Question about Dragon Ball’s original run in Japan

[MasenkoHA]

I’m aware that Japanese television doesn’t do the American approach of “go on hiatus every so often and just rerun old episodes in the interim” and just runs the series straight through with very few breaks that last only a week or two in between. But did Dragon Ball have reruns during its original airing at all? Like on an affiliate of Fujitv or on FujiTv at a different time slot? Aside from the movies, the show didn’t get any home video release until 2003 so “buy the VHS Tapes to catch up” wasn’t an option. Was it just expected if new audience members wanted to see the old stuff they missed they could just buy the Tankobans in stores and read those?

[Vegeta th3 4th]

My understanding is that the show was made to promote the manga, so if someone missed an episode or a few, they'd just go read the manga to catch up, and preferably get ahead.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

But did Dragon Ball have reruns during its original airing at all? Like on an affiliate of Fujitv or on FujiTv at a different time slot?

All the series, to my understanding were rerun on regional channels while they were nationally syndicated on Fuji TV, but these smaller syndicates couldn't air the current episodes. This would mean some networks would be a week behind the most recent episode, others could be months behind, and so on. For example TV Yamaguchi aired Dragon Ball Z episodes three weeks after their debut on Fuji TV.

I don't know about the main Fuji TV (which was the national syndication network) having different timeslots though. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't because Dragon Ball was (unfortunately) seen as a disposable kids show, and as Vegeta th3 4th said primarily intended to be a glorified commercial for the manga.

[Saiya6Cit]

There were no official VHS but I am sure many had VCR to record some episodes (if you don't know what a VCR is ask someone older)

.I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't because Dragon Ball was (unfortunately) seen as a disposable kids show, and as Vegeta th3 4th said primarily intended to be a glorified commercial for the manga.

Oh, I did not know any of that... and I called myself an otaku when I was 14

I never considered the manga being a commercial for the anime because in America TV is everything, I mean some people in USA would do shootings just to appear on TV, and people who were on TV would become idols. Plus the TV chains make great profit on TV commercials. Do you mean to tell me that the sales for the manga were higher than the ratings on TV? and that they would make more money by selling manga than by selling publicity spaces during Dragon Ball airing?

If that is the case, it never ceases to amuse me how different western and asian cultures are. Particularly in Mexico the majority of people barely ever reads, I guess that is why this shocks me a bit.