gsda**dragonball history plus

Dragon Ball in Japan

In December of 1984, the first issue of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball ran in the weekly comic anthology, Shonen Jump's. Little did anyone expect that this charming comedy-adventure would eventually become one of the most famous anime series in the world. Following Toriyama's first smash hit, the phenomenally successful Dr. Slump, Dragon Ball was initially written to be a short series. Based loosely on The Journey to the West, the classic Chinese collection of tales about the original hero Son Goku, the story of Dragon Ball was meant to be only a single adventure to collect the dragon balls. But, hoping for another hit, Toriyama was encouraged to change the original premise of the story. After sending Goku to training, introducing Kuririn, and creating the concept of the great martial-arts competition, the Tankaichi Budoukai, the popularity of the comic grew until it became one of Shonen Jump's top selling titles. By then, the TV series was already in production.

The first episode of Dragon Ball aired on the 26th of February 1986 and quickly became one of the top=rated animated shows in Japan. Over the course of this 153-episode series, viewers saw Goku fight in three Tenkaichi Budoukai, battle numerous villains, and eventually marry Chi-Chi. During this time, Dragon Ball established itself as a household name and a merchandising success. The departure of Dragon Ball's original comedy- oriented story to the more serious, battle-oriented series it had become was highlighted with the beginning of the second series, Dragon Ball Z. Viewers didn't have to wait between the two; Dragon Ball Z started on the 26th of April 1989, exactly one week after the end of Dragon Ball. This second series lasted for 291 action packed episodes, ending the 1st of February 1996. Dragon Ball Z was immediately followed by a series independent of the comic, Dragon Ball GT, which ran for 64 episodes, until the 19th of November 1997. By then, the comic series had long since finished. The last issue ran in May 1995, bringing the adventures of Goku and his friends to an end after 515 chapters.

Dragon Ball in the United States

    Anyone reading this probably already knows that Viz Comics is publishing the Dragon Ball comics in English. Other than being divided into Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, the comic part of Dragon Ball in the U.S. is pretty straightforward: Fans can experience all of Dragon Ball if they read the comics. There's a lot more to the TV show, however, than what's come to North America via FUNimation and the Cartoon Network.

    This may come as news to many fans, but Dragon Ball has been broadcast numerous times in the U.S. Various independent international stations, such as the premium cable channels Nippon Golden Network and the International Channel, have aired both subtitled and straight Japanese versions of the TV series since the early 1990's. Fans who've been lucky enough to have access to such stations have had the chance to see all of Dragon Ball and most of Dragon Ball Z. The subtitled version, produced and distributed by FCI (Fuji Communications), ran through all of Dragon Ball and over 100 episodes of Dragn Ball Z. (Sadly, the subtitled episodes had to be cut short due to new copyrights for the show.) Also available to fans in many parts of the country, Dragon Ball Z is being broadcast in Spanish by Telemundo, a network of U.S. stations that cater to Hispanic viewers.

    So we have Japanese, Japanese with subtitles, and Spanish. What about English? It seems that Harmony Gold owned the distribution rights to Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump for a number of years in the 1980s, and although no official source will say so, at least five episodes were dubbed by Harmony Gold as pilots for the series. The first and third movie were also dubbed and edited together to from a single, longer film which aired on several small stations around the country. The pilot episodes were apparently test-marketed on various independent networks. The response was so lackluster, however, that nothing more ever came of it, and Harmony Gold seems to have forgotten it ever happened. What was it like? Most of the names were changed: Goku was named Zero, Bluma was Lena, Oolong was Mao-Mao, Yamcha was Zedaki, etc. An opening theme that followed the original tune was produced, and among the voice-cast was Reba West, probably best known to fans as Lynn Minmei from Robotech. Despite heavy editing, it was still an amusing, action-packed show. Perhaps with more receptive station managers or better PR. the U.S. could have experienced Dragon Ball six to eight years earlier than it eventually did!

    Dragon Ball in English returned to the U.S. in 1995 in a new version produced by FUNimation and distributed by Saban. After the first, 13-episode season of Dragon Ball, FUNimation leapt to 140 episodes to start its second season with Dragon Ball Z, in the hopes that Dragon Ball Z's battle-oriented story would be more successful with U.S. audiences. Doubling up the episodes, FUNimation treated fans to an awseome hour of Dragon Ball Z a week for the 13 weeks during which new episodes ran. After two seasons and 53 episodes of Dragon Ball Z, FUNimation left Saban for the Cartoon Network. There, the series has become one of the kingpins of Toonami, the most popular set of shows the Cartoon Network airs. Coinciding with this move to cable, FUNimation changed voice-studios and cut back on editing. FUNimation has also brought out the first two Dragon Ball and the first three Dragon Ball Z movies. Although no promise has been made to release all the Dragon Ball series and movies, new episodes are due out this fall on the Cartoon Network, and FUNimation affirms that if the Dragon Ball Z TV show continues to be a success in the U.S., more of the original series and movies will become available in English.

Dragon Ball around the World

Dragon Ball is not a phenomenon limited to Japan and the U.S. Mexico has published most of the comics and is currently up to Dragon Ball GT on TV. Fans living in the areas that broadcast Telemundo have been able to watch Dragon Ball Z virtually uncut in Spanish. Canadian fans who know French have been able to buy the imported French version of the comic since 1994 (English-language printing of the Dragon Ball manga began only in 1998). The Cartoon Network has brought Dragon Ball Z to Portuguese speaking countries of Latin America and many others. Dragon Ball is everywhere.

Naturally, the New World is not the only part of the globe hooked on Dragon Ball. Since the series was originally based on a classic Asian tale, it's not too surprising to discover that Dragon Ball has had a great deal of success all over Asia. Dragon Ball has been published and/or aired in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Dragon Ball has also had plenty of success in Europe, with French, Spanish, Italian, Germand, and, more recently, English versions of the comic available for fans. Plus, Dragon Ball has now aired in at least half a dozen European countries. In some ways, other countries have been much kinder to the series than the U.S., for many have published the comic sooner and aired more of the shows with less editing. France, for example, has already published the first 40 comics, aired all of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, released all the movies and will soon be finished with Dragon Ball GT. Portugal, Thailand and the Philippines have also seen all the first two TV series. So many countries have seen more of Dragon Ball than we have. If you have any doubt that Dragon Ball is a global phenomenon, just surf the web some more to see how many great sites are dedicated to this series, so many of which are NOT in English or Japanese!