How many DBZ episodes were actually made?

Question

I've seen 276 episodes of DBZ but in many places it is written that there are 291 episodes.

Is this true or just a rumor? If it's true then is there anything I've missed out?

Answer 1

According to the Dragon Ball Wiki

• Season 1 has 39 Episodes
• Season 2 has 35 episodes
• Season 3 has 33 episodes
• Season 4 has 32 episodes
• Season 5 has 26 episodes
• Season 6 has 29 episodes
• Season 7 has 25 episodes
• Season 8 has 34 episodes
• Season 9 has 38 episodes

Total number of episodes are 291

However, the above count of episodes is based on the original episode numbering. The dubbed episode numbering difers from the original numbering.

So, based on the original episode numbering there are 291 episodes and based on dubbed episode numbering there are 276 episodes in Dragon Ball Z.

Quoting from the wiki

... lasting 291 episodes in Japan, and 276 episodes in the United States originally, although all 291 episodes were later broadcast when content from the first 67 episodes was restored.

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From another source

In Japan it ran from 1989-1996, and was an extremely popular show, spanning a total of 291 episodes.

Few lines later,

When Dragon Ball Z was first produced in the US, FUNimation Entertainment collaborated with Saban Entertainment to finance and distribute the series to television, sub-licensed home video distribution to Pioneer Entertainment (later known as Geneon Universal Entertainment), contracted Ocean Productions to dub the anime into English, and hired Shuki Levy to compose an alternate musical score. This dub of Dragon Ball Z was heavily edited for content, as well as length; reducing the first 67 episodes into 53, and is often referred to as the Ocean Dub. It aired in 1996 for two seasons on the WB, but was canceled in 1998.

Another few paragraphs later,

After acquiring the license for the first two seasons of the show, FUNimation began redubbing it with their cast in order to keep the series's dubbing consistent, and redubbed the original uncut 67 episodes of the series. FUNimation then announced that they would release these 67 uncut episodes in the Ultimate Uncut Special Edition DVD line, releasing the first DVD on April 12th, 2005. However this DVD set was canceled before every episode was released, in favor of the soon-to-come FUNimation Remastered Box Sets.

But all 67 uncut episodes of Dragon Ball Z were later aired on Cartoon Network, beginning on June 14th, 2005 and continuing throughout the Summer.

So basically in the initial dubbing (Ocean Dub), few episodes were "trimmed" and combined together, thereby reducing the total number of episodes in the series from 291 to 276. The episodes were not deleted, but parts of a few episodes were edited, removed and combined with other episodes.

However, later in the FUNimation uncut dub all 291 episodes were aired.