Dragon Ball in Order: Two Essentials, Nothing You Have to Skip

Why Dragon Ball Starts and Ends With Goku

Son Goku is the clearest example I know of good mood and positive thinking. The naivety he brings to every problem is a big part of why Dragon Ball works at all. He is charming, he keeps wanting to get better, he sees the good in people, and his enemies tend to end up as his friends. Seeing child-sized Goku still gives me a lift. A Goku figure stands in the middle of my desk at work, and I only have to look at it to refocus.

That is the reason this guide exists. Dragon Ball is also a franchise with five anime series, a long line of films, a live-action detour and a manga, and anyone arriving in 2026 gets five different answers from five different forums about where to begin. Here is one answer, based on what I have actually watched and rated.

Every Series and Film at a Glance

Ratings are mine, on the site’s 0 to 5 scale. A dash means I have not watched or rated it yet, and I would rather say so than invent a number.

Entry	Years	Length	My rating	Role
Dragon Ball	1986–89	153 episodes	5/5	Start here
Dragon Ball Z	1989–96	291 episodes	5/5	The second essential
Dragon Ball GT	1996–97	64 episodes	4/5	Original story, optional
Battle of Gods	2013	85 min	4/5	Opens the Super era
Resurrection ‘F’	2015	94 min	3.5/5	Sequel to Battle of Gods
Dragon Ball Super	2015–18	131 episodes	n/a	Retells the first two films, then continues
Super: Broly	2018	100 min	3/5	After the Tournament of Power
Super: Super Hero	2022	99 min	n/a	Sequel to Broly
Dragon Ball Daima	2024–25	20 episodes	4/5	Set before Super, released after
Dragonball Evolution	2009	85 min	3.5/5	Live-action, outside the canon

Also unrated so far: Dragon Ball Z Kai, the Bardock TV special and the individual older films. I have seen most of the films but never scored them one by one.

Step 1: Dragon Ball (1986 to 1989)

The original series ran on Fuji Television from February 1986 to April 1989 with 153 episodes, produced by Toei Animation and adapting the first 194 chapters of Akira Toriyama’s manga. It is built around Goku as a child and the hunt for the seven Dragon Balls, and it is where I would start every time.

It scores 5 out of 5 from me, and one scene is the reason. It comes in the semi-final of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, the tournament that closes the series. Tenshinhan is pressing Goku and boasting about his speed. Goku asks for a quick pause and takes off his shirt, wristbands and boots: 100 kilograms of extra weight he has been wearing under his gi since his three years of training with Kami. Without them he is so fast that Tenshinhan can barely follow him, and to prove it Goku steals Tenshinhan’s belt without being seen, so his trousers drop in the middle of the ring. That single scene (episode 140, “True Strength”) explains the whole franchise: modest, stubborn and quietly absurd.

One warning that belongs here rather than at the end. This series looks like a children’s cartoon and in my eyes it is not one. Our Dragon Ball hub and the age guides cover that properly, but plan for older kids, not small ones.

Step 2: Dragon Ball Z (1989 to 1996)

Dragon Ball Z ran from April 1989 to January 1996 with 291 episodes. It follows Goku as an adult and splits into five sagas. Roughly, the Saiyan Saga covers the first 35 episodes, the Frieza Saga runs to about episode 107, the Garlic Jr. Saga is a short arc invented for the anime, the Androids and Cell Saga reaches about episode 194, and the Majin Buu Saga takes the rest.

It scores 5 out of 5 as well. If you only have time for two series, it is these two, and nothing else in the franchise changes that. It is also noticeably more violent than the original. Common Sense Media says outright that the original is much tamer than its successor, and my own word for Z is brutal.

A note on Dragon Ball Z Kai, which I have not watched. It is a remastered cut of Z from 2009 to 2011, followed by The Final Chapters in 2014 and 2015, with most of the anime-only filler removed so that it follows the manga more closely. If a 291-episode series is the thing stopping you, Kai is the shorter route, but I rate Z itself and cannot vouch for Kai.

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Dragon Ball Complete Box Set (opens in a new tab)

Akira Toriyama's original Dragon Ball manga in one box from Shonen Jump (2019), 3,112 pages.

Where the Films Go

My rule is the simplest one: no film between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.

The older films are the reason people get confused. The original series has four, released in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1996. The Z era adds thirteen more from 1989 to 1995. Wikipedia’s list describes them as mostly alternate retellings and side stories that do not share a continuity with the manga or the TV series, and the one place they touch the main story is a filler arc: Garlic Jr., the villain of the first Z film, Dead Zone (1989), got an arc of his own in the Z series. Toriyama himself said he takes the films as stories in a different dimension from the main story of the manga. I have not seen the old films, so I cannot recommend any of them. Nothing in the main story depends on them, and you can skip all thirteen.

The four films since 2013 are different. Battle of Gods, Resurrection ‘F’, Broly and Super Hero have fixed places inside the Super story, and that is where they belong in the order below.

