How to Watch Dragon Ball in Order

Based on Akira Toriyama’s manga series of the same name, Dragon Ball is one of the most popular and influential anime franchises in the world. Numerous sequels, spinoffs, and feature films have been released since Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball premiered in Japan in 1986, which makes watching it all an enormous undertaking. 

Fortunately, there are a few different ways to watch Dragon Ball. While you can go the completionist route, a large portion of the franchise isn’t considered canon so you can save a lot of time if you cut out non-canon content. However, you’ll also miss some of Dragon Ball’s most creative and epic moments if you go this route so you might be better off doing a chronological viewing and deciding for yourself how much you’d like to watch. 

This article will cover the main Dragon Ball viewing orders and where you can watch it all online.

How to Watch Dragon Ball in Canonical Order

If you’re just looking for the “core” Dragon Ball experience, a canonical viewing is the way to go. This viewing order cuts out the movies, as well as a few series like Dragon Ball GT. Consider this Goku and the Z Fighters’ main story.

One important consideration you’ll need to make is whether to watch Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball Z Kai. The former is the original anime that ran from 1989 - 1996, while the latter is an updated version of the same series with remastered picture and sound, as well as a more streamlined story that cuts out much of the filler material found in Dragon Ball Z. 

It’s debatable which is better—Kai is higher-quality in a number of ways, but lacks some of the charm of Dragon Ball Z’s wackier excursions. You could always hop back and forth to decide which you prefer but it’s arguably worth sticking to one since there’s so much overlap.

How to Watch Dragon Ball in Chronological Order

If you want to expand beyond the canonical texts, you might prefer watching Dragon Ball in chronological order. This viewing incorporates all of the movies and inserts them roughly where they would take place in the main series canon. It also means stopping and re-starting Dragon Ball Z at numerous points, so keep this in mind if you want to stick to the suggested viewing order. 

How to Watch Dragon Ball in Release Order

This viewing order is similar to the ones listed above but instead of going through events chronologically, it’s categorized by release date. This can be considered the completionist viewing since it includes Includes all series, movies, specials, and OVA (original video animation).