Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball Z picks up five years after the end of the Dragon Ball anime, with Goku now a young adult and father to his son, Gohan.

A humanoid alien named Raditz arrives on Earth in a spacecraft and tracks down Goku, revealing to him that he is his long-lost older brother and that they are members of a near-extinct alien warrior race called the Saiyans (サイヤ人, Saiya-jin). The Saiyans had sent Goku (originally named "Kakarot") to Earth as an infant to conquer the planet for them, but he suffered a severe blow to the head shortly after his arrival and lost all memory of his mission, as well as his bloodthirsty Saiyan nature.

Raditz and two elites are the only remaining Saiyan warriors, so Raditz came to enlist Goku's help in conquering frontier worlds. When Goku refuses to join them, Raditz takes Goku down with one strike, kidnaps Gohan and threatens to kill him if Goku doesn't kill 100 humans by sundown the next day. Goku decides to team up with his enemy Piccolo in order to defeat Raditz and save his son. During the battle, Gohan's rage momentarily makes him stronger than Piccolo and Goku as he attacks Raditz to protect his father. The battle ends with Goku restraining Raditz so that Piccolo could hit them with a deadly ki attack, killing both Goku and Raditz. Before Raditz dies, his scouter device allows his allies to hear about the wish-granting Dragon Balls with which Goku will be revived. Raditz tells Piccolo that the two other Saiyans are much stronger than him and will come for the Dragon Balls in one year.

Having witnessed Gohan's latent potential, Piccolo takes him to the wilderness to train for the battle with the Saiyans. In the afterlife, Goku travels the million-kilometer Snake Way so that he can train under the ruler of the North Galaxy, King Kai. King Kai teaches him the Kaio-ken (界王拳) and Spirit Bomb (Genki Dama (元気玉)) techniques. In spite of his gruff nature, Piccolo grows fond of Gohan while he oversees him learning to fend for himself. This forges an unlikely emotional bond between the two.

After a year, Goku is revived with the Dragon Balls but King Kai panics as he realizes that Goku will have to take Snake Way again to get back and won't make it until hours after the Saiyans arrive. Goku's allies group up to fight until Goku gets back, but are outclassed by Nappa and the Saiyan prince, Vegeta. Yamcha, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu die in the battle, and Piccolo sacrifices himself to save his rival's son, thus causing Kami to die and the Dragon Balls to become inert. When Goku finally arrives at the battlefield, he avenges his fallen friends by defeating Nappa with his new level of power. Vegeta then kills the crippled Nappa, saying he is no longer of any use.

Goku uses several grades of the Kaio-Ken to win the first clash with Vegeta which concludes with a climactic ki beam struggle, but it comes at a great cost to his body. Vegeta comes back and creates an artificial moon to transform into a Great Ape, allowing him to crush Goku. Krillin and Gohan sense that Goku is in trouble, and they return for a group fight with the weakened Vegeta. They are aided at key moments by Yajirobe, who cuts Vegeta's tail to revert him to his normal state. Goku gives Krillin a Spirit Bomb that he made, and Krillin uses it to severely damage Vegeta. Vegeta is ultimately defeated by Gohan's Great Ape form, and he retreats to his spaceship as Krillin approaches to finish him off. Goku convinces Krillen to spare Vegeta's life and allow him to escape Earth, with Vegeta vowing to return and destroy the planet.

During the battle, Krillin overhears Vegeta mentioning the original set of Dragon Balls from Piccolo's home world, Namek (ナメック星, Namekku-sei). While Goku recovers from his injuries, Gohan, Krillin and Goku's oldest friend Bulma depart for Namek in order to use these Dragon Balls to revive their fallen friends.

Upon their arrival on Namek, Krillen, Gohan, and Bulma discover that Vegeta and his superior, the galactic tyrant Frieza, are already there, each looking to use the Dragon Balls to obtain immortality. Vegeta is stronger than before, as Saiyans become stronger when they recover from the brink of death, so he seizes the opportunity to rebel against Frieza. A triangular cat-and-mouse game ensues, with Frieza, Vegeta, and Gohan/Krillen alternately possessing one or more of the Dragon Balls, with no one managing to possess all seven at any given time.

