So here is the history of Dragon Ball in North America for the classic 1986-1997 anime trilogy.
DRAGON BALL
1989-1993: First 5 episodes with Harmony Gold dub premiered January 1-5, 1990 on WGPR, WXON (in Detroit) and Philly 57-WGBS-TV (in Philadelphia) with reruns the week after. Last known rerun of these episodes was February 1990. The show later aired between January 5, 1992 and December 11, 1994 on Nippon Golden Network in Hawaii in Japanese with English subs.
1994-1995: Dragon Ball premiered again on syndicate networks with the earliest known airing being September 9, 1995 on WUHF, virtual channel 31, a Fox-affiliated station in Rochester, New York, owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group from Hunt Valley, Maryland with the BLT dub.
1996-2000: BLT dub premiered in Canada March 23, 1996 on YTV's Brain Wash block.
2001-2002: Funimation's inhouse dub premiered August 20, 2001 on Cartoon Network's Toonami block. The first 13 episodes concluded on September 5, 2001 with episodes 14-28 following between September 6, 2001 and September 26th the same year. From September 13, 2001 to September 28, 2001 two episodes aired per weekday. Episodes 1-13 were released on DVD by Trimark on October 24, 2000. Episodes 29-45 premiered between February 11, 2002 and March 5th on Toonami's Midnight Run followed by episodes 46-57 and 58-67 from March 6th-October 24th and October 28th-November 12th the same year respectively. The final batches of episodes in 2002 were episodes 68-83 between November 13th and December 4th and episodes 84-101 between December 5th and December 31st. Toonami became a three-hour block on June 3, 2002 with Dragon Ball still featuring as part of their lineup. Another special block Dragon Ball was a part of was Toonami's 'Super Saturday' with the first airing being June 8, 2002. The first run on Super Saturdays concluded on December 21, 2002 with a second lasting from January 11, 2003 to February 22, 2003.
2003-2006: After February 28, 2003 Dragon Ball took a hiatus from Toonami when the block reduced its programming by one hour, but it returned on September 1, 2003. Cartoon Network held another block known as Saturday Video Entertainment System where Dragon Ball was shown from March 1, 2003 to May 24, 2003, and was the first time since 1996 the original series aired outside of Toonami in the US. Dragon Ball premiered on YTV a second time on September 1, 2003 this time with the Blue Water dub and airing 5 new episodes per week taking short breaks between September 19th and 29th as well as October 24th and November 3rd. In the US the Piccolo arc aired around this time, split into two batches on Cartoon Network with episodes 102-122 and episodes 123-153 airing between September 1st and October 6th and October 7th and December 1st respectively. There was at least one rerun of this arc in 2004 and a third run before Toonami reverted back to the second half of the Tournament saga, jumping ahead to the end of the Tien saga and then being removed from the schedule. At the beginning of 2004 the first episode of Dragon Ball aired on Toonami was episode 118 on New Years Day. Episode 56 of the Blue Water dub premiered on YTV January 5, 2004 after over a month's break. Another long break followed between episode 68 and 69 making their Canadian debuts on January 21, 2004 and October 4th the same year respectively. From this point 4 new episodes were premiering on YTV a week and the series took another short break between episodes 112 and 113 on December 16th and 27th respectively. The same day episode 56 premiered on YTV Toonami started airing original Dragon Ball from 119 in the US. From March 29, 2004 to April 15, 2004 Toonami held quadruple bills of original Dragon Ball, 2 episodes of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. On the final day of this run Dragon Ball episode 101 was rerun. This marked the final rerun of original Dragon Ball in the US to this date and the Dragon Ball Z TV series prior to the debut of the Ultimate Uncut episodes.
2007-2010: Funimation released five season sets between September 15, 2009 and July 27, 2010.
2011-2026: Around April 2013 Dragon Ball became available to stream, both dubbed and subbed on Hulu.
