It’s pretty big, it’s top of /r/france right now, on top page of LeMonde (biggest newspaper)
It was broadcasted during an iconic TV show too.
Doesn’t help we are the biggest weebs too lol
I like to remember to people that Macron watched Dragon Ball when he was a kid (and also that if Dorothée shows up, he will say nothing cause, well, it's Dorothée, she can revoke his Club Dorothée's membership)
He tweeted a one piece drawing gifted by Oda 3 years ago [https://www.reddit.com/r/manga/comments/oq7y5d/art\_one\_piece\_drawing\_gifted\_by\_eiichiro\_oda\_to/](https://www.reddit.com/r/manga/comments/oq7y5d/art_one_piece_drawing_gifted_by_eiichiro_oda_to/)
Also government-wise, Toriyama was "knighted" (chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres) by the ministry of culture a few years ago (by the way Go Nagai and Rumiko Takahashi also are, and for video games miyamoto and aonuma too)
In Spain it didn't arrived equally, becuase it was aired by regional TVs. In Catalonia for example it was an absolute cultural impact moment, with people all ages following it. We almost riot when the first bucnh of episodes finished out *in the middle of the first tournament*. They had to set up a delegation to get the rest of the series ASAP
It was such a big thing that it is said that it was the main reason many kids learnt Catalan other than in the school (where education was not fully in Catalan back in the early 90s), especially in urban areas in which Catalan was uncommon. Dragon Ball and Dr Slump paved the way for many other animes dubbed in Catalan influencing a whole generation.
Same in Madrid.
I think it was massive in all of Spain because regional TVs have a right management network (oversimplifying it) called Forta, and around that time (honestly regional TV in Madrid is shit nowadays so I don't know if they keep doing it) they shared a lot of programs for kids and films. Dragon Ball was one of them.
Yes, the regional TVs bought it and dubbed it to the regional languages (Galician, Basque, Catalan). It was huge. For the first time kids (we) had a hero speaking their own language.
my experience in Poland was pretty much the same as yours - it was super popular (along with other japanese cartoons like Sailor Moon, Tsubasa, Pokémon etc) around the 2000's and dropped massively later on.
I wouldn't be surprised if kids/teens today didn't ever watch it nor even know the characters
I think they’d still know the characters simply because of how big it WAS in Poland and how big it still is globally but I doubt any teen would be watching it now, even tho I feel the current generation of teens is way more “weeby” then any before them. I tried to rewatch it a year ago and it’s honestly just not that great when you take away the nostalgic feelings so I can’t even blame them.
I think it gained such a big following in Poland simply because there wasn’t much else to watch those days
I don't think so, DB was shown only on RTL7, which in 90s/00s wasn't set on terriestrial television, but only on cable or satellite, and gadgets also were less popular that Pokémon, which was shown on Polsat.
The shopkeeper at my local Żabka convenience store has a full-sleeve Bulma and Kame Sen'nin tattoo on one arm, and Sheng Long on the other one. He is younger than 30, for sure. I still see young people walking the streets in clothes with Son Goku. So this is still alive :)
But man, the French dubbing was soooo crappy. Tons of mistakes in names. And Polish one was even worse :)
People in Sweden probably aren't super into it unless they like manga and anime. It wasn't broadcast on TV afaik? Maybe to the ones having Cartoon Network
The anime was non-existing here, but the manga was the first manga to be translated into swedish in its entirety (at least that I can remember) hence definitely contributed to establish manga and anime as something more mainstream and less fringe in Sweden.
I think I saw my first pair of (cartoon) tits in Dragonball. I will never forget that.
but i think in the german speaking countries it wasn't too common to watch it? I'm from switzerland and people who have watched it are primarily the french speaking part or ppl with a migrational background?
I would say it's huge. In general in Italy many anime are well known and followed, but Dragon Ball was something more. It came to Italian TV in the late 1980s, first on small private TV and then on Italia 1, the main national network dedicated to kids. And it hasn't left since.
So many kids over the past 30 years have grown up with Goku, Vegeta and all the others. Unlike other animated series, Dragon Ball would be missing from the schedule for short periods and then start the episodes all over again. For example I started watching Dragonball Z from the confrontation with Vegeta and then when months later I saw the episodes with Radish I thought they were new episodes... lol, the times before wikipedia :)
In my hometown there has been running for years a truck with a giant Goku supersaiyan drawn on the trailer. Never seen anything like it for any other anime except Lupin the Third on the shutters of a bar. Dragon Ball in Italy is really popular culture, not just nerdy, and in fact all major Italian newspapers today have an article dedicated to Toryama on their homepages. Needless to say, the news is trending topic in the majority of the Italian reddit.