Vegeta manages to isolate Frieza’s lieutenants one by one and kill them. When Frieza sees that Vegeta is posing too big of a problem, he summons the Ginyu Force, a team of elite mercenaries. Vegeta reluctantly teams up with Gohan and Krillin to fight them knowing that they are too much for him to handle alone. The Ginyu Force proves too powerful, but Goku finally arrives and defeats the Ginyu Force, saving Vegeta, Gohan, and Krillen. Vegeta believes Goku may have become the legendary warrior of the Saiyans, the Super Saiyan (超サイヤ人, Sūpā Saiya-jin). As Goku heals from the battle, and Vegeta naps, Krillin, Dende and Gohan secretly use the Dragon Balls to wish Piccolo's resurrection and teleport him to Namek. Vegeta finds them using the Dragon Balls without him, but the Grand Elder dies and renders the Dragon Balls inert before he could wish for immortality. Just as this happens, Frieza finds the four of them and prepares to finish them off.

Piccolo arrives on Namek, but is far from the others. He finds the strongest Namekian warrior Nail, who was defeated by Frieza, and fuses with him to greatly increase his power.

Despite both Piccolo’s and Vegeta’s advances in power, they are greatly outclassed by Frieza who goes through several transformations to get to his ultimate battle form.

Goku arrives after healing from his injuries, and a dying Vegeta tells him that Frieza was the one who destroyed the Saiyan home world and killed off the Saiyan race, believing that their collective power posed a threat to him, and that he feared one day, a Super Saiyan warrior may emerge.

Though Goku’s power exceeds Vegeta’s, he is still no match for Frieza. Goku uses his last resort, a massive Spirit Bomb with the energy of Namek and the surrounding worlds, and for a moment it seems Frieza has been defeated. However, he returns moments later having sustained heavy damage. Frieza kills Krillin causing the severely wounded Goku’s Saiyan rage to boil over. The latent depths of Goku’s power are suddenly unleashed in the legendary Super Saiyan transformation, turning his hair blond, and his eyes blue, while his body radiates a golden glow.

Meanwhile, Kami uses Earth’s Dragon Balls to resurrect everyone on Namek that was killed by Frieza and his henchmen, which also allows the Grand Elder to be resurrected for a short time, and the Namekian Dragon to return. Dende uses the final wish to teleport everyone on Namek to Earth except for Goku and Frieza.

Frieza's full power is now outstripped by Goku’s, and Goku defeats Frieza before escaping Namek as the planet is destroyed in a massive explosion.

One year later, Frieza is revealed to have survived and arrives on Earth with his father, King Cold, seeking revenge. However, a mysterious young man named Trunks appears, transforms into a Super Saiyan, and kills them. Goku returns a few hours later, having spent the past year on an alien planet learning a new technique: instant transmission, which allows him to teleport to any location he desires. Trunks reveals privately to Goku that he is the son of Vegeta and Bulma and has traveled from 17 years in the future to warn Goku that two Androids (人造人間, Jinzōningen, lit. "Artificial Humans") created by Dr. Gero will appear in three years to seek revenge against Goku for destroying the Red Ribbon Army when he was a child. Trunks says all of Goku's friends will fall to them while he, Goku, will die of a heart virus six months prior to their arrival.

Trunks gives Goku medicine from the future that will save him from the heart virus and departs back to his own time. When the androids arrive, Goku falls ill to the heart virus during his fight with Android 19, and is saved by Vegeta who reveals that he has mastered the Super Saiyan transformation. Vegeta and Piccolo defeat Androids 19 and 20 easily, but Trunks returns from the future to check on their progress and reveals that the androids they defeated are not the ones that killed all of them in the future.

With Goku out of commission and his allies overwhelmed by the arrival of Android 17 and 18, an evil bio-Android called Cell emerges from a different timeline and embarks on a quest to find and absorb Androids 17 and 18 which will allow him to attain his “perfect form”.

