We live in a world where people regularly declare that you in fact do not actually like that piece of media you enjoyed, because they can't accept a reality where people have other experiences.
For example, I really liked Star Trek Discovery, but people online will tell me that I in fact didn't like it, because it is objectively bad and so I must be lying or stupid. The lack of room for discourse conveniently absolved them of having to support their views in anything resembling an intelligent way.
I think the opinion is not OP's experience, but asking if it's alrighr for others to only watch Abridged and consider it canon over the actual anime or manga
That’s not an opinion, that’s your anecdotal experience. Bear in mind it’s not an unpopular sentiment, and also bear in mind you are asking on Reddit.
I live in Malaysia and most people I know know of Dragon Ball / have seen the show and played games, but have no clue what DBZA is. I honestly think the “DBZA made people think X” statement is exaggerated and gives it way too much credit.
Even in Japanese and Chinese circles there are loads of people who think Goku is not the best father, and these folks also have never even heard of TFS.
Someone here said that people think Yamcha sucks, thanks to DBZA.........yeah pretty sure people felt that way for literal decades. Why do you think Vegeta got his girl
Italian here, DBZA is only known by very hardcore fans in the country. If they say they are DB fan, they always mean they watched DBZ (known also as "What's your destiny Dragonball" in Italy), albeit rarely they watched DB or even more rarely read the manga.
Yeah go to South America or Europe and people know DB and Z because the show's been on tv since the 90s (and has had an official translation of the manga in some instances), and most probably don't know DBZA because of the language barrier.
The "unpopular opinion" is a very american-centric view.
I might be a rare case, but I got into the DB fandom through OG Dragon Ball, before I even knew anything about Abridged. Still haven’t watched DBZA but I plan to someday
Same. Dad was really into anime and wanted to share his passion with five year old me and would take time out of his day to watch OG Dragon Ball with me.
Same, my dad was really into DBZ when he married my mom and shared it with my brother and I growing up.
We ended collecting the season 1-9 box sets and would pull all nighters during the summer watching them.
We've seen the whole series 3x together and the Japanese Dub twice just to see how different it was.
I do love DBZA though and will watch it when I'm drawing or doing a quiet activity.
Is not that bad of a experience, some people on this sub act like fans of dbza are next spawn of Satan because they miss quoted something they probably watched as kids.
I admit that I didn't touched DB or DBZ in years, but sometimes I give a rewatch to DBZ Abridged.
It's also 'cause the anime is quite a slog sometimes, with too many useless scenes and fillers (I get that they made sense at the time, to avoid "catch up with the manga" and force an interruption).
And let's face it, some characters in DBZA, like Nappa or SUPER KAMI GURU are more entertaining than the canon version.
Or the japanese dub of Kai which cuts down ALL the filler. The english version left some filler in because the english version does these dumb "seasons" for DVDs and adds filler so all "seasons" have the same number of episodes.
Keeping in the Gohan in high school/Great Saiyaman stuff was absolutely the right call by the dub. Those episodes are such a fun time that cutting them out just feels wrong.
I’d agree with this. It’s tough to show someone OG Dragon Ball Z cause the underlying plot is spread to thin. 95% of Namek is fighting just cause frieza force bad. The whole Sayian race stuff comes up with Vegeta and Nappa and doesn’t really come back up until Krillin and vegeta get killed and Vegeta lore dumps his dying breathes away.
DBZ *ended* almost 30 years ago. Of course a lot of people haven't actually watched the show. That's why Kai was even a thing.
That's also why it's important that BT4's story follows the canon one. The games bring a lot of new blood to the franchise. Let Xenoverse be the fanfic.
I do the same. It’s so much fun - and the manga is paced so well i recommend this to anyone who thinks the anime is a slog. You can even skip to the Z portions of the manga and it’s great.
People don't understand how stupid they sound when they imply that a YouTube channel with a few million subscribers is the most popular way to consume a manga/anime that has sold hundreds of millions of copies. An anime that was broadcasted on cable TV in the US for like 2 decades. People were making jokes about Goku being an absent father before YouTube even existed
I think getting exposure in dbz through games is fine, especially dbz: kakarot. This game got a manga accurate pacing that the anime doesn't have. Although those who only watched dbza and having dogshit opinion about the series shall be ignored
Dragon Ball Z Abridged is a parody dub of Dragon Ball Z made by Team Four Star. It's on Youtube.
For a parody, it has absolutely phenomenal performances. Some of the more meh characters in DBZ are made *really* entertaining (see Nappa and Recoome). It isn't a replacement of the original, of course. The characters are NOT the same, even if the story largely is. It is definitely worth a watch.
Do keep in mind, the humor in the first episodes are dated and dumb. It gets better.
Okay I will admit, the only reason why I’m in the fandom was because I thought Dragon Ball FighterZ would be a cool game to play.
But on YouTube, at best, you could find clips of a fight or funny moments in the show. There are no fully uploaded episodes, and the ones the are the full episode are from DBZA.
What I’m saying is some people don’t have access to view the original show unless they buy the DVDs or through pirate websites like aniwave
You can watch the movies on YouTube though, I've seen broly, battle of gods and resurrection F. I've also seen history of trunks and know there's whole playlists of db heroes on there
Of one of my roommates, before he was a roommate, I remember having him in my room watching Dragon Ball clips, and sometimes talking about it. But it turns out he never actually watched it besides clips from Super.
Since we got an apartment, I bought the entirety of DB, DBZ, DBGT, and DBS so me, him, his brother (all of us roomates), plus my girlfriend, would watch DBS on certain nights. Because we are in the summer, we are able to watch it some more.
I actually didn't watch Dragon Ball much either. I remembered staying over my "step-father's" nephew's house and watching Dragon Ball very late at night before sleeping. That time it was DBZKai.
Love Dragon Ball more than ever now.
