Production notes

Unlike the previous anime series in the Dragon Ball franchise, Dragon Ball GT does not adapt the manga series written by Akira Toriyama, but tells an original story conceived by the staff of Toei Animation using the same characters and universe from the original Dragon Ball manga and it continues the story where Dragon Ball Z had left off. Toriyama did, however, come up with the Dragon Ball GT name, which stands for "Grand Tour", in reference to the series having the characters travel through the universe, and designed the appearances of the main cast. Toriyama himself referred to GT as a "side story of the original Dragon Ball". Chief character designer Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru said he agonized over designing Super Saiyan 4 Goku, which was the idea of the show's producers, questioning whether it was necessary to go further with the transformations. Because Super Saiyan 4 is brought about while in a Saiyan's Great Ape (大猿, Ōzaru; lit. 'Great Monkey') form, he made the hair more "wild" and covered Goku's body in red fur. There was only a single final draft of the character; although Nakatsuru did consider making the hair blond, he ended up choosing black as it provides more contrast with the red fur.

The music of Dragon Ball GT was composed by Akihito Tokunaga, although the series uses five pieces of theme music by popular recording artists. Field of View performs the series opening theme, "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" (DAN DAN 心魅かれてく), which is used for all 64 episodes in Japanese. Vic Mignogna performs the English version. "Hitori Janai" (ひとりじゃない), performed by Deen in Japanese and Stephanie Young in English, is used for the ending theme for the first 26 episodes. Starting at episode 27, the series begins using Zard's "Don't You See!" for the ending theme in Japanese. Stephanie Young performed the song in English. Episode 42 marks the next ending theme change, with "Blue Velvet" by Shizuka Kudo in Japanese and Brina Palencia in English being used. "Sabitsuita Machine Gun de Ima o Uchinukō" (錆びついたマシンガンで今を撃ち抜こう), performed by Wands in Japanese and Justin Houston in English, is introduced as an ending theme in episode 51. It was used as the ending theme for the remainder of the series. The final episode reuses the opening theme as an insert song, which was omitted in the alternate soundtrack, composed by Mark Manza.

When Dragon Ball GT was originally airing in Japan during 1996 and 1997, Funimation had already begun dubbing the first two seasons of Dragon Ball Z, in association with Saban Entertainment and Ocean Productions. Once Funimation completed work on Dragon Ball Z in 2003, they licensed GT for an English language broadcast in the United States. Their English dub of the series utilized a new guitar-based musical score by Mark Menza, and a new rap metal theme, titled "Step into the Grand Tour". The theme was performed by rapper Marcus Hall (known as "Shorty the Man"). The Funimation dub aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block from November 7, 2003, to April 16, 2005, and had reruns outside of Toonami until June 13, 2005. Funimation decided to release the first few home video volumes several months ahead of the TV debut. Part of the reasoning behind this was so that Toonami could repeat the entirety of Dragon Ball Z in 2003 before airing the first episode of GT. The company's original home video release and television broadcast both skipped the first 16 episodes of the series. Instead, Funimation created a composition episode entitled "A Grand Problem" which used scenes from the skipped episodes to summarize the story. The skipped episodes were later shown on Cartoon Network as "The Lost Episodes" after the original broadcast concluded. Funimation's English dub began re-airing in the US on Nicktoons from January 16 to December 13, 2012, (which also included the U.S. television premiere of Episode 16 "Giru's Checkered Past") and rerun until January 2, 2015, due to Adult Swim having air rights Dragon Ball Z Kai through Toonami. "Step into the Grand Tour" was included on the original DVD/VHS volumes by Funimation, and appeared on all TV airings on Toonami and Nicktoons. However, subsequent home video releases and streaming have excluded the song in favor of an English version of the Japanese theme. Later releases also include an audio track that combines the Funimation voices with the original Tokunaga score. In Australia, Funimation's English dub aired on Network Ten's Cheez TV morning cartoon block from March 2004 to June 2004. It also aired concurrently on the Australian version of Toonami.

AB Groupe (in association with Chinook Animation and Blue Water Studios) produced an alternate dub for Europe and Canada and was aired on YTV and Toonami UK, which divided the episodes into two seasons. The original Japanese music composed by Akihito Tokunaga was retained in the Blue Water dub. This dub ran in the UK from March 3, 2003, on CNX until August 17, 2003. The Dragon Ball Z Ocean cast, which was used in the Funimation/Saban dub of Seasons 1–2 and the Westwood Media/AB Groupe dub of Seasons 4–9, was originally contacted to dub Dragon Ball GT as well. Due to cost-cutting measures, this never came to fruition, with dubbing being moved from Vancouver to Calgary, where Blue Water Studios was based. The dub had a script that was independent of Funimation, with some techniques having different titles (such as "Instant Transmission", which is renamed "Instant Translocation"). The names of various characters, such as the Shadow Dragon villains, were more accurate to the Japanese version when compared to the names given by Funimation. Unlike with the Funimation dub and Japanese version, the dub utilized a real child actress for Pan.

A third English dub exists, also produced by AB Groupe, utilizing a different French-based cast. This cast only dubbed the 1997 A Hero's Legacy special, which aired on Toonami UK in 2005. Like with the Blue Water dub, it kept the original Japanese soundtrack. The French-based English cast also dubbed most of the other Dragon Ball / Dragon Ball Z films and specials, with their dub being known by fans as the "Big Green dub", because it changed Piccolo's name to Big Green.

The series is often considered the "black sheep" of the Dragon Ball franchise, due to the lack of involvement from series creator Akira Toriyama. In 2010, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 producer Ryo Mito stated that "GT is popular with fans overseas. In Japan, it's not as popular." It was considered to be Funimation's second-biggest anime property during the 2000s, behind only Dragon Ball Z. GT's American release was labeled as "very successful" in 2005. Jeffrey Harris from IGN called it "downright repellent," mentioning that the material and characters had lost their novelty and fun. They also criticized the GT character designs of Vegeta and Trunks as being "goofy." Anime News Network (ANN) also gave negative comments about the anime, mentioning that the fights from the series were "a very simple childish exercise" and that older fans will want to stick with other anime. The series's plot was also criticized for giving a formula that was already used in its predecessors. Although, it did call it "a fun ride when not taken very seriously." In his 2008 Funimation season set review, Todd Douglass Jr. of DVD Talk stated that the series became the "bastard child of the series", and was "a bad idea that spawned out of someone's desire to make more money on the back of Toriyama's work." He goes on to write, "Dragon Ball GT isn't all bad. There are some nice fights scattered throughout the show and though the stories never quite reach the level we grew accustomed to in Z some of moments were entertaining enough to please Dragon Ball fans. It's just that those snippets are spread few and far between and when compared to its predecessors it comes up woefully short by all accounts." CBR stated that the character of Pan "embraces a tomboy aesthetic and prefers fighting over other activities that might be considered more conventionally feminine", and claimed that the show "dropped the ball with [her] potential." Comicbook.com said that GT "floundered to create characters who were memorable or even likable to fans", and criticized it for making Goku become "so important to the show that former characters like Krillin, Gohan, and even Vegeta are all but forgotten."