Great Things About Dragon Ball Kai (Top 7 Saturday)

It took me, essentially, a year to finally review all of Dragon Ball Kai. There's various reasons for that, of course, but a lot of it boils down to how redundant it felt to cover something I'd already covered in Dragon Ball Z... except as a mostly lesser version of it. Looking back now, I shouldn't have committed to episode-by-episode write ups of it and instead wrote about it in blocks (arc by arc, or something); But that's on me, not the show. So now that I've given my honorary "meh" to both Kai '09 and Kai '14, even if it took me a whole year, I figure that today, as the final day of 2016, I should write up my Top 7 things I think Kai did exceedingly well. The idea being that, in at least 7 areas, Kai has surely managed to measure up and even surpass DBZ. Just... probably not more than 7.

Honorable Mention

The Funimation Dub

Let me address the elephant in the room before moving onto the proper list: The American English dub is good. I have a lot of different thoughts on it, some positive, some negative, but Dragon Blog has never been about watching or reviewing the American dub. Occasionally I've been joking references to it, even moreso during the early days of the blog, but I'm simply not interested in talking about this dub here. That said, this dub is famously much better than its DBZ counterpart -- and I definitely agree with that assessment. But I still don't watch this dub, or any dub, unless I catch them on TV. Props to Sabat, Hunter, Cook, and Burgmeier for really bringing their A game to this production, though. Even if it's a decade too late.

Number Seven

Smaller episode count

This is one I debated not even putting on here, because I don't want my meaning to be misunderstood. Dragon Ball Z has better pacing than Dragon Ball Kai overall, in my view. And while most fans seem to feel this way (those of us who have watched both shows front to back, anyway) to varying degrees, potential fans might not be easily convinced of that. Kai presents a smaller, more digestible version of the show for new people to check out before diving into the deep end that is the 444 episode Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z anime. And while I can't recommend someone starts with Kai over DB proper, I've known so many fans this decade who have and that's fucking awesome. So, good on you, Kai.

Number Six

Changing Eyecatches

It might feel like a small thing in the long run, but Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z only had four sets of Eyecatch graphics in it's entire 444 episode run. Goku was fighting Piccolo at the 23rd Tenka-ichi Budokai, and commercial breaks were still heralded with 12 year old Goku smacking Muten Roshi with Nyoibo; Gohan was battling Cell as a Super Saiyan 2, and in the commercial breaks, he was still a toddler hiding behind his dad's leg. But in Kai, the Eyecatches moved with the story, usually changing every few episodes to reflect the state the story was in by showing off it's current main players. It really added to the feeling that Dragon Ball is an epic story with these iconic moments and cast changes that set the tone for manga, anime, and other media the world over for all the years to come. Even if sometimes Dende's antenna were drawn too far up on his head.

Number Five

Dragon Ball Recap

Something else that might seem like a smaller thing, but adds a lot with minimal effort. The first episode of Dragon Ball Z is a bit of an odd one. Most of it deals with Gohan running around the forest and failing to do much more than make himself more lost. It's meant to be a parallel to Dragon Ball's first episode, where Goku leaps from tree to tree, eating apples and knocking out sabertooth tigers, but Dragon Ball Z is meant to be a soft reset for the series -- so why open with such an odd meta comment on our main lead and his new co-lead? Dragon Ball Kai gets it right by relegating that time to showing you a lightning paced clip show of the original adventure that got us here. For old fans, it's a good reminder of the road we took to get here. For new fans, it's critical information about this world they're about to inhabit. Tying Bardock's final stand and Son Gohan finding baby Goku is a nice bonus that obviously couldn't have been in DBZ episode 1, but the rest of it really should have been! Ah well. Hat's off, Kai.

Number Four

Aya Hirano as Dende

Speaking of Dende, he's a pretty important character in Dragon Ball. Yet try to think of his original voice in Dragon Ball Z, and if you're me, you'll draw a blank. This might have something to do with him having two different voice actors in the original production -- Tomiko Suzuki first, then Hiro Yuki second. While both are fine, neither really leaves much of an impression. Enter Aya Hirano, who brings a different level to the character, taking him from feeling fairly background, to having one of the better vocal performances in the series. It's hard to put my finger on it exactly. But there's something about the texture to his voice the way Hirano plays him that makes him feel that much more real to me. And that's what voice acting is about, isn't it? Bonus points for providing the vocals, as Dende, to one of the most beautiful Dragon Ball Kai vocal tracks, "Cure ~I'll Be There~".

Number Three

Katsuyuki Konishi as Ginyu

Hideyuki Hori played the Commander of the Ginyu Force in Dragon Ball Z, and he did a good job. I say a good job, because, well, like Dende's two former voice actors, he doesn't really do anything special with it. Then you have Katsuyuki Konishi, who took over the role starting with Dragon Ball Kai, and has played him in Dragon Ball Super and every video game since 2010. And my god, does he own the shit out of this role. Unlike Aya Hirano, who brings an indescribable "something" to Dende that makes me like him more, I can describe plenty why Konishi's Ginyu is the best thing since sliced bread. But why bother, why you can just listen to it yourself.

The man is a glorious whirlwind of bombastic energy, truly worthy of the good Commander Ginyu. Approved!

Number Two

Vocal Songs

"Take The Stage!! Ginyu Tokusentai", "Saiyan Blood", "Only a Chilling Energy", "My 18th Magic", "Kuu Zen Zetsu Go", or even good ol' "Dragon Soul" itself, Dragon Ball Kai brought us a bunch of new vocal tracks. And nearly all of them are great. While I miss hearing Hironobu Kageyama in my Dragon Ball Z, they never really did many vocal insert songs in the original DBZ. In Kai '09 though, there are a ton, and I love them all. Kai '14 fell apart in this regard, but it still gave us some good, new songs at the start and end -- I prefer Kuu Zen Zetsu Go to Dragon Soul, to be perfectly honest!

Number One

Stereo Sound

This one is a bit of a bummer to include, because the original broadcast of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z did have Stereo sound. A little digging on YouTube, and you can find clips various Japanese YouTubers have uploaded with this original Stereo broadcast of DBZ, which was sadly lost for the shittiest of all reasons: Toei threw it away to save storage space.

"Fuck you." -Toei

Because of this, we'll never own Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT in their original fidelity, which has been ultimately lost to time. But in Dragon Ball Kai, you can watch your favorite anime in glorious two-channel sound... like some kind of future space man. Kind of feels like a bummer to end the list on this sour of a note, but it truly is the one area where Kai will always remain better than Z.

But that's literally it.

I mean, just thinking of seven examples was really tough.

(I love you, DBZ.)