Cell successfully absorbs Android 17, becoming considerably more powerful, but Vegeta returns to the battle having greatly elevated his own power, and Cell is no match for him. Vegeta allows Cell to absorb Android 18 so that he can test his power against Cell’s perfect form. Vegeta and Trunks are subsequently defeated, humbled by the fact that their Super Saiyan powers are no match for Perfect Cell.

Cell allows everyone to live, and announces his own fighting tournament to decide the fate of the Earth, known as the "Cell Games". Goku, recovered from the heart virus and having reached the zenith of the Super Saiyan level, takes on Cell at the tournament. Goku eventually realizes Cell is more powerful than him, and cedes the fight to the astonishment of everyone else. Goku proclaims that Gohan will be able to defeat Cell. Though initially outclassed, Gohan is eventually able to tap into his latent power and achieves the Super Saiyan-2 transformation. With Cell realizing his defeat is imminent, he prepares to self destruct and wipe out Earth.

Goku uses his instant transmission ability to teleport himself and Cell to King Kai’s planet where Cell explodes killing Goku and King Kai. Cell survives the blast and returns to Earth even more powerful than before, and kills Trunks and wounds Gohan. However, Gohan unleashes the totality of his power in a massive Kamehameha wave and obliterates Cell for good.

Several days later, the Dragon Balls are used to revive everyone that was killed by Cell, while Goku chooses to remain in the afterlife, refusing an offer to use the Namekian Dragon Balls to bring him back. Trunks returns to his own time and uses his bolstered power to finally destroy the Androids and Cell.

Seven years later, Goku is revived for one day to reunite with his loved ones and meet his youngest son, Goten, at the Tenkaichi Budōkai (天下一武道会, "Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament"). Soon after, Goku and his allies are drawn into a fight by the Supreme Kai against a magical being named Majin Buu summoned by the evil wizard Babidi. After numerous battles that result in the deaths of many of Goku's allies as well as the destruction of Earth, Goku (whose life is fully restored by the Elder Supreme Kai) kills Kid Buu (the original form of Majin Buu) with a Spirit Bomb attack containing the energy of all the inhabitants of Earth, who were resurrected along with the planet by the Namekian Dragon Balls. Goku makes a wish for Buu to be reincarnated as a good person and ten years later, at another Tenkaichi Budōkai, he meets Buu's human reincarnation, Uub. Leaving the match between them unfinished, Goku departs with Uub to train him to become Earth's new defender.

In 1996, Funimation Productions licensed Dragon Ball Z for an English-language release in North America, after cancelling their initial dub of Dragon Ball half-way through their originally-planned 26-episode first season.[12][13] They worked with Saban Entertainment to syndicate the series on television, and Pioneer Entertainment to handle home video distribution.[14] A Vancouver-based cast recording at the Ocean Studios were hired by Funimation to dub the anime (Funimation had previously used a similar Vancouver-based voice cast in their initial Dragon Ball dub, recorded at Dick & Roger's Sound Studio).[15][16] Contract musicians for Saban, Ron Wasserman[17] and Jeremy Sweet,[15] known for their work on the Power Rangers franchise, composed a new guitar-driven background score and theme song (nicknamed "Rock the Dragon").[Note 1] Funimation's initial English dub of Dragon Ball Z had mandated cuts to content and length, which reduced the first 67 episodes into 53 (though TV episode 53 actually ends half-way through uncut episode 67).[18][19] Most of the edits were done to make the anime more tame and kid-friendly, most notably having references to death sidestepped with phrases like "sent to the next dimension".[20] It premiered in the United States on September 13, 1996 in first-run syndication, but halted production in 1998 after two seasons[18] despite strong ratings.[21] This was due to Saban scaling down its syndication operations, in order to focus on producing original material for the Fox Kids Network and its newly acquired Fox Family Channel.[22] Pioneer also ceased its home video release of the series at volume 17 (the end of the dub) and retained the rights to produce an uncut subtitled version,[18] but did not do so. They did, however, release uncut dubs of the first three Z movies on home video.

Christopher Sabat (left) and Sean Schemmel (right) have provided Funimation's English dub voices for Vegeta and Goku, respectively, since 1999.

