Dragon Ball (anime)
From Dragon Ball Encyclopedia
Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール, Doragon Boru) is an adaptation of the first portion of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga. It is composed of 153 episodes and ran in Japan on Fuji TV from February 26, 1986 to April 12, 1989.
Dragon Ball is known as being overshadowed by its successor Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball depicted Son Gokū's childhood, while Dragon Ball Z depicted his adulthood. Both are adapted from the same manga.
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[edit] Production history
[edit] Original series
Dragon Ball started off as a manga series called Dragon Boy, a series that Akira Toriyama started while he was in college. The story depicted a young boy named Son Gokū and his quest to find the seven magical Dragon Pearls. The series was a loose adaptation of the Chinese legend, The Journey to the West, depicting the pure hearted monkey king Sun Wukong.
Due to the series' unpopularity, Toriyama was forced to stop writing it. After the extreme success of his new series, Dr. Slump, Toriyama went back and re-wrote Dragon Boy, adapting it as Dragon Ball. All the character's personalities were changed except for Son Gokū. The re-adaptation named Dragon Ball became a hit.
[edit] U.S. broadcasts
Two previous attempts at releasing Dragon Ball in the United States audiences failed. The first attempt was by Harmony Gold in 1989. It featured strange name changes for nearly all the characters, such as changing Son Gokū to "Zero" and Karin 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 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 Son Gokū."
After Dragon Ball Z became immensely popular on Cartoon Network, the original series was re-dubbed by FUNimation's in-house voice cast. The complete original series ran on Cartoon Network from August 20, 2001 to December 1, 2003. Unlike the soundtracks for Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, FUNimation left the original background music of Dragon Ball intact for their re-dub, and also made English versions of the original Japanese opening (OP) and ending (ED) theme songs. Some insert (IN) songs were taken out or had dialogue overlapping them though.
[edit] Censorship
The US version of Dragon Ball that was aired on Cartoon Network (before that, it was aired in syndication) had a lot of 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 Son Gokū 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 22nd World Tournament, FUNimation called it the "Mad Cow Attack." (Ironically, there was an epidemic called Mad Cow later on) Also, the famous "No Balls!" scene was deleted from episode 2, and when Burumā puts panties on the fishing hook to get Ūron (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 dialog. For example, when Puar says why Ūron 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 Son Gokū charges completely through Pikkoro Daimao, putting a hole in the villain's chest, was edited so that the hole wasn't shown for the American broadcast, but the same scene was shown on American TV earlier, in a flashback in a Dragon Ball Z episode, with the hole in Pikkoro Daimao's chest clearly visible.
[edit] Sagas
[edit] Toei sagas
- Son Gokū (Episodes 1~28); 1986
- Red Ribbon Army (Episodes 29~68); 1986 - 1987
- 22nd Tenkaichi Budōkai (Episodes 69~101); 1987 - 1988
- Pikkoro-Daimaō (Episodes 102~132); 1988
- 23rd Tenkaichi Budōkai (Episodes 133~153); 1988 - 1989
[edit] FUNimation sagas
- Emperor Pilaf Saga (originally "Saga of Son Gokū") (Episodes 1~13)
- First World Martial Arts Championship Saga (originally "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)
- Tenshinhan Saga (Episodes 84~101)
- Pikkoro Daimao Saga (Episodes 102~122)
- Pikkoro Jr. Saga (Episodes 123~153)
[edit] Movies
[edit] Toei titles
- The Legend of Shenlong (1986)
- The Sleeping Princess in the Devil's Castle (1987)
- Mystical Great Adventure (1988)
- The Path to Ultimate Strength (1996)
[edit] FUNimation titles
- Curse of the Blood Rubies (1996)
- Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle (1999)
- Mystical Adventure (2001)
- The Path to Power (2003)
[edit] Public service videos
- Gokū's Traffic Safety
- Gokū's Fire Brigade
The special videos "Gokū's Traffic Safety" and "Gokū's Fire Brigade" are both very rare productions designed to be educational films. They were both completed in June 1988.
