Dragon Ball Watch Order: The Complete Guide

The Dragon Ball anime turned forty in February 2026, and its viewing order is messier than the story it tells. You are choosing between two edits of the same 291 episodes, thirteen non-canon Z films, four canon ones, a sequel series Akira Toriyama did not write, a 2024 side story he did, and a re-edition of Super that premiered in October 2026. Here is one order that works end to end, plus what you can skip.

The full Dragon Ball watch order at a glance

#	What to watch	Released	Length	Why it sits here
1	Dragon Ball	1986-1989	153 episodes	Goku's childhood, and the rules of the world
2	Dragon Ball Z, or Dragon Ball Z Kai	1989-1996, or 2009-2015	291 or 159 episodes	One story, two edits: pick one
3	Dragon Ball Daima	2024-2025	20 episodes	Set a year after the Majin Buu saga
4	Dragon Ball Super	2015-2018	131 episodes	Gods of destruction, Tournament of Power
5	Dragon Ball Super: Broly	2018	Film	Months after the Tournament of Power
6	Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero	2022	Film	The newest canon story you can watch
7	Dragon Ball Super: Beerus	From October 2026	Ongoing	Optional re-edition of Super's early arcs
8	Dragon Ball GT	1996-1997	64 episodes	Optional: a non-canon branch, not a sequel
9	The thirteen Dragon Ball Z films	1989-1995	13 films	Optional side stories, slot by cast

1. Dragon Ball (1986-1989): do not skip the childhood

Toei's original series ran 153 episodes on Fuji TV between February 1986 and April 1989, adapting the first 194 chapters of Akira Toriyama's manga. It is a gag-driven adventure rather than a power-scaling tournament show: Son Goku is a feral kid with a tail who meets Bulma, hunts the Dragon Balls, trains under Master Roshi and picks a fight with an actual army. It ends with the Piccolo Junior tournament, where an adult Goku wins and marries Chi-Chi.

Plenty of people start at Z and survive. What they miss is setup that pays off decades later: Piccolo's origin as one half of a split being, the tournament structure every later arc borrows, and the Red Ribbon Army, whose revival drives the 2022 film Super Hero. If the slapstick wears you down, watch the King Piccolo and Piccolo Junior arcs at minimum. The tournament template these episodes set still shapes the genre, as our best shonen anime ranking shows.

2. Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball Z Kai? The one real decision

Dragon Ball Z ran 291 episodes from April 1989 to January 1996 and adapted the remaining 325 manga chapters. The trouble: Toriyama was still drawing the manga during production, so Toei stretched scenes and invented new ones. Kai is the fix, a 2009 re-edit that re-records the dialogue, remasters the picture in HD and strips most anime-only material so episodes track the manga. Its first run covered the Saiyan, Frieza and Cell material in 98 episodes (2009 to 2011), and The Final Chapters handled Majin Buu across 2014 and 2015: 159 episodes in Japan, 167 internationally.

Pick Kai if this is your first watch

Kai drops a large chunk of the runtime without losing a plot point, and the difference bites hardest on Namek, where Z stretches one fight across weeks of screen time. It also cuts the Garlic Jr. saga (Z episodes 108-117) completely, jumping straight from Frieza's defeat to Trunks' arrival, because Garlic Jr. and his Demon Clan henchmen were invented for the anime and never come up again. If filler has ever made you bail on a long shonen, the same fix turns up in our Naruto watch order.

Pick original Z if you want the texture

The filler is not all waste. Goku and Piccolo taking driving lessons, the Other World tournament and the long training interludes are part of why the series felt like a weekly habit for a generation. A sensible compromise: take Kai front to back, then cherry-pick the famous Z filler afterwards. Either route delivers the same four sagas, including Frieza on Namek, who still anchors most lists of the greatest anime villains.

3. Dragon Ball Daima: twenty episodes that slot backwards

Daima aired 20 episodes on Fuji TV between 11 October 2024 and 28 February 2025, and it is set a year after Majin Buu's defeat, before the ten-year jump that closes Z. Gomah, the newly installed supreme king of the Demon Realm, kidnaps Dende and uses Earth's Dragon Balls to wish Goku and his friends into children so they cannot stand in his way, which pushes the cast into the Demon Realm to find its own Dragon Balls and undo it. It matters beyond the gimmick as Toriyama's last Dragon Ball project: he took the original work, story and character design credits, said he ended up getting deeply involved without realising it, and died in March 2024, before it aired.

Slot it after Z or Kai and before Super. Strict chronology would tuck it in just ahead of Z's closing episodes, which jump ten years forward to another World Martial Arts Tournament, but finishing Z first spoils nothing and twenty episodes make a good breather. All 20 are on Netflix and, in most regions, Crunchyroll as of September 2026, with no second season announced.

Spoiler warning: Daima also hands Super Saiyan 4 a canon origin, and Goku finishes Gomah with it in the final episode. That transformation was invented for GT, a series Toriyama did not write.

4. Dragon Ball Super, and why its first 27 episodes feel like a rerun

Super is 131 episodes and it opens on ground the films already covered: episodes 1 to 27 readapt Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F' with extra scenes stitched in. Watch the two films for the better-looking versions and start at episode 28, or skip the films and take the series from episode 1. Doing both back to back is the one order we would talk you out of.

The Universe 6 arc (episodes 28 to 46) puts Beerus against his twin Champa in a tournament between universes and introduces the assassin Hit. The Future Trunks arc (episodes 47 to 76) is the high point for many fans: Goku Black, Zamasu and a ruined timeline that hands Vegeta his best material in years. The Universe Survival saga (episodes 77 to 131) is the Tournament of Power, an eight-universe battle royale on a collapsing stage where the losing universes are erased.

