History of Dragon Ball in France

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

With a dub of Dragon Ball Daima imminent and a simulcast for Dragon Ball Super Beerus announced I thought it would be a good time to document the history of Dragon Ball in France.

If anyone has anything extra to add, please do so, or share any news about the franchise in France that's worth noting.

With that said, the history of Dragon Ball in France, to the best of my knowledge, goes like this:

DRAGON BALL

1988-1989: Dragon Ball premiered March 2, 1988 on TF1's Club Dorothée block. Dragon Ball featured as part of several blocks on TF1, others included Club Dorothée Samedi and Club Dorothée Avant l'Ecole. It concluded April 12, 1989.
1993-1995: Dragon Ball premiered on TMC October 17, 1993 and featured as part of the Récré Kids block.
1996: Dragon Ball had its debut on AB Cartoons April 2, 1996, the channel later rebranded to Mangas, which also aired Dragon Ball.
1998: Dragon Ball arrived on NT1 January 1, 1998.
2005-2007: Dragon Ball premiered on Club RTL June 15, 2005, MCM on December 31, 2005 and returned to NT1 July 2, 2007. AB Groupe, in association with TF1 released 25 DVD singles containing 6 episodes each but a few volumes had more episodes, others had less.
AB Groupe and TF1 then released three DVD box sets of the singles:

• Box 1: Volumes 1-8
• Box 2: Volumes 9-16
• Box 3: Volumes 17-25

2008-2009: Mangas aired the first episode of Dragon Ball from the night of December 31, 2008 to January 1 2009 in French remastered and uncensored with Japanese credits, eyecatches, NEP and title screen. This was considered a teaser for the uncut home releases
2010-2011: Dragon Ball started airing on Mangas January 13, 2010 and on Game One January 7, 2011.
2016: AB Video released an 8-disc digipack of Dragon Ball on November 2, 2016. Two further digipacks were released.
2022-2025: AB Video released Dragon Ball on Blu-Ray November 23, 2022 using the broadcast audio preserved by fans but later decided not to release further volumes because TOEI wouldn't give them the raw Dragon Box masters. Warner TV launched on September 3, 2023 and aired Dragon Ball uncensored.

DRAGON BALL Z

1990-1997: Dragon Ball Z aired on TF1 between December 24, 1990 and June 17, 1997. The final 17 episodes didn't air and were first seen on the VHS release. Dragon Ball Z also aired on TMC. Dragon Ball Z later aired on Mangas. Mangas aired the last 17 episodes of Dragon Ball Z uncut, which were previously only available in edited format on VHS, and even the TV commercial for them had a scene not available on those releases.
The original run of DVDs from AB Video followed this pattern:

• Volume 1: Episodes 1 to 6
• Volume 2: Episodes 7 to 12
• Volume 3: Episodes 13 to 18
• Volume 4: Episodes 19 to 24
• Volume 5: Episodes 25 to 30
• Volume 6: Episodes 31 to 36
• Volume 7: Episodes 37 to 42
• Volume 8: Episodes 43 to 48
• Volume 9: Episodes 49 to 54
• Volume 10: Episodes 55 to 60
• Volume 11: Episodes 60 to 66
• Volume 12: Episodes 67 to 72
• Volume 13: Episodes 73 to 78
• Volume 14: Episodes 79 to 84
• Volume 15: Episodes 85 to 90
• Volume 16: Episodes 91 to 96
• Volume 17: Episodes 97 to 102
• Volume 18: Episodes 103 to 108
• Volume 19: Episodes 109 to 114
• Volume 20: Episodes 115 to 120
• Volume 21: Episodes 121 to 126
• Volume 22: Episodes 127 to 132
• Volume 23: Episodes 133 to 139
• Volume 24: Episodes 140 to 144
• Volume 25: Episodes 145 to 148
• Volume 26: Episodes 149 to 152
• Volume 27: Episodes 153 to 156
• Volume 28: Episodes 157 to 160
• Volume 29: Episodes 161 to 164
• Volume 30: Episodes 165 to 168
• Volume 31: Episodes 169 to 172
• Volume 32: Episodes 173 to 176
• Volume 33: Episodes 177 to 180
• Volume 34: Episodes 181 to 184
• Volume 35: Episodes 185 to 188
• Volume 36: Episodes 189 to 192
• Volume 37: Episodes 193 to 196
• Volume 38: Episodes 197 to 200
• Volume 39: Episodes 201 to 204
• Volume 40: Episodes 205 to 208
• Volume 41: Episodes 209 to 212
• Volume 42: Episodes 213 to 216
• Volume 43: Episodes 217 to 220
• Volume 44: Episodes 221 to 224

