DragonBall Z Kai - Cable TV Version (NickToons)

[Herms]

I don't know why, but it amuses me that they keep the Japanese-style two sentence episode titles even for the TV broadcast. I guess I half expected them to change the titles to things like "Vegeta's Revenge" and whatnot.

While we often use the word 'man' to mean 'male', it obviously refers to a human being, which Freeza and his cohorts are not.

Actually, in DB "human" is used to refer to humanoid aliens too, so if you want to blame someone, blame Toriyama.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Hey guys, so I'm trying out this new format. When comparing the uncut version to the TV version, I'm going to be putting them in the same image. I think it looks neater and will condense some space.

The Scheme is Shattered! Vegeta Strikes Back at Zarbon!



The first dialogue edit comes within seconds of the beginning of the episode. It's from Appule. Frustrated with the amount of pressure on him to heal Vegeta he says...



But it's all for nothing because he's killed just one scene later. Vegeta puts his boot on dead Appule's head and the camera starts to pan up. It's shortened in the TV version--there is no pan up--it starts with the camera on Vegeta's face.



Meanwhile, Gohan is going after the ball Vegeta left in the water near the Namekian village. When Gohan gets there, there are dead Namekians everywhere. There are a few close up pans of the dead bodies, those where the ones that were cut...



Odd edit here. As Gohan is talking about how horrible Vegeta is, the TV version is flipped! I don't know the reason for this but, in one version he's looking left, in another version he's looking right. What's up with that?!



Back at Freeza's ship, Zarbon starts looking for Vegeta...



As Vegeta thinks of a plan to get the five Dragon Balls out of the ship, he lets out a...



Vegeta decides to create a diversion and yells to Zarbon and Freeza. Zarbon, having heard him, says...



As Vegeta blast a hole in the ship Zarbon just happened to be flying right over it. As Zarbon flies back he yells...



After Vegeta gets away, Freeza has some words with Zarbon... some of those words are edited...



Later, Vegeta collects his thoughts on land. He goes on about how awesome he is and how pissed Freeza must be right now. At some point he says...



If you were wondering how they were able to fit less words in than the uncut version, it's because at some point the camera is off Vegeta so, there are no word flaps to match after a certain point.

Krillin zooms by with a Dragon Ball and Vegeta gives chase. Krillin lands near Bulma and scares her, she yells...



Unknowingly to Vegeta, Zarbon was following him. The two eventually square off, the following were edited from their fight...

A punch to Vegeta's face:



A line from Zarbon after getting dirt thrown in his face:



A face bash from Vegeta:



A scene with a barrage of punches was shortened by one second:



Another one of Zarbon's lines:



A line from Vegeta:



Some blood on Zarbon's face:



Another barrage of punches, this time the cut was a little bit longer:



Until finally, we get to that famous scene where Vegeta punches a hole in Zarbon. The actual punch was cut in the TV version though...



The blood dripping out of the hole is edited, I think they should have just cut this part, it's a little odd just looking at his feet not knowing blood is coming out...



The next shot was Vegeta with his fist inside Zarbon's stomach, this was cut in the TV version...



After a few words are exchanged and then Vegeta blast Zarbon. This was shortened and we only see about a second of it. Even though I think shortening it would have been fine, they also, oddly added a flash edit.



As Zarbon flies back we see a very sinister looking Vegeta, the blood on his hands was edited...



Then without warning or a narration, the episode ends. There is one more edit during the next episode preview. One of Krillin's lines were altered slightly...

[Mewzard]

I don't know why, but it amuses me that they keep the Japanese-style two sentence episode titles even for the TV broadcast. I guess I half expected them to change the titles to things like "Vegeta's Revenge" and whatnot.

While we often use the word 'man' to mean 'male', it obviously refers to a human being, which Freeza and his cohorts are not.

Actually, in DB "human" is used to refer to humanoid aliens too, so if you want to blame someone, blame Toriyama.

So, they use man and human for humanoid? I take it they use Earthling to refer to those who live there?

And is that the first time an episode preview was edited? I can't recall any other instances of it.

[PuppetDoctor]

I prefer the new format since it condenses things and also its easier to see them side by side. Keep up the good work.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, I too like the new format. I run a pretty big resolution so I can see the two pictures side-by-side quite well. If you decide to redo the previous guides as such...well, I pity the amount of work you'd have to do. :p

[Coola Yagami]

I AM THE SUPER SAIYAN SON GOKU!!!

[Soul]

I know its not really an edit nor has Tanooki posted it (obviously)
But I found it very interesting that they left the blood when Freeza killed Krillin.

[Tsukento]

I know its not really an edit nor has Tanooki posted it (obviously)
But I found it very interesting that they left the blood when Freeza killed Krillin.

What blood? There wasn't anything but an explosion.

[Soul]

I always assumed when Freeza exploded Krillin, when you seen the smoke from the blast you see a thing of red in it as well, as if dripping. I assumed it was blood..

[gmster]

I fully expect CW to recolor the explosion and add sparkles.

[sailorspazz]

They've got a standard to conform to, but I've seen enough of a pattern in most of FUNi's edited series' compared to series' by other companies (like VIZ's Naruto) to think it's accurate saying they do a fair amount of 'play it safe' editing.

