Dragon Ball Kai

Remastering

The original Dragonball Z series was infamous for being filled with episode long power up sequences and a great deal of filler. The main reason for this was that Toei Animation was creating the anime concurrently with the manga and would often catch up to Akira Toriyama. Since there was no way to overtake the manga, the series would extend certain scenes a great deal, or just add filler scenes, such as the infamous driving school episodes. The filler bumped up the series to a paltry 291 episodes, that was released in Japan, fully remastered frame by frame, in a box set known as the Dragonbox. This series was later released in North America as well in its entirety.

Vegeta recolored in Kai!

Toei Animation then announced that they would be remastering the series once more for high definition. What this entailed was going through the original film prints and cleaning up any dirt or scratches that had accumulated over time as well as fully redrawing some scenes. Other scenes were recolored to become more consistent with the series later on. For example in the first couple of episodes Piccolo's blood was red, where as it was later established that Namekian blood was purple. Another example of this is the awkward coloring of Vegeta prior to his first landing on earth. The biggest difference however was that Kai was to be cut down from 291 episodes to around 100, thus eliminating the extended power up sequences and filler episodes.

The series received some flak however, when Toei not only cut out filler scenes, but also some scenes that were canonical and in the original manga. The blood and violence was also toned down a noticeable amount. An example of this is when Piccolo shoots a beam through Goku and his brother Raditz, the hole is no longer shown as the beam passes through but instead it more closely resembles a bruise. Aside from the violence certain scenes received a bit of censorship, notably, Goku as an infant was censored so that his private area was no longer visible.

Not only was the video remastered, but so was the audio. The majority of the voice actors returned to reprise their roles, and because of this, so mistakes with the dialogue were also corrected. An example of this would be during the Vegeta saga, Gohan yelled Kamehameha, when his hand was in fact in the Masenko attack position. The music was also re-scored by composer Kenji Yamamoto.

Aspect Ratio Confusion

Goku censorship!

When the Kai series originally aired on Japanese televisions in was cropped to 16:9 widescreen, which left many wondering why this was done. It was in fact done, because widescreen was a requisite for Japanese television stations to air modern anime shows. When the DVDs and Blu-ray discs were released however, a whole other question was brought up. The DVDs were in the widescreen that aired on television, however the Blu-ray discs reverted back down to 4:3 full screen; a move which left many scratching their heads. It turns out that the show was still intended to be shown 4:3, but were cropped for the television broadcasts. The new opening and endings were animated with that in mind, however, the shows has been intended for 4:3, thus the Blu-ray discs maintain what Toei considers to be the correct aspect ratio for the series.

North American Release

RELEASED

Nicktoons?!

Not long after it's release in Japan, Funimation announced that it had picked up the rights to Kai and would be re-dubbing the entire series with a script that more closely resembled the Japanese script. Most voice actors returned and reprises their roles such as Sean Schemmel as Goku. (Although some voices have changed up)The series was renamed Dragonball Z Kai in North America so as to have better brand recognition, and the first DVD and Blu-ray discs were slated for release on May 18th 2010.

Dragonball Z Kai would also be airing on television on the Nicktoons station, and it was also later announced that it would be airing on the CWKIDS station as well. It has been announced that it will premiere on August 14, 2010.

Openings and endings

The DBZ Kai opening has been chosen to be sung by

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news	Review: Dragon Ball Z Kai Volume One Blu-ray	GMan

Season/Ep#		Airdate
1 - 1	The Curtain Opens on the Battle! Son Goku Returns 闘いの幕開け！帰ってきたぞ孫悟空 (Tatakai no Makuake! Kaette Kita zo Son Gokuu)	04/05/2009
1 - 2	The Enemy is Goku's Older Brother!? The Secret of the Saiya-jin, Strongest of Warriors 敵は悟空の兄！？最強戦士サイヤ人の秘密 (Teki wa Gokuu no Ani!? Saikyou Senshi Saiya-jin no Himitsu)	04/12/2009
1 - 3	A Battle with Their Lives on the Line! Goku and Piccolo's Fierce Suicidal Attack 悟空とピッコロ最強タッグ！激闘ラディッツ戦（仮） (Inochi wo Kaketa Tatakai! Gokuu to Pikkoro Sutemi no Moukou)	04/19/2009
1 - 4	Son Goku Runs in the Afterlife! The Million Kilometer Snake Road 孫悟空が死んじゃった…あの世とこの世のキビしい修行！（仮） (Anoyo de Hashire Son Gokuu! Hyaku-man Kiro no Hebi no Michi)	04/26/2009
1 - 5	Wilderness Survival! The Moon Awakens Gohan 荒野のサバイバル！月夜が悟飯を呼び覚ます (Kouryou no Sabaibaru! Tsuki ga Gohan wo Yobisamasu)	05/03/2009

Name	Dragon Ball Kai
Name:	ドラゴンボール改「カイ」
Romaji:	Doragon Bōru Kai
Publisher	Toei Animation
Start Year	2009
Genres	Add a new genre Action Adventure Fantasy Science Fiction Kids Comedy
Themes	Add a new theme Aliens Fighting Futuristic Martial Arts Outer Space
Aliases	DBK DB:Kai DragonBall Z Kai DBZ: Kai

Goku first in Bulma and Son Goku	34
Krillin first in Goku's Rival? Appears!!	33
Gohan first in The New Threat	33
Vegeta first in Reunions	28
Frieza first in A Tough New Enemy! Emperor of the Universe, Freeza	23
Piccolo first in Nyoibo's Secret	22
Bulma Briefs first in Bulma and Son Goku	21
Dende first in Goku's Power Full-Force!! 6 Days to the End of the Galaxy	12
Chiaotzu first in The Violent Monster Inoshikacho	11
Tenshinhan first in The Violent Monster Inoshikacho	11