DragonBall Z Kai - Cable TV Version (NickToons)

[Cipher]

Oh, it's definitely much, much better than the Saban version. It features some similarly placed edits because it's confined to the same set of standards, but as you said, they don't stand out or significantly alter the show. It's a much classier do, even if they do screw up some times. It's obvious that this is all meant to be ancillary to the uncut home release anyway, so I don't see the need for hubbub if Piccolo's blood switches on and off.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Agreed, and the technology they use for editing has obviously improved as well.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Oh, it's definitely much, much better than the Saban version.

I used to think so, but now I'm starting to see scenes cut that were in the 1996 version. It's true they say variations of "die", but it's almost like it's at the cost of some strange edits. I'm not saying the Saban version is better, but I'm not saying this version is great either. I would say the best TV version (edit wise) ever was the Toonami version.

[Cipher]

I would say the best TV version (edit wise) ever was the Toonami version.

No doubt about that. But it was operating on a completely different set of standards.

For what it is, Kai's TV cut is much more mature and tactfully handled than Saban's DBZ.

[MetalMadness]

Oh man, I just watched episode 14 and 15 on Nicktoons, and there are a ridiculous amount of cuts and edits

Hell, that's just with footage, we won't even find out the dialogue edits until September

[Taku128]

The uncut one. Son's not really the kind to spout a whole bunch of cursing in one go. It just.. looks really weird coming out of him to me, even given the circumstances.

Actually, Japanese Son is... kinda vulgar at times. He doesn't cuss up a storm, but he's not exactly cultured as far as character go. He's a good, pure hearted guy, but he still uses harsh language a lot in the Japanese version.

To me, this is MORE in character!

Throwing around a few curses, sure, but I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say half of the swears that have been edited out of the TV version have come from Goku's mouth. I'm not familiar with the Z cartoon, and it's been a while since I read the comic, but I don't remember him swearing significantly more then any other character.

[Taku128]

The uncut one. Son's not really the kind to spout a whole bunch of cursing in one go. It just.. looks really weird coming out of him to me, even given the circumstances.

Actually, Japanese Son is... kinda vulgar at times. He doesn't cuss up a storm, but he's not exactly cultured as far as character go. He's a good, pure hearted guy, but he still uses harsh language a lot in the Japanese version.

To me, this is MORE in character!

Throwing around a few curses, sure, but I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say half of the swears that have been edited out of the TV version have come from Goku's mouth. I'm not familiar with the Z cartoon, and it's been a while since I read the comic, but I don't remember him swearing significantly more then any other character.

EDIT: Took a tally every time someone swore in an episode, figured others would be interested in what I found.

Episode 1

Raditz: Hell (expression) - 1

Episode 2

Raditz: Hell (expression) - 1, Damn - 1
Goku: Damn - 1,

Episode 3

Goku: Damn - 1
Raditz: Hell (expression/location) - 2

Piccolo: Damn - 1

Episode 4

Enma: Hell (location) - 2
Oni: Hell (location) - 1

Episode 5

Goku: Hell (location) - 1, Crap - 1

Episode 6

Yamcha: Hell (expression/location) - 1
Goku: Damn - 2

Episode 7

Goku: Damn - 3

Episode 8

Tenshinhan: Damn - 1

Episode 9

Kuririn: Damn - 1
Nappa: Hell (expression) - 1

Episode 10

Nappa: Hell (location) - 1
Tenshinhan: Bastard - 1

Episode 11

Nappa: Hell (expression) - 1, Son of a... - 1, Bastard - 1
Kuririn: Damn - 2
Piccolo: Damn - 2

Episode 12

Piccolo: Damn - 1
Goku: Bastard - 1, Damn - 1
Nappa: Damn - 1, Bastard - 1

Total swears

Yamcha: 1
Enma: 2 counting uses of Hell as a proper noun, 0 without
Tenshinhan: 2
Kuririn: 3
Piccolo: 4
Raditz: 5
Nappa: 7 counting uses of Hell as a proper noun, 6 without or if Son of a... is not counted as a swear, 5 if you don't count the use of Hell as a proper noun or Son of a...
Goku: 11 counting uses of Hell as a proper noun, 10 without

