https://rumble.com/vs5j8x-dragon-ball-z-kai-is-epic.html
I've been a fan of Dragon Ball for 6 years now and I finally decided to sit down and watch Kai to see how it would compare to Z and the manga.
Also this is a review for the first season (97 or 98), 2009 Kai, or whatever you want to call it. Just know that this does not include 2014 Kai (Buu Saga) as I will review that once I complete it in the coming weeks since my score will most likely be different from this one's.
Story: 9
As for the story, Kai is basically the exact same in terms of plot when compared to Z and the manga with some very minor differences.
Kai is an edited version of the original DBZ which ran for a total of 291 episodes where Kai cuts it down to 167 episodes. This is a mix of cutting out filler episodes entirely and trimming a lot of the fat and filler in the canon episodes which could easily be condensed to a shorter time. Unlike other big shounens with filler such as Naruto and Bleach, DBZ didn't have TOO much filler episodes. Out of the 291 episodes, about 40 episodes (14%~) are filler/not canon so a good amount of the fat comes from the filler in the canon episodes themselves. This leads to the biggest change coming from Z which is the pacing which everyone knows is typically slow. I can defend Z despite accepting its flaws and I can say that I usually didn't mind the slow pacing, and in some instances the slower pace or inclusion of scenes usually weren't bad or at least I didn't mind their inclusion. That's not to say every minute of Z was great because it definitely wasn't. The Frieza fight is clearly better in Kai than in Z, it was fine on a first viewing and I was hooked to see what happens but on a second viewing its very slow and dragged out even for me. Most of Z isn't like this but the Frieza fight was probably the worst case of pacing.
Kai overall is much faster paced and is half the length of where the Cell saga ended in Z and a majority of the cut content I am fine with leaving off. However, I still prefer some aspects of Z's pacing even if Kai is clearly the better when it comes to an overall experience. I'd say for about every scene I enjoyed more in Z, I'd enjoy at least 5 more in Kai or something like that. DBZ is a very action oriented show and the fights were dragged on longer than they were supposed to in Z and in Kai they are much faster paced which is for the better. However, slower, peaceful, and more dialogue heavy moments are probably better in Z just because its a nice change of pace and DB's cast is great, so seeing these characters interact is always fun.
Besides removing filler from the canon episodes there is the lack of filler episodes and arcs and for the most part I am entirely fine with this change. DBZ thankfully didn't have 40% or 50% filler episodes and only had some but those filler arcs were usually not good. Seeing Gohan train was dragged on way too long and those episodes of the Z warriors training were not great. Fake Namek was pretty shitty, Garlic Jr. was shit, and the Other World Tournament was actually watchable, I don't like it as much as some do, but I have no problem with it being cut out or at least just being shown in a montage for about a few seconds. Unfortunately some of the good filler was cut out which is mainly just the driving episode of Z which is probably my second favorite episode in Z for sure. There's a training episode for the androids after which I enjoyed, the filler with Taoi right before the Cell Games is pretty good, there's some filler before the Saiyans arrive like seeing Launch live with Tien and then leaving which at least gives some explanation to why she's missing but overall the cut filler episodes is easily for the better.
I basically just want to say that not all the filler and pacing in Z is bad or worse compared to Kai. Big moments such as Frieza's and Cell's defeat have a bigger impact just because there's much more time spent on them being the villain of the saga so finally seeing them die after 60+ episodes is much more satisfying than around 30. Also certain scenes that are slower paced such as Vegeta powering up his final flash I prefer in Z just because it gives off the impression of how much power and time it takes to charge up a super finishing move, but again these are only some scenes. I'm still going to prefer a lot of the fights in Kai when compared to Z just because it is paced much better.
Now as for the actual story itself, Kai adapts the Frieza (or Saiyan and Namek) and Cell (or Androids) sagas.
These two sagas are my favorite out of all of Dragon Ball and a majority of the fanbase agrees as well. Honestly I'd probably give Z the same score as I did for Kai if the Buu saga was listed separately just like it is for Kai.
The Frieza saga is exciting and nail biting from start to finish. The series starts out revealing that Goku is an alien of a race that is one of only 4 left, then having him team up with the evil Piccolo in order to defeat his evil brother who came to Earth to destroy it and bring Goku back with him. This ends up with Goku dying at the beginning of the show and then having a majority of friends who fight die. The hook is insanely strong and has a lot of memorable moments and creative ideas. There isn't too much to complain about in the Frieza saga besides some nitpick or small complaints. For example, Goku arriving on Namek and kicking the Ginyu Force's asses, while still amazing, is basically just his arrival on Earth and beating Nappa, even if the scene is an improved version. There's also this weird part where Goku can read people's minds which is never brought up again but again, this is very minor. The Frieza saga feels like everything was planned out from the moment it started until the moment it ended.
