The Complete List of Broadcast Dates for Dragon Ball in Germany

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The Complete List of Broadcast Dates for Dragon Ball in Germany

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri Sep 26, 2025 11:48 am

As with my threads for the UK, Ireland and Finland here is one for the German fans to document the debut dates of every episode of the series in your country.

The classic anime trilogy, which was shown on RTL II was aired on the following dates:

Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball Z
Episodes 253 and 254 were initially skipped because of the Erfurt shooting, which took place on April 26, 2002 and the two episodes that were meant to be aired featured a shooter on the run in a large city.

Dragon Ball GT
Last edited by Dragon Ball Ireland on Fri Sep 26, 2025 11:56 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: The Complete List of Broadcast Dates for Dragon Ball in Germany

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri Sep 26, 2025 11:51 am

Following on from RTL II (which reran the original series in 2023) the revival era content aired on ProSieben Max on the dates listed below:

Dragon Ball Kai

Dragon Ball Super
Do you have any info about international non-English broadcasts about the Dragon Ball anime or manga translations/editions? Please message me. Researching for a future book with Dragon Ball scholar Derek Padula :thumbup:

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Re: The Complete List of Broadcast Dates for Dragon Ball in Germany

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri Sep 26, 2025 11:53 am

Do you have any info about international non-English broadcasts about the Dragon Ball anime or manga translations/editions? Please message me. Researching for a future book with Dragon Ball scholar Derek Padula :thumbup:

Check out my blogs https://dragonballireland.wordpress.com/ and https://dragonballinternational.wordpress.com/

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Re: The Complete List of Broadcast Dates for Dragon Ball in Germany

Post by Sani007 » Fri Sep 26, 2025 1:50 pm

I remember when DBZ episodes 253–254 weren’t aired; back then I was also watching it on RTL II. (Though I don’t speak German. :) ) But in the case of GT, why did they skip episodes?

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Re: The Complete List of Broadcast Dates for Dragon Ball in Germany

Post by TheRed259 » Fri Sep 26, 2025 4:04 pm

Nice collection of information.

Do you also know the release dates of the old Dragon Ball/Z films?

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Re: The Complete List of Broadcast Dates for Dragon Ball in Germany

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri Sep 26, 2025 4:55 pm

Sani007 wrote: Fri Sep 26, 2025 1:50 pm I remember when DBZ episodes 253–254 weren’t aired; back then I was also watching it on RTL II. (Though I don’t speak German. :) ) But in the case of GT, why did they skip episodes?
I don't know if an official explanation was ever given, although I think fans suspected it was because of concerns over the violence.
TheRed259 wrote: Fri Sep 26, 2025 4:04 pm Nice collection of information.

Do you also know the release dates of the old Dragon Ball/Z films?
Thanks.

I'm not too sure about the old movies other than Dragon Ball Z movie 13, which was released theatrically on February 13, 2003.

The only movie I'm aware of airing on TV was Resurrection 'F', which was broadcast on Prosieben Maxx on April 7, 2017.
Do you have any info about international non-English broadcasts about the Dragon Ball anime or manga translations/editions? Please message me. Researching for a future book with Dragon Ball scholar Derek Padula :thumbup:

Check out my blogs https://dragonballireland.wordpress.com/ and https://dragonballinternational.wordpress.com/

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Re: The Complete List of Broadcast Dates for Dragon Ball in Germany

Post by Omori » Sat Sep 27, 2025 12:02 am

Nice overview! :clap:
Let me add some notes from back in the day...
Sani007 wrote: Fri Sep 26, 2025 1:50 pm I remember when DBZ episodes 253–254 weren’t aired; back then I was also watching it on RTL II. (Though I don’t speak German. :) ) But in the case of GT, why did they skip episodes?
To explain the GT broadcast in Germany we have to go back a few years before.
DB and DBZ were already based on the French version (and had some cuts here and there) even before it was dubbed (like Freeza second form "stabbing" Kuririn).
Towards the end of the first broadcast there were already extra cuts by the broadcaster.
And for the "rerun" in summer 2002 there were even more cuts, even edits.
This infamous edit even happened years before DBZ Kai did something similar:
Image
The viewership dropped comparing to the first broadcast and the channel stopped the rerun after Cell.
Note: DBZ had a evening slot at 7PM back then.

In 2003 DBZ returned with the Buu saga in an afternoon timeslot with 253-254 finally being aired, but overall again lots of more cuts since the first broadcast. There were final announcements that GT should be coming in 2003 as well, but the channel remained silent. It took until 2006, but even before the broadcast there were rumors that it may be heavily cut.
Seemingly they started cutting scenes away before even dubbing it - even 13 episodes were censored that much, that they skipped them entirely. Plus, dialogue censorship to avoid words like "killing". Years later a home release came out, but as "destroyed" as the broadcast. A German uncut version of GT basically doesn't exist.
They also created longer recaps to explain a bit about what happened in these skipped episodes, but not really showing, especially seen in Episode 64. Basically, Gogeta is mentioned in one line, but not even shown.

Around 2005 the TV channel "Tele5" got DBZ and they showed it mostly in the most "uncut version" available.

The website "animedigital.de" made very detailed cut reports and news about announcements/statements from the TV channel etc., but unfortunately the site is no longer online. Web archive has some stuff, but certainly lots of images as missing. But at least some text. Overall could be a great source to gather information from that time.
https://web.archive.org/web/20070108170 ... igital.de/

Yeah, if you have any specific questions, let me know. I lived through it :lol:

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