Additionally there were box sets of 8 DVDs:

• Box Set 1: Volume 1 to 8 - Episodes 1 to 48
• Box Set 2: Volume 9 to 16 - Episodes 49 to 96
• Box Set 3: Volume 17 to 24 - Episodes 97 to 144

As well as digipacks of 8-9 DVDs:

• Digipack 1: Volume 1 to 9 - Episodes 1 to 54
• Digipack 2: Volume 10 to 18 - Episodes 55 to 108
• Digipack 3: Volume 19 to 27 - Episodes 109 to 155
• Digipack 4: Volume 28 to 36 - Episodes 156 to 191
• Digipack 5: Volume 37 to 45 - Episodes 192 to 228

And box sets of 4 DVDs:

• Box Set 1: Volume 1 to 4 - Episodes 1 to 24
• Box Set 2: Volume 5 to 8 - Episodes 25 to 48
• Box Set 3: Volume 9 to 12 - Episodes 49 to 73
• Box Set 4: Volume 13 to 16 - Episodes 74 to 97
• Box Set 5: Volume 17 to 20 - Episodes 98 to 121
• Box Set 6: Volume 21 to 24 - Episodes 122 to 143
• Box Set 7: Volume 25 to 28 - Episodes 144 to 159
• Box Set 8: Volume 29 to 32 - Episodes 160 to 175
• Box Set 9: Volume 33 to 36 - Episodes 176 to 191
• Box Set 10: Volume 37 to 40 - Episodes 192 to 207
• Box Set 11: Volume 41 to 44 - Episodes 208 to 223
• Box Set 12: Volume 45 to 48 - Episodes 224 to 240
• Box Set 13: Volume 49 to 50 - Episodes 241 to 257

2008: Dragon Ball Z was broadcast on NT1.
2009-2010: The first Dragon Ball Z 17-disc DVD box set was released on March 19, 2009. This boxset was titled "Space Warrior Saga - Freeza" and contained episodes 1 to 117. On April 6, 2009 Mangas began airing the series again. The next two DVD box sets (which were 12 and 14 discs respectively) followed on October 7th the same year and March 25th the next. The former was titled "Cyborg Saga - Cell Game" and had episodes 118 to 199 while the latter was named "Boo Saga" and contained episodes 200 to 291.
2011: Dragon Ball Z reportedly began airing January 3, 2011 on Game One.
2013: The Dragon Ball Z TV specials came bundled in a box set from AB Video with all the movies up to that point on February 4, 2013.
2026: The Dragon Ball Z TV specials were re-released in a Blu-Ray boxset from AB Video with the classic movies on October 6, 2026.

DRAGON BALL GT

1999-2001: Dragon Ball GT was to air on TF1's Club Dorothée block but because the block closed down it aired on other channels. It aired exclusively on satellite channels between June 6, 1999 and July 14, 2001 on TMC's Récré Kids block. Dragon Ball GT premiered June 11, 1999 on Mangas and was rerun on the same channel May 2, 2001, September 8th the same year on AB1, 2002 on Club RTL. Dragon Ball GT TV Special aired January 30, 2003. Dragon Ball GT was only released up to episode 54 on VHS but on DVD it had a full run. Dragon Ball GT was released by AB Video in 16 volumes, and a box set was released containing all of them.
2006: Dragon Ball GT was rebroadcast April 2006 on NT1.
2008-2009: The TV special was released in a DVD boxset with the later Dragon Ball Z movies on September 4, 2008. Dragon Ball GT was rebroadcast January 5, 2009 on NT1 and sometime the same month on MCM, then later that year on RTL9.
2011: Dragon Ball GT was rebroadcast November 2, 2011 on Game One.
2013: The Dragon Ball GT TV special came bundled in a box set from AB Video with all the movies up to that point on February 4, 2013.
2023: Dragon Ball GT began streaming January 4, 2023 on DNA.
2026: Mangas began airing Dragon Ball GT once again on August 24, 2026. The Dragon Ball GT TV special was re-released in a Blu-Ray boxset from AB Video with the classic movies on October 6, 2026.

