Reruns

[Blue]

Did Dragonball have reruns in between new episodes in Japan? Does Kai? If so when? I know they put Kai in a special Saturday morning block so I'd be a tad confused if they did rerun old episodes because when would they get the chance to?

[B]

I believe other channels had reruns, but the Fuji TV airings were all in one sraight line, with the occasional weekbreak. Kanzentai's got the airdates for most of the show, and it's more or less all together. I don't think there was ever even a two-week break.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

Yeah, Japan's not like America, with our "seasons." Long running shows just keep going, and going, and going... That's why there was so much filler in Dragon Ball. There were never any breaks, so the anime would always be in danger of catching up to the manga. If there's one chapter released a week, and one episode, and a single chapter (without filler) can be animated in ten minutes, you've got like two and a half chapters an episode. Not good.

[Blue]

Yeah, Japan's not like America, with our "seasons." Long running shows just keep going, and going, and going... That's why there was so much filler in Dragon Ball. There were never any breaks, so the anime would always be in danger of catching up to the manga. If there's one chapter released a week, and one episode, and a single chapter (without filler) can be animated in ten minutes, you've got like two and a half chapters an episode. Not good.

That explains why the recaps were pretty long and covered a large amount of the previous episode. Still it would be SO disappointing to miss an episode and never get to see it again. That's some pretty interesting stuff.

I believe other channels had reruns

So would they air all the episode in order too and be just like 10 or so episodes behind the Japanese broadcast? Or would they just replay the most recent episodes? Do you know what channel they used to rerun DB?

[Perfect]

I hated all the reruns on Toonami, but at least if you missed something you could see it. Oh well, I guess it was a win lose situation back here in America.

[Hujio]

Did Dragonball have reruns in between new episodes in Japan? Does Kai? If so when?

Yes, and yes. DragonBall, DragonBall Z, and DragonBall GT have all had subsequent reruns on various stations across Japan. However, these days, most of them are on satellite stations. I do know that Z is currently being rerun on Tokyo MX and runs from 10:00-10:29 PM JST. As far as I know, they were rerun as regional programming while the series was still in syndication. Their TV structure is a bit different than ours is in the U.S., meaning almost any regional affiliate could broadcast any of the series while the show was still in national syndication on Fuji TV. They just couldn't air current episodes, so that they'd always be behind the syndication network. Some networks may only be a week behind the most recent episode, while others could be up to 4 months behind, it just depends.

Think of it this way. We have national TV networks in the U.S., like ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. However, in your local area, you have an affiliate of each of those national networks. So at night, during prime time, or during early morning cartoons, those affiliates air whatever the national network is airing, for instance, something like House or CSI: Las Vegas (in Japan, this is where Kai or One Piece would fit in). So for couple hours across the nation, everyone is watching the exact same thing. However, during the rest of the day the affiliate is responsible for whatever programming they show, like your local news or reruns of shows owned by that parent company. So in that way, any regional Fuji TV affiliate can rerun Kai, since it's owned by the Fuji TV parent company.

This is how Kai is being broadcast these days in Japan. It airs on Sunday morning at 9:00 AM JST on all Fuji TV networks. Then after that, any Fuji TV network can re-air that episode, but only after it has premiered nationally. Does that make sense? For instance, I know the most recent episode is re-aired in the Kansai region one week after its premiere nationally, but isn't re-aired in the Ooita Prefecture until 16 weeks after its premiere nationally.

I know they put Kai in a special Saturday morning block so I'd be a tad confused if they did rerun old episodes because when would they get the chance to?

Well, Kai is actually in a Sunday morning block in Japan, but yeah.

Kanzentai's got the airdates for most of the show, and it's more or less all together. I don't think there was ever even a two-week break.

Actually, we have more than just most, we have all of the airdates including when they took breaks. The airdates we list are the airdates that the specific episode premiered on Fuji TV. To keep track of the all the re-runs would just be insanely impossible, considering we don't live in Japan.

[Castor Troy]

At least Japan wasn't stuck on Planet Namek over and over again.

[Blue]

You are absolutely amazing Hujo. Thank you so much for that very detailed response.