Customer Reviews

Dragon Ball Z Kai: Part One [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I have to say there are so many misconceptions with this series that it's not even funny. Let's just go over a few of them, shall we?

1: This is a rip-off because there will be over 270 episodes!
-Wrong. This series is MUCH SHORTER. By Episode 13, Goku is already fighting Vegeta, as opposed to being in the 30's by then. In fact, there's probably only going to be up to 150 episodes at the MOST according to Toei Animation themselves.

2: This isn't a new series, so no one will want it.
-Also wrong. While it's not a new series, the logic behind a re-release is to introduce a new generation of youth to the series and create a new generation of fans. Plus it's also going to be airing on television again soon, though again it will be severely edited.

3: The artwork is cheap!
-While it's hardly groundbreaking, the artwork is NOT cheap. It's simply a touch-up of the existing film, and anything that couldn't be saved or deteriorated too much had to be redrawn. They did that as little as possible to maintain the classic look and style that Toriyama-sensei gave to his world.

4: The acting is horrible and so is the script!
-The thing is, this was Funimation's first big anime. Most of the voice actors had not only no experience, but were STAFF working at the studio. They had to pick up the slack after a contract dispute with the previous cast went awry, and despite this, they still managed to make it a classic.

However, even if one plays the games, you can notice these actors have improved greatly over time. And this is a complete and utter redub. So they're bringing all their added talent and experience into this with a much better script. I myself have heard some of the new dubbing, and you can actually FEEL the emotions in the characters' voices.

And finally...

5: Cutting out the filler removes what let you get to know the characters better!
-Actually, the thing is... the way the characters are presented in the filler (With exception perhaps to the Garlic Jr Saga) are often times not the way they really are at all. for example, filler made Roshi into an even greater pervert than he was, made Krillin into a mere comic relief character half the time (which he's not), made Gohan seem to be much more into fighting than he actually was, etc. What gives you the character development and background is the series DRAGON BALL, which is what comes before DBZ in the first place.

Now as for what this is... this was the original DBZ story as it was written by the author. This is the characters being treated with respect and not bashed because they look funny, this is the villains being darker, this is the story with more flow... It's quite literally the manga (comic) in anime (animated) form. It's got a great new dub, new script, even in the Japanese version, and an HD touch-up on the animation. Now we seem to think HD has to fit a certain eye-popping criteria, but that's not always the case. What it means is that it's crystal clear and smooth, no visible defects, not as much grainy effect.

If you're new to the series, I suggest you watch. If you're not new to the series, you'll love it anyways. (But parents be warned, DBZ uncut is NOT the same as what you'll see on TV. More violent, for sure)

But it's well worth a purchase. :)

Kai (Dragon Ball Z minus the filler) has been the subject of many debates which I have participated in.
Some parties argue that it is an unnecessary trimming of an already great show, while others say that the
lack of filler helps viewers focus on the core story and key plot points of "Dragon Ball Z." As somebody
who owns all of the "Orange Box"-ed "DBZ" sets, and has seen every episode over the course of 3 or 4 years,
I can firmly say that I believe the latter party more. All of those annoying excuses to recycle animation,
all of those perfunctory attempts at "deepening characters", and the overly-long attack proclamations have
all vanished, leaving us with what made the original "Dragon Ball" manga so great: fast clip, quick battles,
and no lag between plot points. Whether you're a DBZ newbie or just a seasoned veteran, "Kai" is a worthy
purchase, especially at the price Amazon's offering it at.

I just recieved my copy of Dragon Ball Z Kai on Blu-ray today. ( gotta love Rightstuf ) Anyway this is AMAZING ! packaging is awesome, quality is awesome, sound is awesome, redub is awesome, opening and closing credits, awesome. ( Keyword; just AWESOME ! lol ) But anyway this comes with 13 episodes; 9 on the first disc and 4 on the second disc. ( In my opinion I think the DVD version is going to have 7 in the first and 6 on the second ) There aren't any extras but hey who CARES ! The redub is better then I expected. Although its the same voice actors they just act better then original DBZ and better script ( but thats probably because org DBZ was dubbed like 12 years ago ) Sond is of course 5.1 and Japanese 2.0. And Finally ! they have next episode previews in english ! Well.. nothing else I really can say..just have to GET IT ! and support DBZKai ! ( I'll probably post pics up later today or tomorrow) =P

First off, if you are completely unfamiliar with the show, I recommend reading about it on Wikipedia, and watching a few short clips on Youtube to get a basic feel. Doing that will probably guide you better in your purchase than my review.

