Was Dragon Ball Z Kai BETTER THAN Dragon Ball Z? 

Kai is a less fluffy version, I like how it gets to the point much faster, as a kid in the 90s nothing was more painful than a wasted episode of power ups and massive fluff, you’d wait 3 weeks to get 3 minutes in a fight

The color pallet is a controversial topic. They both actually have pretty much the same color pallet. Kai looks the way it does because the creators wanted to bring back the original look that the show had, but due to film aging, and horrible remasters, Z has never truly looked the way it was supposed to.

Pacing in Kai is definately much better then the original but I think that sometimes it doesnt give some room to breathe during good moments and also cuts out filler that actually helped to develop the characters. Also the redraws really are horendous, its less terrible in the cell saga or during scenes when bright ki blasts are going out but they always look so bad.

There needs to be a version that is 4k, uncut, no cropping, has the best color, fixed redraw issues, has all the soundtrack and dubbed versions you can pick on the fly. So if you want original music, or Faulconer you can switch so you get the best experience. I guess Blu-ray is the closest.

I prefer Kai even though I do love a lot of the filler in Z

OG cartoon network's Toonami DBZ was the best DBZ ever produce. Those who didn't grow up back then and see its entry have no idea of its impact. This was a time when NO anime was even being aired over here in the USA. The visual art and Bruce Faulconer score are paramount to the effect. What memories!

I prefer to follow the series of every Dragon Ball 1. Dragon Ball 2. Dragon Ball Z 3. Dragon Ball Super 4. Dragon Ball GT

Kai cut out Trunks “this is for Gohan” line when he went back to his timeline to kill the androids, automatically makes it not better

The only thing better about Kai is they changed a lot of the bad dialogue in the original . But not a fan of Kai’s gohan compared to the og .

I’ll say this, Kai is great for not only telling you the main story, but it has improved dialogues with voice actors that still stuck around that have clearly improved their work. BUT, i still love the fillers and the old z dub (both Japanese and English), as I was raised by both at once, I’ll appreciate that Kai introduced a new generation of db fans, and the memories the old z gave to us.

Crazy that I would see this video the morning after I just started rewatching Kai. Overall, I do agree with your assessment, although I must admit I've always defended some of the filler from the original broadcast of the Buu Saga because it did improve some of the character development. (I'm thinking some of the more fleshed-out interactions between Mr. Satan and Fat Buu, and the dynamic between Goku and Vegeta post-Fusion when they were navigating Buu's stomach.)

this was such a mature and non biased video. well done brother

I love the original DBZ. It's not even the nostalgia, it just hits all the bases, the raw art style, the music the color, the blood, the VA and dialogues no matter if it matches the manga or not, Goks's line after he went ssj against freiza gave me chills back in the day. Idk but Kai just looks like something from which DB super got its weird art style and plastic like color palette from.

damn brah, got me in my feels just thinking about this amazing anime. Grew up watching it and still love it. really liked the way you articulated yourself.

I don't think I've ever seen someone on the Internet put together such a well thought out and reasonable explanation of their point of view without being completely toxic in some manner. You sir have a gift and I will be following your channel! I only watched your video to kill some time and have never watched kai, I'm someone who grew up in the 90s watching the original dragonball z day by day. I'm a teacher now and kinda roll my eyes with kids talk about super but never thought of it how you mentioned their ultra instinct is our super saiyan transformation. I'll definitely be more open in future. Thanks for the excellent review 👍

I personally like Z more than Z Kai because I love filler and I also grew up watching Z.

A lot of people hate Kai for being censored, but will turn around and call the Toonami run of Z the best version of Z ever produced. ...Despite being censored even worse.

Yeah I prefer DBZ Kai too. Though I did grow up watching the original DBZ on Cartoon Network in the late 90s/early 00s, I've still been able to put aside my nostalgia and appreciate Kai more for various reasons between the better pacing and the more accurate English dub.

Colors in DBZ and DBZ Kai should be identical. The issues with DBZ’s colors is due to mishandling of the original film recordings. Both should be 4:3 and have identical colors. The issue comes from how many poor rereleases of DBZ there have been, especially in the western releases. The redraws look poor due to how the digital coloring and digital compositing the scenes went through. If you want more information AnimeAjay and Totally Not Mark have done amazing breakdowns in how badly the home releases have been handled. I suggest watching those as they are pretty much required viewing on why DBZ looks awful in the coloring department. It really is a shame because there are tons of other cel anime that have been rescanned in a far more faithful way to the original without losing the quality My experience is also with the DBZ JP dub as I’ve never liked the English cast myself. The Japanese cast does just as good as they did in the original DBZ anime with their re-recorded lines. I cannot comment on the English cast and how they did on both. Always loved the Kikuchi score. Now I never saw the entirety of DBZ and only watched Kai after first reading the manga. However I have seen the entirety of OG DB and DBS(both manga and anime) fully as well

Great review man! Just started watching Kai the other day. Grew up with the original series and it’s awesome nostalgia but feels off so far hope it gets better.

