Blood in Y7 FV broadcasts of Dragon Ball

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Is anyone aware of any examples of this?

I heard that Telemundo did this, and Nicktoons did for the movies? Maybe Dragon Ball Z on Toonami US too? I recall the inhouse dub being less censored than the Saban dub.

[Yellow Flower King]

I wonder if GT also had blood on Nicktoons...

[TechExpert2021]

With the exception of animated or moving blood (like Cell crushing Artificial Human 16's head) and blood deemed too excessive for a TV-Y7 FV rating (some scenes of one of Bardock's crewmates in the DBZ Bardock TV special), blood in the Cartoon Network/Toonami airings of the FUNimation in-house dubs of DB, DBZ, and DBGT was left intact. Ditto for the YTV airings (even for the Westwood dub of DBZ and the Blue Water dubs of DB and DBGT), hence the PG rating. Even the heavily edited TV3 airings of DBZ in New Zealand have the blood left intact (outside of scenes that show blood that were cut only in these airings), despite the G rating.

The FUNimation/BLT dub of DB, the Saban/FUNimation/Ocean dub of DBZ (additionally, all YTV airings of the Saban dub of DBZ have a C7 rating, the Canadian equivalent to the American TV-Y7 rating), and the edited FUNimation dub of DBZ Kai on Nicktoons, CW4Kids Toonzai, and Vortexx are the only English dubs of Dragon Ball with almost all or all of the blood edited out or removed. The Nicktoons airings of the FUNimation in-house dub of DBGT are the same as the original Cartoon Network/Toonami airings, but only with additional edits and scene cuts.

The Cartoon Network airings of FUNimation's Ultimate Uncut dub of DBZ were obviously uncut, so blood, even in extreme cases like Goku and Raditz being pierced by Piccolo's Makankosappo, was shown with no edits made to it. Also, unlike the previous FUNimation dubs of the DB franchise that came before this dub, the Ultimate Uncut dub of DBZ is rated TV-PG, which would be carried over to the official home video and streaming releases of DBZ in the United States.

[MasenkoHA]

Yes blood was mostly left as is in Funimation’s edited dub of Dragon Ball Z as it aired on Toonami provided it stayed static and could be passed off as scratches. BS&P didn’t care until the blood spurted or got coughed up or was too excessive.


I believe the Dragon Ball 86 anime was a lot more censored on the violence, apparently even Goku killing King Piccolo was censored despite the scene being left untouched in flashbacks from Dragon Ball Z

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I wonder if GT also had blood on Nicktoons...

If it did it would have been as much as what was shown on Toonami US since Nicktoons aired the same cut.

[WittyUsername]

Cartoon Network in general had fairly lax broadcasting standards compared to stuff like Kids WB and Fox Kids.

[TechExpert2021]

The FUNimation/BLT dub of DB, the Saban/FUNimation/Ocean dub of DBZ (additionally, all YTV airings of the Saban dub of DBZ have a C7 rating, the Canadian equivalent to the American TV-Y7 rating), and the edited FUNimation dub of DBZ Kai on Nicktoons, CW4Kids Toonzai, and Vortexx are the only English dubs of Dragon Ball with almost all or all of the blood edited out or removed.

Minor correction to my own post: it's C8, not C7.

Cartoon Network in general had fairly lax broadcasting standards compared to stuff like Kids WB and Fox Kids.

That's because the FCC does not regulate programming content on cable and satellite networks as it does for programming content on traditional over-the-air broadcast networks and syndicated TV stations, hence why English dubs made for broadcast on cable networks have less or no censorship (depending on the network, its standards, and time slot) compared to English dubs originally made for broadcast on American syndication.

[Yellow Flower King]

One thing I have to praise Ocean (Because they were the ones who edited Z Kai, even Funi's take on it. They didnt do 4kids tho.) is that they knew kids wouldnt buy the battles were brutal and grueling without some sort of indicator so blood gets turned into dirt most of the time which is a good solution.

[Saiya6Cit]

Most likely it is censored.

Honestly I prefer that they add those black rectangles on top of the ¨parts¨ (either bloody or naked) than having them to remove the scene altogether.

In Mexico they would air for example the Videl fight, bloody and all, until 2022 and then since 2023 they did something stupid, the fight was about to start, they went on commercials and when they came back, the fight was over

Dragon Ball should not be censored; I am sick of it. Life is violent and bloody, what is wrong with reflecting that in a cartoon? There are wars and rumors of wars all around the world and people is scared of some painted blood... ridiculous.

[TechExpert2021]

Dragon Ball should not be censored; I am sick of it. Life is violent and bloody, what is wrong with reflecting that in a cartoon? There are wars and rumors of wars all around the world and people is scared of some painted blood... ridiculous.

There is a long-running stigma and perception in the United States and Canada that animation is solely for children, called the "animation age ghetto".

In addition, Japan has different cultural standards of what's appropriate for children compared to other countries, particularly those outside East Asia.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Dragon Ball should not be censored; I am sick of it. Life is violent and bloody, what is wrong with reflecting that in a cartoon? There are wars and rumors of wars all around the world and people is scared of some painted blood... ridiculous.

There is a long-running stigma and perception in the United States and Canada that animation is solely for children, called the "animation age ghetto".

In addition, Japan has different cultural standards of what's appropriate for children compared to other countries, particularly those outside East Asia.

It's very prevalent to in Ireland, particularly amongst the over 50s and rural Ireland. I've always found it kind of sad. Theres so many great animated movies and series out there, but people close themselves off to all of it because of some dumb, shallow, ignorant stereotype.

At the end of the day animation is just another tool for telling a story, and a very useful one because storytelling is art so the more ways the creative minds have to express their vision the better.

[AlexSketchy04]

Because blood was static, the issue was when it was not, which in that case it needed to be painted over

Exceptions being the BLT dub and the Ocean dub, although there was a slip up in the scene where Chichi cuts the Dinosaur head, and the episode where Gohan rescues the dinosaur, not sure if to count the Arlia episode

[TheBigBoy]

The Saban/Ocean dub ("Seasons 1 and 2") of DBZ has a few instances of blood I remember. Goku wiping some from his mouth during the Raditz fight (though it's less than what it was uncensore) and there's a tiny bit on Tien's mouth during the Nappa fight (probably an oversight). There was also lots of black dried blood caked on character's faces during some of the fights.

As other's have said, the airings on Toonami post complete Funi takeover allowed blood provided it wasn't excessive or flying off the characters.

[Yellow Flower King]

The Saban/Ocean dub ("Seasons 1 and 2") of DBZ has a few instances of blood I remember. Goku wiping some from his mouth during the Raditz fight (though it's less than what it was uncensore) and there's a tiny bit on Tien's mouth during the Nappa fight (probably an oversight). There was also lots of black dried blood caked on character's faces during some of the fights.

As other's have said, the airings on Toonami post complete Funi takeover allowed blood provided it wasn't excessive or flying off the characters.

It took until Naruto that blood could drip, squirt and flow. With limitations but way more than DBZ.