Is Kai still worth it really?

[TVfan721]

I haven't really started with Kai yet and now with the fact that it ended only after the Cell arc and now this music issue, is there any point in getting into it? What Chris Psaros said in his interview is true, the fact that it's incomplete makes the whole thing kinda useless doesn't it?

[Savage68]

No. Its story arcs are all much less decompressed than Z's, so if you want to watch Kai for the only real selling point it has going for it, you'll still want to watch what you can.

[GotenDaisuki]

Well, I see it like this.

Kai is for fans who want a faster-going story that has the same meaning as Z. I believe Kai is the only good English dub (or not, on some rare occasions) and fans who want a good dub, Japanese and English, of the series should buy Kai. Sure, the music has undergone a lot of problems. But, starting with Part 5, the Shunsuke Kikuchi score has undergone good music placement, and the Saiya-jin/Namek arcs with terrible Kikuchi music placement will not be re-released with that score (as far as we know). However, regardless, we still get an inconsistent release of the series. Kai, in a nutshell, was a fucked-up re-hash of old footage and new sound (to some extent) of an old, excellent series.

Z, in my opinion, is getting a very good release in America. Those being the Dragon Boxes. Now, they have their problems too, such as the ending theme occurring before the next-episode-previews and the original sound source not being used (as they were supposedly thrown away after the initial airing of each corresponding episode on television back in the TV era of the series in Japan). The filler can also be a problem, but not so much either, as you can merely skip the filler now'a'days. The music isn't a problem. Shunsuke Kukuchi's score is used for the entire series and the placement is amazing, for the most part. However, the dub is terrible. At least you can watch it with the Japanese score.

So, dub-wise and speed-wise, choose Kai. For everything else, choose Z.

[Rocketman]

If the thought of being buried in human shit for all eternity really turns you on, then choose Z over Kai.

[Travis Touchdown]

I think it is.

I've YET to receive my PRE-ORDERED copy of Part 5... so I can't really speak on how the old score stands in Kai, but I still think it's a good buy. The dub is fantastic, and it is so satisfying to hear the characters swear from time to time. The best thing about the dub is that it's consistent from beginning to end, where as with the Z dub, you have a great dub up until Goku arrives on Namek, then it nosedives and slowly gets better until it's good again by the Buu Saga.

Ending it at Cell doesn't feel incomplete to me. Kai is presented as a stand alone show. It begins with Goku's birth so it only seems fitting that it ends with his death. I always liked the Cell Saga's ending where Goku dies a hero with his son picking up where he left off. Much better than him abandoning his family to train some random kid for his own selfish desire that doesn't even really make sense.

The biggest draw for me is the episode count. As much as I love the Dragon Ball Z anime, 291 episodes is a lot. While I do believe I'll go back some day and watch it when I have a lot of free time, I see myself returning to Kai quite often in the future when I want my Z fix. 98 episodes is just much more doable than 291. Nearly 200 episodes shorter. I totally dig that. It always feels like the story is moving forward, at least to me. Z felt like the story came to a screeching halt at times and was just boring. Gohan and the Robot, Fake Namek, Frieza's recap, & Garlic Jr. specifically.

But I digress. To each their own.

[ohaimynameiserik]

If the thought of being buried in human shit for all eternity really turns you on, then choose Z over Kai.

This made me laugh out loud quite a bit.

If you're going to watch the "Z" section of the Dragon Ball story in English, watch Kai. There is no good excuse to go with Z.

In the show's native tongue, however, it's personal preference. I'd say the majority rules that Z is the overall superior anime if we're going by the original Japanese version.

[jjgp1112]

I'm starting to ask myself this a lot lately. I've come to vastly prefer Yamamoto's score over Kikuchi's and after this whole mess with the score and shit, I don't think I'll pick up another set. Oh well, I always have the Z season sets/Dragon Box if I ever want to watch the Z portion of the story.

[TVfan721]

Here's another question, am I better off now just waiting until Kai is released as a whole box set, since when that happens, there will be the same score (the old one) used for the entire series and there will at least be consistency? I'm really not familar with this new score that was taken out.

[Chuquita]

It would still be worth it if you don't like filler, don't like the Buu arc, and prefer to watch the show dubbed in English. Also the voice replacements (in both the English and Japanese versions) would have to not be a big deal for you. Then there's the whole music issue, but that feels almost like another topic itself. @_@

I've only seen bits and pieces of Kai in English, but from what I have seen I can definitely say it's well dubbed. The voice acting is much more solid because the actors have more experience under their belts this time around.


For me personally; I mostly watch in Japanese and I don't blow through episodes too quickly so I've been buying the Dragon Boxes and watching them at a leisurely pace. As long as I'm able to buy the remaining 4 boxes I don't have before they go out of print, I'll be fine.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Kai is only worth it if you're interested in watching a faithful English dub of DBZ...because DBZ was not really faithfully-adapted the last time around. This was HUGE for me, and so my interest in Kai is almost exclusively related to the English dub.

However, if you prefer the Japanese version, I can't think of any reason that you'd want Kai. The Japanese actors just aren't as enthusiastic in their performances this time around (in a "been there, done that" kind of way), and with the Yamamoto score removed (one of the few genuinely new things about Kai), it ultimately ended up being a pretty pointless production on the Japanese end.

That's a longer way of saying this...anybody who prefers watching the Dragon Ball franchise in Japanese, get the Dragon Boxes. Those who prefer watching the Dragon Ball franchise in English, ask which means more: nostalgia or a faithful representation of the original show. If it's the former, get the orange bricks (since those who watch it for nostalgia will most likely want to hear Faulconer's music anyway), and if it's the latter, get the Kai volumes/box sets.

