Dragon Ball Kai[edit]
In February 2009, Toei Animation announced that it would begin broadcasting a revised version of
Dragon Ball Z as part of the series' 20th anniversary celebrations. The series premiered on Fuji TV in Japan on April 5, 2009, under the name
Dragon Ball Kai. The ending suffix Kai (
改「かい」?) in the name means "updated" or "altered" and reflects the improvements and corrections of the original work.
[14] The original footage was remastered for
HDTV, featuring updated opening and ending sequences, new music, and a rerecording of the vocal tracks.
[14][15] The original material and any damaged frames were removed to more closely follow the manga, resulting in a faster-moving story.
[16] The series concluded with the finale of the Cell arc as opposed to including the Majin Buu arc. It was originally planned to run 98 episodes, however due to the
Tōhoku offshore earthquake and tsunami, the final episode of
Dragon Ball Kai was not aired and the series ended on its 97th episode in Japan on March 27, 2011.
In November 2012,
Mayumi Tanaka, the Japanese voice of Krillin, announced that she and the rest of the cast were recording more episodes of
Dragon Ball Kai.
[17] In February 2014, the
Kai adaptation of the final Majin Buu arc was officially confirmed. The series, which is said by Toei's European branch to be titled
Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters and will run for 69 episodes, began airing in Japan on Fuji TV on April 6, 2014.
[18][19]
English production and broadcasting[edit]
Funimation licensed
Dragon Ball Kai for an English-language release in North America, under the title
Dragon Ball Z Kai. The series was broadcast on
Nicktoons from May 24, 2010 to February 8, 2013.
[20][21] In addition to Nicktoons, the series also began airing on
The CW's Saturday morning programming block
Toonzai on August 14, 2010,
[22] then on its successor,
Vortexx, which began on August 25, 2012.
[18] Both the Nicktoons and Toonzai/Vortexx airings have been edited for content, though the Toonzai/Vortexx version is censored even more so than Nicktoons, most likely due to The CW being a broadcast network.
Kai began airing on
Adult Swim's
Toonami block in fall 2014.
[23] CSC Media Group acquired the broadcast rights to
Dragon Ball Z Kai in the United Kingdom and began airing it on
Kix! in early 2013.
[24][25][26]
Despite
Kai 's continuation not being officially confirmed at the time,
Sean Schemmel and
Kyle Hebert, the Funimation dub voice actors of Goku and Gohan, announced in April 2013 that they had started recording an English dub for new episodes.
[27] In November 2013,
Kai's Australasian distributor
Madman Entertainment revealed that the Majin Buu arc of
Kai would be released in 2014 and that they were waiting on dubs to be finished.
[28]
Censorship[edit]
Dragon Ball Z 's original North American release was the subject of heavy censorship which resulted in a large amounts of removed content and alterations that greatly changed the original work. Funimation CEO Gen Fukunaga is often criticized for his role in the censorship; but it was the distributor Saban which required such changes or they would not air the work, as was the case with the episode "Orphans".
[29][Note 1] These changes included altering every aspect of the show from character names, clothing, scenes and dialogue of the show. The character Mr. Satan was renamed Hercule and this change has been retained in other English media such as Viz's
Dragon Ball Z manga and video games, which includes referring to his name, erroneously, as "Hercule Satan" in
Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22.
[30] The dialogue changes would sometimes contradict the scenes itself; after the apparent fatal explosion of a helicopter, one of the characters said, "It's okay, I can see their parachutes!"
[29] Funimation's redub for the 2005 release would address many of the censorship issues that were required by Saban, with the uncut releases preserving the integrity of the original Japanese release.
During the original Japanese TV airing of
Dragon Ball Kai, scenes involving blood and brief nudity were censored. A rumor that Cartoon Network would be airing
Kai uncut was met with an official statement to debunk the rumor in June 2010.
[31]Nicktoons would also censor
Kai; it released a preview showcasing these changes which included removing blood and cheek scar from Bardock and altering the color of Roshi's alcohol.
[32] The show was further edited for its broadcast on
Toonzai and
Vortexx, but the show's DVD and Blu-ray releases only contained the edits present in the original Japanese version.
Steven Simmons, who did the subtitling for Funimation's home video releases, offered commentary on the subtitling from a project and technical stand point, addressing several concerns.
[33][Note 2] Simmons said that
Gen Fukunaga did not want any swearing on the discs, but because there was no taboo word list Simmons would substitute a variation in the strength of the words by situation with the changes starting in episode 21.
[34] The typographical errors in the script were caused by dashes (—) and double-quotes (") failing to appear, which resulted in confusing dialogue.
[34]
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Sample of "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" performed by Hironobu Kageyama, the opening theme song for the majority of the show.
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Shunsuke Kikuchi composed the score for
Dragon Ball Z. The opening theme for the first 199 episodes is "
Cha-La Head-Cha-La" performed by
Hironobu Kageyama. The opening theme used for the series up until its finale at episode 291 is "
We Gotta Power" also performed by Kageyama. The ending theme used for the first 194 episodes is "Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Power!" (
でてこいとびきりZENKAIパワー! Detekoi Tobikiri ZENKAI Pawā!?, "Come Out, Incredible Full Power!") performed by MANNA. The ending theme used for the remaining episodes is "Boku-tachi wa Tenshi datta" (
僕達は天使だった?, "We Used to be Angels") performed by Kageyama.
Kenji Yamamoto composed the score for
Dragon Ball Kai. "
Dragon Soul" by
Takayoshi Tanimoto and
Takafumi Iwasaki, performing under the name "Dragon Soul", is used as the series' opening theme song. Dragon Soul's "
Yeah! Break! Care! Break!" is the ending theme for the first 54 episodes, with "Kokoro no Hane" (
心の羽根?, "Wing's of Heart") by "Team Dragon from AKB48", a unit composed of seven members from
AKB48, used for the remaining. On March 9, 2011, Toei announced that due to Yamamoto's score infringing on the rights of an unknown third party or parties, the music for remaining episodes and reruns of previous episodes would be replaced.
[35] Later reports from Toei stated that with the exception of the series' opening and closing songs, as well as
eyecatch music, Yamamoto's score was replaced with Shunsuke Kikuchi's original from
Dragon Ball Z. The music for the Majin Buu arc of
Kai is composed by Norihito Sumitomo.
[36] The opening theme is "Kuu•Zen•Zetsu•Go" (
空•前•絶•後?) by Dragon Soul, while the first ending song is "Haikei, Tsuratsusutora" (
拝啓、ツラツストラ?, "Dear Zarathustra") by Japanese rock band Good Morning America, the second "Junjō" (
純情?, "Pure Heart") by
Leo Ieiri from episode 112 to 124 and the third "Oh Yeah!!!!!!!" by Czecho No Republic from 125 onwards.
