User reviews

DBZ Kai was something I had to watch and after hearing it was an edited version of the original DBZ I was like "Ok, let me see what it is" And I have to say I am glad for it. I can see all the major arcs in condensed form (159 episodes without all the filler episodes that brought the original Z to 291 episodes. While I enjoyed watching Z, the filler episodes and long drawn out fights really made me think of some of those as background noise

It basically has all the good parts, and I enjoy watching it because it's like getting the best of the show. Some of the colors have been softened and I do believe the voice cast has changed partway but I haven't noticed a huge difference so far (80 episodes in)

I hope you truly enjoy this version of DBZ as it is the best and most concise version of the series

The Dragon Ball series has always been my favourite anime and Kai is no exception, if you liked Z but didn't like most of the fillers then you're going to love Kai. It has little to no fillers HD quality and probably improved on the voices, I also like the new "Dragon Soul" song at the start too! I do have some problems with Kai though one being that everyone in this show just loves to kinda break the fourth-wall, the show is literally riddled with exposition and it kinda of gets annoying this is the same in Z too, but I kinda didn't care at the same time because the show is so good, and lastly Gohan's character development is kind of choppy in Kai not so much in Z though, Z's version of Gohan's development was much better due to the fillers, but I get why they didn't because they wanted to avoid the fillers for Kai. Kai is also much shorter than Z too, the Frieza saga in Z ends at Episode 107, while Kai ends at episode 52 due to the lack of filler, but I think it is a good thing considering the fight between Goku and Frieza last for 3 hours in Z. Overall I love this show if you're someone who has never seen Z and want to see a version most accurate to the manga then watch Kai you'll love it.

I read the manga 13 years ago. This Dragon Ball kai is the what in TV was called Dragon Ball Z, from when Goku appears with his son Gohan. I've always disliked DBZ for the very frequent and boring fillers it contains (DBZ is more than 200 eps in total) and I wondered how a "serious" adaptation from the manga would be since I've enjoyed the manga very much. Now this surprise, I'm much older but it is fun to see Goku&Co adventures again. I've seen about 30 episodes so far and I think a good cut and paste of the original DBZ is being done, even if there are occasions when some little fillers are still present and maybe others when they cut too much (not real fillers) but it was probably necessary.

So this is a very rare possibility to see a popular long anime without boring and useless fillers and anyway it is a still very good fast paced action-fighting anime with energy blast and flying characters even if it has obviously outdated animation (about 15-20 years).

I've been a lover of Dragon Ball Z for most of my life. Z was my obsession through childhood and I remained an avid fan even as an adult. I've been there through the quirky Ocean Dub, the poorly-translated VHS fansubs, the garish orange bricks...

Dragon Ball Kai isn't just the best version of Dragon Ball Z, it's the only version of Dragon Ball Z anyone should ever watch, for anything other than purely nostalgic reasons. DBZ was bogged down by a nearly unwatchable amount of filler. And I'm not even talking about filler story lines like Garlic Jr. or Goku fighting a star. What dragged Z down was the constant stalling: scenes of people powering up for two episodes straight, replaying the same scene of people staring at each other three times. Entire episodes pass with absolutely no progress on the primary storyline.

But Dragon Ball Kai fixes all of this. The great fighting and exciting story of Dragon Ball Z is finally, for the first time ever as an anime, brought to its due glory. This is the Dragon Ball Z that should have existed from the very start, the definitive, superior version.

Thankfully, the terrible new music turned out to be plagiarized, and Z's original soundtrack was restored. So truly the only thing that's better about Dragon Ball Z over Kai, are the opening and ending themes. Kai's new themes are cheesy and cliché', while Cha La and Zenkai Power were pretty cool.

Admittedly, it's not 100% without flaws. The Saiyan Saga cuts out a smidge too much, and feels ever so slightly rushed, while the Cell Saga kept a smidge too much filler, and it's noticeable. But the Freeza Saga is perfect down to the very frame.

To say that Dragon Ball Kai is better than Dragon Ball Z doesn't even do it justice. It's the only version of Dragon Ball Z that should exist. It makes me embarrassed to have held the original Z in such high regard. I used to take a blind eye to Z's innumerable flaws because I had such a history with it. But now that Kai has come out, and it is such a genuinely spectacular show, I'm proud to be a fan again.