DRAGON BALL Z
1994-1995: Dragon Ball Z premiered December 18, 1994 in Japanese with English subtitles on Nippon Golden Network in Hawaii with reruns during the week. Over 100 episodes aired.
1996-1998: First season on English-speaking US TV comprised of 26 episodes but took 3 breaks. Premiered between September 7 and 14, 1996 on affiliate networks. Episodes 2-11 (10 was skipped) then premiered weekly between September 20, 1996 and November 15, 1996 followed by episodes 12-19 from January 3, 1997 to February 22, 1997 and episodes 20-26 from April 12, 1997 to May 24th the same year. On August 19, 1997 Dragon Ball Z premiered on YTV in Canada and on (October 20, 1997) it premiered on Teletoon. The US Season 2, which consisted of episodes 27-53 also took 3 breaks and most episodes premiered in pairs of two during hour-long timeslots with the exception of episodes 34, 46 and 51, which premiered on October 4, 1997, January 31, 1998 and May 16, 1998 respectively. For the remainder of this season episodes 27-45 aired between September 13, 1997 and November 15th that year, episodes 46-50 between January 31, 1998 and February 14th and finally episode 51, which made its debut on May 16, 1998 and episodes 52-53 premiering a week later. The 3-episode version of movie 3 aired on syndication with the first episode on November 15, 1997 and the following 2 episodes one week later.
Dragon Ball Z began airing in Japanese without subs on The International Channel in early 1997 and was shown Sunday nights with reruns in the early hours of Wednesday. On June 23, 1998 The International Channel overtook Funimation's English dub in their broadcast. The English dub was produced by Funimation and outsourced to Ocean Productions for voicework. There were initially two seasons, which covered episodes 1-26 and episodes 27-53 in addition to the 3-episode version of movie 3. Episode 10 was skipped during the broadcasts on syndicated networks but premiered on Cartoon Network's Toonami block when they acquired the series. The final time a new Dragon Ball Z episode aired on syndication was the weekend of May 23, 1998. The premier on Cartoon Network's Toonami block was August 31, 1998 with an episode airing every weekday, except some Fridays. Episode 10 made its English dubbed debut on September 14, 1998. The final episode of the original run of these two seasons known by fans as "the Saban dub" premiered on Cartoon Network November 11, 1998.
1999-2000: The three-episode version of movie 3 premiered on Cartoon Network January 29, 1999. Sometime in early 1999 (possibly between March and June) Dragon Ball Z returned to YTV on their afternoon programming block The Zone, initially with the Saban dub. The Ocean Group managed these airings and the show featured a new OP composed by Tom Keenlyside, John Mitchell and David Iris. Funimation's inhouse dub, which replaced the Ocean cast with local actors premiered for the first time in the US on September 13, 1999 with the first 2 episodes. Episodes 56-60 then aired between September 14th and September 20th of that year. These episodes made up the "Captain Ginyu saga" in the US. The Freeza Saga (episodes 61-93) followed between September 21st and November 3rd. The next year saw the premier of the Freeza Saga on YTV on February 28, 2000, the debut of the Garlic Junior (episodes 94-103), Trunks (episodes 104-111), Android (episodes 112-125), Imperfect Cell (episodes 126-138), Perfect Cell (episodes 139-151) and Cell Games Sagas (episodes 152-180), which all premiered on Cartoon Network between April 8th and September 1st, September 4th and September 13th, September 14th and October 3rd, October 4th and October 20th, October 23rd and November 8th and November 9th and December 29th respectively. At some point reruns began from the start of the current season during seasonal breaks on Cartoon Network rather than starting from the beginning of the series.
