Watched Dragon Ball Z as a kid - interested in rewatching the series. What series/versions/releases should I pick/skip?

[Kalenden]

Hi,

I watched DBZ as a kid and would like to rewatch the (entire?) series.

However, I am unsure on how to approach it. Since the series consist of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z/Kai/Remastered, Dragon Ball GT, etc and god knows how many different releases and formats and movies.

What is the recommended watch order?
Is everything worthwhile?
Which formats/releases should I look at?
Are there particularly good release versions?

I'd prefer good English dubs and accompanying subtitles.

[experted_luke]

I believe you should start wherever suits your interest. I personally never did enjoy GT, but others do. A lot of fans have also started and finished watching Super, as well as caught up in manga chapters for it. This is because the current storyline goes up to the Moro arc. If you're interested in just catching up to the storyline, just watch Super and read the newest chapters. If you're interested in Dragon Ball as a whole; Read Dragon Ball, watch GT, and familiarize yourself with Z. Every series has its high and low points, but I'm sure you'll love every part of the series.
As for which versions you should watch, my personal favorite for Z was the English dub with Bruce Faulconer OST.
For GT, I tried English and Japanese, and it really didn't matter to me.
For Super, I prefer Japanese, not because of Grandma Goku, but because of the emotional commitment and as well as how well it's done compared to the English version.
The order I started Dragon Ball in was watching Z, reading Dragon Ball, and then watching Super, and then catching up on the latest chapters of Super.

[MasenkoHA]

What is the recommended watch order?

Dragon Ball> Dragon Ball Z or Kai> Dragon Ball GT or Super

Is everything worthwhile?

Since you prefer English dubs.... original Dragon Ball is alright. The voice acting aint great sometimes serviceable, often times wretched but not..unwatchable. The series itself is great and the less than stellar dub doesn't diminish that so if you would rather watch it in English have at it. The dub scripts do tend to be pretty liberal in how they adapt the scripts so just know what the characters are saying in the dub isn't necesarrily what they're saying in Japanese. Sometimes not even close and the dub makes up a few thing that bites them in the ass later on.

Dragon Ball Z is also pretty good but much more stretched out. If you want a faster paced version there is Dragon Ball Kai but Kai has its own problems. If you can deal with "filler" Z is the better option as the show goes. The English dub is kind of a mess though. The first 67 episodes are okay and the last 97 episodes are also okay. About on par with the dub of the original Dragon Ball. Episode 68-194 are pretty ...terrible. Nostalgia alone may get you through it though. The story and concepts still shine through even with god awful acting and English scripts.

Dragon Ball Kai has the much better dub with far superior voice acting and scripting (there is some awkward stuff in Dragon Ball Z's dub particularly starting around episode 68) but again Kai is not good. The music for the first series isn't well placed (since it was haphazardly
used to replace a score that was found to have plagiarized a lot of music) and the remastering process has its own issue (a lot of redrawn scenes randomly look like they got a 9-year-old to draw for the show) and the second season of Kai covering the Boo saga has a weird green tint.


Dragon Ball GT....I've never been a fan of but it's relatively short at 64 episodes and if you don't like Dragon Ball Z's ending ( a lot of people don't) GT's ending alone may make it worth the watch since a lot of people prefer GT's finale. The English dub voice acting has been improved since Z and while the scripts aren't that accurate they do at least have way less stupid stuff (from what I recall anyways)

Dragon Ball Super ...I really can't get behind but clearly a lot of fans are really into it despite their complaining so there's that. The English voice acting is much better than DB-Z-GT and the scripts are faithful enough to the Japanese version but take their own liberties here and there

Which formats/releases should I look at?

Easiest, cheapest route is to get FunimationNow subscript for like $8 a month as that will let you watch every series excluding Kai. If you want physical media.

Dragon Ball-Season sets (blue bricks)

Dragon Ball Z- Blue Ray season sets are the easiest option. Dragon Box are the best option (but out of print and super expensive). If you want what you saw on Toonami get the Pioneer dvd and Funimation dvd singles off Amazon or Ebay

Dragon Ball GT- Season sets (green bricks)

Dragon Ball Super-Blue Rays

Dragon Ball Kai-Blue Rays

For Super, I prefer Japanese, not because of Grandma Goku

Have you ever heard an elderly woman speak in real life? Ever? Because I get the sense that you have not.

[experted_luke]

Don't take it the wrong way, I'm joking.