On August 31, 1998, re-runs of this canceled dub began airing on Cartoon Network as part of the channel's weekday afternoon Toonami block. Cartoon Network eventually ordered more episodes of Dragon Ball Z, and Funimation resumed production on the series' English dub without Saban's assistance. However, they also replaced the original Vancouver-based cast with an in-house voice cast at their Texas-based studio, with the goal of the new voices sounding similar to the Vancouver cast.[23] The Saban-produced soundtrack from the first two seasons was replaced with a new background score composed by Bruce Faulconer and his team of musicians, which was used throughout the rest of Funimation's Dragon Ball Z dub.[17] This renewed dub featured less censorship due to both Saban's absence and fewer restrictions on cable programming, and aired new episodes on Cartoon Network's Toonami block from September 13, 1999 to April 7, 2003 (continuing in re-runs through 2008). Kids' WB briefly ran Dragon Ball Z in 2001 on its short-lived Toonami block.[24]

In 2005, Funimation began to re-dub episodes 1-67 with their in-house voice cast, including content originally cut from their dub with Saban.[25] This dub's background score was composed by Nathan M. Johnson (Funimation had ceased working with Faulconer Productions after the final episode of Dragon Ball Z in 2003). Funimation's new uncut dub of these episodes aired on Cartoon Network as part of its Monday-Thursday late night time slot, beginning in June 2005.[26][27][28] Funimation's later remastered DVDs of the series saw them redub portions of the dialogue, mostly after episode 67, and had the option to play the entire series' dub with both the American and Japanese background music.

In January 2011, Funimation and Toei announced that they would stream Dragon Ball Z within 30 minutes before their simulcast of One Piece.[29] As of 2017, Dragon Ball Z is no longer being streamed on Hulu.

The Funimation dubbed episodes also aired in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand. However, beginning with episode 108 (123 uncut), Westwood Media (in association with Ocean Studios) produced an alternate English dub, distributed to Europe by AB Groupe. The alternate dub was created for broadcast in the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland, although it also aired in Canada beginning from episode 168 (183 uncut). Funimation's in-house dub continued to air in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. The Westwood Media production used the same voice cast from the original 53-episode dub produced by Funimation, it featured an alternate soundtrack by Tom Keenlyside and John Mitchell,[30] though most of this score was pieces Ocean reused from other productions Keenlyside and Mitchell had scored for them, and it used the same scripts and video master as the TV edit of Funimation's in-house dub. The Westwood Media dub never received a home video release. In Australia, Dragon Ball Z was broadcast by the free-to-air commercial network, Network Ten during morning children's programming, Cheez TV, originally using the censored Funimation/Saban dub before switching to Funimation's in-house dub. Dragon Ball Z originally aired on the British Comedy Network in Fall 1998.[31]

Dragon Ball Kai promotional image, featuring Goku (center), Gohan (bottom-left), Piccolo (bottom-right), Vegeta (top-right) and Frieza (top-left).

In February 2009, Toei Animation announced that it would begin broadcasting a revised version of Dragon Ball Z as part of the series' 20th-anniversary celebrations.[32] The series premiered on Fuji TV in Japan on April 5, 2009, under the title Dragon Ball Kai (Dragon Ball Z Kai internationally). The ending suffix Kai (改「かい」) in the name means "updated" or "altered" and reflects the improvements and corrections of the original work.[33] The original footage was remastered for HDTV, featuring updated opening and ending sequences, new music, and a rerecording of the vocal tracks.[33][34] The original material and any damaged frames were removed to more closely follow the manga, resulting in a faster-moving story.[35] Torishima later explained the origins of Kai; Bandai was having a hard time increasing their sales and asked if a new Dragon Ball anime could be made, but Toriyama refused to create a new story (at the time). Realizing that the anime-exclusive scenes that were added to increase the distance between the original anime and the manga hurt the pacing of the series, Torishima thought of cutting them so that it faithfully followed the manga. He said the reception to Kai was positive and Bandai had a hit with a card game, "so it all worked out".[36]

