Dragon Ball Rewatch, Week 58 - DBZ 95-99

[Robo4900]

Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and everyone between and beyond, and welcome to week 58 of the first Dragon Ball rewatch of the decade.
We're doing five episodes a week, and we'll be watching every single episode of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. All 508 episodes. Plus the TV specials and the movies.
I encourage you all to watch in Japanese with subtitles, especially if you have never done so before, but watch along in whichever way brings you the most joy.

Two weeks to go until the god-awful travesty that is the first Coola movie.
And then right after that, the also pretty bad Garlic Jr arc...
... But first, more of the overly-drawn-out, painfully-paced Freeza arc...

This really is the worst period of the Toriyama era, isn't it?

Sorry to be a downer.
At least this week finally gives us what this arc has slowly (painfully so) been building up to -- Super Saiyan! As agonising as it is to get there, it is a truly awesome moment. Goku is so very different when he's Super Saiyan here, and I really wish they'd kept that aspect of his transformed state in future fights.
Oh well.

Previous thread: Week 57 (DBZ 90-94)
Next thread: Week 59 (DBZ 100-104)

Anyway, without further ado...

Episode 248 - Transformed At Last!! The Legendary Super Saiyan, Son Goku (DBZ episode 95)
Dub title: Transformed at Last
Originally aired 12th of June 1991
Kai equivalent: Episode 47 - Awaken, Legendary Warrior… Son Goku, the Super Saiyan! (Last half)
Written by: Hiroshi Toda
Episode director: Shigeyasu Yamauchi
Animation supervisor: Minoru Maeda

Freeza has been wiped out. On Planet Kaiō, Yamcha and the others also win against the Ginyu Special-Squad. Recoom and the others fall into Hell. Joyous over their victory, Goku and the others are about to return to Earth. But at that moment, Freeza appears! Even the Genki-Dama didn’t work against Freeza. Piccolo is felled, and Kuririn is blown to pieces. Seeing this, Goku is gripped by intense rage! When his anger surpasses the limit, his body is wrapped in powerful ki. Goku has transformed into a Super Saiyan…!!

Anime-only/filler content: More Ginyu on Kaio's planet filler, Kaio explaining the state of the events on Namek to his students, Bulma reaction shot, general extensions, particularly the Super Saiyan transformation was significantly expanded.

Episode 249 - An Explosion of Anger!! Goku, Avenge Everyone’s Deaths (DBZ episode 96)
Dub title: Explosion of Anger
Originally aired 19th of June 1991
Kai equivalent: Episode 48 - The Angry Super Saiyan! Throw Your Hat in the Ring, Son Goku! (First half)
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Jun’ichi Fujise
Animation supervisor: Masayuki Uchiyama

Having become a Super Saiyan, Goku tells Gohan to take Piccolo and return to Earth. Gohan leaves, trusting that Goku will definitely return. Goku shouts with anger at Freeza as if he were going to explode. Freeza is filled with confidence that he can defeat even a Super Saiyan, but the beams he fires from his finger are all deflected. Even after Goku tells him to try and hit him with his technique, Freeza can’t inflict any damage on Goku. Goku’s power can no longer be stopped by anyone!!

Anime-only/filler content: Dr Brief repairing the Capsule ship, Roshi sensing Goku's transformation, general padding.

Episode 250 - The Destruction of Planet Namek?! A Demonic Flash Penetrates the Ground (DBZ episode 97)
Dub title: Namek's Destruction
Originally aired 26th of June 1991
Kai equivalent: Episode 48 - The Angry Super Saiyan! Throw Your Hat in the Ring, Son Goku! (Last half) and Episode 49 - Exact Vengeance, Son Goku! The Countdown to the Planet’s Collapse (First half)
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Kazuhito Kikuchi
Animation supervisor: Mitsuo Shindō

Recognizing that Goku is a Super Saiyan, Freeza is gripped by intense rage and humiliation. Gohan arrives at the spaceship Goku rode there on, and begins the preparations to escape. Saying that he’d choose death over defeat, Freeza tries to destroy Planet Namek?! Seeing this situation, Kaiō is dumbfounded. He then receives a transmission from the Earth’s God! Since God is alive, Piccolo must be as well. Planet Namek has not yet exploded. But the time remaining is only five minutes…

Anime-only/filler content: A scene with Freeza's soldiers, the gang on earth contacting the Capsule ship when Gohan goes inside.

