Toonami Is Airing A Dragon Ball Z Marathon This Week To Honor Creator Akira Toriyama

To pay tribute to the late creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama, Toonami has announced that it’ll run a marathon of Dragon Ball Z Kai episodes on Saturday, March 16. This broadcast of the first eight episodes will begin at 2 AM ET and will end at 6 AM. More of a mini-marathon, the Toriyama tribute will cover the arrival of Goku’s brother Raditz, the first death of Goku, his training with King Kai, and the arrival of Nappa and Vegeta on Earth.

“As a tribute to anime legend Akira Toriyama (1955-2024), we’re celebrating his legacy Saturday night with a DBZ Kai marathon from 2 AM to 6 AM,” Toonami wrote in a Facebook post. “May he rest in Super Saiyan power.”

While not perfect, Dragon Ball Z Kai is generally considered the best dub of the original anime series. It’s a recut version of the series with re-recorded dialogue and enhanced high-definition animation, and it removes most of the anime-exclusive filler content to focus purely on the manga source material.

Toriyama’s passing was announced last week in Japan, and since then, there has been a global outpouring of appreciation and respect for the legendary mangaka. While Dragon Ball is his most famous work, Toriyama also worked on the iconic Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger games.

Toriyama continued to contribute to the Dragon Ball franchise as it evolved over the decades with new series, films, and video games. Future projects in the franchise include an upcoming anime series called Dragon Ball: Daima and a new fighting game for PC, PS, and Xbox Series X|S called Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.