Dragon Ball Z Imperfect Cell Saga 126 - The Reunion

Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 through 1995, and later the 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West, it follows the adventures of Son Goku from his childhood through middle age as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of the seven mystical objects known as the Dragon Balls, which are known to grant any wish. Along his trip, Goku meets several friends and fights against several villains who plan to get the Dragon Balls to grant their wishes and some who aim to conquer the world.

The series is licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media, in the United Kingdom by Gollancz Manga, and in Australia and New Zealand by Chuang Yi. The manga has been adapted into three anime series, seventeen animated feature films, three television specials, a collectible trading card game, and a large number of video games. In 2002, 20th Century Fox began production on the first American-made live-action film which is slated for release on April 8, 2009.

Since its release, Dragon Ball has become one of the most popular manga series of its time in both Japan and North America. It enjoys a high readership, with over 150 million volumes of the series sold by 2007. Several manga artists have noted that the manga series was the inspiration for their own now popular works, including Naruto and One Piece. The anime is also highly popularly, ranking number 12 among the best anime series of all time in 2006. Reviewers praise the art, characterization, and humor of the manga story. The anime series have had more mixed reviews, with the first also praised for its characterizations, but the second was criticized for its long, repetitive fights, and the third series considered repetitive with childish fights and "goofy" character designs.

A monkey-tailed boy named Goku is found by an old martial arts expert who raises him as his grandson. One day Goku meets a girl named Bulma and together they go on a quest to retrieve the seven Dragon Balls, mythical objects that can summon a dragon who will grant any wish. Along the way, they meet and befriend a plethora of martial artists. They also undergo rigorous training regimes and educational programs in order to fight in the World Martial Arts Tournament, a tournament in which the most powerful fighters in the world compete. Outside the tournaments, Goku faces diverse villains such as Emperor Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, a demon known as Piccolo Daimao and his offspring of the same name.

As a young adult, Goku meets his older brother, Raditz, who tells him that they come from a fictional race of extraterrestrials called Saiyans. The Saiyans had sent Goku to Earth to destroy it, but his ship crashes upon arrival. Goku fell into a deep ravine and lost all memory of his mission. Goku refuses to help Raditz continue the mission, after which he begins to encounter others who want to battle him, such as the Saiyan prince Vegeta. He also encounters Frieza, who is considered to be one of the strongest beings in the universe, after which Goku begins training his first child, Son Gohan, to be his successor. Years later, a group of soldiers from the Red Ribbon army known as androids appear to kill Goku. Another android, Cell, absorbs Androids #17 and #18 from the Red Ribbon army to increase his power, then fights Goku and Gohan, resulting in the former's death. Goku is capable of returning to life, but decides to stay dead for seven years to train in the Other World. When he returns, he is drawn into a battle for the universe against an extraterrestrial named Majin Buu. Joined by Vegeta and Gohan, Buu is destroyed and Goku dies again. He is later revived by one of the gods from the Other World. Ten years later at a martial arts tournament, Goku meets Buu's human reincarnation, Uub. At the end of the manga, Goku takes Uub away on a journey to train him as another successor.

Anime sequel

In the anime Dragon Ball GT, which is not directly based on the manga, Goku is turned back into a child by the Black-Star Dragon Balls and is forced to travel across the universe to retrieve them. While in space, he encounters the evil artificial Tuffle, Baby, who wants to destroy the Saiyan race. Goku fights him, but is defeated and his tail destroyed. After his tail is regenerated, he achieves the level of Super Saiyan 4 and destroys Baby, propelling him into the sun with a Kamehameha. After Baby's defeat, Dr. Myuu, a combination of machine and human, creates a replica of Android 17, fuses it with the original Android 17, creating Super 17. Super 17 seems impervious to Goku's attacks, but when Android 18 attacks him for killing Krillin, Goku is able to take advantage of the distraction to find a way to penetrate Super 17 and destroy it.

Due to overuse of the Dragon Balls, seven Evil Dragons were created. All but the most powerful, Syn Shenron, are defeated. When Shenron appears to be losing, he absorbs the Dragon Balls and gains enough power to become Omega Shenron, overwhelming Goku. Eventually, using the energy of every living being in the universe, Goku makes a Spirit Bomb powerful enough to destroy Omega Shenron.

At its core, Dragon Ball maintains the central tenets of the Weekly Shōnen Jump core philosophy of "friendship, struggle, and victory." As the series shifts from a "heart warming" story into a more action-oriented piece, the protagonists go through an unending cycle of fighting, winning, losing, learning important lessons, then returning to the fight. As the series progresses, the heroes continue this cycle by using miraculous devices to achieve life after death while continuing their on-going battles with the dead heroes who continue to learn lessons as they defeat their challengers.

Dragon Ball Z

With the ending of Dragon Ball, Toei Animation quickly released a second anime television series, Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボールZ（ゼット）, Doragon Bōru 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.[3][25]

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 premiered in the United States on The WB in September 1996, 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.[26][27]

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 GT

Produced by Toei Animation, Dragon Ball GT (ドラゴンボールGT（ジーティ� ��）, Doragon Bōru Jī Tī?, G(rand) T(our)[3]) premiered on Fuji TV on February 2, 1996, and ran until November 19, 1997.[28] Unlike the first two series, it was not based on the original Dragon Ball manga.[29] Unable to retain the same "magic" as the first two series, it spanned only 64 episodes before ending.[3]

Funimation Entertainment licensed the series for an English language Region 1 DVD release and broadcast in North America. Funimation's English dub of the series aired on Cartoon Network from November 2003 to January 2005. The television broadcast skipped the first 16 episodes of the series. Instead, Funimation created a composition episode entitled "A Grand Problem", which used scenes from the skipped episodes to summarize the story. The skipped episodes were later aired after the remaining episodes of the series had been broadcast.[28] The dubbed episodes also aired in Canada on YTV, which divided the episodes into two seasons instead of sagas.[30][31]

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