Dragon Ball (anime)
- This article is about the TV series. For the media franchise in general, see Dragon Ball.
| Dragon Ball | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 "Dragon Ball" Series Title | |||
| |||
| Original Run | 26 February 1986 – 19 April 1989 | ||
| Broadcast | Fuji TV (Wednesday, 7:00 – 7:30PM) | ||
| Animation | Toei Animation | ||
| Production |
Fuji TV Toei Animation | ||
| Episodes | 153 (List of Episodes) | ||
| Chapters | Chapter 1 to Chapter 194 | ||
| Main Staff | |||
| Series Director |
Minoru Okazaki Daisuke Nishio | ||
| Series Organizer | Takao Koyama | ||
| Planning | Keizō Shichijō | ||
| Character Design | Minoru Maeda (Chief Animator) | ||
| Art Design |
Tadanao Tsuji Yūji Ikeda | ||
| Music | Shunsuke Kikuchi | ||
Dragon Ball (often abbreviated as DB) is a Japanese animated television series produced by Toei Animation (formerly Toei Dōga in Japanese, though translated identically). The animated series is adapted from the first 194 chapters of the Dragon Ball manga series by Akira Toriyama, which was originally published in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995. The remaining 325 chapters of the manga were adapted into the Dragon Ball Z TV series.
The Dragon Ball TV series is comprised of 153 episodes that were broadcast from 26 February 1986 to 19 April 1989 on Fuji TV. The series held an average household TV ratings share of 21.2%[1] during its initial broadcast run, with episode 47 receiving the highest rating share at 29.5%[1].
Plot
In search of the seven Dragon Balls, Bulma crosses paths with a mysterious young boy by the name of Son Goku. Realizing Goku's unnatural strength, she convinces him to join her in search of the remaining Dragon Balls. Along the way the two encounter many friends and foes, all in search of the same thing... the Dragon Balls.
History
Japan
Following the success and popularity of Akira Toriyama's new manga series Dragon Ball, Toei Animation announced it would be creating an animated adaptation of the series. The first episode aired 26 February 1986, after the series first premiered in Weekly Shōnen Jump a little over a year earlier. The series took over the 7:00PM time slot every Wednesday on Fuji TV which was previously held by Toriyama's other hit anime series, Dr. Slump – Arale-chan. This time slot became known as the "Toriyama Block" amongst fans, as one of his series was broadcast in this specific time slot for over 18 years.
Much of the main staff from Dr. Slump would remain to work on Dragon Ball, including Minoru Okazaki as series director, Shunsuke Kikuchi as musical composer, Keizō Shichijō as series planner, and Minoru Maeda as the chief animator. In March 1987, the Red Ribbon Army arc of the series featured a humorous cross-over with characters from the Dr. Slump series as Toriyama had originally done in the manga, forever linking the two series. As the story progressed, Dragon Ball transitioned from a gag series into a much more action-oriented series, further increasing the series' popularity.
However, with the anime nearing one of the manga's major turning points, the anime staff decided it was necessary to change the name of the anime series to denote such. Over the course of its three years the Dragon Ball series had come to a total of 153 episodes and three theatrical films, all of which were based on previously established events in the TV anime series. Unfortunately, the series is often overlooked by fans and merely remembered as a small stepping stone to one of the most successfully popular action anime series of all time – Dragon Ball Z.
North America
In the 1980s, Harmony Gold purchased the distribution rights for Dragon Ball and at least five episodes were dubbed as pilots for the series. The first and third movies were also dubbed and edited together to form a single, longer film which was aired on several small stations around the United States. The pilot episodes were test-marketed on various independent networks, and while most character names were changed (Goku became "Zero"), the dialogue and music were mostly kept intact. With a underwhelming response to the episodes, Harmony Gold abruptly discontinued work on the series and opted not to renew the rights to the franchise.[2]
In 1994, FUNimation Productions, headed by Gen Fukunaga, acquired the distribution rights to dub into English and broadcast Dragon Ball in syndication through a connection with his uncle, Nagafumi Hori, a director and producer for Toei Animation's live-action series.[3] Actors associated with the Ocean Group, located in Vancouver, Canada, were hired and thirteen episodes (as well as the first movie) were dubbed. The dubbed episodes were edited for content and the original score was entirely replaced. A full 26-28 episode season was originally planned, but following the series' first-run syndication in the fall of 1995, its production was ultimately canceled due to low ratings.