Episode 251 - I Am Going To Win… Risking Survival, A Final Attack (DBZ episode 98)
Dub title: A Final Attack
Originally aired 10th of July 1991
Kai equivalent: Episode 49 - Exact Vengeance, Son Goku! The Countdown to the Planet’s Collapse (Last half) and Episode 50 - Freeza’s Do-or-Die Full Power! Shenlong, Heed this Wish (First half)
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Yoshihiro Ueda
Animation supervisor: Kazuya Hisada

Freeza begins concentrating ki in order to put out his full power. Kaiō tells Goku that this is his chance, but Goku doesn’t attack, saying that he will fight Freeza at 100% and avenge Kuririn. Gohan discovers Bulma, and carries her back to the spaceship. Bulma is thrilled at being able to return to Earth. Freeza wildly attacks Goku all at once. He boasts that this is simply a warming up exercise, but Goku answers that he would have been disappointed if that was the best Freeza could do.

Anime-only/filler content: An additional Goku vs Freeza bout between Freeza deciding to blow up Namek and sending Goku away so he can accomplish the task, another scene with the gang on earth, more general padding.

Episode 252 - Shen Long, Fly Through Space!! The Time of Namek’s Destruction Draws Near (DBZ episode 99)
Dub title: Approaching Destruction
Originally aired 17th of July 1991
Kai equivalent: Episode 50 - Freeza’s Do-or-Die Full Power! Shenlong, Heed this Wish (Last half)
Written by: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
Episode director: Shigeyasu Yamauchi
Animation supervisor: Yukio Ebisawa

Goku fights, buying time for Gohan and the others. On Earth, Mister Popo has gathered the Dragon Balls. After receiving this communication from the Earth’s God, Kaiō is struck with an idea: to use the Earth’s Dragon Balls to resurrect all those killed by Freeza on Planet Namek, and then if the Eldest is also resurrected, use Planet Namek’s Dragon Balls to warp everyone to Earth. Yamcha and the others accept this, even though it will push back their own restoral to life. The Earth’s Dragon Balls are assembled, and Shenlong is called forth.

Anime-only/filler content: Gohan taking Bulma back to the ship (in the manga, they are teleported to earth before they get back to the ship).

-

Interesting trivia:

