So here's a blog I thought I would do, and you can tell us your feelings in the comments too, about my near-lifelong love for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, which I would consider my favorite series because of the impact it's had through most of my life. Even rewatching it now, I get the most incredible wave of nostalgia and I get emotional over it. It was that significant in my life. Also, I really have to thank my mom, because she's the one who tells me of a lot of the DBZ-related things I used to do as a little kid whenever she sees me on the wiki.
I first saw Dragon Ball Z in late 1999, when I was almost four years old. Even though the Frieza Saga was airing in the United States by then, it was Goku and Piccolo's fight against Raditz that I first caught on TV from a rerun. My dad was the one initially interested in it, as he and I used to regularly watch television together. He was about to change the channel because he didn't know if I would be into it or not. It was actually my mom (according to her) who pointed out that I was staring at the TV, transfixed. I wasn't the sort of kid who was easily pulled in by TV (caused by my then-unidentified ADHD), but I seemed to really like Dragon Ball Z, so my dad kept watching it with me. In the Christmases of my early DBZ years, most of my presents were Dragon Ball Z related and one year I got the Dragon Ball VHS collection. While waiting for the new episode releases, I would request to watch all of the episodes I had over and over again until I could quote individual phrases that I liked best. Not many shows would interest me enough, but whenever the intros for either Dragon Ball Z or Pokemon were heard, I would start dancing...or rather, a toddler's best attempt at dancing.
I started amassing the toys and DVDs as time wore on. I had Aspergers, but it was not yet known when I began organizing my Dragon Ball Z toys into different rows around me while I would sit and watch the show. It was this symptom that actually helped me get a diagnosis, as lining up, stacking, or organizing things in a particular order repetitively is usually a sign of autism. It was the first show I had ever become obsessed with to this level. At age six, I begged my parents to get me a Goku costume for Halloween, so they called my grandma and had her make me this awesome homemade Goku costume as he appeared in Dragon Ball. My parents even threw together their own Yamcha and Bulma costumes to go trick-or-treating with me. Every time I was brought to the toy store, I would run straight to the aisle where they kept the Dragon Ball Z toys and would pick out one that I didn't have. I ended up getting my younger brother Ian into the show, and we would always pretend we were characters from the show and throw the living room sofa pillows at one another to represent ki blasts.
Even though a lot of kids teased me for being so obsessed (and none of them ever seemed to care for DBZ either, being more interested in Superman or other more mainstream characters) among other things, I made a friend when I was little named Freddy. He was just as obsessed with it as I was, so we would always play together at lunch like we were fighting villains, firing off imaginary Kamehamehas (usually me) and Special Beam Cannons (he liked Piccolo best). He was my first and only friend in elementary school up until fifth grade, but he moved to South Korea before the start of my second grade year.
Even when things began to get tough and I started experiencing loss, I continued obsessing over Dragon Ball Z. Every time they would show one of the movies on TV, I made it my priority to be there to watch them. Even to this day, I find myself filling my Dad's role, watching Kai with my seven year old brother (I've been showing him my version too though). I still have all of my old Dragon Ball Z toys and all of the games I ever bought. Even now, around fifteen years after this love for Dragon Ball first formed...my room is littered with the evidence. Even the walls bear evidence of my continued passion, and my presence on this wiki solidifies that. Ever since I've started high school I have completely been open about my love for the series, dressing up as Teen Gohan in my Sophomore year for Halloween (less than three weeks before I joined this wiki) and taking to yelling out a "Kamehameha!" as I throw a pass in football. Like it or not, I love this series. Thank you Akira Toriyama for creating this series and thanks to everyone who ever worked to bring it to paper or to the television and movie screens all over the world. I love Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z to death and no one's gonna change me or how I feel about the series.
Feel free to post your own DB/DBZ experiences below. :)