Following its subsequent success with Dragon Ball Z, FUNimation announced in early-2001 that it would begin in-house dubbing of the original Dragon Ball television series, and in contrast to its dub of Dragon Ball Z, the original Japanese musical score would be retained. Prior to beginning work on episodes, the third Dragon Ball movie was dubbed and released on VHS in 2000. The first thirteen episodes were re-dubbed and aired as a part of a 28 episode test season, beginning on Cartoon Network in August 2001. After receiving positive responses to the first season of episodes, FUNimation continued production of the series and completed all 153 episodes, with the fourth and final season airing during the fall of 2003.
Production & Broadcasting
Main Staff
- Original Author: Akira Toriyama
- Planning
- Toei Animation: Keizō Shichijō & Kōzō Morishita
- Production Supervisor: Shōji Kishimoto
- Series Organization: Takao Koyama
- Music: Shunsuke Kikuchi
- Chief Animator: Minoru Maeda
- Chief Designer: Tadanao Tsuji & Yūji Ikeda
- Series Director: Minoru Okazaki & Daisuke Nishio
- Producer: Tokizō Tsuchiya, Kenji Shimizu, & Jun'ichi Ishikawa
- Art Progression: Hideki Mori (1-7), Minoru Nakamura (8-153)
- Editing: Shin'ichi Fukumitsu
- Recording: Kenji Ninomiya
- Sound Effects: Hidenori Arai
- Music Selection: Shigeru Miyashita
- Audio Director: Nobuhiro Komatsu
- Recording Studio: TAVAC
- Film Development: Toei Chemistry
- Production: Fuji TV & Toei Animation
Episodes
Theatrical Films
- Dragon Ball – The Legend of Shenlong (20 December 1986)
- The Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle (18 July 1987)
- A Mystical Great Adventure (09 July 1988)
- The Path to Ultimate Strength (04 March 1996)
Public Service Videos
Themes & Insert Songs
Opening Theme
- "Mystical Adventure!"
- Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori / Composition: Takeshi Ike / Arrangement: Kōhei Tanaka / Vocals: Hiroki Takahashi
Ending Theme
- "I'll Give You Romance"
- Lyrics: Takemi Yoshida / Composition: Takeshi Ike / Arrangement: Kōhei Tanaka / Vocals: Ushio Hashimoto
Insert Songs
- "Aim to be the Greatest on Earth" (Episodes 19, 28, 86, & 95)
- Lyrics: Takemi Yoshida / Composition: Takeshi Ike / Arrangement: Kyōda Sei'ichi / Vocals: Hiroki Takahashi
- "Mysterious Wonderland" (Episode 29)
- Lyrics: Takemi Yoshida / Composition: Takeshi Ike / Arrangement: Kyōda Sei'ichi / Vocals: Wonderland Gang
- "The Dragon Ball Legend" (Episodes 30, 33, 35, & 76)
- Lyrics: Izumi Onikado[4] / Composition: Takeshi Ike / Arrangement: Kyōda Sei'ichi / Vocals: Hiroki Takahashi
- "The Son Goku Song" (Episode 43)
- Lyrics: Kawagishi Asa / Composition: Shunsuke Kikuchi / Arrangement: Jinbo Masāki / Vocals: Masako Nozawa (Son Goku)
- "Red Ribbon Army" (Episode 48)
- Lyrics: Takemi Yoshida / Composition: Takeshi Ike / Arrangement: Kōhei Tanaka / Vocals: Wonderland Gang
- "With a Blazing Heart: Defeat the Red Ribbon Army" (Episode 65)
- Lyrics: Takemi Yoshida / Composition: Takeshi Ike / Arrangement: Yamamoto Kenji / Vocals: Wonderland Gang
- "The Blue Travelers" (Episode 78)
- Lyrics: Yukinojō Mori / Composition: Takeshi Ike / Arrangement: Kyōda Sei'ichi / Vocals: Hiroki Takahashi
- "Wolf Hurricane" (Episode 87)
- Lyrics: Toshiki Inoue / Composition: Takeshi Ike / Arrangement: Kyōda Sei'ichi / Vocals: Tōru Furuya (Yamcha)
- "The Teachings of Muten Rōshi" (Episode 130)
- Lyrics: Takemi Yoshida / Composition: Shunsuke Kikuchi / Arrangement: Jinbo Masāki / Vocals: Kōhei Miyauchi (Kame-Sen'nin)
Home Video Releases
Toei Animation (Japan)
VHS
Unlike many other countries around the world, the Dragon Ball TV series had no proper home video release in Japan following its initial television run. At the time it was not common practice to release television series to the home market, in large part due to the high VHS retail pricing.
