What was the point of Kai?

Discussion specifically regarding the "refreshed" TV version of DBZ created in Japan for its 20th anniversary, including individual threads for each episode.
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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by theoriginalbilis » Wed Apr 23, 2014 12:08 am

If memory serves, they didn't start really pushing DragonBall Heroes until after Kai ended.

I could be wrong, I only notice Heroes for the new snippets of animation we occasionally get.
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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Wed Apr 23, 2014 12:23 am

They had the carddass games before Heroes and I remember one of them had SSj3 Vegeta and SSj3 Broli. They got added in the first RB game to promote the cardass stuff. Heroes got more popular over time and I could agree the gimmicks in kids media started to grow bigger over the years. The Toei live action shows like Super Sentai and Kamen Rider make a lot of money in merchandise sales since 2008 with Kiva and Go-Onger due to gimmicks. Other companies like Tsuburaya Productions jump the bandwagon years later with Ultraman Ginga and the Monster Galaxy series. Now the Avengers anime seems to jump the collecting gimmick and I bet DB will likely soon as well.
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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by Basaku » Wed Apr 23, 2014 11:12 am

Hellspawn28 wrote:They had the carddass games before Heroes and I remember one of them had SSj3 Vegeta and SSj3 Broli. They got added in the first RB game to promote the cardass stuff. Heroes got more popular over time and I could agree the gimmicks in kids media started to grow bigger over the years. The Toei live action shows like Super Sentai and Kamen Rider make a lot of money in merchandise sales since 2008 with Kiva and Go-Onger due to gimmicks. Other companies like Tsuburaya Productions jump the bandwagon years later with Ultraman Ginga and the Monster Galaxy series. Now the Avengers anime seems to jump the collecting gimmick and I bet DB will likely soon as well.
And those gimmicks are featured prominently within the actual TV shows for Rider & Sentai. DB Kai couldn't obviously do that without basically making a new anime. And even featuring the gimmick prominently doesn't guarantee high toy & merch sales, Rider/Sentai sales still flip-flop all over the graphs.

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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Thu Apr 24, 2014 9:45 am

Kai does not have any TV gimmicks because it's based on a manga and AT never had any merchandise in mind when creating Dragon Ball. If Toei did their own TV show I would imagine we would see a gimmicky DB show similar to the new Avengers Anime. Besides Toei states that they care more about merchandise sales over ratings anyways.
Last edited by Hellspawn28 on Thu Apr 24, 2014 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by Basaku » Thu Apr 24, 2014 3:29 pm

Hellspawn28 wrote:Kai does not have any TV gimmicks because it's based on a manga and AT never had any merchandise in mind when creating Dragon Ball. If Toei did their own TV show I would imagine we would see a gimmicky DB show similar to the new Avengers anime.
Yes, that's what I just said :P Unless I flopped with english grammar :oops:

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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by DemonRin » Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:42 am

Kai, to me, really is the only way to watch the Z portion of the series in Animated form these days.

I hate HATE slow pacing in things. The One Piece anime becomes unbearable to me once you hit Thriller Bark, and to me DBZ is that almost all the way through. Namek is nigh unwatchable in Z to me now that I've seen how much better paced it is.

The fact that it has an English dub I can stand to watch is great too. I like watching the Kai dub these days because after years of watching Z subbed, having a GOOD dub is a novel experience I get a kick out of.

also, lol at people who are like "But they didn't take out ALL the filler".... of course they didn't, this is a recut, not reanimated. Some of the filler was simply too heavily ingrained into the plot to be able to easily remove it. You're never going to be completely rid of it without reanimating from scratch, but just the bit they removed is an amazing improvement, and I can't wait for more of Boo to come out. Getting the Boo arc where it DOESN'T take an ENTIRE episode for Son to go SS3 is gonna be nice.
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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by thekingfallsdown » Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:56 pm

Getting the Boo arc where it DOESN'T take an ENTIRE episode for Son to go SS3 is gonna be nice.
I LIKE THAT about dragonball z though. It makes it feel much more genuine. I don't mean the constant slowness of camera panning before fights, I just enjoy the screaming to be a little longer. I felt KAI cut to much of that out. Notably the Cell perfectform one.
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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by ABED » Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:44 am

I doesn't take an entire episode to turn Super Saiyan 3. I really wish people, especially fans, would stop using that hyperbole.
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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by Freeza Soldier #156 » Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:32 am

ABED wrote:I doesn't take an entire episode to turn Super Saiyan 3. I really wish people, especially fans, would stop using that hyperbole.
Very much agreed. The whole Super Saiyan 3 transformation sequence took 4 or 5 minutes, tops. Hardly an entire episode.

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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by coola » Thu May 01, 2014 7:33 am

It makes me wonder, if Kai really tanked merchandise, then why Toei decided to air Buu Saga in Japan? Wouldn`t it be better, to just quietly finish it, release on DVD/Blu-ray, and move on to other project? It`s not like Kai would be only anime, whose final episodes would be created mainly for international market in mind (Kaitetsu Zorro)
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Re: What was the point of Kai?

Post by Flame Dragon » Thu May 01, 2014 7:39 am

coola wrote:It makes me wonder, if Kai really tanked merchandise, then why Toei decided to air Buu Saga in Japan? Wouldn`t it be better, to just quietly finish it, release on DVD/Blu-ray, and move on to other project? It`s not like Kai would be only anime, whose final episodes would be created mainly for international market in mind (Kaitetsu Zorro)
Because it's airing only to fill in time because Toriko failed miserably. Chances are, if the Toriko anime didn't suck ass and was more popular, Kai would've never aired.

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