Do you guys feel that Kai was a quick Cash-In?

[Mewzard]

They SHOULD have been able to do a newly animated version of the series, from the beginning, and made plenty of money. Unless Toei can't afford to make actual new anime. <_< A majority of the minor voice roles couldn't be too expensive to have for a short time. Personally, I think it's all just excuses from Toei to make the most amount of money from the most minimal amount of money and effort spent. "Get back all the old seiyuu left? Let some come back, get cheaper replacements for others." (then again, maybe I'm being still being too unforgiving of Toei because of how they utterly botched Saint Seiya's anime...)

But, there's no denying that at least some decisions were made to save money, not for a quality choice.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

They probably not lazy at all. Maybe they actually working hard but because of the budget, They can't go beyond that point. Remember, Kai is expensive.

How could remastering old footage (cut down footage, mind you) and occasionally animating new footage be overly expensive? Toei's really cheaped out with Kai.

Marketing, the veteran voice cast being more expensive than their original bit roles, the economy, producing new music, obtaining idol groups, anything like that?

I agree. AKB48 is popular in Japan you know, So there not actually cheap.

[xzero]

In Japan, most definitely. It's ironic that Funimation and its American audience get something more substantive out of Kai (a chance to do a high quality, respectable DBZ dub) than the original audience and studio get.

[Savage68]

I don't feel as though Toei's infamous corner-cutting makes a substantial difference here, in the grand scheme of things. DBK is objectively a better show than DBZ ever was.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

I don't feel as though Toei's infamous corner-cutting makes a substantial difference here, in the grand scheme of things. DBK is objectively a better show than DBZ ever was.

Explained why

[MR.Mark]

Whether or not Kai is a "cash in" should not factor into ones enjoyment of said show. Was it a case of marketing and timing to put Kai out? Absolutely, but the product itself has merit for "middle ground" fans like myself who love the story by Toriyama but found many flaws with the anime adaption.

There's abit of irony in the fandom now when I see some get so defensive in regards to Kai vs. DBZ. To me it mirrors dbz dub fans and there bias due to nostalgia. Basically I feel a lot of jpn DBZ fans are being biased due to nostalgia when criticizing Kai.

[penguintruth]

Well, wait. I absolutely find Kai to be an interesting and viable alternative to watching all of the overlong arcs of Dragon Ball Z and plan to purchase sets of it at a later time (mostly to support the improved English dub). I'm not so defensive of DBZ, but at the same time, I'm not entirely convinced Kai is superior. For every advantage it has over DBZ, it has a disadvantage, too.

[MR.Mark]

I don't find Kai superior in all ways, but I think we can all agree that Z is not better than Kai in any shape of form pacing wise. But other than the number 1 obvious flaw in the Z adaption, I'm still hard pressed to find reason to sit through more repeat viewings of Z when Kai exists. Yes, some of the acting at times is better in Z,and sometimes in Kai aswell and yes, at times I'm nostalgic for the old music in Z. Though opinions on the new music is subjective of course but it still fits the style of the series just fine imo.

Kai is not "dragonball z lite" it's a new adaption of the manga, and should be looked at that way.

[EnmaDaiou]

My point of view.

Well..
The main goal of any product is $$..
Unfortunately, sometimes people scarifies quality to get "easy" money.

I don't think this is the case of Kai.
What they did to Kai was never made before for a long animated series.
And they're spending a lot of money in it.

Dragon Ball is a great success in Japan and in the World.
Most of the old series don't have "news" as DB.

The original fans of Dragon Ball in Japan are around 30/40 yrs today.
They have to recycle fans.

To do it they could make a entire remake.
But there are risks of "brake" the image of original series.

They made Kai as we know.
With renewed soundtrack and re-dubbed.
AKB 48 and Hirano Aya clearly shows the fan renewal intention.

I don't think Kai is perfect.
But I like it very much.
And I like the cut of lot of fillers.

[Kingdom Heartless]

I don't really understand the concept of getting upset about stuff like that.

I mean, of course it's a cash-in. If they didn't think it would make money, they wouldn't make it.

At the same time, they may have thought making a show from scratch, bringing back all the old voice actors would cost them too much.

[penguintruth]

Kai is not "dragonball z lite" it's a new adaption of the manga, and should be looked at that way.

See, I disagree with this. Editing the existing show and touching it up here and there does not constitute a new adaptation of the manga.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is what it should be like if it's that. And it isn't. At all.

[Kingdom Heartless]

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is what it should be like if it's that. And it isn't. At all.

But the thing is, Dragon Ball didn't stray as far from the source as Fullmetal Alchemist did. It just had extra stuff, not completely different stuff.

[dan2026]

I don't feel as though Toei's infamous corner-cutting makes a substantial difference here, in the grand scheme of things. DBK is objectively a better show than DBZ ever was.

I agree, the original cast was re-recorded to replaced the old mono with stereo.
The series was given a vastly superior dub.
And most of filler was cut out to correct the awful pacing of the original.

Kai is the objectively better show IMO.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Marketing, the veteran voice cast being more expensive than their original bit roles, the economy, producing new music, obtaining idol groups, anything like that?

Toei wouldn't have been able to afford most of those things, if they hadn't cheaped out in regards to the animation of the series. If they had animated the series from scratch, I guarantee you that they wouldn't have been able to afford AKB48.

[Mewzard]

Marketing, the veteran voice cast being more expensive than their original bit roles, the economy, producing new music, obtaining idol groups, anything like that?

Toei wouldn't have been able to afford most of those things, if they hadn't cheaped out in regards to the animation of the series. If they had animated the series from scratch, I guarantee you that they wouldn't have been able to afford AKB48.

You know...I would have been willing to sacrifice a Pop Idol group doing an inappropriate ending song for the sake of brand new animation <_<.

[TheGreatness25]

I always thought this was a rushed project for the sole purpose of earning a quick buck. They could have left it alone, but since they chose to go ahead with it, the least they could have done was reanimate it. Now it is DBZ all chopped up. They are advertising things that fans in the US have been trying to avoid. Cut episodes, censoring, and (for TV broadcasts) wide screen. And they were advertising these things as if they were the greatest thing on Earth. Now Kai is like, "What if the old Pioneer dub lasted throughout the whole series and came in a Japanese audio track?"

Ironically the only thing that I am really excited about Kai for, and apparently a lot of fans are, is a redone dub. As the show itself strays from the original (TV series, not manga), the dub gets closer to it. It's a weird thing.

[Ahiru77]

At first I thought "Yes, of course.''....but then I watched an episode.

Then I thought.....no....it had to be done like this. It was destiny. (*_*)

I mean look at the openings. Don't they look a bit weird most of the time ?....they just can't draw them like they used to.

[AnimeMaakuo]

.

[dan2026]

made some fillers to stretch out the story and make it longer and better and much more epic.

No, DBZ was full of filler and padding because the anime was extremely close to the manga. Obviously they couldn't overtake it and DBZ had to be aired almost constantly.
They were basically always stalling for time and the show suffered as a result.

[Kendamu]

And yes, I like Z better. Why would I prefer the lazy, "re-cut" version with inferior voices and music?

It's not buried under mountains of shit filler.

I actually happen to like some of the filler. And for the filler that I don't like, I can just fast-forward through it.

Some people don't like reading subtitles. I don't like fast-forwarding through a show.