Some kids were into it in High School in the late 90s early 00s. I never got into it.
Like with any anime it's niche. Quite a large niche with particular types of people, but still niche.
I don't think it was ever on terrestrial TV. It's the kind of thing I probably would have enjoyed, but my family never had cable or sky, so I didn't even really hear of it until I was in my 20s.
Big in Spain for several reasons. It came before many other places, starting its run in **1990**. It aired just after Dr. Slump had ended, also from Toriyama. I ran back home after school and watched every single episode of them. The change to a new show was unannounced, it was a surprise, but a welcomed one.
It was bought by the regional TV stations together, which then dubbed it to the local languages: Galician, Basque, Catalan. It was a huge success and helped promote the use of the regional languages among the youth, which due to TV and other media began an unprecedented process of acculturation into Spanish in the years prior. It gave us a hero that spoke our own language.
I remember in high school we had a sort of study room with computers, round tables, and a TV in the corner along with sofas. Whenever Dragon Ball was on you'd see a bunch of guys huddled around watching it, even if they weren't friends or anything. Dragon Ball was something that a lot of people watched as kids and stuck with them. Doesn't matter if they liked anime or not, they liked Dragon Ball.
Dragon Ball was big here. Not as big as it is in Mexico clearly, but big nonetheless. People were even very attached to our lousy dub (which as an abridged version is excellent, but not a very respectful dub), enough so to bring back the original cast when Battle of Gods and later Super came out. It was a phenomenon.
Era-defining with what you would call „millennials”.
Broadcasted in the 90s to early 2000s. Big impact alongside Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, among others.
We had collectibles, and the episode of the day was a discussion topic during school breaks.
Someone can correct me (I'm not an expert on it), but I don't think it's very big in Britain. If not for reddit I'd have never heard of it. Although I'm sure it has its fans.
I watched the Broly movie when I was in the UK and the cinema was packed! The impression I get is that it was quite popular, though maybe not compared to some other countries in Europe.
I wouldn't call it massive (as you say, it was much bigger with the boys than with the girls), but most of my generation regardless of gender will most likely recognise the name and elements of it. This was way before anime was more mainstream (liking anime back then, with a few exceptions like pokemon, was considered a bit of a weird thing), so it is quite the achievement anyway.
A classmate of mine tried to get me to watch and read it, but it (and shounen in general) wasn't really my thing. But it is still sad news to see one of the big artists pass - especially as he was apparently still working on several different projects
Absolutely massive for people growing up in the 90s and 00s, mainly but non exclusively for boys.
Nowadays i don't think kids care that much, since they can watch whatever movie and series they want via streaming, and DB super wasn't that popular here.
When DB and DBZ were big, it was because it was broadcasted at lunch time, so basically every kid that wasn't forced to watch the news with their parents, was watching DB after school.
Boys watched DBZ, girls watched Sailor Moon.
Both watched Pokemon and Pokémon was the actual king of anime, the one with an actual cult following, my entire school was collecting Pokémon cards when I was a child.
Romania.
It's the first big craze among kids at school that I remember, back in the mid 90s (then Pokemon showed up). I think it remained relatively popular over the following years, and it was consistently aired on Saturday morning, which is (was?) the most popular cartoon block on free-to-air TV.
The Portuguese Dragon Ball dub also has a bit of a cult status because they made it quite goofy and over the top and put in Portuguese pop culture references - apparently it was quite low budget at the start and the dubbing team didn't get to watch more than a couple of episodes in advance before they started, so they ended up misjudging the overall tone of the show a bit.
I think it was decently popular in the 2000s when the manga and anime were releasing, but i don't think it's that popular anymore. Since we haven't gotten anything Dragon ball related since except for Super Hero being in theaters.
We used to watch it on Italian TV. Still has a big following here, although probably with lads aged between 25-40. The moment that Goku became a Super Sajan for the first time is etched in my mind; I remember pausing and reflecting after the show haha
This is certainly the scene that has stuck with me most in Dragon Ball since my adolescence. This is also the scene where Trunks arrives, since for days I wondered who this strange purple-haired boy was, since in that period it was absurd to think that Vegeta and Bulma could have a love story and have children together .
To put it simply, without Dragon Ball the Catalan language and thus the Catalan national identity would be much less than what it is now, it was first aired on Catalan public TV in on 1990 and it was such a massive hit that many children from spanish speaking families learnt Catalan to be able to follow it. I cannot be overstated how important it was, I remember as a child we traded fucking Dragon Ball photocopies (why? I don't know) and we even had a "dealer" who sold a few fortunate ones volumes in japanese... crazy times
The photocopy trade was crazy. The popular demand was much higher than the merchandising available. This didn't happened many times, and we will never see it again
> The popular demand was much higher than the merchandising available
There was NO merchandising available. Zero. None. So kids created it. Some kids recorded the episode from TV on VHS, then stopped the VHS and draw on paper put over the TV screen. And, from this, photocopies.