In terms of DVD releases Funimation (outsourcing distribution duties to Pioneer for episodes 1-53) released 16 "Series" of singles, which contained 3-5 episodes per disc. The "Saiyan Conflict" and "The Namek Saga" DVDs were released between April 13, 1999 and August 7, 1999 and August 10, 1999 and December 7, 1999 respectively. The first two series were edited dub-only releases due to the fact Funimation condensed 67 episodes into 53 for syndication purposes. Funimation finally released their inhouse dub on DVD June 20, 2000 with two volumes containing episodes 54-60. Dragon Ball Z is last known to have aired on Nippon Golden Network August 8, 2000 when it was being broadcast Mondays and Tuesdays. Season 4 in Canada, which began with the episode Frieza's Counterattack premiered on YTV September 4, 2000, although there was a two week wait for the following episode, and from then 2 new episodes premiered every Monday until October 30th where there was only one. On September 26, 2000 the two volumes of the "Trunks" series (episodes 103-110) of DVDs was released. Towards the end of the year in Canada 1 new episode was premiering on YTV Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, although there were exceptions like November 23, 2000 where 3 new episodes premiered.
2001-2003: The week of March 12, 2001 4 episodes premiered on YTV in Canada followed by 3 on the Friday, then 4 episodes each of the two weeks after before Gohan's Desperate Plea aired on April 2, 2001, which was the last Funimation inhouse episode that ever debut on Canadian TV. The "Androids" series (episodes 111-124) of DVDs was released between March 13, 2001 and May 8, 2001. Funimation's DVDs continued with the "Frieza" series, which had its first volume released on May 8, 2001 and the last on December 11th the same year. During this time the "World Tournament" series (episodes 195-204) was also released between June 26, 2001 and July 31, 2001. The Great Saiyaman (episodes 181-195), World Tournament (episodes 196-205) and Babidi Sagas (episodes 206-217) all premiered in full on Cartoon Network's Toonami block in 2001 and were broadcast between September 10th and September 27th, September 28th and October 12th and October 15th and November 1st respectively. The DVD releases that year wrapped up with the "Babidi" series between October 2nd and October 30th. On Cartoon Network the Majin Boo Saga was split in two halves as episodes 218-223 aired between November 5, 2001 and November 13, 2001 followed by episodes 224-239 from September 16th to October 10 the year after. During the near year long break between episode 237 and 238 airing on November 13, 2001 and September 16, 2002 respectively reruns started from the Otherworld Tournament about twice. Sometime in the next year or two Saban dub episodes are said to have rerun. The next year also saw the release of the "Garlic Jr" DVDs, which were released from January 8th to February 26th. The "Imperfect Cell" series (episodes 125-137) of DVDs began concurrently with Garlic Jr with the first volume released on January 29, 2002 and the last hitting store shelves on May 14, 2002. In addition the "Majin Buu" (episodes 217-238) and "Fusion" (episodes 239-260) series of DVDs were released during this time between January 29th and June 11th and June 11th and October 22nd respectively. Later that year the "Cell Games" series (episodes 151-179) of DVDs began but only the first volume was released and the remainder would not come until 2004 and 2005. Dragon Ball Z concluded on the International Channel November 3, 2002. The final two "Sagas" on Cartoon Network, which were the "Fusion Saga" (episodes 240-261) and the "Kid Buu Saga" (episodes 262-276) made their debut between October 14th and November 18 and November 19, 2002 and April 7, 2003 respectively. Only the first episode of the Kid Buu Saga premiered in 2002, the remainder followed between March 17, 2003 and April 7, 2003. Throughout the remainder of 2002 and the early part of 2003 the "Kid Buu" series of DVDs was also released between November 26, 2002 and March 11, 2003. Cartoon Network did not rerun the Kid Buu saga more than once as by that point they had moved on to Dragon Ball GT. Dragon Ball Z began a complete rerun on YTV on September 1, 2003.
