The first season of the ''

Dragon Ball Z ''Dragon Ball Z'' is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. Part of the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise, it is the sequel to the 1986 '' Dragon Ball'' anime series and adapts the latter 325 chapters of the original ...

'' anime series contains the Raditz and Vegeta arcs, which comprises the Saiyan Saga, which adapts the 17th through the 21st volumes of the ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series by

Akira Toriyama is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for his highly successful manga series ''Dr. Slump'', before going on to create ''Dragon Ball'' (his best-known work) and acting as a character design ...

. The series follows the adventures of

Goku Son Goku is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Dragon Ball'' manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is based on Sun Wukong (known as Son Goku in Japan and Monkey King in the West), a main character of the classic Ch ...

. The episodes deal with Goku as he learns about his Saiyan heritage and battles Raditz, Nappa, and

Vegeta ( ), also referred as is a fictional character in the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise created by Akira Toriyama. Vegeta first appears in chapter #204 "Sayonara, Son Goku", published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' magazine on November 7, 1988, seeking ...

, three other Saiyans who want Goku to join them and help them destroy life on Earth. The season initially ran from April 1989 until February 1990 in Japan on

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially b ...

. The season was then licensed for a heavily edited dubbed broadcast by

Funimation Entertainment Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

. Their adaptation first ran in September 1996 through September 1997, primarily on

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...

and WB affiliate stations in the United States and Canada. The 39 episodes were cut down to a mere 28. Their edited adaptation was syndicated to television by

Saban Entertainment Saban Entertainment, Inc. (along with Saban International; currently operating under the legal name is BVS Entertainment, Inc.) was a worldwide-served independent American-Israeli television production company formed in 1980 by Haim Saban and S ...

, and was released by

Geneon Entertainment (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. Th ...

(then known as Pioneer) on VHS and DVD between 1997 and 1999. Eventually, Geneon Entertainment lost the distribution license to the first 67 episodes and Funimation began redubbing the series for an uncut broadcast. The unedited version was released on DVD in 2005, but later cancelled and Funimation eventually began releasing season box sets of ''Dragon Ball Z'' and they re-released their first season on February 6, 2007. In late 2013, the company released the first season box set on the Blu-ray Disc format. In June 2009, Funimation announced that they would be releasing ''Dragon Ball Z'' in a new seven volume set called the "Dragon Box". Based on the original series masters with frame-by-frame restoration, the first set was released November 10, 2009. Two pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

were used throughout the season. The opening theme, "Cha-La Head-Cha-La", is performed by

Hironobu Kageyama is a Japanese singer and composer prominent in the soundtracks for anime, video game and tokusatsu productions. He is sometimes called Kami (Kei) by his fans. Kageyama got his big break at age 16, as lead singer of the rock band Lazy. By the ea ...

and the ending theme, is performed by Manna. The theme for the original 1996–1997 English dub is "

Rock the Dragon This list contains known album titles from both Japanese and American releases of anime music from all iterations of the '' Dragon Ball'' franchise. The ''Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection'' series and the ''Dragon Ball Z Game Music'' series h ...

", performed by Jeremy Sweet. The uncut English redub from 2005 uses "Dragon Ball Z theme" by Dave Moran. The remastered season one boxset uses "Dragon Ball Z movie theme" by Mark Menza. __TOC__

Development

English dub production

In 1996,

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

began working on their first season of an English dub for ''Dragon Ball Z''. The company had previously produced a dub of ''Dragon Balls first 13 episodes and first movie during 1995, but when plans for a second season were cancelled due to lower than expected ratings, they partnered with

(known at the time for shows such as ''

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ''Mighty Power Rangers'' (''MMPR'') is a superhero television series that premiered on August 28, 1993, on the Fox Kids programming block. It is the first entry of the ''Power Rangers'' franchise, and became a 1990s pop culture phenomenon along ...

'' and ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in ...

