Now that the “refreshed” version of the Dragon Ball Z TV series has finally picked back up after a three year hiatus, we thought it would be worth heading back to the news and documentation for an overview of what we already knew as well as what came to light with this past weekend’s Dragon Ball Kai Episode 99.

• The new opening theme to the series, replacing “Dragon Soul” by the group of the same name, is “Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go” (空•前•絶•後), also performed by Dragon Soul (vocals by Takayoshi Tanimoto).
• The new closing theme to the series, the third in a line following “Yeah! Break! Care! Break!” (Dragon Soul) and “Kokoro no Hane” (Team Dragon from AKB48), is “Dear Zarathustra” (拝啓、ツラツストラ) by the Japanese band Good Morning America. It will be the first of several closing themes for the Majin Boo arc.
• While most voice actors are returning for their roles, new replacements for the Majin Boo arc will include Bin Shimada as Bobbidi (replacing Jōji Yanami, who is otherwise still voicing Northern Kaiō and the narrator), as well as Shino Kakinuma as Videl (replacing Yūko Minaguchi, who did contribute her voice to the character in last year’s film, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods). New confirmations of named characters by way of the episode itself include Mitsuaki Madono as Shapner (repalcing Hiro Yūki), though Megumi Urawa returned as Erasa.
• After the massive shake-up with the removal of Kenji Yamamoto’s new score to the series and its replacement with Shunsuke Kikuchi’s original score from Dragon Ball Z, the Majin Boo arc of Dragon Ball Kai has yet another new musical score provided by Norihito Sumitomo, whose prior (and sole) contribution to the franchise so far was the music to last year’s film, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods.
• The footage used in the first phase of Dragon Ball Kai (Saiyan to Cell arcs) was scanned and remastered by Q-TEC, whereas all footage used for the Majin Boo arc has been scanned and remastered internally by Toei. There is a noticeable difference between the broadcast footage for the first batch and the current batch.
• Some of the more significant — and at times questionable — aspects of the first phase of Dragon Ball Kai were the occasional reanimated shots. Besides a single shot of Son Gohan defeating Cell in the recap at the beginning of the episode, there were no reanimated scenes in Episode 99.
• While nothing has been officially announced as-of-yet, even more hints — some of the most recent ones coming from composer Norihito Sumitomo, for example — continue to trickle out that the Majin Boo arc of Dragon Ball Kai will indeed be making its way outside of Japan. Though it always seemed to be the plan for this part of the series, its Japanese television broadcast seems to have been a more recent development and decision.

Toei Animation has uploaded the next-episode-preview for Episode 100 of Dragon Ball Kai to their YouTube channel:

Dragon Ball Kai airs each Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. on Fuji TV during the “Strong 9” block (formerly the “Dream 9” block) alongside One Piece. Each week we will continue to keep the Dragon Ball Kai section of our “Episode Guide” up-to-date with production information and notes, so be sure to check back!