Powerful

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I am proud to be a fan of Dragonball Z. This perfectly captures the spirit of the series just like the manga. As someone who frequently goes to Books-A-Million, I managed to read all the Dragonball Z manga volumes. I didn't get the episodes of the show on DVD or anything. I just watched them whenever they were on. It was really hard to catch them all because there were just so many of them. It's also great that this version is uncensored. Then again, I heard it's STILL technically a kid's show in Japan.It's probably just a different culture thing. Of course, this might just be the fact that it's airing on Adult Swim. It's easy to see this classic series done at a much better pace. I still love the original series. They even managed to work a little bit of filler into this show. It shows how anime works and what it is in its raw form. As I haven't most of the original episodes of the show, this was a real treat. ****

I've been a lover of Dragon Ball Z for most of my life. Z was my obsession through childhood and I remained an avid fan even as an adult. I've been there through the quirky Ocean Dub, the poorly-translated VHS fansubs, the garish orange bricks... Dragon Ball Kai isn't just the best version of Dragon Ball Z, it's the only version of Dragon Ball Z anyone should ever watch, for anything other than purely nostalgic reasons. DBZ was bogged down by a nearly unwatchable amount of filler. And I'm not even talking about filler story lines like Garlic Jr. or Goku fighting a star. What dragged Z down was the constant stalling: scenes of people powering up for two episodes straight, replaying the same scene of people staring at each other three times. Entire episodes pass with absolutely no progress on the primary storyline.But Dragon Ball Kai fixes all of this. The great fighting and exciting story of Dragon Ball Z is finally, for the first time ever as an anime, brought to its due glory. This is the Dragon Ball Z that should have existed from the very start, the definitive, superior version. Thankfully, the terrible new music turned out to be plagiarized, and Z's original soundtrack was restored. So truly the only thing that's better about Dragon Ball Z over Kai, are the opening and ending themes. Kai's new themes are cheesy and cliché', while Cha La and Zenkai Power were pretty cool. Admittedly, it's not 100% without flaws. The Saiyan Saga cuts out a smidge too much, and feels ever so slightly rushed, while the Cell Saga kept a smidge too much filler, and it's noticeable. But the Freeza Saga is perfect down to the very frame. To say that Dragon Ball Kai is better than Dragon Ball Z doesn't even do it justice. It's the only version of Dragon Ball Z that should exist. It makes me embarrassed to have held the original Z in such high regard. I used to take a blind eye to Z's innumerable flaws because I had such a history with it. But now that Kai has come out, and it is such a genuinely spectacular show, I'm proud to be a fan again.

Becoming a fan rather late into the game (After the original Toonami was dead and Gone), I thought I'd never have a chance to get to watch it. I started watching Z online, but the slow pace and constant filler breaks caused me to initially lose interest. Kai was the perfect remedy for that. After removing the filler, the end of the Cell arc of Kai was placed at 98 episodes. Literally HALF of the original's near 200. There still is filler (Gregory, the Frog Ginyu, and Mr. Satan's (Hercule in the Televised version) pupils) but far more condensed and only left in when the characters introduced could not be removed from the Animation. This made Dragon Ball Z Kai the extraordinary lightning-paced battle anime that you'd expect Z to have been. The majority of the English cast returned, with few exceptions where more fitting actors were found, or, in the case of Frieza, the old actors couldn't meet the Demand. The few changed actors are Incredible. Kai kept Frieza as the Chilling, Sadistic Villain he was in the Japanese version, and Chris Ayers provides the voice Talents to match.From what little I'd seen of Z, i knew the TV version was Censored, cutting out blood and, from the start of the Frieza arc, direct references to Death. But that was also solved with Funimation's release of Uncut DVDs. I was presently surprised to find that, along with mostly uncut footage (Some edits were made in Japan to fit new laws in place since it's original 1989 run), there was an uncut Dialogue track as well, reinstating all references to Death as well as introducing mild swears (Let this double as a warning to parents. If your seven-year-old son wants a copy of this Anime on DVD, you need to know this). This dispelled all rumors I'd hear that Kai was a just little kids show.All this was backed by an astounding new soundtrack, which I was saddened to hear was removed due to copyright infringement. (If you want as much of Kai with the removed score as possible, find the "Part" sets. the first four contain the Original Kai score)And those of you disappointed this version does not extend to the final arc, you will be pleased to know that it has been confirmed that it is in production, and is speculated to be released later this yearAll in all, I have to say that Kai is the best version of Dragon Ball Z yet. Aiming for new fans with a child-safe television dub, and catering to the old fans with its uncut DVD version. I was very pleased with it, and I think that if Old fans could take off their nostalgia goggles, they'd definitely agree.

I read the manga 13 years ago. This Dragon Ball kai is the what in TV was called Dragon Ball Z, from when Goku appears with his son Gohan. I've always disliked DBZ for the very frequent and boring fillers it contains (DBZ is more than 200 eps in total) and I wondered how a "serious" adaptation from the manga would be since I've enjoyed the manga very much. Now this surprise, I'm much older but it is fun to see Goku&Co adventures again. I've seen about 30 episodes so far and I think a good cut and paste of the original DBZ is being done, even if there are occasions when some little fillers are still present and maybe others when they cut too much (not real fillers) but it was probably necessary.So this is a very rare possibility to see a popular long anime without boring and useless fillers and anyway it is a still very good fast paced action-fighting anime with energy blast and flying characters even if it has obviously outdated animation (about 15-20 years).