Dragonball Z

***Dragon Ball Z*** is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. It is the sequel to *Dragon Ball* and adapts the latter 325 chapters of the original 519-chapter *Dragon Ball* manga series created by Akira Toriyama which ran in *Weekly Shōnen Jump* from 1988 to 1995. *Dragon Ball Z* aired in Japan on Fuji TV from April 1989 to January 1996, before getting dubbed in territories including the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. It was broadcast in at least 81 countries worldwide. It is part of the *Dragon Ball* media franchise. *Dragon Ball Z* continues the adventures of Goku, who, along with his companions, defend the Earth against villains ranging from aliens (Frieza), androids (Cell) and magical creatures (Majin Buu). While the original *Dragon Ball* anime followed Goku from childhood to early adulthood, *Dragon Ball Z* is a continuation of his adult life, but at the same time parallels the life of his son, Gohan, as well as the development of his rival Vegeta.

Due to the success of the anime in the United States, the manga chapters making up its story were initially released by Viz Media under the *Dragon Ball Z* title. *Dragon Ball Z'*s popularity has spawned numerous releases which have come to represent the majority of content in the *Dragon Ball* franchise; including 15 movies, 2 TV specials, and 148 video games (many of them being only released in Japan), and a host of soundtracks stemming from this material. *Dragon Ball Z* remains a cultural icon through numerous adaptations and re-releases, including a more-recent remastered broadcast titled ***Dragon Ball Kai.*** There have also been two sequel series, *Dragon Ball GT* (1996–1997) and *Dragon Ball Super* (2015–2018).

## Plot summary

*Dragon Ball Z* picks up five years after the end of the *Dragon Ball* anime, with Goku now a young adult and father to his son, Gohan. A humanoid alien named Raditz arrives on Earth in a spacecraft and tracks down Goku, revealing to him that he is his long-lost older brother and that they are members of a near-extinct extraterrestrial warrior race called the Saiyans (サイヤ人, *Saiya-jin*). The Saiyans had sent Goku (originally named "*Kakarot*") to Earth as an infant to conquer the planet for them, but he suffered a traumatic brain injury soon after his arrival and lost all memory of his mission, as well as his bloodthirsty Saiyan nature. Goku refuses to help Raditz continue the mission, which results in Raditz kidnapping Gohan. Goku decides to team up with his former enemy Piccolo in order to defeat Raditz and save his son, while sacrificing his own life in the process. In the afterlife, Goku trains under the ruler of the North Galaxy, King Kai, and is taught the Kaio-ken (界王拳) and Spirit Bomb (also known as the Genki Dama (元気玉)) techniques, before being revived by the Dragon Balls a year later in order to save the Earth from Raditz' allies; Nappa and the self-proclaimed "Prince of all Saiyans", Vegeta, who arrive before Goku returns. Piccolo is killed by Nappa during the battle, along with Goku's allies Yamcha, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu (with Chiaotzu sacrificing himself to save Tien), and both Kami and the Dragon Balls cease to exist as a result of Piccolo's death. After Goku finally arrives at the battlefield, he avenges his fallen friends by defeating Nappa with his new level of power. Vegeta executes Nappa for his failure and does battle with Goku, but is ultimately defeated thanks to the efforts of Gohan and Goku's other surviving allies, Krillin and Yajirobe. At Goku's request, they spare Vegeta's life and allow him to escape Earth, with Vegeta vowing to return and destroy the planet out of revenge for his humiliation at Goku's hands.

During the battle, Krillin overhears Vegeta mentioning the original set of Dragon Balls from Piccolo's homeworld, Namek (ナメック星, *Namekku-sei*). While Goku recovers from his injuries, Gohan, Krillin and Goku's oldest friend Bulma depart for Namek in order to use these Dragon Balls to revive their fallen friends. However, they discover that Vegeta's superior, the galactic tyrant Lord Frieza, is already there, looking to use the Dragon Balls for himself so that he can achieve immortality. A fully healed Vegeta arrives on Namek as well, also seeking immortality from the Dragon Balls, which leads to several battles between him and Frieza's henchmen. Realizing he is overpowered, Vegeta teams up with Gohan and Krillin to fight the Ginyu Force, a team of elite mercenaries summoned by Frieza. After Goku finally arrives on Namek, the epic battle with Frieza himself comes to a close when Goku transforms into the fabled Super Saiyan (超サイヤ人, *Sūpā Saiya-jin*) of legend and defeats him before escaping Namek as the planet is destroyed in a massive explosion.