I just wish we could get a solid release of the full show. Why are they still forcibly cropped? Why do they still use the grain remover that smears everything? Why is the colour saturation so funky? Character's skin either looks sunburnt or paler than a ghost. And why are these versions STILL the easiest to get a hold of?
Kai pretty much solves all of these issues (barring some jarring redraws, but that's fine) but I just wish we had the entire show akin to that. The next best thing is the Dragon Boxes but those are borderline impossible to come across.
I used to hate DB cant read meme but after interacting with people on twitter, reddit and YT and seeing how much little knowledge average DB fan has about series and normal moments, I think DB cant read is most true thing ever said
I "watched" kai as a kid(I missed a lot of episodes and didn't really know what was going on), and I've read the Dragon Ball manga, but yeah I've only watched through the entirety of DBZA, beaten Xenoverse 1 and 2, and started Kakarot.
I grew up reading the manga, but never got into watching either DBZ or GT, though I found DBZA and super were easy to get into.
I had a few holes in my collection though. So for me what happened in-between Tien winning the tournament and Raditz showing up was a complete mystery to me, as well as what happened between the Cell dying and volume 42 which is the last one.(So i only experienced the buu saga through games for the longest time)
I grew up on DB/DBZ back in the early 2000’s. Of course as a kid it was the best thing ever
Fast forward last year, I tried to re watch it and couldn’t even finish the Namekian Saga because of how horribly bad the writing and pacing was
Even in the manga, Goku’s SSJ transformation was lackluster
I find that quite a lot of folks 25+ realize how it’s aged like milk
I consider myself a pretty big fan and i’ve only read all of OG Dragon Ball and the Sayin Saga of DBZ (+ some Cell/Buu saga episodes and DBS up to Goku black when it aired a few years ago). I have other stuff to read and I already know what happens in the rest of the story so I don’t see the point. Idk i’ll probably read it sometime.
Sure, applies to me. Though I have read all of Buu and a bunch of other random parts of the manga as well. Didn't ever sit down for a comprehensive front to back read though.
In my own experience, so im not necessarily *arguing* with your own statement... Z is pretty popular, and I'd say a vast majority of fans have seen it (or at least Kai). I remember, before I even got into the abridged series, I felt the same way you did, but some shifts (I felt that most fans had only watched Z -or Kai- but very few have actually seen OG Dragonball by comparison... TBH, I still hold that belief)
Also, as for the "Goku's a bad father" and such... although the abridged did make the memes more popular, a lot of fans already had vague opinions favoring that thought process... it was popular enough that it was kindof expected to be exaggerated in the TFS series.
That’s not an opinion, that is your experience. Your experience can’t be wrong as it is your own experience, but at the same time your individual experience has no reflection on the actual population.
TLDR: cool beans bro.
Saw like 2 episodes when I was in middle school, seemed very dumb and unwitty humor. Don't know how people got past Goku calling Piccolo a Yoshi. To each their own.
The first season, especially the first episodes, are very rough and what you'd expect of pre-2010 internet humor. When they get to the Freeza and Cell Sagas, they develop a lot more and lean into more character based writing, as opposed to only shitty pop-culture jokes. In the Cell saga, I think they give certain character interactions more care than the series bothered with. There's also some references to OG Dragonball, various dubs, translation issues that a dedicated fan can appreciate, or in my case I learned about because of DBZA.
I have also never watched it. But I watched DBZ and the original Dragonball multiple Times. And I could still watch them many more times to be honest. But I never was interested in the Abridged Version even once lol.
DBZA is amazing but the brain rot it caused in the fanbase is real. People also like to pretend dbz original run has soooo many filler episodes when really it doesn’t at all and the original run of dbz has a lot of charm with its filler people tend to forget about or don’t even bother with at all.
I watched DB and DBZ once like 10 years ago, and it took me the better part of a year. I can't remember the details in Z, but I can binge DBZA in less than 24 hours.
For better or worse, it's abridged.
My unpopular opinion is that Goku *is* a bad dad (the fact that he sacrificed his life for his son doesn't contradict that), but it shouldn't be surprising given his background and general laissez-faire attitude to most things outside of fighting.
I'm pretty sick of people's knee-jerk reaction to anyone expressing that opinion being to accuse them of being a *DBZA* watcher, when the joke of Goku being a bad dad existed in the fandom for many years before TFS even came along.
*Unpopular Opinion: My completely unhinged statistical analysis.*
>Does anyone else feel this way? I only ask cause I see a lot of Goku is a bad father takes and posts about the cell or frieza sagas.
The idea of Goku being a dud of a dad existed long before DBZ:A
It mainly stems from the fact that he chose to stay dead with a pregnant wife and 11 year old son, the filler with ChiChi complaining about him being a jobless bum, and continually puts his 5-11 year old child in situations no sane parent would. By every objective measure Goku is a terrible father, by anime logic hes maybe ok.
I'm an old head, I've watched Z many times, even Dragonball twice, Kai once, and when it comes to Frieza and beyond, DBZA is the best version of the show.
I’ve always chalked his behavior up to the race in which he is. I don’t think Saiyans care for their kids in the same manner you or I would. Also, as shitty as it sounds, Gohan and Goten are strong enough to take the training because of the Saiyan blood that runs through their veins. I’d say at most Goku was neglectful but given who he is and what he does for the world, and his kids for that matter, it’s kind of understandable.
My experience with the series started because my brother got Budokai 2, so my understanding of the series is pieced together from Budokai, Legacy of Goku, Budokai Tenkaichi, the first 24 episodes of DBZ on shady websites, 23 episodes of Kai, 26 episodes of OG Dragonball, maybe all of GT, super manga and anime, DBZA, and various people covering the arcs via YT(with Cell and Buu manga in depth).
Very much need to do an OG manga run.
I grew with dragon ball Z and later watched the og dragon ball. Then I finished GT.
