My money's on either Goku or Pikachu.
My money's on either Goku or Pikachu.
We're all newbs, some are just more newbier than others.
Just a burned out hardcore raider turned casual.
I'm tired. So very tired. Can I just lay my head on your lap and fall asleep?
#TeamFuckEverything
My early 70s childhood;
In 1980, I thought I was a bit old for cartoons, but then I'd stumble on the first episode of this and was hooked:
That people don't know an iconic character that's been in active production for like 30+ years is silly. DBZ isn't even niche it's became so prevalent.
I'm calling absolute bullshit on *idk* who Goku is lol.
Pikachu, mainly because most people know Pika, but they don't really equate Pika to anime or even recognize Pikachu from pokemon. Just Pikachu at this point. Goku is still just a character from DB, hell most people familiar with Goku probably couldn't identify which DB series a picture of Goku would be from.
Goku is the Donald Duck of anime, he's cool and all, but a lot of people will confuse him with Daffy Duck.
I know who Goku and Pikachu are and I've never seen an anime. Except literally the Animatrix. I only know Goku by name, not sure I could pick him out of a lineup of DBZ characters.
That's about it.
To be honest, I'm not sure my big brother knows him, either. Might recognize the name, but that's it. I only learned of him when I was something like 20, and that's because of my friend. I'm over 30 now, and I'm pretty sure I would have stumbled on Goku on my own by now, but mostly because of the weird "Who would win, Superman or Goku" threads and the like, so even that would be very superficial understanding of the character.
I think it's largely regional, whether Dragon Ball has been a thing or not. I don't remember ever seeing it on television, ever. Some other Anime sure, but even that was quite limited, if I remember correctly.
I can only think of 2 Anime series from my childhood, but I'm sure there were more. Pokemon, and where ever the hell Akakabuto is from. That bear was too scary to watch, though...
Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, but people didn't really know that Pokemon was an "anime". Same problem with Goku and Dragonball.
Perhaps the most famous consciously "anime" characters in the West would be Kirito from SAO, or Saber from Fate.
In Japan, the most famous anime characters are Char Aznable from Gundam, and Luffy from One Piece. Those characters are hardly known in the West outside of the hardcore anime fandom.
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Dragonball was only really popular if you grew up in the 80s and the 90s. It is practically unheard of among younger generations.
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Boomers would be more likely to recognize Pikachu than Mario, so Pikachu wins out. And among younger kids, again Pikachu is more recognizable than Mario. Mario is more recognizable by gamers who grew up during the 80s and the 90s, but everyone - even people who aren't gamers - know Pikachu. Parents buy stuffed Pikachu dolls for their kids and office workers have stuffed Pikachus on their desks, not stuffed Mario dolls.
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Hardly known in the West. Only people who are hardcore into the history of anime know who Doraemon is.
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More known of in the West but hardly a household name.
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Massive in Japan but not as well known in the West. The height of Gundam's popularity in the West was when Wing and SEED aired on Toonami, but that's still relatively niche.
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Massive in Japan, not so in the West. Do people who aren't into anime know who Luffy is? No, they don't.
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Millenials know who Naruto is. Boomers and Gen Z don't.
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Hello Kitty was popular in the West during the 2000s. Seems to have fallen off of the map today.
Last edited by Val the Moofia Boss; 2022-04-29 at 08:58 PM.
I know Goku or Pikachu are more popular, but Doraemon is freaking awesome!
Pikachu
Shinichi Kudo / Conan Edogawa
Son Goku
Monkey D. Luffy
Levi Ackerman
Eren Jaeger
Not gonna lie, until someone said Goku was from DBZ, I didn't know who it was.
So I'd say Pikachu as I reckon waaaay more people know who Pikachu is compared to Goku.
This. I find it really hard to believe that anyone under the age of 40 doesn't know who Goku is, given how popular DBZ was in the 90s and 2000s. Except MAYBE if they didn't have cable growing up.
You have to have been living under a rock for 30+ years to not have at least HEARD of Goku.
Last edited by CastletonSnob; 2022-04-29 at 09:09 PM.
Either Goku or Pikachu, i personally love both but Goku is the anime character that started everything.
i missed the whole pokemon-mania because of age but even i acknowledge that anime = pikachu.
back in my days it was akira tho.
war does not determine who is right, only who is left.