Super concludes on Spacetoon Go - A look back on the Arabic dubs

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

So, as of yesterday Dragon Ball Super has concluded on Spacetoon Go. This means for the first time ever Arabic fans have had a complete run of any Dragon Ball anime, with the exception of episode 69, which was skipped for unknown reasons.

With that, lets look back at the previous Arabic dubs of Dragon Ball.

The first Arabic dubs in this franchise I'm aware of is the Kugu the Adventurer trilogy, this includes the prototype dubs of the first 3 Dragon Ball movies Legend of Shenron, Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle and Mystical Great Adventure, renamed to Kugu the Adventurer, Kugu the Adventurer Part 2, and Kugu the Adventurer Part 3 in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. Sometime in the middle of this trilogy's release during the summer of 2002 original Dragon Ball was first seen on TV in the Arabic regions, 52 episodes were dubbed by Syria's Venus Centre and broadcast on Spacetoon, a year later in September 2003 Dragon Ball Z followed with 54 episodes. Not unlike Funimation skipping most of the original series, although not to the same extent. From what I've heard episodes were aired twice a week and there was several reruns.

During Dragon Ball Z's run on Spacetoon the logo from original Dragon Ball was used for the first 12 episodes with the Z placed at the bottom, although later episodes used a different logo and replaced it in both the show and any official merchandise. Apparently Dragon Ball Z was more successful than its predecessors and ranked 3rd in Spacetoon Magazine's monthly "Top 10 Toons" polls, although its likely, much like in the western world original Dragon Ball did relatively well, and wasn't the bomb a lot of fans may assume. Dragon Ball Z ended after 54 episodes, leaving many fans unhappy, but 7 years later Spacetoon's now defunct sister channel, turned late-night programming-block "SpacePower" targeting an older demographic renewed the dub for a second season in February 2010, picking up where it left off. This new dub aired as "Dragon Ball Z 2", and began on February 6, 2010. Although there was a promo for new dubbed episodes with Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation that ended with "Coming Soon" on screen, but once again Dragon Ball Z abruptly ended the following year at episode 104. The remaining 187 episodes are undubbed as Spacetoon never asked Venus Centre to resume.

Dragon Ball GT never aired, and was probably never dubbed. There has been promotional material for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, which used GT stock pictures.

There was an Arabic dub of Kai, although it aired later than other dubs (sadly to this day, still earlier than Canada's dub), which was announced on February 13, 2015 when SpaceToon celebrated its 15th birthday by launching big recent titles of the time. Kai's Arabic dub premiered around April of that year, but as has been tradition only the first 54 episodes were dubbed and aired, they continued in reruns until the premiere of Super in 2020. There was a commercial for Spacetoon's SVOD platform Spacetoon Go that contained a short clip from the Cell arc featuring Super Saiyan Vegeta, leading to speculation about Kai's return, which prompted Spacetoon to silently delete any trace of the commercial from their social media accounts.

Venus Centre's Facebook page posted a teaser for the Arabic dub of Dragon Ball Super on February 9, 2020, although the announcement gained a mixed response from fans who were skeptical of how the show was handled. With the history we've seen thus far for Spacetoon and the Arabic dubs though, its hard to blame them. Arabic Super was to premiere on March 22, 2020 around Spacetoon's 20th anniversary, and be available the next day on the Spacetoon Go app with the launch of a toy range in the middle east, but episode 1 streamed on Spacetoon Go two days before the intended TV broadcast. From March 25, 2020 until September the COVID pandemic frequently delayed new episodes with Super's original timeslot being replaced by several shows like Power Rangers: Dino Charge, 2005 Doraemon, and Detective Conan. At least 76 episodes were aired during Super's run on Spacetoon, with the aforementioned skip of episode 69.

Several Algerian channels like Chams TV began airing the Arabic dub of Super by July 2020 with fans questioning whether or not these channels had the rights to air Super because Spacetoon never stated it would air anywhere else. Spacetoon responded to fan enquiries confirming they had no prior knowledge, nor gave approval for Super to air on other regional channels, and saying these other Algerian broadcasts were illegal. For this reason Siuper ceased to air in early August.

In terms of home video, Al-Wadi Co and later Joy Art Production either authored or distributed the DVD releases, which contained the Arabic dub, and distribution was handled from the United Arab Emirates. The first 52 of the 54 episodes of Dragon Ball Z seen on TV were released on DVD. The Al-Wadi Co DVDs are also said to have hand drawn covers featuring characters with neon skin that looked bootleg.

So for any Arabic fans that watched Dragon Ball what are your memories of watching these dubs on Spacetoon? Was it worth the long waits to get new episodes? Did it get frustrating at times? Would love to hear from you all. Feel free to correct any info I've gathered too, as I'm not from the Arabic world myself and only learned all of this second hand.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I heard they even aired the Arale episode now.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I heard they even aired the Arale episode now.

Correct, it was this day one week ago I believe. It was streamed on Go and later aired. One theory I've heard is that because Venus Centre dubbed the Arale time they needed extra time so pushed it back until the rest of Super was dubbed.