The original English dub of Dragon Ball has been lost and cannot be found

The original Dragon Ball anime was first released in Japan in 1986, preceding the more popular Dragon Ball Z. However, in the West, the first series was only fully localized in the early 2000s due to the popularity of its successor. Prior to this, there had been attempts to bring the series over, including an English dub that is now considered a lost piece of anime history.

The first attempt at dubbing the original Dragon Ball anime was handled by Harmony Gold USA, a production company best known for its controversial Robotech franchise. This series spliced together different anime, most notably the original Macross, to create something new, but this approach was met with criticism from anime purists. Dragon Ball was next in line for a drastic attempt at Americanization, resulting in significant changes to the source material, including the characters’ names.

Harmony Gold renamed the franchise’s hero Goku to Zero, voiced by Barbara Goodson, who also provided the voice for Rita Repulsa in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Bulma’s name was also changed to Lena, and Launch was renamed Marilynn. Meanwhile, Master Roshi and a few other characters were allowed to maintain their original names, in line with how Robotech handled its protagonist, Hikaru Ichijyo, who was renamed Rick Hunter.

Despite the changes to the characters’ names, Harmony Gold’s original English dub of Dragon Ball was free of the censorship that would affect the Funimation version. In this way, the dub was more accurate to the original Japanese version than the later Funimation version. It was even released in the Mexican market with a title that translated as “Zero and the Magic Dragon.”

Unfortunately, the original English release of Dragon Ball was brief and did not run until the series’ final episode, making it an almost disputed reality among some fans. The episodes were last broadcast in 1990, long before the Western anime fandom was a fraction of what it is today. There would be a debate for years about this dub’s existence, let alone if copies of the recorded footage had survived.

Thankfully, a fan named Ryan Gavigan secured the lost videos and restored the distorted audio, allowing fans online to enjoy it. However, the footage’s poor quality means that it’s unlikely a professional cut of the dub could ever be reproduced. Therefore, those wanting it made available through streaming or on physical media will likely be left out of luck. Despite its lost status, Harmony Gold’s original English dub of Dragon Ball remains a fascinating piece of anime history for fans to appreciate.

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