Kai Episode 99 (06 April 2014)

[TheGmGoken]

Guess I'm the only one who likes the green tint. Looks better than the "fixed" versions imo. Looks neater and gives me the feel of the Boo Arc.

[JackyBoi99]

I didn't mind the green tint, reminded of dragon box 6 and 7 because of the green tint they had.

[Metalwario64]

The only reason I can think of is that whoever did the colour timings may have been working on a poorly calibrated monitor.

Yeah, that's what I've been thinking as well. That would also explain things like some BoG trailers they sent to other countries having that same tint. I'm hoping that there's still a chance that when FUNimation receives the footage that it will be corrected.

I didn't mind the green tint, reminded of dragon box 6 and 7 because of the green tint they had.

That's actually a big part of why I don't like it. I thought the Kid Buu episodes on the Dragon Boxes were waaaay too green, and I couldn't stand it to be honest. At least it isn't that bad here.

I'll also admit to liking this Kai's footage more than the Dragon Boxes so far when you take the tint out of the equation. The contrast seems less harsh, and I can't see any detail loss. The edge enhancement isn't so great, but FUNi's early Dragon Boxes had a touch of edge enhancement too. I also like earlier Kai's footage more than the Dragon Boxes too though, and the quality is comparable to FUNi's early Dragon Boxes (1-5) when you add a bit of sharpness to the footage. I think both remasterings did a solid job of "denoising" the film, and Q-Tec's Kai footage almost had a "raw scan" feel due to the impressive dark details.

[dodge2461]

After watching it twice, I feel I can give my opinion.

OPENING/EYECATCHER/ENDING

I really enjoyed the Opening and Ending songs. The animation was fine, except for the group shot at the end of the opening. Kuririn looks really awkward, with no real expression on his face. Chi-Chi also looks off in the opening. The ending's animation was really good, and the ending sequence with Goku has become my new wallpaper for my desktop.

VOICE ACTING

It's funny how, after all these years, Masako Nozawa STILL hits it out of the park. Her voice did seem a little different, but, in my opinion, it wasn't detrimental to the show. She hit all the comedic tones brilliantly, and I can't wait to hear her in the fighting scenes. Oddly enough, Eresa really stuck out to me, I just loved that voice. It had a lot of energy behind it, and really fits the character. it's a shame she disappears during the tournament. Videl's new voice is fine, but I definitely prefer the previous voice actress. Her old voice felt like it had some authority behind it while still being cutsey, and this new actress doesn't have that. I'm sure I 'll get used to it and grow to like it, but for now, I'm in the middle about it.

SCORE

I was really interested in how they were going to handle the score, and.... It's a lot different from Kikuchi's score. I really liked the harmonica in some pieces, and the piece that plays during the baseball scene was pretty good. I'm now really interested in how this is going to contrast to the battle music.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, this episode has done what every episode of a show should do: Make me want to tune in next week. As someone who wasn't a fan of Dragon Ball when Kai was being broadcast 3 years ago, it's exciting to be able to catch new episodes.

[Samwize78]

I watched the episode a few hours ago, I'm relieved to say I really enjoyed it. "Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go" is starting to grow on me, and now that I've seen the lyrics translated I love it even more. The eyecatchers were pleasant too.

I was hesitant about the new score, but I actually really like it. It complimented the mood of the scenes very well. I'm still neutral on the ending, but I know it won't be used the entirety of the season, so I'll make due with it for now.

Overall, I'm really pleased with with this episode, and I'm excited to be keeping up with this new season of Dragon Ball Kai weekly. I'm very excited to see what we're given next week

[usotsuki]

I am not digging "Haikei, Zarathustra". Like the OP though.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

Since, Buu saga is one of my favourite saga's I thought I'd give the Japanese dub a go. BoG the only time I've seen DBZ in it's original audio.

Thoughts:
Loved the score. Not a fan of the opening animation, glad Kai isn't animated like that. Voice acting is all fine. Would have preferred dub, since that was my normal preference, but sub wasn't bad. Looking forward too see how this goes.

[BluezaBladeNZ]

I finished watching episode 99 last night and overall, it wasn't too bad. The pacing definitely felt a lot better this time round.

The new score did have that typical Anime-ish tone to it as opposed to the unique flavour Dragon Ball usually had. Others have been saying they recycled BGM from Battle of Gods, but I barely remember the film to even notice it. Even though it's not as great as what the Yamamoto score was, it was still more easy to listen to than the replacement Kikuchi score.

The opening/ending/eyecatches/NEP wasn't too bad either, but wasn't as great as Dragon Soul/Yeah Break Care Break were, though it's only been one episode so I can't say anything there yet.

Definitely looking forward to seeing episode 100 next week.

[penguintruth]

So, I've once again started my reviewing of Dragon Ball Kai.

Upon a second and third watch, the episode seems a bit better than I was willing to give credit for on the first watching. Not that I disliked it then, I was just less comfortable with Sumitomo's score. It's still kind of "eh", but it works for the really casual, laid back attitude the current material has, just being about Gohan's misadventures in Satan City. And of course, the pacing is so much better than DBZ's, which means the show is doing its main job.