2004-2006: The Dragon Ball Z "features" ran every Friday in September 2003 on Toonami US. Dates for the specials premiering are as follows:From March 29, 2004 to April 15, 2004 Toonami aired 2 episodes of Dragon Ball Z. On the final day of this run the Dragon Ball Z episodes 236-237 were aired. This marked the final rerun of the Dragon Ball Z TV series prior to the debut of the Ultimate Uncut episodes. Reruns on Toonami around this time only went as far as the Cell Games. Funimation resumed releasing the "Cell Games" series of DVDs with volumes 49-56 being released between
- Bardock : The Father of Goku : September 5, 2003
- History of Trunks Trunks : September 12, 2003
January 27, 2004 and February 8, 2005. The "Great Saiyaman" series (episodes 180-194) followed between March 15th and November 15th the same year. Dates for the Dragon Ball Z specials reruns were as follows:The "Ultimate Uncut dub", which comprised of episodes 1-67 premiered on Cartoon Network between June 14, 2005 and October 10th the same year. Episodes 1-9 premiered on the Toonami block between October 15th that year and January 14, 2006 on Saturday nights, but on January 21, 2006 the Saban dub aired instead with the episode Escape From Piccolo. From October 2005 a new episode aired every Saturday except for the weeks of October 22, November 19, November 26, December 24 and December 31. Further episodes of Funimation's edited dub aired included A Fight Against Gravity... Catch Bubbles! on February 11, 2006 and Mighty Blast of Rage on April 15th the same year where the series carried on until the episode Battle in Kami's Lookout on June 3rd where Toonami stopped airing Dragon Ball Z on Saturdays, although movies 12 and 13 followed on November 11th and December 2nd respectively. A Fight Against Gravity... Catch Bubbles! was the last time Dragon Ball Z aired at nights until April 15th where it ran for another 4 weeks before another break and picking up again on June 3rd. There was more shifting around of different dubs at this time as A Fight Against Gravity... Catch Bubbles! was the last episode to air in February only to be followed up by Mighty Blast of Rage in April and stopping again after only 3 episodes of the Garlic Junior saga. 9 DVD releases containing 3 episodes each also came from Funimation between April 12, 2005 and May 16, 2006. This was the last release of DVD singles for Dragon Ball Z in North America. The airings for Z episodes 28-67 differed slightly from the uncut redub seen on the Remastered Season Sets (known by fans as 'the orange bricks') as Burter had a different voice actor at times.
- Bardock : The Father of Goku : January 16, 2004 and May 8, 2004
- History of Trunks Trunks : January 23, 2004 and May 15, 2004
2007-2009: Dragon Ball Z remained on Toonami in reruns until 2008 with the final reran episode The Fight is Over being shown one last time on March 22, 2008, but just over two years later the franchise returned to US TV, albeit under new broadcasters. The Dragon Ball Z Season DVDs (known by fans as "the orange bricks" were released between February 6, 2007 and May 19, 2009, marking the first time all 291 episodes were available for purchase uncut as well as dubbed and subbed in English-speaking countries. This release was also the debut of a new audio track featuring Funimation's inhouse dub with the Shunsuke Kikuchi score. The first Dragon Box followed this line of DVDs on November 17, 2009.
2010-2011: On January 15, 2011 Hulu began streaming Dragon Ball Z with 1 episode being added every week, although it left the service around August. The remaining 6 Dragon Boxes hit store shelves with the final volume, which was Box 7 in the US being released on September 13, 2011. The Dragon Boxes were followed by the first Blu-Ray release of Dragon Ball Z in the US (known by fans as "the level sets") with two volumes released on November 8th and December 13th of 2011.
2012-2014: On January 26, 2012 Funimation suspended work on the level sets, including the third volume, which was set for release on March 27th the same year citing "technical challenges" of restoring from film frame by frame. Dragon Ball Z was still streaming on Hulu around this time with 5 episodes being added every week. Nicktoons aired Bardock - The Father of Goku and History of Trunks on February 23, 2012 and February 8, 2013 respectively. Nicktoons reran History of Trunks on May 12, 2013. In June 2013 Funimation put out a survey asking fans if they would prefer a 4:3 release or another cropped 16:9 release. The next Blu-Ray release, which like the orange bricks was all 291 episodes retroactively packaged as 9 seasons were released between December 31, 2013 and December 9, 2014.
2015-2019: Funimation released a box set for the Dragon Ball Z Blu-Ray seasons on November 14, 2017.
