Dragon Ball Z

• 1. Origins And Development History

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  Kazuhiko Torishima, Akira Toriyama's editor for Dr. Slump and the first half of Dragon Ball, felt that the Dragon Ball anime's ratings were gradually declining because it had the same producer that worked on Dr. Slump. He asked the studio to change the producer after noticing a disconnect between the cute image associated with the previous work and the serious tone required for the newer series. Impressed with their work on Saint Seiya, he selected director Kōzō Morishita and writer Takao Koyama to help reboot Dragon Ball. This coincided with Goku growing up from a child into a young adult father. The new producer explained that ending the first anime and creating a new one would result in more promotional money. Toriyama suggested the title Z because it is the last letter of the alphabet. He wanted to finish the series because he was running out of ideas for it. Ironically enough, the sequel series ended up producing more episodes than its predecessor. Dragon Ball Z adapted the final 324 chapters of the manga series which were published in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1988 to 1995. It premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on the 26th of April 1989, taking over its predecessor's time slot. The show ran for 291 episodes until its conclusion on the 31st of January 1996. Because Toriyama was writing the manga during the production of the anime, Dragon Ball Z added original material not adapted from the manga. This included lengthening scenes or adding new ones, and adding new attacks and characters not present in the manga. For example, Toriyama was asked to create an additional character for Goku's training with King Kai, resulting in the cricket Gregory. Throughout the production, the voice actors were tasked with playing different characters and performing their lines on cue. They switched between roles as necessary. Masako Nozawa said that she was able to switch roles simply upon seeing the character's picture when juggling the voices of Goku, Gohan and Goten. She admitted that when they were producing two films a year and television specials in addition to the regular series, there were times when they had only line art to look at while recording.

• 2. Narrative Arcs And Storylines

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  A humanoid alien named Raditz arrives on Earth in a spacecraft and tracks down Son Goku, revealing to him that he is his long-lost older brother. They are members of a near-extinct elite alien warrior race called Saiyan. Goku had been sent to Earth as an infant to conquer the planet but suffered a severe blow to his head shortly after arrival. He lost all memory of his mission and his blood-thirsty Saiyan nature. Raditz tells Goku that along with two stronger elites, Vegeta and Nappa, they are the only remaining Saiyans after their home planet Vegeta was destroyed. When Goku refuses to join them, Raditz takes Goku and Krillin down with one strike. He kidnaps Gohan and threatens to murder him if Goku does not kill 100 humans within the next 24 hours. Goku decides to team up with his arch-enemy Piccolo to defeat him 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 can hit them with a deadly move called Special Beam Cannon, mortally wounding them both. In the afterlife, Goku travels the million-kilometer Snake Way so that he can train under King Kai. After a year, Goku is revived with the Dragon Balls, but King Kai panics as he realizes Goku will have to take Snake Way again to get back. Goku's allies group up to fight until Goku gets back, but prove to be no match for Nappa and the Prince of All Saiyans, Vegeta. Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu and Piccolo all perish in the battle. When Goku finally arrives at the battlefield, he avenges his fallen friends by easily defeating Nappa before crippling him by breaking his spine in half. A furious Vegeta then executes Nappa for his failure to kill Goku. Goku uses several grades of the Kaio-ken to win the first clash with Vegeta. Vegeta comes back and creates an artificial moon to transform into a Great Ape, which he uses to torture Goku. Krillin and Gohan sense that Goku is in trouble, and they return for a group fight with the now-seemingly unstoppable Vegeta. They are aided at key moments by Yajirobe, who cuts Vegeta's tail to revert him into his normal state. Goku gives Krillin a Spirit Bomb that he made, and Krillin uses it to severely damage Vegeta. Vegeta is ultimately defeated when he is crushed by Gohan's Great Ape form, and he retreats to his spaceship as Krillin approaches to finish him off. Goku convinces Krillin to spare Vegeta's life and allow him to escape Earth.

• 3. International Dubbing And Localization

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  In 1996, Funimation Productions licensed Dragon Ball Z for an English-language release in North America after cancelling their initial dub of Dragon Ball halfway through their originally-planned 26-episode first season. Funimation worked with Saban Entertainment to syndicate the series on television, and Pioneer Entertainment to handle home video distribution. A Vancouver-based cast recording at Ocean Studios were hired by Funimation to dub the anime. Contract musicians for Saban, Ron Wasserman and Jeremy Sweet, known for their work on the Power Rangers franchise, composed a new guitar-driven soundtrack. The dub's opening theme was nicknamed Rock the Dragon and sung by Sweet. Funimation's initial English dub had mandated cuts to content and length, which reduced the first 67 episodes into 53. 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. It premiered in the United States on the 13th of September 1996, in first-run syndication, but halted production in 1998 after two seasons despite strong ratings. This was due to Saban scaling down its syndication operations to focus on producing original material for the Fox Kids Network. On the 31st of August 1998, reruns 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. Cartoon Network replaced the original Vancouver-based cast with an in-house voice cast at their Texas-based studio. The Saban-produced soundtrack from the first two seasons was replaced with a new background score composed by Shuki Levy and his team of musicians. This renewed dub featured less censorship and aired new episodes on Cartoon Network's Toonami block from the 13th of September 1999, to the 7th of April 2003. 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. Beginning with episode 108, Westwood Media 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 to fulfill Canadian content requirements.

