If you are new to Dragon Ball, the below guide should help you decide what to watch/read, and in what order. We have divided it into two sections: the Toriyama Route and Release Order. Our recommendation is to use the Release Order section as a guide. You can read the manga, skip pure filler episodes, or substitute Kai for DBZ to save time.

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The Toriyama Route is for those who only want to read or watch what is considered to be "canon". Akira Toriyama was the original creator of the Dragon Ball manga. Original works from Toei Animation and other works with no Toriyama involvement are excluded from the Toriyama Route. The major excluded works are described under "Beyond Toriyama", followed by some important contextual facts about the Movies. Many of the movies are popular with fans but none of them are necessary to understand the main story except the ones explicitly listed in the Toriyama Route.

Even though Toriyama was heavily involved in the production of Daima, it is not necessarily in continuity with Super. It also heavily references GT, a series Toriyama barely had any involvement with at all, so we recommend watching GT after DBZ if you plan to watch Daima.

tl;dr: Dragon Ball > Dragon Ball Z (or Kai) > (Dragon Ball GT) > Dragon Ball Super > (Dragon Ball Daima).

The Release Order section lists everything Dragon Ball-related, including things that are hard to find or have never been translated into English. This list is arranged to show how the manga and the anime (including Kai) correspond to each other, and where the movies should be watched alongside the series, no matter which version you read or watch.

For the best way to watch each series, streaming and home video, see our watch guide.

Toriyama did a few designs for the movies, specials, and GT at the request of Toei Animation. Some aspects of Dragon Ball Heroes are vaguely attributable to him through his involvement with the now-defunct Dragon Ball Online game that forms the basis for Xenoverse and Heroes.

If you are new to Dragon Ball, this is what you need to know about the movies and specials:

This is a list of when the movies and TV specials came out in conjunction with the anime in Japan. The manga chapters and Dragon Ball Kai episodes are listed as an alternative to the DBZ episodes rather than in release order. For the Majin Boo arc of Kai, international episode numbers are used. If you want to watch the movies alongside the manga or Kai, you should use the release order of the original anime.

If you want to know where the manga was at the time any given episode came out, you can check our old read/watch guide. If you have seen the anime before but want to watch it again with an in-story chronological order, you can see our separate movie guide. Both of these pages are on r/dbz and are no longer being maintained.

We do not recommend attempting to watch Dragon Ball in timeline order because all of the prequel material assumes a familiarity with what came before. This section is for those who are curious or confused about the chronology. For a more detailed look at series chronology, check out Herms's History of Ever project.

Note on the Age calendar: Toriyama only gave one Age date in the entire series: Age 788, the year Future Cell came from. Future Trunks said this was 3 years after he had departed his timeline. The entire Daizenshuu timeline is derived from this single date. There are many continuity questions that have to be balanced, but the below is relatively accurate.