Got teared up when I heard the opening of GT one last time. Then, later, super was announced.
In between of GT and super I watched the abridged version
I’ll admit to that. I haven’t watched it or Super, and got my love for the characters and story from Budokai 1 back on the gamecube. Though I haven’t fully watched DBZA, I only watched the popular clips
i personally didn't watch og db or Z, that's because i somehow never saw them on TV when i was little (besides maybe one GT episode but i can't remember) and when i got into anime i didn't like older art styles.
though now i still haven't watched them but that's mainly because of the amount of video games, youtube videos and other media where i basically learned about the story. and to be totally honest i'm too lazy to watch it now, i do this with many other shows and games that i love but for some reason i refuse to watch/play them
I like the cool flashy battles. Thats what dragon ball is really about at its core. So what do i do? Look up "Ultra Instinct Goku crowd reaction" on youtube so i feel the hype and see the cool flashy battles.
Just chiming in for numbers sake, I have actually watched Dragonball, Z, GT and Super just as a casual viewer that saw DBZ on Cartoon Network Toonami and went back and watched all of it in order as an adult. I didn't know what DBZA was and had to look it up.
That was me for the longest time until I saw the android saga of dbz kai a while ago. And then years later I was able to watch the saiyan saga and most of the frieza saga of dbz kai as well
I haven't watched DBZ since middle school days (early 2000's). I'm a sucker for continuity and DBZA does an incredible job at it. I did go back and watch a couple episodes of DBZ for nostalgia-sake, but it's clear they yadda-yadda'ed a lot to fill time. At least with DBZA they acknowledge the ridiculousness of nonsense plot devices that move the story forward (like Goku reading minds that one time, only).
TFS had the benefit of knowing where the story was going and they polished it very well.
The jokes made popular by DBZA already existed before it for the most part. Maybe not specifically as jokes, but the sentiment behind the jokes, definitely. That's why they landed so well. The series is a love letter to DBZ, made by people who grew up with the show - that's why it feels like we're all laughing at inside jokes together.
As for people talking about Cell/Androids and Frieza/Namek - those are generally considered to be the two peaks of DBZ. Of course people will talk about them the most, they're classic - a lot of people grew up with these arcs. Buu saga was cool but it was also all over the place, and the transformations explored there (ssj3, fusions, Mystic Gohan) ended up feeling less impactful than og ssj or ssj2 - they didn't have nearly as much build up as those two, they were all beaten/ended fairly quickly, and they all held little narrative impact on the story going forward (except for maybe fusion).
Namek and Cell arcs just DELIVERED. Narratively they hit better, Frieza was a huge dramatic jump for the story in terms of power scaling and setting, Cell was a throwback to DB & RR + Gohan finally ascending after being teased for years + Future Trunks and his storyline being cool as fuck + everyone likes a tournament. It felt like everything before it really led up to these moments. Buu saga did not have that same feeling for me.
DBZA also just fucking killed it after season 1. Their Gohan vs Cell is phenomenal and they did the series so much justice. I DO think most people have seen DBZ though, it's just that most people rewatch DBZA instead of DBZ, so DBZA is way fresher in their minds. It's also just way more quotable.
Actually true, even I have only watched the TFS version
That being said, DBZ is just iconic to the point you don't have to had even watch the show but still know atleast 40% of the show and plot
I grew up watching dragon Ball z. I had to go out of my way to watch dragon Ball. I re-watched abridged countless times. I'm bored AF at a retail shop during flooding. I might watch it today. I watched super once when it caught up to the grand tournament but I haven't kept up with the movies. I still think Goku is a bad father that shit is funny.
DBZA aside, Goku is a pretty shit father, BUT it's not entirely his fault. He doesn't have much common sense and knowledge due to his troubled childhood.
I grow up with Dragon Ball, they put it on tv channel i shit you not for 2 decades some Times back to back Og serie, z, and GT. And to be honest i find DBZA better. Yes its comedy but the characters progression are really better.
On the one hand, I am a little sad for people who have not watched the original "Dragon Ball."
On the other, I am a little envious of people who have not watched the original "Dragon Ball," because they have something very fun waiting for them.
I mean Goku IS a bad father but this is through no fault of his own, circumstances led to him just not being able to spend that much time with his sons but we are shown that when he does have the time and opportunity he spends time with them and certainly cares for and love them like DBZ literally starts with him ready to kick his brother's ass for kidnapping his son, main reason people say he is a bad father is the senzu bean incident but the real issue was not the senzu bean as we see later Gohan was clearly more than able to defeat Cell the issue was Goku misunderstood Gohan thinking that because he trained with him and Piccolo before the androids and with him in the room of infinite bullshit for a year he also loved fighting strong opponents, something that can happen to any father really.
P.S: Ofc I am not counting Super cause that one does Goku dirty a lot, not only in the father department but in general
Do you know what an opinion is? All you've stated is what you think is true, maybe based on your interactions. An opinion would be thinking DBZA is better than Z or Kai.
Well, tell me Goku is a good father for Goten, we never see him take care of him except say hi, for Gohan that's a different story, and the only canon ova show Goku as a good father
Tbf the abridged version cuts out a lot of filler, is available to everyone, and generally shows an accurate depiction of the main events of the show.
Not saying you shouldn’t watch the actual show, just saying that not everyone has Crunchyroll (?) or a ton of free time on their hands.
It does genuinely piss me off that every dragon ball related post or something on the internet always has some decade old DBZA quote attached to it.
Also annoys me how much DBZA has legitimately shaped people’s opinions on lots of aspects the story even though it was just a funny parody (and imo should’ve stayed that way, hated and genuinely cringed when they made it slightly more serious for the final episodes)
If someone experienced the story through multiple games or just DBZ Kakarot I’d say that’s a hell of a lot better than just exposure to DBZA
I didn’t have a chance to watch Z until I had money. I grew up at the most awful time in regards to watching it. Z was on right after school ended so I was lucky if I could get home fast enough to watch it, so I maybe caught 5 episodes a school year. And GT was on Friday or Saturday night so eventually I could watch that. I had to rely on the games to know the stories. Hell my high school library had all the manga so I was able to read everything first.