• 4. Remastered Sequel Series Kai

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  In February 2009, Toei Animation announced that it would begin broadcasting a remastered version of Dragon Ball Z as part of the series's 20th anniversary celebrations. The series premiered on Fuji TV in Japan on the 5th of April 2009, under the title Dragon Ball Kai. The ending suffix Kai means updated or altered and reflects the improvements and corrections of the original work. The original footage was remastered for HDTV, featuring updated opening and ending sequences, new music, and a re-recording of the vocal tracks. The original material and any damaged frames were removed, along with the majority of the filler episodes to more closely follow the manga. According to Torishima, Kai was conceived when Bandai asked if a new Dragon Ball anime could be made to increase the franchise's merchandise sales. As Toriyama refused to create a new story, it was decided to release a remastered version of the Dragon Ball Z anime that more closely follows the manga instead. He said the reception to Kai was positive so it all worked out. The series initially concluded on its 97th episode in Japan on the 27th of March 2011, with the finale of the Cell saga. 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 the 2nd of August 2011. In November 2012, Mayumi Tanaka, the Japanese voice actor of Krillin, announced that she and the rest of the cast were recording more episodes of Dragon Ball Kai. In February 2014, the Kai adaptation of the Majin Buu saga was officially confirmed. The new run of the series began airing in Japan on Fuji TV on the 6th of April 2014, and ended its run on the 28th of June 2015. Funimation licensed Kai for an English-language release in February 2010. The series was initially broadcast in the U.S. on Nicktoons from the 24th of May 2010, to the 1st of January 2012. In addition to Nicktoons, the series also began airing on the 4Kids-owned Saturday morning programming block Toonzai on The CW in August 2010. Kai began airing uncut on Adult Swim's Toonami block on the 8th of November 2014.

• 5. Commercial Success And Merchandise

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  In Asia, the Dragon Ball Z franchise earned a profit of $3 billion by 1999. In the United States, the series sold over 10 million videos by 2002, and over 25 million DVDs by January 2012. Dragon Ball Z merchandise was a success prior to its peak American interest, with more than $3 billion in sales from 1996 to 2000. In 1996, Dragon Ball Z grossed $2.95 billion in merchandise sales worldwide. By January 2012, Dragon Ball Z grossed $5 billion in merchandise sales worldwide. In 1998, Animage-ine Entertainment announced the sale of Chroma-Cels, mock animation cels to capitalize on the popularity of Dragon Ball Z. The original sale was forecasted for late 1998 but were pushed back to the 12th of January 1999. In 2000, MGA Entertainment released more than twenty toys consisting of table-top games and walkie-talkies. Irwin Toy released more than 72 figures consisting of 2-inch and 5 inch action figures which became top-selling toys in a market dominated by the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Irwin Toys would release other unique Dragon Ball Z toys including a battery powered Flying Nimbus Cloud which hovered without touching the ground. In June 2000, Burger King had a toy promotion which would see 20 million figures; Burger King bore the cost of the promotion which provided free marketing for Funimation. The Halloween Association found Dragon Ball Z costumes to be the fourth most popular costumes in their nationwide survey. In December 2002, Jakks Pacific signed a three-year deal for licensing Dragon Ball Z toys which was possible because of the bankruptcy of Irwin Toy. Jakks Pacific's Dragon Ball Z 5-inch figures were cited as impressive for their painting and articulation. In 2010, Toei closed deals in Central and South American countries which included Algazarra, Richtex, Pil Andina, DTM, Doobalo and Bondy Fiesta.

• 6. Cultural Impact And Legacy

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  In 2001, it was reported that the official website of Dragon Ball Z recorded 4.7 million hits per day and included 500,000 plus registered fans. The term Dragonball Z ranked fourth in 1999 and second in 2000 by Lycos' web search engine. For 2001, Dragonball was the most popular search on Lycos and Dragonball Z was fifth on Yahoo!. It's Over 9000! became a famous Internet meme and is referenced both within and outside Dragonball related media. 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. Dragon Ball fans set a Guinness World Record for Largest Kamehameha attack move at San Diego Comic-Con on the 17th of July 2019. Dragon Ball Zs Japanese run was very popular with an average viewer rating 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. 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. 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. Beginning the 26th of March 2001, Cartoon Network ran a 12-week special promotion Toonami Reactor which included a focus on Dragon Ball Z. 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 and Rivals edited and unedited made the Billboard magazine top video list for the 20th of October 2001. In 2002, in the week ending September 22, Dragon Ball Z was the number one program of the week on all of television with tweens 9-14, boys 9-14 and men 12-24.