By now, almost every gamer and/or anime fan is already familiar with Dragon Ball Z. At its height, it was as popular with anime fans as Naruto is today, maybe even more so considering how long it stayed on the air in Japan and the U.S. While the games didn't arrive until sometime after the series had left the air, they were highly acclaimed as examples of licensed fighting games. Almost anyone knows about Dragon Ball Z, but few people know about the original anime, Dragon Ball. The story of Goku's younger days on Earth wasn't very widespread in the U.S., usually airing at odd times on syndicated television instead of the choice time slots that the sequel got. As a result, the manga became the only way more people knew about the first series.
