In the pantheon of epic animes, the Dragon Ball franchise stands among them as one of the most influential and idolized, turning cartoon fans into anime fanatics year after year. And that’s specifically because of Dragon Ball Z, the franchise’s series pillar.
Dragon Ball Z was the second iteration of the Dragon Ball franchise, and it boasts the most episodes out of any with 291. So, when did it come out?
Dragon Ball — the franchise’s first series — was released in Japan in 1986 and new episodes aired until 1989. Then, that same year, Dragon Ball Z dropped in anime’s homeland, and it ran for seven years until 1996 when the series wrapped.
Those living in the U.S. couldn’t begin watching Dragon Ball Z in 1989. But, Akira Toriyama’s creation eventually crossed the Pacific in 1996, where it’s maintained a passionate cult following since.
More Dragon Ball content is on its way in the form of a new series
There have been several installments in the Dragon Ball franchise since Goku left to train Uub on Jan. 31, 1996. Dragon Ball GT, a 64-episode series not based on Toriyama’s manga, began airing in Japan around a week after Dragon Ball Z’s swan song, but it only lasted two seasons and finished in 1997. It first touched U.S. shores in 2000.
GT’s end marked the beginning of around a decade-long Dragon Ball drought, but that subsided with the release of Dragon Ball Kai — an abridged version of Dragon Ball Z. The remastered revision dropped the number of episodes by more than half by cutting out filler. Dragon Ball Kai came out in 2009 and 2010 in Japan and the U.S., respectively.
However, 2015 was the first time since Dragon Ball GT’s concluded that new content arrived for fans. And this time, it was based on canon. Dragon Ball Super premiered in Japan that year (2017 in the United States), and it was set 10 years after the final events of Dragon Ball Z. All in all, 131 subbed and dubbed episodes have been released, and although nothing is confirmed, online publications have shared rumors that a next batch of episodes will release at some point in the future. The last episode came out in Japan in 2018 and in 2019 in the United States.
But, Dragon Ball Super’s fate remains unclear with the announcement of Dragon Ball DAIMA — a new series written by Toriyama that is set to release in the fall of 2024, according to the official teaser trailer that was shared on Oct. 12.
Lastly, Dragon Ball GT received company outside of Toriyama’s continuum when Toei Animation’s Super Dragon Ball Heroes released in Japan in 2018; the U.S. has yet to receive a version of the web series.