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I’m watching 1 episode of Dragon Ball Kai (Dub) every night. It’s unfortunate that I learned about Akira Toriyama’s passing before I even finished the Saiyan Saga.

After completing the Saiyan arc, I can almost safely say that Kai is one of the best ways to enjoy DBZ. The content is almost the same as the manga, but they do include some filler such as the inclusion of Gregory, or Kami’s backstory, etc.
The removal of filler does have some drawbacks, although Piccolo’s friendship towards Gohan is more believable in the manga, it feels oddly rushed. However, Gohan’s increasing respect for Piccolo is for some reason ... was more understandable here, and this is probably due to the series showing more of Gohan caring for Piccolo than vice versa.

The animation redraws can range from being clean to really uncanny. The scene where Piccolo shoots a blast at Nappa comes to mind. Piccolo’s damaged body just looks like an extra layer of drawing that someone put over with Photoshop, and not to mention the vaseline-like texture to it.

But hey, I managed to get through the whole Saiyan Saga within 18 episodes. Some arcs from the original series and DBS can take up to 40+ eps. This is definitely looking up!

One last note: The Raditz hype feels so overhyped after seeing Nappa in action. “I HATE THE MEDIA!” will forever be the best line from Nappa in all of Dragon Ball media lol.

——

Continuing on from Episode 19 - 58 with the Namek/Ginyu/Frieza Saga.

I really felt the length/timescale of this arc as compared to reading the manga. There were numerous timeskips in the manga, and it felt more like Krillin, Gohan, and Bulma were on Namek for a day. Because I’m watching one episode a day, the story really felt ongoing. This also messed with my perception of the pacing for this arc too, as it did feel like they dragged a lot of moments.
This did give me time to reflect on this saga, more so how they could’ve gotten away from certain situations, for example when Vegeta was trying to force Vegeta into making him immortal, what if he secretly wished for Piccolo to be immortal so this way they don’t have to worry about Earth’s Dragon Balls.
Frieza is seen to have killed one of his soldiers, what if he was wished back too. I feel like there’s a funny spin off story there lol.
The friendship between Burter and Jeice feels forced from the fandom just because of their Purple Comet move, their skin colour, and them being a team in other media. In the anime they treat each other about the same as the other members.

There are a few things to note with how Kai handled this arc:
- So when they first introduce themselves to Dende, the dub has Dende saying he has “brothers & SISTERS”, but to then later contradict himself by saying that he doesn’t know what a woman is... In hindsight I should’ve switched to sub version to see if this was a dubbing error.
- I now understand more about the uncanny style of the redrawn scenes, not only does it miss extra layers of detail but easily juxtaposes with the hand-drawn scenes from the original. The original scenes have a grainy texture while the Kai redraws looks like it has the same quality as early One Piece. Also it doesn’t help that some scenes would’ve benefited from being redrawn than others, for example there was this Ken Burns panning shot of the Ginyu Force, but the zoom-in exposes the grainy late 80s texture. If they redrew that scene then there wouldn’t have been an issue. Lastly on this topic, Toei redrew the scene from when the Namekians were wished to New Namek, and someone hilariously forgot to draw Piccolo’s headpiece - wasn’t the whole point of these redraws were to improve quality of the original scenes lol
- Surprisingly, Kai kept the filler episodes of Bulma body swapping with Frog Ginyu and Gohan fighting Frieza in-between his battle with SSJ Goku. I can’t see why they kept these episodes, like the filler with Gregory was probably needed just so they didn’t have to edit him out during episodes, but the others not so much. In fact, the Gohan vs. Frieza fight actually complicates things, because they have the hindsight of knowing that Gohan turns into SSJ in the time chamber because Goku instructed him to remember Frieza, well in the manga at least. So Gohan at that moment really should’ve transformed into a Super Saiyan, especially if he thought that his dad was killed.
- I always wondered where the “Super Dragon Soul” theme came from, because I’ve seen it played through numerous fan videos. No wonder why I could never find it, it only played when Goku came out of the healing pod and for a small moment. I would’ve preferred if this played during any moment between Goku and Frieza’s fight - even better during the Super Saiyan transformation.

