History Anime / DragonBallZKai

Creator/ToeiAnimation took the animation from ''DBZ'', updated the coloring, and converted the recut footage to HD. ''Kai'' turns down the amount (and frequency) of [[InactionSequence talk breaks]] and features next-to-no {{filler}} or {{padding}}. The end result of these changes? A sleeker, faster, more faithful and action-packed show than the original anime adaptation. For comparison, ''DBZ'' had 194 episodes from its beginning through to the end of the Cell Arc; ''Kai'' has only 98 episodes for that same timeframe. Counting the Buu arc episodes, ''Kai'' has a total of 167 episodes to ''DBZ'''s 291.[[note]]This gives us a ratio of roughly one ''Kai'' episode for every two of ''DBZ''.[[/note]]

The uncut version of the English dub would be aired via Creator/{{Toonami}} on Creator/AdultSwim in November of 2014, followed by reruns on [adult swim] proper beginning in February 2015. ''The Final Chapters'' began airing on January 7, 2017, running alongside Creator/{{Funimation}}'s dub of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''. It formally concluded its run on June 23, 2018.

** To a lesser degree, the redrawn shots in the original ''Kai'' series are plainly digital, having far more vibrant colors than the original footage whilst also lacking the grain, frame drift and quality of background and line art compared to the original footage they're spliced into. For ''The Final Chapters'', this only applies to the recap of the original ''Kai'' arcs, as ''The Final Chapters'' opted to not use redrawn shots.

** The intent of this recut was to distill the original show into a much faster-paced, action-oriented adventure more akin to the original manga. The efficiency of the recut is up for debate, but it has been largely praised for avoiding the filler, shortening the [[TalkingIsAFreeAction talk breaks]] that plagued the original show, and including ''flashbacks as far as the original Dragon Ball''. The original ''DBZ'' had 194 episodes at the end of Cell Saga. ''Kai'' got to the same point in 97 episodes.[[note]]The 98th episode mentioned earlier was turned into a bonus episode after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami resulted in its airdate being cancelled.[[/note]] For those who don't feel like doing the math, that means exactly ''50%'' of ''DBZ'' was cut from ''Kai''[='=]s original network run.[[note]]And if we want to include episode 98 per the DVD releases, it's still about ''49.5%''.[[/note]]

** The penultimate episode of the Android Saga has Goku saying that the Dragon Balls [[BackFromTheDead revived]] [[SparedByTheAdaptation King Kai, Bubbles and Gregory]], presumably because the series was cancelled in Japan at that point. Yet in the next episode, they all have halos over their heads, indicating they are all dead. Not only are they all still dead in the Buu Saga, when the series was UnCancelled, but King Kai being dead due to Goku’s actions is a RunningGag in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', which follows the continuity of this series.
** In ''The Final Chapters'', the filler scene of the villains in Hell was kept. This includes Goz and Mez referencing Goku falling off of Snake Way, despite the fact this didn't happen in ''Kai''. Not only that, but actually showing Hell in ''Kai'' directly contradicts ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'', which shows a more Buddhist-influenced representation of Hell instead of the more Christian-influenced version from ''DBZ''. ''Kai'' is supposed to be closer to the manga, so trying to watch this part of the series before either ''Resurrection 'F[='=]'' or ''Super'' will be confusing if you don't know this, since ''Super'' acts like a direct sequel to the manga's version of events over the anime adaptations.
** The scene with Van Zant and Smitty, the gunmen who ultimately "create" Super Buu, shooting an elderly couple was cut out due to its cruel nature. Thus, the pair's first appearance here is immediately before they arrive at Buu's house, when they decide to kill him, making their entire contribution to the story seem more than a little contrived.

