SubTV Airings

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

So now that we have threads for the English broadcasts in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa I would like to dedicate this thread to the Finnish airings of Dragon Ball Z on SubTV.

Dragon Ball Z : Premiered January 15, 2003 with the English dub and Finnish subtitles. The show was aired Mondays-Fridays with repeats after midnight and on weekends. First 57 episodes aired between January and May 2003 followed by reruns from the first episode. They were broadcast weekdays at 5:05pm and 0:55am but later these timeslots were moved to 6pm and 2:05am, the former remained until August but the latter was moved to 1:35am. A rerun from the beginning of the series took place around May 2003 after the initial 57 aired. Episodes 58-100 likely aired between August 20, 2003 and October 17, 2003 with another rerun from the start following by the end of the year. Around this time fans heard that SubTV were having contractual problems with Dragon Ball Z and it wouldn't continue for the time being. Nonetheless the channel went on to buy further episodes. A third season came to SubTV on September 1, 2004 and the series remained in reruns until December 24, 2004 when it was taken off the air for nearly a year. By this point there were reruns from the early Trunks and Android sagas right up until December. In a press release on their website on August 31, 2005 SubTV announced they had purchased 168 new episodes of Dragon Ball Z (although this was an overestimation as they aired 123 out of 276 by that point. SubTV aired episodes 124-276 between September 18, 2005 and December 16, 2006. The final batch of new episodes made their debut on Sundays, but it was said in late December Saturdays would be added. Saturdays were added on January 7, 2006, weekdays were also added. Dragon Ball Z returned to weekdays on June 14, 2006. The final batch of episodes aired Sundays and later Saturdays at 10am. In May 2007 Dragon Ball Z was airing Sundays at 11:50am as well as Mondays and Tuesdays at 4.05-4.55pm. Episodes 124-275 aired with the Westwood dub and Finnish subtitles until the final episode, which aired with the German dub and no subtitles. SubTV apologized for the lack of subtitles in the final episode, said it was not available in English and that reruns would start the next weekend from episode 124 onwards. The Perfect Cell saga was rerun around May 2007 followed by reruns of the Namek Saga in June alongside the Cell Games. Reruns lasted until August 17, 2007 when Dragon Ball Z was taken off SubTV for the last time.

Something new I learned is that the SubTV airings had additional cuts on top of what was seen in the UK broadcasts of the Funimation and Westwood dubs.

Examples of scenes that were cut on SubTV:

• The scene where second form Freeza is about to crush Gohan's skull
• The scene where Future Trunks cuts Freeza in half
• The scene where Dr Gero sticks his hand through Yamcha

There were also mistranslations in the subtitles like:

• When Goku holds the cure for the virus he is supposed to say purple but the subs say pink instead

Happy to correct or add anything if anyone feels something is missing. What are your memories of the reruns?

I'd like to give thanks to:

• Tian for the inspiration for this thread.
• Matias for confirming the Westwood dub aired in Finland.
• Foxero for the information about reruns, mistranslations and additional cuts on SubTV.
• NitroEX and for explaining how Turner Broadcasting EMEA (now Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA) works.
• The National Library of Finland for locating the aforementioned dates in local newspapers.