• At this point in time in the manga, everyone realizes Goku is dead, Vegeta helps them solve the issue of bringing his spirit to Earth, everyone is wished back to life and they discover that Goku ISN'T dead, about two years pass before Mecha Freeza and King Cold approach Earth, and Trunks arrives to slaughter both of them before hanging out with the Dragon Team to wait for Goku's arrival.
• As noted on page 57 of the Kanzenshuu 30th Anniversary Magazine, Goku's transformation into a Super Saiyan marks the point in time where the anime came the closest to overtaking the manga, being separated by only 10 Chapters. For comparison, when the anime first started five years earlier, it was 64 Chapters behind. Even if you account for Toriyama often knowing what would be happening for the next month's worth of Dragon Ball, with a chapter coming out every week, that's still only 3 months between the staff having a chapter available to adapt and airing the TV episode that adapts it, vs 14-15 months of lead time when they started. As anyone who knows anything about TV animation would know, 3 months is an insane production timescale.
• This should have been noted earlier, but the title of Chapter 292 is "Come Forth, Genuine Shen Long!!". This is the Chapter where it's revealed that the Namekian dragon is called Porunga rather than Shen Long. This interprets the Earth Dragon's name as a title of definition ("God Dragon"), which is semi-applicable to Porunga.
• This also should have been mentioned AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES ago, but the Kai episode where Vegeta attacks the Namekian village marks the start of a huge gap regarding Yamamoto's music. Kai would not get any new non-insert song-based music for another 32 episodes when the Android Arc begins.
• As is Toei's style, the episode gloriously titled "Transformed At Last!! The Legendary Super Saiyan, Son Goku" refers to an event that happens in the last few minutes of the episode. Funimation does no better, essentially just taking the first half of the Japanese title, making "Transformed At Last".
• As covered in episode 125 of the Kanzenshuu podcast, the anime alters Piccolo getting hit by Freeza's beam. In the manga, Piccolo takes the beam straight away, and in the next panel he falls in front of Goku (almost looking like he's falling into his shoulders). In the anime, Piccolo tells Goku to look out before pushing him out of the way and getting shot himself, making him more heroic. This changes the context of the scene somewhat, because in the manga Freeza attempts to kill all of Goku's friends one-by-one like flies with little effort.
• The spot where Piccolo gets shot by Freeza is the same spot he hit Goku at the end of the 23rd Tournament, the one where he missed all of Goku's vital organs (ALL OF THEM?!).
• Recurring death tallies:
  • Kuririn: 2
  • Piccolo: 2
  • Chaozu: 2
  • The moon: 2
  • Vegeta: 1
  • Yamucha: 1
  • Tenshinhan: 1
  • Son Goku: 1
  • Roshi: 1
• In the Japanese dialogue, after killing Kuririn but before Goku transforms, Freeza says Gohan is next. In the original Funimation dub, he says "Pop goes the weasel!"
• Funimation's TV censorship:
  • In Episode 95, the "HELL" shirts are once again painted over to read "HFIL", and Kuririn's death explosion is cut back by less than a second.
  • In Episode 96, Dr Brief's cigarette was painted out.
  • In Episode 97, Ghurd's corpse is edited to have a head on it, and the show of Freeza coughing up blood was cut from the next episode preview.
  • In Episode 98, the shot of blood pouring out of Freeza's mouth (which was cut in the preview in the last episode) was painted to remove all of the blood, and Dr. Brief's cigarette was once again painted out.
  • More blood was painted away when Goku double-kicks Freeza in the face, and the next episode preview is cut down by 10 seconds, though with no obvious censorship reason; probably just an edit for time.
• The anime also extends Goku turning into a Super Saiyan, for both time and drama. In the manga, it's done in a flash after Goku rages that he won't let Freeza get away with what he did. In the anime it's more of a struggle, where lightning flashes in the sky as Goku's hair flits between black and yellow. Toei would also extend Gohan's Super Saiyan 2, as well as Goku's Super Saiyan 3.
• Similar to Freeza's iconic pose, the single-page panel of Goku as a Super Saiyan has become one of the most iconic and replicated visual images in the franchise.
• After first transforming, Goku angrily tells Gohan to do what he says while he still has control over himself. This out-of-character lust of violence would be revisited when Gohan first achieves Super Saiyan 2, where like his father he acts not quite like himself after achieving a new Super Saiyan form for the first time.
