Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball Z (ドラゴンボールＺ, Doragon Bōru Zetto; commonly abbreviated as DBZ) is the long-running sequel to the anime Dragon Ball. The series is a close adaptation of the second (and far longer) portion of the Dragon Ball manga written and drawn by Akira Toriyama. In the United States, the manga's second portion is also titled Dragon Ball Z to prevent confusion for younger readers.

Production history
The other names the production was considering for this second series before they settled on Dragon Ball Z were Dragon Ball: Gohan's Big Adventure, New Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball 2, Dragon Ball Wonder Boy, and Dragon Ball 90. The anime first premiered in Japan on April 26, 1989 (on Fuji TV) at 7:30 p.m. and ended on January 31, 1996. The series average rating was 20.5%, with its maximum being 27.5% (Episode 218) and its minimum being 12.1% (Episode 273). Like Dragon Ball, the music for Dragon Ball Z was composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi. The character designs for Dragon Ball Z were created by Minoru Maeda from the Vegeta Saga to the Cell Games Saga and Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru from the Great Saiyaman Saga to the Kid Buu Saga.

Censorship issues
Dragon Ball Z was marketed to appeal to a wide range of viewers from all ages, and contains crude humor and occasional excesses of violence which are commonly seen as inappropriate for younger audiences by American standards. When it was marketed in the US, the distribution company FUNimation Entertainment alongside with Saban decided to initially focus exclusively on the young children's market, because the anime market was still small compared to the much larger children's cartoon market. This censorship often had unintentionally humorous results, such as changing all references to death so the dead characters were merely going to "another dimension", and digitally altering two ogres' shirts to read "HFIL" instead of "HELL".

Toei sagas

 * 1) Saiyan (Episodes 1~35); 1989–1990
 * 2) Frieza (Episodes 36~107); 1990–1991
 * 3) Cell (Episodes 108~194); 1991–1993
 * 4) Buu (Episodes 195~291); 1993–1996

English dub sagas
Saiyan:


 * The Vegeta Saga (Episodes 1~35; originally The Saiyan Conflict)

Frieza:


 * The Namek Saga (Episodes 36~67)
 * The Captain Ginyu Saga (Episodes 68~74)
 * The Frieza Saga (Episodes 75~107)

Cell:


 * The Garlic Jr. Saga (Episodes 108~117)
 * The Trunks Saga (Episodes 118~125)
 * The Androids Saga (Episodes 126~139)
 * The Imperfect Cell Saga (Episodes 140~152)
 * The Perfect Cell Saga (Episodes 153~165)
 * The Cell Games Saga (Episodes 166~194)

Buu:


 * The Great Saiyaman Saga (Episodes 195~209)
 * The World Tournament Saga (Episodes 210~219)
 * The Babidi Saga (Episodes 220~231)
 * The Majin Buu Saga (Episodes 232~253)
 * The Fusion Saga (Episodes 254~275)
 * The Kid Buu Saga (Episodes 276~291)