If there's an anime series that aired in the US that defined a large chunk of fandom and brought people into it, it's Dragon Ball Z. The series has been released numerous times around the world in countless configurations but it's missed one essential piece in the last few years. Full on streaming of the whole shebang, including the other associated series. With the seeming positive success of the One Piece series with Toei Animation, FUNimation and Toei are now bringing out Dragon Ball Z as a lead-in show to One Piece for it's Saturday night streaming block. And FUNimation is intending to bring out both dubbed and subbed (English Tracked and English Subbed as they reference it) episodes so it's not just one. Even better is that the series will be streaming through Hulu, which while it annoys a number of anime fans because of its region locks, is hugely important if advertised properly as it will get the series on pretty much every gaming console, tons of internet connected TVs and all sorts of portable devices as well through the Hulu Plus program. Dragon Ball Z found a huge audience before and it has the potential to reconnect it again as well.
Full Press release:
Flower Mound, Texas – January 3, 2011 — FUNimation® Entertainment and Toei Animation Co., Ltd. have entered into an agreement giving the American anime leader exclusive rights to the U.S. and Canadian online streaming of the studios’ signature animated series “Dragon Ball Z.”
Starting Saturday, January 15th at 7:30 PM CDT preceding the One Piece simulcast at 8:00 PM CDT, FUNimation will stream the series from its beginning via the official Dragon Ball Z website www.dragonballz.com in addition to www.dragonballzkai.com , www.funimation.com and FUNimation partner site www.hulu.com.
FUNimation will offer its professionally-produced, uncut, English-tracked and English-subtitled adaptations of the hugely successful series beginning with the first episode as well as other chapters of the Dragon Ball franchise: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Z Kai.
“We are pleased to offer the first legal streaming of this seminal anime series,” said Gen Fukunaga, president and CEO of FUNimation Entertainment. “Dragon Ball Z and One Piece are the crown jewels of our digital content strategy and we are proud of the diverse selection of series that entertains established fans and new ones as well.”
ABOUT DRAGON BALL Z
The explosive sequel to “Dragon Ball” follows the adventures of an all grown-up Goku and his son Gohan as they team up with their friends to battle evil forces throughout the universe to protect their beloved planet Earth.
After Akira Toriyama’s original manga, “Dragon Ball” debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1984, this monstrous hit has gone on to surpass 42 volumes and has consistently remained a best-seller; selling more than 120 million copies worldwide. In 1989, Toei Animation created a popular animated version of the story called “Dragon Ball Z” which aired on Fuji TV until 1996.
In North America, the “Dragon Ball Z” manga appears in the monthly SHONEN JUMP magazine (www.shonenjump.com) sold by VIZ Media, LLC, which also sells the individual volumes.
The franchise is also the top-selling anime series of all time in home video sales and is one of the most successful video game franchises ever.
“Dragon Ball Z Kai” airs daily on Nicktoons and on Saturday mornings within the CW4Kids Toonzai block.
FUNimation Entertainment will release the next home entertainment volume of the franchise, “Dragon Box, volume 5” on DVD on February 8th, 2011.
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Unless it airs on network TV, how can it find a new audience? How many people can stream? The only internet i have is my phone and unless i have a strong signal, aint no streaming going down. Release the Blurays and i'll be happy and afterr that i'll never buy DBZ again.
Unless it airs on network TV, how can it find a new audience? How many people can stream? The only internet i have is my phone and unless i have a strong signal, aint no streaming going down. Release the Blurays and i'll be happy and afterr that i'll never buy DBZ again.
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Maybe with a resurgence in popularity Funimation will finally license and dub the OVAs (Eradicate the Super Saiyans and Return of Goku and Friends).
Maybe Funimation will even get Dragon Boxes for the movies, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT too.
I'll stick to buying the DBZ Dragon Boxes and DBZ Kai Part sets but this is still great news.
Guess there's only the missing details to know:
- For the dub episodes Japanese music or US music? (I'm guessing the former since they phased out the US track for the Dragon Boxes but since it's still popular who knows)
- Dragon Box picture, Remastered (cropped) season set picture or some poor quality version Toei gave them?