DRAGON BALL KAI

2011-2013: Dragon Ball Kai premiered in France May 2, 2011 uncut and subbed on Game One and on May 29th a censored dubbed version was shown on Nickélodéon. Episode 15 was skipped. It later aired November 28, 2011 on Game One on their VOSTFR block. DVD release from AB Video started October 8, 2012.
2014-2017: The Final Chapters began airing September 1, 2014. A Blu-Ray release from KAZE followed on November 26, 2014 covering the first 98 episodes in two box sets. The last Blu-Ray for The Final Chapters was released November 25, 2015.
2018-2019: Dragon Ball Kai started airing October 1, 2018 on Mangas.

DRAGON BALL SUPER

2017-2021: Dragon Ball Super began airing January 17, 2017 on Toonami France with an initial order of 52 episodes. NT1 brought Dragon Ball Super to a wider audience when they began airing it on September 10, 2017.

DRAGON BALL DAIMA

2024-2026: Dragon Ball Daima began streaming subbed across Europe October 11, 2024 on Crunchyroll. A French dub of Dragon Ball Daima is expected to air on Gulli soon.

DRAGON BALL MOVIES

1995-1996: Dragon Ball Z: Le Film, which comprised of Dragon Ball Z movies 12-13 was released on on October 31, 1995. Dragon Ball Z: Le Film 2, which comprised of Dragon Ball Z movies 10-11 followed on October 16, 1996.
2007-2008: August 22, 2007 saw the first 3 Dragon Ball movies, Dragon Ball Z movies 1-6, and the first TV special get a DVD box set, along with the French version, and the original Japanese version with subtitles, uncensored, the later movies followed on September 4, 2008.
2009: Dragonball: Evolution hit theatres
2013: AB Video re-released two box sets collectively containing the 4 Dragon Ball movies together with Dragon Ball Z movies 1-13 together with the 3 TV specials on February 4, 2013.
2015: KAZE released Battle of Gods on Blu-Ray with a standard edition on February 11, 2015 and a steelbook on May 18, 2015. Resurrection F opened on March 3, 2015. Following the success of this movie on September 5th that year there was a double bill of both Battle of Gods and Resurrection F screening at the Grand Rex.
2019: Dragon Ball Super: Broly opened on March 13, 2019. The run was handled by Wild Bunch Distribution, lasted for 294 days and was shown in 381 theatres. The movie was then released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Wild Side Video on July 17, 2019. On the weekend of July 17-18, 2021 Battle of Gods, Resurrection F and Broly were shown at the Grand Rex in French with French subtitles.
2022: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero was released theatrically on October 5, 2022 as well as July 4, 2023 on DVD and Blu-Ray, although an Amazon exclusive steelbook was available from June 12, 2023. On July 15, 2023 Crunchyroll announced the 4K release of Super Hero, which would be the first time any Dragon Ball content was released on the format in France.
2023: On July 6, 2023 Resurrection 'F' and Broly began streaming on Crunchyroll, although unlike Oceania as well as North and Latin America the first 13 Z movies weren't available at this point. The movies were streamed with both dub and subtitle options for English, German and French.
2025: Battle of Gods got a limited theatrical re-release on March 8, 2025.
2026: The 4 Dragon Ball movies, first 13 Dragon Ball Z movies and 3 TV specials were released in a Blu-Ray boxset from AB Video on October 6, 2026.

