Families Watch Dragon Ball Z!?
by "Ryoga"

Originally Posted: 11 May 2000

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This is my first attempt at an editorial of any type, so cut me some slack. Everything I say in this article is completely true. I think it's an interesting concept. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoy it.

Who watches Dragon Ball Z? I'd say mostly boys, between 12-25. I know girls and people of different ages watch it too, but I'm generalizing. Do you ever think of parents, siblings, and grandparents watching this show? Probably not. I talked to my family about the show and edits and this is what I found.

I'll start with me. My name's Tom, and I'm 14. I first got into Dragon Ball in the early 90s. I woke up early, turned on the WB and Dragon Ball was on. Oolong was saying how the Ox King's daughter was going to be ugly. I fell in love with the show, but it was cancelled shortly after that. A few years later, Dragon Ball Z was on a Sunday morning on the same channel and I became hooked. I eventually found out about the edits of the dub, and got a hold of some fansubs. I realized how the dub is worse, and rely on fansubs and the Internet for Japanese episode information. I'm eagerly waiting for the bilingual DVDs that come out.

My mom's in her early 40s (she doesn't want her real age here...whatever). She really doesn't like Dragon Ball Z too much. She enjoyed the original Dragon Ball series, and likes the Ranma 1/2 and Slayers tapes I have. She's not against anime at all. She even took me out of school to see Princess Mononoke! She really enjoyed that, and I did too. Go see that movie if you ever get the chance. I told her about how Dragon Ball Z was cut. She agreed it was stupid of the dubbers (Funimation or Saban, I don't know who to blame) to edit it, but she didn't really seemed to care that much. Unfortunately, she watched the episode of Dragon Ball Z where Kururin is impaled by Freeza and bounced up and down. She thought it was incredibly disgusting and won't watch and Dragon Ball Z anymore. So don't show that episode to people who haven't seen the series too much. Oops.

My dad's 38, and really doesn't like anime at all. He finds most of it boring, and thinks the plots make no sense. He does hate Dragon Ball Z the least, so I guess that's good. He is very interested in seeing Princess Mononoke. He says that the editing doesn't bother him at all. "You [the fans] still watch the dub and buy the tapes, so you guys don't mind too much either. If you wanna get it uncut, don't support the edited version." He watches DBZ occasionally, but really won't watch anime with me. But I still get forced to watch Buffy. Not fair!

Mary, my sister, is 7. She doesn't like anime that much, and just watches Pokemon and My Neighbor Totoro. She isn't allowed to watch that much, Mom doesn't want me to traumatize her. Mom must still have that impaling the midget scene stuck in her head...

This is the one person who you would never, ever, under any circumstance expect this person to watch anime, especially one like Dragon Ball Z. Grandma. That's right. She watches Dragon Ball Z, Ranma 1/2 and Gundam Wing with me whenever she comes over. She borrowed a Slayers movie from me and thinks it's hilarious. Grandma's really into anime. One thing she likes the most about anime over American animation are the characters. Today at dinner she told me that she felt that the characters and plots in anime are much more intelligent and realistic than in shows such as Batman. Dragon Ball Z and other animes have a more intense story, she says, and watching the story unfold is more fun that having a set format, like in most American half hour shows. She still prefers Dragon Ball over Dragon Ball Z, she says the comedy is better than the fighting.

I told her how the series was edited, and she got annoyed. I was surprised how much it bothered her. We are both baffled at why the series was butchered, and why they hire such bad voices. My grandma is positive that the voices are simply because Funimation doesn't wanna pay better voice actors more money. One character specifically annoys her. Freeza. Not only does she think the Funimation spelling (Frieza) is stupid, but the voice sucks. I was afraid she had a heart attack when I said Freeza was a boy. She constantly urges me to speak out to Funimation and write letters to them. I really want to say thank you to her for encouraging me to write editorials and letters to those who edit the show.

This article was just showing how anime, specifically DBZ, is thought of in my family. This is just my family, yours may hate it. I do agree with my dad when he says that we won't get uncut Dragon Ball unless we stop sponsoring the dub. So no matter how much you want to see Dragon Ball Z, buy the DVDs when they come out or the subtitled tapes. Write letters with good grammar, punctuation, and a minimum of cursing, and you'll be taken seriously. Sending messages to them like "FRIEZA IS A RETARD AND U SHOULD B CALLEED FUCKIMATION." only make the fans seem to be illiterate fools. It's only hurting us. Thank you very much for reading this, I hope you liked it.

Contact: Ryoga95@aol.com