Upon his return to Earth a year later, Goku encounters a time traveler named Trunks, the future son of Bulma and Vegeta, who warns Goku that two Androids (人造人間, *Jinzōningen*, lit. "Artificial Humans") will appear three years later, seeking revenge against Goku for destroying the Red Ribbon Army when he was a child. During this time, an evil lifeform called Cell emerges and, after absorbing two of the Androids to achieve his "perfect form", holds his own fighting tournament to decide the fate of the Earth, known as the "Cell Games". After Goku sacrifices his own life a second time, to no avail, Gohan avenges his father by destroying Cell after ascending to the second level of Super Saiyan.

Seven years later, Goku is revived for one day to reunite with his loved ones and meet his youngest son, Goten, at the Tenkaichi Budōkai (天下一武道会, *"Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament"*). Soon after, Goku and his allies are drawn into a fight by the Supreme Kai against a magical being named Majin Buu summoned by the evil wizard Babidi. After numerous battles that result in the deaths of many of Goku's allies as well as the destruction of Earth, Goku (whose life is fully restored by the Elder Supreme Kai) kills Kid Buu (the original and most powerful form of Majin Buu) with a Spirit Bomb attack containing the energy of all the inhabitants of Earth, who were resurrected along with the planet by the Namekian Dragon Balls. Goku makes a wish for Buu to be reincarnated as a good person and ten years later, at another Tenkaichi Budōkai, he meets Buu's human reincarnation, Uub. Leaving the match between them unfinished, Goku departs with Uub to train him to become Earth's new defender.

## Production and broadcasting

Further information: List of Dragon Ball Z episodes and List of Dragon Ball Z Kai episodes

Kazuhiko Torishima, Akira Toriyama's editor for *Dr. Slump* and the first half of *Dragon Ball*, felt that the *Dragon Ball* anime's ratings were gradually declining because it had the same producer that worked on *Dr. Slump*. Torishima said this producer had this "cute and funny" image connected to Toriyama's work and was missing the more serious tone in the newer series, and therefore asked the studio to change the producer. Impressed with their work on *Saint Seiya*, he asked its director Kōzō Morishita and writer Takao Koyama to help "reboot" *Dragon Ball*, which coincided with Goku growing up. The new producer explained that ending the first anime and creating a new one would result in more promotional money, and the result was the start of *Dragon Ball Z*. The title was suggested by Toriyama because Z is the last letter of the alphabet and he wanted to finish the series because he was running out of ideas for it. Ironically enough, the sequel series would end up producing more episodes than its predecessor.

*Dragon Ball Z* is adapted from the final 325 chapters of the manga series which were published in *Weekly Shōnen Jump* from 1988 to 1995. It premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on April 26, 1989, taking over its predecessor's time slot, and ran for 291 episodes until its conclusion on January 31, 1996. Because Toriyama was writing the manga during the production of the anime, *Dragon Ball Z* added original material not adapted from the manga, including lengthening scenes or adding new ones, and adding new attacks and characters not present in the manga. For example, Toriyama was asked to create an additional character for Goku's training with King Kai, resulting in the cricket Gregory.

Throughout the production, the voice actors were tasked with playing different characters and performing their lines on cue, switching between roles as necessary. The voice actors were unable to record the lines separately because of the close dialogue timing. When asked if juggling the different voices of Goku, Gohan and Goten was difficult, Masako Nozawa said that it was not, and that she was able to switch roles simply upon seeing the character's picture. She did admit that when they were producing two films a year and television specials in addition to the regular series, there were times when they had only line art to look at while recording, which made giving finer nuanced details in her performance difficult.