I am what you may call a Dragon Ball person.

I started to watch the original series back in the late 80's when they were being aired in France before most other countries besides Japan itself.

I was done with the all thing when it wasn't even being aired in the US.

I watched it again and again and again along the years as well as all the movies and specials that exist.

In fact, Dragonball was part of my youth and the benchmark for all animations afterwards.

So, when i learned about Kai and the fact that they were cutting stuff off and leaving a lot of the fillers in th trash can i had a "purist" reaction and refused to watch it as i considered that the original work should be preserved intact in my mind.

Nevertheless, with the appearance of the new movie Revival of F, i decided to give it a try as it was the only Dragonball material i had never seen.

Well, i must say that this is a lot better than the original.

Even if some fillers were fun and interesting, i agree that the pace of the Manga was much more proper for a Shounen anime of this kind. This Kai version shows this perfectly.

This new version is action packed like it should have been and settles many stuff like plot holes and other inconsistencies created by the original Z series by the fillers.

These fillers were being made up out of the manga because at the time, Akira Toriyama was actually late in the manga comparing to the anime. This show was so popular that the animation was ahead of the ink and they had to invent stuff and exaggerate the time of power ups and stare contests between fighters.

The Kai version is so much better, I recommend everyone to see it and forget about the original because, well, a good 1/4 of it is made up material without story validity.

Dragonball seems to be more alive than never with Kai reaching the end of the series and new movies of legit material being produced by Toriyama.

It's staggering to see myself, 25 years after the first Dragonball episodes i saw as a kid, still trembling of joy at the sight of new Dragonball material.

To me, this is undeniably the greatest anime franchise that ever existed.

There are many famous anime out there and among the most dominant is none other than the Dragonball saga. While the first series simply titled "Dragonball" went for a somewhat more comedic route, this second series went all-out with the action and drama. Even though the franchise was not intended for kids, even the edited versions of this show were a ton of fun. get ready to power up because this is Dragonball Z Kai.

What's unique about the second series is that you get to learn much more about the vague origins of characters like Goku and Piccolo. The storyline is more intricate and the action scenes are a lot more intense (and I mean literally planet-shaking intense). Things get really brutal and everything in sight gets blown away. I love that crap! It makes us all look forward to the next action scenes. Some of the characters are a load of fun too, like the ever awesome Piccolo and the delightfully despicable Vegeta, their personalities and interactions with other characters stealing the show. The villains are pretty cool as well like the sadistic Frieza and the menacing Cell, who instill terror into even the bravest of warriors.

What I really like about this series is how dark it gets. In the original manga and the Japanese uncut versions of the show, things get really violent. Even edited, it gets dark with the serious dilemmas and numerous deaths that go around, which makes it more appealing to adults. I guess shows that go this route tend to be pretty successful like that.

My only real problems (and they're not really a big deal) is some odd/exaggerated moments and a lot of the screaming. Other than that, this is one of the best action/adventure series and anime I have ever seen. This show is sure to give you one hell of a punch and it's guaranteed to bring out the super saiyan in you. Check it out. KAMEHAME-HA!!!

I am proud to be a fan of Dragonball Z. This perfectly captures the spirit of the series just like the manga. As someone who frequently goes to Books-A-Million, I managed to read all the Dragonball Z manga volumes. I didn't get the episodes of the show on DVD or anything. I just watched them whenever they were on. It was really hard to catch them all because there were just so many of them. It's also great that this version is uncensored. Then again, I heard it's STILL technically a kid's show in Japan.