* AlasPoorVillain: Astoundingly, Creator/RyuseiNakao manages to make ''Frieza's'' suffering, as he laid dismembered and begging for Goku's help, invoke the pity and sorrow that the latter felt from the audience this time around. Living and breathing the character for ''over twenty years'' helped him bring a genuinely pathetic vulnerability and sincere "humanity" to his performance.
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: Deliberately invoked by Toei when they created ''The Final Chapters'' for an international audience with "Fight it Out!!" and "Never give up!!!" as the opening and ending theme, which they replaced with "Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go" and a series of ending themes for the Japanese broadcast version. Curiously, they didn't bother to replace "Fight it Out" from the background score, so the title card and eyecatch music in the Japanese version is an arrangement of ''a song it doesn't use''.

* AnimationBump: Even disregarding the new opening, within the series, there are some digital clean-ups alongside other moments of the series that really looks its age.

** An accidental and relatively minor example. Because of the recut of the story, the first episode ends up opening with scenes from a TV special made much later in the series' run, then cuts to the original beginning of the series, and the difference in the art is pretty noticeable.
** The fact episodes are made of several episodes cut-and-pasted together makes for some obvious shifts when you go from a well-animated episode to a not-so-well-animated one.

** On of the edited TV brodcasts also changes the correct translation "It's over 8000..." to "It's over 9000!" and of course has Vegeta SuddenlyShouting as in the original Ocean Dub.

*** Scenes where EpilepticFlashingLights occur have been significantly reduced.

*** Actual mention of the words "death" or "die" as well as "kill", and even "funeral" at least once, were [[NeverSayDie replaced with "destroy" or "defeat"]]. However, there were still occasional instances where the word die and kill were still left in. This is definitely a step up from simply referring to death as "another dimension" like in the Saban/Ocean dub, and a step down from Toonami leaving in nearly ''all'' references to death for ''DBZ''.

*** The bullet that the farmer shot at Raditz was turned it into a blue glowing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COqnyplv1YE thing]]. [[HandWave They never bother to explain what it was]].
*** The dead had a little ball of light over their head, rather than a halo. Later episodes, the ones on Vortexx, just split the difference and just cut the differentiation completely.
*** [[http://twitpic.com/2ni9qm Mr. Popo was blue]], as the block made it a policy to never show blackface stereotypes uncensored after [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Jynx]] caused a stir. Unlike the halo change, this one carried onto Vortexx, albeit leaving the lips red rather than recoloring them a flesh tone as previously done.

*** They cut out the scene where Android 18 forces a kiss onto Krillin. This created a noticeable plot hole when he's trying to destroy her; the kiss was a huge part of his decision against it.

** This is subverted with the broadcast version on Toonami. It is completely uncut, and would have in fact ''parodied'' past ''DBZ'' bowdlerization with Creator/TeamFourStar's removed cameo:

* BriefAccentImitation: During the sequence with Vegito in the dub, Sean Schemmel imitates Chris Sabat's speech patterns from his Vegeta voice, since Sabat recorded Vegito's lines first and Schemmel matched his recordings to better match Vegito's personality being more like Vegeta's than Goku's. This makes his Goku sound more posh/uppercrust like Sabat's Vegeta compared to how he normally talks as a result.

* CastingGag: In the English dub of ''The Final Chapters'', the Cell Games Reenactment originally had the fakes being voiced by members of Creator/TeamFourStar "reprising" their roles from ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', before they were replaced. Notably, the exceptions are the Fake Mr. Satan and Fake Cell. Fake Mr. Satan is voiced by Curtis Arnott ([=Takahata101=]) with his Abridged!Nappa voice rather than Anthony Sardinha (Antfish), while Fake Cell is voiced by Scott Frerichs ([=KaiserNeko=]) rather than Arnott.