That's the feeling I've gotten from watching edited anime over the years, that some companies just decide to play it safer than they need to. Many years ago, when I was doing some edit comparisons for Gundam Wing, I was confused about how much more edited it seemed in comparison to the other shows that were airing in the very same Toonami programming block (at the time, I believe, the other shows were Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, and Ronin Warriors). Some of the shows allowed blood, some didn't. Some allowed talk of death and killing, some didn't (Gundam Wing didn't allow either of those things, yet allowed the characters to say 'crap' a few times....WTF?) Why was it that four different shows, all airing in the same two hour time block, all seemed to be edited to different standards? I figured that the network must just give the companies a general list of things that they would want censored, and it's up to the companies to decide how far they're going to go with the censorship. Some, like Funimation's Kai, might end up being edited more than necessary just to be safe, since they don't want to be told by the network to go back and censor more. Some companies might try to do minimal censoring, to see if the network will let it fly.

Now, bringing it back to why shows like Avatar seem to get away with more, I imagine it has something to do with the fact that it was a show being made for Nickelodeon. Since Nickelodeon was involved in the production, it was probably easier for the creators to ask if they could get away with certain things, while with an edited anime, the companies seem to find it easier just to err on the side of caution and censor things that might or might not be acceptable, rather than asking the network to see if they'll let them keep it less edited.

[MetroidJunkie]

Sailor Moon was pretty confusing with its edits in general. They cut out everyone dying at the end of season 1, yet Diamond admits Sapphire and Emerald are dead by declaring that he will "avenge" their "death", using those words precisely. You can even see Diamond getting impaled by the Doom Phantom and, as he's holding his injury, you can see blood. Later on, death is censored to "destroy" when they're begging Wicked Lady, despite the words "not survive" being used right before.

[Tsukento]

Sailor Moon was pretty confusing with its edits in general. They cut out everyone dying at the end of season 1, yet Diamond admits Sapphire and Emerald are dead by declaring that he will "avenge" their "death", using those words precisely. You can even see Diamond getting impaled by the Doom Phantom and, as he's holding his injury, you can see blood. Later on, death is censored to "destroy" when they're begging Wicked Lady, despite the words "not survive" being used right before.

Two different dubbing groups and two different broadcasts.

Season 1 aired on syndication and was dubbed by DiC. By the later portion that you mention, it was exclusively on Cartoon Network (cable) and was being dubbed by Cloverway. Though it's funny, because DiC had edited some episodes a certain way and then went back to edit out a bit more (or would oddly leave scenes in Sailor Says that were edited out in the episodes, like the dead Sailors talking to Usagi).

[UristtheGreat]

I wonder if Trunks killing Freeza will be edited. The look of Freeza when he's shown split in half looks like something from SpongeBob.

[Tsukento]

I wonder if Trunks killing Freeza will be edited. The look of Freeza when he's shown split in half looks like something from SpongeBob.

My guess is it'll be edited exactly the same way it was edited for Z on Toonami; chop out all scenes of Freeza split in half, show the reaction shots, skip out the close up of Freeza's chopped bits when Trunks cuts him and go straight to the energy blast scene.

[Garlic]

Thanks for these Tanooki! I appriciate it!

[Tanooki Kuribo]

A Touch-and-Go Situation! Gohan, Protect the Four-Star Ball!



As the episode begins, Vegeta has just defeated Zarbon and now has his sights on Krillin's DragonBall. Krillin, despite promising the eldest Namek he wouldn't, just hands over the DragonBall to Vegeta. After, when Bulma asks Krillin why he just did that, he replies...



Meanwhile, Gohan comes across Vegeta while coming back from stealing the DragonBall Vegeta hid in the lake. When Gohan see's the ball Vegeta has he just thinks the worst...



Vegeta explains that he was so happy that he's collected all 7 DragonBalls, he let them live...



Vegeta, being the typical bad guy, knees Gohan in the stomach as a message for his dad. The initial hit was flash edited along with 4 seconds of the slow motion reaction shot was cut out.





As Gohan falls to the floor, the TV version is a bit altered. In the Uncut version Vegeta has his foot on top of Gohans head. In the TV version they would loop a shot of Gohan that was taken right before Vegeta's foot came into the frame. They would go back and forth to this shot, and a close up of Vegeta talking so that all shots of Vegeta's foot were omitted.



Meanwhile, Krillin is worried about the situation, knowing Vegeta is going to be pissed when he finds out Gohan stole his DragonBall from him.



Elsewhere, Vegeta dives in the lake retrieve the last DragonBall. When he can't find it, he immediately starts putting everything together...





With that, Vegeta rushes off...



He quickly makes it back to where he met up with Krillin. Finding no one, Vegeta says...



Sometime later, Vegeta waits. He realizes if Krillin and Gohan want to make a wish, they'd need his DragonBalls as well...





Freeza starts blowing off steam by shooting energy balls aimlessly throughout Namek. Vegeta starts to plan his attack against Freeza.



As Krillin and Gohan fly to see the eldest Namekian, they talk about the current situation. Before Krillin starts talking he lets out a...



Soon after, the episode comes to a close.

[Mewzard]

So mostly just Damnits and Bastards being censored, with the occasional violence against children bit changed. Par for the course, then.

While we know the scripts were close...did the dialog sound like they just cut words out? Or were the lines different takes altogether? And, if so, were there any takes that stuck out as being better than their alternate versions?

[KaiserNeko]

So mostly just Damnits and Bastards being censored, with the occasional violence against children bit changed. Par for the course, then.

While we know the scripts were close...did the dialog sound like they just cut words out? Or were the lines different takes altogether? And, if so, were there any takes that stuck out as being better than their alternate versions?

I can tell you for a fact that they usually re-record the whole lines, unless it happens to just be separated by a period.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Is it just me, or are they sort of overusing the profanity. It seems forced and there are several instances where it doesn't need to be used.