The series initially concluded on its 97th episode in Japan on March 27, 2011 with the finale of the Cell arc. It was originally planned to run 98 episodes, however, due to the Tōhoku offshore earthquake and tsunami, the final episode was not aired and was later released direct-to-video in Japan on August 2, 2011.[37]

In November 2012, Mayumi Tanaka, the Japanese voice of Krillin, announced that she and the rest of the cast were recording more episodes of Dragon Ball Kai.[38] In February 2014, the Kai adaptation of the Majin Buu arc was officially confirmed. The new run of the series, which is titled Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters internationally, began airing in Japan on Fuji TV on April 6, 2014 and ended its run on June 28, 2015.[39] The final arc of Kai was originally produced to last 69 episodes (as most of the international versions run),[40] but the Japanese broadcast cut it down to 61 episodes.

Funimation licensed Kai for an English-language release in February 2010. The series was initially broadcast in the U.S. on Nicktoons from May 24, 2010 to January 1, 2012 (continuing in re-runs until April 2013).[41][42] In addition to Nicktoons, the series also began airing on the 4Kids-owned Saturday morning programming block Toonzai on The CW in August 2010,[43] then on its successor, the Saban-owned Vortexx, beginning in August 2012 until the block ended in September 2014.[39] Both the Nicktoons and CW airings were edited for content, though the CW version was censored even more so than Nicktoons. Kai began airing uncut on Adult Swim's Toonami block on November 8, 2014,[44] and re-runs of the previous week's episodes aired at the beginning of Adult Swim proper from February 2015 to June 2016.[45] CSC Media Group acquired the broadcast rights to Kai in the United Kingdom and began airing it on Kix! in early 2013.[46][47][48]

Despite Kai's continuation not being officially confirmed at the time even in Japan, Funimation voice actors Sean Schemmel (Goku) and Kyle Hebert (Gohan), announced in April 2013 that they had started recording an English dub for new episodes.[49] In November 2013, Kai's Australasian distributor Madman Entertainment revealed that the Majin Buu arc of Kai would be released in 2014 and that they were waiting on dubs to be finished.[50] In February 2014, Funimation officially stated that they had not yet started recording a dub for the final arc of Kai.[51] On December 6, 2016, Funimation announced the continuation of Kai, titled Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters internationally, to begin airing on Adult Swim's Toonami block. The series would air from January 7, 2017 to June 23, 2018, alongside Dragon Ball Super.[52]

An alternate English dub of Kai by Ocean Productions was recorded for the original 98 episodes, featuring many of the original Vancouver cast reprising their roles, but it has yet to air.[53][54][55][56]

Dragon Ball Z's original North American release was the subject of heavy editing which resulted in a large amount of removed content and alterations that greatly changed the original work. Funimation CEO Gen Fukunaga is often criticized for his role in the editing; but it was the initial distributor Saban which required such changes or they would not air the work, as was the case with the episode dealing with orphans.[57][Note 2] These changes included altering every aspect of the show from character names, clothing, scenes and dialogue of the show. The character Mr. Satan was renamed Hercule and this change has been retained in other English media such as Viz's Dragon Ball Z manga and video games, though the English dubs of Dragon Ball Kai and Dragon Ball Super changed the name back to Mr. Satan.[58] The dialogue changes would sometimes contradict the scenes itself; after the apparent fatal explosion of a helicopter, one of the characters (most likely Tien) said, "I can see their parachutes; they're okay!"[57] Funimation's redub for the 2005 release would address many of the issues raised by Saban, with the uncut releases preserving the integrity of the original Japanese release.

During the original Japanese TV airing of Dragon Ball Kai, scenes involving blood and brief nudity were removed. Nicktoons would also alter Kai for its broadcast; it released a preview showcasing these changes which included removing the blood and cheek scar from Bardock and altering the color of Master Roshi's alcohol.[59] The show was further edited for its broadcast on The CW; most notoriously, the character Mr. Popo was tinted blue. The show's DVD and Blu-ray releases only contained the edits present in the original Japanese version. A rumor that Cartoon Network would be airing Kai uncut was met with an official statement to debunk the rumor in June 2010;[60] though it would later air uncut on the channel as part of Adult Swim's Toonami block.