** Some fans have lambasted the efforts of Creator/QTec in regards to the footage. It's not entirely unfounded, as it's pretty obvious they're working for the cheap. This got worse during the series' version of the Buu Saga, which was remastered by Toei themselves. In this case, the picture is permanently cropped to 16:9 and features a noticeable green tint compared to the Blu-ray releases of ''DBZ'', which appear to use a similar remastering process. Also, if you look carefully during the opening sequence during ''The Final Chapters'', it looks like it was animated in 4:3, but then cropped or stretched to 16:9, due to some shots being weirdly framed, notably Babidi and Dabura's shot where Babidi's lower half cut off a bit and Majin Buu is weirdly framed as well when he appears in it. This could mean that either they were planning for the show to be in 4:3 from the start, or they animated it in that aspect ratio to save money, then cropped it, or at least certain shots.
** There's a weird discrepancy with Funimation's releases for ''The Final Chapters'', where, depending on what you use to play the discs, the English dub audio is improperly mixed, causing the sound effects to become muffled. Sabat has been made aware of this problem and has had the audio engineers at Funimation fix the problem for the TV airings, but it's not known if they'll do replacement discs for the people that bought the sets already. Depending on your viewer, you may not notice, but it ''is'' there.

** In the first volume DVD, Creator/SeanSchemmel, the voice actor of Goku, sang the opening [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiowSqMhgF4 theme]] (with an unfortunate amount of auto tune).

* TheEasyWayOrTheHardWay: In Episode 26, Vegeta confronts Krillin and Bulma, who have one of the Dragon Balls he wants. He threatens them by saying they they can do this the easy way or the hard way, meaning that they can either give him the Dragon Ball or be killed.

* {{Filler}}: The series was designed to ''{{avert|edTrope}}'' this as hard as possible, but certain instances exclusive to the original animation weren't able to be excised (likely for timing reasons), such as Ginyu swapping bodies with an unsuspecting Bulma or Krillin's encounter with Imperfect Cell. Notably, the very last BreatherEpisode of ''Z''[[note]]"He's Always Late", involving Goku protecting dinosaur eggs.[[/note]] was left in its entirety, despite not being relevant to the overall plot.

** In Episode 50, while fighting Frieza, Goku grabs him by the arm, swings around several times and throws him away.
** In Episode 92, while the protagonists are fighting the Mini Cells, Piccolo grabs one of the [=MCs=] by the arm, spins around several times and throws him away.
** In Episode 98, just before destroying Imperfect Cell, future Trunks grabs him by the tail, swings around several times and throws him into the sky.
** ''The Final Chapters'' episode 25. When a giant snake attempts to eat some pterosaur eggs, Goku grabs the snake by the tail, swings it around repeatedly and throws it away.

* ImageSong: Vegeta and Future Trunks each get themes ("Saiyan Blood" and "Lonely Soldier", respectively) sung by their voice actors Creator/RyoHorikawa and Creator/TakeshiKusao.

** This would return in full force in ''The Final Chapters''. There is even a piece of music on the soundtrack which sounds like clocks ticking, and it is exclusively played during sequences where people stare at each other. Better yet, even later there is epic staring with orchestral chanting in the background.

* LateArrivalSpoiler: The first five minutes of the first episode reveals that [[spoiler:Goku is an alien, and that Frieza destroyed the planet Vegeta]]. Both of these are plot twists in the original series, and are treated as such in ''Kai'' itself when they come up again.

** Even the [=TheCW4Kids=]/Toonzai/Vortexx version lets people die. But with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8WLZDtIvJM added sparkles]] and/or agonizing breathing beforehand.

** All references to death in the same version gets wiped out. For example:

* OminousLatinChanting: Frieza's {{leitmotif}}, "Only a Chilling Elegy", contains ominous Japanese chanting. It plays briefly near the ends of Episodes 37[[note]]When 2nd Form Frieza impales Krillin.[[/note]] and 40.[[note]]When Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo all fruitlessly attack Final Form Frieza.[[/note]] The Nicktoons and [=TheCW4Kids=]/Toonzai/Vortexx version use the instrumental instead, but the Nicktoons version did leave Japanese chanting left in initially.
* PowerLevels: Same as before involving the scouters, but they seem to have adjusted some bits of dialogue and how the whole process works to highlight the need for strategy along with their "combat rating." It's implied that although Goku had a higher power level than Nappa, if the latter had actually focused, he could give Goku a good fight. A particular lampshade comes from Vegeta in his CurbStompBattle with Jeice:

** In Episode 58, while Vegeta trains at 300 gravities to prepare to fight the androids, the building he's in blows up. When Bulma runs over to see if he's still alive, his hand thrusts out of a pile of rubble to make it clear he's O.K.
** In Episode 77, when Cell is [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom knocked backwards a huge distance]] by Vegeta, he ends up underwater. A few seconds later, his hand raises up out of the water, showing that he survived the attack.
* {{Recut}}: ''Kai'' removes a lot of filler and padding from the the original series, making it more fast paced.

