How Long Would It Take to Watch the Complete Dragon Ball Anime? 2023 Update
The Dragon Ball series has long become a classic and will forever be one. It has acquired many fans and created history in the anime industry. With how long the series is, newcomers might worry about how long it actually takes to watch the entirety of the Dragon Ball franchise.
It would take 255.6 hours to watch the complete Dragon Ball franchise. As of 2023, there are 575 Dragon Ball anime episodes with 24 minutes each, meaning it would take 396.8 hours or at least 31 days to catch up by binge-watching for 8 hours or more every day.
Even though it may seem like it is a ride you have to endure, the Dragon Ball franchise is a long joyful journey. So much that it is worth taking a deep look into how much content there is exactly, and how long would it take to go through each of them.
How Many Dragon Ball Movies Are There?
While most movies are not considered canon, they are very liked by fans and produce a lot of exciting stories. At this point, there are a total of 21 movies in the Dragon Ball anime franchise and one Hollywood live-action movie. At this point, there are no plans for more, even though is possible more can come in the future. Most of these are not as popular as the original anime, but still, they are proven to be worth watching.
How Long Are Dragon Ball Movies?
Dragon Ball movies vary in length but are usually shorter than an hour, with some exceptions, especially the recent ones. To be more exact, here’s a list of every movie from each series from earliest to newest with their respective duration.
| Dragon Ball Movie | Year | Duration |
| Dragon Ball | ||
| Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies | 1986 | 50 min |
| Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle | 1987 | 45 min |
| Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure | 1988 | 46 min |
| Dragon Ball: The Path to Power | 1996 | 1 hr 20 min |
| Dragon Ball Z | ||
| Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone | 1989 | 42 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: The World’s Strongest | 1990 | 58 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might | 1990 | 1 hr 05 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug | 1991 | 52 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Cooler’s Revenge | 1991 | 47 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler | 1992 | 1 hr 02 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13! | 1992 | 42 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan | 1993 | 1 hr 12 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound | 1993 | 51 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Broly – Second Coming | 1994 | 52 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly | 1994 | 46 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn | 1995 | 52 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon | 1995 | 52 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods | 2013 | 1 hr 25 min |
| Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ | 2015 | 1 hr 34 min |
| Dragon Ball Super | ||
| Dragon Ball Super: Broly | 2018 | 1 hr 40 min |
| Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero | 2022 | 1 hr 39 min |
| Live Action | ||
| Dragonball Evolution | 2009 | 1 hr 25 min |
All in all, watching every single Dragon Ball movie would take 1,377 minutes, approximately 23 hours. However, it would likely take significantly less time when skipping through extras, such as the credits. But it does add some extra quality content for fans that are eager for more.
How Long Would It Take to Watch The Dragon Ball Franchise?
The Dragon Ball franchise has been around since 1984 with the release of the manga in Shonen Jump Magazine and its anime two years later. Fans have been consuming Dragon Ball content since they were kids and will realize how old they have gotten when seeing how far anime and manga have come. Goku even has a granddaughter now! Probably some of the old-school fans also do.
With a supposed new season of Dragon Ball Super coming up in the near future, Dragon Ball fans may ask just how many episodes there are in total as of January 2023 and how long they will take to catch up.
How Many Episodes Does The Dragon Ball Series Have?
There are 575 episodes of the Dragon Ball anime to get through as of January, which is expected since its long-running manga and how well its products sell. Even after the original Dragon Ball manga and anime ended, not long after that, the sequel came about with Dragon Ball Z and more recently the current installation with Dragon Ball Super.
How Long Are Dragon Ball Episodes?
Each of the Dragon Ball anime episodes lasts 24 minutes from beginning to end, which includes intros, outros, and previews as well. However, each episode does vary slightly in terms of the total duration.
How Long Is the Original Dragon Ball Anime?
The original Dragon Ball anime was released in 1986 and finished in 1989 with a total of 153 episodes adapting the first 194 chapters of the manga.
How Long Is the Dragon Ball Z Anime?
The Dragon Ball Z anime was released in 1989 and finished in 1996 with a total of 291 episodes adapting the last 325 chapters of the manga. The suffix from the anime title was added to add a charm and to differentiate it from the first season since both were adaptations of the same manga, similar to Naruto and Naruto Shippuden.
How Long Is the Dragon Ball Super Anime?
The Dragon Ball Super anime was released in 2015 and finished in 2018 with a total of 131 episodes. For the first time was an anime original and did not have a manga prior to this. This is a sequel to the Dragon Ball Z anime and adapts the story of the two canon movies that came prior to this in its first episodes.
How Many Days Would It Take to Watch the Dragon Ball Franchise?