DRAGON BALL SPECIALS

2018: Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans and Episode of Bardock were released by Kazé on June 20, 2018.

Thanks goes out to:

• TheRed259 for inspiring this thread, for the extra info and fact checking.
• sangofe for always keeping up with French Dragon Ball news.

[Kid Buu]

It's crazy that UK got a DB show for the first time in 2000, yet neighbouring France goes as far back as 1988!

On my birthday none the less too!

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's crazy that UK got a DB show for the first time in 2000, yet neighbouring France goes as far back as 1988!

On my birthday none the less too!

I guess there was no English dub to air at the time. Maybe if the Harmony Gold dub got better ratings it would have been distributed outside the US, but it didn't help it aired when the target audience were in school in very few states.

I agree its crazy that the UK didn't even get the BLT dub like the US and Canada, and still had to wait a few years to get the Saban dub, I'm confident either would have done decently even before the Pokémon boom.

To say French fans loved Dragon Ball would probably be an understatement. I remember reading that specialist stores had to import untranslated copies of the manga but still had trouble keeping up with the demand because so many people wanted to read the latest volume.

Jean-Paul Jenneguin wrote:

In specialist comic shops that sell manga, Dragon Ball is the number one best seller. Up till the beginning of 1993, the comic was only available in its Japanese-language edition. To the fans, that did not matter! When a new issue of Dragon Ball is published in Japan, hundreds of copies are sold in France to teenagers and young adults, most of whom cannot read a word of Japanese. These fans’ impatience knows no bounds and a new issue is hardly out before they start asking for the next one. They know very well that several months go by between each new issue. Nevertheless, they seem to believe that asking for the new Dragon Ball each and every week is going to cause it to arrive more quickly. The shopkeepers at a Parisian Japanese bookshop were so fed up with the never-ending queries that they stuck a small sign in front of the counter. It reads, “The new Dragon Ball is not out yet and we don’t know when it will be released.”

[MasenkoHA]

For me the weirdest/most interesting thing is they did keep the Shunsuke Kikuchi score but completely replaced the opening themes with something way more preschool.

https://youtu.be/rqy7NTAEyAc?is=AVXy-m00itUGOoWW


https://youtu.be/CoWsJ0vekLg?is=Ejdyq3bCFWM-sZto


Idk I can’t imagine a clean track of Makafushigi Adventure at least wasn’t made available to them in 1988 since Harmony Gold had no problem getting one in 1989. I guess the producers still wanted an original song to sell records of? Thought apparently episode 33 used Makafushigi Adventure instead of Dragon Ball Densetsu. I don’t know if Toei screwed up the music track or if the French producers wanted to break the monotony of how many goddamn times Dragon Ball Densetsu was playing at that point.

Pretty much every non-spanish European dub went with its own original opening.

It's crazy that UK got a DB show for the first time in 2000, yet neighbouring France goes as far back as 1988!

On my birthday none the less too!

I guess there was no English dub to air at the time. Maybe if the Harmony Gold dub got better ratings it would have been distributed outside the US, but it didn't help it aired when the target audience were in school in very few states.

It only aired in Philadelphia and Michigan. The project was almost certainly shit canned before it even aired and I don’t think “well if it got good ratings” were ever on the table. Harmony Gold probably just heard “super popular cartoon in Japan”’ and purchased the license without looking at the show, realized it was too impossible to edit around and gave up after a “pilot movie” and 5 episodes and sold it off as time filler where they could.


I guess it’s possible it was a test run. But if it was it was a really stupid one being only aired in two cities and at a time it could only be watched by preschoolers and kids who were sick from school. And when looking at how desperate and sad the editing got and the kind of soft material they were afraid of that would have been a-okay on Rugrats like two years later and yeah…ratings were never going to determine its survival past episode 5. They definitely noped out after seeing Playboy Bunny Bulma and Armor Bikini Chi Chi

[TheRed259]

DRAGON BALL Z
1990-1996: Dragon Ball Z aired on TF1 between December 24, 1990 and June 17, 1997.

