Jan 18, 2021
As a relativly new anime fan I have a mental list of shows that are 'classics' with people of around my age, DBZ being one of them. Now I have (or had. thanks Pandemic) limited time so sitting through nearly 291 episodes, where the meme is that a single power up attack can take 4 episodes, didn't sound appealing. Then I heard about Kai. A cutdown, anti-fluff edit of a classic with cleaned up images and a newly recorded dub. I was sold and purchased the BluRays. Now onto the review.
The story was solid, a little childish (it is a kids show) but sometimes repetative
...
and drawn-out in places, while also being rushed in others. I'm not a big fan of action for the most part so some episodes just made me mentally wander off and read something while it was on in the background. Vs Frieza and Vs Cell had some fights which went on too long but out of the entire 97/98 episodes only about 10 were a struggle. As for stuff being fast there are years between some episodes expained away with a voiceover (as I understand DBZ has 'filler' material that covers this) which is a shame because between the action and melodrama some fluff would have been apreciated to build on the world a little. Overall the story had me somewhat invested and interested in what new way the characters would break physics and attempt to destroy the latest threat. 7/10
The animation was great. What can I say? I prefer 80s/90s animation over post 2010 'too clean' animation. The occasional scuff or missed outline just adds to the charm of the medium for me. The content of the show was more enjoyable than the opening or ad-break animation. As for the visuals they were great. Something that caught me off guard, in a good way, was the cut to black-and-white when something was very powerful. Knowing where people were, especially in a fight, in relation to eachother was very well done and I very rarly felt lost with what was happening. 8/10
I watched this dubbed as that is my prefered method. The voice acting was solid and all of the voices were distict from eachother so there was no confusion about who was who. Some actors had better acting range than others but that didn't bother me as I treated this as a kids Soap Opera where acting isn't always a prioity.
The music was good too. The repeated themes let you know if something was serious or being played for laughs and sounded good too. The opening sung by different people was fun and Yeah! Break! Care! Break! is a great ending theme. Wings of the Heart not so much. 8/10
Overall the remaster/recut version of DBZ is enjoyable and worth watching if you have limited time or a fond memory from childhood about the original but don't want to be stuck with 6 months of watching. It convinced me to pick up the whole Dragon Ball saga so once I'm finished with the second half I'll move onto the original Dragon Ball, then DBZ, GT and Super.
Overall 8/10 for this half.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