* {{Retraux}}: There's a lot of new material in the series, particularly during the Namek Saga, but present in other episodes as well. It's integrated almost seamlessly and can be spotted only by a couple of things like more "clean" looking dirt and scratches on the characters, more vibrant colors and a notably higher frame count during action sequences, which the new material mostly consists of.

** Just before he escapes the Z Fighters, Cell tells them he knows the Kaio-ken technique. This, of course, raises the question of why he didn't use it when he was clearly outmatched against Vegeta, and later, Gohan.

** The series' openings tend to show major characters, villains, and events before they're introduced in the series itself. It's downplayed since this series is a recut of ''DBZ'' and many longtime fans already knows these details.

* [[invoked]] StylisticSuck: The movie made of Mr. Satan's defeat of Cell, seen in a deleted scene. It features bad costumes, [[LargeHam hammy line reads]], BadBadActing and [[SpecialEffectFailure obvious special effects]]. It also mentions numerous memes from older dubs of ''Dragon Ball'', like "Over nine thousand!", the [[{{Bowdlerise}} bowdlerizing]] "[[NeverSayDie sending to a different universe]]", and "My power is maximum!". Notably, Creator/TeamFourStar provided the voices. Even Mr. Satan thinks it's terrible.
* ThematicThemeTune: "Dragon Soul", lyrically, appears to represent Goku and Gohan's HeroicSpirit, drawing their strength, love, and desire to protect from one another:
--> ''I'll give you strength, you'll give me love, that's how we'll live! Courage won't fade, when you're with me, my enemies can never win...!''

** When Goku first meets King Kai, the latter lists off benefits of his home planet, ending with being able to "pee for distance!" The edited version appears to have erased the urine streams.

''Dragon Ball Z Kai'' (''Dragon Ball Kai'' in Japan) debuted in April 2009 in time for the [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]] of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. In a nutshell, ''Kai'' is a {{recut}} of ''DBZ'' for the 21st century; it tells the same old story of the original show, but with a few new tricks up its sleeve.

* {{Filler}}: The series was designed to ''avert'' this as hard as possible, but certain instances exclusive to the original animation weren't able to be excised (likely for timing reasons), such as Ginyu swapping bodies with an unsuspecting Bulma or Krillin's encounter with Imperfect Cell. Notably, the very last BreatherEpisode of ''Z''[[note]]"He's Always Late", involving Goku protecting dinosaur eggs.[[/note]] was left in its entirety, despite not being relevant to the overall plot.

* OffModel: The openings, outside of a few scenes, tend to forget that Krillin has six spots on his forehead.

* TruerToTheText: It serves as a remastered AdaptationDistillation of ''DBZ'', with most of the filler removed, greatly reducing the original series' infamous abuse of TalkingIsAFreeAction. This is exemplified even more by the English dub accurately translating the scripts, [[CutAndPasteTranslation as opposed to what happened to the original]] ''DBZ''.

** [[invoked]] The mere showing of Hell in ''Kai'' is one, as Toriyama never showed Hell in the original manga. The first true glimpse of Hell that is shown in the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise is in ''Resurrection 'F[='=]'', where Frieza is in his own personalized Hell, stuck in a cocoon being tortured in a TastesLikeDiabetes world populated by angels, fairies, and stuffed animals.