Therefore, it's 1990-1997 and not 1990-1996. Dragon Ball Z was also broadcast on NT1 in 2008.

DRAGON BALL MOVIES
1995-1997: Dragon Ball Z movies 10-11, known as "Dragon Ball Z le film" were released in a cut form on October 25, 1995, with Z movies 12-13, or "Dragon Ball Z le film 2" screened on October 16, 1996 with no cuts other than the endings removed.

Dragon Ball Z: Le Film is actually Fusion Reborn & Wrath of the Dragon and was released on on October 31, 1995 while Dragon Ball Z: Le Film 2 is Broly - Second Coming & Bio-Broly and was released on October 16, 1996.

Also, Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans and Episode of Bardock were released on June 20, 2018 by Kazé.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

For me the weirdest/most interesting thing is they did keep the Shunsuke Kikuchi score but completely replaced the opening themes with something way more preschool.

Funimation replaced the whole Z and GT scores because it was more profitable to have the music playing every second. SOFI were also active for 24 years before they started dubbing Dragon Ball in French and probably didn't think having a new score from the ground up was needed to make a buck.

Or maybe replacing the whole score was seen as too much effort? An OP/ED is far more manageable.

DRAGON BALL Z
1990-1996: Dragon Ball Z aired on TF1 between December 24, 1990 and June 17, 1997.

Therefore, it's 1990-1997 and not 1990-1996. Dragon Ball Z was also broadcast on NT1 in 2008.

DRAGON BALL MOVIES
1995-1997: Dragon Ball Z movies 10-11, known as "Dragon Ball Z le film" were released in a cut form on October 25, 1995, with Z movies 12-13, or "Dragon Ball Z le film 2" screened on October 16, 1996 with no cuts other than the endings removed.

Dragon Ball Z: Le Film is actually Fusion Reborn & Wrath of the Dragon and was released on on October 31, 1995 while Dragon Ball Z: Le Film 2 is Broly - Second Coming & Bio-Broly and was released on October 16, 1996.

Also, Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans and Episode of Bardock were released on June 20, 2018 by Kazé.

Thanks, I've amended the information on Dragon Ball Z Le Film and Dragon Ball Z Le Film 2, and added the bits about NT1 and Kazé releasing the specials. Dragon Ball has had such a long history in France I knew there were things I was forgetting.

[MasenkoHA]

For me the weirdest/most interesting thing is they did keep the Shunsuke Kikuchi score but completely replaced the opening themes with something way more preschool.

Funimation replaced the whole Z and GT scores because it was more profitable to have the music playing every second. SOFI were also active for 24 years before they started dubbing Dragon Ball in French and probably didn't think having a new score from the ground up was needed to make a buck.

V
I think Funimation believed it would be more profitable. I don’t think it actually was for them. Ocean clearly denied the option to purchase it and went with their own music library. The Hindi dub is the only dub I know that used “their music” and was based on their dub and even then only for the first 53 episodes and the music Saban produced for Funi. Pretty sure that dub switched to the Kikuchu score with their equivalent of Ginyu Assault and never touched the Faulconer score. When you’re not getting the benefits 4kids got where all dubs outside of Asia for Pokemon are based on their dub and use their music track why continue the practice? Z had a status quo they felt they had to maintain and GT they believed needed a total rebranding but otherwise they were moving away from that practice back in 2001

If it was making them that much of a profit they would have kept doing it. 4kids pretty much almost completely phased out using the Japanese score by the Advance era because it was making them money selling their own music library to other dubs.

Ironically a lot of European dubs I think are based on Sofi’s French dub, and they probably would have seen more profit in their own score than Funimation ever did. But why bother when you already got the rights to the music wrapped into the rights to the show? (Not that it stopped Funimation) and like you said just doing an original opening probably was more manageable for them

[Kid Buu]

Not broadcast related but one thing that could be noted about DBZ European history is that DBZ Legends on the Sega Saturn got a release in France, Spain and Portugal. No idea how much impact it had in France, but it was bundled with the console in Portugal and even had televised tournaments.

