On my first Dragon Ball Z rewatch in 20 years, I’ve realised just how much the games shaped what I knew about the series

This year has been a bit of a mixed one for Dragon Ball fans – Daima, the first new TV anime since Super ended in 2018, started just this month, which came alongside the release of the hotly anticipated Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. Of course, sadly, series creator Akira Toriyama sadly died in March of this year, meaning as enjoyable as both the new series and the game have been, there has been a smidge of sadness that comes with them, especially considering how deeply involved Toriyama was with Daima, but it’s also clearly lit a fire in many Dragon Ball fans the series hasn’t had in a long while.

With all of that in mind, I finally made the decision to do what I’ve put off for many, many years now: I’ve started a rewatch of Dragon Ball Z. It’s probably been about 20-odd years since I watched the show as a child, which makes me feel a little sick now that I’ve written it down (ageing! Yippee!), and I’ve said to myself for the longest time that I’ll get around to it. After all, what’s almost 300 episodes of anime anyway? That’s nothing! And besides, I remember plenty about the series anyway, so that rewatch can happen whenever. You know what though? It turns out I didn’t remember as much as I thought.

Let’s be clear, I did remember the main beats and arcs, and I’ve had plenty of reminders through seeing clips on various social medias or going back to classic AMVs for a quick dose of nostalgia. Still, what I’d clearly completely blocked out was just how much of the start of the series is about young Gohan, out in the world on his own without papa Goku, learning how to be strong. I didn’t remember that Vegeta is coloured completely differently because his official colour scheme hadn’t even been done by Toriyama yet. And I certainly didn’t remember Christopher Sabat, best known for playing Vegeta, also voicing Piccolo.

You see, to my memory, Piccolo had this incredibly deep gruff voice. It felt iconic to me, and in fact, I knew that that same voice also played Wolverine in the 2000s animated series X-Men Evolution! Except he’s voiced by Scott McNeil, but that’s clearly Sabat who voices him in Dragon Ball Z, so what’s going on here? I’ll tell you what.

Back in the day, a dubbing studio called The Ocean Group dubbed the first 53 episodes of Dragon Ball Z (well, condensed from 67 technically), which did air in the UK. After that, the Funimation Dub, the one with all the characters you’re familiar with these days, aired for a while, before switching back to the Ocean Dub cast. You can obviously guess that this is down to the fact that anime rights back then was a bit like the Wild West, and being a kid I didn’t really notice any of this. Looking back on it though, I’ve realised that a lot of my memories of how the show sounds comes from the games.

I played a lot of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 and Budokai Tenkaichi 2 as a kid, which uses the Funimation Dub actors, and by a lot I mean I would play them on repeat, constantly. Those games were staples of my childhood, I’d play through their stories over and over again, not at all releasing that none of the voice actors were the same. And yet those voices, those sounds, are what stayed with me over the years.

Somewhere along the line, I think there’s a chance they somewhat replaced the anime. I definitely didn’t watch the anime as it was airing in the UK, it was absolutely reruns, so for all I know the Funimation Dub was used more than I can find evidence for (most people online just talk about how it aired in the US). Yet I still distinctly remember McNeil’s voice as Piccolo, and how cool and gravelly it was, and I could never forget Rock the Dragon, the show’s original opening in the UK.

It’s weird to think about how much the games shaped my memory of the series, but I also think it shows you how deeply embedded gaming is in Dragon Ball – why else do you think Sparking! Zero sold three million copies in only a day after it launched. In a way though, all these mixed up memories have given me the opportunity to rewatch Dragon Ball Z with fresh eyes.

There’s the Dragon Ball Z I have from my childhood, with its apparently messed up dubbing schedule, games that were then technically inconsistent with the show, and now I have a new Dragon Ball Z, at least new to me. Still not quite the one that was intended, I’d really just have to read the manga to get that (I’ll get there eventually). With Sparking! Zero, there’s a new version of the series too, and I hope that even if the games end up a bit repetitive, there’ll be more and more ways to enjoy it, because by now I think it’s a bit of a tradition.