I think Kai does a better dialogue bc who tf would say "Everyone get down, take cover, get moving, Goku's gonna release the kameyameya wave"

Kai pacing is more digestible. But original with filler is more classic. Because when we were kids and didn’t know any better and watching filler episodes they were just regular episodes to us we thought were cannon and they still had impactful moments that Kai doesn’t. Gohan solo journey in jungle and meeting those orphan kids and Pigero I will never forget his name because it’s in my dbz mind from stuff i watched as a kid. Fake Namek and Bulma and gang gettin fooled by aliens who just wanted to steal their ship to get off what Bulma thought was Namek but a actual murky planet that is hard to escape in disguise. That was skipped in Kai. Although fake Namek was only like 3 episodes. They skipped a lot of Goku solo training sessions before he got out the hospital and when he left hospital and trained in gravity from 20 - 50 - 75 - 100 they pretty much skipped all of Goku gravity training. As well as garlic jr saga was first time I saw them save earth without Goku being around and just Vegeta space travel looking for Goku and having hallucinations was fun.

This was absolutely incredible amazing job with the video I just freaking love everything about this keep up the great work and don't stop making kick ass content.👍❤️❤️❤️🔥🔥👍

I grew up on the original Z run on Toonami. I grew up buying the orange brick DVD releases. I grew up with all the corny speeches. And I 100% prefer the uncut edition of Dragon Ball Z Kai. I will take that any day over watching Z at this point. I still love Z for nostalgia sake, but I will always prefer a dragon Ball Z Kai

Man I remember watching kai on Nicktoons haha good video btw!

As someone who SUFFERED through watching the saiyan saga on Cartoon Network back in the day, the Kai versions were SO much more enjoyable to watch.

I can say Kai is better to certain extent which cuts out alot of drags and some of the animation during the sagas looked better , but the original versions music score throughout surely can't be beat , and that's mostly the only thing that the Z Kai version can't match

I prefer the original Z but Kai music was fire every time the music would start slow than the music starts picking up when shit goes down just made it feel new the soundtrack is called the formidable warrior

I was in the same boat as you when it came to not bothering with final chapters due to already seeing z, but man original kai was absolute peak dragon ball, the score is very memorable. I still love kikuchi's score as that is the definitive sound of dragon ball, but man Yamamoto was built different. I have checked out some of final chapters and a lot of dialogue is actually arguable if kai or z did it better (*ahem* majin vegeta)

Cell Games was the proper end for DBZ anyways

Fun fact: the final chapters wasn't intended to be made. This harkens back to Toriyama essentially being forced to make the Buu saga, so the original ending of Kai was supposed to be the "canon" ending to the series. However, an anime adaptation of Toriko airing at the same time flopped hard. That was canceled and Toei rushed out the final chapters to fill a vacant time slot.

I grew up with Z but having Kai on Nicktoons after no Dragonball for so long was awesome, even if it was censored

I liked how you talked about the new generation of DB fans feeling like Super is the best in the franchise. It just do be like that. You see it in games like Halo too. No matter what you think of Super it doesn't change the fact that the new kids to the fanbase are super into it. You can kinda see this reflected in DB Legends the gacha game. If I remember correctly a big part of the fanbase is just kids according to analytics. Seeing which banners get the most hype and all that gives a decent lense to see what the fans love and yeah you get my point. Obviously Super has its flaws but never let that push you to make fun of and gatekeep new fans.

Kai had better voice acting and less than annoying fillers, the original although not the best with questionable lines has some time to develop minor characters and Bruce Faulconer's musical theme is exceptional

Watching this made me realize how similar i grew up like other kids who watched anime. Seeing clips of z and naruto made me fall in love with anime. Found kai one night with my brother on nicktoons and fell in love ever since. Pokemon might be my first anime but z/kai will always be my inspiration and love for anime in as a whole

damn you're young. nonetheless, glad you've been able to enjoy this incredible series! Seeing the new younger audience that kai brought in to the fandom makes me appreciate it even more.

