Ft. Worth, TX � FUNimation® Productions, Ltd. today announced its Dragon Ball® TV series will debut June 25th on the Cartoon Network�s Toonami block, airing Monday through Fridays at 5:30 p.m. EDT, leading in to Dragon Ball Z.

Dragon Ball is the prequel to the Dragon Ball Z series that is the #1 hit of the Cartoon Network, and presents the characters in their younger years.

Gen Fukunaga, President of FUNimation, said, �Dragon Ball is a wonderful series of Japanese anime that details the early years of the characters that fans have come to love on the Dragon Ball Z television series. Dragon Ball is a wonderfully enchanting saga that is sure to be a hit with anime fans and all viewers who enjoy the Dragon Ball Z story. In addition, we will begin airing new episodes of Dragon Ball Z on the Cartoon Network beginning September 3rd. "

Like Dragon Ball Z, the new Dragon Ball series was a smash hit in Japan before being produced by FUNimation for the U.S. and other countries. The initial launch of the Dragon Ball show in the United States will involve 26 episodes. Fukunaga said, �There are more than 500 episodes in the entire saga, including Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT (yet to be introduced).�

FUNimation will also market the Dragon Ball shows in home video format, in both edited and uncut versions, as well as select merchandise.

The Dragon Ball series will be produced for the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa at FUNimation�s studios in Fort Worth, Texas, where it produces Dragon Ball Z.

A hit on the Internet, Lycos recently announced Dragon Ball was #1 on its inaugural �KIDS TOP 50� list of internet searches, as the phenomenally successful anime property topped all other search requests by kids 5 to 12. Dragon Ball is also typically #1 or in the top three spots of the weekly Lycos Top 50 list of all Internet searches pertaining to all topics and search categories. The www.dragonballz.com website averages more than 4.7 million hits per day and membership in Club Z has surpassed 500,000 fans.