Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Discussion specifically regarding the "refreshed" TV version of DBZ created in Japan for its 20th anniversary, including individual threads for each episode.

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Goku4243
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Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by Goku4243 » Wed Oct 19, 2016 9:25 pm

Just a simple question. Like basically if it is any good what makes it so good and if it's better than the dragon boxes.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by sintzu » Wed Oct 19, 2016 10:03 pm

Kai is just Z but it's cut down to 167 episodes, removing most of the filler.

The footage is remastered, during the 1st 3 arcs some shots are redrawn and the soundtrack for the 1st3 arcs was completely new but was changed back to the original due to it being similer to other artists' music.

The Buu arc on the other hand has its own new soundtrack.

The 1st 3 arcs are in 4:3 while Buu as far as we know is in 16:9 but the cropping wasn't bad the Funi's.

Is it better than the Dragon boxes or Z ? that's up to you, if you want a faster paced story and don't mind music inconsistencies alongside some redrawn shots and a 16:9 Buu arc then go for Kai.

For me, Kai is the only and best way to experience Z's story.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by DB_Fan1991 » Wed Oct 19, 2016 10:53 pm

Depends on if you want to watch it in Japanese or English. If your answer is Japanese then I'd say just get the Dragon Boxes as I feel like the returning VA's sounded phoned in a lot of the time and the new actors except for Aya Hirano as Dende are nowhere near as good as their original voices. If your answer is English then I'd say absolutely as the Kai dub is by far one of the best English Dragon Ball dubs ever. Almost all of the returning cast has improved and 95% of the new voices nail it. Only downsides are Schemmel's Kaio, Sabat's Recoome, Clinkenbeard's Android 18 & Jason Liebrecht's Jheese.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by Sailor Haumea » Wed Oct 19, 2016 11:05 pm

I prefer Z because I actually enjoy a lot of the filler.

It's your call, really.

Z has some interesting stuff that Kai cut, like the Garlic Jr. Saga.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by Danfun64 » Thu Oct 20, 2016 12:16 am

Aside from cutting out filler (and on unfortunate occasions, especially during the Saiyan and Boo sagas, manga content -.-), the biggest draw for Kai is how much better the dubs are compared to Z in some regions (English, French, Catalan, Gallegan, ... any other "major improvement" dubs I'm missing?)
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by Saikyo no Senshi » Thu Oct 20, 2016 2:29 am

No, it is not. There is absolutely no effort put in by the staff, the editing is crappy af, bad music placement and the designs are eyesores. It is the worst thing to come out of the franchise. I would suggest to avoid it at all costs. The Dragon Boxes are way better imo.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Thu Oct 20, 2016 5:19 am

As others have said it's subjective.

Both Z and Kai have their strengths and weaknesses. For example Z has better music placement and variety as well as better Japanese voice acting, however in Kai the story flows much better due to the cutting and you have an accurate, well written and acted English dub which is (in my opinion) on par with the Japanese acting for Z.

Although I'm going to guess your interested in picture quality since you specified the Dragon Boxes when referring to Z. While the Dragon Boxes do give you the best visual quality for the original DBZ anime they are prohibitively expensive. You can get them cheap now and again (someone posted in 'General Franchise Discussion' the other week about someone selling them on Ebay for just over $400 for the whole set) but I wouldn't count on that happening, its really about being in the right place at the right time. Kai's remastering by Q-TEC (with the exception of The Final Chapters, which was done in-house by TOEI) is really good and much easier on the eyes. It doesn't look like a new digitally made animated series by any means but it has the right balance between a clean look and retaining the integrity of the original colours. The Kai sets are also very affordable, even on Blu-Ray in which case you'd be getting the series in true HD.

Overall I would say Kai is the better choice, but that's just my opinion.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Thu Oct 20, 2016 8:12 am

It's all subjective. What Kai has over Z in my opinion is better pacing and a very good English dub. I'd recommend Japanese Z and Funi Kai.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by simtek34 » Thu Oct 20, 2016 10:37 am

I'm a little bit more subjective, but I HATE Z. I only watch Kai for my DBZ fill. This is why I really want a DB Kai of the original (even though I am okay with the DB dub). The English and Japanese versions are my only way to watch Raditz-Boo (Until there is an English Boo)

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by Lord Beerus » Thu Oct 20, 2016 6:24 pm

Depends what perspective you're looking for. If you want a good English dub performance, with a very competent script, and the original Japanese score intact, then Kai is most definitely for you. But you're more interested in the what the Japanese cast provide, then I think you're just better off sticking with the original Dragon Ball Z anime, as it the performances are better in that respect.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by Robo4900 » Thu Oct 20, 2016 11:51 pm

Kai is more palatable to a modern audience due to the faster pace, better audio quality in the Japanese version, better English dub, better home release(The out of print Part sets aside, there's one DVD release, and one Blu-Ray release), and being a better introduction to the series than Z was(Rather than dropping you head-first into the story, it recaps the events of Dragon Ball first, and then spends some time letting you get to know the characters before jumping into things). For these reasons, I generally recommend newcomers watch Kai(With original Dragon Ball first, of course).