Series Director Daisuke Nishio left the series after personally directing Episode #202. Nishio left the series to become series director of *Aoki Densetsu Shoot!*. The role of series director was not officially filled for Episodes #200-291, despite Nishio's directing of Episode #202.[*citation needed*]

### English dub production and broadcasting

In 1996, Funimation Productions licensed *Dragon Ball Z* for an English-language release in North America, after cancelling their initial dub of *Dragon Ball* half-way through their originally-planned 26-episode first season. They worked with Saban Entertainment to syndicate the series on television, and Pioneer Entertainment to handle home video distribution. A Vancouver-based cast recording at the Ocean Studios were hired by Funimation to dub the anime (Funimation had previously used a similar Vancouver-based voice cast in their initial *Dragon Ball* dub, recorded at Dick & Roger's Sound Studio). Contract musicians for Saban, Ron Wasserman and Jeremy Sweet, known for their work on the *Power Rangers* franchise, composed a new guitar-driven background score and theme song (nicknamed "Rock the Dragon"). Funimation's initial English dub of *Dragon Ball Z* had mandated cuts to content and length, which reduced the first 67 episodes into 53 (though TV episode 53 actually ends half-way through uncut episode 67). Most of the edits were done to make the anime more tame and kid-friendly, most notably having references to death sidestepped with phrases like "sent to the next dimension". It premiered in the United States on September 13, 1996 in first-run syndication, but halted production in 1998 after two seasons despite strong ratings. This was due to Saban scaling down its syndication operations, in order to focus on producing original material for the Fox Kids block. Pioneer also ceased its home video release of the series at volume 17 (the end of the dub) and retained the rights to produce an uncut subtitled version, but did not do so. They did, however, release uncut dubs of the first three *Z* movies on home video.
Christopher Sabat (left) and Sean Schemmel (right) have provided Funimation's English dub voices for Vegeta and Goku, respectively, since 1999.
On August 31, 1998, re-runs of this canceled dub began airing on Cartoon Network as part of the channel's weekday afternoon Toonami block. Cartoon Network eventually ordered more episodes of *Dragon Ball Z*, and Funimation resumed production on the series' English dub without Saban's assistance. However, they also replaced the original Vancouver-based cast with an in-house voice cast at their Texas-based studio, with the goal of the new voices sounding similar to the Vancouver cast. The Saban-produced soundtrack from the first two seasons was replaced with a new background score composed by Bruce Faulconer and his team of musicians, which was used throughout the rest of Funimation's *Dragon Ball Z* dub. This renewed dub featured less censorship due to both Saban's absence and fewer restrictions on cable programming, and aired new episodes on Cartoon Network's Toonami block from September 13, 1999 to April 7, 2003 (continuing in re-runs through 2008). Kids' WB briefly ran *Dragon Ball Z* in 2001 on its short-lived Toonami block.

In 2005, Funimation began to re-dub episodes 1-67 with their in-house voice cast, including content originally cut from their dub with Saban. This dub's background score was composed by Nathan M. Johnson (Funimation had ceased working with Faulconer Productions after the final episode of *Dragon Ball Z* in 2003). Funimation's new uncut dub of these episodes aired on Cartoon Network as part of its Monday-Thursday late night time slot, beginning in June 2005. Funimation's later remastered DVDs of the series saw them redub portions of the dialogue, mostly after episode 67, and had the option to play the entire series' dub with both the American and Japanese background music.

In January 2011, Funimation and Toei announced that they would stream *Dragon Ball Z* within 30 minutes before their simulcast of *One Piece*. As of 2017, *Dragon Ball Z* is no longer being streamed on Hulu.

The Funimation dubbed episodes also aired in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand. However, beginning with episode 108 (123 uncut), Westwood Media (in association with Ocean Studios) produced an alternate English dub, distributed to Europe by AB Groupe. The alternate dub was created for broadcast in the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland, although it also aired in Canada beginning from episode 168 (183 uncut). Funimation's in-house dub continued to air in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. The Westwood Media production used the same voice cast from the original 53-episode dub produced by Funimation, it featured an alternate soundtrack by Tom Keenlyside and John Mitchell, though most of this score was pieces Ocean reused from other productions Keenlyside and Mitchell had scored for them, and it used the same scripts and video master as the TV edit of Funimation's in-house dub. The Westwood Media dub never received a home video release. In Australia, *Dragon Ball Z* was broadcast by the free-to-air commercial network, Network Ten during morning children's programming, Cheez TV, originally using the censored Funimation/Saban dub before switching to Funimation's in-house dub. *Dragon Ball Z* originally aired on the British Comedy Network in Fall 1998.