In honor of the late Akira Toriyama, Cartoon Network’s Toonami action block on Adult Swim sent a special message to the famous manga artist before airing the Dragon Ball Z Kai marathon.
Following the recent news of Toriyama’s passing, Toonami announced that it will air an eight-episode Dragon Ball Z Kai in his memory. Before starting the marathon, Toonami briefly acknowledged the tragic loss of Toriyama through Tom and SARA, the show’s hosts. The special introduction was shared by the Adult Swim fan account Swimpedia as well as @/SupaChronicles on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
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As Tom said, the airing of Dragon Ball Z on Toonami was a turning point for the Cartoon Network block. On August 31, 1998, the first episode of Dragon Ball Z aired on Toonami. The first 53 episodes were originally edited for a botched syndication that featured heavy censorship, such as characters being “sent to another dimension” instead of being killed, and minimizing depictions of violence. force. Despite the questionable edits, Dragon Ball Z became an instant hit in the US.
Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon were important American anime series in the 90s
After the first series of episodes dubbed by Ocean Group, Dragon Ball Z continued on Toonami with less censorship and a new English dub dubbed by Funimation (now Crunchyroll), starting with the story “Captain Ginyu ”. The enormous popularity of Dragon Ball Z not only contributed to Cartoon Network’s early dominance but also pioneered the ’90s anime boom in the US alongside Sailor Moon on Toonami.
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To date, Toonami has shown all of the main Dragon Ball series, such as the 1986 series and Dragon Ball Super, as well as airing various films from the franchise. Despite its strong relationship with the franchise, Cartoon Network briefly lost the rights to broadcast Dragon Ball to Nickelodeon between 2010 and 2012. When Cartoon Network regained the rights to broadcast Dragon Ball, Toonami was not wasteful a minute to criticize its television competitors during that time. its Dragon Ball Z Kai commercial.
Dragon Ball Z Kai, Dragon Ball Super, and the rest of the anime TV series are now available to stream on Crunchyroll. A new series called Dragon Ball Daima will air this fall. Before his death, Toriyama was heavily involved in the production of new anime.
Dragon Ball Z Kai
Goku has settled down with his family and lives in peace. Unfortunately, his time of peace is only temporary when a visitor crashes on the planet claiming to be his brother.
Release date April 5, 2009
Cast Masako Nozawa, Ryô Horikawa, Toshio Furukawa, Hiromi Tsuru
Seasons 7
Creator Akira Toriyama
Source: X (formerly Twitter)