[ABED]

I'd watch the series in release order then watch the movies at the end of their respective series. If you are so inclined to rewatch the series, there are discussions to be had about the most enjoyable order to watch everything. If I had the option, I'd just spend the $6 per month to watch DB, DBZ, GT, and Super. For whatever reason Kai isn't on streaming.

[MasenkoHA]

For whatever reason Kai isn't on streaming.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Adult Swim having it available to stream? (provided you have cable)

[90sDBZ]

For the most realistically available/affordable physical releases go for;

DB Blue Bricks
Either Z or Kai Blu-ray sets
GT Green Bricks
Super Blu-rays

The old single DVDs can still be found 2nd hand, but are a pain to track down, and some are annoyingly overpriced. They're the closest you can get to the Toonami version though, because they don't have the numerous changes of the later Z releases. And the first 2 seasons are censored versions only, due to it being the Ocean dub (which is also how they first aired on Toonami).

[Planetnamek]

For the most realistically available/affordable physical releases go for;

DB Blue Bricks
Either Z or Kai Blu-ray sets
GT Green Bricks
Super Blu-rays

The old single DVDs can still be found 2nd hand, but are a pain to track down, and some are annoyingly overpriced. They're the closest you can get to the Toonami version though, because they don't have the numerous changes of the later Z releases. And the first 2 seasons are censored versions only, due to it being the Ocean dub (which is also how they first aired on Toonami).

For the DVDs that are overpriced(I.E. Frieza Revealed) if you've got a VCR i'd recommend getting the VHS counterparts instead as those tend to be a lot cheaper(Regardless of whether you are getting the uncut or edited versions) and the picture quality is more or less the same as the DVDs(and i've heard the audio quality is actually slightly better).

[TheBigBoy]

Hulu has both original Dragon Ball and GT subbed if you don't mind a few commercials.

[MasenkoHA]

Hulu has both original Dragon Ball and GT subbed if you don't mind a few commercials.

Unfortunately Dragon Ball at least (and I assume GT) are set expire in a couple of weeks.

[KBABZ]

Everyone here has it right. Since you prefer the English dub, the order for you should be:

Dragon Ball Blue Bricks > Kai Blu-Rays > The Final Chapters Blu-Rays > GT Green Bricks

The subtitles for these episodes are notable in that they sub the Japanese dialogue; there's no equivalent for the English dub, so you're going to see every instance where the dub deviates from the source material. If you're wondering what The Final Chapters is, that's the name used for Kai's coverage of the Buu arc, which was a separate production run.

The original Z dub is pretty much not worth your time at all. Not only are any releases of it pretty bad (with the exception of the English Dragon Boxes, but those are very rare), the dialogue and performances are very substandard. Z itself is also a tough watch in any format due to the large amounts of filler and general padding, which was required at the time but mostly doesn't hold up well today. Kai is the solution to all these issues, although Z in Japanese is still very fun (plus the music is much better).

The original Dragon Ball has its fair share of filler as well, but with the exception of an expanded mini-saga it keeps them to bespoke filler arcs: Worldly Training, Heavenly Training and the Wedding Dress arcs (you can use Kanzenshuu's episode guide to see which episodes these are; the expanded mini-saga is most of Episode 29 followed by 30-34).

[Planetnamek]

Everyone here has it right. Since you prefer the English dub, the order for you should be:

Dragon Ball Blue Bricks > Kai Blu-Rays > The Final Chapters Blu-Rays > GT Green Bricks

The subtitles for these episodes are notable in that they sub the Japanese dialogue; there's no equivalent for the English dub, so you're going to see every instance where the dub deviates from the source material. If you're wondering what The Final Chapters is, that's the name used for Kai's coverage of the Buu arc, which was a separate production run.

The original Z dub is pretty much not worth your time at all. Not only are any releases of it pretty bad (with the exception of the English Dragon Boxes, but those are very rare), the dialogue and performances are very substandard. Z itself is also a tough watch in any format due to the large amounts of filler and general padding, which was required at the time but mostly doesn't hold up well today. Kai is the solution to all these issues, although Z in Japanese is still very fun (plus the music is much better).

The original Dragon Ball has its fair share of filler as well, but with the exception of an expanded mini-saga it keeps them to bespoke filler arcs: Worldly Training, Heavenly Training and the Wedding Dress arcs (you can use Kanzenshuu's episode guide to see which episodes these are; the expanded mini-saga is most of Episode 29 followed by 30-34).

