Dragon Ball (Anime)

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール) is an adaptation of the first portion of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga. It is composed of 153 episodes and it air on Fuji TV in Japan from February 26, 1986 to April 12 1989. The series average rating was 21.2%, with its maximum being 29.5% (Episode 047) and its minimum being 13.7% (Episode 110). Dragon Ball was overshadowed by its successor Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball depicted Son Goku's childhood, while Dragon Ball Z depicted his adulthood. Both are adapted from the same manga.

Background

 * Anime series

Dragon Ball started off as a manga series called Dragon Boy. The story depicted a young boy named Tanton and his quest to return a princess to her homeland. The series was a loose adaptation of the Chinese legend Journey to the West, depicting monkey king Sun Wukong. Due to the series' unpopularity, Toriyama re-wrote Dragon Boy, adapting it as Dragon Ball. All the character's personalities were changed except for Goku. The re-adaptation named Dragon Ball became a hit.
 * Broadcast

Two previous attempts at releasing Dragon Ball to United States audiences failed. The first attempt was in 1989 from Harmony Gold (the company had previously dubbed Clash of the Planets and Voltron). It featured strange name changes for nearly all the characters, such as changing Goku to Zero and Korin to Whiskers the Wonder Cat. It was test-marketed in several cities, but was never broadcast to the general public; therefore it is referred to as "The Lost Dub" by fans.

The second and more well-known attempt was in 1995 with only the first 13 episodes dubbed and aired in first-run syndication. This release was put out by FUNimation Entertainment and utilized BLT Productions for the dubbing. These original 13 dubbed episodes were later released to DVD by KidMark as "Dragon Ball: The Saga of Goku."

After Dragon Ball Z became immensely popular on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, the entire series was translated into English by FUNimation's in-house ADR studio for redistribution in the U.S. The complete series aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami from August 20, 2001 to December 1, 2003. Unlike the theme songs for Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, FUNimation made English versions of the original Japanese opening (OP) and ending (ED) themes for these episodes and left in the original background music. Some insert (IN) songs were taken out or have talking over them.

Censorship
The U.S. version of Dragon Ball that was aired on Cartoon Network (before that, it was aired in syndication and the NBC in 1987 to 1990) had many edits done to it. Most of the edits were digital cosmetic changes, which were done to remove nudity and blood, and dialogue edits. Sometimes, some scenes were deleted altogether, either to save time or cut out strong violence.

For example, when Goku dives into the water naked to kick a fish he catches for dinner, a digital water splash was added on his groin; on other occasions when he is naked, he has some digital underwear added. Also, references to alcohol and drugs were removed, for example, when Jackie Chun (Master Roshi) uses Drunken Fist Kung Fu in the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament, FUNimation called it the "Mad Cow Attack" (coincidentally, there was a real life Mad Cow epidemic shortly after the episode aired). Also, the famous "No Balls!" scene was deleted from episode 2, and when Bulma puts panties on the fishing hook to get Oolong (in fish form), they digitally painted away the panties and replaced it with some money. Also, a number of creative changes were made to the dialogue. For example, when Puar says why Oolong was expelled from school, instead of saying that he stole the teacher's panties, they say that he stole the teacher's "papers."

A lot of fans hated these changes, because they felt it was butchering the original show's humor and dumbing it down. These edits, however, were necessary in order to have the show aired on TV. The DVDs do not contain these edits.

It's an interesting note on inconsistency in censorship that a scene in Dragon Ball where young Goku charges completely through King Piccolo, putting a hole in the villain's chest, was edited so that the hole was not shown for the American broadcast, but the same scene was shown on American TV later, in a flashback in a Dragon Ball Z episode, with the hole in King Piccolo's chest clearly visible.

Sagas

 * Japanese version saga titles


 * Son Gokū (Episodes 1- 28) (2/26/1986 - 9/3/1986)
 * Red Ribbon Army (Episodes 29 - 68) (9/10/1986 - 7/1/1987)
 * 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai (Episodes 69 - 101) (7/8/1987 - 2/17/1988)
 * Piccolo-Daimao (Episodes 102 - 132) (2/24/1988 - 11/2/1988)
 * 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai (Episodes 133 - 153) (11/9/1988 -4/19/1989)
 * English version saga titles


 * Emperor Pilaf Saga (Episodes 1 - 13; originally The Saga of Goku)
 * Tournament Saga (Episodes 14 - 28)
 * Red Ribbon Army Saga (Episodes 29 - 45)
 * General Blue Saga (Episodes 46 - 57)
 * Commander Red Saga (Episodes 58 - 67)
 * Fortuneteller Baba Saga (Episodes 68 - 83)
 * Tien Shinhan Saga (Episodes 84 - 101)
 * King Piccolo Saga (Episodes 102- 122)
 * Piccolo Jr. Saga (Episodes 123 - 153)

Movies and specials

 * Dragon Ball movie 1 (Curse of the Blood Rubbies)
 * Dragon Ball movie 2 (Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle)
 * Dragon Ball movie 3 (Mystical Adventure)
 * Dragon Ball movie 4 (The Path to Power)
 * Public specials


 * Goku's Traffic Safety
 * Goku's Fire Brigade

Theme songs

 * Mystical Adventure


 * Version 1: episodes 1 - 101
 * Version 2: episodes 102 - 153 (not on FUNimation's DVDs)
 * I'll Give You Romance


 * Version 1: episodes 1 - 21 (not on FUNimation's DVDs)
 * Version 2: episodes 22 - 101
 * Version 3: episodes 102 - 132 (not on FUNimation's DVDs)
 * Version 4: episodes 133 - 153 (not on FUNimation's DVDs)

all information on the Dragon Ball (Anime) came from http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Ball_(anime)