Kai Episode 101 (20 April 2014)

[Hujio]

General Discussion for Dragon Ball Kai episode 101, aired 20 April 2014

悟飯が先生！ビーデルの舞空術入門
Gohan ga Sensei! Bīderu no Bukūjutsu Nyūmon
Gohan's the Teacher! Videl's Introduction to Flight

PLEASE SAVE DISCUSSION FOR AFTER THE EPISODE HAS AIRED

[Ajay]

I...I actually really enjoyed that.

Perhaps due to the fact I really do enjoy that section a lot but that was really nicely done. Perhaps a little fast in terms of editing but nothing really struck me as feeling strange.

All of the tracks felt very nicely placed this time around, too. I guess that synth is slowly growing on me! Still anxiously waiting for the action to start so we hear what the dramatic tracks are like.

Blah blah, everything is green again and skin tones look like dead people. Kinda goes without saying now so it's not really worth covering.

Bring on next week!

[Ringworm128]

Like the new BGM even though it seemed to drag on in a few scenes, Nozawa is great as Goten.

I do not like Videl's new voice.

[Dogasu]

The cropping really bugged me a lot in this episode for some reason. The scene where Chichi finds out that Videl's family is rich stands out as being particularly bad.

Still not a fan of this new music :/

[dan2026]

Wow the Buu saga with a good pace makes all the difference.

[penguintruth]

It might just be my imagination, but it seemed like some scenes literally had footage sped up. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

They sure went fast through Videl's training. I kind of wished they hadn't, because though it was padded a little in Z, or so I recall, it seemed to come across more natural. Learning to control/manipulate ki is something that probably takes a lot of time and concentration for the uninitiated. But I guess the new pacing demanded otherwise.

I'm also wondering if that was really Aya Hirano again as Dende. It was hard to tell during the broadcast.

But other than Gohan's sickly skin color (get some more sun, Son), and some minor, aforementioned quibbles, I thought the episode was decent. I'll have to rewatch to be sure.

[Ajay]

Once again, here's an album of screenshots from the episode.

Enjoy!

[penguintruth]

The title screen with the Dragon Ball cosmos is great.

[Metalwario64]

It might just be my imagination, but it seemed like some scenes literally had footage sped up. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

I never said anything, but the initial trailer had some shots that looked sped up, like the shot where Majin Vegeta kneed Goku's stomach, then elbowed his back.

[spikevegeta]

Easily the best episode of this arc yet. If the rest of the pacing is like this, it will be very enjoyable.

[qjz123]

I really enjoyed this episode, looks like Goku arrives next episode so we should see Trunks vs Goten soon.

[Metalwario64]

Oi, this music placement still sucks. You have action music playing when Goten and Gohan are talking, and the fight music that starts when Trunks turns Super Saiyan continues even after Vegeta punches Trunks and he starts crying.

Plus, the editing was too sloppy at certain parts. One of the scenes where Gohan trained Videl had a part where it kept switching shots about 4 times in the span of 3 seconds.

[Blade]

More and more I'm slowly starting to tolerate the new score, on account of the fact that a lot of it has a sort of musackal quality, whereby it, quite literally, indifferently meanders along in the background without interacting a great deal with the ebb and flow of the narrative. That is, of course, with the exception of some of the more lurid numbers that occasionally, like an unwanted, garishly patterned room ornament, rear their ugly presence, sticking out in such glaring contrast to the subject matter they can't not be noticed.

And just to be clear, none of the above is meant even remotely positively or should be constituted as praise. A musical score that verges between having no presence and having a thoroughly unwanted one is neither worthwhile or of benefit to the spectacle.

[dan2026]

Wow some of you guys are critical to a fault.

I quite like a few of the new tracks.
Particularly the one where Gohan and Goten are training with the rocks.

[kei17]

The pacing is too rushed. The scene where Vegeta says that bargain sale joke needs more gaps between the lines.

[VegettoEX]

Wow some of you guys are critical to a fault.

Could you elaborate on what these personal faults are with the people you're responding to / about?

[dan2026]

Wow some of you guys are critical to a fault.

Could you elaborate on what these personal faults are with the people you're responding to / about?

'Personal faults'? I think you've misinterpreted my words.

I just meant that some of the comments such as 'none of the above is meant even remotely positively or should be constituted as praise.', seem especially harsh and hardly constructive.

[Blade]

Wow some of you guys are critical to a fault.

Could you elaborate on what these personal faults are with the people you're responding to / about?

'Personal faults'? I think you've misinterpreted my words.

I just meant that some of the comments such as 'none of the above is meant even remotely positively or should be constituted as praise.', seem especially harsh and hardly constructive.

Well, I explained why my opinions towards the score are so disparaging, so short of speaking to the composer himself on the matter, how do you suggest I be more constructive?

[worldmonsters]

Wow some of you guys are critical to a fault.

Could you elaborate on what these personal faults are with the people you're responding to / about?

'Personal faults'? I think you've misinterpreted my words.

I just meant that some of the comments such as 'none of the above is meant even remotely positively or should be constituted as praise.', seem especially harsh and hardly constructive.

I think several of the comments in this thread are properly constructive. When someone says there needs to be more space in between jokes or saying that the music shouldn't be playing constantly, or that the pacing is too rushed, then I see constructive criticism. Pacing is too rushed means that the people who are editing it should edit it slower.

Honestly, we're being harsh because it's preeeetty bad Especially the music. Some tracks are objectively just trash, bad instrumentation, simple compositions. Not all of the music is bad in my opinion, but we have the original Dragon Ball Kai, and the original Dragon Ball Z Buu saga to compare and it's just very much worse than both of those. Yes, we are harsh, because it's clearly obvious that this has been produced on a string budget. We're not mad that the people involved turned in a dismal performance, but that they're given a budget which only allows them to put in a dismal performance. It's cheap, it's rushed, it's not nearly as good as previous incarnations of this show.

I also see a lot of praise for the voice acting, the opening and ending theme, and even some love for the music, so I don't think we're being harsh and mean here. It's just not very good, even from an objective standpoint.

Also, none of the people working on the show are on this forum, and even if they were, how would you suggest they change it?

[dan2026]

Well personally I don't think all the music is trash, I fact I quite like a few of the themes.
Not all of them, granted, but for me the music feels intentionally oldschool. As if it was trying to capture the feel of the late 80s/early 90s period that Dragon Ball Z was originally made.

I'm not saying it succeeds completely, because it doesn't. But as already be pointed out the budget must be minuscule.
Toei is infamously tight fisted, just look at the One Piece anime. One Piece is the top selling manga of all time and the anime is made for peanuts...

I'm just happy that the Buu saga is even getting the Kai treatment. Because originally Toei was going to cheap out AGAIN and leave the series unfinished.