This Japanese manga series is written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984 through 1995, later the 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankobon volumes by Shueisha. Inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West, it follows the adventures of Son Goku from his childhood through middle age as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of the seven mystical objects known as the Dragon Balls, which can summon a wish-granting dragon. Along his trip, Goku meets several friends and fights against several villains who also seek the Dragon Balls.

Dragonball z  is the second one out of the three-anime series, the first one being Dragonball anad the third one being the Dragonball GT . Additionally, Toei has developed seventeen animated feature films and three television specials. Dragon Ball Z commonly abbreviated DBZ was adapted from the final twenty-six volumes of the manga series.

Like the original dub of Dragon Ball, the Ocean Group's dub of Dragon Ball Z was heavily edited for content, reducing the first 67 episodes into 53. The new dub of Dragon Ball Z ran on Cartoon Network from September 1999 to April 2003.

In 2006, Funimation Entertainment remastered the episodes then began re-releasing the series in nine individual season boxsets. The first set was released on February 6, 2007; the final season on May 19, 2009. In June 2009, Funimation announced that they would be re-releasing Dragon Ball Z and the movies in a new seven-volume set called the "Dragon Boxes" (). Based on the original series masters with frame-by-frame restoration, the first set is due to be released November 10, 2009.

Dragon Ball Z was listed as the 78th best animated show in IGN's Top 100 Animated Series; the soundtrack series released were Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection Series. It was produced and released by Columbia Records of Japan from July 21, 1989 to March 20, 1996 the show's entire lifespan. On September 20, 2006 Columbia re-released the Hit Song Collection on their Animex 1300 series. Other CDs released are compilations, video games and films soundtracks as well as music from the English versions.