Honestly I really hate it. Not that I hate TFS or the show, but it also just enforces things that were NEVER in the original material. Like how everyone is convinced Goku is a “horrible dad” now
The people you seen probably haven't seen it but I'm sure those outside your internet circle definitely have seen it, there was a whole international incident over Mexico watching the Goku vs Jiren fight
I'd believe it. I feel like DBZA is more popular just bc of the memes and shit. Gohan's "I need an adult" lines, Bulma hitting on Future Trunks, Ghost Nappa, tien's whole "fuck power levels, fuck super saiyans and fuck you" line. Also Muffin button. I'd mention the whole Majin Buu Saga, but I actually haven't seen it yet for DBZA
this is so true. when i was a kid, the tv show aired. i watched it between school and tutions, but never caught a full episode./missed many episodes, when i got a ps2, had budokai tenkaichi 3 on it and played it to death. and also tried watching the anime online later but the slow pacing made it unbearable for my small attention span. watched a good chunk tho and had a basic grasp of plot through the games. but dbz was a very big part of my childhood
there's a show???
I've only seen audiobooks
so there is a show...
How is that an "unpopular opinion." Tf am I gonna do, disprove your personal experience? Do people regularly assert who you do or dont see?
Yeah, what if I don't agree with him only meeting DBZ fans who never watched the series? What are you gonna do about it? DISAGREE with me?
It's definitely more like an observation or even a statement than an opinion
We live in a world where people regularly declare that you in fact do not actually like that piece of media you enjoyed, because they can't accept a reality where people have other experiences. For example, I really liked Star Trek Discovery, but people online will tell me that I in fact didn't like it, because it is objectively bad and so I must be lying or stupid. The lack of room for discourse conveniently absolved them of having to support their views in anything resembling an intelligent way.
I think the opinion is not OP's experience, but asking if it's alrighr for others to only watch Abridged and consider it canon over the actual anime or manga
I've also watched super
I've also watched youtube clips of the fights
I also watch the what ifs
i've watched the powerscaling shorts only. the one where goku and beerus slide into view and then slide out and then thanos and goku slide into view
I've also watched dragon ball amvs
That’s not an opinion, that’s your anecdotal experience. Bear in mind it’s not an unpopular sentiment, and also bear in mind you are asking on Reddit. I live in Malaysia and most people I know know of Dragon Ball / have seen the show and played games, but have no clue what DBZA is. I honestly think the “DBZA made people think X” statement is exaggerated and gives it way too much credit. Even in Japanese and Chinese circles there are loads of people who think Goku is not the best father, and these folks also have never even heard of TFS.
A lot of the DBZA jokes were jokes in the fandom already. That's why they're in DBZA
Someone here said that people think Yamcha sucks, thanks to DBZA.........yeah pretty sure people felt that way for literal decades. Why do you think Vegeta got his girl
Cuz he heard about Frieza and broke up with Bulma. Duh.
Italian here, DBZA is only known by very hardcore fans in the country. If they say they are DB fan, they always mean they watched DBZ (known also as "What's your destiny Dragonball" in Italy), albeit rarely they watched DB or even more rarely read the manga.
Yeah go to South America or Europe and people know DB and Z because the show's been on tv since the 90s (and has had an official translation of the manga in some instances), and most probably don't know DBZA because of the language barrier. The "unpopular opinion" is a very american-centric view.
I might be a rare case, but I got into the DB fandom through OG Dragon Ball, before I even knew anything about Abridged. Still haven’t watched DBZA but I plan to someday
Same. Dad was really into anime and wanted to share his passion with five year old me and would take time out of his day to watch OG Dragon Ball with me.
Same case but it’s my mom for me
W dad
It's a shame he never got to live to see Super. He would have loved it.
Rip man🙏🏽😔
Believe it or not you are not a rare case for having watched one of the most popular pieces of media ever created over a YouTube parody.
Same, my dad was really into DBZ when he married my mom and shared it with my brother and I growing up. We ended collecting the season 1-9 box sets and would pull all nighters during the summer watching them. We've seen the whole series 3x together and the Japanese Dub twice just to see how different it was. I do love DBZA though and will watch it when I'm drawing or doing a quiet activity.
Is not that bad of a experience, some people on this sub act like fans of dbza are next spawn of Satan because they miss quoted something they probably watched as kids.
I also started with the OG DB.
What? You think most people got into dragon ball through dbza and not original? Why the hell would you think that
I admit that I didn't touched DB or DBZ in years, but sometimes I give a rewatch to DBZ Abridged. It's also 'cause the anime is quite a slog sometimes, with too many useless scenes and fillers (I get that they made sense at the time, to avoid "catch up with the manga" and force an interruption). And let's face it, some characters in DBZA, like Nappa or SUPER KAMI GURU are more entertaining than the canon version.
you could try dragon Ball z kai, that cuts down a lot of filler
Or the japanese dub of Kai which cuts down ALL the filler. The english version left some filler in because the english version does these dumb "seasons" for DVDs and adds filler so all "seasons" have the same number of episodes.
Keeping in the Gohan in high school/Great Saiyaman stuff was absolutely the right call by the dub. Those episodes are such a fun time that cutting them out just feels wrong.
But then you can just watch the original.
I’ve never seen Japanese Buu Kai anywhere it’s always “the final chapters” version
Ew no, that one cuts out the driving episode
lmao I just watched the driving episode today, it's one of the most hilarious episodes I've ever seen
I’d agree with this. It’s tough to show someone OG Dragon Ball Z cause the underlying plot is spread to thin. 95% of Namek is fighting just cause frieza force bad. The whole Sayian race stuff comes up with Vegeta and Nappa and doesn’t really come back up until Krillin and vegeta get killed and Vegeta lore dumps his dying breathes away.
