2011-04-24T23:43:00.001-07:00

With the ending of Dragon Ball, Toei Animation quickly released a second anime television series, Dragon Ball Z , Doragon Boru Zetto?, commonly abbreviated DBZ). Picking up where the first left off, Dragon Ball Z is adapted from the final twenty-six volumes of the manga series. It premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on April 26, 1989, taking over its predecessor's time slot, and ran for 291 episodes until its conclusion on January 31, 1996. Following the canceled dub of Dragon Ball, Funimation licensed Dragon Ball Z for an English language release in North America. For the dubbing of the series, the Ocean Group was contracted to produce an English dub track. Like the original dub of Dragon Ball, the Ocean Group's dub of Dragon Ball Z was heavily edited for content, reducing the first 67 episodes into 53. The dubbed episodes of the first saga premiered in the United States on Fox in September 1996 and ended in May 1997.

                                           The second saga premiered on the The WB in September 1997, though it was eventually canceled in May 1998, once again due to low ratings. Three months later, the dub began airing on Cartoon Network as part of the channel's new Toonami programming block. Soon after, Funimation continued dubbing the series from where the cancelled dub left off, now using its own in-house voice actors, a new musical score, and less editing. The new dub of Dragon Ball Z ran on Cartoon Network from September 1999 to April 2003. In August 2004, Geneon Entertainment lost its licensing rights to the old Ocean Group dubbed episodes of Dragon Ball Z, allowing Funimation to re-dub the first 67 episodes, restore the removed content and replace the old dubbing with its in-house voice cast. These re-dubbed episodes aired on Cartoon Network throughout the summer of 2005.



The Funimation dubbed episodes also aired in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. In the United Kingdom, the Funimation dub of episodes 107 through the final episode were replaced with a new dubbed version. This version used a dub language track produced by Blue Water and dubbed by the Ocean Group. Dragon Ball Z is the second anime adaptation of the Dragon Ball manga series by Akira Toriyama. Produced by Toei Animation and picking up where the original Dragon Ball anime series left off, Dragon Ball Z is adapted from the final twenty-six volumes of the manga. It premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on April 26, 1989, taking over its predecessor's time slot, and ran for 291 episodes until its conclusion on January 31, 1996. Following the canceled dub of Dragon Ball, Funimation licensed Dragon Ball Z for an English language release in North America. For the dubbing of the series, the Ocean Group was contracted to produce an English dub track. Like the original dub of Dragon Ball, the Ocean Group dub of DBZ was heavily edited for content, reducing the first 67 episodes into 53. The dubbed episodes premiered in the United States on The WB in September 1996, though it was eventually canceled in May 1998. During the fall of the same year, the dub began airing on Cartoon Network as part of the channel's new Toonami programming block. Soon after, Funimation continued dubbing the series from where the syndicated dub left off, now using their own in-house voice actors, a new musical score, and less editing.



The new dub of DBZ ran on Cartoon Network from September 1999 to April 2003. In August 2004, Geneon Entertainment lost its licensing rights to the old Ocean Group dubbed episodes of DBZ, allowing Funimation to re-dub the first 67 episodes, restore the removed content and replace the old dubbing with their in-house voice cast. These re-dubbed episodes aired on Cartoon Network throughout the summer of 2005. The Funimation dubbed episodes also aired in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.[citation needed] In 2006, Funimation canceled the Ultimate Uncut DVD releases, remastered the episodes, then began re-releasing it across individual season boxsets. The first season set was released on February 6, 2007. On May 19, 2009, the ninth season set was released, thus completing the series. In the United Kingdom, the Funimation dub of episodes 107 through the final episode were replaced with a new dubbed version. This version used a dub language track produced by Blue Water and dubbed by the Ocean Group.

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