Though there’s clear answer for that opinion - DBZ is what actually made most of the anime those days, it was what made the shounen battle anime so popular and mainstream, sure it doesn’t have so much of a story and not that deep characters than most of new anime, but since in the time DBZ was masterpiece, it’s not relevant to compare it to newest shounen anime. But that answer is actually the words of a fan, in true face of the critic that opinion is right, doesn’t matter how much DBZ effected the anime world ‘till those days, the lack of story except for “fight the strong guy”, lack of character development except for few, and a lot of plot holes and plot convinces and plot armours, doesn’t does good to DBZ.
But those critic points is actually what makes the truth on the other face of the truth - Enjoyment. What actually makes the so old anime, is not some complicated story, strong ideology characters, but actually the simpleness of the those points is what makes the anime so damn addictive, with good tense and characters with simple dilemmas your can recognise with, and not some deep narrative with three dimension characters. The simpleness of the story and the characters are what making DBZ so great so the watcher doesn’t need much to just enjoy Toriyama’s ideas and nothing more, so the story is just running ahead without need to understand big and complicated staff, in critic eye it’s bad, in enjoyment eye it’s what makes DBZ rolls.
What’s all that gotta do with the remake Dragon Ball Kai? It’s all directed to one big question when one watching Toei so-called “remake” of DBZ alone ‘till cell arc (the 2nd part DBK14 will get a little treat later on), why they called this remake at all?
And I will explain. Usually remake (at least in my eyes, but I’m sure others will agree) is taking the manga that had been done for it one anime series in the past and adapting it from the start, the likely reason to do that, is the old anime had reached some point and ended, because it reached the manga and the producers decide to end it, or doing original anime end, and because the manga finally reached it end, the producers decided to come back and do justice to the manga again. Usually, those remakes are redrawn, and not just being retold without any change, but taking the direction of the anime in some new way to entertain the watcher in new way of direction even though it’s the same old story. The famous examples for this kind of remakes we saw in FMA03 that got FMA09 (or in the more famous name FMA: Brotherhood / FMAB) and HxH99 that got HxH12.
Dragon Ball Kai on the other hand is kinda far from being such remake. What Toei had done is basically taking the old 1989 DBZ, cut the filler scenes (and there’s a lot of them), reformatting them to HD scales, and presented it as “Remake” in new name “DBK”, new opening, new ending, recorded again all the voices, renew the OST, damaged frames were redrawn, needed frames were drawn, and that’s it. Something new from old DBZ? Not at all, on the surface it’s presented as “Remake” but in reality it’s maybe looks newer and sharp (due the HD reformat) but apart from that we just got again the DBZ, only in shorter version.
Though all that, there’s still kind of Remake here, that the non-fillers idea, and the shorting of the episodes due the fillers, do makes a feel of remake here. Who watched the old DBZ would know what I mean when I will say, that DBZ though to be great and exciting anime, had it’s own very much problems, either from fillers and either from longevity, and that sure effected the experience of Dragon Ball story, for best or worse. Exciting moments, felt much more exciting in the anime, but some battles and situations, got too much length, some of them are the famous “5 min” battles. While in DBK, all those are changed. Remembered what I said about DB simpleness? Well, those are magnified in DBK, mostly due those samples I talked about. The “5 min” battles though to be still long got improved a lot, and the dragged story in DBZ is more more directed and connected to the events. On the other hand, some of the exciting moments in DBZ that were magnified by long moments, felt much less exciting but directed. So yeah, though DBK isn’t real remake in term of retelling the story but cutting the fillers scene, but it’s still remake in term of how to present the story, rather it would be for good - because that’s how Toriyama wrote the story, or bad - because it removed the more exciting moments DBZ managed to make, the simpleness I talked about earlier have much better impact, so DBZ never had been more exciting and enjoying to watch.
