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Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball logo
ドラゴンボール (Doragon Bōru)
Genre	Action, Adventure, Comedy, Martial arts, Science fantasy
Anime television series
Directed by	Minoru Okazaki Daisuke Nishio
Studio	Toei Animation
Original network	Fuji TV, Animax
Original run	February 26, 1986 – April 12, 1989
Episodes	153 (List of episodes)
Anime film
Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies
Directed by	Daisuke Nishio
Produced by	Tomonori Imada (executive producer)
Written by	Toshiki Inoue (screenplay) Akira Toriyama (story)
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	December 20, 1986
Runtime	50 minutes
Anime film
Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle
Directed by	Daisuke Nishio
Produced by	Keizō Shichijō
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	July 18, 1987
Runtime	45 minutes
Anime film
Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure
Directed by	Kazuhisa Takenouchi
Produced by	Keizō Shichijō
Music by	Shunsuke Kikuchi
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	July 9, 1988
Runtime	46 minutes
Anime film
Dragon Ball: The Path to Power
Directed by	Shigeyasu Yamauchi
Produced by	Tan Takaiwa Yoshio Anzai (Shueisha) Tsutomu Tomari
Written by	Aya Matsui (screenplay) Akira Toriyama (story)
Music by	Akihito Tokunaga
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	March 4, 1996
Runtime	80 minutes
Public Service Videos
Gokū's Traffic Safety Gokū's Fire Fighting Regiment

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru) is a Japanese animated television series that was produced in the late 1980s by Toei Doga (now Toei Animation), being an adaptation of the first sixteen volumes of the Dragon Ball manga created by Akira Toriyama and published in Japan in the Weekly Shōnen Jump manga anthology comic. Volumes 17-42 of the manga were adapted into the Dragon Ball Z anime.

The anime is composed of 153 half-hour episodes and ran in Japan from February 26, 1986, to April 12, 1989.

The series follows the early adventures of Son Goku as he and his friends search the world for the seven magic Dragon Balls. The series is known as being a much less serious anime than its successor, Dragon Ball Z, though later sagas blur the lines a bit.

Two early attempts at releasing Dragon Ball to American audiences failed. The first attempt was in the late 1980s by Harmony Gold. It featured strange name changes for nearly all the characters, such as changing Son Goku to "Zero" and Karin to "Whiskers the Wonder Cat". It is not well-known, and has been referred to as "The Lost Dub" by fans.^[1]

The second and more well known was in 1995, when FUNimation first attempted to launch the Dragon Ball franchise in the United States. Hiring BLT Productions^[2] to produce the dub, they had the first 13 aired in syndication in edited form. However due to disappointing ratings, FUNimation chose to abandon this dub, moving on to the newer and more action filled Dragon Ball Z. The home video rights for this version were acquired by Vidmark Entertainment for their KidMark label. As they and their current owner has continued to renew the license, FUNimation has been unable release their newer unedited dub of these episodes on DVD, and only the old version remains available (as the The Saga of Goku DVD set).

After Dragon Ball Z became popular^{[citation needed]} on Cartoon Network, the entire series was translated by FUNimation and released in the same scheduling block as its successor; Toonami. The complete series ran in the US from August 2001 to December 2002. Unlike the theme songs for Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, FUNimation made English versions of the original Japanese opening and ending themes for these episodes and left in the original BGM, which was met with delight by most fans. However, some insert (IN) songs were removed or have dialogue dubbed over them.

The US version of Dragon Ball was aired on Cartoon Network (before that, it was aired in syndication) with excessive editing.^{[citation needed]} Most of the edits were digital cosmetic changes, which were done to remove nudity and blood, and dialogue edits, such as when Pu-erh says why Oolong was expelled from shapeshifting school, instead of saying that he stole the teacher's panties, it was changed to him stealing the teacher's papers.^{[citation needed]} Some scenes were deleted altogether, either to save time or remove strong violence. For example, when Goku dives into the water unclothed to catch a fish for dinner, a digital water splash was added on his groin; on other occasions when he is nude, he has some digital underwear added.^{[citation needed]} Also, references to alcohol and drugs were removed, for example, when Jackie Chun (Muten Roshi) uses Drunken Fist Kung Fu in the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, FUNimation called it the "Mad Cow Attack." Also, the famous "No Balls!" scene was deleted from episode 2, and when Bulma places panties on the fishing hook to get Oolong (in fish form), they digitally painted away the panties and replaced it with some money.^{[citation needed]}

While implied throughout the General Blue Saga, the character Blue is finally revealed to be a homosexual during a scene in which he recoils at Bulma's seductive advances as she tries to distract him. Blue is further revealed to be a pedophile upon displaying sexual interest towards a young boy who stops to repair Blue's damaged car. All references to General Blue's sexual orientation were eliminated in the American TV release; the scene involving Bulma was changed to make it seem as if he was simply afraid of women and the scene involving the boy was redubbed to suggest that Blue believes to have found his long-lost younger brother.^{[citation needed]}

Many of the changes were ill-received by long-time fans of the series, who believed the cable networks' censorship destroyed or diminished the original humor, however, the DVDs do not contain these edits.^{[citation needed]}

A note on inconsistency in censorship that a scene in Dragon Ball where Goku charges completely through Piccolo Daimao, putting a hole in the behemoth's chest, was edited so that the hole wasn't shown for the American broadcast, but the same scene was shown uncensored on American TV, in a flashback in a Dragon Ball Z episode, with the hole in Piccolo Daimao's chest clearly visible.^{[citation needed]}

• Opening
  1. "Makafushigi Adobenchā!" (摩訶不思議アドベンチャー！, Mystical Adventure!)
     • Lyrics: Yuriko Mori, Music: Takeshi Ike, Arrangement: Kohei Tanaka, Performance: Hiroki Takashashi; he is not to be confused with the seiyū Hiroki Takahashi)
       • Version 1: episodes 1~101
       • Version 2: episodes 102~153 (not on FUNimation's DVDs)
• Ending
  1. "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: Kohei 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)

Wikiquote has quotations related to Dragon Ball.

• Toei Dragon Ball website
• English Dragon Ball website
• Dragon Ball (anime) at the Dragon Ball wiki
• Dragon Ball ({{{type}}}) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia