The Saga of Goku is the first season of the original DragonBall TV series for the North American market. The episodes currently released on those particular discs (episodes 1-13) are the first season as-is from their original syndication run on American television in 1995. This means they are edited, English-dubbed only (with the Ocean Studios cast, as opposed to FUNimation's cast), and were distributed by KidMark prior to their acquisition by Lionsgate. For more information on the KidMark/FUNimation licensing fiasco, please refer to the "Newbie Guide".

FUNimation had re-dubbed this season with their own in-house actors (which have also done the rest of the series; this re-dubbed first season was primarily produced for airing on Cartoon Network). While FUNimation has expressed their intent to release "all" of the series uncut on a home format that also includes the Japanese version, the above-noted contractual obligations and prior negotiations forbid them from releasing these home-format versions. Their own dubbed versions of the episodes, however, have aired via non-physical-format means such as "on-demand" with major cable networks.

These first thirteen episodes have been released on DVD with both the uncut re-dub and the original Japanese language track, however, but only in Australia. Madman, an Australian distributor that works closely with American anime companies, has released "The Saga of Goku" in the PAL, region 4 format. The very fact that FUNimation has allowed the distribution of this material clearly implies their eagerness to release it to their American audience once the sub-license has expired, but word to Daizenshuu EX straight from Lionsgate implies (without providing any concrete information) that fans should not hold their breath.

FUNimation's releases of the original DragonBall TV series contain varying numbers of episodes, and typically do not move to a dual-layer format unless the situation absolutely warrants it. High amounts of compression are visible, and are a result of crunching a massive amount of video and audio onto the discs. The series was also released out of order, with the 23rd Tenka-ichi Budôkai coming out, for example, much earlier than the middle of the series.

Several years after their release, FUNimation allowed the series to go out-of-print. Certain volumes of the series (namely the Tournament Saga) now reach around $100 on second-hand retail sites. While FUNimation has re-released the DragonBall Z and DragonBall GT TV series several times each, so far, the original DragonBall has only seen the one release with no word of any possible "remastering" in its future.

All of FUNimation's releases (volumes two onwards) contain the first animation for the opening theme, and the second animation for the ending theme (despite the changes to it that occur over the course of the series). The reason for these non-changes is that FUNimation had not been given the original TV masters from each episode to work with (which is also the case with the previews; no sound was given to them to go along with the video for next-episode previews). Eye-catches were updated to the second animation where appropriate, however.

Here is a breakdown of when the animation changes are supposed to occur:

• "Makafushigi Adobenchâ!" 1st animation: Episodes 1-101
• "Makafushigi Adobenchâ!" 2nd animation: Episodes 102-153
• "Romantikku Ageru Yo" 1st animation: Episodes 1-15
• "Romantikku Ageru Yo" 2nd animation: Episodes 16-101
• "Romantikku Ageru Yo" 3rd animation: Episodes 102-132
• "Romantikku Ageru Yo" 4th animation: Episodes 133-153
• Eye-catch 1st animation: Episodes 1-42
• Eye-catch 2nd animation: Episodes 43-153