* AdvertisedExtra: Launch, a character featured both in ''Manga/DragonBall'' and some filler of ''DBZ'', which most of is removed here, is prominently featured in the first credits sequence, despite being nowhere to be seen in ''Kai'', apart from a mention early on and a cameo in ''The Final Chapters'', long after these credits stopped being used.

* AdvertisedExtra: Launch, a character featured in the first anime and the filler in Z (which most of is removed here), is prominently featured in the first credits sequence, despite being nowhere to be seen in Kai, apart from a mention early on and a cameo in ''The Final Chapters'', long after these credits stopped being used.

** An accidental and relatively minor example. Because of the recut of the story, the first episode ends up opening with scenes from a movie made much later in the series' run, then cuts to the original beginning of the series, and the difference in the art is pretty noticeable.

Creator/ChristopherSabat directed the English dub of the series. Unlike previous dubs of ''DBZ'', the English dub of ''Kai'' comes considerably closer to the Japanese version; lacking the character rewrites, replacement scores,[[note]][[ReReleaseSoundtrack though the entire Japanese score ended up replaced around the world with recycled music tracks]] from ''DBZ'' when the composer was found to have infringed upon other artists' work[[/note]] and major dialogue changes [[note]]Save though a few NeverSayDie moments in the Creator/{{Nicktoons}} and [[Creator/TheCW CW]] broadcasts[[/note]] that their dubs of ''DBZ'' had.

* ThematicThemeTune: ''Dragon Soul'', lyrically, appears to represent Goku and Gohan's HeroicSpirit, drawing their strength, love, and desire to protect from one another.

** The penultimate episode of the Android saga has Goku saying that the Dragon Balls [[BackFromTheDead revived]] [[SparedByTheAdaptation King Kai, Bubbles and Gregory]] (presumably because the show was cancelled in Japan at that point), yet in the next episode, they all have halos over their heads, indicating they are all dead. Not only are they all still dead in the Majin Buu arc (when the series was UnCancelled), but King Kai being dead due to Goku’s actions is a RunningGag in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', which follows the continuity of this series.

** For whatever reason, when Toei recut the Buu Saga footage, they both cropped the frames, as was done with the first half, but didn't bother saving 4:3 versions of the episodes, which will cause some weirdness when watching the entire show in the future, and added a green tint to the footage, which is often a point of contention amongst fans, as it sort of ruins the viewing experience for some, despite the better dub.

** There's a weird discrepancy with [=FUNimation=]'s releases for ''The Final Chapters'', where, depending on what you use to play the discs, the English dub audio is improperly mixed, causing the sound effects to become muffled. Sabat has been made aware of this problem and has had the audio engineers at [=FUNimation=] fix the problem for the TV airings, but it's not known if they'll do replacement discs for the people that bought the sets already. Depending on your viewer, you may not notice, but it ''is'' there.

** Each successive volume has its own singer (Creator/JustinCook for the 2nd volume, Creator/VicMignogna for the 3rd volume and in the Nicktoons version, Creator/GregAyres for the 4th volume, Creator/SonnyStrait for the 5th volume, and Creator/BrinaPalencia for the 6th volume). The last 2 have different mixes of 3-4 of the different voices switching off lines.
* DoppelgangerAttack: Cell Saga, episode 88 "Showdown! Cell vs. Goku". Cell uses Tien's "Multi-Form" technique to create multiple versions of himself. When they all attack Goku at the same time, they force him to flee. Goku tricks Cell into spreading out the copies and defeats each of them individually.
* TheEasyWayOrTheHardWay: Episode 26. Vegeta confronts Krillin and Bulma, who have one of the Dragon Balls he wants. He threatens them by saying they they can do this the easy way or the hard way, meaning that they can either give him the Dragon Ball or be killed.
* EnemyRisingBehind: In episode 75, Imperfect Cell rises up out of the ground behind Android 17 right before [[spoiler:absorbing him]].
* FaceNodAction: Episode 98 "Bring Peace to the Future!". Androids 17 and 18 are facing off against Future Trunks. Android 18 says to get him, both androids look at each other, nod, and then attack Trunks.