[TripleRach]

I still think Kai sucks. I have no incentive to watch the manga in color with inferior acting and music. Especially not when 56% of the manga's story is missing. Between the cancellation and music fiasco, Kai is just a bad joke to me at this point.

Read the manga. Watch DB and DBZ.

(Also, I think the thing that bothers me most about Kai is that it had 40 episodes of Gohan in the opening, standing on a pole, wearing a cape... and NOT DANCING.)

[thedarkuniter]

Its 50/50 for me. I do enjoy original Z if I feel like watching fillers, hearing the original Japanese audio or if I'm in a mood for old school Dragon Ball Z. For Kai, I watch it for the new Funimation dub which totally makes Kai a lot better than on the Japanese end, especially now that its containing Kikuchi score, it serves as a replacement for the original dub with Kikuchi. I also watch Kai for casual viewings if I don't feel like fillers and want to get straight to the point.

[SolarBlade52]

I, personally, think that it's worth it. Kai's English dub was something that I have waited for a long time to be, for the most part, faithful to the original source material. Now that Kikuchi's score is inserted into Kai, I have mixed feelings about it, good and bad. The good part is that Kikuchi's score is alongside a good dub. But the bad part comes from the music selectors themselves. I understand that it was a rush job to get the score in there, but all that resulted in music all over the place that for the most part doesn't fit what's going on onscreen. Thankfully, the selection got better around the Android/Cell arc. So overall, I think Kai is worth watching if you would like a good dub whether you care or don't care about the music.

[GotenDaisuki]

Actually, tvfan721 never specified which dub they wanted to view (Japanese or English), and so, we keep rambling on the same statement:
If you want to watch a English dub, get Kai. If you don't, get Z.

I do agree that my main interest in Kai is centered around the English dub, just because it's so kick-ass and faithful to the original Japanese version. I've seen the Japanese version all the way through, and I can assure everyone that the actors seemed a little rusty, so in terms of enthusiasm, Z comes out on top. Kai's Japanese version was cool at the time of my early fandom. However, ever since I've gotten much more knowledge of what was going on at the time regarding the franchise, leading up to the music fiasco, I found myself watching the English dub more and more. And I was totally against every dub in existence at the time.

I absolutely loved the Yamamoto score, which is another main interest I had with Kai. Now that the Kikuchi score is being used, that interest has now withered away. Again, the Yamamoto score was one of the very few things that made Kai look like a "refreshed" enhancement to the original series. With the Kikuchi score, however, and regardless of the difference in placement for music between the two series, Kai just doesn't have the same feeling anymore. It feels redundant to some extent, and it feels like a bad remake of Z that has all the same material, but mixed around to create the illusion that it's new, and not something totally refreshed to make the original series better.

[Aoi]

I actually am a massive fan of the Dub so I chose to get Kai. I just love the voices so much.

What I'm planning to do is create a shelf with my "preferred version" of Dragon ball Z in order to show to my kids some day.

1. Saiyan Saga- Dragon ball KAI
2. Frieza Saga- Dragon ball KAI
3. Android Saga- Dragon ball KAI
4. Majin Buu Saga- Dragon ball 'Z' - I believe Falcouner's score> the original (which is very depressing for some reason). Also the Dub actors are, by this point, as good as they are in the KAI dub.


Basically my shelf will look like this: Dragon ball Kai Parts 1-8, then Dragon ball Z Seasons 7,8,9.
I might get the Dragon boxes to replace the orange bricks one day. They seem to be excellent.

[Akumaito Beam]

The DragonBox doesn't contain dub music if you're attached to the Bruce score for the Boo stuff. Just don't want ya to waste money on a product you won't get full enjoyment out of.

[Aoi]

Hi Thank you for letting me know! I wouldn't have cared to watch the entire show with the Japanese music. However, I really hate the dub after the Ginyu Force arrive, when it reverts to the first Funimation dub. It's just such a horrible drop in quality.

[Fionordequester]

4. Majin Buu Saga- Dragon ball 'Z' - I believe Falcouner's score> the original (which is very depressing for some reason). Also the Dub actors are, by this point, as good as they are in the KAI dub.

Eh...I think that last part's debatable. We've still got super throaty Piccolo, and some of the performances weren't as natural. There were good performances, but there were also some good performances, and I loved pretty much all the voices, but there were some rough spots to.

[MetroidJunkie]

I'm gonna be honest, I think the series is perfectly capable of standing on its own with the Buu saga clipped out. It didn't exactly leave on a cliff hangar, Goku's dead and, with his death, enemies will no longer threaten Earth. Gohan's surpassed him and was to carry out the bloodline. The Buu Saga introduced the SSJ 3 form, which made no sense (He learned it from random aliens? What?) and was essentially just making his hair crap long. Not to mention Toriyama caving and making Goku the big hero, again. I don't know, I thought the saga was rushed somewhat and lacked the polish of the earlier sagas.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I'm gonna be honest, I think the series is perfectly capable of standing on its own with the Buu saga clipped out. It didn't exactly leave on a cliff hangar, Goku's dead and, with his death, enemies will no longer threaten Earth. Gohan's surpassed him and was to carry out the bloodline. The Buu Saga introduced the SSJ 3 form, which made no sense (He learned it from random aliens? What?) and was essentially just making his hair crap long. Not to mention Toriyama caving and making Goku the big hero, again. I don't know, I thought the saga was rushed somewhat and lacked the polish of the earlier sagas.

I agree. While I would have preferred to see the Buu saga given the Kai treatment just so I could hear a better English dub of that saga, I would argue that the story has a better ending at the Cell saga.