Step 3: Dragon Ball GT (1996 to 1997)

GT ran from February 1996 to November 1997 with 64 episodes. It does not adapt the manga. It is an original story by Toei staff, and Akira Toriyama designed characters and concepts for it but called it a side story. It has a reputation as the black sheep of the franchise because of how little he was involved.

I rate it 4 out of 5, which is a good score for a black sheep, and I think anyone who wants the full experience should watch it. It is not essential. You can stop after Dragon Ball Z and nothing in the main story is missing.

Step 4: Dragon Ball Super and Its Films

The Super era is where release order and story order meet, and the clean way through it is to take the films in release order.

1. Battle of Gods (2013). 4 out of 5. It runs 85 minutes in theatres, 105 in the extended edition, and Dragon Ball Super later retold it in its first fourteen episodes.
2. Resurrection ‘F’ (2015). 3.5 out of 5. A direct sequel to Battle of Gods, 94 minutes, which the second arc of Dragon Ball Super also retold.
3. Dragon Ball Super (July 2015 to March 2018). 131 episodes. I have not watched it, so it carries no rating. Because its opening arcs retell the first two films, coming to it after them means the beginning will feel familiar.
4. Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018). 3 out of 5. It runs 100 minutes and takes place after the Tournament of Power. If you have never seen the old Z films, you will wonder who Broly is, and the next section explains.
5. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (2022). 99 minutes, not yet watched. It is the sequel to Broly, and the fourth and last animated Dragon Ball film made under Toriyama’s supervision before his death in March 2024.

Who Is Broly?

Broly never appears in the Dragon Ball Z TV series. He was created by screenwriter Takao Koyama, designed by Toriyama, and debuted in the old Z films: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan (1993), Second Coming (1994) and Bio-Broly (1994). The 2018 film reworks him for the main canon as a quiet, slightly naive Saiyan with a tragic backstory, exiled to the planet Vampa and used by his father, which is a very different character from the mindless villain of the 1990s films. He also turns up in Super Hero (2022), training on Beerus’ planet. You do not need the old films to follow the 2018 one, but this is why the name sounds familiar to long-time fans.

That is my own route: the films first, the Super series still on the list. If you want the longer version, watch the anime instead of the first two films.

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Step 5: Dragon Ball Daima (2024 to 2025)

Daima premiered on 11 October 2024 and finished on 28 February 2025, with 20 episodes. Toriyama was heavily involved, handling the original story and the character designs, and he died on 1 March 2024, a few months before it aired. In the US it streams on Crunchyroll and Hulu, and it also aired on Toonami.

I rate it 4 out of 5. It is also the gentlest of the series; Common Sense Media describes it as geared more toward younger kids than the other entries, although it still recommends ages 10 and up.

Where to put it is the one place where the two orders disagree. In story terms Daima sits after the Majin Buu saga and before the ten-year time skip, which means it comes before Dragon Ball Super. In release order it comes last. I watched it last and have not seen Super, so I cannot tell you whether the other order improves it. If you value a clean chronology, move it up. If you want the series in the order the world saw them, leave it at the end.

The Live-Action Detour: Dragonball Evolution

Dragonball Evolution is the 2009 live-action film from 20th Century Fox, directed by James Wong, rated PG and 85 minutes long. Toriyama suggested before release that fans treat it as an alternate-universe version of his work, and in a 2013 interview he called it bland and said it was a film he could not call Dragon Ball. It grossed $56.5 million against a $30 million budget, was a commercial failure, and sits at 14 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

I rate it 3.5 out of 5. That is well above its reputation, and I am not going to pretend the consensus is kinder than it is. Treat it as a curiosity and leave it out of the order.

Eight Scenes From the Original Series, If You Need Convincing

Spoilers ahead, and nothing here is the plot. These are the moments people mean when they say the original is something special. The episode numbers and titles follow the original Japanese broadcast.

1. Episode 8, “The Turtle Hermit’s Kamehameha”. Master Roshi blows out a fire with the first Kamehameha of the series and flattens the mountain along with it. Goku asks to learn it, hears that it took Roshi 50 years, tries anyway and does it on the first attempt.
2. Episode 28, “Clash!! Power vs. Power”. The final of the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai. Goku and Jackie Chun, who is really Master Roshi, are completely exhausted and agree on a straightforward finish: both jump, both kick each other in the face, both go down. The count goes past ten and whoever stands up first wins. Roshi had been fighting in disguise to keep his student from getting arrogant, and it sets up the motto of the whole series, that however strong you are, someone out there is stronger.
3. Episode 59, “It’s Him! The World’s Greatest Assassin, Taopaipai”. Instead of taking a plane, the mercenary Tao tears a stone pillar out of the Red Ribbon base, throws it into the sky, jumps after it and rides it to his target. It is Toriyama’s mix of cold menace and absurd cartoon physics in one image, and it tells you at once that Goku is in real danger.
4. Episode 68, “The Last Dragon Ball”. Goku takes on the Red Ribbon Army’s base on his own and by the time his friends arrive, the war is over.
5. Episode 76, “The Identity of the Masked Man”. Goku’s tail comes off in the nick of time during a fight against a masked man, and the man takes off the mask. It is Goku’s grandfather Gohan, who raised him, brought back from the afterlife by Fortuneteller Baba for a single day. Goku, who has been cheerful and unbeatable up to this point, bursts into tears and throws himself into his grandfather’s arms, a child again. It is one of the most emotional moments of the franchise.
6. Episode 102, “The Terrifying Conspiracy of Kuririn’s Death!!”. Krillin is found murdered, killed by a monster working for King Piccolo. The series has been slapstick and sporting fairness until now, and it tips into something much darker.
7. Episode 122, “The Final Gamble”. Goku is crippled and out of options, and drives a punch through King Piccolo’s torso. Seconds before he dies, King Piccolo creates his final offspring to carry on the revenge.
8. Episode 140, “True Strength”. The weights, as above.