[GarrettCRW]

Honestly, I feel like that's just a result of the low bitrate encodes. Each Kai episode on the Blu-rays came to ~3GB an episode whereas this is ~600MB. That's a huge difference so I don't think it's quite fair to judge the clarity of the product until the official release.

I still don't have the Blu-rays (the Yamamoto mess + Funimation fear + spending my money on the Dragon Boxes deterred me), so I'm basing my impressions off fansubs (and, tbh, I did re-watch the fansubs of the first two episodes before posting my thoughts). Knowing how Toei treats its foreign partners at times, I can't help but posit the belief that Toei cheaped out on the restorations, supposing that Americans won't know any better, and with the shit restorations Funimation makes using second-generation sources, they might be right.

[LordCrumb]

I enjoyed the music, thought it was a nice change from the previous series (re-release).

Really interested to see how Funimation is going to tackle the opening song.. they did a bloody good job with Dragon Soul imo, so that's one of the biggest things I'm interested to see. Also hoping they keep the same voice actor for Teen Gohan.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

So when do we find out how this episodes rated?

I hear the final episode of Toriko didn't do so, uh, well. Looks like it won't be missed then.

[Hujio]

So when do we find out how this episodes rated?

This episode pulled a 5.3% average household rating share. In comparison, last week's episode of One Piece pulled a 7.7%. Oh, and just for the hell of it, the first phase of Kai averaged a 9.4%.

I hear the final episode of Toriko didn't do so, uh, well. Looks like it won't be missed then.

Did you hear it here? But yeah, Toriko didn't even chart in the top 10 for its final episode.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

I hear the final episode of Toriko didn't do so, uh, well. Looks like it won't be missed then.

They completely changed the ending of the arc, most likely because the ending of the manga was too depressing (it was still an open-ending though), but there are hints for a possible return. I think the anime wasn't very successful because Toei changed, censored, and added many things to it to make it kid friendly, which pissed off the manga fans (the manga is very brutal when it comes to fighting), and most likely made those that weren't familiar with it to stay away because it was too childish. From what I hear, the main viewers of the anime were of ages from 12 & under.

[TheGmGoken]

Anyone thinks that the second part of the eyecatch(Goku and Vegeta) looks like a fan animation?

[Blade]

Anyone thinks that the second part of the eyecatch(Goku and Vegeta) looks like a fan animation?

The worst offending newly animated section for me is the 'shared aura flight' in the introduction, where Goku et all seem to fly perfectly equidistant from one and other in a robotic sort of way.

[thekingfallsdown]

Why am I not surprised it's already on youtube? I know it's also pirated, but that's to be understood. You can't take that down, or monitor that. As far as youtube goes, they'll just leave it there to earn ad REVENUE even if it's copyright infinging. Yet they'll gladly take down my video with 8 seconds of a song that belongs to someone else.... Sigh. This isn't a segment of the episode either, it's the entire thing.

[Blade]

Why am I not surprised it's already on youtube? I know it's also pirated, but that's to be understood. You can't take that down, or monitor that. As far as youtube goes, they'll just leave it there to earn ad REVENUE even if it's copyright infinging. Yet they'll gladly take down my video with 8 seconds of a song that belongs to someone else.... Sigh. This isn't a segment of the episode either, it's the entire thing.

They'll remove it as soon as someone from Toei, or a media protection company representing them, sends Youtube a DMCA notice. It's absolutely false to say that Youtube are happy to leave it there.

[thekingfallsdown]

Why am I not surprised it's already on youtube? I know it's also pirated, but that's to be understood. You can't take that down, or monitor that. As far as youtube goes, they'll just leave it there to earn ad REVENUE even if it's copyright infinging. Yet they'll gladly take down my video with 8 seconds of a song that belongs to someone else.... Sigh. This isn't a segment of the episode either, it's the entire thing.

They'll remove it as soon as someone from Toei, or a media protection company representing them, sends Youtube a DMCA notice. It's absolutely false to say that Youtube are happy to leave it there.

Considering the amount of DBZ videos that are full episodes that are 2-3 years old, with 600,000+ views, I don't think they care if it's making them that much money.

[Blade]

Why am I not surprised it's already on youtube? I know it's also pirated, but that's to be understood. You can't take that down, or monitor that. As far as youtube goes, they'll just leave it there to earn ad REVENUE even if it's copyright infinging. Yet they'll gladly take down my video with 8 seconds of a song that belongs to someone else.... Sigh. This isn't a segment of the episode either, it's the entire thing.

They'll remove it as soon as someone from Toei, or a media protection company representing them, sends Youtube a DMCA notice. It's absolutely false to say that Youtube are happy to leave it there.

Considering the amount of DBZ videos that are full episodes that are 2-3 years old, with 600,000+ views, I don't think they care if it's making them that much money.

It's a complicated one, but essentially, any dubbed Dragonball is liable to be removed by DMCA complaints on behalf of either Toei or Funimation, whereas any Japanese language Dragonball is liable to a DMCA request from Toei or Pony Canyon, the latter of which tend to be the most proactive.