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.

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.

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.

From a personal point of view, "Dragon Ball Z Kai" is one of the most entertaining shows on television. I will admit that I am not a fan of Japanese animation, nor have I, until recently, been an avid fan of the "Dragon Ball" franchise. I had a friend in high school who loved "Dragon Ball Z," and I saw a part of one episode when it aired on Saturday morning on KTLA back in 1997. My local cable provider did not provide Cartoon Network until about 2002, so I missed most of what American fans saw of "Dragon Ball Z." I had mixed feelings about "Z" when I started seeing full episodes. I found the serialized form in which episodes were shown---in the style of a soap opera---difficult to follow and to enjoy. You have to commit to watching the show for weeks for it to make sense. The villain could take fifty episodes to vanquish. Only serious fans could watch "Z" on a regular basis; all others would find the series tedious and boring. I liked some of what the show had to offer for a while, but found the long storyline hard to enjoy after several weeks."Dragon Ball Z Kai," which is an abridged version of the original "Z", is far more enjoyable simply because it has less episodes than the original show to follow. The fights against the foes seem to conclude more quickly and the plot flows much more smoothly. Much of what I like about "Kai" has to do with the voice over artists who voice the main characters. My favorite is Christopher Sabat's rendition of the villain Vegeta; this actor portrays the extraordinarily powerful super-villain with a confident, worldly, and cocky attitude, expressed with a raspy voice that emanates the sneering arrogance that defines the character. Goku's sweet-sounding voice is a stark contrast to Vegeta, embodying the former's nobility and innocence. Since the fights are more concise than the show's previous incarnation, they feel quicker-paced and are therefore more intense.While some parental groups may object to the violence of this program, it does have important themes and lessons to teach children. The heroes, in particular the main protagonist, Goku, do not win against their foes easily, and are therefore encouraged to persevere and work their hardest to win again against their enemies (the Wikipedia page on "Dragon Ball" enumerates the moral lessons one is intended to draw from the comic book in which "Dragon Ball" was published). When Goku is vanquished by his first enemy early in the series, he is undeterred, and, rather than giving up, decides to train harder than before to fight even more challenging enemies. The heroes' love for family and friends, as well as feelings of compassion for enemies, seem to overcome the lust for power the enemies have. Parent's ought to give "Dragon Ball Z Kai" a chance, and determine if there is merit for their children based on the themes stated above.Grown-ups may find this show rather unsophisticated plot-wise, and will find the fact that characters provide frequent exposition about plot developments to be annoying; in other words, the show tells you what is going on rather than showing it through action. I think adults will be drawn to "Kai's" action sequences, and these might make up for the forced exposition provided by characters. In spite of the "telling" rather than "showing", I dug "Kai's" storyline, action scenes and basic themes. This latest incarnation of "Dragon Ball" is better than what I saw on Cartoon Network. I'm hooked, and I'll watch it when I have a chance.