Dragon Ball fans around the world do not have much longer to wait for the new series, indeed many will have the fortune of seeing it the exact same date as Japan thanks to Crunchyroll’s near global simulcast.
Strangely though, while Crunchyroll streams Dragon Ball in a number of European territories that was the one continent not included in this simulcast.
Nonetheless it does seem slowly but surely announcements are being made for Europe.
Now ADN has announced they will be streaming Akira Toriyama’s final work in Germany.
This is great news for German fans, who had to wait 6 years and 2 years for Dragon Ball Kai and Dragon Ball Super to be licensed out to them. That means this will be the quickest they have ever received a new Dragon Ball anime series.
Coincidentally RTL II began rerunning original Dragon Ball between Marchand August of last year, but it was removed a month after the rerun concluded. It was a great chance for new fans to become accustomed to kid Goku.
Should there be any updates on other European territories we will of course report on them.
While Dragon Ball has had a long history in France, this will be the fastest any of the series has been released, a sign of times changing for the better.
On August 27th I became aware of this, as my sources at UK Anime News received emails from Crunchyroll.
Now it is official as UK retailer Anime-On-Line has announced Crunchyroll’s upcoming Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Z Blu-Ray boxsets will be making their way to Britain and Ireland.
These box sets had previously been announced for North America, but Dragon Ball fans in the British Isles will only have an extra month to wait, although unlike the US and Canada it will not be a Crunchyroll Store exclusive.
The 9 Dragon Ball Z “season” sets and 10 parts for Super will all come in two collectable boxes each displaying promotional art of Goku and friends and Shenron on the side.
Bothcollections are also available from Amazon UK and likely more retailers to follow.
As of writing this article episode 56 of Dragon Ball Kai has been uploaded to Selecta Vision’s streaming platform in Spain known as Anime Box.
With a new episode released every weekday, tomorrow will see the release of episode 57 (titled Welcome Back Son Goku! The Confession of the Mysterious Young Boy Trunks) with the new Castilian Spanish dub.
Additionally the VOD platform has more catalogue content with further episodes of original Dragon Ball being released every Friday. Today’s update was a reminder for viewers the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai will be released in 4 days.
The above can be translated as:
“Are you enjoying the first saga of #DragonBall? 📣 Well, I bring good news: Every Friday you will have a new complete saga in AnimeBox! Folded and in VOSE, to give you a good marathon of power all week.
This Friday 20/09 we will see the 21st Martial Arts Tournament, don’t miss it! 🤖”
According to Google the above post can be translated as:
“💥 Dragon Ball: The Pilaf Saga is NOW available on AnimeBox!
The complete saga is now available in VOSE, Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Euskera, and very soon also in Valencian! Start this great adventure at #AnimeBox!”
The above comment Anime Box posted yesterday, as translated by Google can be read as:
🟠 “Dragon Ball Z Kai Update: The Cell Saga starts tomorrow 13/09, and will do it with Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Euskera dubbing!
From Monday 16th all episodes published up to the date of #DBZKai will also feature Euskera and Galician dubbing, which were missing to be included.”
This will likely mean all 98 episodes of Dragon Ball Kai (excluding The Final Chapters, which can technically be counted as a separate show) are now available to view for Spanish audiences.
This makes Spain the fourth European territory to begin streaming all three series this year after Crunchyroll began to release them gradually in the UK, Ireland and France just a few months prior.
Dragon Ball has been airing on Comedy Central in Spain since at least 2022 and the channel continues to air the series. Tonight there will be a double bill of Dragon Ball Z from 7:05pm to 7:50pm followed by four episodes of original Dragon Ball from 7:50pm to 9:50pm.
The entire series pre-Super coming to Anime Box means Spanish fans will have the freedom to watch on all their devices.
There is no news on whether the series will be streaming with the just Iberian Spanish dub and Japanese with subtitles, but according to Anime Boxes homepage some content is available in Catalan, Galician and Basque it is possible these language options may also be streamed.
At this year’s Heroes Comic Con on the weekend of June 22nd-23rd the company who previously released a Dragon Ball Super: Broly Blu-Ray Periscoop Anime casually presented a Dragon Ball Kai banner, prompting speculation the series might finally be coming to the Netherlands.
Periscoop Anime have a streaming service called GoAnime (not to be confused with the illegal streaming site GoGoAnime), which it is expected Dragon Ball Kai will be released on, although as they are also a home video distributor a DVD or Blu-Ray release may be possible.
As there has never been a Dutch dub of Dragon Ball this will be the first of its kind, and it remains to be seen whether Periscoop will acquire Funimation’s dub of Kai or take the extra initiative, as fans have advised for licensing the Ocean dub. Nonetheless, Videoland forwarded on the request to the relevant department about what needs to be paid attention to in future.
Now the Kino Polska group-owned channel GameToon has announced they will be launching an anime strand, which will feature both “Dragon Ball” and “World Trigger” and broadcast several times a day. As both series are TOEI Animation productions it is possible they were acquired in a package deal.
Fans hoping for a Polish dub as Dragon Ball Kai and Dragon Ball Super have received during their broadcasts on Polsat Games may be disappointed as it appears GameToon will be airing original Dragon Ball with only Japanese audio and Polish subtitles, althoughsources have said it is so viewers can appreciate the atmosphere and authenticity of the production.
GameToon have scheduled a daily anime stream Monday-Friday where the first episodes of Dragon Ball and World Trigger will be aired with additional reruns at various times throughout the day.
6:20am – Repeat of the previous day’s “Dragon Ball” premiere
7:00am – “Dragon Ball” premiere
2:20pm – Repeat of the previous day’s “World Trigger” premiere
3:00pm – “World Trigger” premiere
3:45pm – Repeat of the previous day’s “Dragon Ball” premiere
4:30pm – “Dragon Ball” premiere
11:20pm – Repeat of the previous day’s “Dragon Ball” premiere
00:00am – “Dragon Ball” premiere
00:45am – Repeat of the previous day’s “World Trigger” premiere
01:30am – “World Trigger” premiere
This will mark not only the second channel to begin airing original Dragon Ball this year (as Cartoon Network India has just commenced their rerun) but also the second channel for the series to be launched on within the space of just over a week, and a first for GameToon.
As the 40th anniversary of Dragon Ball’s debut in the 51st issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on November 20, 1984 approaches expect more to be announced in the near future to commemorate the work that made Akira Toriyama a globally recognized mangaka.
Perhaps more broadcasts or releases of the original Dragon Ball will be on the cards to test the waters for a kid Goku-centric show as countries around the world await the international licensing of Dragon Ball Daima. That would certainly be something to look forward to as the original Dragon Ball is often overshadowed by its successors, most notably Dragon Ball Z, but this may be the time loyal fans have long waited for.
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