Rising Sun time nationwide, baby! Sorry about that, but seriously, it’s time for another Rising Sun. And the topic is Dragon Ball Z Kai for today.

Dragon Ball Z Kai is the 20th anniversary revision of the animated classic Dragon Ball Z. Most fans know the storyline already from when DBZ aired on Cartoon Network: Son Goku assembles a special defense force from his friends and family to protect the Earth from extraterrestrial threats in a series of battles that make up the second half of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball comic series.

Everyone agrees that Dragon Ball Z‘s biggest problem is the overabundance of filler episodes, episodes that weren’t part of the manga because TV’s schedule differs from that of the comics. That’s were Kai comes in. It takes the original footage and crops out most of the filler. We know what that means. No Garlic Jr. No Underworld Tournament. No Vegeta and Nappa saving a planet just so they can blow it up. There’s even new animation to correct mistakes from the original series, to replace lost masters and to keep the show going quickly.

The music is a fairly controversial point of Dragon Ball Z Kai. The original composer, Kenji Yamamoto composed a cinematic soundtrack for the show that featured many quality pieces. But Toei fired him because he infringed several copyrights on other composers in the fourth season, and replaced his score with the original Dragon Ball Z score by Shunsuke Kikuchi. Even with that development, there are fans who say Funimation should’ve used the score Bruce Faulconer composed for DBZ‘s American run on Cartoon Network. While I can’t agree with that, I see where they’re coming from, as Faulconer has a impressive score up his sleeve.

On the topic of Funimation, the dubbed version of Dragon Ball Z Kai tops Dragon Ball Z‘s best dubbed scenes. After playing the characters for 10 years, the actors have gained more experience in authentically playing their parts. The dubbed scripts are much more accurate, and were made in two forms: a uncut script for DVD and a edited script for Nicktoons. Feel free to compare a scene from the uncut version and the Nicktoons version below. (SPOILER ALERT!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeXUgF2qEuk
Dragon Ball Z Kai – Uncut Version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9XYNl8lh2s
Dragon Ball Z Kai – Nicktoons Version

You might say there isn’t much difference between the two versions of the scene I showed, and you’re right. The tone is the same, the scene composition is the same. All that really is different was a slight tonedown of the mature elements. So both versions are really the same product, through and through.

Dragon Ball Z Kai, currently airing on Adult Swim as part of the new Toonami block at 8PM and at midnight, is recommended for action fans, or simply anime fans in general.