It's probably just a different culture thing. Of course, this might just be the fact that it's airing on Adult Swim. It's easy to see this classic series done at a much better pace. I still love the original series. They even managed to work a little bit of filler into this show. It shows how anime works and what it is in its raw form. As I haven't most of the original episodes of the show, this was a real treat. ****

dragon ball Kai is the same as dragon ball z, but its uncut and remastered and HD all together there's only 100 episodes in total when dragon ball z had around 200 episodes the story is all the same but all the fillers are all cut out so there will hardly be any wasted talking and mostly fighting I'm a really big fan of dragon ball I've seen all the episodes and the movies. So I'm a big fan i recommend this to everyone if you want to start watching dragon ball z start on dragon ball Kai Dragonball Kai is the best anime ever made and always will be you should also watch dragon ball and dragon ball gt there are all 10 out of 10

Dragon Ball Z Kai is an excellent recut of the original Z for everyone who enjoys them some Dragon Ball, especially Z. If you also prefer the manga, or just hate the majority of DBZ's slow-paced extra segments, or worthless filler episodes, This is the version to watch. It has every piece of canon material from the manga, with some short filler either due to animation from the original Z being unable to be changed, or the staff leaving some in for whatever reason that could've been removed, but didn't. It leads to a faster-paced storyline that's been streamlined a bit for many fans of Z. Though there ARE a few redrawn scenes to replace damaged frames. Some are simply trace jobs, while the others are completely new. They fit decently though.

This is also the version of Z to get for excellent home releases. If you didn't know, Z has some of the most horrendous home releases I've ever seen. Terrible color correction, terrible remastering all around, really, plus cropping the show to 16:9, leaving us who want to enjoy the show as it was produced out of luck unless we track down the Dragon Boxes, which are LONG out of print & expensive on sites like eBay. This series was properly remastered frame-by-frame in Japan for High Definition airings & releases in its original 4:3 aspect ratio, minus The Final Chapters, which was done by a different team several years after the first part finished airing. Still, it's much better than FUNimation's remasters, I'll tell ya that. If you wanna get someone into the franchise, this is definitely the way. Personally, I DO wish that they reanimated everything from the ground up, but I understand why they did it as they did.

Then there's the English dub. Minus some recastings (Kid Gohan, Kid Goku, Bulma, Frieza, & a lot of secondary & tertiary characters voiced by Chris Sabat in Z) because of actor/actress availability in the intervening years prior to 2009, all of the main voice actors returned to reprise their roles & they sound GREAT! Sean Schemmel especially, since he now gets Goku's character completely. Yeah, they didn't simply reuse audio from Z, they rerecorded everything from the ground up. The added benefit of this, other than improved acting, is that since FUNimation's a better dubbing company since 2003 when the Z dub finished airing, they have the resources to not only get better translations prior to dubbing but they also have access to better writers for their dub scripts! This means no mistranslations, other than the oddly-put line of dialogue, & some dubisms returning either out of keeping with pre-established terms from previous dubs, or some inconsistencies with attack names that were changed in earlier dubs from the original Japanese. Safe to say, if you're an English dub fan, the dubbing is phenomenal! There IS one thing I have to bring up though. In The Final Chapters, the series' recut of the Buu Saga, there's a scene recapping the events of the Cell Games from the previous arc. Prior to broadcast, it was teased that Team Four Star, of Dragon Ball Z Abridged fame, would be voicing the actors in the reenactment of the events. When it finally aired & was released to home video, it was discovered that they were replaced with the original Z audio from the same scene last-minute. It's speculated it's because the people at Toei found out & forced the change in dialogue. The original audio for the scene was accidentally released on X-Finiti & subsequently released to the internet after a fan recorded it. It's a shame because I love DBZA & it's a shame that the audio couldn't be kept, but that's the business, I guess. On the Japanese side of things, the original Japanese cast, though there were some recastings due to actors either dying or not wanting to come back, rerecorded their dialogue as well, mostly because Toei junked the original audio masters some time after the show aired for some reason before they could really use them on future releases. If you want a clearer-sounding DBZ in Japanese, this is good for that as well. I should also mention that the music has undergone a bit of controversy. Originally, for the first run of the show, Kenji Yamamoto, who also did the score for the Budokai games, composed the score for the series. However, it was eventually found out that he intentionally ripped off the scores for Avatar & Terminator Salvation without Toei's knowledge. His score was subsequently replaced on both sides of the Pacific with the original Shunsuke Kikuchi score from Z for the first part. The Final Chapters uses a new score composed by Norihito Sumitomo, who also composed the scores for Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, & went on to do the score for Dragon Ball Super. Some of his compositions don't fit, but most of the rest reminds me of Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury's score with how they were synthesized. Kind of fitting, I think. As for the openings & closings, most of them are great. 'Dragon Soul's' a great theme song, especially when sung in the English dub by the legendary Vic Mignognia. Final Chapters is no slouch either. 'Fight It Out' is also pretty good & goes with the whole retro vibe you get from the show, considering it originally ran from 1989-1995 & the original animation reflects that. Though the Japanese Final Chapters theme that was a part of the Japanese broadcast, 'Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go' was no slouch in being awesome either.