• Freeza expresses shock when Goku is able to dodge his finger beam. While this is the first time someone has been able to dodge it, it's not as remarkable as it seems given that Goku was able to slap all of them away when his fight with Freeza first began.
• Goku's "I am a Super Saiyan" speech was famously rewritten by Funimation to be about how Goku is the "light of the universe". This is inaccurate to his character as he more often thinks about his own concerns (although Toei also had a habit of painting Goku in this more generically heroic light as well, such as when he stormed the Red Ribbon Army HQ). When this speech was revisited in Kai, the translation was much more accurate to the manga.
  • The Kai version of this speech is also the only time in Funimation's anime dubs that Goku is referred to under his full name, Son Goku. This also happens in the video game Dragon Ball FighterZ: one of Super Saiyan Goku's lines when selected is this speech, and Funimation used their Kai translation here. Interestingly, this wasn't in the dub script for the episode as initially written; "Son" Goku was actually a suggestion Sean Schemmel made in the recording booth for that episode of Kai. Let it never be said that Robo doesn't have massive respect for Sean Schemmel, despite his nostalgic bias towards the Ocean cast.
• In his English Super Saiyan speech (ViZ and Funi), Goku mentions that he has a pure heart awakened by rage, which Freeza notes is why Vegeta couldn't accomplish it. Kanzenshuu however translates it as having a calm heart instead.
• After Goku's Super Saiyan speech, Freeza mentions that he'd rather kill himself than let himself be beaten by a Saiyan. This will eventually happen when he slices himself at the end of the fight.
• DBZ Episode 97 introduces music composed by Kikuchi for DBZ movie 4.
• When Kaio peers to Namek once he realizes that God is still alive, the next few panels use rounded corners to show that this is what Kaio is seeing. Typically, the manga panels have hard 90 degree corners.
• Yet another infamous aspect of the Freeza Arc is the villain's claim that Namek has only five minutes left before it explodes. This could be excused as a mis-calculation on his part, or just him lying to try to trip Goku up, except he continues to give updates for three minutes and one minute left as the fight continues. In the manga, this five minutes passes in 220 pages, while in the anime it takes about 180 minutes in Z and about 80 minutes in Kai.
• The issue of illogical passages of time would appear again in an even more obvious way with the Tournament of Power in Super.
• When Goku first hears about Freeza not even using all of his power, at first he says that he won't let Freeza buy any time for himself. This is contradicted however in the very next Chapter, where Goku wants to fight Freeza at his full power since it might be his only chance to do so.
• While Kaio and God discuss their gambit with the Dragon Balls, God mentions that the Earth Dragon Balls are limited only to those who have died in the past year. This is the very first time that detail has ever been mentioned.
  • This would be contradicted by Resurrection of 'F' where Freeza's men use Shen Long to bring Freeza back to life, who had been killed by Trunks 15 years before the start of the movie. This may have been solved by Dende upgrading the Dragon Balls in the Cell Arc, however only the expansion to three wishes is mentioned, not the one year limit when wishing people back to life.
• Mr. Popo gathering the Dragon Balls is the 5th time they've been gathered together in the story, after the Pilaf Arc, the Red Ribbon Arc, the Daimao Arc, and off-screen in the Saiyan Arc.
• Mr. Popo gathering the Dragon Balls is one of the fastest Dragon Ball gatherings in the story's history, being potentially tied with when Goku gathered them before the Cell Games (since Piccolo, and thus Kami, would not have been alive for between half an hour to several hours). Curiously it's also not explained exactly HOW he was able to get them all so quickly, since he doesn't have a Radar and the Dragon Balls aren't connected with Earth's heavenly hierarchy at all.
• The title page for Chapter 322 depicts Yajirobe wondering what Goku's up to right now. In the manga, Yajirobe was last seen in the hospital when Goku set off to see his spaceship at Capsule Corp. This panel contradicts the filler of Chichi trying to go to Namek, unless he retreated back to life in the wilds VERY quickly after that.
• Episode 99 changes the order of events between the two manga chapters it adapts, so that the scene with Mr. Popo summoning Shen Long and asking for the wish is not intercut with Goku fighting 100% Frieza.