'') to distribute their adaptation to

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

and

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

affiliate stations. While Saban had a history of acquiring the rights to various anime series to be dubbed, Funimation still controlled the American license to the property during this period. The program would air during early morning time slots in most markets. It was part of the "Saban Network for Kids", a 1996–97 syndicated programming block which included other Saban anime dubs, such as ''

Eagle Riders ''Eagle Riders'' (also known as Saban's Eagle Riders) is an animated television adaptation of the Japanese anime series '' Gatchaman II'' and ''Gatchaman Fighter'', which have been combined. It was produced by Saban Entertainment. 65 episodes ...

'' and ''

Samurai Pizza Cats ''Samurai Pizza Cats'' is an American animated television adaptation of the anime series ''Kyatto Ninden Teyandee'' (''Cat Ninja Legend Teyandee''), produced by Tatsunoko Productions and Sotsu Agency. The series originally aired in Japan on T ...

'', as well as '' Masked Rider'', ''

Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist ''Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist'' ((french: Les Nouvelles Aventures d'Oliver Twist, lit. "The New Adventures of Oliver Twist", also known as ''Oliver Twist'') is an animated series created by Saban Entertainment. The series first aired in th ...

'' and ''

The Why Why Family ''The Why Why Family'' (french: Les Kikekoi, also known as ''Saban's The Why Why Family'') is an animated children's television series, which originally aired in 1996, produced by Saban International Paris and Saban Entertainment. The show was broa ...

''. Heightened exposure from Saban helped ensure a larger audience for the series, which led to Funimation creating a second syndicated dub season in 1997, intended to air in its own hour long block. Like the prior ''Dragon Ball'' dub from 1995, this production used Canadian voice actors from

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. However, this time ADR work was handled by The Ocean Group (now known as

Ocean Productions Ocean Productions, Inc., is a Canadian media production and voice acting company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is part of the Ocean Group of businesses. Ocean Group is involved in intellectual property acquisition and development, ...

), leading to fans referring to this dub as "the Ocean dub". Funimation also outsourced the role of music to ex-Saban musician

Ron Wasserman Ronald Aaron Wasserman (born September 2, 1961), also known as Aaron Waters and The Mighty Raw, is an American musician who composed the original theme song for ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'' and numerous original songs he also recorded for the ...

, who was allowed to compose the background score from his home in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

.Mighty RAW (a.k.a. Ron Wasserman) just finished Monty Python's Holy Grail CD-ROM and the Ace Ventura, Pet Detective CD-ROM. His music can also be heard on Pythonline on the WEB. He is also doing music for the Saban show titled "Dragon Ball Z"
"The Power Rangers Zeo Newsletter"
''grnrngr.com'', July 31, 1996. The theme song "Main Title" (known by fans as "Rock the Dragon") was created by Saban Entertainment,Vol.6, No.3 of ''

Animerica ''Animerica'' was a monthly magazine published by Viz Media containing news, feature articles, and reviews on manga, anime, and related media, as well as a section that serialized manga published by Viz. After an initial November 1992 preview is ...

'' magazine with the vocals performed by Jeremy Sweet.Dragon Ball Z end credits (FUNimation/Saban dub, 1996–97) In 2004–2005, Funimation redubbed these episodes, now with their then-current American voice actors from

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. Unlike the 1996–1997 Ocean/Saban co-production, this dub had no episodes or scenes cut out, and no visual censorship; and while the script was still not based on a translation, they did rewrite it, and even threw in curse words. It featured a new background score by Dallas-based composer Nathan M. Johnson.

Episodes

Notes

* The episode "Escape from Piccolo" was scheduled to premiere in syndication on November 9, 1996, but was pulled by Saban, due to questionable content. The dub of this episode instead debuted on VHS ten months later in October 1997, when the second season was airing in syndication. It later premiered on television in September 1998 via

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

Toonami Toonami ( ) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese animation and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a divis ...

block. * The 1997 dub episodes "A New Goal... Namek" and "Journey to Namek" were produced as part of Funimation and Saban's second broadcast season of the show, and premiered in the fall of 1997, four months after the previous episode "The Battle Ends."

References

{{Portal bar, Anime and manga 1989 Japanese television seasons 1990 Japanese television seasons 1996 American television seasons 1997 American television seasons Z (season 1)