Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Ball Z?

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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Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Ball Z?

Post by superKRILLIN » Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:43 am

I like the original Dragon Ball Z better.
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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by songohan619 » Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:52 am

I enjoy Kai more, because of the dub.
Although, I enjoy the Z Buu Saga more than Kai`s... nothing....

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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by Codarik » Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:54 am

Overall I prefer Z, but I do appreciate Kai for what its done.

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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by DHM211 » Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:58 am

I prefer Kai, in Z I hate most of the filler after the Saiyan saga and I watch the dub, which after seasons 1 and 2 sound like shit.

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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by TheBlackPaladin » Sat Jul 21, 2012 1:12 pm

Well, it depends on whether you're asking about the Japanese voice acting or the English voice acting. For the Japanese side of things, I prefer the original DBZ. In English, though, the Kai dub is superior to the DBZ dub on every single level. It has better acting (from both the new and the old voices), and MUCH better writing that's closer to the original Japanese script than the writing in the DBZ dub ever was. When I introduce my kids to DBZ, they'll be introduced to it through the English dub of Kai.
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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by DBZAOTA482 » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:01 pm

My two cents...

Japanese Z > English Kai > Japanese Kai >>> English Z

EDIT: I'm being generous with the old dub as a dub fan myself.
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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by Pokewhiz7 » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:07 pm

I like Kai better than Z. The pacing is just so much better.

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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by BluezaBladeNZ » Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:13 pm

For the whole show itself, I prefer Z. But as expected, I like Kai for the fantastic dub FUNimation put out. Outside that, it doesn't interest me that much because of the hacking up it had and the constant switching between older and reanimated scenes.

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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by sintzu » Sat Jul 21, 2012 6:53 pm

kai because of the absents of filler.
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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by dbboxkaifan » Sat Jul 21, 2012 8:27 pm

1. Dragon Ball Z
2. Animation wasn't inconsistent for example; jumping from old to new
3. Consistent music and lots of variety
4. Although Yamamoto "composed" great BGMs his best ones are better found on older games and etc.
5. Majin Buu arc
6. Z Japanese cast > Kai Japanese cast
7. Didn't feel like Toei Animation ever tried to rush the series like they did with Kai
8. Shouldn't have bought DBZ Kai Parts 5-8, Parts 1-4 were the best parts of the Kai series
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Re: do you like dragon ball z kai or original dragon ball z?

Post by Gonstead » Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:32 pm

Kai
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Re: Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Bal

Post by Travis Touchdown » Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:08 am

I prefer Kai to Z. I love the abbreviated nature of it. The show itself feels complete to me, beginning with Goku's birth and ending with his death, and clocking in at only 98 episodes. I'm far more inclined to stick to it until the very end, and wouldn't feel like it's a chore to start it over after a few weeks or months, as opposed to 508 episodes for the whole story or even just 291 for Z.

The loss of filler is bittersweet. I'm thankful for the a vast bulk of the filler that was removed, but there were a couple parts that I liked. Yamcha's baseball career and Goku's driving lesson being the two that are on my mind as of this post. However, the filler I liked is minimal at most.

I like it's ending. Since Z is the focus of Kai, if I have to choose an ending where Goku abandons his family to train a total stranger for years just to have a quick sparring match one day when the training is complete, or an ending where Goku dies a martyr protecting his family and friends by choosing not to be resurrected because he believes he's a magnet for evil strong guys, I'll take the martyr ending any day.

I like the lack of Super Saiyan transformations. I mean, the Cell Saga is my favorite saga because it's the last time the Humans and Piccolo contributed to the fight even though Super Saiyans were present. Once Super Saiyan 2 and 3 came about, everyone, Piccolo included, was useless unless they were a Saiyan. It's so much less confusing just have Super Saiyan 2nd Grade, and Super Saiyan 3rd Grade just being mild enhancements of the Super Saiyan form, as well as Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 transformation not being a transformation, but a manifestation of his hidden power that he's finally gained control of.

I enjoy how everything pretty much is wrapped up in the Cell Saga anyway. Vegeta vows never to fight again, so there's no fear of him deciding to kill everyone. Even if he did, Gohan with his hidden power under his control would crush him without breaking a sweat. With Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 form being exclusive, there's no need for Vegeta to try and achieve it. Future Trunks very presence shows that no more enemies showed up after the Androids. Goku, the main character, is dead and staying dead. The main timeline as well as the future timeline are all peachy. Everything's resolved. I've always felt the Buu Saga was unnecessary. I mean it actually felt like the story was being dragged out by that point for me.

