A Fresh Perspective on DBZ Kai

[G1GACANN0N]

Hi folks, just wanted to give my $0.02 on DBZ Kai. First I should let you know, I am BRAND NEW to Dragon Ball Z(or WAS, a few months ago). Back in 2000 I remember my friends losing their sh!t over DBZ but I was into Digimon at the time (which I still love), and I only recall seeing one episode myself -- the one where Goku fights Android 19 and Dr. Gero. For whatever reason I just never got into it and here we are 13 years later and now I can't stop watching. Not sure what brought this on but I was bored one weekend in October and decided to learn all I could about DBZ. I don't know if I'd call myself an expert yet but I feel pretty knowledgeable about the different dubs, home media releases, cancellations/fiascos, Kai, the music controversy, etc. Anyways I purchased Season One of Kai back in November 2012 and blew through it in about a week. I had seen Kai a couple times prior to this on CW's latest revision of their cartoon block -- The Vortexx. I instantly liked the intensity of the show, especially the music (don't know if it's coincidence but the first episode I watched was the one where Vegeta was fighting Android 13, the episode after the only one I had ever watched so many years ago!).

Now, from the research I did, I knew about Shunsuke Kikuchi and Kenji Yamamoto, the controversy, AND replacement score. However, I DIDN'T know which score was which. From watching on Vortexx, I instantly liked the music which I found out later to be Kikuchi's. Oddly enough, it was Yamamoto's score that came on my S1 Blu-ray of Kai. The Best Buy I went to had TONS of DBZ Stuff...multiple orange bricks, a dragon box, Kai DVD's/Blu-rays and TONS of the level sets. Everything seemed very old though, my Kai set had dust on it. I had originally planned to go with the level sets, but collecting 17-18 volumes @ $20/each (at least), coupled with the fact they were discountinued, led me to Kai. Like I said I blazed through the first season but $40 was a bit steep so I waited for the next two seasons to go on sale @ Amazon. After a few weeks the season sets went down to $22.49 each and I grabbed them. Since I'm in Canada, it takes a couple weeks to get stuff from Amazon.com While waiting I HAD to keep watching, so I found an online streaming site (needless to say I rewatched all these episodes when my Blu-rays arrived because of the jump in quality). While I don't mind Yamamoto's music, there's just something great about Kikuchi's, I love it (my S2/S3 sets had Kikuchi). It didn't take me more than a few weeks to get through to the end of season 3 and I had to pick up parts 7 & 8 (which were luckily on sale for $16 each at Amazon) and I watched them over Christmas.

In two months my journey with DBZ Kai had already reached it's end. I knew I had to keep watching though, so I actually purchased the orange brick of season 7 at the same time as the last two parts of Kai. Since I had never watched the original DBZ before, the dub was quite a shock to me after being spoiled with Kai. Not to mention I went from one of the better story arcs to likely the worst, the Saiyaman Saga. The first few episodes of Goku in afterlife were good, especially where he re-encounters the Ginyu Force, Freeza & Cell, but I didn't enjoy the rest with Gohan going to high school much. Again being spoiled with Kai probably had a HUGE effect on how I felt about this segment of the original show. Anyways I got through that and boy things sure started to get interesting at the end of season 7. I know have seasons 8 & 9 of the orange bricks on the way and have been watching again on a streaming site. I am up to where Buu has been introduced and catches up to Gohan and the Supreme Kai who were flying away. I have heard a lot of negative things about the orange bricks, but the main reason I chose them was the Bruce Faulconer music. I wanted to listen and compare it to Kikuchi's music badly. I gave it a few episodes but I was already in love with the Kikuchi score and switched back fairly quickly. I'm sure I'd feel MUCH different had I watched the show as a kid, I had zero nostalgia kicking in when listening to the Faulconer score.

In closing, I can't believe I missed out on this as a kid. I just turned 23 and feel a little weird watching this now but man is it awesome, for me the music is one of the best parts. Character wise my favorite is definitely Vegeta. I love his comebacks and personality. Piccolo is awesome too! Also my favorite opening to Kai is the Vic Mignogna one. The autotune on Schemmel's version just doesn't sound good to me. This is a cartoon, and INTENSE ACTION cartoon and Vic's version just fits that perfectly. I really hate the ending songs though, both of them. Dragon Soul gets you fired up, but the closing songs are just weak and feel completely out of place. I can't wait for more Kai, but in the mean time I have another 55+ episodes to go and then I plan on getting all the movies on Blu-ray as well!

[Majin Steve]

Very nice post, the story of Dragon Ball is a very touching one. I remember hating it at first as a child and then thinking, "no this is brilliant" and I must have bought every action figure Forbidden Planet could stock, countless packets of cards and the 42 tankebon a few years later. I actually found out what 'gay' meant from the chapter where Bulma tried to seduce Colonel Blue.

What I recommend now is watch as much as is left, go watch Dragon Ball, watch Dragon Ball GT. People whine and bitch about GT but don't let that deter you, it's a continuation of the same old stuff you loved, even if the author didn't make it. I remember the last episode of GT aired and I was watching it downstairs one night, alone before going to bed and in the last few seconds after the credits rolled I burst into tears.

I watched it (Ocean dubbed) Dragon Ball Z and then Dragon Ball and GT (or the latter two may have been switched round - not sure). And you're right, even today my love of DBZ has been reminded to me, aged 19. It'll always be with me and I truly hold it one of if not the greatest anime/manga ever created - and its effect on anime in the west is to its merit. DBZ was with me through everything, when bullied, Goku was there to entertain me with his wacky adventure - I almost wish I could relive it all again.

Vegeta is my favourite too. Watching him evolve so slowly from ruthless villain to hero who does actually care is great. His personality leads to some great comic relief too.

[Fizzer]

I'd definitely recommend watching Dragon Ball too. You probably know from your research that DBZ isn't a sequel to DB and DB isn't a prequel to DBZ, they're literally part of the same story. Episode 1 of DBZ is actually episode 154 of DB, in a way. Dragon Ball is really awesome, Goku's transition from an intellectually challenged 12 year old to a hero is great, Master Roshi is brilliant in DB and it also makes Piccolo's change of side at the start of Z much more meaningful.

GT is your decision, as it's considered "non-canon" to most people, and lots of people didn't like it, but personally I think it's really nice and the ending it gives to the series is a hundred times better than Z's ending. The last section of GT and the GT movie, "A Hero's Legacy", are some of the most emotional parts of the whole story.

I'm really glad you like the series, anyway

[Cure Dragon 255]

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[kei17]

Glad to know more people are introduced to Dragon Ball. I thought fans newly got into DB from Kai would generally prefer the modern-sounding Yamamoto score, but I'm surprised and glad that you like Kikuchi's better. If you are very interested in the Kikuchi score that you'd like to hear more of his pieces of music being used in the show, I recommend you to someday get DBZ DVDs of earlier episodes that include the original Japanese version with English subs. The Kikuchi version of Kai uses a very limited amount of his pieces because it was done crazily hastily after Yamamoto's plagiarism being found out by Toei. Actually, there are hundreds of the Kikuchi tracks that weren't used in Kai.