Steven Simmons, who did the subtitling for Funimation's home video releases, offered commentary on the subtitling from a project and technical standpoint, addressing several concerns.[61][Note 3] Simmons said that Gen Fukunaga did not want any swearing on the discs, but because there was no taboo word list, Simmons would substitute a variation in the strength of the words by situation with the changes starting in episode 21.[62] The typographical errors in the script were caused by dashes (—) and double-quotes (") failing to appear, which resulted in confusing dialogue.[62]

In Japan, Dragon Ball Z did not receive a home video release until 2003, seven years after its broadcast. This was a remastering of the series in two 26-disc DVD box sets, that were made-to-order only, released on March 19 and September 18 and referred to as "Dragon Boxes." The content of these sets began being released on mass-produced individual 6-episode DVDs on November 2, 2005 and finished with the 49th volume released on February 7, 2007.[72][73]

The international home release structure of Dragon Ball Z is complicated by the licensing and release of the companies involved in producing and distributing the work. Releases of the media occurred on both VHS and DVD with separate edited and uncut versions being released simultaneously. Both versions of the edited and uncut material are treated as different entries and would frequently make Billboard rankings as separate entries. Home release sales were featured prominently on the Nielsen VideoScan charts.[25] Further complicating the release of the material was Funimation itself; which was known to release "DVDs out of sequence in order to get them out as fast as possible"; as in the case of their third season.[74] Pioneer Entertainment distributed the Funimation/Saban edited-only dub of 53 episodes on seventeen VHS between 1997 and 1999,[75][76] and seventeen DVDs throughout 1999.[77][78] Two box sets separating them into the Saiyan and Namek arcs were also released on VHS in 1999,[79][80] and on DVD in 2001.[81][82] Funimation's own distribution of their initial onward dub, which began with episode 54, in edited or uncut VHS ran between 1999 and 2006.[83][84][85] A DVD version was produced alongside these, although they were only produced uncut and contained the option to watch the original Japanese with subtitles.[86][87]

In 2005, Funimation began releasing their onward dub of the beginning of Dragon Ball Z on DVD, marking the first time the episodes were seen uncut in North America.[88] However, only nine volumes were released, leaving it incomplete.[89] Instead, Funimation remastered and cropped the entire series into 16:9 widescreen format and began re-releasing it to DVD in nine individual "season" box sets; the first set released on February 6, 2007 and the final on May 19, 2009.[90][91] In July 2009, Funimation announced that they would be releasing the Japanese frame-by-frame "Dragon Box" restoration of Dragon Ball Z in North America. These seven limited edition collector's DVD box sets were released uncut in the show's original 4:3 fullscreen format between November 10, 2009 and October 11, 2011.[92]

In July 2011, Funimation announced plans to release Dragon Ball Z in Blu-ray format, with the first set released on November 8, 2011.[93][94][95] However, production of these 4:3 sets was suspended after the second volume, citing technical concerns over restoring the original film material frame by frame.[96] Only a year later, the company began producing a cropped 16:9 remastered Blu-ray release in 2013, with nine sets released in total.[97] On August 13, 2013, Funimation released all 53 episodes and the three movies from their first Dragon Ball Z dub created with Saban and Ocean Studios in a collector's DVD box set, titled the Rock the Dragon Edition.[98]

In March 2019, Funimation announced plans to release a 30th anniversary Blu-ray release of Dragon Ball Z, with the box set being remastered in 4:3 aspect ratio, and containing an artbook and a collectible figure.[99][100] It would be crowdfunded, originally requiring a minimum of 2500 pre-orders in order to be manufactured, but was later increased to a minimum of 3,000 units.[101] The release sparked controversy amongst fans due to the framing of the video, color saturation and digital video noise reduction.[102][103] Funimation responded by stating that they cropped the release by going in "scene-by-scene to make judgements based on the image available in each frame of how much to trim to get to a consistent 4:3 aspect ratio, while still attempting to cut as little out of the picture as possible," and that they felt the digital video noise reduction was "mandatory for this release based on the different levels of fan support from various past DBZ releases with different levels of noise reduction over the years."[104]

In Japan, Dragon Ball Kai was released in wide-screen on 33 DVDs and in fullscreen on a single Blu-ray and eight four-disc Blu-ray sets from September 18, 2009, to August 2, 2011.

