Dragon Ball Kai

Watched thru the Saiyan Saga then tapped out. I do think the tightened pacing is a top shelf idea (the original show’s brutal length and filler is why I’ve never rewatched it since it finished airing over 20 years ago despite being a fan of the lore and characters). But man, I just CAN’T watch DBZ without Bruce Faulconer’s score. Call me a dumb American, yeah I know it’s not in the original show, but it’s just wrong; it’s like watching Star Wars scored with Jerry Goldsmith Star Trek music.

Hard to believe I actually made it through all this (yeah, my standards for mung media are dropping like flies). Even this abridged version is consistently eye-rollingly tedious crap, but I found one thing to admire, which is the occasionally powerful use of music in the series. There are great musical themes that re-occur (particularly in the Buu saga, which is otherwise the worst) and some legitimately affecting sequences in the Frieza saga.

s1 75, s2 74, weighted average

S1 77.8, S2/Final Chapters 77.6

rvw. there's a lot of sentimental stuff i miss. but this still just does a lot of stuff worse. most arcs i would do a mix of Kai and Uncut, mostly uncut for my fav stuff. the saiyan saga just doesnt feel as good, raditz is better with his old lines. same with giddy up buckaroo frieza. music gets better when it's more kekuchi and sumitomo. buu saga shoulda cut more and goku sounds bad too often. kid gohan's voice might be the worst

the pacing is much better but it's negated by using the Japanese score over Faulconer's masterpiece.

If you really want to get into Dragon Ball / Anime in general, Dragon Ball Z kai is a great series to start with, the animation is top notch especially for the time of release, the show also has a perfect blend of epic action and light hearted fun. The story is really well paced and nothing ever feels like it's dragging on, it's no surprise that dragon ball is popular after watching this.