Use per character

Yamcha: Hell - 1
Enma: Hell - 2 (location)
Tenshinhan: Damn - 1, Bastard - 1
Kuririn: Damn - 3
Piccolo: Damn - 4
Raditz: Hell - 4, Damn - 1
Nappa: Hell - 3 (1 location), Bastard - 2, Damn - 1, Son of a... - 1
Goku: Damn - 8, Hell - 1 (location), Crap - 1, Bastard - 1

If you don't include Son of a... or any time Hell is referred to solely as a location Goku is responsible for 10 out of 30 swears, one third of all of the swearing in Kai! And that's divided among seven characters!

[Mewzard]

They don't swear in Japanese, they use rude language. They can say a perfectly normal thing, but say it in a rude way. But, swearing is what we usually substitute it with due to swearing having more impact than an accurate translation (though, they don't seem to use fun rude language often, like "Your mother is a dog" or "I spit at your cooking" *those could be considered rude language in English*)

[KaiserNeko]

Actually, Japanese Son is... kinda vulgar at times. He doesn't cuss up a storm, but he's not exactly cultured as far as character go. He's a good, pure hearted guy, but he still uses harsh language a lot in the Japanese version.

To me, this is MORE in character!

Throwing around a few curses, sure, but I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say half of the swears that have been edited out of the TV version have come from Goku's mouth. I'm not familiar with the Z cartoon, and it's been a while since I read the comic, but I don't remember him swearing significantly more then any other character.

Well, no, Goku doesn't "curse" much more than any other character because, like Mewzard said, they don't have real swear words in Japanese. But how he talks and what he says comes off as tougher and somewhat ruder.

Not to mention, Damn is one of the softest swear words people still CONSIDER swear words.

[Puto]

If you don't include Son of a... or any time Hell is referred to solely as a location Goku is responsible for 10 out of 30 swears, one third of all of the swearing in Kai! And that's divided among seven characters!

True, but Gokû is the main character of the show. He has more dialogue than anyone else, so logically he has more swearing than anyone else too because he's the one who talks the most. A more accurate comparison would be to check the percentage of words used by a character that are swearing (i.e. number_of_swears/number_of_words), but that'd probably be ridiculously tedious work.

[MetalMadness]

Episode 9

Kuririn: Damn - 1
Nappa: Hell (expression) - 1

Nice job with the count, but you missed one, in Episode 9 Tien says "Damn it" after Nappa blows up the city.

[Amigo Ten]

To say Goku swears a lot is to say "damn" is a swear word, and quite frankly I've never thought of it as such. I know standards vary and such, but "damn" is about tame as you can get without it sounding forced. None of it has come off as out of character.

[Taku128]

Episode 9

Kuririn: Damn - 1
Nappa: Hell (expression) - 1

Nice job with the count, but you missed one, in Episode 9 Tenshinhan says "Damn it" after Nappa blows up the city.

Really? Tanooki doesn't mention it in his comparison, which is what I used to count.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Really? Tanooki doesn't mention it in his comparison, which is what I used to count.

Hmm, I went back and looked and I know I did this scene. I don't usually miss things like this being I watch the episode about 5 times in total, and one time at the same time. Lemme see if it's sitting in my photobucket and I forgot to add it to the post...

[Big Momma]

To say Goku swears a lot is to say "damn" is a swear word, and quite frankly I've never thought of it as such. I know standards vary and such, but "damn" is about tame as you can get without it sounding forced. None of it has come off as out of character.

I dunno. I know that when me and my friends were kids, we'd get a paddle to the hind end if we ever said that word. Actually, I'm sure if I ever said it to/around my parents now, I'd get a scolding.

