Best known by Dragon Ball fans as the voice of Master Roshi and Yajirobe, Mike McFarland has had a long standing career in the anime industry.
McFarland’s work extends beyond Dragon Ball to other characters like Buggy the Clown in One Piece, Carnage Kabuto in One-Punch Man, Jean Kirstein in Attack on Titan, Kotaro Amon in Tokyo Ghoul, The Ancient Magus’ Bride as well as Jean Havoc in Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Additionally McFarland has not only done voice work but also ADR, scriptwriting and producing.
ADR credits include other anime like One Piece, Attack on Titan, Chainsaw Man, the Funimation redub of Dragon Ball Z seasons 1-2 (also for ADR script), Fullmetal Alchemist (27 episodes and 50 episodes of Brotherhood), Tokyo Ghoul, the Evangelion rebuilds and many more.
Script duties included, but are not limited to Mob Psycho 100, Kodocha, Hellsing Ultimate, ODDTAXI, The Seven Deadly Sins, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki.
It has not been announced which territories will receive Dragon Ball Super: Beerus on streaming internationally, but it is likely that it will be seen on many services throughout the world, just as Dragon Ball Daima was on both Crunchyroll and Netflix.
Long story short, it depended on the state, and while the formal, widespread premier was on the weekend of September 14th-15th there were smaller, more niche weekday sneak peaks for the weekdays of September 12th and 13th, although anecdotal evidence suggests there may have been an earlier weekend sneak peak on September 7, 1996.
Take this blurb from the September 14-20, 1996 issue of TV Guide in the Kids Programming Fall Preview:
In only one known instance does a fan online suggest that this September 7th debut happened:
There are no known newspaper listings that confirm Dragon Ball Z was premiered on any channel this date, that is not to say it didn’t happen, as TV schedules can sometimes be ambiguous, a TV block can be listed but not the programmes, in the case of syndicate networks the schedules might list “Local Programming”, which according to a fan on the Kanzenshuu forums can be anything from sitcom reruns to church broadcasts to bootlegs of a pay per view wrestling event.
So it is possible, although it may never be known for sure whether or not Funimation’s English dub of Dragon Ball Z first aired in North America on September 7, 1996, but nonetheless the week up to September 14th did include sneak peaks, as Kanzenshuu’s article highlights.
In any case this week celebratory threads and articles can be expected, just as was the case for the 20th anniversary of this dub in North America on both forums and websites.
5:54am CNN 5:55am Bethesda 6:00am Morning Live 8:00am Pasella 9:30am School TV 11:30am Infomercials 12:30pm African Connection 1:00pm Meloding 1:30pm Stargate SG-1 2:30pm Buzz and Poppy 2:42pm Liewe Heksie 2:52pm Health 3:00pm Takalani Sesame 3:30pm Let’s Meet 4:00pm Spherics 4:30pm Dragonball Z 5:00pm EBU 5:30pm Family Ties 6:00pm Stoute Boude 6:30pm 7de Laan 7:00pm News 7:30pm Pacific Blue 8:30pm The Wayne Brady Show 9:00pm News 9:30pm The Shadow 10:30pm Needful Things 0:30am CNN
Source : Cape Times, June 3, 2002, p. 11
5:00am Infomercials 5:40am Bethesda 5:45am Agri TV 6:00am Morning Live 8:01am Little Mermaid 8:30am Timon and Pumbaa 9:00am Fundani Nathi 9:15am Your Life 9:30am HIV 9:45am Thabang Thabong 10:00am Barbar King of the Elephants 11:30am Infomercials 12:00pm Muvhango 12:30pm 7de Laan 1:00pm Dr Phil 2:00pm Days of our Lives 2:46pm Thabang Thabong 3:15pm Takalani Sesame 3:45pm Bling 4:15pm Hamtaro 4:45pm Fudge 5:00pm Dragonball 5:30pm News 6:00pm A World or 2 6:30pm 7de Laan 7:00pm News 7:30pm Gilmore Girls 8:30pm News 9:00pm Muvhango 9:30pm Dube 10:00pm 50 Things To Do Before You Die 11:00pm What It’s Like 0:00am Infomercials 0:30am SABC Africa
Source : Cape Times, December 14, 2004, p. 12
5:00am Infomercials 5:40am Bethesda 5:45am Agri TV 6:00am Morning Live 8:01am Little Mermaid 8:30am Timon and Pumbaa 9:00am Your News and Views 9:15am Kids News 9:30am Destination South Africa 9:45am Thabang Thabong Special 10:00am A Kid In King Arthur’s Court 11:30am Infomercials 12:00pm Fishy Feshuns 12:30pm The Most Evil Men In History 1:00pm Dr Phil 2:00pm Days of our Lives 2:46pm Thabang Thabong 3:15pm Takalani Sesame 3:45pm Hip2b2 4:15pm Hamtaro 4:45pm The Little Champa 5:00pm Dragonball GT 5:30pm News 6:00pm Belboks 6:30pm 7de Laan 7:00pm News 7:30pm Navy NCIS 8:30pm News 9:00pm Muvhango 9:30pm Motswako the Mix 10:00pm The Preachers Wife 0:00am Infomercials 0:30am SABC Africa
Last week actor Manolo Solo (real name Manuel Jesús Fernández Serrano) passed away at the age of 62.
The actor known for playing Beerus and #17 in the Castilian dub of Dragon Ball died on Thursday from cancer.
Solo won a Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film Tarde para la ira.
The stage name Solo came from his childhood desire to be a rock star, in addition to his work as an actor he was a singer, bassist and guitarist of the rock band Los Relicarios.
