How to Watch Dragon Ball in Order: Series, Sagas, and Movies

It's easy to underestimate just how influential the Dragon Ball franchise is, but the Akira Toriyama manga essentially defined what an action shonen manga would be for the next 40 years. Goku became the archetypical anime protagonist , while his relationship with Vegeta became the standard that all anime rivalries would emulate. It helped popularize power-up transformations, time jumps, and much more in both anime and manga.

Sure, it's easy to boil down Dragon Ball to just having extremely long fight scenes, but the franchise is much more than that. With bold changes in tone, from hilarious gag comedy to meaningful moments of inspiration, as well as a myriad of great side characters, Dragon Ball remains as good as its reputation would suggest.

Still, this is one of the longest-running anime franchises, with dozens of movies in addition to several anime series. It can be hard to navigate the Dragon Ball universe, but that's what this guide is for. Whether you fell off the wagon at one point and want to catch up, or you're looking to embark on your very first journey with Son Goku, here's how to watch every Dragon Ball anime and movie in order.

Inspired by Akira Toriyama's manga of the same name, Dragon Ball includes over 800 episodes across five anime series. There have also been over 20 anime movies set in the Dragon Ball universe, which expand the story or even continue it.

Now, what about canon? That's where it gets a bit complicated. Granted, Toriyama never really cared much about canon, as he constantly tinkered with his story, retconning things whenever he thought of something better than he had before (remember when Goku was just a happy monkey guy and not an alien superhero?). Still, what makes Dragon Ball canon complicated is that while most of the movies aren't technically canon, the last four movies are part of the official Dragon Ball continuity.

Then there's Dragon Ball Daima , a canon anime series that seemed to make Dragon Ball GT , a show long considered to be non-canon, somewhat canon. So what does this mean? Well, it is kind of up to the audience. If you like Dragon Ball GT, then you can think of it as canon. If you prefer to skip it, then by all means, do so.

The full scope of everything Dragon Ball is on Crunchyroll . The anime streaming service is also the only place you'll find most of the movies, though Z Kai and Daima are also streaming on Hulu. For the collectors, all of the Dragon Ball series and movies are available as physical releases.

Dragon Ball Z: Collection One (Movies 1 to 5)

2. Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies (Movie)

An alternate retelling of the first saga of the story. Best watched after the Emperor Pilaf Saga rather than have this be your first exposure to the characters.

4. Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle (Movie)

Goku and Krillin are tasked to save a sleeping princess from Lucifer (yes, that Lucifer). The movie takes place at the start of Goku and Krillin's training.

6. Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure (Movie)

Goku and Krillin join the World Martial Arts Tournament while Bora hides a Dragon Ball from the emperor's evil forces.

7. Dragon Ball: The Path to Power (Movie)

An alternate retelling of the story so far, merging the first two sagas with some cool changes.

Garlic Jr. kidnaps Gohan, so Goku must rescue his son.

12. Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku (Special)

A prequel showing the final days of the planet Vegeta before Frieza destroyed it, focusing on Goku's father, Bardock.

14. Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest (Movie)

Goku and his friends must defeat an evil scientist who kidnaps Bulma, but when Gohan shows his incredible power, the scientist tries to steal his body!

15. Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (Movie)

We have pirates now! A Sayian pirate called Turles and his crew attempt to conquer the Earth by planting a magical tree that can absorb all life on the planet and leave it a desolated wasteland.

What if Dragon Ball was Michael Bay's Armageddon? This time, Earth is threatened by a massive asteroid on a collision course towards Earth. While Krillin and Goku head out to stop it, a Namekian conqueror tries to use the Dragon Balls to take over Earth.

18. Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks (Special)

A special depicting the post-apocalyptic future that Trunks comes from, and how the sword-wielding teenager went back in time to prevent his future from existing.

20. Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge (Movie)

Goku and his friends go on a camping trip after the defeat of Frieza, but their celebrations are interrupted when the alien conqueror's older brother comes looking for revenge.

22. Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13 (Movie)

New terrifying murder androids, 13, 14, and 15 are activated after Android 17 and 18 murder Dr. Gero. Now, Goku and the Z Fighters must deal with them.

Cooler is back, and now he's a robot! After enslaving the people of New Namek, Cooler arrives on Earth with an army of robots. Making matters worse, the world-be conqueror claims to have killed Goku.

25. Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan

The Z Fighters are invited to the planet New Vegeta. There, they catch wind of a legendary Super Saiyan hellbent on destroying the universe.

Gohan finally gets the spotlight! The demon Bojack is finally free, and he decides to host the biggest martial arts tournament in the galaxy, and Gohan is the only one capable of saving the Earth.

29. Dragon Ball Z: Broly – Second Coming (Movie)

Broly is back, awakened by Goten's crying (yes, this actually happened). This movie is memorable for having a Father-Sons Kamehameha with Gohan, Goten and Goku's spirit.

Yes, Broly is still somehow around, and he returns yet again as a clone. Goten, Trunks, and best boy Krillin have to stop him.

32. Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn (Movie)

A fever dream of a movie, featuring villains long dead. Worth watching because of Vegeta and Goku's fusion form, but generally part of its own timeline.

33. Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon (Movie)

The gang fights a kaiju in this movie, which has some of the best music in the franchise.

The not-quite canon Dragon Ball series originally aired after Dragon Ball Z and is generally considered to be a part of its own timeline. Emperor Pilaf uses the Black Star Dragon Ball to turn Goku into a child.

The most recent Dragon Ball series follows Goku and friends who have been turned into children and must traverse the Demon Realm to become adults again.

The next two Dragon Ball Z movies (Battle of the Gods and Resurrection F) and the first two sagas of Dragon Ball Super cover the same general storylines, but with some key differences. The Dragon Ball Super sagas are considered canon, but it's worth checking both out.

37. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of the Gods (Movie)

This is the movie where Goku fights a literal god, and all arguments about who can and can't defeat Goku become forever pointless.

39. Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F (Movie)

No one ever dies in Dragon Ball, so of course Frieza comes back to life and swears revenge on Goku. That's it. That's the movie. Oh, and Vegeta gets a cool new power.

The film tells the story of Broly and his history with Goku, Raditz and Vegeta. In the present, Broly returns yet again to wreak havoc, and it is up to Goku and Vegeta to literally combine forces to stop him.

42. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (Movie)

The best father-son duo, Piccolo and Gohan, finally get the spotlight! We also get the triumphant return of the Red Ribbon Army, who create androids to take over the world.

I wouldn't recommend splitting up Dragon Ball Z like this on your first watch, but the original ending saga technically takes place 10 years after the defeat of Majin Buu. At the very least, it may be worth coming back to these final episodes after watching Dragon Ball Super.

It’s been 8 years, but Dragon Ball Super is finally set to return. At a recent Dragon Ball 40th anniversary event , it was announced that Dragon Ball Super will return with The Galactic Patrol, an anime adaptation of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Arc. It will follow Goku and Vegeta teaming up to capture the nefarious Moro. Though we don’t know when The Galactic Patrol will premiere, we also got the announcement that Dragon Ball Super: Beerus – a remake of the first arc of Dragon Ball Super – is set to be released in Fall 2026.

Outside of animation, we recently learned that we'll be getting Dragon Ball-themed LEGO sets . The franchise also released a collaboration with Converse earlier this year.

Rafael Motamayor is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything anime and animation.