It is technically a curse word, but like you said, I suppose it just varies from person to person/family to family, on if it's severe/acceptable enough.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Yea, I don't think "damn" is really a curse word, but it's a word so harsh they choose not to use it in kids shows, which is why people probably consider it a curse word. But like it was said before, it can go either way I guess.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

"The Power of the Kaio-Ken! Goku vs. Vegeta!"





The first edit is again, a strange one. After Goku used the Kaio-Ken to save Gohan and Krillin from Nappa, we have that very famous scene of Goku holding Nappa up with one hand. This was cut! Why?



Goku tosses Nappa at Vegeta's feet and tells them to go home. Vegeta grabs Nappa by the hand and hurls him into the sky. He powers up and says...



After Nappa is killed, Krillin says...



The next edit doesn't come for sometime later. Eventually Goku and Vegeta fly off to some barren area and the battle begins. After a few punches are thrown Goku and Vegeta fly back on the rocks and start talking to each other again. That scene where we see Goku and Vegeta punching each other as they fly higher and higher is gone, so is the part when Vegeta hits Goku with a barrage of punches, Vegeta kicking Goku in the stomach also gone, and so is the scene where Vegeta knocks Goku on the top of the head. All gone. These attacks were all in the same scene, they happen right after another and they just decided to take out that whole chunk of it.



Goku and Vegeta are now standing back on top of the rocks, Vegeta tells Goku he wants to see the power he had when fighting Nappa. Goku goes Kaio-Ken and punches Vegeta and we get a flash screen. So this scene...



...was replaced with this screen...



After that, Vegeta flies around behind Goku and surprises him with a kick. Another flash screen appears. Now, this scene...



...is replaced with this screen (it's the same flash screen just flipped)...



Now, while in Kaio-Ken mode, Goku has the upper hand. The scene of Goku giving Vegeta a barrage of punches and a kick were cut out...



Vegeta flies back and tells Goku those attacks were pretty much nothing to him. At this point Vegeta has blood on this mouth which is edited out in every scene up until Vegeta does his big power up, after that, there is no blood on his face in both versions...





A few scenes later Vegeta begins his big power up. After he's done, he starts fighting Goku again. An odd edit here. Vegeta kicks Goku from behind and we get a flash screen. (Sorry about the buffer message).

The actual hit comes from behind, there is no on-screen hit contact, so why even edit this...



Flash screen used...



Vegeta throws a fireball at Goku burning off part of his gi. When Goku lands on the rock below we see Goku's injury's. Goku says...





The episode ends soon after this.

Tidbits!

So for this tidbit section I wanted to point out why some things were edited and some where not. It didn't go that well when I started writing . I think I have the reason why certain variations of the word "die" is edited in some places but not other places, though.

Other then that, I have no idea what was up with the other edits. So, I'll just give you, what I think the reason behind the whole "die" issue is...

I think the only time they edit it out or change it, is when one character tells another that they're straight up going to kill them or if it can be seen as a threat. In this episode Vegeta told Goku "let me show you something before you die". It wasn't edited out and I think it was because it wasn't really saying "I (Vegeta) am going to do an (insert attack name here) and it's going to kill you". If he said something like "my (insert attack name here) is going to Kill you" then that would be edited out because it's specific in saying this character is going to kill this character. Also you can't just tell a character to die, for whatever reason, you just can't.

Examples of this:

Here Piccolo's line was changed because he was saying he would kill Raditz...



While here, Goku is just saying he'd die with no specifics on how he would die....



Here Raditz says Goku is going to die, but it's edited because it's specific in saying he would die because he disgraced the Saiyan race...



This just seems to fall into the threat catagory...



So that's my take on it. I don't know if I'm right but, with the examples shown though it does seem to swing that way. Now if I could only figure out why they do 90% of the other things they do...

Episode 14 coming in September!

[Goku100xKamehameha]

It's must be boring watching that!

[Metalwario64]

Nearly every punch and kick has been removed, which makes for a very... action-less martial arts anime... I truly only plan on watching these solely for the vocal performances and scripts. I can't wait for the next DVD...

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

It's must be boring watch that!

No shit, they cut out or edit most of the action.