Super dragon ball
It was only a few months after the publication of the first installment of the manga in the weekly magazine Shōnen Jump on November 20, 1984 to start work on a television adaptation. Toriyama himself was very involved, specially in the selection of the voice of the personages, reason why everything passed without any mishap until its premiere in Fuji Tv the 26 of February of 1986.
In fact, several members of the technical team had previously collaborated with Toriyama in the anime based on 'Dr. Slump ', which greatly facilitated the process by having a prior trust relationship. Given the complexity to be able to realize a weekly episode, up to four different companies collaborated in the animation under the production of Toei to be able to maintain the required rhythm.
Finally, it was 153 episodes that gave shape to 'Dragon Ball', taking as base the first 16 tomes of the 42 that would have the manga when it finished publishing in 1995. The normal thing in these cases would be to take a break before continuing to count The story of adult Goku in 'Dragon Ball Z', but Fuji Tv simply kept the usual weekly wait between episode and episode before premiering on April 26, 1989.
Toei chose to keep the same animation studies, and it was Toriyama himself who proposed the inclusion of a Z at the end. The reason for the choice was because it was the last letter of the alphabet and so conveyed the feeling that it was going to be the definitive closure of his most popular creation. I did not know how wrong I was.
The big problem faced by those responsible was that they could not advance the story of the manga so they had to use more often the desirable stuffing - also in Dragon Ball, but in much lower doses, That is to say, lengthening scenes, introducing new ones or directly inventing plots to save time without leaving without its weekly ration to the followers of the anime.
The series was already a great success in many other countries and the popularity of 'Dragon Ball' had exploded. There is no doubt that this was key for Fuji Tv and Toei to be willing to go forward no matter how much the last episode of the manga was published on May 23, 1995 and that 'Dragon Ball Z' came to an end on January 31 Of 1996 after 291 episodes that covered the 26 volumes centered on the adventures like adult of Goku.
It is worth remembering that his life was not limited to these two series, since of "Dragon Ball" were released three films between 1986 and 1988 - already in 1996 there would be another focus on the story told during the first episodes, the last of the franchise Until the relaunch in 2013 - and two television specials that could be seen in June of 1988.
However, the real popular on that front was 'Dragon Ball Z', since between July 1989 and June 2015 were released up to 13 films complementary to the series, 4 TV specials and two OVAS. The world did not get tired of Goku and their managers were not willing to pass up this golden opportunity.
The impact of the series in Spain
Image Dragon Ball
It was in 1988 when the rights to the first 26 episodes of the series were bought for broadcast in Spain. With the exception of Telemadrid - it did not begin to be broadcast until the end of 1991 -, all the autonomic channels were made with it and began to emit it from 1989.
Throughout its broadcast, and especially during its first years, there were countless problems with the dubbing changes - and with the translation of the scripts itself -, the fact of running out of episodes to be released or that many of them arrived With a censored version, but the series soon conquered millions of children in our country.
That yes, it was not until 1997 when he made the leap to the national television of the hand of Antena 3, channel that complicated everything a little more doing some additional cut in several episodes and changing some voices for the Spanish dubbing, since there was not Arrived to double to the full one to the Castilian having first decided Telemadrid and soon Canal South to leave its emission.