Ok, question for all my anime-loving senpai out there: What’s your recommended way to break into the Dragon Ball anime? I’m referring to the entire franchise, not the original series alone.

See, here’s the thing. I’ve seen a few episodes of different series, and it looks fun. It’s also iconic. I’ve also read the original DB manga, so I know the basic story there.

But then I realized if I want to get up to speed on the anime, that’s… 639 episodes total. That’s DB, DBZ, DBGT, and DBS. (But not the Kai revision of DBZ.)

639. That’s someone’s house number, or a frickin’ area code, not a watchable list of anime installments.

So, how would you recommend approaching the series? Would you skip certain parts? Watch them in a particular order? Are the newer series worth watching? Are the older ones worth seeing if you’ve already read the manga? And thanks ahead of time for your advice!

10 thoughts on “How should I get into Dragon Ball?”

  1. I’m going to be honest, I’m not into this series. I’ve tried bits and pieces of it but it never really appealed to me. That said, a certain person I know who has been trying to get me to watch forever keeps telling me I need to watch DBZ. Not sure that I trust that advice, given I haven’t followed it, but they seem to love the show.

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    1. Thanks for weighing in! ☺️ Yeah, I’ve heard Z is the best series. Though that was before Super. I started reading the Super manga when it began, but didn’t really take to it. But with the Super anime wrapping up, I’ve heard good things about it and thought about diving in. It is however a major time commitment, hence this post.

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  2. I agree with Karandi and don’t really think you have to! I think most Dragon Ball fans out there love the series for the nostalgia. I rarely hear people talk about elements of the show that are particularly outstanding (I haven’t seen it myself though). If you want to catch up on good classics to get a sense of what current anime are influenced by, perhaps things like Neon Genesis Evangelion or Revolutionary Girl Utena might interest you more? That being said, I’ve seen very few shows that are before my time, so take my words with a grain of salt.

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    1. Hmm, these are good recommendations. And watching NGE would give me an excuse to listen to Cruel Angel’s Thesis a lot. 😁

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        1. It is! Have you heard the English cover of it by LeeAndLie on YouTube? It’s pretty impressive.

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          1. Hmm, I haven’t heard that specific cover, but I do like LeeAndLie. Her translyrics are one of the best ones out there.

  3. That’s a hard question. I usually would say start at the beginning, because you get the full feeling of the show and its many characters, but I know a lot of people started with Z and Z does give people enough context to understand it’s characters. Honestly, it’s up to you.

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