In honor of Akira Toriyama, I just wanted to share my experience with the wonderful world of Dragon Ball and how it came to be a big part of my life. I know that so many people out there likely have stories just like mine to one degree or another. The main takeaway though, is that Dragon Ball brings people together. Our mutual love of Toriyama's world transcends all barriers. Race, ethnicity, gender, age. All of these are meaningless in the face of stories and characters that will likely still echo throughout the world long after I'm gone. I was a wee lad of about 9 or 10 and I was up for school early one morning (had to have been around 6am) eating my cereal and I started watching a cartoon I had never seen before. A little boy with a tail was rolling down the mountain on a log and performing all manner of acrobatics. I was captivated. Found out the name of the cartoon was Dragon Ball. The first 5 episodes were all that got released and dubbed at the time and then I never heard about anything else about it... Until one day in middle school a few years later. A friend I had made who previously lived in Japan brought some trading cards to school after our Christmas break (apparently they were one of his Christmas presents from family still living in Japan). The characters on some of the cards looked oddly familiar. So I asked him what show they were from. He said the cards were from an anime called Dragonball Z. Then it hit me. I asked him if it was similar to the show I knew as Dragon Ball that I had seen years earlier. He confirmed, kind of surprised that anyone outside of Japan at that point had ever heard of it. My reintroduction into the world of Dragon Ball began anew. I started asking my friend if he had any of the shows on VHS and if he would let me borrow them if so. Unfortunately, all the Dragonball VHS tapes he had were pure Japanese so it was futile. But... BUT, he did have most of the Dragonball Manga series (also all in Japanese) which he offered to bring in to read during our lunch period and he would translate them for me. So there i was, just about every day at lunch with my homie reading Dragon Ball mangas. I was able to get through nearly the entirety of the DB manga up until the Piccolo Jr. Arc (he didn't have those volumes yet at the time). Middle school ended and we parted ways as my family moved to another city and once again I didn't hear anything about Dragon Ball for some years. Finally, the genius tier production team at Cartoon network released a block of shows called Toonami featuring different anime. On the lineup, much to my excitement, there it was. Dragon Ball Z. Now, I knew who Piccolo was, but hadn't yet seen Goku and him fight in the world tournament. So I was admittedly a little bit bummed about missing that context; but that disappointment went right out the window the second I got introduced to Radditz and the true origins of Goku. I never missed an episode. When new episodes were released on VHS, I was there at my local Sun Coast Video at the local mall buying them all on day 1, each of which contained 3-4 episodes. Eventually, as time went on I would move on to DVDs and eventually purely digital downloads. I went on to accumulate all anime episodes from DB, DBZ, GT, and all the various associated movies. Everywhere I went after high school, I would meet and make friends with people over our shared love of DB. In fact my oldest and best friend first struck up a conversation because he heard me mention DB to another co-worker in passing while we worked at In-N-Out. When I joined the Navy, it was the same deal. People from all walks of life would come together and excitedly talk about DB. By then (early 2000's) it was already a worldwide phenomenon. All 3 of my sons got to grow up with my entire collection at their disposal. They've seen every episode and movie multiple times now, including all of Super. They have a huge love of manga and anime because of it. What about you all?

@Biggsmahoney @Leah742 @elonmusk Dunno. Everyone has different speech patterns so I'd prefer not to assume. A comma, question mark, or a period every so often to separate ideas and or questions goes a long way toward palatable discourse.

@ItsTheHousing @JohnStovallAuth @repdarrellissa No, it's fraud. Who owns all those media companies? What happened in 2020? How can people be this stupid...

@mona_salzillo @upinmontana @DavidPepper Because they refuse to do so. That's how we got here to begin with.

@DeTocqueville14 I'll be watching you👀

@ItsTheHousing @JohnStovallAuth @repdarrellissa It's sending taxpayer money to enrich specific media outlets around the world and force censorship of others. That's absolutely a fraudulent use of my tax money and it is NOT a constitutionally delineated function of government to be doing so. Don't be daft.

That they know of...

@DeTocqueville14 Yes.

@thebenevolus @Rothmus

@DeliciousCrayon @Alfred_Orteez @studentofgodd

@Alfred_Orteez @studentofgodd I think 45 is being generous🤣

@ItsTheHousing @JohnStovallAuth @repdarrellissa Wrong.

@JohnStovallAuth @ItsTheHousing @repdarrellissa Imagine being an adult and unable to see verifiable fraud happening when they send hundreds of billions of dollars overseas to "fund" bullshit like pottery classes and dei initiatives only to find out most of the money never makes it to the intended destination. Guess it's magic.

@cincinattihust1 @Razkolni @MattFromSMM @StevieGhandiz @charliekirk11 Lol because it isn't. But it's a waste of time to go back and forth anymore about it. Agree to disagree. We'll just have to watch it play out.🤷‍♂️

@ItsTheHousing @JohnStovallAuth @repdarrellissa

@cincinattihust1 @Razkolni @MattFromSMM @StevieGhandiz @charliekirk11 They do. They'll continue and you'll keep crying about it or whatever. Should be a lot of fun.✌️

@ItsTheHousing @JohnStovallAuth @repdarrellissa If you think that's the extent of it...

@cincinattihust1 @Razkolni @MattFromSMM @StevieGhandiz @charliekirk11 Cool, we agree then. They can just continue on with their work and ignore the court order since it isn't relevant to them. Good talk.

@Biggsmahoney @Leah742 @elonmusk Is that supposed to be one long sentence, or multiple strings of separate thought?

@cincinattihust1 @Razkolni @MattFromSMM @StevieGhandiz @charliekirk11 He can because they are. Have you ever HAD a security clearance? I've had my SC since 2003. All clearances are vetted before an account is even created for the person. The judge doesn't have the power to stop constitutional duties nor presidential executive privilege.

@Kingisneverdead @DeTocqueville14