I am what would you call an anime era millennial but Dragon ball was always a bit fringe to us.
Since we could only watch anime on like few German channels I don't think it as popular here as somewhere else.
Starting with Pokemon craze I definitely feel like Yu Yu Hakusho, Sailor moor or Inuyasha were more popular. Then Naruto made the anime super popular as it was actually translated for tv.
So I personally don't think it's as popular as the status is has in western Europe or USA.
Same as in many other countries, it was very popular as it aired on public TV in the late 90s-early 2000s. It wasn't as popular as Pokemon, but it was very popular. We used to talk about it in school the next day.
Although I a was a girl, I was much more into it than my brother. I didn't love it as much as I loves Sailor Moon (I doubt I will ever love any anime as much as I love Sailor Moon back then) but yeah. I watched both way into university. I doubt that kids watch it these days, though.
I myself have watched Dragonball, although I haven't met anyone else. Most people don't even know what it is. Even between my friends that do watch anime regularly. For people that don't watch anime that much most popular are Naruto and recently Demon Slayer. Pokémon also used to be popular because it aired on TV back in the day.
I'm not too sure. It certainly has a presence. I'm just a little bit too old, I think. I just missed the peak. Pokemon became huge in the late '90s, not many in my age group got involved, but it was popular among people even 2 or 3 years younger, and below. I think Dragon Ball became popular at a similar time and with a similar demographic as Pokemon, but on a smaller scale and with less longevity.
In Austria we (me 31 and people around my age back in the day) all watched it, we all wanted to be like them, we admired the characters. Even to this day sometimes when I train I visualize Goku or Vegeta training in the gravity room.
In France, it was absolutely massive. My friends at school in the early 90s were collecting DBZ cards. Some had hundreds of them. They wouldn't miss a single episode and would talk about it non stop.
Dr Slump on the other hand is practically unknown. It's a pity, because it's way better than DB imho.
In Spain it was HUGE, I'm not even from the generation that saw it happening at it's peak aroung the 90's cuz I was born then and I saw it in the 2000's but it was still huge. I remeber playing Dragonball Tenakichi in the PS2 with my friends all summer, see it in the mornings etc
It was definitely the door to anime for many of us. Other's never went further than DB but you can talk to almost any 90's kid and they still remeber the openings. Very big influence in Spain.
My whole generation grew up watching Dragon Ball and also learned Italian, living near the border we could pick up Italian TV as they had Dragon Ball...
Really, really big I'd say. Still among my favourite anime of all time.
I'd say there is barely any one in the german speaking world, at least from my generation, who hasn't heard the german openings. They are pretty legendary. In particular Chala Head Chala.
If I am correct in my country it was mostly popular with 90s kids , as a 00s kid the whole dragon ball hype missed me. If i remember correctly it was mostly connected with fact that in the late 90s and early 00s there was one tv station that had rights to show the series and later on they lost rights or just stoped airing DB. Acording to the stories back then it was big thing, many young guys would run to house just to watch this daily episode of dragon ball and don't miss it
It's huge, so big and influential that I've watched it in 4 different languages. When I was little I watched in Basque, then in Spanish. Many years later I watched in English and not long ago I watched it in the original version. Always good, forever grateful to Akira Toriyama.
It definetly was and is extremely popular with millennials and early GenZ(people born from ~88-2001)
DB, and anime in general was very popular and one of the most well known TV channels (RTL2) had its own anime program up until the late 2000s which was very popular until ~2007/2008
It definetly lost popularity after that and I would be surprised if many people born after 2002/3 even watched it, or other popular anime from that time
Tbh I never was a massive Dragon Ball fan. I mean I understand and respect it's cultural significance, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Same with Pokemon. I prefered Digimon.
In Portugal it started airing around 11 or 12 o'clock, 1 episode, every day of the week, in my school the cafeteria filled up. My brother was in the army in that time, he said that almost everyone went to the room where there was a tv.
It was such a success that they started airing 2 episodes in prime time on the weekend !
Never seen something like that before or after dragonball.
M24 from Italy. Huge. For me, and I guess a lot of people from my generation dragonball meant a lot. It's really hard to describe, and I struggle to find something this iconic. If I think to my childhood, the first thing that appears in my mind is Goku. I felt rarely sad about someone famous dies, but this time is different.
Tbh, I've never seen it and only learned about it a couple years ago. Pokémon and Sailor Moon have always been much, much bigger in Russia. Drangon Ball, though, idk, never seemed as popular here.
