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is the first part of the anime adaptation of the ''Dragon Ball'' manga written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama and published in Japan in the ''Weekly Shonen Jump'' manga anthology comic. The second and larger portion of the manga series was adapted into ''Dragon Ball Z''.
The ''Dragon Ball'' anime is composed of 153 half-hour episodes and ran in Japan from February 26, 1986 - April 12 1989. It follows the early adventures of the child version of Goku as he and his friends search the world for the seven magic Dragon Balls. 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 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. The second and more well known attempt was in 1995 with only the first 13 episodes translated and aired. This release was put out by KidMark and utilized Ocean Group for the dubbing. These original 13 episodes are still available on DVD as ''The Saga of Goku''. After ''Dragon Ball Z'' became immensely popular on Cartoon Network, the entire series was translated by FUNimation and released in the same scheduling block as its successor on the network. The complete series ran in the US between August 20, 2001, and late 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 BGM, which was met with delight by most fans. However, some insert (IN) songs were removed or have dialogue dubbed over them.
''Dragon Ball'' is known as being a much less serious anime than its successor, ''Dragon Ball Z'', though later sagas blur the lines a bit.

Contents

Censorship

Sagas

Movies, and other

Theme songs

Cast list

Episode lists

See also

Notes and references

External links

Censorship

The US version of ''Dragon Ball'' was aired on Cartoon Network (before that, it was aired in syndication) with excessive editing. Most of the edits were digital cosmetic changes, which were done to remove nudity and blood, and dialogue edits, such as 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." Some scenes were deleted altogether, either to save time or remove 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." 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.
While implied throughout the General Blue saga, 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 on Penguin Island who stops to repair Blue's damaged car. All references to General Blue's sexual orientation were eliminated in the American TV release, and the scene involving the boy was redubbed to suggest that Blue believes to have found his long-lost younger brother.
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. 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 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 King Piccolo's chest clearly visible.

Sagas

# Emperor Pilaf Saga
# Tournament Saga
# Red Ribbon Army Saga
# General Blue Saga
# Commander Red Saga
# Fortuneteller Baba Saga
# Tien Shinhan Saga
# King Piccolo Saga
# Piccolo Jr. Saga

Movies, and other

;'Movies'
# ''Curse of the Blood Rubies''
# ''Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle''
# ''Mystical Adventure''
# ''The Path to Power''
;'Public Service Videos'

★ ''Gokū's Traffic Safety''

★ ''Gokū's Fire Fighting Regiment''
The special videos "Gokū's Traffic Safety" and "Gokū's Fire Fighting Regiment" are both very rare productions designed to be educational films. They were both completed in June 1988.
;'Nippon Ijin Taisho'

★ In this program, this animation was used as parody. Miyake Masaharu acted as caster.
'Unofficial Chinese Live Action Movie'
'' is 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.

Theme songs

★ OP

★ # ''Makafushigi Adobenchā!''; 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'; he is not to be confused with the seiyu Hiroki Takahashi)

★ #
★
★ Version 1: episodes 1~101

★ #
★
★ Version 2: episodes 102~153 (not on FUNimation's DVDs)

★ 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)

Cast list

Character Name	Voice Actor (Japanese)	V.A. (FUNimation English)	V.A. (Blue Water English)	V.A. (Ocean Group English)	V.A. (Harmony Gold English)
Goku	Masako Nozawa	Stephanie Nadolny Sean Schemmel	Zoe Slusar Jeffrey Watson Scott Roberts	Saffron Henderson	Barbara Goodson
Bulma	Hiromi Tsuru	Tiffany Vollmer	Leda Davies	Lalainia Lindbjerg	Wendee Lee
Master Roshi	Kōhei Miyauchi	Mike McFarland	Dean Galloway	Michael Donovan	Greg Snegoff
Sea Turtle	Daisuke Ghori	Christopher Sabat	Dave Pettitt	Alec Willows	???
Oolong	Naoki Tatsuta	Bradford Jackson	Corby Proctor	Alec Willows	Dave Mallow
Yamcha	Tōru Furuya	Christopher Sabat	Victor Atelevich	Ted Cole	???
Puar	Naoko Watanabe	Monika Antonelli	Chris Simms	Kathy Morse	Cheryl Chase
Chi-Chi	Mayumi Shō	Laura Bailey Cynthia Cranz	Katie Rowan	Andrea Libman	N/A
Krillin	Mayumi Tanaka	Lori Steele Sonny Strait	Mike Thiessen	N/A	???
Launch	Mami Koyama	Monika Antonelli Meredith McCoy	Kris Rundle	N/A	Edie Mirman
Tien	Hirotaka Suzuoki	John Burgmeier	Jonathan Love	N/A	Eddie Frierson
Chiaotzu	Hiroko Emori	Monika Antonelli	???	N/A	Rebecca Forstadt
Ox King	Daisuke Gori	Kyle Hebert	Dave Pettitt	Dave Ward	N/A
Baba	Junpei Takiguchi	Linda Young	Corby Proctor	N/A	N/A
Emperor Pilaf	Shigeru Chiba	Chuck Huber	Dean Galloway	Don Brown	???
Shu	Tessho Genda	Chris Cason	Jonathan Love	Doug Parker	???
Mai	Eiko Yamada	Julie Franklin	Debbie Munro	Teryl Rothery	???
Mr. Popo	Toku Nishio	Christopher Sabat	Dave Pettitt	N/A	N/A
Korin	Ichirō Nagai	Christopher Sabat	Ethan Cole	N/A	???
Kami	Takeshi Aono	Christopher Sabat	Mike Shepherd	N/A	N/A
Yajirobe	Mayumi Tanaka	Mike McFarland	Lucas Gilbertson	N/A	N/A
King Piccolo	Takeshi Aono	Christopher Sabat	Ethan Cole	N/A	N/A
Piccolo Jr.	Toshio Furukawa	Christopher Sabat	Ethan Cole	N/A	N/A
Dr. Brief	Joji Yanami	Chris Forbis	???	N/A	N/A
Mrs Brief	Mariko Mukai	Cynthia Cranz	Jennifer Bain	N/A	N/A
Grandpa Gohan	Osamu Saka	Christopher Sabat	Jonathan Love	N/A	N/A
Shenron	Kenji Utsumi	Christopher Sabat	Dave Pettitt	???	Michael Reynolds
Narrator	Joji Yanami	Brice Armstrong	Steve Olson	Jim Conrad	???

Episode lists

★ List of Dragon Ball dubbed episodes

★ List of Japanese Dragon Ball episodes

See also

★ List of Dragon Ball characters

★ Dragon Ball (franchise)

★ List of Dragon Ball films

★ List of Dragon Ball video games

Notes and references

External links

★ Toei Dragon Ball website

★ English Dragon Ball website

★