Dragon ball z Kai was awesome and dbz was great as well too.

I prefer Kai for the Saiyan and Frieza sagas, and Z for the Android and Buu sagas.

Excellent comparison , thanks !

Kai is the best experience I have had with this franchise , Yamamoto’s score is incredible to put it mildly, too many bangers to think of when working out or getting into a fight

Final Chapters was done by Toei in house while the previous Kai show was outsourced to another company. I grew up on OG Z and that was the way for me until I decided to give Kai a shot after learning the show isn't censored on the blu ray and how it was supposedly more faithful to the manga I never looked back

I prefer LARGE (good) anime. I hate the 8 - 12 netflix anime. Give me 50 to a 100 episodes per season🎉

I love most of the fillers (especially the trip to Namek which made me so excited for that planet) and dont wanna miss them.

Great breakdown bro👏

If I could like this video twice, I would. Most of the takes you had were the same as mine. People think I'm a hater to the original but I personally love Kai. (The uncut verison ofc) Subscribed man!

Toonami was my favorite 🤗

Brilliant summary! Thank you!

bro your story with kai word for word was literally me. Even finding the buu saga online afterwards and not bothering in watching final chapters. Did the same thing with gt and ended up looking into dragon ball af and heroes thinking it was the next thing lmao.

Chris Ayers came with Kai. That, alone, makes Kai better imo.

Dbz on toonami is goated you had to be there 5pm est

Super interesting video 👍

I think they both have their pros and cons, but og DBZ just hit different. Bruce really did something with the background music.

I don’t mind the filler but even if some of the filler were annoying it….the big Difference is the Music. Vegeta’s themes were my favorite but also the theme for Goku becoming SSJ and Gohan turning SSJ2 all gage those moments the nostalgia that it does have(not only but mostly). I also liked Piccolo’s associated music.

Z's dub is so horrible and corny that I think Kai wins by default, even with all of it's flaws.

Im 34 years old i remember as a kid cartoon network use to play one new episode a week and i think it was on a Thursday are a Friday in the 90s this show came a long way

The dbz Kai theme song was absolute fire.

RIP Akira Toriyama

As someone who grew up watching the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z on either Toonami or on VHS tapes, when I went back to re-watch DBZ for the first time in over a decade, I couldn't stomach the thought of sitting through all of the episodes from the original. If it were the only way that I could watch it again, I would have done it. But thankfully, we had Kai. When I re-watch it again later this year, I'll be watching it again using the Kai version, and when I become a father, I'll most likely show my kids the Kai version as well.

When you said you grew up watching clips of Dragon Ball Z in 09', that spoke to me man🥲

At the end of the day, Dragon ball Z Kai gave us dragon soul. It was worth it.

In terms of pacing, accurate script, and most voice acting, yes. In terms of music, I gotta go with Z. Bruce Faulconer was just on a whole different level. My dream DBZ dub would be Kai with the Faulconer music.

For me, Bruce Faulconer will always be part of Dragon Ball Z. When I first watched DBZ Kai and I thought the show was ok. I didn't like the change of voice actors for Bulma, Gohan, Freiza, Android 18 and the color palette. The redrawing's in some of the episodes was bad idea. With Bruce Faulconer, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Future Trunks and others all had their own theme soundtracks. The really wished that DBS would have brought back Bruce to do the soundtrack for the series. During the first 3 years of Dragon Ball Super, the characters looked like had plastic and glossy look to them. That crap disappeared by the beginning of the Tournament of Power saga. The fights were much more brutal, and the color palette was as close as to DBZ as we were going to get. A lot of people hated of how dumb, stupid and careless Goku had become during Dragon Ball Super. It got to the point where Goku had forgotten about Gohan. He had his dumb moments in DBZ, but Goku knew when it was time to get serious. Even DBGT Goku wouldn't have made those mistakes that DBS Goku. Other than the soundtrack and color palette, I think the dumb Goku issue is what kind ruined Dragon Ball Super in the long run.