If you have seen the show before, you probably know by now if you like it or not. So the rest of this review focuses more on the difference between Dragon Ball Z and this newer "Kai" version.

This version cuts out quite a bit from the original series. You might think that sounds bad, considering most people like to order "Extended Editions" of their favorite films like the Lord of the Rings trilogy or Aliens. (I happen to own the longer versions of both of those examples myself!)
But it's not a bad thing, in most cases.
Most of what they cut out was either boring, or only half interesting, or redundant things from the show. Now the show, in it's Kai "format", focuses more on the key points of the story, and it leaves in almost every important aspect of the show.

Essentially what happened was the original Dragon Ball Z was based off of a magna (Japanese comic book). When adapting for television, they added little sub-plots to extend it's air-life. Many of these little mini side stories caused huge delays in getting to the point of the main story.

As for this blu-ray (or DVD) in particular, by the end of it, Goku is already in the middle of his fight with Vegeta, and it's only episode 13 (instead of being 22-23 by this point).

Some of the things that were skipped:
- Goku's side journey to Hell (or HFIL; Home For Infinite Losers).
- Goku's side story with Princess Snake on Snake way (which was really silly).
- Some of the more redundant training of Goku on King Kai's planet (but you still get to see what he has to endure there).
- Some of the more redundant training of Gohan's (but you still get most of it).

I will admit, there were a few things skipped that I didn't want to see skipped, such as the training by Tien, Krillin, Yamcha, and Shou Zu (sp?) in the Room of Spirit and Time (where they die in a simulation fight against some Saiyans), but it's ultimately not a big deal.

Also, some of the dialog is cleaned up and seems to flow better with the other changes. Furthermore, some of the attack names have their original names. For example, Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon is changed to it's proper name: Makankôsappô. This gives a more "genuine DBZ" feel to the Kai version.

There is a part of me that misses the "old" or "full" version of Dragon Ball Z. But, even as an old fan of the show, I probably won't watch anything other than it's new Kai version. It simply doesn't waste my time as much, while still providing the main important aspects of the show that I feel are necessary.
Even back when there was no Kai version, I remember thinking to myself that the biggest flaw of DBZ was the excessive filler. If you're an old fan of the show, and you agree with that sentiment...Dragon Ball Z Kai is something you might want to invest in.

This release has been getting a lot of mixed reviews because of the screen resolution and people who don't know what there talking about. Some people also review before the item even came out. I find that incredibly stupid. Anyways, here's the review.

This is a great release. I think this is the best quality you can get from such old material. The animation been traced from the old sketches and look just like the original DBZ with color improvements and quality. People complain that this is 4:3 and the jap is 16:9 but that is not the case. Both releases are 4:3. It just aired on Jap tv in 16:9 but its been cropped. The top part and bottom part is missing from the jap tv releases. This release is definitely worth buying if your a DBZ or anime fan.

The video and audio quality is great. The English audio track has been re-done with the old voice actors but have improved in quality. The video doesn't have extreme amounts of grain like the movies that are released on bluray. I was a little displeased because there's no extras on this set except for text-less opening and closing but that's not a major deal. The video and audio is enough to buy this product. Also great that the fillers are cut out. The action is now on every episode.

First of all I have to say, that I am a big Dragonball Fan. I read the Maga, watched the whole series from Dragonball to Dragonball Z to Dragonball GT. So I know, what Dragonball Z Kai is trying to do. And they doing it so good.
The pace of the series is the right one, no fillers, just the action. Just like in the Manga. Because of the fact, that I know how the Original Series goes, I sometimes get the feeling that it is too fast, but it's not. Now I can watcht the series without getting tired of the fillers or someone powering up for like half an episode.
The Backgroundmusic is so nice, it gives Dragonball Z a new atmosphere and I like it. I mean I still love the Faulconer Score, but this score is also nice. Different but nice.
The voice dubbing is just cool, the characters seem to sound much more serious, and much more grown-up.
So if you are a fan of the Dragoball franchise, you need to have this set. I live in germany and I must say funimation is doing a great job especially Chris Sabat, the way he dubbs Piccolo in DBZ Kai ist just great.
There is just one thing that bothers me a little and that is the redrawn scence because you recognize those scence right away, but I can live with that.

So all I can say is..just buy the set and have fun with it.