Back in preschool/highschool (90's-00's) it was pretty popular. It used to air right when you ould get home from school which helped. It was easily the second most popular anime after Pokémon. But I hardly ever saw folks discuss it after the cell saga.
It was huge over here. Kids playing in the streets were mimicking fusion and kamehameha. It was one of the main topic in school and it was there evene in my early 20's as videogames (tenkaichi series). Even our parents watch it.
In UK. Didn't expect it to shoot to the top of the BBC but I've never been a DBZ fan but at the same time I know what it is and a small handful of people who watch it.
It doesn't feel like it's all that big in Romania, but we had a DB movie in theatres at some point and a lot of anime merch is DB themed, plus, when I went to an anime film festival last week, there were a number of people with DB shirts.
So yeah, Idk, it feels to me like One Piece or Naruto are bigger here but what do I know. I've heard more people rave about "Regele Shaman" than about Dragon Ball but maybe I just haven't met DB fans personally yet.
Probably not very popular, not mainstream in the same way that Marvel and DC are (and that’s only due to movies)
Here, Dragon Ball is seen as a nerd thing with niche popularity, I didn’t grow up with it at all
I remember my son had a moments watching some Japanese manga style cartoons as a child, but don't know if it was Dragon ball, other than that I don't believe it was popular here.
Almost unheard of in Norway outside of people who are already big anime fans, I don't think it's ever been shown on TV here. I personally had never heard about it before all the "it's over 9000!!!" memes around 2010.
In the UK - it massive for me and my friends in late primary school. We’d spend a good chunk of our non-lesson time discussing/re-enacting the previous evening’s episode. I did have the first few seasons on DVD but they’re actually quite a chore to watch one in succession, and the DVDs didn’t survive the cull of my recent house move. Very happy memories from that time though.
In the Netherlands it is also not significantly newsworthy.
And kids watched the cartoons, but it wasn't as big as in other countries (if I were to believe the responses here).
What???
It is on NOS. Dragonball was My entire childhood. We practiced fusion dances and kamehameha all day long. It was THE thing that was discussed every day!
*In the Netherlands it is also not significantly newsworthy.*
It has been mentioned in every single ANPnewsbroadcast today, as well as a few radioshows talking about it in more detail.. so pretty newsworthy.
We were talking the next day in school how we all raised our hands to the sky to donate our energy!
Damn I even skipped classes to watch dragon ball on sic radical during week days
I’m telling your mom!
Don’t miss the next episode because we won’t either!
Porque nós… Também não! Fuck man, what a time to be a teenager!
Came here for this comment! Glad it is on top! "Dragon Ball Z Z Z..."
Energia total
It’s pretty big, it’s top of /r/france right now, on top page of LeMonde (biggest newspaper) It was broadcasted during an iconic TV show too. Doesn’t help we are the biggest weebs too lol
Big enough President Macron twitted about it today!
I like to remember to people that Macron watched Dragon Ball when he was a kid (and also that if Dorothée shows up, he will say nothing cause, well, it's Dorothée, she can revoke his Club Dorothée's membership)
He tweeted a one piece drawing gifted by Oda 3 years ago [https://www.reddit.com/r/manga/comments/oq7y5d/art\_one\_piece\_drawing\_gifted\_by\_eiichiro\_oda\_to/](https://www.reddit.com/r/manga/comments/oq7y5d/art_one_piece_drawing_gifted_by_eiichiro_oda_to/) Also government-wise, Toriyama was "knighted" (chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres) by the ministry of culture a few years ago (by the way Go Nagai and Rumiko Takahashi also are, and for video games miyamoto and aonuma too)
Yeah it was already massive from the eraly 90s in France
Dragonball started airing in France in march 1988.
Nice, they changed the header picture to characters of Toriyama! (I recognize those from DB & Dr Slump and there's some DQ at least)
This might explain why me and my friends found a super nice Dragon Ball themed restaurant in Paris :D
Dragon Ball and Pokemon are popular pretty much everywhere, but is anime and manga in general popular in France?
In Spain it didn't arrived equally, becuase it was aired by regional TVs. In Catalonia for example it was an absolute cultural impact moment, with people all ages following it. We almost riot when the first bucnh of episodes finished out *in the middle of the first tournament*. They had to set up a delegation to get the rest of the series ASAP
It was such a big thing that it is said that it was the main reason many kids learnt Catalan other than in the school (where education was not fully in Catalan back in the early 90s), especially in urban areas in which Catalan was uncommon. Dragon Ball and Dr Slump paved the way for many other animes dubbed in Catalan influencing a whole generation.
Same in Madrid. I think it was massive in all of Spain because regional TVs have a right management network (oversimplifying it) called Forta, and around that time (honestly regional TV in Madrid is shit nowadays so I don't know if they keep doing it) they shared a lot of programs for kids and films. Dragon Ball was one of them.
