A Complete Guide to Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball Z is a long-running anime TV show based on a manga comic written by a man named Akira Toriyama.  The show typically runs between 21 and 23 minutes. It aired on Fuji TV in Japan from April 1989 to January 1996.  The first Dragon Ball Z series starred Japanese talents Mayumi Tanaka and Masako Nozawa.  American TV station Cartoon Network picked up the series in March of 2000.

All told, nearly 300 episodes of Dragon Ball Z have been produced, and studios as far flung as Network Ten in Australia, Italia One Network, and the Brazilian and US versions of Cartoon Network have all participated in the phenomenon.  In addition, there have been more than a dozen movies featuring the Dragon Ball Z characters and themes including the Incredible Mightiest vs. Mightiest, Burn up! A Close, Intense, Super-Fierce Battle, and Super-Warrior Defeat! I am the One Who Will Win.  There have also been several TV specials.

Of course, the manga upon which the TV series was built did not include enough story to fill all the Dragon Ball Z episodes.  As a result, the writers and storyboarders for Toie Animation had to improvise filler. 

The fast action, sci-fi influenced series helped introduce children in the United States to the Japanese anime style animation, but the American and Japanese representations of the series have often been very different.  Saban Entertainment together with the US firm FUNimation helped to make this franchise a blockbuster success.