I would disagree there, I personally prefer the original dub over Kai, as Kai IMO both skips over too much and not enough material, the new VAs while talented kind of clash with the old ones, the re-animated scenes look absolutely terrible and really stick out like a sore thumb(imagine all the new CGI effects in the original Star Wars trilogy only about 100 times more clumsy and awkward looking) and overall it suffers from trying to appeal to both purists(by replacing some VAs and making characters more faithful to the original) and dubbies(by keeping around VAs like Schemmel and Strait and still adding quite a bit of humor where there originally was none by "punching up" the dialogue) and as such I don't think it fully succeeds at appealing to either camp particularly well.

So i'd personally recommend watching Kai only after watching the original dub and/or sub as with all the stuff that Kai skips over combined with the worse looking animation you're not really getting the full experience IMO.

[ABED]

I have watched the dub of Kai with subtitles and the dialog is damn close, so I think you are overselling how much added humor there was. And both Strait and Schemmel have come pretty damn far so no I don't think they clash with the newer cast members.

If you look at Kai as merely an approximation of what a new fillerless version of DB or just DB with a faithful dub would've looked like then it's not nearly as bad as its detractors make it seem.

Thought I do agree that you should only watch it after you've seen all of the original.

[Robo4900]

What is the recommended watch order?

If you're watching subtitled in Japanese (strongly recommended), Dragon Ball, then Z, then GT is ideal, with the relevant TV specials interspersed.

But, unless you're pirating the show, you really should just do Dragon Ball, then Kai & Kai: The Final Chapters, then Super, then the Super: Broly movie. And if you're watching dubbed, then this is the best path anyway.

Is everything worthwhile?

Depends on who you ask. A lot of people dislike GT, as well as many other anime-only pieces of media (the driving episode of Z, the movies, etc.), but here on Kanzenshuu, you'll probably find the consensus to be that almost everything is worth watching.
Though, frankly, about half of the Z movies are probably to be skipped unless you're a hardcore fan.

I personally also don't think Dragon Ball Super is worth anyone's time in the slightest, but much like how many fans will tell you GT isn't very good, you probably should just watch it for yourself, and form your own opinion.

Which formats/releases should I look at?

There is not a single unreservedly good release of DBZ in the west. For that reason, it may be a good idea to just go with Kai anyway even if you're watching in Japanese. But, either way, all western releases of DB, GT, Super, and the movies are basically fine.

In detail:

• Avoid, at all costs, any of the "Season" releases.
• Avoid the 30th anniversary set.
• The original DVD singles are rather good, but there are A LOT of them, each disc only contains about 3 episodes, and the first 67 episodes of Z are presented as the 53-episode edit Funimation produced with Saban in the '90s. Personally, if you insist on watching Z, and insist on watching dubbed, this is the better way to watch those first two seasons -- and in fact, the DVD singles in general are the way to go -- but really, you should aim to watch subbed in Japanese. The good news is, starting from episode 68 (numbered as episode 54 on these original DVDs), the original USA DVD singles presented every episode uncut with a Japanese subbed track available. Though the Australian DVDs, while they used the same uncut version, didn't provide the Japanese track for the first ten episodes that the American version did.
  These reservations aside, which only apply to Z, the original DVD singles are a perfectly fine way to watch.
• The "Dragon Box" DVDs of DBZ are put on a pedestal by many, but are not even slightly worth the ridiculous quantities of money they go for, and personally I would suggest you act as if they simply do not exist unless you are intending to pirate the show.
• For the TV specials, titled "The History Of Trunks" and "Bardock: The Father Of Goku" by Funimation, go for the original DVD single release; they put out "Movie"-style Blu-rays and DVDs of them, but those are essentially equivalent to the "Season" sets of the Z series. Meanwhile, the original DVD singles of these two specials are just all-round solid DVDs which fetch quite a low price online.

I'll also briefly note this:
If you go for Kai, a lot of fans will recommend you try to pick up the "Yamamoto" version. To briefly explain this, Kanji Yamamoto originally provided a score for Kai to give the show a "modern" feel; regardless of how well this went, he was exposed as having plagiarised the melodies behind every single song he ever allegedly composed (this is not an exaggeration; every single melody is taken from something else), so unless you pay exorbitant prices for out-of-print first-run discs that only cover the first ~50 episodes out of 98 at best, you're going to instead get a kinda-lazy recycled score made up of the score of DB and Z, kinda haphazardly placed. Sadly, you just have to lump it; either you get the plagiarised Yamamoto score for some of it, and the kinda-haphazard recycled Kikuchi score for the rest, or you just have the kinda-haphazard Kikuchi version all the way through.
Neither is a great option, but the cheaper, more consistent option is to have Kikuchi all the way through.
However, this choice has already been somewhat made for you in that the DVDs/Blu-rays available to you will already be Kikuchi all the way, so the point of this brief explainer is just to say -- the people who'll tell you "Go out and buy the expensive, first-run DVDs" are talking crap, basically.