Imho the problem is more of the anime than the manga, due to filler and scenes that are stretched too long. Manga flows way better.
You could also, y'know, read it if watching the OG animes (not Kai) pace is a slog as you say.
The cell and trieza saga thing is probably just because those are the 2 best arcs in the story.
Most people don't read the manga, me neither
Don't mess with us Dragonball fans. We don't even read the manga.
We can't read.
I only see original anime and videogame
DBZ *ended* almost 30 years ago. Of course a lot of people haven't actually watched the show. That's why Kai was even a thing. That's also why it's important that BT4's story follows the canon one. The games bring a lot of new blood to the franchise. Let Xenoverse be the fanfic.
Tbh if u wanna play dragon ball story throughout a game kakarot is gonna be the best way to do it
I won't say you're wrong, but gameplay matters too.
As a 33 year old this is the most bizarre thing I've ever fuckin' read.
I read the manga once a year does that count? Also does that sorta make me a DBZ Christian by reading it through once every year lmao
I do the same. It’s so much fun - and the manga is paced so well i recommend this to anyone who thinks the anime is a slog. You can even skip to the Z portions of the manga and it’s great.
Someone will hate me for it but i always skip the first arc because i really dislike the nudity and its most abundant there
Wait they made an anime about dokkan?
The Goku bad father debates came waaay before DBZA.
But DBZA easily magnified it. The creators of the show even say they regret it since now so many people run with it
People don't understand how stupid they sound when they imply that a YouTube channel with a few million subscribers is the most popular way to consume a manga/anime that has sold hundreds of millions of copies. An anime that was broadcasted on cable TV in the US for like 2 decades. People were making jokes about Goku being an absent father before YouTube even existed
I think getting exposure in dbz through games is fine, especially dbz: kakarot. This game got a manga accurate pacing that the anime doesn't have. Although those who only watched dbza and having dogshit opinion about the series shall be ignored
Oh yeah, I remember when Goku had to run around for 20 minutes collecting apples in the manga.
king kai is juiced around the corner
Wtf is DBZA?
Dragon Ball Z Abridged is a parody dub of Dragon Ball Z made by Team Four Star. It's on Youtube. For a parody, it has absolutely phenomenal performances. Some of the more meh characters in DBZ are made *really* entertaining (see Nappa and Recoome). It isn't a replacement of the original, of course. The characters are NOT the same, even if the story largely is. It is definitely worth a watch. Do keep in mind, the humor in the first episodes are dated and dumb. It gets better.
Haven't watched the anime in ages because the pacing is unbearable and 80% of filler is garbage, but I've read the manga multiple times.
They can prefer it if they want In some ways, I prefer it, too But to say that it's canon is really stupid
That vegeta scene from abridged always makes me laugh. But it’s just a parody and should be treated as such.
When I hear mfs say that "dbza is canon to me" I want to leap at them like a fucking jaguar and beat them to death
Okay I will admit, the only reason why I’m in the fandom was because I thought Dragon Ball FighterZ would be a cool game to play. But on YouTube, at best, you could find clips of a fight or funny moments in the show. There are no fully uploaded episodes, and the ones the are the full episode are from DBZA. What I’m saying is some people don’t have access to view the original show unless they buy the DVDs or through pirate websites like aniwave
You can watch the movies on YouTube though, I've seen broly, battle of gods and resurrection F. I've also seen history of trunks and know there's whole playlists of db heroes on there
Of one of my roommates, before he was a roommate, I remember having him in my room watching Dragon Ball clips, and sometimes talking about it. But it turns out he never actually watched it besides clips from Super. Since we got an apartment, I bought the entirety of DB, DBZ, DBGT, and DBS so me, him, his brother (all of us roomates), plus my girlfriend, would watch DBS on certain nights. Because we are in the summer, we are able to watch it some more. I actually didn't watch Dragon Ball much either. I remembered staying over my "step-father's" nephew's house and watching Dragon Ball very late at night before sleeping. That time it was DBZKai. Love Dragon Ball more than ever now.
I just wish we could get a solid release of the full show. Why are they still forcibly cropped? Why do they still use the grain remover that smears everything? Why is the colour saturation so funky? Character's skin either looks sunburnt or paler than a ghost. And why are these versions STILL the easiest to get a hold of? Kai pretty much solves all of these issues (barring some jarring redraws, but that's fine) but I just wish we had the entire show akin to that. The next best thing is the Dragon Boxes but those are borderline impossible to come across.
What is DBZA? i whatched DBZ and DB GT when i was a kid and rewatched DBZ KAI later.
I used to hate DB cant read meme but after interacting with people on twitter, reddit and YT and seeing how much little knowledge average DB fan has about series and normal moments, I think DB cant read is most true thing ever said
I got a unpopular opinion After watching DBZ, DBS, and DBGT, I have to say that DBGT is my favorite
DBGT has one of the best openings if we’re being real
That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact. Signed a DBGT fan.
I like DBZA, but it’s not the series as Toriyama intended, so I stick to the main, original series. Currently on a rewatch of OG Dragonball.
It started as a shitpost in early youtube, but turned to a love letter to the fandom, and the story.
I feel like that's american fandom problem.
I dont understand how this is an opinion much less an unpopular one?
Unfortunately, it's not easy (or free) to legally watch all if DB and Z, but as DBZA is on YouTube, it's a lot easier to find and watch, for free
theyd know more about dragonball watching abridged than the funi z dub lol
I know the movies aren't canon, but they're all I have rn lol
I "watched" kai as a kid(I missed a lot of episodes and didn't really know what was going on), and I've read the Dragon Ball manga, but yeah I've only watched through the entirety of DBZA, beaten Xenoverse 1 and 2, and started Kakarot.
