Animanga/Anime| Information
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Animanga/Other| Information
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Animanga/Other| Information
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'' 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 (in the
United States , the manga's second portion is also titled ''Dragon Ball Z'' to prevent confusion, but also features characters, situations and backstories not present in the original).
The series follows the adventures of the adult
Son Goku who, along with his companions, defends the earth against assorted
Villains . While the original ''Dragon Ball'' anime followed Goku through childhood into adulthood, ''Dragon Ball Z'' is a continuation of his adulthood life. 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 ,
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.
''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.
Starting with the
Gi'nyu Arc (3rd US season) on
Cartoon Network , censorship was reduced due to fewer restrictions on cable programming. FUNimation did the dubbing on their own this time around with their own
Voice Actor s. In
2003 , FUNimation began to redub the first two sagas of ''Dragon Ball Z'', to remove the problems that were caused from their previous partnership with Saban. They also redubbed the first three movies that were also dubbed by the Ocean Group voice actors but were distributed by Pioneer. The distribution of the redubs started in April 2005.
To an equal extent, many people who object to censoring 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 Gokū'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.
In
2005 ,
Toonami started showing the
Uncut and unedited version of the first two seasons of ''Dragon Ball Z'', Using the original Japanese footage, aside from the opening and closing themes. It uses an entirely new score of music, far different to that of the original music. The uncut version also featured many scenes with large amounts of blood and mild profanity, as well as mild sexual humor.
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 doesn't come only in the form of side stories, though; sometimes it's 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 , a.k.a. 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 .
Originally, only the Dragonball 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.
In 2003, all of the Dragonball Z TV series was finally released for home viewing in Japan, on two large DVD boxed sets. Each Dragonball Z
Dragonbox had a large amount of DVD extras, as well as an action figure, and a book.
;
#Saiyan Saga (Episodes 1~35);
1989
#Freeza Saga (Episodes 36~125);
1990 -
1991
#Cell Saga (Episodes 126~199);
1992
#Buu Saga (Episodes 200~291);
1993 -
1994 -
1995
;
Saiyan Saga:
Freeza Saga:
;''
;
#
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 )
#)
# (
1993 )
#
The Galaxy At The Brink!! The Super Incredible Guy (
1993 )
# (
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 )
;
#
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 )
# (
2003 )
#
Bojack Unbound (
2004 )
# (
2005 )
#
Bio-Broly (
2005 )
#
Fusion Reborn (
2006 )
#
Wrath Of The Dragon (
2006 )
;''
;
# {
1990 )
#
Resistance To Despair!! The Remaining Super-Warriors, Gohan And Trunks (
1993 )
;
# (
2000 )
#
The History Of Trunks (
2000 )
;''
- The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans (Video game footage)
- Openings
- # "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA"
- #--- Lyrics: ''Yukinojō Mori'', Music: ''Chiho Kiyooka'', Arrangement: ''Kenji Yamamoto'', Vocals:
- #
-- Version 1: episodes 1~21 (Not on FUNimation's DVDs, but is on movies 1, 2 and 3 Pioneer's DVDs only)
- #
-- Version 2: episodes 22~117
- #
-- Version 3: episodes 118~194
- # "WE GOTTA POWER"
- #--- Lyrics: ''Yukinojō Mori'', Music: ''Keiju Ishikawa'', Arrangement: ''Keiju Ishikawa'', Vocals:
- #
-- Episodes 195~291
- 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:
- #
-- Episodes 1~194
- # "Boku-tachi ha Tenshi Datta"; 僕達は天使だった (''We Were Angels'')
- #--- Lyrics: ''Yukinojō Mori'', Music: ''Takeshi Ike'', Arrangement: ''Osamu Tozuka'', Vocals:
- #
-- Episodes 195~291
- Openings
- ---"Main Title" (AKA "Rock the Dragon")
- ---"DragonBall Z" (AKA "DBZ Theme")
- ---"DBZ Uncut Theme"
- ---"Eternal Sacrifice" (Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan theme song)
:Vocals: Tendril