Are there particularly good release versions?
I'd prefer good English dubs and accompanying subtitles.

The only really "Good" English dubs are the one-off dubs of the first three Z movies from the '90s. Some argue Kai and Super's dubs from Funimation are good too... Personally, I've always found those people are blinded by nostalgia for the Funi cast, and are too easily-impressed by the fact they've improved since their early days, when they were outright crap at dubbing, to see that Funi are still sticking with many very poor castings from the '90s who never should have been on the show anyway (in 1999, Funimation replaced their cast of professional Canadian voice actors with whoever they could find in Texas who would take the least money while giving a convincing enough impression of the Canadian voice that they didn't think the kids at home would notice too much was off. None of these people were good actors at the time, and even though many have evolved into good, even great, actors, MANY of them are horrendously poor choices for their roles), and Funimation are still inserting their own humour into the script, even during serious scenes, and Funimation's scripts themselves are very poor (the actual dialogue isn't natural at all)...
I wouldn't call their work "Good English dubs".

But... These days, Funimation's dubs are serviceable, yes. If you simply refuse to watch in Japanese with subs, Funi's dubs are certainly an acceptable way to cut through that barrier to entry.. Though their recent dubs only cover Kai and Super. The original Dragon Ball remains un-redubbed, and thus stands apart as a rather poor dub (imagine if 4Kids did a dub but without changing any of the source footage, but they still want to censor it, and their cast is circa 2009 DBZ Abridged, and for some reason the original Japanese scripts they're working off of were partially chewed by a dog, so random parts of it they just invent on the fly for no discernable reason, usually to nonsensical, awkward results). But you can't skip it, since then you're just skipping the first half of the story, which is a really bad idea. So...

Just watch it subtitled in Japanese. I know it's less convenient; I prefer watching shows dubbed myself, but this is not one you can do that with.

[MasenkoHA]

Everyone here has it right. Since you prefer the English dub, the order for you should be:

Dragon Ball Blue Bricks > Kai Blu-Rays > The Final Chapters Blu-Rays > GT Green Bricks

IDK wouldn't Super be a better follow up for Kai? Especially dub wise? IIRC GT plays up Goku as Japanese Superman a lot which is a holdover from what they did in Z. That aspect wasn't really in Kai or even the original Dragon Ball (which by far had the best representation of Goku in the dub pre-Kai) and I know it's little more than a cameo but Linda Young's Freeza clashes horribly with Chris Ayres Freeza in Kai.

The original Z dub is pretty much not worth your time at all.

Not only are any releases of it pretty bad (with the exception of the English Dragon Boxes, but those are very rare), the dialogue and performances are very substandard. Z itself is also a tough watch in any format due to the large amounts of filler and general padding, which was required at the time but mostly doesn't hold up well today. Kai is the solution to all these issues, although Z in Japanese is still very fun (plus the music is much better).

Ehhh some people like the filler and regardless of how bad the Z dub got it still features filler. It's about prioritizing. Do you want to see Goku race cars with Piccolo or is just more important that everyone sounds like they know how dubbing works? I also really don't care for Kai's pacing in the Saiyan saga. Perhaps truer to the manga but Gohan's switch from crying mama's boy to Goku Jr comes out of nowhere. His encounter with Mr.Robot and the dinosaur helps a lot. If a complete and total redub of Z ever happened (and lol at the chances of that) then the old Z dub would be completely obsolete

Also don't care if you're a Faulconer guy or a Kikuchi guy the music is going to be better in Z no matter what.

Kai is the solution to all these issues, although Z in Japanese is still very fun (plus the music is much better).

It's a trade off. Kai gives you faster and tighter pacing (and a vastly superior English dub if you choose to go that route) but Z has better music (or uses it better in the case of the first 98 episodes) and fleshes things out better.