Lastly, I like Kai for the English Dub. It's consistently good from beginning to end. While I find it very annoying that certain attack names keep changing, for example; "Solar Flare!! No wait, Taiyoken!! No wait, Solar Flare!! Yeah we'll go with Solar Flare!!" and "Kienzan!! Haha, like that? We're going with Kienzan! Wait, nevermind, let's go back to Destructo Disc!" But the quality is there and I enjoyed it far more than the yo-yoing Z does. Since they did the Saiyan Saga last, the dub starts out amazing, then plummets to embarrassing levels, and slowly gets better before finally reaching Saiyan Saga status halfway through the Buu Saga.
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Re: Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Bal

Post by sangofe » Mon Jul 23, 2012 4:44 pm

superKRILLIN wrote:I like the original Dragon Ball Z better.
Erhm, I used to think Kai was cool until the end of the Saiyajin saga. Then I fell out. And after the music scandal I changed opinion and thought it was trash compared to DBZ.

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Re: Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Bal

Post by Akumaito Beam » Thu Jul 26, 2012 1:07 pm

I prefer Kai, I don't miss anything related to the old Z anime with the exception of the old voice cast. I want to say I miss stuff like the Saiyan arc filler but then I remember how the Goku Vs. Vegeta fight was almost completely unwatchable to me due to the amount of dragged out nonsense in it. Or how there's such a long gap in between lines a lot of Vegeta's snappy wit is totally lost. At the end of the day I find it really nice to sit down to watch an episode of DBZ on Nicktoons and have it feel like I'm reading a few random chapters of the manga. I'm willing to trade in a few music issues or some art shift issues for the overall story to flow THAT much better.

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Re: Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Bal

Post by dprez » Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:32 pm

Kai is great for watching DBZ in english. I could never seriously watch Z in english again and enjoy it, but for the true Dragon Ball anime experience, I gotta go with original Z every time, even over the japanese re-dub of Kai. I'm in love with the original Dragon Ball Z anime. :oops: :lol: No joke.

I do love what Kai did to the series though. The people I've been talking to lately have never even heard of the coveted Dragon Boxes, but have heard of and seen Kai. Keeps the series fresh in people's minds.

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Re: Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Bal

Post by Dr. Machismo » Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:46 pm

Honestly, Dragonball Z Kai is practically leaguesbetter than the original Dragonball Z. The original DBZ had way too much filler, like excessively prolonging fights and many moments of pointlessness (prolonging power ups, conversations and giving moments that were just unnecessary). I could name a bunch of these, and it was those that give Dragonball a bad name. Dragonball Z Kai removes most of them and gives us an ideal adaption of the manga.

The only thing that I liked better in the original Dragonball Z was Bruce Faulconer's soundtrack, which is only present in FUNimation's overall worse dub.
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Re: Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Bal

Post by Eight-Star Dragon » Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:56 pm

Kind of a toss-up. Z had a special magic to it, the voice actors were phenomenal. But I really like Kai, and after having it be my first real exposure to the franchise, it just feels so hard to watch Z at times. The padding techniques really stand out after watching Kai. The constant pans, focus on filler characters that have no significance whatsoever, or just focus on any non-battle characters, the fact that some actions will take over the course of an episode or more to be executed, etc. The looping music especially drives me crazy. Seriously, you could make a drinking game out of listening for tracks looping during a Z viewing (I'm talking about Kikuchi's music.) Plus, Kai's awesome English dub.

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Re: Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Bal

Post by [SP] » Sat Jul 28, 2012 3:30 am

In my opinion, I prefer Z in some aspects, and also Kai in some aspects but if I had to choose, it would be Kai.

Disadvantages - the "redrawn scenes", not all of them, but some really contrast from the series, the quality drops as the series goes on, as the Vegeta Saga for the most part was a very amazing and clean redrawn scenes, but as the series gets to the Android Saga the quality becomes slightly more lazy. But this is just my personal opinion.

Advantages - Kai is great because it has an improved English Cast with many of the original voice actors such as Chris Sabat and Sean Schemmel reprising most of their roles with even better performances, new voice talent such as Colleen Clinkenbeard and Maxey Whitehead taking over some of the roles that the original cast is unavailable to dub and bringing a strong performance as well (Most of the time)
Kai cuts down the filler to make it a more watchable series (The Vegeta Saga in the Z Series added up to 39 episodes, while Kai cut the Vegeta Saga to 17 episodes I believe.)
So in conclusion, I think Kai is a slightly better series than Z, but Z will always be a good series.

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Re: Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Bal

Post by Goten » Sat Jul 28, 2012 3:31 pm

Idk its hard I guess both idk. Because...
Z- Had some better music IMO, well I guess a lot of people since that music was stolen.
Kai- Its openings and stuff were great.
Z- Voice acting was alright.
Kai- Voice Acting was really good.
Z- A bunch of random filler crap.
Kai- Straight to the point.

I would like it in Kai if they had some of the original music, and the animtion of the openings. And it would be good if they had Buu Saga.
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Re: Do you like Dragon Ball Z Kai or the original Dragon Bal

Post by dbboxkaifan » Sat Jul 28, 2012 5:22 pm

Goten wrote:Z- Had some better music IMO, well I guess a lot of people since that music was stolen.
DBZ stolen music.. Battle Power Unlimited (Yamamoto)?
FUNimation 2015 Releases I want:
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