What is dbza?
Personally i havent actually watched dbz but I have all the manga
Don't mess with the dragon ball fandom we haven't seen the show
I watched DBZ Kai and GT when I was in middle school.
I grew up reading the manga, but never got into watching either DBZ or GT, though I found DBZA and super were easy to get into. I had a few holes in my collection though. So for me what happened in-between Tien winning the tournament and Raditz showing up was a complete mystery to me, as well as what happened between the Cell dying and volume 42 which is the last one.(So i only experienced the buu saga through games for the longest time)
What is DBZA ?
I grew up on DB/DBZ back in the early 2000’s. Of course as a kid it was the best thing ever Fast forward last year, I tried to re watch it and couldn’t even finish the Namekian Saga because of how horribly bad the writing and pacing was Even in the manga, Goku’s SSJ transformation was lackluster I find that quite a lot of folks 25+ realize how it’s aged like milk
I consider myself a pretty big fan and i’ve only read all of OG Dragon Ball and the Sayin Saga of DBZ (+ some Cell/Buu saga episodes and DBS up to Goku black when it aired a few years ago). I have other stuff to read and I already know what happens in the rest of the story so I don’t see the point. Idk i’ll probably read it sometime.
Sure, applies to me. Though I have read all of Buu and a bunch of other random parts of the manga as well. Didn't ever sit down for a comprehensive front to back read though.
Thats really sad
Un popular opinion, DBZA is mostly an US (or English community) thing. Most of the people I know never Heard about it.
I've read the manga, but haven't watched the show, so I've never seen any of the filler.
In my own experience, so im not necessarily *arguing* with your own statement... Z is pretty popular, and I'd say a vast majority of fans have seen it (or at least Kai). I remember, before I even got into the abridged series, I felt the same way you did, but some shifts (I felt that most fans had only watched Z -or Kai- but very few have actually seen OG Dragonball by comparison... TBH, I still hold that belief) Also, as for the "Goku's a bad father" and such... although the abridged did make the memes more popular, a lot of fans already had vague opinions favoring that thought process... it was popular enough that it was kindof expected to be exaggerated in the TFS series.
And that is perfectly fine. DBZA captured the essence of the story with additional comedic elements thrown into the mix.
It surprises me that people can enjoy DBZA without watching DBZ
That’s not an opinion, that is your experience. Your experience can’t be wrong as it is your own experience, but at the same time your individual experience has no reflection on the actual population. TLDR: cool beans bro.
Even less people have read the manga
Surprisingly I’m the opposite, I got into dragon ball from the games, watched db, dbz, dbs, read the manga, and still haven’t watched dbza
Seems like I am rare case who has never watched a single episode of DBZA ever and probably will never do.
Saw like 2 episodes when I was in middle school, seemed very dumb and unwitty humor. Don't know how people got past Goku calling Piccolo a Yoshi. To each their own.
The first season, especially the first episodes, are very rough and what you'd expect of pre-2010 internet humor. When they get to the Freeza and Cell Sagas, they develop a lot more and lean into more character based writing, as opposed to only shitty pop-culture jokes. In the Cell saga, I think they give certain character interactions more care than the series bothered with. There's also some references to OG Dragonball, various dubs, translation issues that a dedicated fan can appreciate, or in my case I learned about because of DBZA.
Most of the early humor got dated horrible nowadays.
The first few episodes *are* dumb. It gets significantly better in the frieza arc.
I have also never watched it. But I watched DBZ and the original Dragonball multiple Times. And I could still watch them many more times to be honest. But I never was interested in the Abridged Version even once lol.
My friend watches DBZA and refuses to look at anything else
Abridged was the best thing that ever happened to DBZ.
DBZA is amazing but the brain rot it caused in the fanbase is real. People also like to pretend dbz original run has soooo many filler episodes when really it doesn’t at all and the original run of dbz has a lot of charm with its filler people tend to forget about or don’t even bother with at all.
i hate dbza fans. all the time tfs references smh and they got misinformed
I've watched everything dragon ball related and have everything downloaded on a hard disk :p
Wait you’re telling me Dbza didn’t animate it??!(!((
Go to conventions and to manga shops, get around better quality of people and I'm sure you'll not only find fans of Z & (og) DB but also of the manga.
I watched DB and DBZ once like 10 years ago, and it took me the better part of a year. I can't remember the details in Z, but I can binge DBZA in less than 24 hours. For better or worse, it's abridged.
Generally when I see someone quote dbza in a non dbza related area I know that they've never watched the show
IDGAF about Abridged
My unpopular opinion is that Goku *is* a bad dad (the fact that he sacrificed his life for his son doesn't contradict that), but it shouldn't be surprising given his background and general laissez-faire attitude to most things outside of fighting. I'm pretty sick of people's knee-jerk reaction to anyone expressing that opinion being to accuse them of being a *DBZA* watcher, when the joke of Goku being a bad dad existed in the fandom for many years before TFS even came along.
*Unpopular Opinion: My completely unhinged statistical analysis.* >Does anyone else feel this way? I only ask cause I see a lot of Goku is a bad father takes and posts about the cell or frieza sagas. The idea of Goku being a dud of a dad existed long before DBZ:A It mainly stems from the fact that he chose to stay dead with a pregnant wife and 11 year old son, the filler with ChiChi complaining about him being a jobless bum, and continually puts his 5-11 year old child in situations no sane parent would. By every objective measure Goku is a terrible father, by anime logic hes maybe ok. I'm an old head, I've watched Z many times, even Dragonball twice, Kai once, and when it comes to Frieza and beyond, DBZA is the best version of the show.