Solid dub and want the story to move at a fast pace? Go with Kai

Better overall product but with a crap dub that really only has nostalgia on its side? Z

[Robo4900]

I have watched the dub of Kai with subtitles and the dialog is damn close,

You can't have been paying attention, then.
What about when Bulma, in the subtitles, says "You haven't brought me to this godforsaken place in order to do something pervy with me, right?", then Popo begins hopping up the cliff face, and she calls to him "H-Hey!"
Meanwhile, in the dub, she says "Hey! If you've brought me all the way out here just to try something funny, you should know I've been taking Judo since I was 9 years old. Get me?", then Popo begins hopping up the cliff face, and she calls to him "Don't go! It was a joke!"

Or when Chichi collapses from the shock of Roshi's explanation of the crazy events of the first few episodes, and in the Japanese version, Gyuumao says something to the effect of "Chichi! Buck up!", whereas in the dub, he says "Krillin, get the smelling salts!"

How about that time they left the TV-censored line, "DUDE MAH TRUCK!!" in the uncut dub of the episode where Vegeta kills a truck driver? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2WLFsk ... tu.be&t=29

How about when Vegeta says to his son "I only wanted you to be a strong boy, that's why I was so tough on you", when he never said any such thing in the Japanese vesrion?

I could go at this all day, in fact I did, recently, that's where I pulled these examples from (and I stand by it as my currently definitive word on why I think Funi's Kai dub is just kinda-subpar-yet-watchable), but the point stands that Funi's Kai dub is utterly fucking FULL of nonsense. And it only gets worse as they went along. The TFS scene is a great example (I don't think it needs to be said that not a single line from the re-enactment itself is even remotely close to what was in the Japanese dialogue), but it's particularly noticeable these days in Super, where Sabat even said himself that the writers are deliberately inserting jokes because, in his opinion, most people already saw it in Japanese on Crunchyroll, so he sees it as Funimation's duty to make it a bit different for their dub by putting in whatever they feel like putting in...

And both Strait and Schemmel have come pretty damn far so no I don't think they clash with the newer cast members.

Come far =/= are good.
And in fairness, you're probably quite attached to those voices of the characters by now, so you're probably not the best judge of whether or not these castings who've been around for 20 years should have been recast for Kai.
Admittedly, a lot of this is quite subjective, but I think only a fool would say that Schemmel and Strait are unequivocally the best castings Funimation could have chosen if they'd decided to allow themselves to essentially cast from scratch in 2009. Especially when there's castings as bad as Schemmel's Kaio/King Kai still in the cast.

If you look at Kai as merely an approximation of what a new fillerless version of DB or just DB with a faithful dub would've looked like then it's not nearly as bad as its detractors make it seem.

Sure.
But it's no where near the flawless redemption of Funimation and grand fixing of DBZ's filler problem that its stans make it out to be.

The answer ultimately lies in the middle:
On one hand, it's not Funi finally getting it right, its cutting of filler is clumsy as hell, and both Toei and Funimation fucked up with the Boo arc, bigtime, and for no justifiable reason, they skipped OG DB.
On the other, Funi finally reached a point of producing serviceable dubbing of Dragon Ball, the faster pace is nice for people who find Z impenetrable, and the home video isn't unredeemable shit, and it follows on from OG DB well enough that you can watch these two shows together to just watch the show without sitting through as much filler, or as poor dubbing.

Thought I do agree that you should only watch it after you've seen all of the original.

I want to agree with this, but with how utterly SHIT Funi's home video of Z is, I honestly think it's easier to just recommend new viewers just default to Kai. It's just easier.

[ABED]

I was paying attention and I recall it being very close. If anything, it's precisely because it was as close as it was, the deviations stand out.

You can stop telling me how I feel. I am a 34 year old man and I judge them to be good as those characters.

I think only a fool would say that Schemmel and Strait are unequivocally the best castings Funimation could have chosen if they'd decided to allow themselves to essentially cast from scratch in 2009.

I didn't say that or even imply that. They probably wouldn't have made the cut now, but the irony is they got good due to experience.

Admittedly, a lot of this is quite subjective,

You really should've stopped right there..

But it's no where near the flawless redemption of Funimation and grand fixing of DBZ's filler problem that its stans make it out to be.

No, not flawless. No one is claiming it is, but not nearly as egregious as its detractors claim.

I want to agree with this, but with how utterly SHIT Funi's home video of Z is, I honestly think it's easier to just recommend new viewers just default to Kai. It's just easier.

Then stream it. The marginal cost of watching DBZ along with the other shows is effectively $0. Even if it is cropped, you aren't out much money.

I did read that post and I have ZERO interest in discussing it line by line, but your point about "the lines are unnatural". I don't care. It's not a naturalistic show and I think the wordy dialog is fine. It works well for characters who usually don't speak before they talk.

