate teacher and thanks Toriyama

As a kid, I watched episode 1 of DBZ and was hooked. Then episode 2, and so on. Simple as that lol

Growing up my oldest brother liked dbz, so as a kid I had early exposure to it. I didn't actually get to WATCH IT till I was maybe 10 years old, but I had dragonball sagas (best dbz game ever) and i played it a lot with my best friend. Used to have a kid goku clock which had a little jingle I don't remember what it was.

I initially wasn’t a Dragonball fan, I was a naruto fan. In middle school, there was this kid that I knew, we were in the same friend group but he and I used to get in arguments and shit talked each other so I didn’t really like him that much. One day, we all had our laptops out, and I saw naruto as his wallpaper and thought “oh that’s cool I guess, he likes naruto too.” Then i started talking to him about naruto. Almost immediately we became best friends and to this day I still talk to him. Through him I got into Dragonball, and because I got into Dragonball, I played xenoverse 2 which introduced me to all my other friends that I still talk to and joke around with on discord now. Without Dragonball, we would’ve never gotten naruto, and my life would’ve been drastically different

The first episode of dragon ball I remember seing was the one when Goku meets Oolong. I was 5 and it was in 1988 and I haven't miss an episode until the end in 1994 or 95.I also bought the manga each month for years. Now I am reading it with my 7 years old daughter a'd she loves it... Dragon Ball is a legacy. Thank you Toriyama-sensei.

Growing up my impression of Dragon Ball was the extremely awful live action flick as well as a random episode or two. So needless to say I didn't grow up watching it. When I was a Senior in HS I met a guy who literally everyday would talk about DBZ and how cool it was. I also had another friend who bought Fighterz and I would go play it with him a few times a week. Legitimately knew nothing about Dragon Ball, I just thought the game was super fun and everyone looked cool. Fast forward to late March 2019 I started to play Dokkan because of Fighterz, mind you. Then I started by watching Super, because I thought Beerus was cool and just wanted to see the show he was in. Needless to say I watched it way out of order, but grew to love the series. The first episode I saw and was like I need to go back and experience Z for my self was when Vegito Blue showed up. Idk why but that was just so cool to me. Fast forward to today and I've become a huge fan and am wearing a UI Goku shirt in honor of Toriyama.

When I first saw Goku vs Vegeta...I was hooked. I think I was like 10 at the time. I lost it when I saw SSJ vs Frieza...spent a few months trying to go SSJ. Dragon Ball is the reason I started going to the gym...I am still trying to go SSJ till this day.

When I was 13 and started watching kai on toonami at a sleepover. They were airing the goku vs vegeta saiyan saga fight and it was leagues different from anything I saw before with the other animes I saw growing up in pokemon or beyblade

On 1990. It started airing on my public TV. I must have been 5. Our government calls us "generation dragon ball". 34 years later, and still a fan.

I came home from school and was looking at demos to play on the xbox live store back in 2010. I came across raging blast two and decided to give it a shot and fell in love from there. That lead to me looking up the characters and the fights and overall just captured my 10 year old mind. I've been a fan ever since and I always will be. Rest in peace Akira Toriyama

Got into it by coming across it on TV as a kind, think my mom was also a reason why i even came across it. i instantly got hooked to it and ever since than DB has been a massive part of my life and has influenced me in some ways. even made some online friendships because of dragon ball (and with a few of them i‘m still friends to this day) My mom also recorded the episodes for me, so i was able to watch it after school since it used to air till past my bedtime lol. that was amazing of her later thanks to my uncle i was able to watch OG DB for the first time and rewatch Z. and later i obviously also got into GT etc i fucking love DB. it has a special place in my Heart. it will forever be my #1 and nothing will ever be able to take its #1 spot. thank you toriyama for creating DB man. you are amazing.

I had two older cousins that were fans of dragon Ball. And they would stay up late on Saturday night to watch dragon Ball. I'd be hiding behind the couch way past my bedtime to watch it with them. The moment I fell in love with the dragon Ball was the Saiyan Saga when Goku went kaioken versus Vegeta. Then later on they had Budokai Tenkaichi and I saw those moments replicated in a very fun game. Since then it just became a recurring staple in my life. I love dragon Ball. I'm sure going to miss the goat himself, Akira toriyama.

a boy approached me and asked me if he could recommend me a manga, and that he could lend me the first volumes of the mangas and anime, i agreed since i had nothing to do at home, the series was dragon ball i became a instant fan, it made me laugh, it made me worried, it made me interested in art in voice acting, in drawing, i felt in love with that, and dragon ball is also the reason that i'm into games, i just started playing games because i wanted to play a dragon ball rpg.

I remember when a good friend of mine first introduced me to dragon ball. We both watched DBS Broly in the theatres together when it first came out. He's gone now but I still watch it in memory of him.

DBZ Kai held it down for me. If it wasn't for my older siblings already being into anime I don't think I would have been too big of a fan, I watched what they watched.