Overall, I just think this arc was better experienced through the manga than on screen. However, if anyone wants to experience DBZ but they cba to read, then this version of the anime is still the best way to experience it. Episode 40 is where we see Frieza’s Final Form, meanwhile Episode 40 of the original anime shows them still in the hospital after the Saiyan arc. I made the right call here.

—

Can’t stress enough that the whole series should’ve looked like this. I’m not sure how much of the footage was remastered, and how much was redrawn but this looked good from beginning to end. The were no obvious transitions from late 80s grain-y footage to rushed re-drawings.
Also unlike the Frieza arc, this was well paced, and I believe they reduced the amount of filler by a whole lot (the only filler scene that I recall was Imperfect Cell fighting Krillin, and nothing much other than that).

Also this series patched a plot hole that was in the manga. When Trunks meets Goku for the first time, he warns him about 2 Androids. In the manga he specifically warns Goku of Androids #19 & #20, also he mentions that they killed Dr. Gero - but he’s shocked when he sees both of them 3 years later. They tried to chalk it up as a side effect of Trunks coming to the past, but it sounds like Toriyama forgot about that detail after his editor told him to change the villains over and over again. I tried to find an explanation for it, the best head canon explanation was that Trunks’s side effect of coming to the past caused a small ripple in the timeline, so #19 & #20 were meant to be different cyborgs, but Gero purposely downgraded them to energy absorbers, and then turned himself into #20 for extra precaution after the first time he shutdown #17 & #18. I saw someone saying that Trunks didn’t know their Android numbers, but when he tells Vegeta and the others what the others look like, he also mentions their mechanical numbers… it’s a straight up plot hole, and the anime fixed that by not even mentioning #19 & #20 in the beginning.

One aspect that was definitely lacking was the use of lyrical scores. The episode where Super Trunks fights Perfect Cell has one of my favourite moments just because of the Lone Warrior theme. Why not release a cover of Unmei no Hi: Tamashi tai Tamashi for when Gohan goes SSJ2?? Slight nitpick, I wished that they after Gohan turns SSJ2, they just leave the episode as a cliffhanger for dramatic effect - similar to what the original series did.

A regret that I had while watching this series is not peeking into the subbed version for any alterations that the dub has made. When Vegeta fights Android 18, he uses a Big Bang Attack and hit a truck and a truck driver. In the dub version they have the driver jokingly shout out about his damaged truck, while the sub has him not say anything because he died…
For some reason the dub tries to paint Vegeta less like a tyrant. Even during the Namek saga they have him saying to Gohan that he left the Namek villagers live, but then we know that they weren’t wished back by the dragon balls when they were all wished to Earth.

Overall for the Android arc, this is what Kai should’ve been!! Really good remastering, good redrawn animation that is reminiscent of the original anime, and lacks of animation errors.

——

In terms of Dragon Ball Z Kai as a whole, I would mark this as probably Number 2 in terms of experiencing the franchise (if it means skipping OG Dragon Ball). No. 1 still goes to the manga, and No. 3 is Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.

I’m going to watch the Final Chapters in Dub, but sad to know that they didn’t do any re-drawings, and there’s a green tint on it. Also annoying to know that they messed with the episode structure, so there’s a bunch of episodes that they made and then removed because they were filler. Lastly, not to mention that the dub/global blu-ray only has one fixed opening and ending theme…

I think I read a few pages of this online, but still surprised that the manga never got a re-release in the West.
My only knowledge of this series is the Beelzebub cameo in Dragon Ball: Multiverse, and playing 30mins of the Sand Land game demo.

I know Toriyama is notoriously popular for Dragon Ball, but I really hope that this series shines on his comedic side because his lighthearted storytelling was one aspect that made his stories feel so enjoyable.
There are so many fan projects that focuses on the edgy side Dragon Ball that it comes across as cringey, and Dragon Ball: Daima’s negative reception ... mainly stems from its goofy premise. I really hope the animation studio does this series justice.

Episode 1:
A fun start to a series. Nice (kinda) nods to media such as Mad Max, and that desert dragon sequence really gave off Dune vibes (which fits perfectly with Dune 2 just recently being released lol).

All the characters seem very fun, and the audition scene showcases them hilariously. But I do want to know more about the sheriff.