[MasenkoHA]

I have watched the dub of Kai with subtitles and the dialog is damn close,

You can't have been paying attention, then.
What about when Bulma, in the subtitles, says "You haven't brought me to this godforsaken place in order to do something pervy with me, right?", then Popo begins hopping up the cliff face, and she calls to him "H-Hey!"
Meanwhile, in the dub, she says "Hey! If you've brought me all the way out here just to try something funny, you should know I've been taking Judo since I was 9 years old. Get me?", then Popo begins hopping up the cliff face, and she calls to him "Don't go! It was a joke!"

Or when Chichi collapses from the shock of Roshi's explanation of the crazy events of the first few episodes, and in the Japanese version, Gyuumao says something to the effect of "Chichi! Buck up!", whereas in the dub, he says "Krillin, get the smelling salts!"

How about that time they left the TV-censored line, "DUDE MAH TRUCK!!" in the uncut dub of the episode where Vegeta kills a truck driver? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2WLFsk ... tu.be&t=29

How about when Vegeta says to his son "I only wanted you to be a strong boy, that's why I was so tough on you", when he never said any such thing in the Japanese vesrion?

I agree with the gist of what you're saying. (Kai's dub isn't nearly as accurate as fans say it is and Funi still defaults to its old habit) but disagree with the notion that isn't not overall accurate. It's nothing like Z's "lets add jokes at every single opportunity and screw up the characters personalities so badly they barely resemble how they were in Japanese" Kai itself is pretty bad though and no amount of amazing dubbing would have salvaged the problems caused by Toei.

The TFS scene is a great example (I don't think it needs to be said that not a single line from the re-enactment itself is even remotely close to what was in the Japanese dialogue)

Don't think the TFS scene made it to broadcast or home video anyways though...

, but it's particularly noticeable these days in Super, where Sabat even said himself that the writers are deliberately inserting jokes because, in his opinion, most people already saw it in Japanese on Crunchyroll, so he sees it as Funimation's duty to make it a bit different for their dub by putting in whatever they feel like putting in...

In Sabat's defense he's not wrong. Thanks to how long it took for Funimation to finally start dubbing the thing a lot of Dragon Ball Z dub fans who would otherwise go nowhere near the Japanese version "bEcAuSe I dOnT waNt tO hEaR gOkU bEinG vOicEd by a wOman!!11!!" DID watch Dragon Ball Super subtitled. So I can understand his reasoning to the point. Though honestly so many fans are so hard on for Schemmel and Sabat they would probably watch Super even if the dialog was verbatim the same as Japanese. I very much doubt it would have done worse in the ratings if it was a perfect dub and it didn't need to punch up the humor.

Come far =/= are good.
And in fairness, you're probably quite attached to those voices of the characters by now, so you're probably not the best judge of whether or not these castings who've been around for 20 years should have been recast for Kai.

Neither are awful but I really don't feel like Schemmel has improved that much since the Buu saga. Strait's Krillin is about on par circa 2000. I'm just not a fan of Strait's Krillin that always sounded a bit too rednecky to me. Like he wants Goku to sneak out from home to crack open a cold one with the boys then go cow tipping and deer huntin. Schemmel's Goku is servicable and has been since cira Buu but I wouldn't lose sleep over a recasting.

The biggest improvements are, by no surprise, the roles that were completely recast (excluding Mccoy being replaced by Clinkenbeard as 18)

I want to agree with this, but with how utterly SHIT Funi's home video of Z is, I honestly think it's easier to just recommend new viewers just default to Kai. It's just easier.

The Pioneer/Funi DVD singles are fine. The Blue Rays...aint great but serviceable (just barely though) The overpriciness of the Dragon Boxes makes them obsolete but if one can somehow obtain them cheaply or pirate theme they're probably the best option.

[KBABZ]

IDK wouldn't Super be a better follow up for Kai? Especially dub wise? IIRC GT plays up Goku as Japanese Superman a lot which is a holdover from what they did in Z.

Having watched Z through most of the Baby arc for the Review of Awesomeness (RIPx3), I didn't see it. Anything close I felt was more GT focusing on Goku and Vegeta as part of the show's writing than presenting him as a superhero. Most of the time Goku's a kid anyway so the dialogue leans much more into that.

[KBABZ]

Don't think the TFS scene made it to broadcast or home video anyways though...

I watched the Blu-Rays and it was definitely in there.

Also is this REALLY the place to start micro-quoting about discussions we've had ten times over already in the past?