Altogether, I enjoy Kai. It's, definitely, my version of Z, especially since I don't care for the Z dub too much. I recommend it to everyone who likes good TV.

Was a great one with all the extension removed and story only on mark. However the series started to get boring in Cell Saga. But overall you should prefer Kai.

So I didn't like this Dragon Ball Kai series at all and I just can't understand why a lot of people Daniel a lot of positive votes for this anime the only person who gave it a negative is the one who gave it a rating of 1 So the reason I didn't like it at allit's only because it's the same thing as the Dragon Ball Z series The only thing that changes are the colors the soundtrack The opening is minus the Finley episodes the rest is all the same From the original series So what's the point of creating this series So this series that doesn't really exist for mebut it's not that bad compared to the other souls I know which are a thousand times uglier than this one. So I wonder why that year, however, is much better than the horrible one of Dragon Ball Super to conclude with a rating of 5.

I've enjoyed Dragon Ball Z for over a decade, along with everything else Dragon Ball and this is no exception. Dragon Ball Z Kai is enjoyable, and even though I enjoy (and dislike) some of the filler in DBZ, Kai is in no way to be classed as terrible for taking most of it out - some minor bits have been left in.

The dialogue has improved, I like Frieza's new voice actor and the original voice actors have improved slightly. Gohan's new voice actress I was fine with it at first, but it did start to annoy at times, now after a while, I have sort of got used to it again.

When it comes to the music, I prefer the Japanese version of: "Dragon Soul", "Yeah! Break! Care! Break!" and "Wings of the Heart" I really enjoy "Saiyan Blood" and "Only A Chilling Elegy." I enjoy all of the music in Kai even if Kenji Yamamoto "borrowed" it, I also enjoy Shunsuke Kikuchi and Bruce Faulconer's music so I don't really have an argument over music.

DBZ is there when I want to hide away for days - DBZK is there when I want to watch it quicker. Then I also have the option of Dragon Ball and Team Four Star ;3 It's Dragon Ball, I like it all, even GT.

It's not just for young children. The DVD's are uncut (there is blood, a little less blood than Z but added "swearing"), the television version is censored for a reason.

The Buu Saga, is on the way! I hope they keep the worms in, I guess they won't though :(

One thing I am annoyed about is that the UK will have to wait or may never get the Dragon Boxes of any of the series' or the movies. Unless bought from overseas at high cost.

Years ago before dragon ball z Kai I watched a bit of Some Poorly dubbed Dragon ball and Dragon Ball GT and the laughable ocean dub version of DBZ (with Some of the worst Acting known to man)

I think dragon ball z Kai is the best of the series Much better than the 1999 Funimation dub because It is much more faithful to the manga.

Unlike the original Dragon Ball Z, there is very little filler. As a result, the pacing is much quicker and comparable to that of the original Dragon Ball anime.

The English dub by Funimation is really good. It's also more consistent with the manga and is somewhat more mature than the English dub of Dragon Ball Z.

Gohan's new Voice is cute but childish (a lot of funimation dub fans hate Gohan's new Voice but i like it)

Even Freiza's new Voice was epic and much better than his Funimation dub Voice

It has Great intros and outros, Memorable music, with theme songs for some characters like "Saiyan Blood", Vegeta's theme.

It has No filler arcs.

and the animation was superior to dragon ball z

But The remastered Majin Buu Saga episodes were done on a lower budget than the Saiyan Saga/Frieza Saga/Cell Saga episodes, and it shows.

this series is not as bad as what the Funimation 1999 Fans say

If you miss dragon ball z than dragon ball z Kai is all you need Because it was the best version of DBZ

The original DBZ had too much filler it was good on tv as there was time gap in watching episodes. It was very streched. I you want to binge watch then watch this.