Funimation released eight DVD and Blu-ray box sets of Dragon Ball Z Kai from May 18, 2010 to June 5, 2012.[105][106] These sets contain the original Japanese audio track with English subtitles, as well as the uncut version of the English dub, which does not contain any of the edits made for the TV airings. Before the final volume was even published, Funimation began re-releasing the series in four DVD and Blu-ray "season" sets between May 22, 2012 and March 12, 2013.[107][108] Funimation released The Final Chapters in three DVD and Blu-ray volumes from April 25 to June 20, 2017.[109][110][111]

While the manga was all titled Dragon Ball in Japan, due to the popularity of the Dragon Ball Z anime in the west, Viz Media initially changed the title of the last 26 volumes of the manga to "Dragon Ball Z" to avoid confusion. The volumes were originally published in Japan between 1988 and 1995. It began serialization in the American Shonen Jump, beginning in the middle of the series with the appearance of Trunks; the tankōbon volumes of both Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball were released simultaneously by Viz Media in the United States.[112][113] In March 2001, Viz continued this separation by re-shipping the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z titles starting with the first volumes of each work.[114] Viz's marketing for the manga made distinct the differences between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z tone. Viz billed Dragon Ball Z: "More action-packed than the stories of Goku's youth, Dragon Ball Z is pure adrenaline, with battles of truly Earth-shaking proportions!"[115] Between 2008 and 2010, Viz re-released the two series in a format called "Viz Big Edition," which collects three individual volumes into a single large volume.[116] However, in 2013 Viz began publishing new 3-in-1 volumes collecting the entire manga series, including what they previously released as Dragon Ball Z, under the Dragon Ball name.[117]

The Dragon Ball Z films comprise a total of 15 entries as of 2015. The first 13 films were typically released every March and July during the series' original run in accordance with the spring and summer vacations of Japanese schools. They were typically double features paired up with other anime films, and were thus, usually an hour or less in length. These films themselves offer contradictions in both chronology and design that make them incompatible with a single continuity. All 15 films were licensed in North America by Funimation, and all have received in-house dubs by the company. Prior to Funimation, the third film was a part of the short-lived Saban syndication, being split into three episodes, and the first three films received uncut English dubs in 1998 produced by Funimation with Ocean Studios and released by Pioneer. Several of the films have been broadcast on Cartoon Network and Nicktoons in the United States, Toonami UK in the United Kingdom (these featured an alternate English dub produced by an unknown cast by AB Groupe), and Cartoon Network in Australia.

Three TV specials based on Dragon Ball Z were produced and broadcast on Fuji TV. The first two were Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku in 1990 and Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks in 1993, the latter being based on a special chapter of the original manga. Both were licensed by Funimation in North America and AB Groupe in Europe. In 2013, a two-part hour-long crossover with One Piece and Toriko, titled Dream 9 Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Chō Collaboration Special!!, was created and aired.

Additionally, two original video animations (OVAs) bearing the Dragon Ball Z title have been made. The first is Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, which was originally released in 1993 in two parts as "Official Visual Guides" for the video game of the same title. Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans was a 2010 remake of this OVA. None of the OVAs have been dubbed into English, and the only one to see a release in North America is the 2010 remake, which was subtitled and included as a bonus feature in Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2.

There are over 57 video games bearing the Dragon Ball Z name across a range of platforms from the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom to the current generation consoles. Also included are arcade games like Super Dragon Ball Z, which would eventually be ported to consoles.

In North America, licensing rights had been given to both Namco Bandai and Atari. In 1999, Atari acquired exclusive rights to the video games through Funimation, a deal which was extended for five more years in 2005.[118] A 2007 dispute would end with Atari paying Funimation $3.5 million.[119] In July 2009, Namco Bandai was reported to have obtained exclusive rights to release the games for a period of five years.[120] This presumably would have taken effect after Atari's licensing rights expired at the end of January 2010.[119]

Dragon Ball Z has been host to numerous soundtrack releases with works like "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" and a series of 21 soundtracks released as part of the Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection Series. In total, dozens of releases exist for Dragon Ball Z which includes Japanese and foreign adapted releases of the anime themes and video game soundtracks.