The animation is a bit of a mix bag. Sometimes it looks good, however there are times in which I wish they stuck with traditional 2D animation. The fight scene in the end did feel like it exposed a lot of the 3D animation.

One thing I noticed was how the world layout was similar to Toriyama’s Pink manga. Both worlds being set in a desert wasteland, where water is barely visible, and one of the main cast members is a sheriff. I wonder if this means that the King was responsible for all the rivers and seas drying up, and is in control of the climate hmm…
4/5

Episode 2:
Honestly not much really happens. It’s cool to see hints of Beelzebub’s strength, but really this is just like a filler ep.

The animation in the beginning was also a bit rough. You can see the motion capture in full effect, along with the purposeful chopped up frames - and all it does is make the series seem less animated. For example, Spider-Verse has moments where they have choppy frames but they also keep the 24fps for smaller movements.

The reveal of the plane carrying the water is making me question the theory of whether the king can control the climate, but we’ll see.

Kinda interesting that Commander Zhu has the same Kano mask and beret like that one Pride Trooper from Dragon Ball Super.
3/5

Episode 3:
Things are really kicking into gear now! Gaining background info about the sheriff and his wife really changes my view of solely seeing it as a gag anime. I noticed that his wife was playing a guitar, like how he was playing one during the intro - things are connecting here.

I’m also interested in Beelzebubs’ abilities, because they’re clearly hinting something just from that scene with him in the dark.

My main gripe with the episode is why the sheriff never chose to expose what the king and commander did to the water plantation people. I understand that it would just make the story shorter, and would cause people to switch sides, but surely there’s a way of writing it around so that he’d say everything and maybe people won’t believe him??
4/5

Episode 4:
Looks like the general is already switching sides, and maybe the swimmers will too. This felt kind of sudden, but I also recently heard that Toriyama wanted to end the series quickly do he didn’t have to keep drawing the tank lol.

The action sequences were good, but the running animation has the same problem that the The Flash (2023) has - if you’re showing a character running and the environment is panning fast, then make sure that the character’s movements are also fast otherwise they don’t have super speed, they have super distance.
3.5/5

Episode 5:
I got tired and forgot to immediately review this episode after watching it. I recall it being pretty decent, and I really want to see Are and Shiva reunite again. I’m hoping to see the full extent of Beelzebub’s true strength really soon.
3.5/5

Episode 6:
This episode really felt like a season finale. We got the reveal of Belz’s strength, Shiva finally getting his revenge on Zeu, and the water returning to Sand Land. I’m really curious as to what else is there next?
I know from now on it’ll be new stuff that never made it into the manga, so let’s see where it goes.
4/5

Episode 7:
I see why they would only release the first episode for what we can consider to be season 2, so fans who have already read the manga get a tease of something new to come. But man, I really want to see where eps 8 - 13 leads.

I would genuinely consider this to be my favourite episode, and partially due to this being Toriyama’s latest work, and his narrative isn’t so restrictive to trying to corners now due to an animation studio doing the work for him.

I love the setup for what’s to come, Forest Land looks cool, the angel vs. demon looks almost as fun as Toriyama’s Go! Go! Ackman, and I want to know more about the history about the 2 lands.
5/5


(Mid Season) Overall:
This was a fun journey. There were a lot of things that I did not expect, like the story’s tone, the protagonist role’s between Belz and Rao, and the fast pacing of the series.

I really hope the animation is cooking with what is basically Toriyama’s 2nd last project. I’m also curious with what the game will do, like will it be just an adaptation of this story, something original???

Lastly… Beelzebub for Sparking Zero.
4/5

Episode 8:
So far this is going strong! I really like the dynamic between Belz and Ann, and them questioning Belz’s fiendish antics lol.

Even small things like seeing everyone (including Rao) having fun in the water really adds enjoyment to this episode.

My main nitpick, that ending was extremely abrupt, like it was unintentional. I really wanted to see Belz fight that angel (who I’m presuming is a fallen angel considering the lack of wings).
4.5/5

Episode 9:
I wasn’t really enthused by this episode. The 3D animation really shows off its issues through Bred’s movements.

The Swimmers kinda save the episode for me.
3/5

Episode 10:
They kinda relaxed the 3D on this episode, and it looked nice.