Viewers could theoretically watch all of the Dragon Ball anime episodes in 11 days if they go all out and are not eating, sleeping, or taking breaks, which would be extremely unhealthy and probably impossible. On the other hand, most viewers would take 31 or more days to catch up on all of the Dragon Ball franchise anime episodes if they were to binge-watch for 8 hours or more every single day. Of course, this also means that fans would not be able to check out Dragon Ball Super’s manga.
How Many Hours Would It Take to Watch the Dragon Ball Franchise?
Since each Dragon Ball anime episode lasts about 24 minutes from beginning to end, watching all 575 Dragon Ball episodes available will take somewhere around 15,336 minutes. This would amount to around 255.9 hours, which is roughly 11 days.
How Long Is the Dragon Ball Franchise Without Fillers?
Filler are episodes made to make the anime’s runtime longer, usually due to it catching up to the manga, so the studio creates new stories not originally in the manga. These are not essential for the main story, so are somewhat skippable.
Even though these are not essential to the main journey, they can be fun to watch and worth checking out. But, you could go without these if you’re alright with missing out on such content, skipping these Dragon Ball episodes you would need to watch only 502 episodes, which would cut the total estimated timeframe down to around 12,048 minutes or 200 hours or around 9 days.
How Many Filler Episodes Does the Dragon Ball Franchise Have?
The original Dragon Ball anime has 21 filler episodes, a percentage of 14%, Dragon Ball Z has 38 filler episodes, also at 13% and the Dragon Ball Super has 14 filler episodes, a percentage of 11%. This is a pretty small percentage of filler episodes.
How Many Special Series Does Dragon Ball Have?
The Dragon Ball franchise also has two other anime series worth checking out that are very liked by fans. These series are not considered 100% canon but may take place in a parallel universe.
Dragon Ball GT
Dragon Ball GT was released in 1997 and finished a year later. It featured an adult Goku turned into a child traveling together with Trunks and Gohan’s daughter Pan. This was not adapted from any manga and served as a sequel to Dragon Ball Z. Even though it wasn’t canon, Dragon Ball’s creator Akira Toriyama supervised its production.
How Long Is Dragon Ball GT?
Dragon Ball GT has 64 episodes of around 24 minutes, meaning it would take as long as 1,536 minutes or around 27 hours to finish the anime. Even though it is not part of the main story, it may be worth the extra time since it is a favorite among the fans.
Super Dragon Ball Heroes
Super Dragon Ball Heroes is an anime series made to promote the franchise and its arcade game of the same name. It was released officially on YouTube and it is not considered canon. However, many fans liked it so much since it showed the characters in situations we do not usually see in the main series.
How Long Is Super Dragon Ball Heroes?
Dragon Ball GT currently has 45 episodes of around 9 minutes, meaning it would take as long as 307 minutes or around 5 hours to finish the anime. Every episode is available on YouTube and can be watched for free.
How to Watch the Dragon Ball Franchise Faster?
Spending hundreds of hours watching Dragon Ball can seem like a dream for long-running fans, but it can be challenging if you’re trying to catch up. Thankfully, there are some ways you can watch the Dragon Ball franchise without skipping out on the most notable events and details.
1. Skip the Intro/Outro
Dragon Ball anime episodes are usually 24 minutes long, but the opening and ending of every episode usually take around 3 minutes per episode. It may be a task to skip through the intro and outro sections every single time, but doing so will save you around 1,725 minutes or 28.7 hours by the end of Dragon Ball Super without skipping fillers.
2. Watch at 2x Speed
Some people may find this a worrisome option, but it is viable. If you watch the Dragon Ball franchise at 2x speed, you will be cutting the time needed to watch its entirety by half, only needing to spend 6,900 minutes or 115 hours watching the screen. However, this may interfere with your overall enjoyment of each episode, since it was not meant to be watched like this and things might happen a bit too fast to catch your attention.
3. Skip Fillers
The easiest and most popular choice. Not everyone is willing to go through somewhat unnecessary episodes, so end up skipping fillers. Since they take up most of the anime, it is truly understandable. The main story does seem much more attractive than the filler ones, which might be fun but sometimes are all over the place.
4. Read the Manga
You can also turn to the manga in its entirety or when the anime feels slow-paced. Read an arc in the manga and then come back to the anime and vice versa. Just be aware the Dragon Ball Super has more content than the anime.
Although everyone gets eager to start watching the current episode of a series, be sure to savor each episode of the Dragon Ball franchise since the joy is in the ride and not in the destination. We all know that you will be sorry there isn’t more to watch when you get to the most recent episode. It might seem long, but Goku’s journey to becoming as strong as a God is extremely entertaining and is responsible for many iconic moments of the anime and manga industry. Nevertheless, take your time and take the most out of this wonderful series.