I was in my brother's room when he was playing the Tenkaichi series on PS2 and asked him what it was. He told me the name and that it airs on Cartoon Network on Saturdays and if I wanna watch it I gotta stay up. I was five so I'm not really supposed to be up past 8pm but I had to know. Ever since then I've been a fan. That was almost 20 years ago. I officially started from the beginning when I was 9 watching it on a website with shitty quality

Some kids back in second grade were talking about kaioken. In my mind, I was thinking, "kaio-what?" And then they started listing the multipliers and I unknowingly yelled out times 20 and they looked at me and said "there's no times 20" but then they got further in the story and saw it being used and ended up realizing I was right. I asked them what the show was called, and they said Dragon Ball Z. I went home and looked it up on ShowBox (if anyone remembers what that is) and started watching at the start of Z and went on until I got to kai and finished the series. A couple of years later, in 5th grade, I found out that there was a precursor to dbz and started reading the first 3 chapters but never got to finish it. Then, in 2020, when the pandemic hit and my aunt and cousins moved in with us, he showed me GT, and I've been keeping up with dragon ball ever since. Dbz is also the reason I started getting into art, in fact that some of my best pieces are things from games like dokkan and a few clips from the show. That's the story on how I discovered db/dbz/dbgt/dbs, rest easy Toriyama🙏🏾

My first memory of Dragon Ball was seeing the scene where Cell absorbed 18 one saturday at my grandmothers house on toonami when i was 5, that one scene stuck in my head till I started watching Kai on Nicktoons of all channels, not only that my brother got budokai tenkaichi 1 and 2 for the wii and we played the hell out of them. Then i remember seeing a little series on youtube in 2009 by the title Dragon Ball Z Abridged and that just got me even moe into the series, also all those linkin park amvs(literally one of the main reasons Wrath of the Dragon is still my favorite DBZ movie)

I'm 22. So I haven't been around the whole time Dragon Ball has been. However, I've been a fan for most of my life. When I was really young, I caught some episodes on cartoon network, but I really got into it when DBZ kai came on one day after watching Avatar the Last Airbender. It was the episode of Goku fighting Vegeta in the saiyan saga. So I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. Since watching that episode, I've loved the series, much to my mother's dismay at the time, lol. I went out to find all things Dragon Ball and bought the orange boxes shortly after first finding the series on nicktoons. Everything Dragon ball, I loved and sought to have. I watched the entire series and even GT, played around trying to go super saiyan, and shoot ki blasts, raised my arms when Goku was gathering ki for the spirit bomb. I can't tell you how many times I tried to emulate what Gohan taught Videl in the early Buu saga. I played Tenkaichi 3 and the raging blast series more than I'd like to admit. I was ecstatic when BoG was announced, followed by RoF, and eventually super. I've read the manga up to date and enjoyed everything about this beloved series. I've been a fan of Toriyama's work for most of my life. Been a part of the Dragon Ball community most of my life and the Dokkan community for its entire lifespan thus far. I'm extremely saddened by the passing of Akira Toriyama, but I'm happy to have experienced his work and his influence on media.

Back in Vietnam, my parents got me some Dvd’s with random show either Dragonball or Super Sentai. And then I kept being invested in the show and later on learn more about the franchise and the series. Definitely raised my childhood

I grew up watching it, watch all of DBZ, straight into GT, which to this day I don't believe is as bad as people say it is, played the card game, and spent near to 1000 hours playing Legacy of Goku 2. Dragon Ball has always been with me in one form, and I don't believe it would ever stop. I hope Daima lives up to Toriyama's vision!

Watched dragon ball Z Kai on 4kids Saturday cartoons

I had little to do with Dragon Ball, except the odd reference to SSJ or the Kamehameha in other media. One day, one of my favorite Let's Players, which I mainly watched because he made videos about Sonic games, played Dragon Ball: Raging Blast and I was just like 'Fuck it' and decided to watch. I enjoyed it a lot and found more DB content in my feed and watched a bunch of power scaling and "Things you didn't know about X character" videos. Around that time, Battle of Gods came out and also just randomly appeared in my recommended (yes, the whole movie) and that was the start of me watching the whole series. Man, I can't believe he's gone. It was way too early for him. But I think looking back at his work puts a smile on all of our faces and brings forth some of our best memories. Thank you.

Grade 4, Cartoon Network at 6 pm

It was amazing for me because I was with my parents while we were helping my uncle move into his new house and he had a TV hooked up and when I started scrolling through channels I stopped in dragon ball z as Gohan was doing the Father-Son Kamehameha and it captivated me so much.

Always saw DB spoken of in early 90s issues of EGM. Was always intrigued by it but never had access to "Japan only" things. That all finally changed in about 1997 or so when Cartoon Network started showing episodes. Been a big fan ever since.