DVD Box Sets
Beginning in 2003, Toei Animation, in cooperation with the DVD manufacturing company Pony Canyon, began releasing a series of four box sets in Japan covering the entire Dragon Ball TV series property, which were dubbed the "Dragon Boxes". By mid-2005, all three originally syndicated TV series had been released, although out of chronological order, which marked the first time that any of these properties were available on a home video format in Japan.
| Release | Date | Retail | Episodes | Chart Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Ball DVD Box – Dragon Box | 07 July 2004 | ¥105,000 | 1-153 | 10th |
Individual DVD Volumes
Following the release of the TV series Dragon Boxes, Toei announced the release of their individual discs, giving fans that did not own the Dragon Boxes a chance to own these properties. Unfortunately, these individual discs would not contain any of the extras that came with the Dragon Boxes, but instead special diorama sets were created exclusively for those that purchased all of the individual discs.
| Release | Date | Episodes | Chart Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Ball Volume #1 | 04 April 2007 | 1-6 | 8th |
| Dragon Ball Volume #2 | 7-12 | 11th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #3 | 13-18 | 13th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #4 | 02 May 2007 | 19-24 | 11th |
| Dragon Ball Volume #5 | 25-30 | 13th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #6 | 31-36 | 14th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #7 | 06 June 2007 | 37-42 | 13th |
| Dragon Ball Volume #8 | 43-38 | 14th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #9 | 49-54 | 15th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #10 | 04 July 2007 | 55-60 | 12th |
| Dragon Ball Volume #11 | 61-66 | 13th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #12 | 67-72 | 14th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #13 | 01 August 2007 | 73-78 | 20th |
| Dragon Ball Volume #14 | 79-84 | 21st | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #15 | 85-90 | 23rd | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #16 | 05 September 2007 | 91-96 | 13th |
| Dragon Ball Volume #17 | 97-102 | 14th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #18 | 103-108 | 15th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #19 | 03 October 2007 | 109-114 | 6th |
| Dragon Ball Volume #20 | 115-120 | 7th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #21 | 121-126 | 8th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #22 | 07 November 2007 | 127-132 | 15th |
| Dragon Ball Volume #23 | 133-138 | 11th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #24 | 139-143 | 14th | |
| Dragon Ball Volume #25 | 05 December 2007 | 144-148 | 18th |
| Dragon Ball Volume #26 | 149-153 | 20th |
Pioneer & FUNimation (North America)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Dragon Ball's Hit Chronology". Nikkei Entertainment!. Japan: Nikkei Business Publications, May 2013 Issue (No.194), 04 April 2014. (pp. 18-19)
- ↑ "Power Up! Dragon Ball Z". Animerica. US: Viz Comics, Volume 8, No. 7, July 2000.
- ↑ Gen Fukunaga (06 October 2011). Dragon Ball Z Blu-ray Live Interview with Gen Fukunaga, Matt O'Hara, & Chris Sabat (YouTube Video).
- ↑ Keizō Shichijō's Pen Name. Dragon Ball DVD Box "Dragon Box" enclosed Dragon Book interview.
External Links
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