At first, I thought Dragon Ball was exclusive and belongs to only asian childhood. Surprisingly, it turned into a tool that connects me with Americans and Venezuelans when I try to make new friends in a foreign country. In fact, Dragon ball was the childhood anime to kids around the world. It was first translated for English syndication in 1995, but it’s not until 1998 that it started to face the world publics and became a hit. I think that explains why I could quickly connect with Dragon Ball viewer who grew up in a different culture when talking about Dragon Ball, almost as if there’s no cultural barrier when it comes to the anime. They call the characters by their Japanese names and the history and overall background of the anime remains the same. For instance, as a Chinese viewer, I usually watch Dragon Ball with Chinese subtitles rather than dubbed anime (the anime show its the original, Japanese vocal track removed and replaced with one’s native language.) To me personally, I can connect better with the Japanese culture with the original voice track. However, some foreign viewers like to watch it with the dubbed version but the history, characters, and narrative of the anime remain the same. It’s only a mere translation of the Japanese language to another language.
‘Dragon Ball Z’ tattoos at a fan screening of ‘Dragon Ball Super: Broly’.
In fact, Dragon ball had acquired many fans from all over the world. The original Dragon Ball was played in Japan back in 1989, before getting introduced to the western audiences via Cartoon Network and its spin-off channel Toonami in the late-1990s and early-2000s, and its popularity has never faded but continues to grow.
According to Shakeel and Kameel, they “were watching it from a young age, [on] Cartoon Network, before Toonami was even a thing.” “We were, like, five or six when we first saw it, and the fight scenes just blew our minds. We’d watch Dragon Ball Z from, like, 12 AM all the way through to 12 PM, all day.” “It was the first anime we ever watched—it was the OG anime,” they added.