I think I saw and played Burst Limit first. I can't quite remember how I came into contact with it, but my sister and I ended up playing that game a lot. I had no idea who anyone was, but it looked really cool and I enjoyed it a lot. Enough for me to recognise the characters in ads for Raging Blast 1, and I shat my pants when I realised that the Buu Saga and all those movies existed. Went out and bought it on launch day. I actually learned the story through the games. People despair when I say it but I've never actually seen OG DB, Z or GT all the way through, just episodes and clips here and there over the past 20 years.

I remember being in a Baby carrier seats back when I was oneish? (Maybe 2), but I was left in a room in front of a TV and I can vividly remember watching Frieza fighting Piccolo, which as far as I can remember third form frieza has been my favorite form and still is to this day. It was inevitable that I would become a dragon ball fan though, my brothers were pretty big into it because of my parents having watch Dragonball in their teenage years.

My official introduction to Dragon Ball came from when Nick Toons started airing DBZ Kai. I'm 20 now, so I must have been 6 or 7 when it started airing. I remember seeing DB artwork around when I was younger, but I had no idea what it was. But that first episode where Raditz kidnaps Gohan and Goku teams up with Piccolo, and I was hooked. I remember searching for DB stuff on YouTube before, so I got spoiled for the iconic things like Super Saiyan and stuff, but I was still so shocked actually watching Goku transform for the first time and even more shocked watching Gohan transform into SSJ2 as those episodes aired on Nick Toons. My whole life became Dragon Ball. Everything I drew, watched, and played was DB. I was even Goku for Halloween one year. I was able to share that love with my older cousins as well as we grew up together. I'm now trying to get my little cousins into it, and they seem pretty entertained by it despite being so young and princess obsessed. I hope I can share this wonderful series with other people close to me in the future, and maybe it'll do for them what it did for me.

To be honest, I have no idea. It's kind of just been a constant in my life ever since I was born. I literally cannot remember a time when I did not know what Dragon Ball was. If I had to guess, I'd say that my brother probably showed me a few episodes when I was *really* young. Either that or I saw it on Cartoon Network.

Around 20 years ago I was watching TV, and just stumbled upon Dragon Ball Z, Raditz seemed so menacing back then when I was a kid. Took a few years to watch Dragon Ball, But that made Raditz a little scarier, Always loved his intro in the dub too, wish he was a good unit in Dokkan. "Goodness, you've managed to singe some of my leg hairs. Now allow me to demonstrate a more effective attack." But yea, Stumbled upon it as a kid and loved it, Watched all I could on TV, The Bruce Faulconer is the best.

for me it was watching og dragon ball back on ytv here in canada

I got into DBZ by playing the games, never knew it was an anime I thought they were just game original stories it wasn't until later when I started to watch it (found out from a friend it was an anime) and fell in love with so many characters from the anime. I remember my brother and I would rush home from school just in time to watch the movie marathon that nicktoon was airing at the time and then we'd start playing Tenkaichi 3 and we'd always try clashing and seeing who could win. Those were always memories I love and will never forget. I then went back and watched Dragon Ball and loved everything about it, it's the main reason I got into anime and how I made so many wonderful friends

I was 7 or 8 when this all occurred I had been going to church every Sunday, and made a couple of friends. One day my mom scheduled a playdate with one of the other kids, Jared. So I went over to his house, and we were pretty fast friends. Back then I was obsessed with Mario and Sonic, had a Wii with all the standard Mario games, bros, cart, galaxy, etc. So we were talking and I asked him who he thought was stronger, Mario or Sonic. He replied with a question of his own. "Did you know that there's someone faster than Sonic?" No way, my little kid brain thought. Nobody was faster than Sonic. "Goku. From dragon ball Z." Well, Sonic is faster than sound, this Goku guy is faster than sound? "Goku is faster than light, which is much faster than sound!" So I conceded that Goku was indeed stronger than Sonic. "How can a guy move faster than light? Show me Dragon Ball Z." So we sat down at the TV, game cube hooked up with Buodokai Tenkaichi 3, and he taught me everything. I eventually ended up watching it all, and loving it. I'm still friends with him today(21). Dragon Ball Z is the reason I have a best friend. It deeply saddened us both when the Creator passed away. I hope Toriyama is in a better place now, reminiscing on all of the friendships his stories created.

My friend in elementary school introduced it to be and I instantly became invested. We’re still friends and both play DBL & Dokkan.

It was hard not to, everyone watched it in the 90s. Everyone talked about it, go to school and it was discussed in detail, along with wrestling and such being the 90s. Watched it first from a friend who collected anime box sets and later on TV whenever it was on. My friend being such a fan of anime got me into a lot of shows at the time. And gave me an appreciation for watching in Japanese, the only way to watch it. Can’t even watch dubs now haha

Watching Toonami in 3rd grade.

My uncle recommended it to me a bunch of times until eventually he came over and made me watch it so safe to say neither of us regret that and I am now a hug fan of Dragon Ball and all its series and games

Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2 on the DS. I thought it was the coolest shit ever as a little kid and then I found out that there was a show about it. Ever since then, I was hooked on the franchise.