Dragon Ball International

Category: Asia

  • Bardock: The Father of Goku to debut in India on September 1st

    As we previously reported Bardock: The Father of Goku, the Takao Koyama and Katsuyuki Sumisawa-penned TV special is set to air for the first time ever in India on the native Cartoon Network, which has had massive success with the Dragon Ball over the past two years with Super, Kai and various movies.

    The special, which has commonly been mistaken for a movie, possibly because it had the same runtime as any of the 17 original movies is in fact a TV special, and during its first ever release on October 17, 1990 it aired on Fuji Television, like the rest of the series between Dragon Ball Z episodes 63 and 64, so it is in fact every bit as much a part of the TV anime as the 291-episode series that aired during the same timeslot.

    Now Cartoon Network India, which is set to air the first Dragon Ball Z TV special, and for the first time in nearly 15 years broadcast the original Dragon Ball series has announced a premier date.

    September 1, 2024, the special will air on Cartoon Network with five dubs in different languages – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada at 1pm. This will be a week after original Dragon Ball returns to Cartoon Network.

    Similarly when Dragon Ball Kai premiered last year with episodes 1-7 on its debut date, Dragon Ball Z movie 5 followed a week later before episodes 8-14 of Kai, so presumably the Bardock special will follow a similar pattern.

    There may be more or less episodes of original Dragon Ball premiering the week before, although the Bardock special is airing later than Dragon Ball Z movie 5 did so Cartoon Network India may be taking their time with dubbing it more so than they did with Kai, which all 167 episodes of were aired between April 16th and November 12th last year.

    When I find an upcoming Sunday schedule for Cartoon Network India I will be sure to update this.

    In any case it is great that Indian audiences finally have a way of legally watching and supporting the much loved TV special, and hopefully History of Trunks will follow, and more of TOEI’s Dragon Ball catalogue if ratings are good.

  • Piccolo Daimaō arc begins on Anibox in South Korea

    As we speak Dragon Ball episode 103, the second episode of the Piccolo Daimaō arc has just aired in South Korea on the Daewon Media-owned channel AniBox.

    The original Dragon Ball anime began airing on AniBox on Christmas eve last year, marking the first time in 16 years the series was shown on the channel.

    Currently AniBox air Dragon Ball on Sundays starting with 1 rerun of the last week’s newest episode at 8pm followed by 3 new episodes from 8:30pm-10pm.

    Champ TV previously dubbed all of original Dragon Ball but as Daewon Broadcasting acquired Champ Vision from Tcast in March of last year the channel was absorbed into the broadcasting giant and integrated into another Daewon channel AniOne.

    This broadcast features a new Korean dub as it is very common for shows to be redubbed, reportedly due to broadcasting rights and dubbing often being cheaper than the cost of licensing other channel’s dubs.

    Credit goes to the knowledgeable Korean dub expert wjbraden for confirming when this dub began.

  • Bardock : The Father of Goku expected to premier on Cartoon Network India around the same time as original Dragon Ball with five new dubs

    In a recent Instagram post second Hindi Vegeta voice actor Prasad Barve said “Young vegeta something new coming up soon”, leading his followers to believe the Bardock : The Father of Goku TV special was coming to Cartoon Network India.

    It has just been confirmed by Senpai Network that the special Toriyama famously loved but said he would never write himself will indeed be dubbed and airing on Cartoon Network India.

    In what has become the expected standard the much revered special will be broadcast in five native languages, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. No Indian dubs are known to exist or have aired.

    Often mislabelled as a movie, Bardock : The Father of Goku is a special that aired on Fuji TV alongside the Dragon Ball Z anime, and in India it is expected to air alongside original Dragon Ball, just as Cooler’s Revenge was shown the same day episodes 1-7 of Kai premiered back in 2023.

    It is always great to see older content being dubbed, Uttam Pal Singh, head of Cartoon Network India has said to fans privately the channel was looking into more Dragon Ball licenses, Dragon Ball GT was expected after Dragon Ball Kai, although One Piece was aired instead.

    It will be certainly interesting to see what else Cartoon Network India sets their eyes on, only time will tell when they will receive Dragon Ball Daima.

  • After almost 15 years original Dragon Ball is returning to Cartoon Network in India

    Recently Cartoon Network India have teased a new series as “the adventure that started it all”, on the same day local online news reporter Senpai Networks confirmed the show coming to national TV was indeed the original Dragon Ball, and just announced is the premier date and timeslot.

    Sundays at 2pm starting August 25th

    And there’s more. As was the case with Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Kai and Dragon Ball Z movies 5-9 and 12-13, which were all shown since 2022 five dubs were produced in different languages – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

    This is great news, original Dragon Ball did once air on Cartoon Network with a Hindi dub, and from what one fan has said it was a massive flop with only the first 49 episodes being dubbed and the channel suffering a loss.

    As was the case with Kai, original Dragon Ball will be getting a new Hindi dub and not a rerun of the older dub, but Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada will be new audios.

    Still wonderful, not only to see original Dragon Ball getting more exposure, but the massive amount of dubbing will mean it appeals to a wider variety of Indian fans.

    Watch this space for updates on these dubs.

Category: Asia