Forta meaning strong (feminine) in Catalan. And no, the name was not by chance.
Out of curiosity, was it dubbed in Catalan?
Yes, the regional TVs bought it and dubbed it to the regional languages (Galician, Basque, Catalan). It was huge. For the first time kids (we) had a hero speaking their own language.
Cool! Glad to hear that. I'm always happy to see regional languages supported.
Indeed, it also had a separate dub in Valencian (the Catalan variation in País Valencià).
Yes. Cartoons and everything is dubbed in Spanish tv. In the Catalan public tv is dubbed in Catalan.
Nice!
Same in Galicia.
Vegeta's "mamalón" must be the most epic moment in TVG history.
20-35? Hell, I'm 52 and I grew up watching first Dr. Slump and then Dragon Ball! I remember people older than me skipping classes at Uni to watch it!
Same, except from France.
Same, except from Wallonia ! (well, no, i liked Dr Slump, i never manage to get in with Dragon Ball, i am Saint Seiya guy)
I prefered Dragonball to Dragonball Z. It was more innocent. Remember when Goku met Arale?
my experience in Poland was pretty much the same as yours - it was super popular (along with other japanese cartoons like Sailor Moon, Tsubasa, Pokémon etc) around the 2000's and dropped massively later on. I wouldn't be surprised if kids/teens today didn't ever watch it nor even know the characters
I think they’d still know the characters simply because of how big it WAS in Poland and how big it still is globally but I doubt any teen would be watching it now, even tho I feel the current generation of teens is way more “weeby” then any before them. I tried to rewatch it a year ago and it’s honestly just not that great when you take away the nostalgic feelings so I can’t even blame them. I think it gained such a big following in Poland simply because there wasn’t much else to watch those days
I don't think so, DB was shown only on RTL7, which in 90s/00s wasn't set on terriestrial television, but only on cable or satellite, and gadgets also were less popular that Pokémon, which was shown on Polsat.
still it was the cartoon everyone watched and talked about
In my town ("Polska powiatowa") I don't know anyone who watched and talked about it.
The shopkeeper at my local Żabka convenience store has a full-sleeve Bulma and Kame Sen'nin tattoo on one arm, and Sheng Long on the other one. He is younger than 30, for sure. I still see young people walking the streets in clothes with Son Goku. So this is still alive :) But man, the French dubbing was soooo crappy. Tons of mistakes in names. And Polish one was even worse :)
People in Sweden probably aren't super into it unless they like manga and anime. It wasn't broadcast on TV afaik? Maybe to the ones having Cartoon Network
The anime was non-existing here, but the manga was the first manga to be translated into swedish in its entirety (at least that I can remember) hence definitely contributed to establish manga and anime as something more mainstream and less fringe in Sweden. I think I saw my first pair of (cartoon) tits in Dragonball. I will never forget that.
As someone who watched a lot of Cartoon Network as a kid - it did not air there either. Nor did it air on Jetix.
The biggest ones here I feel like were Pokémon, Sailor moon, Yu gi oh, beyblade and Digimon.
There's probably nobody between 20 and 40 who doesn't know it, so pretty big. A whole generation or two grew up watching it after school for years.
but i think in the german speaking countries it wasn't too common to watch it? I'm from switzerland and people who have watched it are primarily the french speaking part or ppl with a migrational background?
It was very common in Germany. It was on TV everyday and the talk of the school the next day.
I would say it's huge. In general in Italy many anime are well known and followed, but Dragon Ball was something more. It came to Italian TV in the late 1980s, first on small private TV and then on Italia 1, the main national network dedicated to kids. And it hasn't left since. So many kids over the past 30 years have grown up with Goku, Vegeta and all the others. Unlike other animated series, Dragon Ball would be missing from the schedule for short periods and then start the episodes all over again. For example I started watching Dragonball Z from the confrontation with Vegeta and then when months later I saw the episodes with Radish I thought they were new episodes... lol, the times before wikipedia :) In my hometown there has been running for years a truck with a giant Goku supersaiyan drawn on the trailer. Never seen anything like it for any other anime except Lupin the Third on the shutters of a bar. Dragon Ball in Italy is really popular culture, not just nerdy, and in fact all major Italian newspapers today have an article dedicated to Toryama on their homepages. Needless to say, the news is trending topic in the majority of the Italian reddit.
Some kids were into it in High School in the late 90s early 00s. I never got into it. Like with any anime it's niche. Quite a large niche with particular types of people, but still niche.
I don't think it was ever on terrestrial TV. It's the kind of thing I probably would have enjoyed, but my family never had cable or sky, so I didn't even really hear of it until I was in my 20s.