Episodes 59, 102 and 122 are also why I keep saying not to hand the series to small children, and our age guides go into why.

Read the Manga Too

I have read the manga for both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, and each comes in a complete box set from Shonen Jump. The Dragon Ball Complete Box Set runs to 3,112 pages and the Dragon Ball Z Complete Box Set to 5,104.

These are for older readers. The manga’s eroticism and the way it depicts women are another reason I would keep the box sets away from younger kids, and it is a bigger issue on the page than in the anime.

What You Can Skip (Honestly, Nothing)

The question every watch-order guide eventually answers is what you can skip. My answer is that nothing is required, and for the full experience you watch it all. The essentials are Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Everything else adds something and none of it is a prerequisite.

If you are short on time, that is the whole plan: the original, then Z, and then whichever of GT, the Super films or Daima you feel like. If you have a child asking to watch alongside you, read our age guides first. Dragon Ball looks like a cartoon, and it is not one.

The Shelf: Figures and the First LEGO Set

Dragon Ball is a franchise that rewards a shelf. The figure on my desk at work is the child-sized Goku from Daima, and the Dragon Ball Z Goku in his Cell Saga outfit is the one for home. At the top of my wish list is the Ichibansho statue of Son Goku and Chichi as kids on the cloud.

The bigger news is that LEGO has announced its first Dragon Ball set. The Shenron and Goku set (11390) has 1,764 pieces, is rated 18+, and puts a Kid Goku minifigure on the Flying Nimbus next to Shenron rising from seven Dragon Balls. It costs $179.99 and arrives on 4 November, a day earlier for LEGO Insiders. The full facts are in our report on the 11390 reveal, and it is a day-one buy in this house. If you want to see what else competes for that shelf, our best LEGO sets for adults lists it.

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TAMASHII NATIONS - Dragon Ball DAIMA - Son Goku (Mini) -DAIMA- S.H.Figuarts Action Figure (opens in a new tab)

The child-sized Goku from Daima. This is the one that stands in the middle of the desk at work.

What order should I watch Dragon Ball in?

Dragon Ball, then Dragon Ball Z. Those are the two essentials. After them comes Dragon Ball GT, then the Super era in release order (Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, Dragon Ball Super, Broly, Super Hero), and Dragon Ball Daima last.

Do I have to watch Dragon Ball before Dragon Ball Z?

Yes. Z continues the story, and the original series is where Goku and his friends come from. Starting with Dragon Ball also gives you the franchise at its most charming, and it is the series I rate 5 out of 5 alongside Z.

Is Dragon Ball GT canon, and should I watch it?

GT does not adapt the manga. It is an original story by Toei staff, and Akira Toriyama, who designed characters and concepts for it, called it a side story. I rate it 4 out of 5 and think the full experience includes it, but it is not essential.

Where do the Dragon Ball movies fit in the order?

Put none between Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. The thirteen older Z films from 1989 to 1995 are mostly alternate retellings and side stories that do not share a continuity with the manga or the TV series, so you can skip them. The four films since 2013 (Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, Broly and Super Hero) have fixed places in the Super era and belong there.

Who is Broly, and do I need the old Z films to understand the 2018 movie?

Broly debuted in the old Z films of 1993 and 1994 and never appears in the Z TV series. The 2018 film reworks him for the main canon as a quiet, slightly naive Saiyan with a tragic backstory, so you do not need the old films to follow it.

Where does Dragon Ball Daima fit?

In story order it sits after the Majin Buu saga and before Dragon Ball Super. In release order it comes last, in 2024 and 2025. I watched it last and rate it 4 out of 5.

Is Dragonball Evolution worth watching?

It is the 2009 live-action film, rated PG, 85 minutes, and Toriyama himself said fans should treat it as an alternate universe. It scores 14 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and I rate it 3.5 out of 5, well above its reputation, so treat it as a curiosity.

Is Dragon Ball OK for kids?

Common Sense Media recommends Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Daima from age 10. It looks like a children’s cartoon but is often brutal, so we lean older, especially for Dragon Ball Z.