Episode summaries, airdates, and titles courtesy of Kanzenshuu's episode guide. Filler breakdowns and Dragon Ball logo provided, and trivia primarily written, by KBABZ. Additional trivia courtesy of Chris Psaros's DBZ Uncensored guide.

[MasenkoHA]

Well we finally reached the most iconic moment of the franchise.


I quite like Nozawa’s quiet anger when she does Goku’s I am speech that just burst with rage at the end. Schemmel’s version in Kai is good too. His rendition in Z well....he didn’t write the dialog so he has that going for him.

The Hope of the universe speech is just lolol. Not only is out of character for Goku to have such a messiah complex (I get Funimation’s reasoning was “Well he’s basically Superman who was a Moses/Jesus allegory) it’s just a cringe af speech.

I will say even in 1999 Schemmel’s yelling at Gohan to obey him was quiet good. I think Schemmel always had a fairly decent grasp on righteous fury Goku its just laidback chill Goku and goofy Goku he struggled with for a few years. That delivery of “I...:won’t....let you.....get away with.....:this” was painful though. Seemed less furious that his best friend was murdered in cold blood and more like he was taking a huge dump.


What is with the Funi dub Gokus and bad awkward stilted performances when reacting to a dead Krillin?

https://youtu.be/odRFaz4HblQ


https://youtu.be/qym9fKhhY8c


Lastly while I’m mixed about the Yamamoto score in general I do like The Brave Heart Triumph use for Goku’s I am Speech one of the few times Kai did it better than Z. (I liked the Genki Dama cue in Z too of course just not as much). Not sure what track was used for Kikuchi Kai for the equivalent scene

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Note that the parts where Goku uncharacteristically raises his voice at Gohan to leave Planet Namek with Piccolo after turning SSJ (About the one of the few if only times he ever directly speaks to his own son in anger in the series that i know of at all) is both subtly and vastly different in wording and delivery between the two respective original and dub versions.

Here's the original dialogue in Japanese between Z and Kai

DBZ

"Go home now, while i still have some sliver of reason left!"

"Don't argue! Do you want to annoy me?"


Kai

"Beat it, now, while i still have some shred of reason!"

"End of discussion! Are you trying to upset me?!"


In the original and Kai it basically comes down to Goku more or less telling Gohan to scram before his Saiyan instincts channeling from the transformation overwhelm him before going against Freeza and inadvertently turns his anger on his own son without the strength to stop himself.


Here's the respective dubs takes

DBZ

"This is the last time i'm going to tell you! Get out of here, Gohan!!!!"

"Gohan, i'm your father. Listen! Just do as i say!!"


Kai

"Do as i tell you right now, before i lose what little sense i have left."

"I'm your father, don't talk back. Do as i say"


As you can see, the old Z dub was basically missing the "little sense/reason" part altogether and the second time when Goku shouts he's just "RAAAAH I'M YOUR FATHER DO AS I SAY!!!!!!!!" and there is nothing about asking if Gohan is trying to upset or annoy him. The Kai version is closer but still has the second part be more like the second line in the old dub with the whole "I'm your father" thing.

[Planetnamek]

You forgot to put in the dub title for episode 99(which is "Approaching Destruction")

Anyhow these were the first episodes of DBZ I ever saw as a kid, i'll expand more on them when I get around to buying the singles for them.

[Robo4900]

You forgot to put in the dub title for episode 99(which is "Approaching Destruction")

lol oops.
Fixed.

Anyhow these were the first episodes of DBZ I ever saw as a kid, i'll expand more on them when I get around to buying the singles for them.

Oh, you're watching via the singles? Interesting!

Note that the parts where Goku uncharacteristically raises his voice at Gohan to leave Planet Namek with Piccolo after turning SSJ (About the one of the few if only times he ever directly speaks to his own son in anger in the series that i know of at all) is both subtly and vastly different in wording and delivery between the two respective original and dub versions.

Spoiler:

Here's the original dialogue in Japanese between Z and Kai

DBZ

"Go home now, while i still have some sliver of reason left!"

"Don't argue! Do you want to annoy me?"


Kai

"Beat it, now, while i still have some shred of reason!"

"End of discussion! Are you trying to upset me?!"


In the original and Kai it basically comes down to Goku more or less telling Gohan to scram before his Saiyan instincts channeling from the transformation overwhelm him before going against Freeza and inadvertently turns his anger on his own son without the strength to stop himself.


Here's the respective dubs takes

DBZ

"This is the last time i'm going to tell you! Get out of here, Gohan!!!!"

"Gohan, i'm your father. Listen! Just do as i say!!"


Kai

"Do as i tell you right now, before i lose what little sense i have left."

"I'm your father, don't talk back. Do as i say"

As you can see, the old Z dub was basically missing the "little sense/reason" part altogether and the second time when Goku shouts he's just "RAAAAH I'M YOUR FATHER DO AS I SAY!!!!!!!!" and there is nothing about asking if Gohan is trying to upset or annoy him. The Kai version is closer but still has the second part be more like the second line in the old dub with the whole "I'm your father" thing.

