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Dragon Ball Z is the long-running sequel to the anime Dragon Ball. The series is a close adaptation of the second (and far longer) portion of the Dragon Ball manga written and drawn by Akira Toriyama (in the United States, the manga's second portion is also titled Dragon Ball Z to prevent confusion). The 'Z' was originally added to the title by Toriyama to signify it as being the ending portion of the Dragon Ball series. The 'Z' does not literally stand for anything.* The anime features characters, situations, and backstories not present in the original manga. Those portions are considered non-canon by some fans.
The series follows the adventures of the adult Son Goku who, along with his companions, defend the Earth and many other planets against various villains. While the original Dragon Ball anime followed Goku through childhood into adulthood, Dragon Ball Z is a continuation of his adulthood life, but at the same time parallels the maturation of his son, Gohan. The separation between the series is also significant as the latter series takes on a more dramatic and serious tone.
The anime first premiered in Japan on April 18, 1989 (on Fuji TV) at 7:00 p.m. and ended on January 31, 1996. In the U.S., the series ran between 1996 and 2003, though not always on the same networks or with continuity of dubbing. It aired in the UK, albeit with the same dubbing problem, on Cartoon Network, premiering on March 6, 2000 and running until 2002, with the final few episodes being shown on CNX starting from October 14, 2002 and finishing on February 28 2003. The channel then relaunched as Toonami, on which it was repeated daily.
After Dragon Ball Z, the story of Son Goku and friends continues in the anime-only series Dragon Ball GT. This series is not based on a manga by Akira Toriyama. Toriyama's humor/parody manga Neko Majin Z features several concepts introduced in Dragon Ball Z (several Dragon Ball Z characters even make various appearances), but that manga is designed as a parody and not a true continuation of the series.
Impact
The impact of Dragon Ball Z is enormous. For more than 15 years, the series has stood the test of time and has reached out to many children and adults alike across the globe. This is mainly due to the series' very clear representations of good overpowering evil, love overpowering hate, the importance of family and friends, and an unyielding passion toward achieving goals. The series also featured heavy sci-fi overtones, and a greater emphasis on fighting - making it extremely popular among adolescent boys who had grown up alongside the original series.
Dragon Ball Z has also played a large part in contributing to the popularity of anime in western culture. Though the first two seasons of the series were played on various networks in the U.S. in 1996, it would not take off for two more years until August 31, 1998, when Cartoon Network featured the show in its action-oriented Toonami lineup. Toonami heralded the show as "The Greatest Action Cartoon Ever Made," and it greatly boosted the popularity of Toonami, but unknowingly did so much more. Dragon Ball Z's newfound popularity helped to bring about a greater interest in Japanese cartoons in the eyes of western youth, which in turn fueled the western anime industry to new heights.
Censorship issues
Dragon Ball Z was marketed to appeal to a wide range of viewers from all ages, and contains crude humor and occasional excesses of violence which are commonly seen as inappropriate for younger audiences by American standards. When it was marketed in the US, the distribution company FUNimation alongside with Saban decided to initially focus exclusively on the young children's market, because the anime market was still small compared to the much larger children's cartoon market.
Beginning with the Ginyu arc (3rd US season) on Cartoon Network, censorship was reduced due to fewer restrictions on cable programming. From this saga onwards, FUNimation dubbed the show themselves with their own in-house voice actors. In 2003, FUNimation began to redub the first two sagas (Saiyan and Freeza) to remove the problems that were caused from their previous partnership with Saban. They also redubbed the first three Pioneer-distributed movies that were dubbed by the Ocean Group voice actors. The distribution of the redubs on DVD, under the Ultimate Uncut Edition title, began in April 2005.
