Follow me at Twitter! / hensama24 Beginning a new series, I take a look at all the changes Nicktoons made to Dragon Ball Z Kai when it broadcast in the early 2010's. This video covers the first half of the Saiyan Arc. Episodes 1-8.
Funnily enough, they didn't censor the movies. I remember watching Fusion Reborn and they said hell and damn. 10 year old me was so nervous i'd get in trouble.
I just find it a bit funny how when Raditz instructs Goku to kill 100 people and to “stack” the bodies on the beach, the actual horrific imagery isn’t censored but rather just the word “kill”. It still paints an extremely gruesome image, as the change to “annihilate” has no effect on anything.
That's why I've always respected the Nicktoons edit. They didn't give a fuck, they just abided by the laws lol. Seriously though, I appreciate that they respect the intelligence of their viewers. Raditz' request is a key plot element.
Technically the “stack the bodies here on the beach” line was changed, but slightly and it still gets the same general idea across. For starters, the uncut version has Raditz tell Goku to “slaughter” 100 humans with the NickToons version using the word “annihilate”. Considering the English word “annihilate” literally means to either destroy or kill someone or something in an over the top fashion, I think that word was the perfect censorship choice since it’s technically less serious than “slaughter,” but still just as threatening depending on the context. The 4Kids version just used the generic “eliminate”. The next line: “Once you get a taste for it, feel free to kill more! And just stack the bodies here on the beach!” That was the uncut version. Both 4Kids and NickToons use: “It should be an easy job once you set your mind to it! Just stack them here on the beach!” Both lines are perfect in my opinion. The “get a taste for it” implies the Saiyens are bloodthirsty killers which they are. The censored line, “it should be an easy job once you set your mind to it!” also implies that they’re bloodthirsty warriors/killers since they do this for a living, so once they get the hang of fighting and killing people, it’ll be easy! The one thing I find hilarious left in the censored versions, especially the 4Kids one, is how Master Roshi says Goku would never “hurt” anyone instead of “kill,” with Raditz’s original threat towards Gohan being changed to him taking Gohan instead of killing him, but even the 4Kids version leaves in the line “I could take him right now and Kakorot won’t have to get his hands dirty!” Considering “getting one’s hands dirty” is often used as a metaphor for murdering people in cold blood since cold hearted murderers often are covered in blood, it’s kind of hilarious that 4Kids scrubs all death references and yet leaves that in. Even NickToons would ease up at some points on censorship related to death.
Honestly, the Ocean dub has more personality than most of FUNimation’s dubs. Like, name actual better voice actors in Z Kai that aren’t Sean Schemmel or Sonny Strait.
The nicktoons Kai really is special to me. I remember when it first started airing and all me and all my friends at my elementary school would talk and analyze each episode when they’d come out at the lunch table. It was kinda our first introduction to Japanese animation, and we were just blown away by how much effort was put into it. Vs the mostly one off cartoons we had here in America. It was awesome, its what really got me into the genre.
Hey, this isn’t actually too bad. There are some unnecessary changes, yes, but the story still stays consistent, and you can tell what’s happening without it being clearly implied.
To be fair, the Nicktoons censored version is far better than the Toonzai version, so much so that despite its TV-Y7 rating, it treated its audience with respect, not showing graphic or death scenes in full, but subtle enough for kids to understand.
I sadly watched the CW 4Kids version as a kid.... In Canada Nickelodeon didn't have DBZ Kai so the only way i chould watch it was on the CW every Saturday morning at 9AM
What's worth noting, as I see this misconception all the time, Nickelodeaon did *NOT* edit these epsisodes, Funimation and Ocean did. Funimation recorded TV safe lines at the same time as the uncut lines, and based off the credits, Ocean did visual edits. Funimation then sold the edited version to various stations in multiple English speaking countries. I'm pointing this out because if Kai had aired on Cartoon Network in the US, no one would complain about these edits, because Z featured very similar edits.
Huh this is interesting to know. This would explain why when NickToons aired the DBZ movies, there were little to no censorship edits because they were never responsible for the edits in the first place.