Yes... This is something I often talk about in regards to Kai, which is quite under-discussed: Even though Funi's dubbing improved a lot since Z, their scripting is still far from perfect, there's still tons of embellishments, many of which seem to be pulled directly from their Z dub. And annoyingly, these changes become increasingly present as Kai goes on, hiking up by a huge amount when they got to Kai 2.0, and once again when they started Super.

Yet another reason I really want Ocean's Kai dub to come out; a version without Funi's shitty script embellishments would be so damn nice to see for once.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

You forgot to put in the dub title for episode 99(which is "Approaching Destruction")

lol oops.
Fixed.

Anyhow these were the first episodes of DBZ I ever saw as a kid, i'll expand more on them when I get around to buying the singles for them.

Oh, you're watching via the singles? Interesting!

Note that the parts where Goku uncharacteristically raises his voice at Gohan to leave Planet Namek with Piccolo after turning SSJ (About the one of the few if only times he ever directly speaks to his own son in anger in the series that i know of at all) is both subtly and vastly different in wording and delivery between the two respective original and dub versions.

Spoiler:

Here's the original dialogue in Japanese between Z and Kai

DBZ

"Go home now, while i still have some sliver of reason left!"

"Don't argue! Do you want to annoy me?"


Kai

"Beat it, now, while i still have some shred of reason!"

"End of discussion! Are you trying to upset me?!"


In the original and Kai it basically comes down to Goku more or less telling Gohan to scram before his Saiyan instincts channeling from the transformation overwhelm him before going against Freeza and inadvertently turns his anger on his own son without the strength to stop himself.


Here's the respective dubs takes

DBZ

"This is the last time i'm going to tell you! Get out of here, Gohan!!!!"

"Gohan, i'm your father. Listen! Just do as i say!!"


Kai

"Do as i tell you right now, before i lose what little sense i have left."

"I'm your father, don't talk back. Do as i say"

As you can see, the old Z dub was basically missing the "little sense/reason" part altogether and the second time when Goku shouts he's just "RAAAAH I'M YOUR FATHER DO AS I SAY!!!!!!!!" and there is nothing about asking if Gohan is trying to upset or annoy him. The Kai version is closer but still has the second part be more like the second line in the old dub with the whole "I'm your father" thing.

Yes... This is something I often talk about in regards to Kai, which is quite under-discussed: Even though Funi's dubbing improved a lot since Z, their scripting is still far from perfect, there's still tons of embellishments, many of which seem to be pulled directly from their Z dub. And annoyingly, these changes become increasingly present as Kai goes on, hiking up by a huge amount when they got to Kai 2.0, and once again when they started Super.

Yet another reason I really want Ocean's Kai dub to come out; a version without Funi's shitty script embellishments would be so damn nice to see for once.

That is true, i do agree that they didn't go quite as far as they should have with the accuracy script wise. On the whole, however. FUNi's Kai dub is decent albeit flawed then. Still, i like that for the most part they did a much better job of it than with DBZ which was hot garbage for the majority of it's run and just got barely above the mediocre/acceptable level by the time the Buu arc came around. It's not to the extreme levels of how the scripts were done during the days when Barry Watson and others were in charge of the dub process but they still haven't quite shaken off some of these things from back then. Even though FUNi doesn't do nowadays outdated stuff like music replacement anymore and has improved vastly in quality on dubbing production compared to when they started dubbing DBZ in house back in 1999 there's still some areas that they don't quite have a handle on like scripting relative to the source material being adapted.

[MyVisionity]

Frieza - Super Saiyan Goku was one of the first DVDs I ever bought. I remember being taken aback by just how poor the sound quality was on the Japanese tracks.

I think that episode 95 is a well-crafted episode from beginning to end. Seeing all of the characters reassemble after the Genki Dama and having them relax for a little bit is a good choice. I also appreciate the placement of the Ginyu squad filler on Kaio's planet. I think it works well within the pacing of the episode alongside Freeza's return, and reinforces the feeling of triumph in the episode before helping the tension along in the final moments.