Great video bro

Also another thing that they dropped the ball on regarding the Kai soundtrack is that when Yamamoto got fired, they started using the Kikuchi soundtracks and later replaced the re-run episodes with them as well (Buu Saga Kai was when they had Suitomo) , problem is that they used a limited amount of kikuchi soundtracks and it was so repetitive, there’s like 5 hours worth of soundtracks to choose from and they only used like 15 tracks

Rock the dragon is my favorite opening for DBZ it was the first one I saw when I was little and it got me hyped for the show

I was introduced to Dragon Ball from the Sagas game on the original XBox back in like 05. A couple years later, went to the library and noticed a disc set of the original dragon ball and watched it probably up until just before the red ribbon arc, as they didnt have anymore. then Kai came out and every day at around 3-4 in the afternoon me and my brother would watch kai together, singing to Dragon Soul and even play fighting through it. It is insanely nostalgic looking back at it now, i have rewatched both Kai, Z, and the OG multiple times(cant really say the same for Super but I was able to get through that one unlike GT)

I always hopped for the animation we got in the dragon soul opening?? THE WAY THE KI AURA WRAPS AROUD LIKE THAT

Kai is so much better. I watched it with some friends and family. I suggested we watched the cell saga with Og Dbz. Everyone was screaming at me to turn it off because it was dragging on forever. No complaints when Kai is on

Watching color fixed Dragonbox fan edits of the original 4:3 DBZ with the broadcast audio is the best experience (check Nyaa), but if I want the english dub I'll take Kai (maybe with Faulconer edited in depending on the day) over dub DBZ every time. I grew up on early 2000s Toonami and horrible quality Realplayer rips of the japanese version to see what I was missing over here. The tapes and dvds at the time seemed alright but the orange bricks were horrific by any standard. DBZ is 4:3, period. Kai was cool though, I much prefer the pacing and vastly better english script and dub but it makes too many visual sacrifices, the redrawn elements look out of place and subpar, I miss the film grain, and not a fan of the intro music and eye catchers. Yamamoto's soundtrack was pretty cool plagarism or not, but I grew up on his awesome Butoden arrangements so that didn't surprise me much on either count. Whatever version you watch of DBZ it's gonna have some cons though, glad I have a few options. Usually just read the manga or watch a few iconic scenes at this point but it'd be cool to get a definitive fan DBZ Onepace type treatment using the best video sources and offering whichever audio options you want. Those colorfixed Dragonbox releases with all the audio tracks would be a good start, just a lot of editing to do from that base if you wanted a "manga cut".

Great analysis! I grew up with the “OG” dub on Toonami, but I still say Kai is a better watch. Sure, Kai has its issues, but if you look at the whole picture and don’t just cherry-pick things, it is a better show overall. I just wish the Yamamoto score hadn’t been scrubbed from all the “official” releases. Even with the plagiarism issues, I still prefer that music for Kai, haha.

The original ocean dubs was the best. Thanx for making me feel old 😂😂😂

I prefer _Kai_ due to it flowing much better, the script, dialogue, and characterization being a lot closer to Toriyama's vision, and the voice acting being WAY better. A lot of the creative decisions in dub of _Z_ honestly undermine the emotional resonance of the actual story (such as how they handled Goku's "I Am" speech or Gohan going SSJ2 for the first time).

W upload bro

I honestly agree with everything you said in this video. I grew up watching all of Kai and all the old school games! It sucks that bro plagiarized. But, bro knew how to cook with existing material ✨🔥

Thank God, a youtuber says the real situation of the Falcouner soundtrack just not sounding great.

I was literally going to make a top 10 reasons DBZ Kai is better than DBZ. But you summed it all up :) You failed to bring up how they potrayed Frieza correctly 😑😑. So I'll bring it up :P Charismatic, menacing, charming to an extent, AND MY GOD CHRIS AYRES NAILED THAT CHARACTER PERFECTLY... RIP, though 😭😭

Z all the way. A lot of the dialogue and the soundtrack was WAY more epic.

Short answer, objectively yes. Better voice acting, better quality image, actual manga accurate dialogue, less filler and padding

For everyone watching, its perfectly fine to love both versions. Thats how i feel. 😊

the issue i have with kai is that the voice actors seemed bored, they didnt seem to put any real emotion into the lines, and in a show like dragon ball that is not ok. you cant just limp on by with no energy in your voice, even in super it seems like the actors dont care nearly as much as they use to sure its a fresh script and they clearly care more than with kai but its not the same as with the original dragon ball z dub and thats because that dub gave them the chance to put emotion into everything

While I do appreciate how Kai shortened out the series an cutting out the filler, I'd still have to go with the original. The Bruce Falconer score I consider to fit a lot better when we started basting off into space. The ambiance fit the vastness of the universe better. You could feel the demise of Namek, a lot of the individual character songs really fit the mood. I actually don't like a lot of this new digital aged drawings either. Super is a particular offender as the colors are so bright that they don't really allow the actions or characters to shine. Some things come off too symmetrical to where you realize it wasn't done by hand.