Creative changes
To an equal extent, many people who object to censoring in the English edition have taken issue with changes that are not seen as necessary, such as extraneous dialogue not found in the original, dubbing that sways the English version in its own creative direction (example: the TV audience booing Goku's appearance during the dubbed Cell Saga while cheering him in the Japanese series), the replacement of the entire original musical score, and renaming of several characters. Combined with criticized voice acting, many feel that the English version of Dragon Ball Z almost seems like an entirely different show than the original, and this has led many familiar with the Japanese series to dislike FUNimation's English dub.Uncut version
In 2005, Cartoon Network started showing the uncut version of the first two seasons of Dragon Ball Z. This version used the original Japanese footage, with the exception of the Japanese opening and closing themes, and has an entirely new score of music. The uncut version also featured many scenes with large amounts of blood and mild profanity , as well as mild sexual humor. Generally, while some lines were maintained from the original, several mistranslations were also corrected.Filler
Filler is used to pad out the series for many reasons; in the case of Dragon Ball Z, more often than not, it was because the anime was running alongside the manga, and there was no way for the anime to run ahead of the manga (since Toriyama was still writing it, at the same time).
The company behind the anime, Toei Animation, would occasionally make up their own little side stories to either further explain things, or simply to extend the series. Filler does not come only in the form of side stories, though; sometimes it is as simple as adding some extra attacks into a fight.
As the anime series was forced to expand 12 pages of manga text into 25 minutes of animation footage, these changes were introduced to kill time or to allow the (anime) writers to explore some other aspect of the series' universe (the Anoyo-ichi Budōkai (Afterlife tournament) between the Cell Saga and Majin Buu Saga and the Garlic Jr. arc, also known as Garlic Jr.'s return from the Return my Gohan!! (Dead Zone) movie between the Freeza Saga and Trunks arc (pre-Cell Saga) are both good examples of this. They have also been known to contradict the manga and often create new plot holes.
Releases
Japanese releases
Originally, only the Dragon Ball Z movies, and the Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans footage were available for home viewing in Japan. The movies were released on both VHS, and Laserdisc format. The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans footage was released both on VHS, as a visual guide to the Nintendo Famicom game with the same name, and on the PlayDia, as an interactive FMV.
Dragonbox releases
In 2003, all of the Dragon Ball Z TV series was finally released for home viewing in Japan, on two large DVD boxed sets. Each Dragon Ball Z Dragonbox had a large amount of DVD extras, as well as an action figure and a book.
The video and audio transfers of the show used on these DVDs came off of the Fuji TV master tapes of the show, as this allowed Toei to put out a far superior and completely accurate version of the show on DVD. This allowed all episodes to have their original openings, endings, commercial bumpers, next week episode previews, etc., compared to what was available in the US.
In late 2005 the Dragon Box Z DVDs were re-released in single volumes with six episodes per disc. Other than the DVD menus themselves being changed, it is unknown if these are any different from the ones in the full Dragon Box Z sets from a video and audio standpoint.
Sagas
- Toei Sagas
- Saiyan Saga (Episodes 1~35); 1989 - 1990
- Freeza Saga (Episodes 36~125); 1990 - 1991
- Cell Saga (Episodes 126~199); 1991 - 1993
- Buu Saga (Episodes 200~291); 1993 - 1996
- FUNimation Sagas
- The Vegeta Saga (Episodes 1~35)
Freeza Saga:
- The Namek Saga (Episodes 36~67)
- The Captain Ginyu Saga (Episodes 68~74)
- The Freeza Saga (Episodes 75~107)
- The Garlic Junior Saga (Episodes 108~117)
Cell Saga:
- The Trunks Saga (Episodes 118~125)
- The Androids Saga (Episodes 126~139)
- The Imperfect Cell Saga (Episodes 140~152)