@@CluelessCarter Well as far as I'm aware, Nicktoons' airing of the movies were based on the edited Toonami airings with a few minor additional edits of their own. Though on their airing of Fusion Reborn, all they did was take out the Hitler scenes, but other than that, the movie was completely uncensored on Nicktoons. Meaning it still has scenes where the word "hell" was used, and it still had that scene of Fat Gogeta sticking up the middle finger.
*MY PARENTS STILL DIDN'T WANT ME TO WATCH THE LATE 2000's NICKELODEON KAI DUB.* Why? because the not even the ultra censored version with the hole style wounds and purple/black "blood" was still blood and therefore not suitable for a 12 year old -__- . I, for the first time, somehow got a hold of my fathers work laptop, and "hid" within my pillow fort in order to watch it in peace!!!! :') good ass times man
It's definitely much better than the old Saban dub, it never tried to pretend people didn't die. It didn't directly show Dende's brother dying, but it didn't act like he didn't either, it's implied. Dende's smoldering corpse is just straight up shown, uncensored.
IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A VIDEO LIKE THIS! I remember forever ago emailing Nicktoons asking if the Z Kai they aired is the original or a censored one, I wanted to show my brother who was too young for regular Dragon ball the show but I couldn’t find the information and Nick never got back to me. I WANTED TO GIVE THEM MONEY FOR THE SHOW BUT NOOOOO! So I was watching the DVD version and with so many things I was like “I don’t remember it this way” it was very interesting still. Thanks for making the video!
I grew up with the nicktoons broadcast when I was 8-10 years old. Never even thought about censorship or anything. Loved the show. Also never knew that Vic sang dragon soul. That’s absolutely hilarious to me
this was the first time i ever watched DBZ, on nicktoons. it wasnt bad, cause i was 10 or 11 at the time. But these days i just watch the uncut version.
Wait... do some people really think that Kai is actually a butchered version of the series? Like, they think the Nicktoons or Toonzai version is just how it is?
Yeah even to this day you would be very surprised to see how much misinformation is out there about Kai. there is a good chunk of people that still think Kai is a heavily censored version of dbz I see it everywhere in RU-vid comments and on Reddit
Nicktoons Kai was what really got me into Dragon Ball, I'll never forget how hype it was going through the saiyan saga for the first time and listening to that banger opening theme.
Apparently HBO Max Latin America has the Nicktoons edit of DBKai available to stream so that's one place to grab that version in good quality and without channel logos. Though the TVrips still look decent enough at least. Keep up the good work
Because it’s the only version of Kai that got broadcasted here, which pisses me off because I wanted to see the uncut version Even the preview images of the episodes in the platform have the uncensored scenes At least The Final Chapters is totally uncut
Little fun fact this is how I got into Dragon Ball in the first place And then when I was watching the uncut version I was like really super hard-core into Dragon Ball
Just finished the video, it was excellent! Really looking forward the future episodes! I hope you point out the three (as far as I'm aware) instances where they used the uncut lines on Nicktoons and the TV-safe lines on the uncut release ;)
Growing up with the original English dub airing of Z from Ocean and Funimation, i remember hating Kai for all the censorship for years and just refused to watch it. It wasn’t until a couple years ago I was given a dvd copy of season 1 that I decided to give it another chance. Needless to say I was happy I did.
I honestly find it weird that the Nicktoons version has words like “kill” and “die” removed when, unlike the ocean version, they don’t obfuscate the fact that characters die. They don’t get “sent to another dimension” or anything like that and they still die in the plot. Death still happens in the show, so it feels weird when they cut out references to death in their dialogue. It’s almost like the word “death” and the word “kill” are more taboo than actually seeing a character kill another character or a character die.
Those words were sometimes used in the first quarter of the Nicktoons run and other times replaced, much like the Z dub on Cartoon Network, but when TheCW started airing the show the censored lines had to be watered down even further, which affected the Nicktoons run, sadly.
My theory is that they anticipated kids quoting the show / re-enacting the scenes, don't want them running around screaming "I'm gonna kill you!" and stuff
I remember the DragonBall Z Kai theme more becuase it's the only dbz I was exposed to as a kid. I rewatched the original DBZ and seen everything I missed out on.