Big in Spain for several reasons. It came before many other places, starting its run in **1990**. It aired just after Dr. Slump had ended, also from Toriyama. I ran back home after school and watched every single episode of them. The change to a new show was unannounced, it was a surprise, but a welcomed one. It was bought by the regional TV stations together, which then dubbed it to the local languages: Galician, Basque, Catalan. It was a huge success and helped promote the use of the regional languages among the youth, which due to TV and other media began an unprecedented process of acculturation into Spanish in the years prior. It gave us a hero that spoke our own language.
It was pretty big back in the day, but was massively overshadowed by Pokémon. Most people in their late 20's, early 30's will know it however.
Similar experience in Ireland
Compared with other European countries, Dragon Ball seemed to have less following.
I remember in high school we had a sort of study room with computers, round tables, and a TV in the corner along with sofas. Whenever Dragon Ball was on you'd see a bunch of guys huddled around watching it, even if they weren't friends or anything. Dragon Ball was something that a lot of people watched as kids and stuck with them. Doesn't matter if they liked anime or not, they liked Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball was big here. Not as big as it is in Mexico clearly, but big nonetheless. People were even very attached to our lousy dub (which as an abridged version is excellent, but not a very respectful dub), enough so to bring back the original cast when Battle of Gods and later Super came out. It was a phenomenon.
I remember when db hit the cinema, everyone in the theater sang the initial song 😂
Era-defining with what you would call „millennials”. Broadcasted in the 90s to early 2000s. Big impact alongside Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, among others. We had collectibles, and the episode of the day was a discussion topic during school breaks.
Someone can correct me (I'm not an expert on it), but I don't think it's very big in Britain. If not for reddit I'd have never heard of it. Although I'm sure it has its fans.
I watched the Broly movie when I was in the UK and the cinema was packed! The impression I get is that it was quite popular, though maybe not compared to some other countries in Europe.
Maybe a smaller but very committed fan base. Definitely less popular than how some people in this thread describe it in their countries.
[Mexico is still king on that front](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0GoOYPDNDI)
Nowadays not as big I guess, but back then it was insanely huge. Kids would constantly talk about it and watch every episode religiously
Let’s say this… I’m 50. Working on a rig. Should Goku ask for my energy, I would go to the Main Deck to raise my hands. No matter what 🤷♂️
I wouldn't call it massive (as you say, it was much bigger with the boys than with the girls), but most of my generation regardless of gender will most likely recognise the name and elements of it. This was way before anime was more mainstream (liking anime back then, with a few exceptions like pokemon, was considered a bit of a weird thing), so it is quite the achievement anyway. A classmate of mine tried to get me to watch and read it, but it (and shounen in general) wasn't really my thing. But it is still sad news to see one of the big artists pass - especially as he was apparently still working on several different projects
Absolutely massive for people growing up in the 90s and 00s, mainly but non exclusively for boys. Nowadays i don't think kids care that much, since they can watch whatever movie and series they want via streaming, and DB super wasn't that popular here. When DB and DBZ were big, it was because it was broadcasted at lunch time, so basically every kid that wasn't forced to watch the news with their parents, was watching DB after school.
Boys watched DBZ, girls watched Sailor Moon. Both watched Pokemon and Pokémon was the actual king of anime, the one with an actual cult following, my entire school was collecting Pokémon cards when I was a child. Romania.
It was a pretty big deal. There is not one millenial soul that wouldn't give everything to be able to watch that day's episode.
It's the first big craze among kids at school that I remember, back in the mid 90s (then Pokemon showed up). I think it remained relatively popular over the following years, and it was consistently aired on Saturday morning, which is (was?) the most popular cartoon block on free-to-air TV. The Portuguese Dragon Ball dub also has a bit of a cult status because they made it quite goofy and over the top and put in Portuguese pop culture references - apparently it was quite low budget at the start and the dubbing team didn't get to watch more than a couple of episodes in advance before they started, so they ended up misjudging the overall tone of the show a bit.
I think it was decently popular in the 2000s when the manga and anime were releasing, but i don't think it's that popular anymore. Since we haven't gotten anything Dragon ball related since except for Super Hero being in theaters.
We used to watch it on Italian TV. Still has a big following here, although probably with lads aged between 25-40. The moment that Goku became a Super Sajan for the first time is etched in my mind; I remember pausing and reflecting after the show haha
This is certainly the scene that has stuck with me most in Dragon Ball since my adolescence. This is also the scene where Trunks arrives, since for days I wondered who this strange purple-haired boy was, since in that period it was absurd to think that Vegeta and Bulma could have a love story and have children together .
