Dragon Ball Z Kai

### Network

Fuji Television, Nicktoons, The CW (Toonzai/Vortexx). Adult Swim (Toonami), Toonami (Asia), Cartoon Network (Ind and Pak versions), Kix!, and The Family Channel.

### Written by

Takao KoyamaKatsuyuki SumisawaToshiki InoueHiroshi Todaothers

### Directed by

Yasuhiro Nowatari (#1-98)Naohiro Terazaki (#99-159~167)

### Language

Japanese and English

Dragon Ball Z Kai, known in Japan as Dragon Ball Kai (ドラゴンボール Doragon Bōru Kai, lit. Dragon Ball Revised), is an anime series that is a high-definition remastered and recut of *Dragon Ball Z*, done for its 20th Anniversary. It premiered on Fuji TV on April 5, 2009, at 9:00 am just before One Piece and ended initially on March 27, 2011, with 97 episodes (a 98th episode was later released straight-to-video), and the two shows were marketed together as "Dream 9", which refers to the hour in which they both aired. The series average rating was 9.4%, with its maximum being 12.3% (Episode 47) and its minimum being 6.4% (Episode 18). *Dragon Ball Kai* returned to Japanese TV on April 6, 2014, with the Majin Buu Saga, and ended its run for the second and last time on June 28, 2015, with 61 episodes while the original uncut international version would go on to have 69 episodes (bringing the total episode count of the series to 159 for the original Japanese broadcast and 167 for the extended International broadcast).

For most of the international releases, the Majin Buu Saga of the series is known as Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters.

## Plot

Five years after the events of Dragon Ball, now a young adult and father to son Gohan, Goku meets his older brother Raditz, who reveals to him that they are members of a nearly extinct extraterrestrial race called the Saiyans. The Saiyans had sent Goku (originally named "Kakarot") to Earth as an infant to conquer the planet for them, but he suffered a head injury soon after his arrival and lost all memory of his mission, as well as his blood-thirsty Saiyan nature. Goku refuses to help Raditz continue the mission and must form alliance with Piccolo, and sacrifice his life, in order to defeat him. However, Goku is revived a year later by the Dragon Balls, after training in the Other World with King Kai, in order to save the Earth from the Saiyan prince Vegeta. However, in the battle Yamcha, Chiaotzu, Tien and Piccolo are killed. Due to Piccolo being one with Kami, the Dragon Balls no longer exist, resulting in Gohan, Krillin and Bulma traveling to Piccolo and Kami's home planet, Namek, in order to use the balls there to revive their friends. However, the galactic tyrant Frieza is already there doing the same, leading to several battles with his minions and Vegeta, the latter of which teams up with Gohan and Krillin to fight the Ginyu Force. After Goku arrives on Namek, the final epic battle with Frieza himself comes to a close after Goku transforms into a legendary Super Saiyan and avenges the lives of billions across the galaxy.

Later story arcs of the series involve Goku and his allies defending Earth from the threats of newer enemies that include the bio-android Cell and the magical creature Majin Buu.

## Overview

The "Kai" (改「かい」) in the series' name means "updated," "modified," or "altered," reflecting it being an abridging of the original anime that removes a majority of its filler. Two issues of Shonen Jump have included some primary information about the series. Interestingly, despite the series being only a director's cut of Dragon Ball Z, the Z has been completely removed from the title (at least in the original Japanese version).

Funimation has dubbed Dragon Ball Kai into English for a North American release, under the release title of Dragon Ball Z Kai. The series premiered on the Nicktoons Network on May 24, 2010. This was quite a change, as all the Dragon Ball series have almost always appeared on Cartoon Network in the United States. On August 14, 2010, the series premiered on The CW's Toonzai block. The uncut version of the series began airing on Adult Swim's Toonami block on November 8, 2014. It was shown on Kix in the United Kingdom.

After episode 97, there were initially no plans for Dragon Ball Kai to reach the Majin Buu Saga. A new anime series based on the Toriko manga debuted in April 2011, taking over the Dragon Ball Kai time slot at 9 AM on Sunday mornings before the One Piece anime series. The 97th episode of the series was broadcast on March 27, 2011 in Japan, and January 1, 2012 in America. The series was in syndication in Japan for exactly two years. Despite this, the series has been one of the top 10 rated anime series every week since syndication began in April 2009. The 98th episode of the series, which recapped the entire series and provided some closure, was released to DVD/Blu-ray on August 2, 2011, in Japan and was aired on Nicktoons in the U.S. on February 8, 2013. In November 2012, it was confirmed that the production of Dragon Ball Z Kai would continue and air outside of Japan. Mayumi Tanaka (the Japanese voice of Krillin in the series) posted the news on her blog confirming that Dragon Ball Kai would be continuing, as voice work was already underway for the early stages of the Majin Buu story arc. Her post went on to specify that the series revival is for the overseas market, and as of the time of her post there are no plans to air the new episodes in Dragon Ball's home country of Japan. In April 2013, Sean Schemmel and Kyle Hebert (the Funimation dub voice actors for Goku and Gohan) confirmed they were recording their lines for the Funimation dub of the Buu Saga. In November 2013, when questioned about it on their Facebook page, it was stated by Australian anime distributor Madman Entertainment that the Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z Kai should be released on November 8, 2014 on Cartoon Network, as they were just waiting on dubs to be finished.