My issue with Funimation's "hope of the universe" speech isn't so much about how out of character it is for Goku as much as it is about how the legendary Super Saiyan is supposed to be a completely cold-hearted and bloodthirsty warrior. The dub misrepresents the concept entirely. I recall they do this in the Coola movie as well after Goku transforms and he immediately starts in on Coola for wanting to hurt people or whatever. Lame.

FUNi sure put some fine effort into the writing and acting for these filler sequences! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfNAsay23Qs

I like how Episode 98 begins with Goku having Freeza on the run and then is visually paralleled in reverse at the end of the episode with Freeza now having the upper hand.

When Goku first hears about Freeza not even using all of his power, at first he says that he won't let Freeza buy any time for himself. This is contradicted however in the very next Chapter, where Goku wants to fight Freeza at his full power since it might be his only chance to do so.

The way I understood it was that Goku knew Freeza was stalling because he was afraid of using his full power, so Goku decided to force him to have to do it.

[ArmenianPepsi]

I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. As I am this rewatch's resident Kai nerd, allow me to show you my personal art gallery. AKA, the Ugly Redraw Gauntlet. All of these are from episode 48, and though by now i'm totally numb to them, for a first time watcher I can imagine it taking them out of the action when every couple minutes there's is an obvious lazy redraw, especially of the titular Super Saiyan Goku.

-> https://imgur.com/a/HsNqo2k

And of courser, the cherry on top. You already know the one I'm talking about. Probably the absolute worst redraw in Kai.

Spoiler:

[

[KBABZ]

lol, apparently your images are no longer available.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

There are redrawn/traced scenes in Kai that look really good and almost to the level of the original shots themselves, then there are some which appear as if there was no effort or attempt to make the retracing look fitting at all with the surrounding original animation from nearly 20 years earlier.

True, many of them were done to fix not so good shots from the masters but others just make me wonder what was the point of doing so especially the garbage ones.

[Robo4900]

For the 4:3 version of Kai, I seriously have no idea why 90% of the redraws were done at all.

My guess remains that most of the redraws were done for the 16:9 version and laziness led the 4:3 version to retain a load of them.

But a load of redraws were 16:9-only, so I really have no clue.

[KBABZ]

For the 4:3 version of Kai, I seriously have no idea why 90% of the redraws were done at all.

My guess remains that most of the redraws were done for the 16:9 version and laziness led the 4:3 version to retain a load of them.

But a load of redraws were 16:9-only, so I really have no clue.

My guess is that the 16:9 redraws were closer to shot extensions to fill the wider frame, so if you cropped them back to 4:3 they'd just look like 4:3 redraws, and it was easier to keep them that way.

[WittyUsername]

The only thing I have to comment on for these episodes has to do with the infamous speech Goku makes when he’s a Super Saiyan. Obviously, we’ve all talked about how out of character it is for Goku to describe himself as “the hope of the universe” and “the light in the darkness”, but I’m not a big fan of the Superman comparisons people make with that. While Superman has had countless writers over the years, I can’t picture any specific incarnation of Superman that would go that over the top in describing himself as a champion of peace. That’s probably what FUNimation was going for, but it makes him seem like a Christ figure.

As far as the Japanese version of the speech is concerned, it’s obviously not as out of nowhere as FUNimation’s version, but it’s still a little weird. Goku doesn’t know or care about the Super Saiyan legend, so I don’t know if it makes sense for him to brag about becoming one. Also, where did Goku get the idea that having a pure heart was a prerequisite for the transformation? Vegeta never mentioned that.

[Robo4900]

My guess is that the 16:9 redraws were closer to shot extensions to fill the wider frame, so if you cropped them back to 4:3 they'd just look like 4:3 redraws, and it was easier to keep them that way.

The 16:9 redraws are almost exclusively shot extensions, yes.

[Planetnamek]

Phew finally got around to watching these, the first Eleventh Hour Single I ordered ended up lost in the mail so after 2 weeks(and getting a refund) of waiting I gave up and ordered a second copy.

Anyways I didn't have much of an issue with Goku's speech, sure it's different from the original, but yet Funimation keeps in the whole bit with Goku letting Freeze achieve maximum power so that he can know for sure who is truly the strongest and I was fully expecting them to change that.