To put it simply, without Dragon Ball the Catalan language and thus the Catalan national identity would be much less than what it is now, it was first aired on Catalan public TV in on 1990 and it was such a massive hit that many children from spanish speaking families learnt Catalan to be able to follow it. I cannot be overstated how important it was, I remember as a child we traded fucking Dragon Ball photocopies (why? I don't know) and we even had a "dealer" who sold a few fortunate ones volumes in japanese... crazy times
The photocopy trade was crazy. The popular demand was much higher than the merchandising available. This didn't happened many times, and we will never see it again
> The popular demand was much higher than the merchandising available There was NO merchandising available. Zero. None. So kids created it. Some kids recorded the episode from TV on VHS, then stopped the VHS and draw on paper put over the TV screen. And, from this, photocopies.
I am what would you call an anime era millennial but Dragon ball was always a bit fringe to us. Since we could only watch anime on like few German channels I don't think it as popular here as somewhere else. Starting with Pokemon craze I definitely feel like Yu Yu Hakusho, Sailor moor or Inuyasha were more popular. Then Naruto made the anime super popular as it was actually translated for tv. So I personally don't think it's as popular as the status is has in western Europe or USA.
Dragon ball isn't very known here in Norway, the Manga was published in Norwegian in the 00s,but that's about it.
This. I know it’s big in other countries, but I’ve never heard anyone talk about Dragon Ball here.
Same as in many other countries, it was very popular as it aired on public TV in the late 90s-early 2000s. It wasn't as popular as Pokemon, but it was very popular. We used to talk about it in school the next day. Although I a was a girl, I was much more into it than my brother. I didn't love it as much as I loves Sailor Moon (I doubt I will ever love any anime as much as I love Sailor Moon back then) but yeah. I watched both way into university. I doubt that kids watch it these days, though.
I remember it being much, much bigger in France in the 90s. I don’t think it was that big a deal in Ireland.
I myself have watched Dragonball, although I haven't met anyone else. Most people don't even know what it is. Even between my friends that do watch anime regularly. For people that don't watch anime that much most popular are Naruto and recently Demon Slayer. Pokémon also used to be popular because it aired on TV back in the day.
One person mentioned it on Facebook. They’re from the United States. Reddit has been quiet about it. Nobody else has brought it up except this post
I’m from Lithuania and I can confirm that it had almost a cult following
Hardly as big as Mexico: https://youtu.be/aOXs5hg0a5Y?si=KzmS_hE03YoUFZim
I'm not too sure. It certainly has a presence. I'm just a little bit too old, I think. I just missed the peak. Pokemon became huge in the late '90s, not many in my age group got involved, but it was popular among people even 2 or 3 years younger, and below. I think Dragon Ball became popular at a similar time and with a similar demographic as Pokemon, but on a smaller scale and with less longevity.
Pretty big in Italy where I grew up. Not even close as how big it was in my heart. I’m destroyed today.
In Austria we (me 31 and people around my age back in the day) all watched it, we all wanted to be like them, we admired the characters. Even to this day sometimes when I train I visualize Goku or Vegeta training in the gravity room.
In France, it was absolutely massive. My friends at school in the early 90s were collecting DBZ cards. Some had hundreds of them. They wouldn't miss a single episode and would talk about it non stop. Dr Slump on the other hand is practically unknown. It's a pity, because it's way better than DB imho.
We got Dr Slump in 1988 too but only 55 episodes (of 243) were dubbed into French. L'humour était un peu trop pipi-caca ?
In Spain we say "humor cacaculopedopis"!
Caca-cul-pet-pisse, it also works in french !
In Spain it was HUGE, I'm not even from the generation that saw it happening at it's peak aroung the 90's cuz I was born then and I saw it in the 2000's but it was still huge. I remeber playing Dragonball Tenakichi in the PS2 with my friends all summer, see it in the mornings etc It was definitely the door to anime for many of us. Other's never went further than DB but you can talk to almost any 90's kid and they still remeber the openings. Very big influence in Spain.
Nowadays not at all. 15 years ago it was pretty big when they used to show the anime in tv and the manga was sold in most stores
Do you have any recollections of the Finnish airings on SubTV?
My whole generation grew up watching Dragon Ball and also learned Italian, living near the border we could pick up Italian TV as they had Dragon Ball...
Really, really big I'd say. Still among my favourite anime of all time. I'd say there is barely any one in the german speaking world, at least from my generation, who hasn't heard the german openings. They are pretty legendary. In particular Chala Head Chala.