I’m so glad that we got the Angel’s backstory, and kinda surprising that his intentions aren’t as malicious as I thought it would’ve been. Pretty ironic that Lucifer of all people removed his wings lol.

The reveal of Lady Lilith as Belz’s sister is actually pretty cool, although I don’t think there were hints of that happening. I liked how her costume resembles Towa from Dragon Ball: XenoVerse, which ties with Lucifer’s design with Dabura.
4/5

Episode 11:
This episode wasn’t so bad, but nothing really happened until the end.

The ending really reminded me of one of the chapters from Go! Go! Ackman! when the angel decides to workout so he can beat up the demon. I love it when Toriyama's stories ends up being the inspiration for another.
3/5

Episode 12:
I forgot to review to this episode because I got sick. I recall it being alright, and enjoyed Muniel’s Janemba styled transformation lol.
3.5/5

Episode 13:
What a way to end the series. It’s not incredibly mind blowing, but it’s satisfying seeing Belz get the one up on Muniel. And it’s nice to see Ann reunite with her mum. I would’ve liked to see how Lilith gets along with Belz and Lucifer in that family dynamic, or just learn why we Lilith never mentioned Ann to Lucifer. Introducing the king of Forest Land in the last episode is more odd than bold, some part of just thinks that he was meant to be in General Bred’s place or something.

So not only does Sand Land have a river but it has rain again, kinda like the ending of Toriyama’s Pink! I’ll never get tired of thinking about his past work.
4/5


Second half season score:
3.5/5


Overall:
Although I have hammered in on episodes for the 3D animation, Toriyama’s vision has heavily carried this series. The mixture of a gag/serial really makes it fun to digest the series while exploring the characters within it. I doubt we’ll see these characters again, but man were they great.

Now I just have to wait for Viz to decide to reprint the original manga, and I also need to unbox the collector’s edition of the Sand Land Game and actually play it (for the past week my home has been having power outages, and I’ve been ill so it makes it that much harder to find time to play).

If Sand Land is this good, then I have high hopes for Dragon Ball: Daima!!

I’ve read the One Shot manga from Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater, and Saving Solider Cashman is my favourite out of all of them. I was surprised to find out that it was adapted into an OVA, but disappointed by how quick it was.

The OVA doesn’t elaborate who Cashman is, how he was stuck on Earth, or how he inherited someone else’s body. But for the most part it was alright, like it doesn’t take a scientist to figure what his role in the story is.

I was also surprised that the animation had a Dragon Ball GT look to it too, but I guess the ... late 90s does that to Toriyama’s work.

The original manga ended within 3 or 4 chapters, but I like the idea that every time Cashman is close to getting the required gold/salary he needs to leave Earth, there’s always something that gets in the way to prevent from doing it. Like there’s a good 12 episodes anime series that could be made from this, and depending on the reception, I can see another season as well.

Felt like recording my thoughts on this series. I’ve seen summary videos explaining the Tekken timeline, and I haven’t properly played any of the games so I’m interested in seeing how they translate it into an anime. Plus whether someone like me would like this series.

Episode 1:
Not bad. Not the most original story so far but no real complaints here. Just waiting for the Kuma cameo still.
3.5/5

Episode 2:
Pretty cool training montage. I wish they explained who Jin’s walking with outside of training, and who his sparring partner is (not Heihachi).

The music is picking up, so that’s good.
...
Still no Kuma.
3/5

Episode 3:
Now they are cooking! It’s an exposition dump episode but it’s cool to see the other characters from the game appear. Also the Kazuya reveal was cool to see.

No Kuma still!?!
4/5

Episode 4:
This is really just a fighting episode, and it ain’t bad.

Paul is fighting Kuma offscreen?!? NOOO!!! My only hope now is that we see King fight and if they mention the orphanage with the green screen children 😔
3/5

Episode 5:
We got King in action, or someone who is supposed to be King (will they ever clarify the whole imposter thing?? because I want to know if this guy is coming back home to his orphanage with green screen children).
Also we got a snippet of Kuma.

If I’m being brutal, these fights aren’t really captivating. Jin’s comeback didn’t feel like a comeback. It feels like when a gamer lost round 1 and then they decided to turn their hat around and all of a sudden they’re doing better than before.
I also wished we got a defined winner between Jin and Heihachi, but it was Ogre too soon.
3.5/5

Episode 6:
Well that felt anticlimactic.

