What was the point of Kai?

[dbboxkaifan]

But it's better than sitting through 291 episodes of DBZ, no matter what language it's in.

That's really debatable and I'd rather watch Dragon Ball Z again than Dragon Ball Kai 'cause to hear Kikuchi's score then Z has the superior one.

[Mewzard]

Not me. Between the cut down of filler and the awesome dub, Kai is my #1 way to watch this portion of the series. Japanese Sub Z is #2. The drawn out filler really hurts it, but I do enjoy the voice work and music. Wish the animation for both was better though.

[Hellspawn28]

I think a lot of the filler love lately is coming from nostalgia. I remember in the past like a decade ago, people wanted to see a filler-less DBZ anime closer to the manga. I never see people talk about how much they love the Naruto and Bleach fillers. If someone says "The filler in those shows suck" then that's a matter of opinion. I don't think most of the DBZ fillers were much better then the ones in Bleach, One Piece and Naruto in my opinion.

[Ajay]

I'll almost exclusively watch Kai over Z nowadays. Having 1-95's TV audio perfectly synced to my Blu-ray remuxes to retain Yamamoto's score is an important detail in that. The Kikuchi replacement score kills Kai for me and Yamamoto really does make that show feel incredibly refreshing. Yeah, I do miss Kikuchi and a lot of the original performances but it's a much better show in terms of pacing and direction. Seriously, if you have the time and patience, go mux the audio together, Yamamoto does a fantastic job that really makes the show outstanding.

The Boo arc of Kai is an entirely different story, however. My favourite Kikuchi tracks all come from that arc and Sumitomo is doing nothing to convert me in the same way Yamamoto did. The 'remaster' is pretty abysmal too so chances are, I'll be sticking to the Z version of that for future rewatches...unless the Blu-ray is great looking in which case it might be fun to try and put Kikuchi or Yamamoto back in there (If Utagoe doesn't let me down).

[Hellspawn28]

I find the fillers make the story worst since they do nothing to the plot and they are pretty much ignore later on. Remember when the Human Z Fighters beat the Ginyu Force on King Kai's Planet? That was total bullshit and made no sense.

[ABED]

I find the fillers make the story worst since they do nothing to the plot and they are pretty much ignore later on. Remember when the Human Z Fighters beat the Ginyu Force on King Kai's Planet? That was total bullshit and made no sense.

I think the Gohan filler in the Saiyan arc helps the story.

[penguintruth]

I find the fillers make the story worst since they do nothing to the plot and they are pretty much ignore later on. Remember when the Human Z Fighters beat the Ginyu Force on King Kai's Planet? That was total bullshit and made no sense.

I think the Gohan filler in the Saiyan arc helps the story.

It helps it, but it's far from necessary.

Though, tellingly, I don't own the first couple of volumes of DBZ Kai on DVD or Blu-Ray. I prefer to watch that opening arc in its Z form (I love that scene at the end of the orphan episode where Gohan makes it home, only to turn around and reaffirm his goal with Piccolo). I do, however, own some later volumes which take place during some of the more densely padded areas of the show.

[ABED]

I find the fillers make the story worst since they do nothing to the plot and they are pretty much ignore later on. Remember when the Human Z Fighters beat the Ginyu Force on King Kai's Planet? That was total bullshit and made no sense.

I think the Gohan filler in the Saiyan arc helps the story.

It helps it, but it's far from necessary.

Though, tellingly, I don't own the first couple of volumes of DBZ Kai on DVD or Blu-Ray. I prefer to watch that opening arc in its Z form (I love that scene at the end of the orphan episode where Gohan makes it home, only to turn around and reaffirm his goal with Piccolo). I do, however, own some later volumes which take place during some of the more densely padded areas of the show.

No, but it really helps considering that we don't know Gohan that well, and he's a major character. He goes from novice to a good fighter (not great but not terrible either) in the span of basically a chapter.

[Hellspawn28]

I find the fillers make the story worst since they do nothing to the plot and they are pretty much ignore later on. Remember when the Human Z Fighters beat the Ginyu Force on King Kai's Planet? That was total bullshit and made no sense.

I think the Gohan filler in the Saiyan arc helps the story.

Other then that and a few others, most of the filler in DBZ was bad and a waste of time. I found Goku falling off from Snake's Way pointless since it made Goku late to King Kai's Planet and did nothing to the story. He was still going to run late on Earth anyways if he didn't fall off.

[Cure Dragon 255]

And it kind of created a plot hole, if he could just jump to HFIL and get sent back to the beginning of Snake way why didnt Goku do that?

[ABED]

I find the fillers make the story worst since they do nothing to the plot and they are pretty much ignore later on. Remember when the Human Z Fighters beat the Ginyu Force on King Kai's Planet? That was total bullshit and made no sense.