In early 2019 Funimation announced to produce the new 30th anniversary Blu-Ray collection they would need 2,500 pre-orders. The 37-disc box set was released November 5th that year.
2020-2026: Funimation's 30th anniversary Blu-Rays for Dragon Ball Z were repackaged into steelbooks with the first releasing November 3, 2020 and the last on March 2, 2021. This was the most recent 4:3 release in North America as the releases that followed reverted back to using the 16:9 cropped discs. The first of these were the three Walmart exclusive boxsets of seasons 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9, which were all released on February 15, 2022. Crunchyroll then released a Complete Series Blu-Ray for Dragon Ball Z on
May 11, 2024, which also contained the 16:9 discs.
DRAGON BALL GT
Thanks goes to TheRed259 and everyone who contributed info about the US and Canada for inspiring this thread.2000-2002: US premier was November 10, 2002 on the International Channel.
2003-2005: Prior to the TV debut episodes 17-40 of Funimation's English dub of Dragon Ball GT were released on uncut, bilingual DVDs between April 15, 2003 and October 14, 2003. The recap episode A Grand Problem was included on these releases. Dragon Ball GT premiered on Cartoon Network November 7, 2003 with A Grand Problem and from then a new episode premiered every week until January 29, 2005 with two breaks in between. The Baby Saga was split in two two halves with episodes 17-30 airing between
November 7, 2003 and February 13, 2004, and episodes 31-40 between May 8, 2004 and July 3, 2004. The DVD releases continued with volumes 9-15, which were released between December 30, 2003 and May 11, 2004. Dragon Ball GT's run on The International Channel concluded in early 2004. The "Super Android 17 Saga" had its debut between July 10, 2004 and August 21st the same year. Funimation later released the first 16 episodes as "The Lost Episodes" in 5 DVD volumes between July 13, 2004 and February 8, 2005. The "Shadow Dragon Saga", like the Baby Saga was split in two with episodes 48-50 and 51-64 premiering from August 28, 2004 to September 11, 2004 and October 23, 2004 to January 29, 2005 respectively. From March 29, 2004 to April 15, 2004 Toonami aired Dragon Ball GT again. On the final day of this run episode 27 was aired. Dragon Ball GT was aired in single timeslots in early 2005 but was changed to a double bill from March 19th until April 16, 2005. After initially being skipped the "Black Star Dragon Ball Saga" finally aired between February 5, 2005 until April 16, 2005. 1 new episode of the Black Star Dragon Ball Saga aired very week with the exception of March 26, 2005, April 2, 2005 and April 9, 2005 where 2 episodes aired each week (9-10, 11-12 and 13-14 respectively). Funimation began releasing box sets starting with a collection of the DVDs containing episodes 17-31 on October 18, 2005.
2006-2011: Funimation released more box sets with one containing the singles for episodes 32-47 on February 14, 2006 and 48-64 on June 13, 2006. The "Lost Episodes" box set released on November 13, 2007. The Season Sets followed with seasons one and two being released on DVD November 11, 2008 and February 10, 2009 respectively.
2012-2015: Second US TV debut was on Nicktoons January 16, 2012 with episodes 1-5, episodes 6-16 were released between January 18th and February 22nd the same year. Episodes 17-40 were then released weekly between March 1st and July 26th. Episodes 41-42, 43-44, 45-46 and 47 were then released on July 30th, July 31st, August 1st and August 2nd respectively. Episodes 48-60 were released weekly between September 7th and November 30th. The final episodes aired on December 11th (61), 12th (62) and 13th (63-64). TV special aired twice, first on December 30, 2012, then on August 17, 2014. Dragon Ball GT was removed from Nicktoons the week of April 17, 2013.
2020-2026: Crunchyroll released a new Complete Series DVD set with their own branding on February 14, 2023. In November 2025 Dragon Ball GT returned to Hulu in the US, albeit with the English dub and Mark Menza score only.