Did they ever explain who/what Ogre was exactly?? It’s cool that he has another transformation just so it can trigger Jin’s Devil form, but that’s about it. In fact, why did Heihachi summon Ogre in the first place???

I have questions but through the looks of things these can only be answered with lore explanation videos, or if another season gets greenlit.
2/5


Overall:
For a Tekken anime I was hoping it would explore things that are outside of the gameplay. My Tekken knowledge hasn’t increased, and I feel like I have more questions than answers.

I wouldn’t be opposed to another season, but they gotta add more oomf into the fights, more sick OSTs (as a non Tekken fan, that game’s soundtrack is top notch) and also… KUMA!!

The year was 2017, The Last Jedi was yet to be released and I was studying Foundation Applied Physics & Engineering. At some point I was curious about exploring other anime genres and I wanted to watch a comedy. Although Ore No Imouto didn’t have the highest score, it just so happened to be on top of the comedy recommendations on this website at the time. I didn’t think much of it, and I thought that the English title and summarisation sounded innocent enough - this is where I realise that I’m an idiot.

The main character had major harem levels, and even dates a goth ... girl, yet he still chooses HIS SISTER??? WHAT?!? No joke, when he announced publicly that he’s in love with her I was so bewildered. I was even more confused when her friends were so accepting of it, even his goth ex was more than fine with it. HUHHHH?!?

I remember telling my 2 otaku friends about what I had just witnessed, and they both were just like “we could’ve warned you sooner lol”.
It’s been a while since I’ve been ridiculed for watching this anime, but at least now I know not to watch Eromanga Sensei.

I started watching Season 1 last year, in preparation for the “To The Swordsmith Village” film. I realised how little time I had to myself and the amount of episodes, so I stopped watching when they revealed Inosuke.

Decided to re-attempt watching the series again after noticing there was another film coming out this year. I now have more free time and decided to finish what I’ve started.

I heard that the series gets better after season 1, unfortunately there are over 20 episodes and it did feel draining to watch at times. The animation definitely carries this series, otherwise I feel like I’m watching a My ... Hero Academia AU, except the Deku in this scenario has less crying and more optimism.

It was lowkey embarrassing whenever my bro would walking into the room and it’s a scene of Zenitsu simping over a girl. Like, why couldn’t he just walk into a badass action sequence instead 😭

Hard to say that I really “liked” this film, but there’s definitely a lot to appreciate.

I watched this because its influence in pop culture (the one that springs to mind is the South Park Trapper Keeper episode). I now see it has more of a major influence, eg. the telekinetic experimentation on the kids heavily reminded me of Stranger Things.

The animation is fantastic, and it’s made me miss cel animation. The (almost) dystopian cyberpunk world is very visually pleasing.

The story gets crazy and really good when sh*t hits the fan! There’s a lot that I can take from this film, the early theories of ... capitalism and education, or the philosophical theories about life. I’m sure there’s loads of good video essays based on this.

My main drawbacks were that the characters weren’t that intriguing. I didn’t feel attached to Kaneda, Tetsuo, etc.
I had a hard time telling who is who, between Kaneda, Tetsuo, and especially Kay. The only way to distinct them was through clothing, but it was a challenge when Kaneda and Kay were wearing the same clothes.
At points I did lose track of the plot, so I was confused with why Kay and her gang were infiltrating the facility.

I’m trying to watch all of Demon Slayer before the new movie comes out. I tried to do this last year with the previous film but season 1 didn’t really have that hook to me (it genuinely came across as some sorta My Hero AU). I did hear good things after the first season, and I can say that this was more engaging to watch.

I don’t know how to feel about Rengoku’s death, probably because I was quick to label him as my favourite Hashira/character. And I did watch the first episode of season 2, and that definitely added impact to his character. 

The animation isn’t ... that much different from the anime, just wasn’t a huge fan of using CGI with 3D.

Well let’s see if I manage to catch up before the 3rd film comes out.

I also just found out that this is the Highest Grossing Japanese film for Worldwide, with $500,000,000+ in the international box office. AND IT WAS RELEASED IN OCTOBER 2020?!? HOW IN THE PANDEMIC ERA?!?!