when did dragon ball z come out in america
Dragon Ball Z In 1996, Funimation Productions licensed Dragon Ball Z for an English-language release in North America. They contracted Saban Entertainment to help distribute the series to television, and Pioneer Entertainment to handle home video distribution.[9] The Vancouver-based Ocean Studios were hired by Funimation to dub the anime (Funimation had previously used the Ocean voice cast in their short-lived 1995 dub of Dragon Ball).[10] Saban musicians Ron Wasserman[11] and Jeremy Sweet,[10] known for their work on the Power Rangers franchise, composed a new background score and theme song (nicknamed "Rock the Dragon").[Note 1] Funimation's initial English dub of Dragon Ball Z had mandated cuts to content and length, which reduced the first 67 episodes into 53.[12][13] It premiered in the United States on September 13, 1996 in first-run syndication, but halted production in 1998 after two seasons.[12] This was due to Saban scaling down its syndication operations, in order to focus on producing original material for the Fox Kids block.[14] Pioneer also ceased its home video release of the series at volume 17 (the end of the dub) and retained the rights to produce an uncut subtitled version,[12] but did not do so.