I still remember when it first premiered on Toonami and I didn't even know what to think of it. I swore I would never watch it because it looked "dumb and weird". And then parents around me talked about how violent it was.
But one day, while impatiently waiting for my shows to come on during the Toonami block and having finished my homework early, I ended up watching an episode of DBZ. I can remember the exact episode: Gohan was still training under PIccolo with his little orange outfit and sword and was trying to make his way back home because /fuck this scary green guy amirite. By the end, I was hooked. I loved Gohan, loved Piccolo, wanted so much more of the story and characters.
By the time we got to the end of the Saiyan arc, DBZ had become one of my favorite animes and it still remains one of my first "gateway" anime (Sailor Moon, Ronin Warriors, and Gundam Wing being the others). I was there for the Namek arc airing, I was there for the fight between Goku and Frieza and then the absolute Hype for Goku finally going Super Saiyan. I remember running out of the house screaming at my friends about it and we couldn't stop geeking out over it. It was amazing and whenever an anime can get me that excited today, I know it's special.
To anyone not a fan of it, I can understand how it may look. I can even agree some of the fights can be laughable (because some of the animation in it definitely made me laugh when I was younger and especially now) but there's so much more to DBZ than that. The characters and the story are the strongest parts of it. If neither of those things was any good I would not still be stanning for this show nor would I care that it was still running.
DBZ is ultimately about trying your hardest to do what is right: for you, your friends, your loved ones, the world. It's a story about failure and loss, it's a story about family and bonds, it's a story about kicking the shit out of people that threaten what you hold dear and saying "no, you move". It's also a story about picking battles and being smarter than just using brute force all the time (because sometimes that shit just makes things worse). It's easy to stand outside of this show and think it's dumb. I know I did when I first saw commercials about it coming to Toonami.
But hey, if I can look past that and see what it's really about, anyone interested in seeing this should be able to do the same. It's worth it.