* GroinAttack: In episode 65, Android 18 knees Vegeta in the groin once he's running out of energy.

** Episode 50. While fighting Frieza, Goku grabs him by the arm, swings around several times and throws him away.
** Episode 92 "Tears for an Android". While the protagonists are fighting the Mini Cells, Piccolo grabs one of the [=MCs=] by the arm, spins around several times and throws him away.
** Episode 98 "Bring Peace to the Future!". Just before destroying Imperfect Cell, future Trunks grabs him by the tail, swings around several times and throws him into the sky.

** This trope would return in full force in ''The Final Chapters''. There is even a piece of music on the soundtrack which sounds like clocks ticking, and it is exclusively played during sequences where people stare at each other. Better yet, even later there is epic staring with orchestral chanting in the background.
* InconsistentDub: In addition to what's mentioned in the Bowlderise section, on the American home releases, some terminologies can change in between mentions, mostly with attack names.

** Zigzagged with the edited broadcast; it uses "gone" and such usually, with mentions of "death" being rare, but very much present and/or implied. A huge step up from the earlier ''DBZ'' dubs which sent the death concept into another dimension.

** And yet, all references to death in the same version gets wiped out. For example:

** Episode 58 "Goku's New Move, Instant Transmission etc.". While Vegeta trains at 300 gravities to prepare to fight the androids, the building he's in blows up. When Bulma runs over to see if he's still alive, his hand thrusts out of a pile of rubble to make it clear he's O.K.
** Episode 77 "Beyond Super Saiyan etc.". When Cell is [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom knocked backwards a huge distance]] by Vegeta, he ends up underwater. A few seconds later his hand raises up out of the water, showing that he survived the attack.

* {{Retraux}}: There's a lot of new material in the series, particularly during the Namek Saga, but present in other episodes as well. It's integrated almost seamlessly and can be spotted only by a couple of things like more "clean" looking dirt and scratches on the characters, more vibrant colors and a notably higher frame count during action sequences (which the new material mostly consists of).

** [[invoked]] The mere showing of Hell in ''Kai'' is one, as Toriyama never showed Hell in the original manga. The first true glimpse of Hell that is shown in the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise is in ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection F]]'', where Frieza is in his own personalized Hell, stuck in a cocoon being tortured in a TastesLikeDiabetes world populated by angels, fairies, and stuffed animals.
*** Even within the series itself, Hell is an inconsistency, since Piccolo describes Hell as the effect of someone getting purified of their evil and memories erased so they're no longer the people they were in life. Toriyama's Hell is more in-line with the Buddhist Hell, while Toei's is more in-line with a Western, specifically Christian, Hell. Then there's the whole reincarnation aspect of it.

** Subverted. In ''The Final Chapters,'' Gotenks is shown in a silhouette in the opening until the episode. after he appears in, where he's fully revealed.

''How many Saiyans does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Just one. And nowadays, they are actually doing it rather...efficiently.''

->''[[EndingTheme Live your life like a Kamehameha!]]''\\

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

Creator/ToeiAnimation took the animation from ''DBZ'', updated the coloring, and converted the recut footage to HD. ''Kai'' turns down the amount (and frequency) of [[InactionSequence talk breaks]] and features next-to-no {{filler}} or {{padding}}. The end result of these changes? A sleeker, faster, more faithful and action-packed show than the original anime adaptation. For comparison, ''Z'' had 194 episodes from its beginning through to the end of the Cell Arc; ''Kai'' has only 98 episodes for that same timeframe. Counting the Buu arc episodes, ''Kai'' has a total of 167 episodes to ''DBZ'''s 291.[[note]]This gives us a ratio of roughly one ''Kai'' episode for every two of ''DBZ''.[[/note]]

Creator/ChristopherSabat directed {{Creator/Funimation}} English dub of the series. Unlike previous dubs of ''DBZ'', Funimation's English dub of ''Kai'' comes considerably closer to the Japanese version; lacking the character rewrites, replacement scores,[[note]][[ReReleaseSoundtrack though the entire Japanese score ended up replaced around the world with recycled music tracks]] from ''DBZ'' when the composer was found to have infringed upon other artists' work[[/note]] and major dialogue changes [[note]]Save though a few NeverSayDie moments in the Creator/{{Nicktoons}} and [[Creator/TheCW CW]] broadcasts[[/note]] that their dubs of ''DBZ'' had.