But with all that being said about DBK remake being “free fillers” isn’t that accurate. In fact, there are still some fillers in the series, some of them are true needed, where Toei filled some materials that fills Toriyama’s world with more spice. But while those are showing there are still some fillers who felt untouched, some of them even non-manga readers can observe them immediately for the long moments of characters doing nothing and feeling of dragging, and some that manga readers can notice them without a problem, some of them are additions to the battle where Toei inserted useless extra fighting, true that some people love the extra violence in DBZ, but in true eyes it’s dragging. For those fillers, there might be true reasons for Toei to keep them, some because if you delete them the original story material will be damaged (mostly the dragged content), and some for filling hole for the episodes minutes (mostly the extra violence). All what I said right now might seems petty, but in some point it seems that Toei didn’t care anymore but left entire episodes without cutting, maybe some here and there extra fillers stories, but when seeing extra useless dragging in version claiming to be “free fillers” it’s makes bad impression, especially after they cut some fillers dragging that actually made good impact in original DBZ (as I mentioned above) those full dragged episode untouched felt really unnecessary.
So yeah, though Toei shortened long 199 episodes (Frieza-Cell sagas) to 98 episodes is sure impressive, and make it worth to rewatch DBZ again (and I will talk later for who it’s worth), it’s not perfect “free spoiler” version.
Story: 8/10
All that “what they cut and what they didn’t kinda made me headache, so let’s talk about something that sure make our mind much busier than minuteness - the HD converting.
In that area Toei sure made great job, especially since DBZ is old anime, the year 1998 isn’t that close and the animation back there had lot of good things but also bad things, but animation unlike movies, since they are animation it’s easy to make good quality of them when you have the source, and Toei made great use of the HD. In my version I have at last - BlueRay 1080p - the colours are looking sharp and colourful, the fact that in the BlueRay version that scale is 4:3 and not upscaled is making good effort for them for the HD conversion.
The problems start - at least for me - in the redrawn or fixed framed. As stated earlier, Toei didn’t made new computer animation but used the old hand drawn one, and one of the good parts about the hand drawn animation is it’s for deep colours and shapes quality, true it’s have disadvantages but the deepen hand drawn factors making the animation much deeper than the new computer drawing, and at the most cases Toei made new frames with that system the comparison between them are noticeable. True that some of them are might be good though the comparison, and some even only by double checking I noticed it’s redrawn scene, but most of them seemed to be drawn so fast and unprofessional in all areas in animation - starting with the lines to the colours and movements, there might be more excuses than reasons for Toei to do that, DBZ is one of popular merchandise in the world, money shouldn’t be in short. Time is pressing - but a second ago there was great redrawn scenes. The most acceptable excuse is maybe for me to say that I watched this in great quality and the 1080p made the huge different between those.
Animation/Art - 9/10
Now, for the OST, it’s hard for me to say from obvious reason, that DBZ I watched as little kid and it was almost 20 years from now, and apart from that it’s known for the DBZ community that the OST is changed from dub to dub. But what there is to say is about the renewing, Toei took some old OST and made it sound great on modern speakers without old noise and great quality of sound.
The opening, though being replacement of the good old cha la head cha la, doesn’t try much being replacement but have good rhythm of it’s own and very addictive as well, living the same hype as cha la was. My problem starting actually with the English dub which choose to make every couple of episodes (like 10+) a different singer from the vary cast, the idea is fascinating as it’s not allowing the song getting old (though when watching the Japanese dub it didn’t happened to me, but it’s still good idea), the problem start as they bring new singers which just doesn’t seems to get the excitement in the song or too much excitement, that all this “changing singer” thing only made me get old of the idea itself.
The ending songs are pretty good themselves. But in term of comparison I must say I liked the first one much more, it had really catchy words and music, while the second ending felt too much generic and unexciting for me.
I won’t start talking about the English or Japanese dub, mainly because it’s depend on opinion and matter of choice of the watcher what to choose, and since I watched DBZ as a kid in the local country dubbing, I don’t have much to contribute. But I will do say something as a matter of fact as manga reader, and that though the Japanese dub is considered unlikeable among DBZ fans, as knowing Goku character from the manga, it’s Japanese dub is much fitting his characteristic and personality, than the heroic voice in the English dub. But as I stated, it’s really matter of opinion and preferences.
OST - 8/10
Talking about character and story are needless, you can find those in DBZ own page, also about the original animation check it there. (Characters: 7/10)
So let’s start finish long review, with final notes:
First final note:
So in fact, what rises above all is for whom DBK had been presented - for the old fans or new ones? And I will explain.