- The Perfect Cell Saga (Episodes 153~165)
- The Cell Games Saga (Episodes 166~194)
Buu Saga:
- The Great Saiyaman Saga (Episodes 195~209)
- The World Tournament Saga (Episodes 210~219)
- The Babidi Saga (Episodes 220~231)
- The Majin Buu Saga (Episodes 232~253)
- The Fusion Saga (Episodes 254~275)
- The Kid Buu Saga (Episodes 276~291)
Movies, TV specials, and other
Movies
- Toei Titles
- Return my Gohan!! (1989)
- The World's Strongest Guy (1990)
- Super Deciding Battle for the Entire Planet Earth (1990)
- Super Saiyan Goku (1991)
- The Incredible Mightiest vs. Mightiest (1991)
- Clash!! 10,000,000,000 Powerful Warriors (1992)
- Extreme Battle!! The Three Great Super Saiyans (:1992)
- The Legendary Super Saiyan (1993)
- The Galaxy at the Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy (1993)
- The Second Coming (1994)
- Super-Warrior Defeat!! I'm the One who'll Win (1994)
- Fusion Reborn!! Goku and Vegeta (1994)
- Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Gokū Won't Do It, Who Will? (1995)
- FUNimation titles
- Dead Zone (1997) (Re-released in 2005)
- The World's Strongest (1998) (Re-released in 2007)
- The Tree of Might (1998) (Re-released in 2007)
- Lord Slug (2001)
- Cooler's Revenge (2001)
- Return of Cooler (2002)
- Super Android 13! (2003)
- The Legendary Super Saiyan (2003)
- Bojack Unbound (2004)
- The Second Coming (2005)
- Bio-Broly (2005)
- Fusion Reborn (2006)
- Wrath of the Dragon (2006)
TV specials
- Toei Titles
- The Father of Z-Warrior Kakarrot, who Challenged Freeza {1990)
- Resistance to Despair!! The Remaining Super-Warriors, Gohan and Trunks (1993)
- FUNimation Titles
- The Father of Goku (2000)
- The History of Trunks (2000)
Other
- OVA
Theme songs
Japanese themes
- Openings
- "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA"
- Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
- Episodes 1~21 (version 1)
- Episodes 22~117 (version 2)
- Episodes 118~194 (version 3)
- Movies 1-9
- Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori, Music: Chiho Kiyooka, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
- "WE GOTTA POWER"
- Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori, Music: Keiju Ishikawa, Arrangement: Keiju Ishikawa, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
- Episodes 195~291
- Movies 10-12
- Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori, Music: Keiju Ishikawa, Arrangement: Keiju Ishikawa, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
- "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA"
- Closings
- "Detekoi Tobikiri ZENKAI Pawā!"; でてこいとびきりZENKAIパワー! (Come Out, Incredible ZENKAI Power!)
- Lyrics: Toshihisa Arakawa, Music: Takeshi Ike, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: MANNA
- Episodes 1~194
- Lyrics: Toshihisa Arakawa, Music: Takeshi Ike, Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto, Vocals: MANNA
- "Boku-tachi wa Tenshi Datta"; 僕達は天使だった (We Were Angels)
- Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori, Music: Takeshi Ike, Arrangement: Osamu Tozuka, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
- Episodes 195~291
- Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori, Music: Takeshi Ike, Arrangement: Osamu Tozuka, Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama
- "Detekoi Tobikiri ZENKAI Pawā!"; でてこいとびきりZENKAIパワー! (Come Out, Incredible ZENKAI Power!)
FUNimation themes
- Openings
- "Main Title" (AKA "Rock the Dragon")
- "Dragon Ball Z" (AKA "DBZ Theme")
- "DBZ Uncut Theme"
- "Eternal Sacrifice" (Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan theme song) performed by Tendril
Cast list
See also
- List of Dragon Ball characters
- List of Dragon Ball Episodes
- Dragon Ball Video Games
- Z Fighters
- CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA (The 1st opening theme song)
- WE GOTTA POWER (The 2nd opening theme song)
- Dragon Ball (franchise)
- Dragon Ball Canon
- Dragon Ball Movies
- Power Levels
External links
- English Dragon Ball Z website
- Toei Dragon Ball Z website
- Ultimate DBZ, a fansite
- All the DBZ games with stats for each platform
- Daizenshuu EX
- DBZ Sneeze
- DragonBall Z Fanlisting
- Dragon Ball, Z, GT
- Atari, publisher of Dragon Ball Z games
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