Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z's release in the west was so complicated that it's almost surprising that the franchise caught on. A quarter-century later, Dragon Ball Z and its chronological sequel Dragon Ball Super are beloved the world over, and fans are looking forward to the release of a new movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero this June. And of course, Dragon Ball Z remains emblematic as one of the first anime to gain major cultural attention from Western audiences.
But what of the original Dragon Ball? It's talked about far less frequently than its sequels, and is largely ignored by the Western fanbase. This isn't because Dragon Ball is bad, or even because it's inferior to Dragon Ball Z. Instead, Dragon Ball's invisibility in the west is the result of deliberate corporate decisions made by Funimation and their colleagues in the late 1990s. Consequently, while the Dragon Ball franchise was released chronologically (both as an anime and manga) in Japan, Dragon Ball largely came second in the West, with one notable exception.
Dragon Ball is Not A Prequel (But It Was Treated Like One)
Time for a history lesson: When Funimation acquired the rights to Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z for American release in 1995, it was a small and relatively unknown company, having been founded the year prior. Due to its small size, it outsourced its dubbing to other production companies in the late 1990s, leading to Dragon Ball Z's well-known initial dub by Ocean (the source of the "Over 9000" meme). The fact that there have been various separate English dubs of Dragon Ball Z makes assessing its initial release difficult, but what can be definitively stated is that Funimation, to their credit, did try to air the original Dragon Ball first, but backtracked after it received poor ratings due to its time slot.
The first 13 episodes of Dragon Ball were aired by Funimation from September to December of 1995, almost a full year before the first dub of Dragon Ball Z aired. The poor ratings led Funimation to put dubbing Dragon Ball on hold until 2001, while they instead shifted to Dragon Ball Z. Unlike the original Dragon Ball dub, Dragon Ball Z was a massive success, and the rest is history. Eventually, both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were re-dubbed by Funimation themselves, and the cast has remained similar ever since.
In the realm of manga, Dragon Ball also got a faulty release in the West. Viz began publishing English-language volumes of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z concurrently in March of 2003, rather than finishing Dragon Ball first. Once again, chronology was undermined in the name of profit. For better or worse, this solidified Dragon Ball's relative Western obscurity, with many fans erroneously treating it like a prequel.
Why New Fans Should Finish Dragon Ball First (And Old Fans Should Watch It)
In all fairness, there were factors other than ratings leading to Funimation's choice to postpone Dragon Ball's dub. While Dragon Ball Z is almost purely action-based, Dragon Ball blends action with adventure and comedy, and lacks its sequel's singular focus on fighting. Dragon Ball also incorporates far more risqué elements into its pages than Z, including brief nudity, leading to a significant degree of censorship by Viz and Funimation. This also makes Dragon Ball markedly less kid-friendly.
Taking all these variables into account, it's no wonder Dragon Ball Z seemed like a safer bet. And given American and European cultural preferences, it probably was. But adult fans are doing themselves a disservice by ignoring Dragon Ball. In many ways, it's actually the superior entity. It largely lacks the poor pacing and filler of its sequel due to a less heavy emphasis on fights overall, and provides a great deal of context for Dragon Ball Z. It shows how Goku met the other Z Fighters and other friends like Bulma and Oolong, and shows his growth from an isolated boy in the mountains to the greatest martial artist on Earth, ending in a battle with Piccolo.
Characters that are largely relegated to supporting roles in Dragon Ball Z get their time in the limelight here, and in most cases it's not disappointing. Of particular significance is Master Roshi, who taught Goku martial arts but was relegated to comedy relief in Z before thankfully being rehabilitated in Super. Outside of its three tournament arcs (which are all great), Dragon Ball also places a lot more emphasis on the eponymous objects themselves. While the dragon balls do play a major role in Z, the act of searching for them, and the adventures that come along with that, are tossed aside almost entirely.
Some fans were lucky enough (or perhaps had enough OCD) to finish Dragon Ball before moving on to its sequels, and they were rewarded with the experience of going on an uninterrupted journey akin to Japanese fans. Those that missed that opportunity, however, shouldn't skip Dragon Ball because it lacks the cosmic scale and pure action of Z and Super (and to a much lesser extent, Dragon Ball GT). It's to this day one of the greatest manga and anime ever conceived, and it deserves to be loved in the West the way it is in Japan.