The uncut version of the English dub would be aired via Creator/{{Toonami}} on Creator/AdultSwim in November of 2014, followed by reruns on [adult swim] proper beginning in February 2015. ''The Final Chapters'' began airing on January 7, 2017, running alongside Funimation's dub of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''. It formally concluded its run on June 23, 2018.

Creator/ChristopherSabat directed {{Creator/Funimation}} English dub of the series. Unlike previous dubs of ''DBZ'', Funimation's English dub of ''Kai'' comes considerably closer to the Japanese version; lacking the character rewrites, replacement scores [[note]][[ReReleaseSoundtrack though the entire Japanese score ended up replaced around the world with recycled music tracks]] from ''DBZ'' when the composer was found to have infringed upon other artists' work[[/note]], and major dialogue changes [[note]]Save though a few NeverSayDie moments in the Creator/{{Nicktoons}} and [[Creator/TheCW CW]] broadcasts[[/note]] that their dubs of ''Z'' had.

The uncut version of the English dub would be aired via Creator/{{Toonami}} on Creator/AdultSwim in November of 2014, followed by reruns on [adult swim] proper beginning in February 2015. ''The Final Chapters'' began airing on January 7, 2017, running alongside [=FUNimation=]'s dub of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''. It formally concluded its run on June 23, 2018.

Creator/ChristopherSabat directed {{Creator/FUNimation}} English dub of the series. Unlike previous dubs of ''DBZ'', Funimation's English dub of ''Kai'' comes considerably closer to the Japanese version; lacking the character rewrites, replacement scores [[note]][[ReReleaseSoundtrack though the entire Japanese score ended up replaced around the world with recycled music tracks]] from ''DBZ'' when the composer was found to have infringed upon other artists' work[[/note]], and major dialogue changes [[note]]Save though a few NeverSayDie moments in the Creator/{{Nicktoons}} and [[Creator/TheCW CW]] broadcasts[[/note]] that their dubs of ''Z'' had.

** In the first volume DVD, Creator/SeanSchemmel, the voice actor of Goku, sang the opening [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkWdCU6m71A theme]] (with an unfortunate amount of auto tune).

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** This line here:
--->'''Trunks:''' ''[to Goku]'' Please don't say anything, especially [Bulma and Vegeta getting together]! If things end up getting weird between the two of them, [[GrandfatherParadox I might blip out of existence]], because they won't have... well, they won't... you know!
** The Nicktoons cut somehow missed 18 saying "pissed".

* ReReleaseSoundtrack: Kenji Yamamoto -- who did the music for the ''DBZ'' video games -- composed a new soundtrack for the recut. However, during the Android Saga, it was discovered that Yamamoto had plagiarized music from other sources (and had been doing so for years), he was fired and Shunsuke Kikuchi;s original soundtrack from ''DBZ'' was reinstated for the rest of ''Kai''.

** [[invoked]] The mere showing of Hell in ''Kia'' is one, as Toriyama never showed Hell in the original manga. The first true glimpse of Hell that is shown in the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise is in ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection F]]'', where Frieza is in his own personalized Hell, stuck in a cocoon being tortured in a TastesLikeDiabetes world populated by angels, fairies, and stuffed animals.

''Dragon Ball Kai'' (''Dragon Ball Z Kai'' outside of Japan) debuted in April 2009 in time for the [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]] of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. In a nutshell, ''Kai'' is a {{recut}} of ''DBZ'' for the 21st century; it tells the same old story of the original show, but with a few new tricks up its sleeve.

[[redirect:Anime/DragonBallKai]]