4Kids Entertainment (NYSE: KDE) has reached agreement with FUNimation Entertainment and Toei Animation Co., Ltd., to license the U.S. broadcast television rights to the new animated television series “Dragon Ball Z Kai”.

Sneak peeks of “Dragon Ball Z Kai” will be seen this summer before the series premieres as a regularly scheduled program on TheCW4Kids Saturday morning block during the 2010-2011 broadcast season. 4Kids will also have “Dragon Ball Z Kai” episodes available for streaming on its popular www.4kids.tv and www.4kidstv.com websites. Dragon Ball is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama, originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump published by Shueisha Inc. from 1984 through 1995. Inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West, it follows the adventures of Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of the seven mystical objects -- known as the Dragon Balls -- which can summon a wish-granting dragon.

As part of the series’ 20th anniversary celebration in 2009, in a project overseen by its creator, Akira Toriyama, Shueisha and Toei Animation remastered the “Dragon Ball Z” series for HDTV, re-edited the series, updated its opening and ending sequences, rerecorded the vocal tracks by most of the original cast, and launched the newly named “Dragon Ball Kai” on Japanese television in April 2009. The series currently rates among the top five animated programs on Japanese television.

“’Dragon Ball’ is one of the most popular manga series of the past 20 years, with more than 150 million copies of the book series sold in Japan and North America,” said Alfred R. Kahn, Chairman and CEO of 4Kids Entertainment. “We are looking forward to including ‘Dragon Ball Z Kai’as a mainstay in our TheCW4Kids 2010 – 2011 Saturday morning programming lineup and making this great series available on American broadcast television.”

“We are excited about working with 4Kids to expose this major title to a new generation with a completely updated version,” said Gen Fukunaga, President and CEO of FUNimation Entertainment.