[edit] Live-action films
[edit] Dragon Ball (1990 Korean Film)
Main article: Dragon Ball: Ssawora Son Gokū, Igyeora Son Gokū A live-action version of the popular Japanese animated series. An evil king has been stealing the mystical "Dragon Pearls" in an attempt to possess them all. When all but one of the pearls has been stolen, the former guardians of the magic jewels decide to band together and take action. Led by a pig-headed wizard and a half-turtle martial arts master, the team takes on the king's army in a desperate bid to stop him from gaining control of the pearls.
Made in Taiwan and released in 1989, this feature has actually been released in the US as Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins (originally titled Xin Qi long zhu Shen long de chuan shuo, or New Dragon Ball: The Legend of Shenlong). While this movie does not follow Toriyama's conception exactly, it is a lot closer to it than it is to any traditional Chinese legends.
[edit] Dragonball Evolution
Main article: Dragonball Evolution A live-action version of the series, made in the United States. The movie retains the basic notion of Dragon Ball, but there are several major changes in the story and characters. The movie depicts Son Gokū's trainings and his confrontation with Pikkoro Daimao.
[edit] FUNimation remastered releases
Main article: FUNimation Remastered Box Sets In 2009, after the release of the remastered Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT season boxsets, FUNimation announced that they would begin releasing Dragon Ball in a remastered format beginning September later that year. The Dragon Ball season boxsets are that the same of the Dragon Ball GT sets with a slight difference. They are presented in their original aspect ratio 4:3 and are presented in a 5-disc boxset. Unlike the DBZ and DBGT sets, the Dragon Ball sets only include a 5.1 English voice track with the original Japanese background audio and original Japanese mono as FUNimation never had an American soundtrack produced for their dub of the original series.
FUNimation also released the Dragon Ball movies in a remastered format.
[edit] Season boxsets
| Season | Release Date | Region | Saga(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Ball: Season 1 | September 15th, 2009 (Episodes 1 - 31) | DVD 1 | Emperor Pilaf, Tournament and early Red Ribbon Army Sagas |
| Dragon Ball: Season 2 | November 10th, 2009 (Episodes 32 - 61) | DVD 1 | Red Ribbon Army, General Blue and early Commander Red Sagas |
| Dragon Ball: Season 3 | February 2nd, 2010 (Episodes 62 - 92) | DVD 1 | Commander Red, Fortuneteller Baba and early Tenshinhan Sagas |
| Dragon Ball: Season 4 | May 4th, 2010 (Episodes 93 - 122) | DVD 1 | Tenshinhan and Pikkoro Daimao Sagas |
| Dragon Ball: Season 5 | July 27th, 2010 (Episodes 123 - 153) | DVD 1 | Pikkoro Jr. Saga |
[edit] Remastered movies
| Movie | Release Date |
|---|---|
| Dragon Ball Movie 1: Curse of the Blood Rubies | December 28th, 2010 |
| Dragon Ball: 4 Movie Pack | February 8th, 2011 |
[edit] Main cast list
[edit] Theme songs
- OP
- "Makafushigi Adobencha!!", 摩訶不思議アドベンチャー！; (Mystical Adventure!)
- Lyrics: Yuriko Mori, Music: Takeshi Ike, Arrangement: Kōhei Tanaka, Performance: Hiroki Takahashi)
- Version 1: episodes 1~101
- Version 2: episodes 102~153 (not on FUNimation's DVDs)
- Lyrics: Yuriko Mori, Music: Takeshi Ike, Arrangement: Kōhei Tanaka, Performance: Hiroki Takahashi)
- "Makafushigi Adobencha!!", 摩訶不思議アドベンチャー！; (Mystical Adventure!)
- ED
- "Romatikku Ageru Yo", ロマンティックあげるよ; (I'll Give You Romance)
- Lyrics: Takemi Yoshida, Music: Takeshi Ike, Arrangement: Kōhei Tanaka, Performance: Ushio Hashimoto)
- 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)
- Lyrics: Takemi Yoshida, Music: Takeshi Ike, Arrangement: Kōhei Tanaka, Performance: Ushio Hashimoto)
- "Romatikku Ageru Yo", ロマンティックあげるよ; (I'll Give You Romance)
