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

 

 

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Dragon Ball Kai (or Dragon Ball Z Kai as known in North America) is the 20th Anniversary Celebration of Dragon Ball Z. It is essentially in a nut shell a Director's Cut of Dragon Ball Z which removes majority of the fillers and follows close to the Dragon Ball Z manga. The intro and ending music have all been reanimated in a new animation style then what was used for DBZ and same with the "eye catchers" which is essentially what you see before and after the commercial break of the show. The animation for the show itself is left in tact. However, for some of the scenes which were to damaged Toei has traced over the animation and so you may notice inconsistencies in the animation in that sense. Another, thing which should be mentioned is that there is a whole entire new musical score for Dragon Ball Kai.

Also for Dragon Ball Kai the Japanese voice cast came back and reprises their roles, and there is a new English dub. The new dub is much more accurate to the Japanese version of Dragon Ball Kai and while there are some recasts (most notably Gohan and Bulma) the dub is much better then the original DBZ dub.

One complaint people may have is that the DVD/Blu-rays are in 4:3 but the Japanese broadcast is in 16:9. You are not getting anything different here then what is offered on the Japanese Blu-ray/DVD releases as they are also in 4:3 aspect ratio.

Dragon Ball Kai is an excellent series if you don't feel like sitting through all of the fillers of Dragon Ball Z. Instead of waiting 30 episodes for the fight with Vegeta it begins at Episode 13 where this Season 1 Part 1 set ends at. This is a great way for new fans to get into the Dragon Ball universe and I would highly recommend you check out Dragon Ball Kai.

Edit: Dragon Ball Kai is currently estimated to be around 140 to 150 episodes compared to Dragon Ball Z which was originally 291 episodes.

Amazon.CA has by far the highest prices on almost every single ANIME item... Because i ended up buying DBZ KAI parts 2 and 3 at FUTURESHOP at a $7 difference for what they were being sold at amazon.ca.

please AMAZON.CA try to maintain your prices with the competition's prices in mind.

Dragon Ball Z Kai is in a way a "clip show" of the original Dragon Ball Z anime series.

There's new background music, new opening themes & ending themes, new eye-catchers (that are updated every few episodes), some new cast changes for both the English dub and Japanese version, and this series is more faithful to the manga (A.K.A. the original source material).

The picture is full screen (4:3) and this set includes the first 13 episodes. Seven episodes on disc one and six episodes on disc two.

English track is 5.1 sound, Japanese track is 2.0 stereo, plus the option of English subtitles.

Although I've watched the Japanese version that isn't my preference to view the show, so this review will mostly be about the English dub.

Cast changes for the English dub in these 13 episodes are:

- Gohan (now played by Colleen Clinkenbeard, previously played by Stephanie Nadolny)
- Bulma (now played by Monica Rial, previously played by Tiffany Vollmer)
- Oolong (now played by Bryan Massey, previously played by Bradford Jackson)
- Puar & Chiaotzu (now both are played by Brina Palencia, previously both were played by Monika Antonelli)
- Mr. Popo (now by Chris Cason, previously by Christopher Sabat)
- Turtle (now by Chris Cason, previously by Christopher Sabat)
- Narrator (now played by Doc Morgan, previously by Kyle Hebert)

While I prefer some of the former voice actors, the new ones are also fitting for the characters and after a while you get used to them.

Some of the infamous things the original Dragon Ball Z series was well known for were the long, repetitive, dragged out fights and episodes.

Dragon Ball Z Kai eliminated A LOT of that. By the end of episode 13 the story is part-way through the Goku vs. Vegeta fight. In the original Dragon Ball Z series there were a lot of filler (non-manga material) episodes and dragged out fights. The end of the Vegeta Saga (or Saiyan Saga) didn't end until episode 35 in the original series while in DBZ Kai it actually ends at episode 17.

The English voice actors who still voice the same characters have greatly improved from the dub of Dragon Ball Z, and IMO the dub cast is much better than the Japanese cast.

Purists will be happy to know that Funimation has stayed true to the original scripts and hasn't "Americanized" the series.

Dragon Ball Z Kai is also the first time the anime series has been available in High Definition.

Although most people like to own and collect Season Sets or Volumes with at least 20+ episodes, you may as well just buy these Part Sets.

You would have to wait YEARS for complete Season Set collections, plus having 13 episode half sets isn't that bad when you think about it. It's not like buying single DVDs that only have 4-5 episodes (e.g. Naruto: Shippuden) for the same price.

Most important of all is that these episodes are 100% uncut and unedited. The TV version shown on Nicktoons and Toonzai is censored and missing scenes of content; since the target audience on those channels are young children.

Not much for extras unfortunately. You have your creditless opening and ending themes plus some trailers for other shows.

If you're a hardcore fan of this amazing franchise you'll probably end up buying DBZ Kai sooner or later.

If your a new fan and don't want to "suffer" through the pacing of the original DBZ series, I strongly recommend Dragon Ball Z Kai.

5/5

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2.0 out of 5 stars They Overdid It!
I think my expectation toward this newly-revised classic series is just like everybody else hoping a better, faster and cleaner episodes of DBZ. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Mike J.

1.0 out of 5 stars Dbz kai
I was completely dissapointed in this new box set... The intro and the ending animation is amazing for the episodes, but i was led to believe that the whole series had been... Read more

Published 23 months ago by Constance D. Bouvier

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