I think the Gohan filler in the Saiyan arc helps the story.

Other then that and a few others, most of the filler in DBZ was bad and a waste of time. I found Goku falling off from Snake's Way pointless since it made Goku late to King Kai's Planet and did nothing to the story. He was still going to run late on Earth anyways if he didn't fall off.

I enjoyed the cutaways to Roshi where he was the wise old martial arts master who gave his two cents on the situation.

[Flame Dragon]

No filler.
Filler is a plague.

Therefore, Kai = Awesome.

Kai was not made with romantic interests, almost nothing is ever made with that mindset in today's age.
Itmwas to make easy money, but we gained from it, because now we finally have the anime the way it was supposed to be... wihout crappy filler.

Also, i enjoy the old artwork better than the new, so i'm happy they didn't reanimate the whole series. I love the remastered footage and i love the new English dub.

To me Kai is the definitive DBZ version!

[Looneygamemaster]

Filler is a plague.

No, bad filler is a plague. Most of DBZ's filler was bad, so cutting it out (even as roughly as Kai seems to have done) is probably for the better. But just having filler does not have to weaken a story.

[dbboxkaifan]

No filler.
Filler is a plague.

Therefore, Kai = Awesome.

Are you really claiming that Dragon Ball Kai is filler-less? Yeah, not true.

If Toei Animation had done it properly from start to finish we'd have consistent picture quality and music but no, it's one big mess and in that regard it just makes it okay.

Majin Boo's arc green tint is bad but the picture quality itself isn't that good either because it's supposed to be seen in HD.

[Hellspawn28]

Some fillers that they keep I didn't mind like King Vegeta. We know King Vegeta exist in the manga since Freeza mention him.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I liked a lot of the filler, to be honest. However, one of the pieces of filler that I was thrilled to see gone was the "Fake Namek" arc...which was, in my opinion, both completely unnecessary an utterly boring.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

No filler.
Filler is a plague.

Therefore, Kai = Awesome.

Are you really claiming that Dragon Ball Kai is filler-less? Yeah, not true.

If Toei Animation had done it properly from start to finish we'd have consistent picture quality and music but no, it's one big mess and in that regard it just makes it okay.

Majin Boo's arc green tint is bad but the picture quality itself isn't that good either because it's supposed to be seen in HD.

Agreed. 3 different scores for one show? That's just ridiculous. Also, I don't think DBZ filler is bad, my favourite saga's like garlic jr, other world tournament etc are all cut. If I wanted Z to follow the manga closely I'll just read the manga, problem solved.

I also read that the Japanese Dub isn't as good as original Z. So Kai's only saving grace is an updated English dub which up too cell saga was certainly better but I couldn't tell the difference between Z dub of Cell Saga and Kai except for the "darn. Damn. Hell. Bastard" and how silly Gohan sounds (Stephanie all the way) Not to mention the repetitive nature of the Kikuchi score truly dampened my experience of that particular saga.

[Flame Dragon]

No filler.
Filler is a plague.

Therefore, Kai = Awesome.

Are you really claiming that Dragon Ball Kai is filler-less? Yeah, not true.

If Toei Animation had done it properly from start to finish we'd have consistent picture quality and music but no, it's one big mess and in that regard it just makes it okay.

Majin Boo's arc green tint is bad but the picture quality itself isn't that good either because it's supposed to be seen in HD.

I don't mind some filler staying in, as long as they cut all the long stare matchs and useless filler episodes.
The filler that was actually good (extended fight scenes) made it's way in Kai, so i'm satisfied.

[Hellspawn28]

Say what you will about Filler but I enjoy it, and so cutting it to closely follow the manga wasn't a good idea imo. The filler is what set's the manga and anime apart. Gives us two different experience's of the show.

Filler in anime is added to keep the show going as fast as possible. Look at fillers in other anime TV shows like Naruto and Bleach.

[Basaku]

Dragon Ball Kai at best did not help at all, and at worst contributed to further merchandise sales downward spirals.

It still exposed a lot of new kids/people to the show worldwide. As for declining merchandise, if you look at Sentai/Kamen Rider merch & toys sales they don't really corelate to the 'mother' show's rating that well. Some of the lowest-rated toku shows produced biggest merchandise for Toei & Bandai. Some of the highest-rated sesons had the lowest merch sales. Some had equal, some reversed back again. It's more about the toys themselves, the tv shows serve as the 'base' advertisement that expose the merch to the "kid masses" but how high the sales will be will quite often depend on how good the actual merch & toy lines are. So maybe that was the problem? Dragon Ball Heroes merch has an attractive gimmick that's very "in" right now, was there anything like in toy/merch lines for 2009-2010?

In the end, high ratings undoubtely secure a lot new people Toei will be able to play the nostalgia card in a couple of years and that alone is a big positive.