I remember when nicktoons aired dragon ball movies for a while. For reasons I can't comprehend, they aired the uncut versions with all the blood and swearing intact. It was such a jarring tonal shift and I loved it.

3:04 I miss those original game sound tracks

i watched Kai (well, only up ep97). i was very bummed when i finished Part 1 of it only to realize that the lines i was so excited to hear after hearing them when i was younger (Goku's "I am" speech and Vegeta's "something snapped" speech) were from the original release, and the lines were changed/removed in Kai to better adapt the manga. i skipped Part 2 of Kai (The Final Chapters) and just watched the rest of DBZ in the original, starting from episode 194. i would recommend anyone watching DB for the first time to just watch the original.

In DBZ Abridged, the Android and Cell saga combined only lasted 30 episodes, and improved upon the source by humanizing the Cyborgs and giving a motivation for Doctor Gero to hate Goku so much, and for Android 16 to have a fascination with birds, although I've heard that in the anime it was nature in total, not just the birds. DBZ Abridged made a point that Cyborgs 17 and 18 only really did things because they used to not have the choice, and are still abit sour over being made into cyborgs. Even if something will go bad for them, they'll do it, because atleast it's their choice to make. Sure, DBZ Abridged may not be a direct translation of the anime, but it's shorter and better. Granted, it's abit more on the comedy side, but it does have heart touching moments. Granted, again, it's usually atleast mildly wrapped in comedy, but it still does have them. Also I guess more towards the start it's entirely comedy, but still. So anyways, you say DBZ Kai cut out *all* the filler? DBZ Abridged added stuff, and still had less episodes. And most episodes were under twenty minutes long. (Edit): Also, is Kai as filler heavy as Super? Because I couldn't get through the 6th episode of Super. *WAY* too filler heavy. (Edit): 9th episode I just found out, and nevermind, I'm hooked on Kai final chapters.

Bro, the DBZ Kai soundtrack BLOWS the DBZ soundtrack out of the water. No comparison, man. Sucks that he plagiarized, but boy was cookin

I was 7 when DBZ Kai came out and Holy Fuck this was MY SHIT!!!

For me, the absence of Faulconer's score ruined Kai for me. If they redid it with that OST, then I'd go with Kai. I don't understand why they didn't include it for the US Release? Vegeta's & Cell's themes in Faulconer's score are masterpieces IMO.

I grew up with kai so its better to me right there, but I also think the voice acting is just much better, animation is cleaner, etc.

thats whats hard for me is most of the filler is removed which some of it is kinda nice and gives good insight

I prefer the pacing of Kai and I do have alot of nostalgia for it since it's what I grew up with, but once I reached the age were I was finally allowed on the internet and I had the unique experience of being able to watch some episodes of the Z Buu Saga and the movies, I just grew to like OG Z so much more. Kai definitely 100% did its job of getting our generation into Dragon Ball though so it will always have a special place in my heart 😁

Prefer DBZ no contest. I never saw the pacing as "slow" I saw it as appropriate build up, keeping tension. And while the OG Kai soundtrack was good it's no longer the official score and Faconner is fantastic. Also, Piccolo, Bulma and Gohan are better in Z than Kai

You can never beat the original outside of the realm of blood

No, I love the quiet in the original DBZ, felt real and the Japanese sound track was great. Also, I started on the ocean dub till I found fansubs.

Good video, but there's some misinformation in here. The censorship for Kai was done by Toei internally to line up with stricter Japanese broadcasting standards. Nick toons snd CW did their own censorship on top of that with ocean to line up with network broadcasting standards.

Hell no. I can’t stand Kai. Bruce falconer had the best DBZ production by far

Kai is PEEK

I am a nostalgia fan. I agree with your perspective here. I favor the blood, the old way, and even the less-than-clean dialogue. I watched this on Toonami (US). I had learned GT existed through a Chilean friend.

Im 14. I started watching dragon ball around 3 weeks ago. Im done dragon ball and on dragon ball Z towards the end of the frieza ark. When deciding between the two i went with dragon ball z because for one, I didn't want to miss anything even if it was just filler. Second, I had just finished dragon ball and got to know the characters and the voice actors. Some of them changed which i really couldn't stand. I will most likely once done with dragon ball, rewatch kai just so i can consume as much dragon ball as possible. Another factor in my choosing dragon ball z over kai was the art style. I was more drawn to the older art compared to kai's.

Yes. Take the nostalgia glasses off. Kai is better. It's essentially the manga.