[Cold Skin]

For me the weirdest/most interesting thing is they did keep the Shunsuke Kikuchi score but completely replaced the opening themes with something way more preschool.

There were several reasons for that, and not really good ones.

The first one was that back then, they were still in the mindset that those "Japanese cartoons" were meant for kids just like any existing cartoon, so kid-friendly openings that very young children could sing along to was a thing.
And then of course, they were caught by surprise by the content of the episodes and edited scenes out numerous times.

The second reason was that the owner of the show that aired all those anime apparently insisted on writing French openings himself for pretty much all content in "his" show (including all anime and live-action sitcoms). That way, there was a way to consistantly get paid as the author of dozens of songs when putting them for sale.

He didn't care for the animes at all, as to him they were just a bunch of "cartoons" sold at a cheap price by Japan to fill his program and easily satisfy children, so he just repeated generic lyrics about "he/she's really extraordinary", "fighting evil with friends", "in the end he/she/they will win", etc. in addition to the basic summary Toei provided people with when companies bought the rights to air their shows. Aside from the few specific lyrics about the base plot, most lyrics could have been seemlessly exchanged between the various anime openings.

So even when Boo was about to be defeated, the pictures were still focusing on kid Gohan and the lyrics were still basically "cute little Gohan fights all the meanies, his father used to be a hero who is long gone by now but at least his spirit lives on in his son, and our golden-heart hero named Gohan will always be the one and only to defeat every single enemy".

The first time we had access to the Japanese openings was with the combined release of movie 12 and 13 (with movie 12 BGM mostly replaced with movie 13 BGM), and then with the VHS releases that came after the show was not aired anymore.

Not broadcast related but one thing that could be noted about DBZ European history is that DBZ Legends on the Sega Saturn got a release in France, Spain and Portugal. No idea how much impact it had in France, but it was bundled with the console in Portugal and even had televised tournaments.

Dragon Ball games were pretty popular due to the show itself being massive here.
So we also had all three Super Butoden games for the SNES and the Hyper Dimension game for the SNES (although with the story mode edited out, probably so that they wouldn't have to translate all the text in it and could release it earlier that way, which was really a shame).

[MasenkoHA]

For me the weirdest/most interesting thing is they did keep the Shunsuke Kikuchi score but completely replaced the opening themes with something way more preschool.

There were several reasons for that, and not really good ones.

The first one was that back then, they were still in the mindset that those "Japanese cartoons" were meant for kids just like any existing cartoon, so kid-friendly openings that very young children could sing along to was a thing.
And then of course, they were caught by surprise by the content of the episodes and edited scenes out numerous times.

The second reason was that the owner of the show that aired all those anime apparently insisted on writing French openings himself for pretty much all content in "his" show (including all anime and live-action sitcoms). That way, there was a way to consistantly get paid as the author of dozens of songs when putting them for sale.

He didn't care for the animes at all, as to him they were just a bunch of "cartoons" sold at a cheap price by Japan to fill his program and easily satisfy children, so he just repeated generic lyrics about "he/she's really extraordinary", "fighting evil with friends", "in the end he/she/they will win", etc. in addition to the basic summary Toei provided people with when companies bought the rights to air their shows. Aside from the few specific lyrics about the base plot, most lyrics could have been seemlessly exchanged between the various anime openings.

So even when Boo was about to be defeated, the pictures were still focusing on kid Gohan and the lyrics were still basically "cute little Gohan fights all the meanies, his father used to be a hero who is long gone by now but at least his spirit lives on in his son, and our golden-heart hero named Gohan will always be the one and only to defeat every single enemy".

The first time we had access to the Japanese openings was with the combined release of movie 12 and 13 (with movie 12 BGM mostly replaced with movie 13 BGM), and then with the VHS releases that came after the show was not aired anymore.

Ah very interesting. So definitely just basically what Funimation was doing but a different tactic and more about having a broad catalog of original songs for multi licenses instead of a new soundtrack for one show.


And lol the French dub for Z seems to have just read a quick synopsis about Goku dying early on and “guessed” Gohan would be the new protagonist and apparently an eternal child.