Hulu just added Kai and it’s really weird how they handled it. Far in between, some episodes had the censored nicktoons version but others are uncut. I am really not sure why that was the case.
I was just watching some DB Kai and I noticed that too. It's so strange too cuz the quality is so much worse footage wise but it'll just randomly switch to HQ uncut footage by the next episode. Perhaps they weren't given the right material by TOEI? Strange. Regardless, I teared up in a good way when I realized that ☺️
Interesting, I only watched nicktoons Kai after the Frieza saga. I thought toonzai was the only version available. That dub took forever for syndication though. It was probably during the third run through of the saiyan saga I decided to look for other channels with dragon ball and I stumbled on a nicktoons marathon and caught it just in time to see the episode where trunks shows up. And would watch that dub weekly. Only real ones remember the disappointment after that “special episode” of trunks going back to his timeline to defeat the androids and nicktoons replacing the time slot with some voltron show.
to be honest, a lot of the line reads and changes go harder than in the original. if i could, i would cut out some parts of the original and replace them to make the perfect DBZ kai experience
@@matt0044There's one line read from Vegeta in the Frieza saga. Normally, he says, "That was no clock! That was a damn radar!" He says this relatively angrily, but it sounds like he's still coming to the realization. The Nicktoons version has him scream out, "That was no clock! The punk had a radar!" He says this so much more aggressively. There's also the "Over 8000" line read sounding more subdued (to match lip flaps) while Nicktoons' "Over 9000" sounds more similar to the original, where he screams it.
The only censorship I remember was Goku and Raditz death and most I remember was the eye part when Piccolo killed Raditz. The only censorship I see more often was the eyes stuff. The part where I remember where Piccolo killed Raditz after finish talking. I know the NickToons version has him with his eyes open completely white. While in the Toonzai were closed
A lot of people I have met seem to think that this version shouldn't have even existed. I disagree. Yes, the uncut version on Adult Swim is better, but nobody ever forced you to watched the nicktoons version. That version was made to help bring DBZ to a younger audience here in America. In fact, a lot of people got introduced to the series because of the Nicktoons run. Also, the Vic Mignogna version of Dragon Soul is the best version, no cap. I will die on that hill.
I never understand the people who criticized the censorship of the NickToons version of Kai, but praise the original Toonami version of DBZ. DBZ on toonami was just as censored, if not more. Just nostalgia bias.
I can't wait see the video about the 4Kids/Vortexx version of Kai because that's the version I watched! It had even more censorship than the Nicktoons version lmao
CN was always more balsy. Then again, 1999-2003 was a different time. Nick was still pretty racy, not as much as the 90s but still. CN really didn't censor that much out, a lot of the blood was still there, talk of death, etc. I'm glad I grew up while it aired then. Also, it's funny how Rocko was up next, a show WAY more graphic vs. Kai, full of violence and even straight up gore in the first episodes.
This is the version I grew up with. I knew it was censored but never realized just how much they changed the dialogue to tip-toe around references to death. This wouldn’t be allowed to air today. Even with the censored version. People have gotten soft.
@@jorteroxd8772 Yeah it's got some unnecessary censorship like taking out middle fingers or changing around stuff about blood, but it's so miniscule you'd neither notice or care unless you were exceptionally petty/nitpicky.
@@spongeboymebob771 yeah, I mean, in One Piece 4kids. They were entire episodes deleted. But in Dragon Ball Z Kai, they just remove blood and some other things.
@@jorteroxd8772 It's only the Nicktoons and 4Kids versions of Kai most people refer to when they say Kai is bad anyway, then they refuse to watch the real, uncut Kai.