One bit that i wish Funimation had changed was that whole "Namek will blow up in 5 minutes" thing, like Chris Psaros said it's far too much suspension of disbelief for the show to state something like that and then have the fight go on for another 7 episodes before the planet finally blows up, would've made more sense if it was changed to something like 60 minutes or so, that would've been less distracting. Even as a kid watching this I couldn't quite suspended my disbelief on that particular aspect.

[KBABZ]

One bit that i wish Funimation had changed was that whole "Namek will blow up in 5 minutes" thing, like Chris Psaros said it's far too much suspension of disbelief for the show to state something like that and then have the fight go on for another 7 episodes before the planet finally blows up, would've made more sense if it was changed to something like 60 minutes or so, that would've been less distracting. Even as a kid watching this I couldn't quite suspended my disbelief on that particular aspect.

Remember that this facet was inherited from the manga, which didn't suffer from any padding and filler and is much faster to read than to watch. Combined with the sheer speed the fights could be at that point it was at least somewhat believable, if still a stretch.

[Planetnamek]

One bit that i wish Funimation had changed was that whole "Namek will blow up in 5 minutes" thing, like Chris Psaros said it's far too much suspension of disbelief for the show to state something like that and then have the fight go on for another 7 episodes before the planet finally blows up, would've made more sense if it was changed to something like 60 minutes or so, that would've been less distracting. Even as a kid watching this I couldn't quite suspended my disbelief on that particular aspect.

Remember that this facet was inherited from the manga, which didn't suffer from any padding and filler and is much faster to read than to watch. Combined with the sheer speed the fights could be at that point it was at least somewhat believable, if still a stretch.

Yeah that does make sense, fortunately the brutal fight scenes made up for that unbelievable aspect.

[MasenkoHA]

Phew finally got around to watching these, the first Eleventh Hour Single I ordered ended up lost in the mail so after 2 weeks(and getting a refund) of waiting I gave up and ordered a second copy.

Are you collecting the singles as you go? I thought about doing that because the Dragon Boxes are too expensive (and some I think are just unavailable) but there’s no good release for episode 28-67 and there’s just so many damn singles.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

Phew finally got around to watching these, the first Eleventh Hour Single I ordered ended up lost in the mail so after 2 weeks(and getting a refund) of waiting I gave up and ordered a second copy.

Are you collecting the singles as you go? I thought about doing that because the Dragon Boxes are too expensive (and some I think are just unavailable) but there’s no good release for episode 28-67 and there’s just so many damn singles.

Wow, i sure got lucky with my Dragon Boxes and was able to snag most of them from between $50 to $80. Aside fron Box 1 which was the cheapest of them (Can you believe i stumbled upon it for $25 used at a movie store a few years ago, i was so overjoyed. XD) and Box 4 which was $250 and the priciest of the lot but still much less than what most of them are listed for on eBay now.

Guess you can say i just got really lucky and jumped on some great deals while they were hot.

[Planetnamek]

Phew finally got around to watching these, the first Eleventh Hour Single I ordered ended up lost in the mail so after 2 weeks(and getting a refund) of waiting I gave up and ordered a second copy.

Are you collecting the singles as you go? I thought about doing that because the Dragon Boxes are too expensive (and some I think are just unavailable) but there’s no good release for episode 28-67 and there’s just so many damn singles.

For the most part yes, though right now i'm all caught up on the singles(fortunately i'd already bought Trunks Prelude to Terror last year as I wanted to make sure I had the version that had five episodes on it as opposed to only three).

Yes there are quite a lot of them, which is why I list mine for sale on Ebay as soon as i'm done with watching them, because I simply don't have the space to keep them as my room is already quite crowded with games and movies as is.

Fortunately most of the singles aren't too pricey, though there are a few that are pricey on DVD(Transformation) and a few that are almost impossible to find on DVD(Clash, for that one I had to resort to the uncut VHS and that one cost me 20 bucks) i'm fortunate enough to have a VCR for cases where the DVD version is either hard to find or just too pricey to be worth it. Fortunately it seems as the singles go on they get easier to find and more affordable.