The Cell saga on the other hand is the complete opposite, but at least is still just as if not only slightly weaker than Frieza. Just like the Frieza saga, the Cell saga starts off with just as much of a banger with Frieza coming back as half machine, even more powerful, and with his father, King Cold. After what seemed like a never ending fight, seeing this scared the shit out of me the first time I saw this in Z. I expected this to last for another 20 episodes or so but instead we get introduced to a new character, Trunks, who destroys and humiliates Frieza and his father by cutting Frieza into pieces and blasting King Cold out of existence, while at the same time going Super Saiyan just like Goku. We then learn that Trunks is Vegeta and Bulma’s son who came from the future where his timeline was ruined by two androids that were created by Dr. Gero which is a nice callback to the original Dragon Ball. While this is a great start on paper, some of the flaws of the arc become very noticeable especially as it goes on. For starters, it’s a bit unbelievable that Dr. Gero could create androids using Earth technology that are stronger than Goku and Frieza, especially when Frieza is, or was, supposed to be the strongest being in the universe. That I can glance over and deal with but from a story perspective it's easy to pick out the flaws in the Cell saga. Like I mentioned, the Frieza saga felt as if the entire saga was planned out ahead of time and Toriyama knew exactly what he was doing. For Cell, the main antagonist(s) change about 3 times. Frieza and King Cold I can give a pass so in total we get 3 villains who were initially the main threat to the series at one point. While Frieza’s soldiers such as Dodoria, Zarbon, and the Ginyu Force got their time to shine, it was always clear that even when they were defeated, Frieza was still the main villain of the story. In Cell we go from Androids 19 and 20, then going from 16, 17, and 18, and then finally to Cell.
It’s very clear that Toriyama did not have the saga planned out and he openly admits that everything after Frieza was written as the manga was being made weekly with only some small points being planned in advance. Kai doesn’t add or change much from Z but one detail that I enjoyed was how the series started. Instead of being expected to watch the original Dragon Ball, Kai gives a short recap of the events in DB which is nice while also showing Bardock and Planet Vegeta’s destruction as the very first scene which works very well. For Cell, I would’ve liked to see a similar approach with some added scenes or at least some scenes taking place sooner rather than later. They could have shown the time machine Cell came from landing before Frieza showed up or after he was defeated or at least show some scenes or shots of him even if it was just in his lava state. Cell basically comes out of nowhere and it's clear that Toriyama added him on the spot with no foreshadowing beforehand. It’s something small but would’ve made the saga better as a whole even if it wouldn’t fix some of the other problems it has.
The fights overall in this saga are weaker and are unfortunately very similar in terms of their structure. A notable amount of the fights include two fighters where one gets clobbered easily and there isn’t too much to it besides that. This includes Trunks vs Frieza (I’ll give this one a pass), Vegeta vs 19, Vegeta getting bodied by 18, Vegeta vs Semi Perfect and Perfect Cell, and also Gohan vs Cell. For example Vegeta vs Semi Perfect Cell starts off with Vegeta playing around with Cell until he gets bored and is about to kill him. Cell ends up transforming into his perfect form and then Vegeta stands no chance against him no matter what he does, even if we do get to see him use Final Flash which is still amazing to watch. There isn’t much going on with these fights besides characters being stronger than their opponent and ultimately having no chance in losing. DBZ’s power levels are stupid which is why Toriyama stopped after Frieza because he knew numbers wouldn’t matter anymore. That’s why speed means literally nothing anymore and the line, “his power is unreal,” loses its meaning since they have been overused since the Frieza saga. That’s obviously not to say the fights here are bad, in fact the ones I mentioned I still do like quite a lot even if they aren’t as creative or well written as they could be. The Cell saga has a lot of great moments and fights such as Vegeta getting his ass handed to him by 18, Piccolo fusing with Kami, Cell’s introduction, Cell’s transformations, and of course the father son kamehameha against Cell which is my all time favorite moment in the series. The Cell saga may have its fault but it's still a blast to watch from start to finish and it introduced some great characters while also having some other really strong character moments.
Art: 6.5
Similar to Z’s pacing I can defend Z’s art to a certain extent. First off, art doesn’t necessarily mean animation which is where Z gets a ton of complaints from. I will say that the animation in Z is not great, in fact it’s not even good. For Z I’d probably give its overall art score a 5 with the animation being a 3. Z’s art wasn’t that bad when you look at it altogether. Toriyama’s character designs are fantastic and a good chunk of the still shots looked pretty good especially since they were reused a lot. Very few bad shots are kept for Kai but at the same time it’s great to get a laugh out of them when they show up such as SS Goku at Kami’s Lookout or Super Vegeta against Semi Perfect Cell. Z’s color palette was also pretty good but the main problem was the animation. In Kai the animation is technically better since very little animation is reused, and the same applies to still shots being used repeatedly. The pacing being a lot quicker and animation being reused a lot less also made the fights much better to watch even from an art perspective. Overall Kai looks fine but still nothing great. Kai came out in 2009 and this was still in the original 4:3 aspect ratio so no widescreen is disappointing. People have stated that the entire anime should have been remade from scratch but after seeing the transition images I’m really glad they stuck with using the old footage. Toei clearly doesn’t have what it takes to remake DBZ and make it look great, let alone good despite Super looking great in its later half, but that was about a decade later.
