Seeking Advice: How to "Kai" the Buu Saga

[Zillamon51]

Hi, All! I've been lurking here for a while but this is my first post.

DBZ Kai re-ignited my dormant DB fandom. I originally watched the DB/Z/GT shows on Cartoon Network back in the day. Other than popping in an occasional DVD movie, I hadn't watched it much since then until I found DBZ Kai Volume 1 at Wal-mart and decided to look it up. The concept of a tightly edited, filler-free, all-action version of DBZ seemed like a winner and I've bought all the volumes on Blu-ray since. (I also picked up the DVD season sets for DB/Z/GT and re-watched the entire series uncut.) Around the time Vol. 5 came out, I was extremely disappointed to learn that the show would end after the Cell Games Saga, and the Majin Buu Saga would not be adapted.

Anyways, I watched all of Kai with my long-time girlfriend, who was somewhat familiar with DBZ and the characters. She was also aware of how the original show dragged on with endless stare-downs and power-ups.

My question is: How should I "Kai" the Buu Saga for her benefit? I have Seasons Seven, Eight, and Nine on DVD (the Orange Bricks), and I have never read the manga. What story arcs / episodes should I skip? I'm not doing anything complicated like a fan edit; just cherry-picking episodes / half episodes. So what is skipable / filler? The Other-World Tournament? Gohan in high school? Some of the training with the Kais? What about the later after-life stuff, like the Z-Fighters sparring and fighting Buu, and Bulma and Chi-Chi hanging with "good" Dabura?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, Zillamon51, first off, welcome to Kanzenshuu!

As for your question...hmmm....that's gonna be tough if you insist on watching whole episodes, because it's not uncommon that episodes will have chunks of filler in them before going right back to non-filler material. So it's sort of like, if you wanted to skip whole episodes that had even a little filler in them, that would necessitate skipping parts that are not filler and critical to the story.

So--in my opinion, anyway--you're better off just watching DBZ where Kai ended. Plot-wise, that means starting DBZ at episode 195, the first episode of the "Season 7" box set. Also, if you're watching the dub (not sure if you're a dubbie or a subbie), you'll have the option of watching it with either the revised dub score or the original score. I'd recommend the original score for the sake of musical consistency with Kai.

...Well, okay, and also because I think the original score is better.

I'm curious as to what others have to say though.

[Pokewhiz7]

So--in my opinion, anyway--you're better off just watching DBZ where Kai ended. Plot-wise, that means starting DBZ at episode 195, the first episode of the "Season 7" box set. Also, if you're watching the dub (not sure if you're a dubbie or a subbie), you'll have the option of watching it with either the revised dub score or the original score. I'd recommend the original score for the sake of musical consistency with Kai..

I agree, but since it's complete filler, he could easily skip the Afterlife Tournament, meaning he'd start at episode 200.

[TheBlackPaladin]

So--in my opinion, anyway--you're better off just watching DBZ where Kai ended. Plot-wise, that means starting DBZ at episode 195, the first episode of the "Season 7" box set. Also, if you're watching the dub (not sure if you're a dubbie or a subbie), you'll have the option of watching it with either the revised dub score or the original score. I'd recommend the original score for the sake of musical consistency with Kai..

I agree, but since it's complete filler, he could easily skip the Afterlife Tournament, meaning he'd start at episode 200.

True. Forgot about that.

[johnboy1]

Like the others said, there's no way to do this with whole episodes. You have to edit out the filler and stitch up the holes yourself. Using the ratio of Kai-to-Z episodes established by Kai, the remainder of the series would be roughly 49 episodes long. However, if you take into account that episodes 195-199 are nothing but filler and thus can be immediately discarded, the number drops down to about 46 or 47. If I had the willpower, I'd do this myself using the DBox releases, but it sounds like way too much work.

[DarkPrince_92]

Make everything Green. You will have then Kai-ified the Buu Arc.