New York City-based 4Kids Entertainment has teamed with FUNimation Entertainment and Toei Animation to license the US broadcast TV rights to the new animated series Dragon Ball Z Kai.

Written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball is a Japanese manga series inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West and follows the adventures of martial artist Son Goku. As part of the series’ 20th anniversary celebration in April 2009, Shueisha and Toei Animation re-mastered the Dragon Ball Z for HDTV, re-edited the series, updated its opening and ending sequences, re-recorded the vocal tracks by most of the original cast and launched the newly named Dragon Ball Kai on Japanese television.

The updated series will premiere on TheCW4Kids Saturday morning block in the 2010-2011 broadcast season and 4Kids will stream episodes on its websites.