List of Dragon Ball episodes



Dragon Ball is the first in a trilogy of anime  adaptations of the Dragon Ball manga  series by Akira Toriyama. Produced by Toei Animation, the anime series premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on February 26, 1986, and ran until April 12, 1989. Spanning 153 episodes (Episode 140 was delayed by the death of Emperor Shōwa), it covers the first 194 chapters of the 519 chapters-long manga series. It is followed by Dragon Ball Z, which covers the remainder of the manga, and Dragon Ball GT, the plot of which was created solely for the anime.

Harmony Gold USA licensed the series for an English-language release in North America in the late 1980s. In the voice dubbing of the series, Harmony renamed almost all of the characters, including the protagonist Son Goku, who was renamed "Zero". This dub was eventually cancelled after being test-marketed is several cities and was never broadcast to the general public, thus earning the fan-coined term "The Lost Dub."

In 1995, Funimation Entertainment acquired the license for the distribution of Dragon Ball in North America, as well as its sequel series Dragon Ball Z. Funimation contracted BLT Productions to create an English voice track for the anime at their dubbing studio in Canada. The dubbed episodes were also edited for content. Thirteen episodes aired in first-run syndication during the fall of 1995 before Funimation canceled the project due to low ratings, switching to working immediately on the more action-oriented Dragon Ball Z. Trimark Pictures later purchased the home video distribution rights for these dubbed episodes. In March 2001, Funimation announced the return of Dragon Ball to American television, featuring a new English audio track produced at their own Texas-based dubbing studio, as well as slightly less editing, though they notably left the original background music intact, unlike their dubs of the two sequel series. The redubbed episodes aired on Cartoon Network from August 20, 2001 to December 1, 2003. Funimation also broadcast the series on Colours TV and their own Funimation Channel starting in 2006. In Canada, an alternative dubbed version was created by Chinook Animation (in association with Blue Water Studios) and was aired there, instead of the Funimation version.

Funimation began releasing their in-house dub to Region 1 DVD box sets on March 18, 2003. Each box set, spanning an entire saga of the series, included the English dub track and the original Japanese audio track with optional English subtitles. However, they were unable to release the first thirteen episodes at the time, due to Lionsgate Entertainment holding the licensing rights to their previous dub of the same episodes, having acquired them from Trimark after the company became defunct. After Lionsgate's license to the first thirteen episodes expired in 2009, Funimation remastered and re-released the complete Dragon Ball series in five individual season box sets, with the first set released on September 15, 2009 and the final set on July 27, 2010.

Dragon Ball used two pieces of theme music for the entire series. "Makafushigi Adventure!" by Hiroki Takahashi is used as the series opening theme, and Ushio Hashimoto's "Romantic Ageru Yo" is used as the ending theme.