Ok so, I'm a huge DBZ fan, and I've heard about this "Dragonball Z Kai" thing, and everything I read up on it, it doesn't seem like it's anything new at all? Like, what exactly IS Kai?

Are there new voices, and did they do the animation over? OR what's the difference? I've heard someone say completely different things about it from the next person, and the wiki page on it isn't helpful at all either.

Or..

Did they redub it with the same voices, or difference voices, and just "clean up" the footage? Or did they actually go back and reanimate it? I'm very confused.

All of the promos and stuff I've seen for it have very "new" style animations or drawings, Like I've seen a picture of the fight between Goku and Frieza and I know it did NOT look that "clean" and the edges weren't that perfect in the original episode I saw years ago..so like did they completely reanimate it?

The facebook page for Dragonball Z added 22 new photos to the "Kai" album and they all are animated the exact same way with the same very clean and fresh/new "style", and anyone who is a DBZ fan knows that the original series did NOT look that good, so are these pics just promos or does the kai version actually look that good? And by that I mean anyone who has watched DBZ knows that the style and animators changed episode to episode, every few episodes the animator will be the same but like for instance your'e watching episode 23 and the animation style is one way and then the next episode the characters don't even LOOK the same at all, you can tell they changed the drawer.

These pictures for reference:
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/167056_10150098616148322_8065733321_5980837_7950921_n.jpg


http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/297163_10150378350563322_8065733321_8103439_529602363_n.jpg

Any DBZ fan knows Radditz NEVER looked that clean

I'm pretty sure they totally re did the animation, and just redubbed it with the same voice actors. I really don't know much about it, either.

Isn't it a condensed version of the original series?

Nothing I've read about it would imply that it's shortened in any way, but that's the thing I can never find any solid answers...

http://ogiuemaniax.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/dragon-ball-kai-over-dragon-ball-z/

I'm not a fan, but that's what I found on the internet.

Well, that article is over 2 years old so I have no clue about the validity of what it says.

But what I was talking about earlier: http://i582.photobucket.com/albums/ss268/jbkoolaide3/DBZ/Dragonball%20Z/Raditz.jpg is Radditz in the original Dragonball Z (very 80's/early 90's animation style, ala Gundam Wing) almost no detail, very basic "round" animation, and http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/167056_10150098616148322_8065733321_5980837_7950921_n.jpg is what they are advertising for Kai, extremely detailed, very straight lines and shadowed heavily. But when I youtube "dragonball Z kai" and I get videos that are actually labeled as Kai, they look no different from the first picture. =/ Thus my confusion.

That's when it started airing and it's accurate information, that much I know. What I don't know is specifically what they cut out.

Kai aired two years ago? Wow. And I consider myself a fan of Dragon Ball. I admit, I didn't even know what this Kai stuff was until earlier this year. And I still don't.

Dragon Ball Kai is a redo of Dragon Ball Z without all the anime only filler episodes.

Episode 100 of Kai corresponds roughly to episode 190 of the original DBZ.

They cut all the episodes that contain content that didn't actually happen in the manga and were only added so the manga could make more chapters.

It's a repackaging based on manga-only content. Like many animes, DBZ is based on a manga/comic, and as in all of these cases, one weekly episode of the anime will cover more ground than one weekly chapter of the manga. As such, the anime gets stuffed with filler to keep it from passing the source. Pointless "sidequest" storylines, dragged-out scenes (like the incredibly long power-ups the series is infamous for) and so on. DBZ Kai cuts apart the original series to remove most of this filler, for a streamlined, "just the real content" version. The vast majority of it is subsequently the same scenes and animation, with a few short bits re-animated for when two disconnected scenes didn't fit back together smoothly.

Amazing answer, thank you Brotholemew.

One more question: did they change any voices? I watched a youtube video today of "Kai" and it had some WEIRD voices for some of the characters *krillin and piccolo* that just sounded..awful, it almost seemed like it wasn't even real, like a fan made it.

All the voices sound the same to me, I don't believe they changed any.

As for what the show is, it's a better animated but shortened version of the original DBZ. They removed all the filler episodes and I believe it even ends at the end of the Cell saga. It only has 100 episodes total.

I'm glad they are ignoring GT

A series of only filler episodes.

Wait what? It ends at the cell saga? Why would it end at the Cell saga? There are 2 more sagas after that, the best of all actually..maybe they aren't finished?

Probably depends on what version you're watching. Some lines may have been redone for the same reason as scenes being reanimated; if a few time-wasting sentences were cut out of a conversation, it may have sounded too awkward when the rest was stuck together. However, for an English/other dubbed version, they probably re-did many of the lines. The actual work of cutting apart/reassembling the series was only done with the Japanese version, so if they want to make an English version, they have to either undergo the same project (take their existing recordings and cut them apart) or redo the lines.

Edit: Yes, it stops after Cell. I couldn't say why. Maybe they were uncertain how popular it would be to justify the cost of more revisions, maybe there were copyright issues with actors from those segments, who knows. Whether they plan to continue in the future, I have no idea.

As long as they never try to redo the abomination that was GT ill be happy.

Cell's death was kinda the end of the glory days of Dragon Ball, and buu was just kinda of meh.

Well, to each their own. I enjoyed GT. There were a lot of "stupid" episodes, and the entire series wasn't canon, but it was fun to watch. SSj4 was pretty neat.

As for DBZ, I think the Cell saga is the best (there is nothing more amazing in the entire world than http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIT1wm3FH9Y) but the Buu saga was GREAT. Vegeto, Super Saiyan 3, so great.

Y'up I've watched the old series on Cartoon Network (when it still showed good shows) and Kai has deffently shorten some of the story arcs.

Condensed (no more filler episodes), polished, redubbed (redubbed in that they sound like the DBZ VA after ginyu force with some change in dialog, instead of old dub pre-ginyu + new dub ginyu and after in the original DBZ), and more censored on TV (no visible blood, impaling, holes after impalment, seeing dismemberment happening, and slicing).

Also, the new theme music svcks.

No idea, but I love the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yBJGe5i4Xc&feature=related. :bunny:

As far as the voices, I think a few have been changed. I assume they got similar sounding voice actors though. I'm not really sure. I never watched the original series. It's funny, as a kid I would make fun of my friend for watching it. Now, as an advlt, I think it's awesome.