In other words, yes it's good. Better than DBZ, though? Maybe, maybe not; depends on personal taste. And how much you value the cars episode. :mrgreen:
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by OmegaRockman » Fri Oct 21, 2016 2:34 am

I do think it's worth noting that while the Japanese performances aren't quite as good as Z's, they aren't bad by any means. There's the occasional phoned in line, but the drop in the acting isn't so great that it ruins the show; rather than being good performances vs. bad performances, it's more like good performances vs. slightly less good performances. So if you're looking for a faster paced, easier to digest version of the show but prefer the Japanese cast, you're still good with Kai. If you don't mind the pacing and still plan on watching in Japanese, though, there's nothing wrong with sticking with Z since the performances and music placement are better. If you want a good dub, however, Kai all the way.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by szopman » Fri Oct 21, 2016 5:15 am

Personally I prefer watching Kai ; ) Z is a classic of course, and the music in Z is 100 times better than in Kai, but I prefer to watch the series without so many fillers.
When I'm re-watching Z/Kai, I usually watch Kai's episodes with some Z's filler-episodes: 10 days waiting for Cell Games, Garlic Saga (it was just weird to me to watch DB Kai without this whole filler-saga) and Other World Tournament + the episode of Buu Saga with Bulma's party. And I watch some Z movies in between of some episodes, 1st movie between DB and DB Kai, Cooler movie before Androids arriving, Broly and Plan to destroy the Saiyans before Cell Games, Broly II before 25th tournament and Attack of the Dragon after Buu Saga ;) And of course, Trunks and Bardock movies ;)

But generally, I prefer Kai. The story isn't too long, there are not so many fillers and it's more like original manga-story :)

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by simtek34 » Fri Oct 21, 2016 9:06 am

szopman wrote:the episode of Buu Saga with Bulma's party.
That is in Kai. The final chapters though not the jp version

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by szopman » Fri Oct 21, 2016 12:59 pm

Really? The americans added this episode as DB Kai's ep ? :) I didn't know 'cause I would never watch DB with american dubbing, I can't stand it :D I prefer original japanese voices with subtitles ;)

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by ErikB » Fri Oct 21, 2016 1:15 pm

szopman wrote:Really? The americans added this episode as DB Kai's ep ? :) I didn't know 'cause I would never watch DB with american dubbing, I can't stand it :D I prefer original japanese voices with subtitles ;)
No, the English dub of Kai's Buu Saga still isn't out. I'm not sure what simtek34 is talking about; Bulma's party filler is gone from Kai. I just watched through it recently and it goes right from wrapping up the loose ends after the defeat of Kid Buu (wiping everyone's memories of Fat Buu, etc.) to the 10-years-later time jump.
EDIT: Oh, unless he means a different language version. But as far as I know, all the differences with the international version take place during the Great Saiyaman episodes.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by Vegard Aune » Fri Oct 21, 2016 1:18 pm

szopman wrote:Really? The americans added this episode as DB Kai's ep ? :) I didn't know 'cause I would never watch DB with american dubbing, I can't stand it :D I prefer original japanese voices with subtitles ;)
Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters was created by Toei specifically for the international markets. They had no intention of airing it on Japanese TV, though they still recorded dialogue for the whole thing for the benefit of said international markets. Then when Toriko crashed and burned for them they decided to put it on TV anyway, but in order to fit it into the timeslot they had, they had to cut it down from its original 69 episode run (which, by the way, is an utterly ridiculous number of episodes for the faster version of an arc that was originally 91 episodes, in an anime notorious for its padding. They hardly removed any of it), and so some episodes were combined, some episodes were cut, and they also took the chance to do some minor clean-up and music-changes and such. So no, the dubbers didn't add episodes. Toei simply provided other countries with a longer version of the show than what they themselves put out. And said longer version was the original in this case.

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by simtek34 » Fri Oct 21, 2016 9:02 pm

szopman wrote:Really? The americans added this episode as DB Kai's ep ? :) I didn't know 'cause I would never watch DB with american dubbing, I can't stand it :D I prefer original japanese voices with subtitles ;)

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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by simtek34 » Fri Oct 21, 2016 9:04 pm

Sorry for the double post. Can somebody delete these because I accidentally did this.
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Re: Is Dragon Ball Z Kai any good?

Post by sintzu » Fri Oct 21, 2016 9:14 pm

Vegard Aune wrote:69 episode is an utterly ridiculous number of episodes for the faster version of an arc.
They left in 2 full filler episodes so if you skip those it's 67 episodes. :thumbup:

In terms of why they didn't cut as much out as before, it's because the filler isn't like the other arcs where it's just filler, here it's necessary material that connects everything togther and without it the anime would be a mess.

There are scenes that should've been cut out like everyone watching Goku's fight from hell or Buu fighting Krillin and the others in the afterlife but I don't think it was possible to cut it down like the others without messing everything up.
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