Dragon Ball and the International Channel

[JulieYBM]

Way back in the days of our youth a little known channel in the United States called the International Channel aired Japanese cartoons. Surprisingly amongst these cartoons was nigh unedited Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, missing only the next episode previews, without subtitles but nonetheless gloriously entertaining. My history regarding what was aired and how the license was obtained is a little sketchy. I remember watching on-and-off beginning with the Afterlife Tournament arc and catching a few episodes of the Majin Buu arc. In fact it was these broadcasts that gave me my love for a lot of the darker end-of-the-episode music pieces by Kikuchi Shunsuke.

Does anyone know the details behind this bygone era?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Way back in the days of our youth a little known channel in the United States called the International Channel aired Japanese cartoons. Surprisingly amongst these cartoons was nigh unedited Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, missing only the next episode previews, without subtitles but nonetheless gloriously entertaining. My history regarding what was aired and how the license was obtained is a little sketchy. I remember watching on-and-off beginning with the Afterlife Tournament arc and catching a few episodes of the Majin Buu arc. In fact it was these broadcasts that gave me my love for a lot of the darker end-of-the-episode music pieces by Kikuchi Shunsuke.

Does anyone know the details behind this bygone era?

Sorry to follow up your question with another question of my own, but I'm curious about another aspect of the international channel airings: how was the quality of the video and audio? Was it the original broadcast audio?

[Kid Buu]

Yeah it was the Japanese version with no subtitles and the picture quality was great.

[thaman91]

Did this version air before, during, or after Funimation's version aired in the United States?

Come to think of it, I do remember flipping through the channels once and stumbling upon DBZ in a different language. It was the episode with Gohan and the robot and I remember being surprised because I had never seen that episode before (because I think it was cut from the original Funimation dub with the Ocean cast).

[RocktheDragon]

I can't answer any of your questions OP but I'd be interested to know what year the IC started to air DBZ and GT episodes. Sounds so glorious though....

[Kid Buu]

DBZ International Channel run ended around 2002 and DBZ Cartoon Network run ended around 2003 if my memory serves me right.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Sadly, I lost the international channel sometime before Goku landed on Namek. All I remember is that DBZ would air on Sunday nights. It was glorious!

[Payne222]

I never heard of this. I just watched DBZ in Japanese when I was like 7 on VCDs.

[Chuquita]

I knew about it, but I didn't get the International Channel at my house. I wanted it though.

[JackyBoi99]

In Australia, I remember channel very similar where they played anime in Japanese with no subtitles. They played dragon ball z, gundam, neon genesis, zoids:chaotic century etc. I only got to see this channel when I was sick or not at school since it played during weekdays.


Edit: I think it did have english subtitles actually.

[kei17]

Surprisingly amongst these cartoons was nigh unedited Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, missing only the next episode previews

From what I know, both Z and GT had the next episode previews, and for some reason, Z had them after the ending like the Dragon Boxes. Also, the ones originally aired with a notice of a movie ticket lottery were cut short, which means that they might have used film masters originally printed for early Japanese TV airings.

[JulieYBM]

Surprisingly amongst these cartoons was nigh unedited Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, missing only the next episode previews

From what I know, both Z and GT had the next episode previews, and for some reason, Z had them after the ending like the Dragon Boxes. Also, the ones originally aired with a notice of a movie ticket lottery were cut short, which means that they might have used film masters originally printed for early Japanese TV airings.

Woah, that's interesting. I wonder what has become of these masters? Were they shipped back to Toei Animation or a third-party that acted as a middle-man between the two? Hmm...

[Super Sonic]

I didn't watch as I couldn't speak a word of Japanese and was patient for the Funimation release. My cousins watched and used to brag, but they couldn't speak Japanese either. They'd watch the show, then months later watch my videos or eps on CN and go "Oh". Did watch Slayers which came on after DBZ and was subbed unlike DBZ.

