DRAGON BALL
DRAGON BALL Z1997-1998: Dragon Ball arrives in Hungary December 3, 1997 and ended on July 8, 1998 airing on RTL Klub with the Hungarian dub recorded at Echo Szinkron Kft for AB Groupe. At some point Dragon Ball aired in RTL Klub's Rajzfilm Klub block which launched on December 22, 1997. After the court case an attempt was made to air Dragon Ball at midnight but allegedly this caused ratings to fall. The Hungarian dub was based on the edited French dub.
DRAGON BALL GT1998-1999: Dragon Ball Z's debut in Hungary was October 28, 1998 with a locally produced dub by Echo Szinkron Kft. The Hungarian dubbed broadcast of Dragon Ball Z ceased abruptly due to pressure from the former Hungarian media authority ORTT (National Radio es Televizio Testulet, which is Hungary's equivalent of the FCC) who believed the show was harmful to children when episode 121 aired on April 22, 1999. The next day RTL Klub took Dragon Ball Z off the air while waiting for final verdict on the court case between themselves and ORTT. Dragon Ball Z received an 18 age rating and could be shown at night but RTL Klub feared no one would watch it at that time so took it off the air. It has been said there were late night reruns at some point but RTL Klub cancelled them due to low viewership. Like Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z's Hungarian dub was based on the French dub.
2012-2018:Dragon Ball Z never aired in full in Hungary until 2012. A few years before this a fan obtained the Hungarian dubs from the studio, reached out to fans on a forum, showing proof (scenes from Cell and Boo arcs) and made a deal, fans could collect money for all the audio tracks, but no video tracks. Viasat 6 eventually aired Dragon Ball Z but it was independent of this situation. Hungary received a license for 52 episodes, which would be continued depending on viewership and they were receiving the same version that aired on RTL Klub. On September 1, 2012 Dragon Ball Z returned to Hungarian TV on Viasat6 and as viewership was high for this rerun of the first 52 episodes, which were purchased as a test run. The never-before-seen episodes started premiering November 13th. Eventually by February 2014 all 291 episodes were aired. Dragon Ball Z finished its first run of all 291 episodes in Hungary on February 6, 2014. Reruns lasted until and including the premiere of Dragon Ball Super in 2018.
DRAGON BALL SUPER2012-2013: Dragon Ball GT aired on several channels in Hungary. The Hungarian dub of Dragon Ball GT premiered September 20, 2011 with 2 episodes a day. It was based on the Japanese version. AXN Spin aired Dragon Ball GT in Japanese with Hungarian subtitles from January 11, 2012. The Hungarian dub of GT concluded on May 1, 2012 and the TV special followed exactly one week after this date. AXN Sci-Fi also aired the Japanese version with local subtitles between October 30, 2012 and March 2, 2013. The Hungarian dub was recorded at Pannonia Sound System Ltd.
DRAGON BALL DAIMA2018-2021: Dragon Ball Super premiered on Viasat6 March 28, 2018 with the Battle of Gods arc wrapping up on April 14th. The first day 2 episodes aired but the remainder of the run it was 1 repeat followed by 1 new episode. Viasat 6 aired Dragon Ball Super in 5 "seasons" despite only airing it over the course of a year. Season 2 began on April 16, 2018 and Season 3 followed on May 3rd the same year. Season 4 concluded on July 10th followed by reruns from episode 1. The series was rerun again starting January 17th the following year. After a number of reruns Dragon Ball Super Season 5 in Hungary began on March 25, 2019 and concluded on June 7, 2019. Another rerun from the first episode of Dragon Ball Super started March 16, 2020. The dub was recorded by Balog Mix on behalf of Sony and was based on the Japanese version.
DRAGON BALL MOVIES2024-2026: Dragon Ball Daima began streaming subbed across Europe October 11, 2024 on Crunchyroll.
THE CONTROVERSY2009: Dragonball: Evolution got theatrical screenings on April 9, 2009.
2019: Dragon Ball Super: Broly got released theatrically on May 31, 2019.
2025: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero got a Hungarian dub by Laborfilm Szinkronstúdió and streamed December 1, 2025 on Canal+ and December 23rd on Canal+ Action the same year.
Thanks goes out to:Sometime in 1999 speculation began to develop online about whether or not Dragon Ball would be banned as natives already heard about children threatening self-harm and suicide.
Despite heavy censorship both original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z caused a large media outcry as there were claims by psychologists they violated the law. The regulations at the time set an age limit of 14 for original Dragon Ball and considered Z more harmful and relegated it to a 18+ night timeslot, making it impossible to show during the day and leading to much confusion to this day it was banned. Legend has it the show was banned because of a child injuring or killing himself by imitating characters, although there is no evidence for this, only similar incidence is one boy that threatened the network with suicide after it was taken off. RTL Klub requested a juridicial review of the decision and a court case ensued between themselves and ORTT. RTL Klub chose to take Dragon Ball Z off the air until the final verdict.
It was reported in local newspapers children were to commit suicide if RTL Klub didn't bring Dragon Ball back, the channel was inundated with calls as boys collected signatures in schools to petition them to resume airing their favourite show. Imre Szabó Stein, Chief of PR and Marketing at RTL Klub however defended their decision to suspend the broadcast until the decision by the courts to "avoid needless conflicts", he believed because the show presents good vs evil it did not have a negative influence.
In July 1998, after an investigation on both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, ORTT issued a sanction to RTL Klub. The psychological studies of the investigation concluded that Dragon Ball Z was "too violent" to air in the day, so it had to be moved to a later timeslot at night and with a mature audience warning. The lawsuit was ongoing, but RTL Klub weren't willing when the age limit regulations were reformed and asked for a revision of the sanction, entering into a legal battle with the ORTT, which lasted until 2004. Courts in 2002 ruled series can only be restricted for ages 16+, but RTL proceeded to continue the broadcast. Shortly after, there was an attempt from the channel to air the series at midnight due to the series' success but it failed since the midnight airing was reran from episode 1 and as a result, RTL Klub decided to remove the series.
The final verdict happened on May 26, 2004 when RTL Klub lost the legal battle and could only air Dragon Ball Z between 9pm and 5am, which they refused, meaning the show could no longer be broadcast. Many fans have since attempted to persuade TV stations to rerun the series, especially after episodes began to be found, but by that point, RTL Klub was no longer interested to air the series.
Despite this, some later episodes (122-137) of the series were eventually released on VHS and more of them (243-247, 263-267, 278-282) were shared on internet after they were bought from some guy who had access to the dubbing studio's audio recordings of those episodes. These two instances confirmed that despite the legal battle, the whole series had been dubbed back in 1999.
- TheRed259 for inspiring this thread.
- Tian for the depth of knowledge on Dragon Ball in Hungary.
- All the fans out there who contributed to reviving intetest in the Hungarian dub of Z.
- The National Library of Hungary for sourcing the premier dates of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z for me from local newspapers.