On the surface, DBK is marketed and referred as “remake”, be a remake or not as we said, the way it presented is seems targeting new fans as they can just start and watch DBK with it’s shortened length and won’t have to watch the old 199 episodes anime. Problem start where Toei showing signs it’s not for new fans by putting big-main spoilers in the opening, old fans might love it to anticipate what Toei will do when the “so-called battle” gonna come, but new fans might be annoyed by big stuff revealed as it’s something they should know long time ago. The profit for old fans are may be better than new fans - they wants once again watch their good old childhood anime and DBK saves lots of effort by making that easy to them, though not saving some of the excitement of some moments as I say earlier, they still be watching DBK than watching DBZ all over again. New fans however, might be suggested because of those moments to watch DBZ, and even if they would say they don’t care old fans might be annoyed the new generation of people won’t know the old DBZ. However, even new fans have lot of room to seeing this first in the simple claiming DBZ is just too long and DBK supposed to be remake to be for them.
The conclusion is, though DBK seems to be perfect for new fans to get into the series, and if they would start the series they might even watch the old one as well. Toei intentions aren’t clear either, as old fans will be annoyed by this so called “remake” for obvious reasons I stated, but will enjoy short version of DBZ. So it’s unclear for which audience to recommend this series.
As an old fan I really enjoyed DBK, it get me back to one of my childhood favourite anime and in the dragged part of DBZ they did great and justified work. DBZ may not be the best anime around those days, but even without it’s importance it’s simpleness of story and characters still addicting. So thinking on new fans might be hard for me, and anyone would do what they think best. I myself cannot recommend anyone DBZ because I remember dark times in my childhood frustrating about the famous “5-min battle”, full episode about one of the evils transformation for almost whole episode seeing lightning and hurricanes, as a child it was very frustrating though the tense some of those make, and DBK makes great work on saving those frustrations.
So maybe the conclusion to this question is indeed let newcomers watch DBK and let them see some of the spoilers Toei putted in the opening and endings, the experience might be worth it after all.
Enjoyment: 9/10
Second final note:
Here I will talk about the sequel DBK14, the simple reason not wanting to write a review for that series itself because I don’t waste my time on that, it was big FAIL that’s what that is, and I will explain it very shortly.
First thing first, beyond the reason for the international release to add more 10 episodes to the series, it failed seriously being “free fillers”. Lot of episodes felt untouched, sure there are couple of fillers that “needed” they let exactly like first DBK, but lots of episodes felt really untouched of filler cut, dragged all over the place, they let out big plot-holes that the manga didn’t even had. In general it’s seems they didn’t even cared to make this one good as DBK, and the long skip in the years between them proving. For comparison, the Frieza-Cell arc ended in ep199 in DBZ and in DBK they made 97 episodes, the Buu arc that DBK14 is adapting, is for 91 episodes and got shorted to 61 (74 in international count) episodes, only this comparison can tell you much about how this is “free fillers” cut.
The HD converting isn’t that good either, not because the converting itself but the fact that even the BlueRay version had upscaled the original 4:3 ratio to 16:9, which means the ratio not only natural but part of the screen is cut and the picture itself is bigger, so even the HD converting isn’t good.
Remember what I said about Toei giving spoilers in DBK? In DBK14 all sort kind of spoilers is in the opening, revealing too much to the watcher that even older fans will be annoyed by scenes from the last anime battle (!!) is showing already in the opening. Even in the transition scene there’s big spoilers, like Toei didn’t even care anymore. Those spoilers making DBK14 even less clear for whom this series is for, new fans will be spoiled the whole series, and old fans will be annoyed by the fillers and spoilers as well.
The only good thing to say about DBK14 is the songs, the opening might be little downgrade from DBK opening, but the ending is addicting as hell. But that’s only the songs, the OST and effect sounds itself in the episodes often sounds like the old DBZ OST that adding to the frustrating enjoyment from DBK14.
DBK14 - 6/10
Because though the all annoying stuff, it’s still DBZ. Though I really hate the Buu saga…
Final note:
And really final, about the English dub.
I will make it short. Maybe it’s because I’m not that a fan of English dubs of anime so I’m not experienced well with it, but I noticed a very annoyed thing about the dub being in much lower voice than the OST what made me raise the volume very high to the point where there’s effect sounds or OST sounds much more higher than the dub itself. The reason for that as I guessed is because they recorded the voices on the OST and effect sounds already there, but it’s still not excuse to annoy the neighbourhood with high volume.
