While it does scream "stunt casting" to give Aya Hirano the role of Dende, I don't mind it because I really like the voices she gave Haruhi and Konata (I haven't seen Death Note in forever so I forget how her Misa was). Actually, if I had to throw someone from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" into a minor DB role, I'd pick Tomokazu Sugita; the guy gives Kyon an unintentionally hilariously deep voice. I look at Kyon and I just don't picture that deep radio voice, so maybe its just the contrast between it that amuses me, I don't know.
My thoughts on the first season of Kai:
-I like the new opening animation, I kinda wish the ending animation was more...animated, than it was panning across scenes.
-I like both Dragon Soul and Yeah Break Care Break; the latter reminds me of DDR songs, if there were to ever be a DBDDR, I'd want that song on it.
-Happy they fixed the Vegeta hair-color inconsistency. If only they'd stop making his hair dark purple in some of the newer promo art; it's black or really-really-dark-brown. Not purple. >_O
-While the absence of the filler clips aren't overly bothering me (though they do bug me enough to keep me from wanting to buy the Kai dvds) I don't think its going to really irritate me until they get to things like "The Driving Episode" and especially "Goku and Vegeta's Journey Inside Buu"--two of my favorite sets of filler. I hope Toei doesn't cut those from Kai.
-The redrawn artwork used to make me cringe in the beginning, but they've gotten better at it, so now--not so much.
-Bulma's seiyuu does sound like she's phoning it in.
-Vegeta's seiyuu just sounds tired sometimes, though I think that's more of an age/smoking issue. It baffles me as to why you would smoke if you choose to work in a profession that relies heavily on your voice and the power of your lungs.
-I can feel tiny fringes of age in Ms. Nozawa's voice, but unless you listen to Z and Kai back-to-back its not that noticeable.
-I really, REALLY want some brand new from-scratch animated special/movie to come from all this. "Ossu!" was a God-send to me and with how Kai is doing in the ratings in addition to the whole "making the series more relevant" I would love it if Toei would get up and make something huge and new. I have to wonder if they're just really phobic of making new Dragon Ball because of how awful GT ended up (imo) but seriously; could you imagine a feature-length film for DB done with some of the effects Toei's got at their disposal now? Also, I need more new Goku and Vegeta interaction. I said it in another thread and I love the fact that as of "Ossu!", Goku's decided that his new hobby is irritating Vegeta for fun. (And because its Goku, he NEVER gets caught. XD ) Its like he's suddenly become self-aware of the fact that him just being around upsets Vegeta and he wants to push the envelope as far as it can go. He never seemed self-aware of it in the series; so its like all of Vegeta's "Pay attention to ME, Kakarrotto, I'm going to DEFEAT you!" has come back to bite him in the rear.
-The music in general in Kai....eh, some arrangements are alright, but I still prefer the orchestral-type music from Z.
I have been watching Kai, but not live; this is mostly due to rl-related conditions that have been messing up my Saturday evenings for most of the year (planning to fix this, but not because of Kai, but because of other rl-stuff). I think one of the reasons I look forward to watching Kai is because I love compare-and-contrast stuff like this. (Which is why I'm kinda sad that Kanzentai stopped their huge in-depth inspections.) Also, as weird as it is, watching Kai and then watching Z makes certain things in Z sound a billion times more amazing. ^^; (Specifically characters like Vegeta, Bulma, and Yajirobe). Though I really do like Kai's Luffy!Kuririn. I so rarely get the chance to see any animated One Piece, but I've seen enough where I recognize that voice as Luffy and find it SO amusing. X3
The two Chi-Chi seiyuu....there's a distinctly different feel I get from each of them. The earlier Chi-Chi's seiyuu has a more youthful voice to her; she's a character I can definitely imagine at a karaoke bar excitedly singing to the lyrics (as in two of her image songs on the character discs) while the later seiyuu has a more adult, and more mature tone in her voice and is easier for me to picture reprimanding Goku for pulling ridiculous stunts.
*Looks up at her post* Oh, wow, that's really long. Sorry for the length. ^^;;
Great podcast you guys! Can't wait to see what you have planned for #200!
