So everyone's seen DBZ Kai, was it worth it for you?

[dbboxkaifan]

Toei Animation's tentative of refreshing Dragon Ball Z failed for me, the animation was inconsistent, they had a crappy sound director making God awful music placements, the replacement soundtrack had an extremely limited amount of BGMs, the Japanese cast was worn out and it didn't even have the last arc of the manga, Majin Boo's arc.

So, it only did half way for I, I'm semi-satisfied with this incomplete product.

Honestly, Toei Animation needs to let Dragon Ball Z die and move forward with Dragon Ball Heroes, or whatever!

Note: I don't hate Kai, if I did I wouldn't have bought the DBZ Kai BDs 1-7 (Part 8 on pre-order).

R.I.P - Dragon Ball Kai (2009-2011)

[Pokewhiz7]

As I've said before, I prefer Kai for its pacing, but there's a strong case to be made of Z being a better show. So, in short, yes, though it was still somewhat disappointing.

[DarkPrince_92]

Honestly, I just like the new dialogue, SOME voice recasting, and music....everything else is just, meh.

[DBZAOTA482]

DBZ = Coke
DBZ Kai = Diet Coke

[OzzyApu]

8 years after I last saw any Dragon Ball series episode, I thought to myself how hard it would be to get back into the series. I knew I wanted to at least see the Ginyu Force or something, but I hated the filler and 10 minute power ups... until I found out that Kai was released. It was 2010 at the time, and the newest episode to be released was 63 IIRC. That got me hooked, and I loved it. For that, I have to give it to Kai. Now, of course there are inconsistencies and some flaws, which I notice now after having watched it so much. Leaving out the Boo saga also makes the show seem incomplete. So to me, it's a flawed gem taken to refresh the series.

[sangofe]

It's worth it because of the new French dub, apart from that, not so much.

[Gonstead]

For the fact it has provided a much more faithful English dub, it was definitely worth it for me.

Yeah, the limited Kikuchi placement can get annoying but I mainly focus on the dialogue and action on screen, not the background noise.

[Hades]

As a fan of the dub, I have to say that one VA makes it worthwhile: Chris Ayres.

[Akumaito Beam]

It did make me appreciate the old anime series a lot more. I don't even really mean that in a snarky "HEH" way. It's easy to rag on the original anime's pacing but there were so many little touches that made the cartoon work that Kai couldn't duplicate for me at all. To see all the different animation styles back to back and to hear my beloved Kikuchi score tossed around in a way where it made me feel nothing but slight irritation from time to time made me realize that the animated portion of this franchise was a little over a decade of collaborate tribulation. It's easy to watch 5 episodes a night and point out huge flaws with the adaptation in the year 2012 (because they totally exist) but I think that's really underselling the history of the show. Breaking it down into a team's weakly effort to translate an ongoing comic book into animation with all of its highs and lows is a fabulous experience and I currently have a hard time looking at the anime any other way.

I'm more forgiving with Kai than most though. I get what they were doing and I really don't think they failed. I wouldn't blame someone
if they read the above paragraph and went "Fuckin' whatever, can I watch this long ass show in less than like a gazzillion episodes?" Kai seems chaotic now but it was more the music fiasco than anything which is fixed now that we have a consistent DVD release in that department. Chances are if you just want to watch the show in a quick, timely, beat-for-beat fashion that doesn't matter much to you anyway.

[Jackal puFF]

I want to see the final part of Kai in english uncut really badly.. Kai really made me like Namek and Freeza a whole lot better. Watching those parts on the bricks was torture. And watching dragonball shouldn't make you feel like that, unless it's GT or Evolution of course..

[Krycek7o2]

It's worth it because of the new French dub, apart from that, not so much.

I'm going to side with Sangofe here (dub wise) and say that Kai was good because of the English dub.
Aside from that, nothing was allowed to breath in this version. I guess I just prefer the original, while slow (and there were some very slow parts - NAMEK!!!), allowed for much character development.
Then again, I'm used to American TV shows and the way characters are handled here.

[theoriginalbilis]

It gives me 2 more options to view the Z series:

A bloated, stretched out series with excellent Japanese voice acting: Z
A bloated, stretched out series with mediocre to passable English voice acting: Z
A compressed, faster paced series with excellent Japanese voice acting: Kai
A compressed, faster paced series with excellent English voice acting: Kai

[samuraix123]

I'm about 50/50 on it. I love the Yamamoto soundtrack, it was new and refreshing for me. I thought it was interesting how they cut the filler out but put in the Bardock Intro(Isn't that filler?) I love filler anyways but I did like how they cut the series pretty much in half I like hearing my English voice actors new lines. and I like the opening and endings songs and visuals. ''was it worth it for me?'' I can enjoy it but I can also live without it. I definitely won't be picking up the rest on DVD/Blu-ray. I own parts 1 - 4 on DVD. and sense the Yamamoto score isn't on the upcoming releases I won't be buying them.

[Snail]

Plagiarized pieces or not, the Yamamoto ost was worth it. What a fiasco the whole thing turned out to be though. Also, I assume that the team behind KAI must have improved the viewing experience concerning the Freeza arc.

[Gonstead]

[quote="samuraix123"] I thought it was interesting how they cut the filler out but put in the Bardock Intro(Isn't that filler?)
Technically no since it's canon but it definitely wasn't there in the first place.

[sbk]

Definitely. I can sit through the filler in the Buu arc, but I don't think I'll ever watch the Freeza and Cell arcs in Z ever again. Kai improved the pacing so much. That + the much improved dub made Kai worth it, even if the project was a mess.

[BluezaBladeNZ]

For the show itself, it wasn't really as it felt like a half-assed attempt and I never really had a problem with the pacing of Z even if some things were dragged out too long. But the fantastic english dub FUNimation put out is what made me start watching it. I'm about to start on Part 6 soon once I've rebuilt the Yamamoto score for those episodes.

[DBZAOTA482]

Definitely. I can sit through the filler in the Buu arc, but I don't think I'll ever watch the Freeza and Cell arcs in Z ever again. Kai improved the pacing so much. That + the much improved dub made Kai worth it, even if the project was a mess.

You'd have to tie me down to get me to re-watch the Freeza arc in Z.

[Soul]

For "ME"?
Oh heck yes it was, it was the main reason I discovered my general love for Z as a whole, sitting through the original with it's pacing?
Argh, I mean...the original series, with it's pacing and filler is the reason you have the jokes, "It's not Dragon Ball Z, it's Drag-On Ball Z" and "How many Super Saiyans does it take to screw in a light bulb? Only one, but it'll take twenty episodes." and so forth.
Even marathoning it can be a tiring on its own. With Kai, you get what most of us agree we were promised: A more streamlined version of the story, with the exception of the Buu arc of course.

Otherwise, my only two issues I do have with it were of course the lack of the Buu arc and then the music scandal but oh well.
And added to the positive? The new dub is a given...

[DBZAOTA482]

You know what's funny is that the lightbulb joke came from a joke King Kai told Goku (at least I think it did).