Dragon Ball Z was listed as the 78th best animated show in IGN's "Top 100 Animated Series",[124] and was also listed as the 50th greatest animated show in Wizard magazine's "Top 100 Greatest Animated shows" list.[125] The series ranked #6 on Wizard's Anime Magazine on their "Top 50 Anime released in North America".[126]

Dragon Ball Z's popularity is reflected through a variety of data through online interactions which show the popularity of the media. In 2001, it was reported that the official website of Dragon Ball Z recorded 4.7 million hits per day and included 500,000+ registered fans.[127] The term "Dragonball Z" ranked 4th in 1999 and 2nd in 2000 by Lycos' web search engine.[128][129] For 2001, "Dragonball" was the most popular search on Lycos and "Dragonball Z" was fifth on Yahoo!.[130]

In 2005, media historian Hal Erickson wrote that "Dragon Ball may be the closest thing on American television to an animated soap opera — though this particular genre is an old, established and venerated one in Japan, the series' country of origin."[131] Christopher J. Olson and CarrieLynn D. Reinhard note that "Western fans flocked to Dragon Ball Z because it offered exciting action not found in movies or television shows (animated or otherwise) at that time."[132] In 2015, Ford Motor Company released two commercials featuring characters from the series, the first advertising the Ford Fusion and the second for the Ford Focus.[133]

Dragon Ball Z's Japanese run was very popular with an average viewer ratings of 20.5% across the series. Dragon Ball Z also proved to be a rating success in the United States, outperforming top shows such as Friends and The X-Files in some parts of the country in sweeps ratings during its first season.[134] The premiere of season three of Dragon Ball Z in 1999, done by Funimation's in-house dub, was the highest-rated program ever at the time on Cartoon Network.[135] In 2002, in the week ending September 22, Dragon Ball Z was the #1 program of the week on all of television with tweens 9-14, boys 9-14 and men 12-24, with the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday telecasts of Dragon Ball Z ranked as the top three programs in all of television, broadcast or cable, for delivery of boys 9-14.[136] In 2001, Cartoon Network obtained licensing to run 96 more episodes and air the original Dragon Ball anime and was the top rated show in the Toonami block of Cartoon network.[137] Beginning March 26, 2001, Cartoon Network ran a 12-week special promotion "Toonami Reactor" which included a focus on Dragon Ball Z, which would stream episodes online to high-speed internet users.[138] Many home video releases were met with both the edited and unedited versions placing on in the top 10 video charts of Billboard. For example, "The Dark Prince Returns" (containing episodes 226-228) and "Rivals" (containing episodes 229-231) edited and unedited, made the Billboard magazine top video list for October 20, 2001.[139][Note 4]

The first episode of Dragon Ball Kai earned a viewer ratings percentage of 11.3, ahead of One Piece and behind Crayon Shin-chan.[140] Although following episodes had lower ratings, Kai was among the top 10 anime in viewer ratings every week in Japan for most of its run.[141][142] Towards the end of the original run the ratings hovered around 9%-10%.[143][144] Dragon Ball Z Kai premiered on Nicktoons in May 2010 and set the record for the highest-rated premiere in total viewers, and in tweens and boys ages 9–14.[145] Nielsen Mega Manila viewer ratings ranked Dragon Ball Kai with a viewer ratings with a high of 18.4% for October 30 – November 4 in 2012.[146] At the end of April 2013, Dragon Ball Kai would trail just behind One Piece at 14.2%.[147] Broadcasters' Audience Research Board ranked Dragon Ball Z Kai as the second most viewed show in the week it debuted on Kix.[148] On its debut on Vortexx, Dragon Ball Z Kai was the third highest rated show on the Saturday morning block with 841,000 viewers and a 0.5 household rating.[149]