Spoiler warning: skip ahead to keep the tournament's big turn. Goku reaches Ultra Instinct for the first time in episode 110 against Jiren and only masters it in episode 129, which is why that stretch still turns up on our list of the best anime fights, and in our strongest Dragon Ball characters ranking.

5. Where the films actually fit

Thirteen Dragon Ball Z films arrived between 1989 and 1995, and almost all are alternate retellings or side stories outside the continuity of the manga and series. Treat them as bonus episodes, not homework: slot each beside the arc whose cast it uses. Fusion Reborn and the first Broly film are the two most fans would defend. The original series' four films work the same way, ending with The Path to Power, a 1996 tenth-anniversary retelling of Goku's earliest adventures.

The canon list is shorter. Battle of Gods (30 March 2013) was the first Dragon Ball film in 17 years and the first Toriyama personally supervised, though Yusuke Watanabe wrote its screenplay; Resurrection 'F' (18 April 2015) was the first Toriyama scripted himself. Dragon Ball Super: Broly (14 December 2018) is set a few months after the Tournament of Power and rewrites Broly into canon: King Vegeta exiles the infant to the barren planetoid Vampa because his power reading dwarfs that of the king's own son. Watch it after Super's final episode.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (11 June 2022, pushed back from 22 April after a ransomware attack on Toei) closes the run so far. It hands the leads to Gohan and Piccolo while Goku, Vegeta and Broly train with Whis on Beerus's planet, and revives the Red Ribbon Army under Magenta, whose late father ran the original, with Dr Hedo's androids Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 plus the unfinished Cell Max. It is the first film in the franchise made largely in CG, and that look divides people. The Piccolo material does not.

6. Is Dragon Ball GT canon?

No, and the reason is structural rather than snobbery. GT ran 64 episodes from February 1996 to November 1997 with no manga to adapt, so Toei's staff conceived the story themselves. Toriyama supplied the name (GT for Grand Tour) and designs for the new characters, then called the result a side story to the original Dragon Ball. Its four arcs (Black Star Dragon Balls, Baby, Super 17 and Shadow Dragons) also contradict Super, the continuation he did work on.

That does not make GT worthless: it is the only place that follows this cast into old age, and Super Saiyan 4 stayed popular enough that Daima gave it a canon origin nearly three decades later. Watch it after Super if you are curious, as an alternate branch that nothing later depends on.

7. Release order, chronological order and what comes next

Release order and chronological order barely diverge here, because each series was made in story order. The exceptions are easy to name: Daima (2024) reaches back into the Z era, and Super (2015) overlaps two films released before it. The table above is chronological with Daima in its proper gap, and it doubles as a fine release order.

Two new productions are in play as of October 2026. Dragon Ball Super: Beerus premiered on Fuji TV on 11 October 2026, and it is not a continuation. It is an enhanced edition of the existing Super anime: all footage re-rendered, new and redrawn cuts, a story reworked closer to the manga and a new sound mix, covering the Beerus material, Frieza's revival and the Universe 6 tournament. Do not expect new voice performances, though. Toei's English announcement spoke of newly recorded dubbing, but Koichi Yamadera, the Japanese voice of Beerus, has since said no new lines were recorded and the recordings made for the original 2015-2018 series are being reused. Mid-watch on the 2015 series? Finish that. Not started Super at all? This may be the easier way in.

The real continuation is Dragon Ball Super: The Galactic Patrol, announced in January 2026 at the franchise's 40th anniversary Genkidamatsuri event. It follows the Universe Survival arc and adapts the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc of Toyotarou's manga, putting Goku and Vegeta in Galactic Patrol uniforms against the planet-eating sorcerer Moro. No premiere date has been announced as of October 2026. That leaves a hole in the anime: in the manga, the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granolah the Survivor arcs sit between the Tournament of Power and the Super Hero story, and neither has been animated, so the new series will cover events set before a film already out. With the manga on hiatus since February 2025, those arcs are the only place the story continues past what you can watch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I watch Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball Z Kai?

Kai for a first watch. It re-edits the same story told by Dragon Ball Z's 291 episodes, cutting most anime-only filler to track Toriyama's manga, and runs to 159 episodes in Japan and 167 internationally. Choose original Z for the extra training interludes and the nostalgia.

Do I need to watch the original Dragon Ball before Z?

You do not need it, but it pays off. The 153-episode original introduces Goku, Bulma, Krillin, Master Roshi, Piccolo's origin and the Red Ribbon Army, whom the 2022 film Super Hero brings back as its villains. At minimum, watch the King Piccolo and Piccolo Junior arcs first.

Is Dragon Ball GT canon?

No. GT's 64 episodes were devised by Toei staff in 1996 and 1997 with no manga source, and Toriyama, who supplied only the name and the new character designs, called it a side story. It also contradicts Dragon Ball Super, which he did work on, so treat GT as an optional alternate branch.

Where does Dragon Ball Daima fit in the watch order?

After Dragon Ball Z and before Dragon Ball Super. Its 20 episodes are set a year after Majin Buu's defeat but before the ten-year timeskip at the end of Z, so finishing Z first costs you nothing. It aired from October 2024 to February 2025 and was Toriyama's final Dragon Ball project.

Do I need to watch Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F' before Dragon Ball Super?

No, because Super's first 27 episodes readapt both films. Either watch the films and begin the series at episode 28, or skip them and start at episode 1.

Is Dragon Ball Super: Beerus a new season?

Not a new story. It premiered on Fuji TV on 11 October 2026 as an enhanced edition of the existing Dragon Ball Super anime: re-rendered footage, new and redrawn cuts, a story reworked closer to the manga and a new sound mix, starting from the Beerus arc. According to Beerus's voice actor Koichi Yamadera, the dialogue reuses the original series' recordings rather than new ones. The plot continuation is a separate series, The Galactic Patrol.