[shinmaru]

Way back in the days of our youth a little known channel in the United States called the International Channel aired Japanese cartoons. Surprisingly amongst these cartoons was nigh unedited Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, missing only the next episode previews, without subtitles but nonetheless gloriously entertaining. My history regarding what was aired and how the license was obtained is a little sketchy. I remember watching on-and-off beginning with the Afterlife Tournament arc and catching a few episodes of the Majin Buu arc. In fact it was these broadcasts that gave me my love for a lot of the darker end-of-the-episode music pieces by Kikuchi Shunsuke.

Does anyone know the details behind this bygone era?

Sorry to follow up your question with another question of my own, but I'm curious about another aspect of the international channel airings: how was the quality of the video and audio? Was it the original broadcast audio?

The audio is like the DragonBox crapy.

[Castor Troy]

I caught DBZ on the IC back in the fall of 2001 when it was airing the Buu arc starting with the episode where everyone goes to the Budokai and Goku returns.

The video quality was pretty awful since the colors were super dark and there was TONS of (non-natural) grain, dirt, specks, and actual hairballs on the screen. I would say better than fansubs and worse than FUNi's old masters. It's almost like the masters IC used came from a cat's litter box.

I ended up recording everything from where I started up to the middle of GT. Sadly, I tossed those tapes away years ago.

[MugiMikey]

I remember watching both Dragon Ball Z and GT on the International Channel! The first DBZ episode I saw on there was episode 210 in 2001. At the time, Cartoon Network was only in the Cell arc so I was pretty excited seeing an episode so much farther ahead on TV.

Then in late 2001/early 2002 they started airing GT. That was my first time catching a glimpse of nude Goku in the opening and I certainly was not expecting it. If I remember correctly, the first GT episode I saw on there was episode 3. Along with Z, I was pretty psyched about watching it since the dub had yet to exist.

[LPPanther]

My cousin got the International Channel and we watched the entire Buu arc in Japanese while CN was still showing Freeza and Cell episodes. I don't have any extra information to provide other than yes, this really happened haha.

[Castor Troy]

I remember watching both Dragon Ball Z and GT on the International Channel! The first DBZ episode I saw on there was episode 210 in 2001. At the time, Cartoon Network was only in the Cell arc so I was pretty excited seeing an episode so much farther ahead on TV.

Then in late 2001/early 2002 they started airing GT. That was my first time catching a glimpse of nude Goku in the opening and I certainly was not expecting it. If I remember correctly, the first GT episode I saw on there was episode 3. Along with Z, I was pretty psyched about watching it since the dub had yet to exist.

I remember in the fall of 2001, CN and IC were nearly running the same Buu arc episodes (The Majin Vegeta stuff) nearly side by side, but since CN repeated the Buu arc from the start after Vegeta's death, IC got ahead.

It was kinda surreal having CN with the dub and IC in JP airing nearly the same episodes.

[Kid Buu]

I caught DBZ on the IC back in the fall of 2001 when it was airing the Buu arc starting with the episode where everyone goes to the Budokai and Goku returns.

The video quality was pretty awful since the colors were super dark and there was TONS of (non-natural) grain, dirt, specks, and actual hairballs on the screen. I would say better than fansubs and worse than FUNi's old masters. It's almost like the masters IC used came from a cat's litter box.

I ended up recording everything from where I started up to the middle of GT. Sadly, I tossed those tapes away years ago.

Really? I remember GT having good video quality.

Maybe nostalgia is blinding me.

In some of your AMV's you use International Channel footage I think.

[Castor Troy]

I caught DBZ on the IC back in the fall of 2001 when it was airing the Buu arc starting with the episode where everyone goes to the Budokai and Goku returns.

The video quality was pretty awful since the colors were super dark and there was TONS of (non-natural) grain, dirt, specks, and actual hairballs on the screen. I would say better than fansubs and worse than FUNi's old masters. It's almost like the masters IC used came from a cat's litter box.

I ended up recording everything from where I started up to the middle of GT. Sadly, I tossed those tapes away years ago.

Really? I remember GT having good video quality.

Maybe nostalgia is blinding me.

In some of your AMV's you use International Channel footage I think.

I used it in my last classic video, The Unknown Darkness.

Back then, I thought it was pretty decent quality and I didn't have the corresponding FUNi tapes/dvds to work with.