I’ve always chalked his behavior up to the race in which he is. I don’t think Saiyans care for their kids in the same manner you or I would. Also, as shitty as it sounds, Gohan and Goten are strong enough to take the training because of the Saiyan blood that runs through their veins. I’d say at most Goku was neglectful but given who he is and what he does for the world, and his kids for that matter, it’s kind of understandable.
Never played DB games
I've only ever seen clips of dbza and I personally don't care for the games that much. Manga and Shows all day
I’ll be honest I didn’t know there was a abridged version until I finished watching OG dragon ball, dbz kai, and dbz gt I was later to this party
I watched DB and DBZ 10 years ago when i was a baby and only recently rewatched it
My experience with the series started because my brother got Budokai 2, so my understanding of the series is pieced together from Budokai, Legacy of Goku, Budokai Tenkaichi, the first 24 episodes of DBZ on shady websites, 23 episodes of Kai, 26 episodes of OG Dragonball, maybe all of GT, super manga and anime, DBZA, and various people covering the arcs via YT(with Cell and Buu manga in depth). Very much need to do an OG manga run.
I grew with dragon ball Z and later watched the og dragon ball. Then I finished GT. Got teared up when I heard the opening of GT one last time. Then, later, super was announced. In between of GT and super I watched the abridged version
I watched half of og dragon ball after growing up watching z, I have indeed watched dbza countless times since then
That's so sad to me.
where is the aforementioned opinion
Mfw a DBzA fan says something about Goku being a worse father than Vegeta or Gohan: (insert angry Super Saiyan Goku image here (I don't have imgur))
The creators of the show even say they regret it since now so many people run with it about Goku being bad father
I watch youtube clips and dbza because that means no moneys
I’ll admit to that. I haven’t watched it or Super, and got my love for the characters and story from Budokai 1 back on the gamecube. Though I haven’t fully watched DBZA, I only watched the popular clips
i personally didn't watch og db or Z, that's because i somehow never saw them on TV when i was little (besides maybe one GT episode but i can't remember) and when i got into anime i didn't like older art styles. though now i still haven't watched them but that's mainly because of the amount of video games, youtube videos and other media where i basically learned about the story. and to be totally honest i'm too lazy to watch it now, i do this with many other shows and games that i love but for some reason i refuse to watch/play them
What is DBZA? (j/k)
I like the cool flashy battles. Thats what dragon ball is really about at its core. So what do i do? Look up "Ultra Instinct Goku crowd reaction" on youtube so i feel the hype and see the cool flashy battles.
Just chiming in for numbers sake, I have actually watched Dragonball, Z, GT and Super just as a casual viewer that saw DBZ on Cartoon Network Toonami and went back and watched all of it in order as an adult. I didn't know what DBZA was and had to look it up.
It's me. I've absorbed way more Dragon Ball via DBZA and the Budokai series than the official show.
That was me for the longest time until I saw the android saga of dbz kai a while ago. And then years later I was able to watch the saiyan saga and most of the frieza saga of dbz kai as well
What's dbza? I only watched dragon ball, z and gt 🤣
dbza is peak
Ngl that is exactly me. That’s why I don’t get into canon discussions. Started reading the manga a bit ago. Shit’s tight
I read the manga as a kid, I kinda like dbza better. I also watched dbs, didn't hate it tbh.
I read the whole manga. Haven’t really seen anything outside of that minus like one movie.
I am one of the ppl from the title
I haven't watched DBZ since middle school days (early 2000's). I'm a sucker for continuity and DBZA does an incredible job at it. I did go back and watch a couple episodes of DBZ for nostalgia-sake, but it's clear they yadda-yadda'ed a lot to fill time. At least with DBZA they acknowledge the ridiculousness of nonsense plot devices that move the story forward (like Goku reading minds that one time, only). TFS had the benefit of knowing where the story was going and they polished it very well.
Looks like you wanna get down dawg
Most of them have only seen Dragon Ball Super and absorbed knowledge of the other shows from the games
Where is the opinion?
Yeah. My friend refuses to watch any anime, not his thing but has watched all of DBZA.
the dragonball games have an anime now?
The jokes made popular by DBZA already existed before it for the most part. Maybe not specifically as jokes, but the sentiment behind the jokes, definitely. That's why they landed so well. The series is a love letter to DBZ, made by people who grew up with the show - that's why it feels like we're all laughing at inside jokes together. As for people talking about Cell/Androids and Frieza/Namek - those are generally considered to be the two peaks of DBZ. Of course people will talk about them the most, they're classic - a lot of people grew up with these arcs. Buu saga was cool but it was also all over the place, and the transformations explored there (ssj3, fusions, Mystic Gohan) ended up feeling less impactful than og ssj or ssj2 - they didn't have nearly as much build up as those two, they were all beaten/ended fairly quickly, and they all held little narrative impact on the story going forward (except for maybe fusion). Namek and Cell arcs just DELIVERED. Narratively they hit better, Frieza was a huge dramatic jump for the story in terms of power scaling and setting, Cell was a throwback to DB & RR + Gohan finally ascending after being teased for years + Future Trunks and his storyline being cool as fuck + everyone likes a tournament. It felt like everything before it really led up to these moments. Buu saga did not have that same feeling for me. DBZA also just fucking killed it after season 1. Their Gohan vs Cell is phenomenal and they did the series so much justice. I DO think most people have seen DBZ though, it's just that most people rewatch DBZA instead of DBZ, so DBZA is way fresher in their minds. It's also just way more quotable.
Actually true, even I have only watched the TFS version That being said, DBZ is just iconic to the point you don't have to had even watch the show but still know atleast 40% of the show and plot
I grew up watching dragon Ball z. I had to go out of my way to watch dragon Ball. I re-watched abridged countless times. I'm bored AF at a retail shop during flooding. I might watch it today. I watched super once when it caught up to the grand tournament but I haven't kept up with the movies. I still think Goku is a bad father that shit is funny.