This series is designed to cut down on the extra 'filler' material that fleshes out the Dragon Ball Z anime. The main difference is that the original 291 episodes are cut down to (according to official reviews) "around 100 episodes." Other than the side stories being removed, all the voice acting has been redone, resulting in some of the actors changing (I've noticed Bulma and Kid Gohan so far). Also, Vegeta's line of "His power level is over 9000!" has been switched back to the manga version of "His power level is over 8000!" This is also the first time you can get DBZ on Blu-Ray, which I did. I don't know it it is because it is on Blu-Ray or if it was just really well reworked, but I have noticed a visual quality improvemnent over the orange box version and tv versions. One last thing: the image is back to being the original and properly formated 4:3 size, unlike the orange box set that cut off the top and bottom of the image to stretch it out to a 16:9 image without distorting it.

Long story short; best looking version, faster pacing, and proper image size, it's just too bad that we will have to wait for the entire series again, instead of just selling the entire thing as one massive set right away.

Having already watched the DragonBox Z version, I must say that Funimation really went all out for this one! The voice acting is much better, the attack names and episode titles stay faithful to the Japanese version, and the picture could not be clearer.

Dragon Ball Z Kai is a re-cut of the original series, only including the scenes that were in the original manga (comic), that being said, there are some scenes that are kind of confusing. Because of the "recuting", there are times where people or things move around between scenes, and stuff that is destroyed in one scene, is not in the next.

The audio is superb, the sound effects are so crisp and clear, and there is all new music as well. The opening and ending songs are dubbed almost perfectly, the ending song is a bit to hard to understand, and Funi could have used a better singer.

Other than those two complaints, this is truly a must buy for all Dragon Ball fans!

Ok so I'll list my likes and dislikes about this, starting with dislikes

Dislikes

1. Starting with the box set before we get to the anime. Funimation, would you please care about your product as much as we the consumer does. I mean come on! You screwed up by putting vegeta on the cover of disc 1 and raditz on disc 2; he's not even in disc 2. Gez.

2. The opening sequences, "commercial" breaks, closing sequences are amazing animation. I wish they would of done it that way, I didn't even know what to expect, I thought it was going to be that type of animation like the 1 for that dbz movie with vegetas little brother table. But oh well I guess they didn't want to. It would've put a whole new feel to it and would of been like watching a brand new dbz.

3. it's Watching dbz in fast forward. Which is fine and all but its kinda weird from watching the original so many times to this.

Likes

1. If you don't have time to watch all of the episodes normally, this is a great way to get your fill and fix.

2. Dying for a dbz fix, want to watch that amazing fight sequence, you won't have to look far and skip through scenes and episodes just to get to the beef of the action, it's pretty much here.

3. Feels like the manga is being flip booked for me with dialogue and action nd everything.

So all in all ill take the good with the bad, its dbz there's not much to ever hate about it. (Except for you gohan who decides to turn ink saiyaman and not be a major bad ass like we know you could of been.) Anyways, lol in the end dbz is dbz an ill take all I can get from the 20 + old series.

A lot of people don't seem to understand DBZ Kai, and I'm here to explain it. But first, let me say I've been watching Dragonball (in general) since about 1987-1988, when I was completely hooked on it. I actually thought Gohan was Goku (because he was drawn the same as Goku in the DB) when I first watched DBZ.

For some reason, I picked DBZ up when Goku was training with King Kai, rather than starting from the beginning. I watched it through to the start of the Buu arc (after skipping a good portion of the Cell arc because it was JUST SO LONG) and gave up because the pace was just so slow I couldn't take it anymore.

Having said that, here's the reason why DBZ was paced so slowly: DBZ aired year round in Japan. It didn't have seasons or repeats. Every week (barring interruptions for special events, which happened a few times a year) for 7 years. DBZ was being produced faster than the manga was. They didn't want to deviate from the source, so they had to pad out what little they had until they could get new material from the manga. This is why they talked so much and brought a lot of the episodes to a painful halt. This is why inconsequential subplots were introduced, so they had more filler. I remember the Freiza battle being particularly painful, where Frieza and Goku would talk for the entire episode about how much they wanted to kill each other while only doing 2 or 3 moves that entire episode. I almost abandoned the series then honestly, but managed to hold on.

So, enter Dragon Ball Z Kai. This has been recut to fit the pace of the original manga. This is what DBZ _should have been_. This matches the manga. This is how Akira Toriyama wanted it to be. The subplots eliminated were not part of canon, so to speak. Read the manga and see that it moves just as fast as Kai. (I know because I have.) Gohan always fought very reluctantly as, as mentioned early on, he wanted to be a scholar, not a fighter. DBZ made him look like some kind of gung ho fighting machine, which he wasn't.

Overall, this is probably a better series. Recommended highly.