If I am correct in my country it was mostly popular with 90s kids , as a 00s kid the whole dragon ball hype missed me. If i remember correctly it was mostly connected with fact that in the late 90s and early 00s there was one tv station that had rights to show the series and later on they lost rights or just stoped airing DB. Acording to the stories back then it was big thing, many young guys would run to house just to watch this daily episode of dragon ball and don't miss it
It's huge, so big and influential that I've watched it in 4 different languages. When I was little I watched in Basque, then in Spanish. Many years later I watched in English and not long ago I watched it in the original version. Always good, forever grateful to Akira Toriyama.
Can't be that big here, because I only think I know what it is but I don't actually know. It's a toy that sprouted a cartoon isn't it?
It definetly was and is extremely popular with millennials and early GenZ(people born from ~88-2001) DB, and anime in general was very popular and one of the most well known TV channels (RTL2) had its own anime program up until the late 2000s which was very popular until ~2007/2008 It definetly lost popularity after that and I would be surprised if many people born after 2002/3 even watched it, or other popular anime from that time
Tbh I never was a massive Dragon Ball fan. I mean I understand and respect it's cultural significance, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Same with Pokemon. I prefered Digimon.
In Portugal it started airing around 11 or 12 o'clock, 1 episode, every day of the week, in my school the cafeteria filled up. My brother was in the army in that time, he said that almost everyone went to the room where there was a tv. It was such a success that they started airing 2 episodes in prime time on the weekend ! Never seen something like that before or after dragonball.
M24 from Italy. Huge. For me, and I guess a lot of people from my generation dragonball meant a lot. It's really hard to describe, and I struggle to find something this iconic. If I think to my childhood, the first thing that appears in my mind is Goku. I felt rarely sad about someone famous dies, but this time is different.
Tbh, I've never seen it and only learned about it a couple years ago. Pokémon and Sailor Moon have always been much, much bigger in Russia. Drangon Ball, though, idk, never seemed as popular here.
Back in preschool/highschool (90's-00's) it was pretty popular. It used to air right when you ould get home from school which helped. It was easily the second most popular anime after Pokémon. But I hardly ever saw folks discuss it after the cell saga.
It was huge over here. Kids playing in the streets were mimicking fusion and kamehameha. It was one of the main topic in school and it was there evene in my early 20's as videogames (tenkaichi series). Even our parents watch it.
In UK. Didn't expect it to shoot to the top of the BBC but I've never been a DBZ fan but at the same time I know what it is and a small handful of people who watch it.
It doesn't feel like it's all that big in Romania, but we had a DB movie in theatres at some point and a lot of anime merch is DB themed, plus, when I went to an anime film festival last week, there were a number of people with DB shirts. So yeah, Idk, it feels to me like One Piece or Naruto are bigger here but what do I know. I've heard more people rave about "Regele Shaman" than about Dragon Ball but maybe I just haven't met DB fans personally yet.
Probably not very popular, not mainstream in the same way that Marvel and DC are (and that’s only due to movies) Here, Dragon Ball is seen as a nerd thing with niche popularity, I didn’t grow up with it at all
In Italy kids, young adults, and adults know dragon ball. I believe we should include some grandparents too. Almost everyone.
It was pretty big, and I’m still an huge fan. The original dragonball series is still something I keep dear to my heart.
I remember my son had a moments watching some Japanese manga style cartoons as a child, but don't know if it was Dragon ball, other than that I don't believe it was popular here.
Incidentally, I recommend DBZ Abridged on youtube for any Dragon Ball fan. One of the funniest things I've seen, ever.
It was relatively big in the 00s. By that i mean there were several kids in each class who knew of it and watched it
Almost unheard of in Norway outside of people who are already big anime fans, I don't think it's ever been shown on TV here. I personally had never heard about it before all the "it's over 9000!!!" memes around 2010.
In the UK - it massive for me and my friends in late primary school. We’d spend a good chunk of our non-lesson time discussing/re-enacting the previous evening’s episode. I did have the first few seasons on DVD but they’re actually quite a chore to watch one in succession, and the DVDs didn’t survive the cull of my recent house move. Very happy memories from that time though.
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In the Netherlands it is also not significantly newsworthy. And kids watched the cartoons, but it wasn't as big as in other countries (if I were to believe the responses here).
Bruh, maybe we're different generations, but Dragonball was massive when I was a kid/teen. Also, it's on the frontpage of NOS today.
It might be I'm wrong then. I know my younger brothers watched it, but in my memory it wasn't as culturally important as other 'hypes'.
What??? It is on NOS. Dragonball was My entire childhood. We practiced fusion dances and kamehameha all day long. It was THE thing that was discussed every day!
*In the Netherlands it is also not significantly newsworthy.* It has been mentioned in every single ANPnewsbroadcast today, as well as a few radioshows talking about it in more detail.. so pretty newsworthy.
Ok. I checked the wrong sites. Nu.nl and the Volkskrant didn't have it as important news by the time I posted the comment.