Solo was also a theatre actor, performing in the documentary plays Ruz-Bárcenas (2013) and El Rey (2015), both of which were adapted to films.
Within Dragon Ball, Solo is also known for playing Tao Pai Pai, Silver Horn, Mr. Popo, Gregory, Zarbon (first voice), Jheese, Oob (Dragon Ball GT episodes 32 onward), Bon Para and Nappa in Dragon Ball Super: Broly.
When it comes to TV blocks and Dragon Ball most people will think of Toonami, but when we look at the history of the Dragon Ball anime on TV around the world we learn that there are many different blocks that the show, and indeed its various sequels were broadcast on.
Even within the context of English-speaking countries we had blocks other than Toonami where Dragon Ball became popular.
Fans that watched Dragon Ball down under may remember it from Network Ten’s Cheez TV block, but what about even further south?
The Daily Post TV schedule from the day Dragon Ball Z premiered on TV3 in New Zealand
In New Zealand Dragon Ball Z originally featured as part of TV3’s main lineup, but a lot of fans may remember the show and its sequel Dragon Ball GT from a popular local children’s block named Sticky TV.
Sticky TV was described to me as a “skit show type program”. Segments showcased children giving advice to other kids, mud fights, and contests of everything from singing to cooking, fashion and survival.
The target audience was preschoolers to 12-year olds and it introduced emerging presenters like TV weatherman Sam Wallace, Kanoa Llloyd (The Project) and Erin Simpson (The Erin Simpson Show).
Sticky TV lasted until Christmas Day 2017 but Dragon Ball Z and its sequel Dragon Ball GT were only shown individually (never together) during the first few years of the block’s existence.
Not many fans I’ve spoken to remember Dragon Ball GT airing on Sticky TV or TV3 in general, but having enquired with the National Library of New Zealand and a fan who watched the show at the time I can confirm it did.
On July 5, 2004 Dragon Ball GT was first listed in The TV Guide as a featured programme on Sticky TV, although the block didn’t always advertise all of its programming so the show may have premiered earlier.
July 3-9, 2004 issue of The TV Guide page 63
As for how the New Zealand broadcasts of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT differed from the English airings in countries like Australia and the USA? Well that’s a story for another day (Hint: There was further censorship on top of the existing edits).
With the addition of these 3 episodes the Danish dub of Dragon Ball Super has eclipsed the Danish dub of Dragon Ball Z, which Danmarks Radio (DR) also produced in the early 2000s, which had 104 episodes.
Assuming the current rate of new episodes being uploaded to the platform remains consistent Dragon Ball Super’s Danish dub should reach episode 130 on August 21, 2026 with the final episode premiering a week after.
Although with one episode left at that stage DR may decide to drop the last 4 episodes together rather than dropping 3 episodes in a single week.
4Anime have announced that today (June 10th) the first episode of the latest anime series Dragon Ball Daima will be released on the 4AnimePlay app.
4Anime previously aired Kurdish dubs of Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super as well as Dragon Ball movies 1-4, Dragon Ball Z movies 1-8 and the 2 Dragon Ball Super movies on their linear channel.
Following this tradition, albeit on a streaming platform a Kurdish dub of Dragon Ball Daima can be expected.
A further 3 episodes of Dragon Ball Super have just been released in Denmark in the native language.
Episodes 83-85 are now available on the DR TV app using the new dub produced by DR and recorded at KM Studio.
Next week episodes 86-88 can be expected on the service.
If this dub runs to completion it will be the first time a Dragon Ball TV anime has been dubbed fully in Danish since the old Dragon Ball Z dub was incomplete.
Kanzenshuu user HinKyto has once more received an update from DR regarding the Dragon Ball Super Danish dub.
According to a recent post on the section of the forum dedicated to Dragon Ball Super DR has confirmed not only that they are working on new episodes but that they will be released in April.
We previously reported that DR hoped to finish dubbing Dragon Ball Super by spring 2026, although it was unclear whether this meant episodes 77-131 would be dubbed in full by then or all streamed.
However, a recent post on the Facebook group Dragon Ball DK by top contributor Casper Vestergaard Jensen indicates that the entirety of this batch of episodes may indeed come to the DRTV streaming service before the summer.
In any case this will mean that for the first time ever there is a complete series Danish dub for one of the Dragon Ball TV anime as DR’s dub of Dragon Ball Z was never complete.
Over a year ago Spanish Dragon Ball fans were expressing their desire for a dub of Dragon Ball Daima in their region on X (formerly known as Twitter), particularly a dub from Dasara Producciones.…
The Dragon Ball Daima German dub has recently begun with the first two episodes premiering Friday and Saturday respectively on TOGGO Plus and episode 3 just aired. The dub features a complete recast since…
Dragon Ball Super episodes 128-131 have just been uploaded to the DR TV app. This marks one additional episode as three episodes have been uploaded every week for season 3 of Dragon Ball…
Denmark is very close to having a complete Danish Dragon Ball dub with the 3 episodes that have been added to the DR TV app. As of today (August 14th) Dragon Ball Super episodes…
According to a leak there will be a new collaboration between Dragon Ball and Burger King coming. Dragon Ball fans in the United States will remember that Dragon Ball Z had a commercial tie-in…
Recently it was announced that RTL Consumer Products would be taking over the marketing of the Dragon Ball brand as part of a strategic plan for the franchises continued growth in popularity throughout Europe,…
It has been revealed that Michael Donovan, known for his role as Roshi in Funimation’s 1995 English dub of Dragon Ball (known by fans as the “BLT dub”) passed away on March 4th this…
With today’s addition of 3 more episodes to the Dragon Ball Super Danish dub there is only 7 more to go until the dub is completed. The episodes uploaded were 122-124 and they have…
