Dragon Ball Z Kai

Dragon Ball Z Kai is an excellent recut of the original Z for everyone who enjoys them some Dragon Ball, especially Z. If you also prefer the manga, or just hate the majority of DBZ's slow-paced extra segments, or worthless filler episodes, This is the version to watch. It has every piece of canon material from the manga, with some short filler either due to animation from the original Z being unable to be changed, or the staff leaving some in for whatever reason that could've been removed, but didn't. It leads to a faster-paced storyline that's been streamlined a bit for many fans of Z. Though there ARE a few redrawn scenes to replace damaged frames. Some are simply trace jobs, while the others are completely new. They fit decently though.

This is also the version of Z to get for excellent home releases. If you didn't know, Z has some of the most horrendous home releases I've ever seen. Terrible color correction, terrible remastering all around, really, plus cropping the show to 16:9, leaving us who want to enjoy the show as it was produced out of luck unless we track down the Dragon Boxes, which are LONG out of print & expensive on sites like eBay. This series was properly remastered frame-by-frame in Japan for High Definition airings & releases in its original 4:3 aspect ratio, minus The Final Chapters, which was done by a different team several years after the first part finished airing. Still, it's much better than FUNimation's remasters, I'll tell ya that. If you wanna get someone into the franchise, this is definitely the way. Personally, I DO wish that they reanimated everything from the ground up, but I understand why they did it as they did.

Then there's the English dub. Minus some recastings (Kid Gohan, Kid Goku, Bulma, Frieza, & a lot of secondary & tertiary characters voiced by Chris Sabat in Z) because of actor/actress availability in the intervening years prior to 2009, all of the main voice actors returned to reprise their roles & they sound GREAT! Sean Schemmel especially, since he now gets Goku's character completely. Yeah, they didn't simply reuse audio from Z, they rerecorded everything from the ground up. The added benefit of this, other than improved acting, is that since FUNimation's a better dubbing company since 2003 when the Z dub finished airing, they have the resources to not only get better translations prior to dubbing but they also have access to better writers for their dub scripts! This means no mistranslations, other than the oddly-put line of dialogue, & some dubisms returning either out of keeping with pre-established terms from previous dubs, or some inconsistencies with attack names that were changed in earlier dubs from the original Japanese. Safe to say, if you're an English dub fan, the dubbing is phenomenal! There IS one thing I have to bring up though. In The Final Chapters, the series' recut of the Buu Saga, there's a scene recapping the events of the Cell Games from the previous arc. Prior to broadcast, it was teased that Team Four Star, of Dragon Ball Z Abridged fame, would be voicing the actors in the reenactment of the events. When it finally aired & was released to home video, it was discovered that they were replaced with the original Z audio from the same scene last-minute. It's speculated it's because the people at Toei found out & forced the change in dialogue. The original audio for the scene was accidentally released on X-Finiti & subsequently released to the internet after a fan recorded it. It's a shame because I love DBZA & it's a shame that the audio couldn't be kept, but that's the business, I guess. On the Japanese side of things, the original Japanese cast, though there were some recastings due to actors either dying or not wanting to come back, rerecorded their dialogue as well, mostly because Toei junked the original audio masters some time after the show aired for some reason before they could really use them on future releases. If you want a clearer-sounding DBZ in Japanese, this is good for that as well. I should also mention that the music has undergone a bit of controversy. Originally, for the first run of the show, Kenji Yamamoto, who also did the score for the Budokai games, composed the score for the series. However, it was eventually found out that he intentionally ripped off the scores for Avatar & Terminator Salvation without Toei's knowledge. His score was subsequently replaced on both sides of the Pacific with the original Shunsuke Kikuchi score from Z for the first part. The Final Chapters uses a new score composed by Norihito Sumitomo, who also composed the scores for Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, & went on to do the score for Dragon Ball Super. Some of his compositions don't fit, but most of the rest reminds me of Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury's score with how they were synthesized. Kind of fitting, I think. As for the openings & closings, most of them are great. 'Dragon Soul's' a great theme song, especially when sung in the English dub by the legendary Vic Mignognia. Final Chapters is no slouch either. 'Fight It Out' is also pretty good & goes with the whole retro vibe you get from the show, considering it originally ran from 1989-1995 & the original animation reflects that. Though the Japanese Final Chapters theme that was a part of the Japanese broadcast, 'Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go' was no slouch in being awesome either.

Altogether, I enjoy Kai. It's, definitely, my version of Z, especially since I don't care for the Z dub too much. I recommend it to everyone who likes good TV.