Sound: 8
Soundtrack: 7
Voice Acting/Dub: 9
I’ve never loved Dragon Ball’s soundtrack but I’ve always liked them. The original Dragon Ball score was pretty good, the original Z’s Bruce Faulconer tracks were pretty good and Kai included some new tracks that are nice additions. This is the only aspect of Kai where I don’t really care too much about the differences. If I had to pick I’d probably go with the Faulconer score but its’ not by too much. It would have been nice to see an option in the Blu Ray or DVDs to include the Faulconer score though.
As for the voice acting, the English is known for being very well received. The original Z dub was great for its time and is still pretty good today despite some flaws it has. The Ocean Dub dubbed around up to the point where Ginyu changes bodies with Goku and the Funimation dub started right after front there. This is where the new cast gets introduced and for the most part, again especially for its time, it's pretty good. Unfortunately Sean Schimmel as Goku is very jarring for some of these scenes, especially the first 10 or 15 episodes. He clearly hasn’t done much acting and wasn’t prepared but by the start of Cell he begins to get used to his role and does a great job from there on out. Z had its share of strange moments that were mostly just played for laughs are great to go back to such as Vegeta’s “sad for you”, “I do push ups, sit ups, and drink plenty of juice,” Piccolo’s “I feel great,” “Your son is dead,” Frieza’s backscratcher line and plenty of others that are removed and changed to a more accurate translation in Kai. All of these lines are really funny and it's sad to see them not make it into Kai which just goes to show that Z still has its features over Kai in some areas. On a more important note, some of the actors were changed in Kai which for the most part I;m not too thrilled about. I think 16 and 18’s change of actors are perfectly fine although I still prefer the originals. However, characters like Frieza and Gohan I have bigger problems with. They aren’t bad, but for these cases I MUCH prefer the originals. I enjoyed chainsmoker Frieza a lot and they literally just put kid Trunks’ voice over Gohans and Kid Goku’s which I don’t like. They aren’t terrible or even bad but I just wish they stuck with the originals. There are some other minor character changes such as Dr. Briefs and Oolongs which I don’t like that much, especially Oolong but they have very little screen time so it’s not a big problem.
I guess I can say this about the dub for Z and Kai. I prefer Z’s voices but I can admit that the acting all around is better and much more consistent especially for Goku. I would still choose Z over Kai’s dub but it’s not too much worse.
Characters: 9
Dragon Ball’s cast was great and Z’s is more or less the same. The Cell and Frieza sagas include fan favorite Vegeta, the Ginyu Force, Frieza, Trunks, the Androids, Cell and others as well. There isn’t too much to say about the cast that hasn’t already been said. Goku is extremely lovable, side characters like Yamcha, and Krillin are fun to watch, Frieza and Cell are both terrifying and thrilling additions, everyone knows and enjoys the cast of Dragon Ball. I could point out a few problems with the cast if I had to complain. First off, most of the cast isn’t too deep besides a few but that’s a very minor complaint that I can let slide. One big problem that everyone can point out is the lack of things for the side characters to do after the Frieza saga. Tien and Yamcha basically do little to nothing after they die to Nappa, besides Tien holding off Cell which is awesome. Chaoitzu isn’t even in the Cell saga at all because he’d be that useless. Most of the time characters that aren’t useful just sit around and don’t get to do much besides just watch from the sidelines which is disappointing. The addition of characters and cast overall might be better than Dragon Ball’s but the characters were much more useful and had more do in previous arcs.
Enjoyment: 9
I’ve seen Z twice and read the entire 550+ chapter manga and yet even though this is my fourth experience with the series, fifth if you want to count abridged, I still have a blast watching Dragon Ball. I’m a big shounen fan, I love the cast, I enjoy the fights, there are a bunch of really interesting ideas, and even though the series can get very repetitive, I still can’t find myself getting bored of characters being cocky or kicking their opponents asses. The main difference with Kai’s enjoyment comes from the removal of filler episodes and better pacing but as mentioned, I didn’t find the pacing too bad overall in Z so I get the same or at least a bit more enjoyment watching Kai.
Overall: 9
DBZ Kai is a bit bittersweet in some areas but overall the definitive way to watch DBZ. As mentioned, Z still has its areas that are better than Kai’s but the removal or filler episodes, improved pacing, and less reuse of animation is very noteworthy. DBZ Kai is unexpectedly great and I’m still confused as to why it’s notably lower here on MAL than Z. It could be nostalgia in which case I recommend trying Z again today to see if it holds up well which it does, but if you’ve seen Z before and plan on rewatching the series, just stick to Kai and/or read the manga. Both options are great!