Nicktoons did a great job at the censorship because you were still able to tell what Raditz was talking about and got his point across, they did great with the series tbh
6:17 Oh they’re gonna swear. “What the hell have you been doing all these years” Ok where’s the swe- “What the heck have you been doing all these years” HELL WAS THE SWEAR?!??!
bruh why nicktoons so damn strict,bruh well i can understand the stack the dead bodies part but bruh , the even removed bardocks iconic scar at the side of his face, ugh😤😠
Nice video this version was the one I saw unfortunately when I learned it was censored it was too late i had finished the series. I didn't have a problem watching it. True, to be told I jumped on Kai(first time watching the Z portion of the events after I beat Budokai Tenkaichi 2 first) after I watched the original dragon ball series and enjoyed it. I remember I found it odd, that after so much damage it was a few minor bruises but it didn't stop me. Anyway now I began a rewatch of the series and this time I will watch the uncut version. (I watched it 🏴☠️ because there is not an official version of the series in my country)
Finally someone did nicktoons while your at it might as well go the gt version of nicktoons Also what are your thoughts on naurto being on Disney XD back in the day
I thought that was odd, didn't Disney have to censor some stuff despite the PG rating they aired for it? (I think they had to cut some stuff out or skip those episodes like if Naruto whipped out his Sexy Jutsu.)
Naruto Shippuden on Disney XD was... something. TV-PG rating, but didn't deserve it. DBZ Kai on Nicktoons was better and had more violence despite it being a TV-Y7 rating. I guess Disney didn't know that Shippuden was a more mature and darker than the OG Naruto lol
@@Supersayainpikmin I distinctly remember GT being uncensored even on Nicktoons I definitely remember the DBZ movies airing completely uncut even on Nicktoons
@@Maya-ls3ky Some did, others didn't. Android 13 didn't, while Fusion Reborn , Wrath of the Dragon and Bojack (I think?) did. While they were uncensored, they were usually cut for time sadly.
Wild how i remember watching Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Networks Toonami which was the version i grew up with...then this came on Nicktoons...and yes i did watch it and for me it was the bruce falconer score that i miss the most but the dub is vastly superior like sheeesh....it grew on me the uncut one especially but the music just reminds me of rematered Japanese audio...instead of having its pwn flaovor i guess in my opnion. But i also grew up with the ocean dub too so i watched them all and...idk its silly saying the next dimension is super silly but its also like kinda true if anyone truely thinks about it 😅
They still mention death, but much less. After Tien dies, Krillin has a line like "Everyone's dying and I can't stop it" even in the Nicktoons version.
In the first 25ish episodes, death was referred to sometimes, while other times it was toned down. This was the same with Z on Cartoon Network. Sadly starting with episode 25ish, all refrences to death were removed in the edited dub, likely to give 4Kids an easier time so they don't have to hire stand ins, as their version is based off the censored version sold to Nicktoons. There is a video on RU-vid called Kid-Friendly Scenes in DBZ Kai on Nicktoons, if you want to see a handful of the refrences to death on the channel.
When Krillin's struggling how to break it to Chi-Chi, they say it quite a bit. Interestingly, some lines that were changed can still have some gruesome implications. Even if Radditz says eliminate instead of kill humans, he still says to stack them on the beach.
@@VGamingJunkieVT Yep. My favorite ones that they left in was is in episode 3. Raditz says, "Would you really kill your only brother?" Your own flesh and blood?" And Goku `replies, "You tried to kill me first!"
Ngl. There are times when I prefer the Nicktoons dialogue and times when I prefer the Uncut dialogue. Sometimes the swearing is excessive and the references to death can be redundant. I also don’t like that they use Japanese names for the attacks in the Uncut version. I prefer the localization names for attacks. I wish there was a way to edit the episodes to make a perfect version of Kai.
In Latin America we got pretty much the same, but on Cartoon Network. Identical edits and similar dialog cuts, though I don't know if they were translated from Japanese from the original like the original dub or if it also was just based off the English dub.
Well that's Strange... I remember the Blood on Piccolo being recolored as Dark Purple in the Nicktoons Version not just white to look like spit. Heck I remember that the only ones that were allowed to have blood come from them were Piccolo and the other Namekians (their blood being Dark Purple), Freeza and his Soldiers (their blood being recolored as either Blue or Purple), and Cell in all his forms (his Blood being recolored to Green). The only ones not showing blood were the Humans, Saiyans and Androids 17 and 18 from what i can remember. And any wounds where they were supposed to be bleeding from were replaced with dark red bruise marks.