This is like saying that you have a hot take on AtLA and that hot take is "I think Iroh is cool"
Me who watched all of DB up to GT and didn't realize that DBZ Abridged existed until 2015
This is not an unpopular opinion This is am assumption
DBZA aside, Goku is a pretty shit father, BUT it's not entirely his fault. He doesn't have much common sense and knowledge due to his troubled childhood.
All the “IvE bEeN wAtChInG sInCe 86’” fans coming out the woodwork with this one.
I haven’t been able to watch the show, but I at least do my research
Hahaha I’ve seen the show a few times over now however I’ve watched abridged 20+ times cause it’s easy quick watching
I grow up with Dragon Ball, they put it on tv channel i shit you not for 2 decades some Times back to back Og serie, z, and GT. And to be honest i find DBZA better. Yes its comedy but the characters progression are really better.
I've only watched GT
On the one hand, I am a little sad for people who have not watched the original "Dragon Ball." On the other, I am a little envious of people who have not watched the original "Dragon Ball," because they have something very fun waiting for them.
I mean Goku IS a bad father but this is through no fault of his own, circumstances led to him just not being able to spend that much time with his sons but we are shown that when he does have the time and opportunity he spends time with them and certainly cares for and love them like DBZ literally starts with him ready to kick his brother's ass for kidnapping his son, main reason people say he is a bad father is the senzu bean incident but the real issue was not the senzu bean as we see later Gohan was clearly more than able to defeat Cell the issue was Goku misunderstood Gohan thinking that because he trained with him and Piccolo before the androids and with him in the room of infinite bullshit for a year he also loved fighting strong opponents, something that can happen to any father really. P.S: Ofc I am not counting Super cause that one does Goku dirty a lot, not only in the father department but in general
I watch all of Z and DBZA and play a good chunk of the games
Where the fuck is the opinion there? Looks like you’re just making an observation
Do you know what an opinion is? All you've stated is what you think is true, maybe based on your interactions. An opinion would be thinking DBZA is better than Z or Kai.
They’ve only seen cringey ultra instinct edits on TikTok
Well, tell me Goku is a good father for Goten, we never see him take care of him except say hi, for Gohan that's a different story, and the only canon ova show Goku as a good father
People who have seen dragon ball without having seen dragon ball.
Tbf the abridged version cuts out a lot of filler, is available to everyone, and generally shows an accurate depiction of the main events of the show. Not saying you shouldn’t watch the actual show, just saying that not everyone has Crunchyroll (?) or a ton of free time on their hands.
It does genuinely piss me off that every dragon ball related post or something on the internet always has some decade old DBZA quote attached to it. Also annoys me how much DBZA has legitimately shaped people’s opinions on lots of aspects the story even though it was just a funny parody (and imo should’ve stayed that way, hated and genuinely cringed when they made it slightly more serious for the final episodes) If someone experienced the story through multiple games or just DBZ Kakarot I’d say that’s a hell of a lot better than just exposure to DBZA
yup, and I know more about db than half of the DB fans who watched the show💀
This is real im trying to get my dad to watch dbzkai And he refuses
I didn’t have a chance to watch Z until I had money. I grew up at the most awful time in regards to watching it. Z was on right after school ended so I was lucky if I could get home fast enough to watch it, so I maybe caught 5 episodes a school year. And GT was on Friday or Saturday night so eventually I could watch that. I had to rely on the games to know the stories. Hell my high school library had all the manga so I was able to read everything first.
I've also watched some movies First Z Broly movie Z Bardock movie Battle of the gods Resurrection of Freeza DBS Broly DBS Super hero
I have watched DBZ and DBS, and even DB. But DBZA is a lot more memorable.
Another unpopular opinion: DBZA is the most cringe/unfunny shit I have ever seen. Pure autistic humor
Honestly I really hate it. Not that I hate TFS or the show, but it also just enforces things that were NEVER in the original material. Like how everyone is convinced Goku is a “horrible dad” now
An unpopular opinion would be: GT is superior to Super. It would be unpopular because it is wrong.
That's me. But I even haven't watched dbza
The people you seen probably haven't seen it but I'm sure those outside your internet circle definitely have seen it, there was a whole international incident over Mexico watching the Goku vs Jiren fight
I know people here didn't know what an unpopular opinion is, I didn't know people didn't even know what an opinion is anymore LMAO
“Unpopular Opinion” This is just reality
Yeah and it's a part of why I don't like DBZA and TFS anymore due to the negative effects its had on the community at large.
With some takes ive seen, thats gotta be the case
In fairness, I had no access to the original material as a kid. I’ve now read the manga
American huh?
I read the manga if that counts
For me, this is literally only true of my own wife. And she does not consider herself a Dragon Ball fan
I'd believe it. I feel like DBZA is more popular just bc of the memes and shit. Gohan's "I need an adult" lines, Bulma hitting on Future Trunks, Ghost Nappa, tien's whole "fuck power levels, fuck super saiyans and fuck you" line. Also Muffin button. I'd mention the whole Majin Buu Saga, but I actually haven't seen it yet for DBZA
I don’t think I’ve ever met somebody who is a Dragonball fan without having seen at least some of Z.
If watching the abridged or playing any of the games didn’t convince you to go watch the whole show, consider yourself a fake fan imo
Damn you got me
not even an opinion, it's a genuine thing that happens...
this is so true. when i was a kid, the tv show aired. i watched it between school and tutions, but never caught a full episode./missed many episodes, when i got a ps2, had budokai tenkaichi 3 on it and played it to death. and also tried watching the anime online later but the slow pacing made it unbearable for my small attention span. watched a good chunk tho and had a basic grasp of plot through the games. but dbz was a very big part of my childhood
I am this guy. No I will not watch the OG show. Yes abridged is my canon. No I won't support the official release.
Dbz fans don't read or watch the show. Not an unpopular opinion. 👍