After discovering Netflix DaNoob is back with another review and this time they are attempting to be a little more helpful:
Dragon Ball Z Kai is a remaster
of Dragon Ball Z, with re-recorded dialogue, new/original music, a bit more
tweaking and editing and gloriously long original episode titles. It’s also missing a lot of filler compared to
the original with only around 100 English dubbed episodes and another
60 only in Japanese.
Coming into this
completely fresh, without any prior knowledge of the franchise (other
than a few memes) is an experience. Super powered beings blasting
holes in mountains, powerful aliens invading, resurrections,
transformations, even more powerful aliens and holes being blasted in
planets... and that's just for starters.
I thought I understood
what was going on, with all the snake roads and bizarre comedy/battle
training, then the series blasts into outer space and the stakes are
constantly raised, every new character is somehow unimaginably stronger (or
even “off the charts” powerful - who makes these charts?) and as soon as you think you've figured out who is the strongest
someone else’s power skyrockets… Half the show is people’s
power skyrocketing, the other half is waiting for the hero to show up
and even when he does he’s likely to spend 5 minutes explaining how
quickly he needs to act before actually doing it...
Where was I? Oh yeah, I
eventually got the hang of the OTT OP-ness (hehe) and quirky
characters and then all of a sudden there’s an elite alien dance
troupe to contend with? A group so powerful they are more concerned
with theatrics than battle and they are nothing compared to what is
to come!?
The show is all about
the spectacle, Japanese humour and awesome battles but it manages to
cram in some genuinely interesting characters. There’s a few break
downs in logic, awesomely illustrated by an explanation as to why a
character's uniform grew when he transformed into a giant ape, only
to be followed by his complaint that there were no more in his size... It doesn’t take away any of the enjoyment though.
DBZ
Kai is very well made. I’d happily frame some screenshots and hang
them on my wall, particularly of some of the energy attacks and
characters powering up. The musical score is high quality and
memorable and surpasses a lot of blockbuster movies, every now and
again sliding into Saturday morning cartoon theme and power chords.
There’s a whole host of charmingly retro sound effects, my
favourite being the one that sounds like a pac-man ghost. I’ve seen
anime before (I’m not that much of a noob) but to see some of the
animation, framing and cinematography from a show originally
developed around 20 years ago is impressive, particularly compared to the things I was watching back then. It’s all awesome. A
good chunk of the series also has a stand out villain who deserves to
be as iconic as someone like Darth Vader but they have more chance to
shine as a character, despite styling themselves after Ursula from The Little Mermaid.
I can’t say how much
of the awesome is due to the remaster enhancements but if you want to try
out DBZ, it’s a great starting point or if you want to relive your
old favourite series without worrying about several hundred episodes
then this might be the way to go.
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