CXCVI: "Dragon Ball Z Kai"

I gotta head to Katsucon tomorrow for table shifts, so what better time than now to do an anime review before that day? This time it's another mainstream title that has been redone, becoming the talk of the net for both good and bad. That's right, we're digging in another Toei work, and one of the famous ones that's been redone time and again, focusing on the latest incarnation: Dragon Ball Z Kai.

Those familiar with the background of the story knows what characters are involved. The sequel to Dragon Ball, Goku has grown up to be a loving defender, friend, and following the end of Dragon Ball, a husband and father. However, the Dragon Balls still exist as well, and that's the only reason evil needs to reveal its ugly head. Taking the mantle once more, Goku, Krillin, and a few other familiar faces that have grown, reprise their roles as the Earth's final defense, with his son Gohan dishing some punishment as well (much to the chagrin of his mother, Chichi.) Any other details can be found in my general Dragon Ball series review, found in post XIX.

Dragon Ball Z Kai lasts for 98 episodes total, 97 main and 1 EXTRA episode in the dub, though in the original Japanese Dragon Ball Kai series, it's episode 98, the true final episode. Unlike before, it ends with the Cell Saga, as all production ceased after the last episode's creation. Plus with all the filler material taken out, the episodes are significantly shorter, focusing more on the action this time around. As when the majority of Dragon Ball Z had a music score dune by Bruce Falconer, Keiji Yamamoto took that role for DBZ Kai, at least for the majority of the series. The latter few episodes would have the score from Shunsuke Kikuchi of the original Dragon Ball Z, reprising his musical role for the latter few episodes. This happened because of a copyright infringement scenario Toei Animation caught wind of, as Yamamoto cited his music score from an undisclosed third party source, thus he was taken off of DBZ Kai as composer (which means that probably for DBZ in general, he isn't composing for any more games either, as this incident was known back from May of 2010.) One track I remember him for was the Ginyu Force theme "Take the Stage! Ginyu Special Squad!" (the song plays when the Ginyu Force introduce themselves to Frieza, and only has the words "Ginyu Force Rules!" in the dub) in DBZ Kai.

The theme is Dragon Soul, while sung solo in the original by Takayoshi Tanimoto, in the dub, various voice actors sing different versions, in the order of Sean Schemmel, Justin Cook, Vic Mignogna, Greg Ayres, Sonny Strait, and Brina Palencia. The aforementioned voice actors respectively voice the roles for Goku (Schemmel), Raditz (Cook), Burter/Broly (Mignogna), Guldo (Ayres), Krillin (Strait), and Chiaotzu (Palencia). Speaking of voice acting, the dialogue is redone to fit it closer to the original script, and with using the experience gained in past experiences, Funimation once again licensed and dubbed the series, with recurring voice actors delivering better performances. There are a few changes however, as Palencia replaces Monika Antonelli for Chiaotzu's voice, Tiffany Vollmer is replaced by Monica Rial as the voice of Bulma, and Gohan would no longer be voiced by Stephanie Nadolny. Instead, Colleen Clinkenbeard voices both his child and teen versions, while she also replaces Meredith McCoy as the voice of Android 18.


Dragon Ball Z Kai got its mix of lovers and haters, but for a revision of the popular anime, it's well deserving for the praise it received. I won't say it's the best anime in general, but of all the time it has been remade, it's the best one I've seen as of yet, scoring an 8 of 10.