DBZ Kai was something I had to watch and after hearing it was an edited version of the original DBZ I was like "Ok, let me see what it is" And I have to say I am glad for it. I can see all the major arcs in condensed form (159 episodes without all the filler episodes that brought the original Z to 291 episodes. While I enjoyed watching Z, the filler episodes and long drawn out fights really made me think of some of those as background noise

It basically has all the good parts, and I enjoy watching it because it's like getting the best of the show. Some of the colors have been softened and I do believe the voice cast has changed partway but I haven't noticed a huge difference so far (80 episodes in)

I hope you truly enjoy this version of DBZ as it is the best and most concise version of the series

I've enjoyed Dragon Ball Z for over a decade, along with everything else Dragon Ball and this is no exception. Dragon Ball Z Kai is enjoyable, and even though I enjoy (and dislike) some of the filler in DBZ, Kai is in no way to be classed as terrible for taking most of it out - some minor bits have been left in.

The dialogue has improved, I like Frieza's new voice actor and the original voice actors have improved slightly. Gohan's new voice actress I was fine with it at first, but it did start to annoy at times, now after a while, I have sort of got used to it again.

When it comes to the music, I prefer the Japanese version of: "Dragon Soul", "Yeah! Break! Care! Break!" and "Wings of the Heart" I really enjoy "Saiyan Blood" and "Only A Chilling Elegy." I enjoy all of the music in Kai even if Kenji Yamamoto "borrowed" it, I also enjoy Shunsuke Kikuchi and Bruce Faulconer's music so I don't really have an argument over music.

DBZ is there when I want to hide away for days - DBZK is there when I want to watch it quicker. Then I also have the option of Dragon Ball and Team Four Star ;3 It's Dragon Ball, I like it all, even GT.

It's not just for young children. The DVD's are uncut (there is blood, a little less blood than Z but added "swearing"), the television version is censored for a reason.

The Buu Saga, is on the way! I hope they keep the worms in, I guess they won't though :(

One thing I am annoyed about is that the UK will have to wait or may never get the Dragon Boxes of any of the series' or the movies. Unless bought from overseas at high cost.

The Dragon Ball series has always been my favourite anime and Kai is no exception, if you liked Z but didn't like most of the fillers then you're going to love Kai. It has little to no fillers HD quality and probably improved on the voices, I also like the new "Dragon Soul" song at the start too! I do have some problems with Kai though one being that everyone in this show just loves to kinda break the fourth-wall, the show is literally riddled with exposition and it kinda of gets annoying this is the same in Z too, but I kinda didn't care at the same time because the show is so good, and lastly Gohan's character development is kind of choppy in Kai not so much in Z though, Z's version of Gohan's development was much better due to the fillers, but I get why they didn't because they wanted to avoid the fillers for Kai. Kai is also much shorter than Z too, the Frieza saga in Z ends at Episode 107, while Kai ends at episode 52 due to the lack of filler, but I think it is a good thing considering the fight between Goku and Frieza last for 3 hours in Z. Overall I love this show if you're someone who has never seen Z and want to see a version most accurate to the manga then watch Kai you'll love it.

There are many famous anime out there and among the most dominant is none other than the Dragonball saga. While the first series simply titled "Dragonball" went for a somewhat more comedic route, this second series went all-out with the action and drama. Even though the franchise was not intended for kids, even the edited versions of this show were a ton of fun. get ready to power up because this is Dragonball Z Kai.

What's unique about the second series is that you get to learn much more about the vague origins of characters like Goku and Piccolo. The storyline is more intricate and the action scenes are a lot more intense (and I mean literally planet-shaking intense). Things get really brutal and everything in sight gets blown away. I love that crap! It makes us all look forward to the next action scenes. Some of the characters are a load of fun too, like the ever awesome Piccolo and the delightfully despicable Vegeta, their personalities and interactions with other characters stealing the show. The villains are pretty cool as well like the sadistic Frieza and the menacing Cell, who instill terror into even the bravest of warriors.

What I really like about this series is how dark it gets. In the original manga and the Japanese uncut versions of the show, things get really violent. Even edited, it gets dark with the serious dilemmas and numerous deaths that go around, which makes it more appealing to adults. I guess shows that go this route tend to be pretty successful like that.

My only real problems (and they're not really a big deal) is some odd/exaggerated moments and a lot of the screaming. Other than that, this is one of the best action/adventure series and anime I have ever seen. This show is sure to give you one hell of a punch and it's guaranteed to bring out the super saiyan in you. Check it out. KAMEHAME-HA!!!