The Series (4/5)

Akira Toriyama made manga history with his highly successful comic Dragon Ball, a comic action adventure series that follows the journey of a mysterious monkey kid named Goku, and his wacky pals. This series soon turned into a more action based series and an anime adaption was soon in production. The manga was split into two halves with the latter more action series being renamed Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball Z soon became one of the most popular action animes of all time. The show was a rating smash on American Television and helped form a big chunk of the mainstream anime fanbase here.

The series is a love it or hate it kind of deal thanks to the series large amount of filler episodes. These hilarious over long episode gaps soon gave the series a reputation as a dumb and over dramatic fighting show, where it takes a simple 5-minute fight 12 episodes of runtime. What tends to get over looked in the series is its outlandish mix of pop culture refrences, zany comedy, word puns, deep character moments, and Hong Kong influenced martial arts fighting.

Well in 2009, the series celebrated its 20^th anniversary. Toei Animation decided to remaster and edit the series into a new production that focused on the manga and would delete all the filler. The series eventually was called Dragon Ball Z Kai. Digital touch ups, remastered visuals, new framing for widescreen TVs, and a new soundtrack by Noritlito Sumitomo gave Dragon Ball a new and exciting life.

This set features episodes 99 thru 121, and is part of “the final chapters” of the series. Episode 99 starts a new story line with Goku’s son, named Gohan entering High School and trying to be a normal kid. Life starts to get weird when he decides to become a part super hero and save the area around his new school. From there the show starts to kick in with the ultimate reveal of a new villain for the series, Majin Buu, an evil spirit of ultimate destruction. 

What’s neat about Kai is it feels like a refresher course. The series feels new and it’s a good gateway for newbies to anime to experience DBZ without all the extra filler. The scripts are also tighter and feature smarter dialogue and the character development and comedy works better. This batch of episodes does a good job of reintroducing characters, setting up a new villain, a blooming new relationship, and of course wacky action.

Audio/Video (5/5)

For a new series, this Funimation release is near perfection with the audio mix and video transfer. The first language track is the Dolby True HD Japanese 2.0 mix. The sound mix is smooth and has a crisp sound to everything. The music, the effects, and the dialogue all sound natural. There’s no noticeable errors or hiss. The English Dolby True HD 5.1 mix is slightly louder, but again the mix is spot on and clear. Of the two I personally prefer the original Japanese, but the English dub is solid. Easy to read English subtitles are included.

The 1080p HD transfer is another beauty. The black levels are smooth and the picture is vivid and full of life. The colors poop off the screen and the restoration work and touch ups give the series new life. The action is clear and easy to follow.

Extras (4/5)

The set is full of neat extras. First up is a video commentary on episode 112. There’s also textless opening and closing credits music/ songs, and a trailer gallery.

Overall (4/5)

 Dragon Ball Z Kai is a good intro to action anime for people who may be scared off by the original’s length and filler arches. Funimation gives this set a fantastic transfer and it delivers the goods. Highly Recommended.