Dragon Ball Z Kai took what was already an overly-long, awkwardly- paced, zero-stakes anime that, admittedly, was a highly influential show and redid it better. The show was more sleek and at least watchable, but it still has major flaws.

In short, I don't think Dragon Ball Z was great, but it was definitely important. It exposed a new generation of adults and children to a medium that was pretty fringe in the United States up until that point. However, no amount of cultural importance could really change the quality of that show. The show was plagued by unbearably long charging scenes, transformation scenes, reaction shots, and filler, not to mention stilted dialogue, bad dubbing, and unfunny jokes that are just really dated. Characters that were pretty paper-thin, a contrived plot that was sometimes compelling but moved along at a snail's pace, and the only saving grace (the action) was mostly interrupted by all these other terrible things that I mentioned.

Dragon Ball Z Kai took an already flawed anime and made it a lot more enjoyable. Pull out all the filler, update the animation, and get some new voice-actors (most of which were superior, a few being inferior). It took out a lot of the choppiness and the show ended up an above- average show that's not a classic. But, you couldn't help but feel when watching it that they were just milking the cash cow to try to squeeze more money out of it, just like another show I can think of . . . it's on the tip of my tongue . . . GP? CT? No, that's not it, never mind.

In conclusion, the show's fine, better than the original, but definitely not one of the 250 best television shows of all time.

I'm just reviewing the first 4 seasons, not the final chapters.

First things first. The voice acting is a 10/10 and I think all the replacements did a fantastic job. You can see how the old voice actors really improved. Their vocal inflections, timing, emotion, etc is a 100x more pronounced and believable. I really enjoyed Frieza's new voice. Chris Ayres's rendition of Frieza was genius. Gohan's new voice actor also does a wonderful job.

Filler is more or less absent or at least not noticeable. The pacing is also vastly improved. I didn't find myself clock watching or fast forwarding throughout my viewing of any of these first few seasons. Is there some "duh" moments? Yes. After all this is meant for a teen audience. Anyways, I found every minute to be entertaining even though I've already seen the original, I always loved and found the occasional jokes, funny reactions, and roasts refreshing.

The only things I didn't enjoy was toei's replacements for some of the cells, no pun intended, but some of the replaced frames look really really bad.. . Other than that, it looks better than the dragon boxes (just my opinion), it sounds better than ever before, and the writing is much more mature and faithful to the manga.

Music: I'm not a big fan of Kichuci's original score, so I found a way to replace the music with faulconer. There's a kazenshuu post with audio files that allow you to replace the music with faulconer's. This literally is perfect, the whole series is now nearly flawless.

P.S. Chiaotzu and Puar are still unbearable but thankfully only on screen for like 5 minutes total. I'd rather have ten filler episodes revolved around Yamcha than watch 1 minute of chiaotzu and puar.

Much more enjoyable with the filler removed, but the music change is a terrible decision. vegeta's theme makes all those scenes 100000x better (1 viewing)

I REALLY don't understand why people praise Kai, I watched half of the Saiyan Saga IF THAT and I just wanted to stab myself in the face and rip my ears off...the transition from old anime to new is just dreadful they should have just redrawn the entire thing and added the original voices, stay away from Kai and watch the remastered and uncut version which is superior to this abomination.

They did nothing but trash the name of Dragon Ball Z, GT was almost as bad as this THING. Thankfully we got a new series that follows on where Z more or less left off.

Again if anyone is new to the series stay away from this pile of rubbish they decided to more or less in my opinion half arse and then slap a new sticker on it.

I like this show but it's not as good as dbz this show is literally Dragon Ball Z But no Filler let's be honest dbz filler is actually good Heres My list of Pros and Cons Pros Great Script Fights are still as good as dbz fights Frieza Voice Amazing Soundtrack Saiyan-Frieza Saga Cons TERRIBLE VOICE ACTING (Besides Frieza) Alot of the good filler is gone. NOW IN MY OPINION YOU SHOULD WATCH DBZ BUT I DONT HATE KAI BECAUSE KAI WAS MY FIRST EXPOSURE TO DBZ THOUGH ONCE I WATCHED DBZ I LIKED IT MORE