Superhero Media: Dragon Ball Z Abridged

Sigh. I really didn't want to talk about this until I'd done all of the Dragon Ball I could get my hands on, and they'd finished making Dragon Ball Z Abridged (DBZA), because I know most people would be put off by my opinions. Then, about a month ago as of time of writing, Team Four Star announced that they'd be winding up production on DBZA for a number of reasons, and that, for all intents and purposes, the series was over. Great. Now I have to talk about it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy DBZA, find some episodes particularly hilarious, and like that it's drawn more people to the original programmes, but more and more often, it bugs me like nothing else. I have a good friend who had never watched The Simpsons growing up, and she used to get frustrated when everyone around her was quoting the programme and she wasn't in on the joke. Well, I am in on the joke, but I still get frustrated, why? Because some people have never seen the original, only DBZA. 

Well, is that really such a big deal? Kinda, yeah. Something Team Fourstar and I have in common is that we're all big fans of the Dragon Ball franchise, even the silly bits and the filler; there's plenty of evidence for that in the jokes of DBZA. Every episode begins with "Please support the official release", because DBZA is a parody and parody can only be done well by those who love the original. When I get to talking to someone about Dragon Ball and they admit they've only watched DBZA, trying explain that they've also missed half the jokes usually results in indifference and suggesting that they watch the Anime is difficult when the commitment is nearly 1000 episodes, plus movies and specials. Also, I wish some people in my roleplaying group would stop constantly quoting DBZA, but that's a different fight. 

I know without DBZA more than a few fans might have never found their way to Dragon Ball, one of my exes included, but that DBZA has become the ubiquitous version of the franchise is grating. It's like if people had become fans of Star Wars because of Spaceballs, or gotten into Spider-Man because of Superhero Movie; it's backwards. Again, for the record, I really enjoy DBZA, my favourite episode is "Episode 18", mostly because of the very Vaudevillian comedy runs and the first drop of the "I need an adult" gag. However, I want to live in a world where people don't ask my why my Goku stats for Ultimate Alliance don't have "Muffin Button" written anywhere, or ask about running a Mr Popo deck in FuZion; I mean, yes, you can run Popo, and it's not bad, but still. Animelab and Crunchyroll both have pretty much all of the Dragon Ball series and movies, check a couple out next time you need your fix, they're pretty funny and really engaging in their own right.