Dragon Ball Kai returned with the Majin Buu arc to Japanese TV on April 6, 2014, taking over the time slot previously occupied by Toriko. This story arc was comprised of 61 episodes for the Japanese version, and 69 episodes for the International version, raising the total episode count for the entire Kai series to 159 episodes for the Japanese version and 167 episodes for the International version.

## English adaptations

The title screen translations are far more similar this time around, but are changed to fit properly into English. Edits were been made to the version appearing on Nicktoons; these include the removal of blood (which sometimes is replaced with black grayish liquid where the blood is supposed to be), overly violent moments, profanity and others. The CW's Toonzai airings, however, were edited even more so than the Nicktoons version, due to tighter restrictions on broadcast programming. These edits include recoloring Mr. Popo's skin from black to blue, replacing dead characters' halos with glowing orbs, removing virtually all references to death in both dialogue and episode titles, and renaming certain special techniques (i.e. Goku's Spirit Bomb renamed as the "Spirit Blast" and Vegeta's Galick Gun as the "Galick Blast"). Also in the beginning of the intro song, Toonzai edited out Shenron and replaced him with a green colored sky. When Toonzai became Vortexx, these edits remained but the halos/glowing orbs were removed altogether. On Nicktoons, the series aired from May 24, 2010 to February 8, 2013; on Toonzai/Vortexx, the series aired from August 14, 2010 to September 27, 2014 when the block was cancelled.

The series returned with the 69 Majin Buu Saga episodes in 2014 in Europe, carrying the sub-title "The Final Chapters". This remastered and reedited series was broadcasted in the UK on Kix, in Portugal on Sic Radical, in Poland on AXN Spin, and in France on Game One. On May 25, 2014, Funimation and Adult Swim announced that the English dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai would air uncut on Adult Swim's Toonami block starting in fall 2014. The show began airing at 12:00 AM on November 8, 2014, replacing Bleach. Starting on February 21, 2015, a rerun of the previous weeks episode began airing at 8:00 PM on Saturdays outside of the Toonami block, with a new episode at its 12:00 AM time slot as part of Toonami.

On December 7, 2016, it was announced via multiple media outlets that the English dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters would make its U.S. debut on Toonami on January 7, 2017 at midnight, after Dragon Ball Super. The series fully completed its U.S. run on June 23, 2018.

The Family Channel first aired Nicktoons version taking rights of the series and then Toonzai version, Both version heavily censored which is fit for Family but later they broadcast Adult Swim version which was uncut but channel never cancelled that and finished with all seasons, The show rating was sky rocketing and broke previous version record.

## Broadcast History

The series premiered in Japan on Fuji TV on April 5, 2009 and initially ended with the Cell Saga on March 27, 2011, with the final episode unaired and later released direct-to-video due to the Tōhoku offshore earthquake and tsunami. The Majin Buu Saga premiered on Fuji TV from April 6, 2014 to June 28, 2015. The series originally aired in the U.S. on Nicktoons from May 24, 2010 to January 1, 2012, in an edited format. The series also aired on The CW's Toonzai block (later renamed Vortexx) in an even more edited format from August 14, 2010 to September 27, 2014. Family took Nicktoons version and aired DZKai from January 10, 2012 to May 16, 2012 showing all Nicktoons edited version episodes. After that CW's Toonzai version also aired on Family from October 10, 2014 to February 24, 2015.

DBZ Kai began airing uncut on Adult Swim's Toonami block on November 8, 2014. From February 21, 2015 to June 25, 2016, a rerun of the previous week's episode could also be seen each Saturday at 8:00 PM on the regular Adult Swim block.

The Majin Buu Saga of DBZ Kai made its U.S. debut on Adult Swim's Toonami, airing from January 7, 2017 to June 23, 2018 under the title Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters (airing concurrent with Funimation's dub of Dragon Ball Super). Family took Adult Swim's DBZKai uncut version and immediately aired at late night when they aired Teen's shows.

* Japan (Fuji TV) — April 5, 2009 - March 27, 2011; April 6, 2014 - June 28, 2015
* United States (Nicktoons) — May 24, 2010 - April 13, 2013
* United States (The Family Channel)— January 10, 2012 - May 16, 2012
* United States (The CW) — August 14, 2010 - September 27, 2014
* United States (The Family Channel) — October 10, 2014 - February 24, 2015
* United States (Adult Swim) — November 8, 2014 - June 23, 2018; September 29, 2018 - September 28, 2019; January 4, 2020 - January 25, 2020; March 14, 2020 - August 8, 2020
* United Kingdom (Kix!) — December 26-28, 2012; January 5, 2013 - 2014
* Asia (Toonami) — December 1, 2012 - March 31, 2018
* United States (The Family Channel) — June 28 , 2018 - November 12, 2018; August 14, 2020 - November 17, 2020

## Staff

* Series & Episode Director: Yasuhiro Nowatari
* Assistant Episode Director: Yasunori Koyama
* Producer: Gō Wakabayashi, Kazuya Watanabe, Kohei Obara, Kyotaro Kimura, Makoto Seino
* Production Chief: Atsunori Kazama
* Planning: Kōzō Morishita, Yoko Matsusaki
* Series Composition Cooperation: Kōhei Ohara, Kazutaka Satoh (Caramel Mama)
* Script: Aya Matsui, Hiroshi Toda, Katsuyuki Sumisawa, Keiji Terui, Sumio Uetake, Takao Koyama, Toshiki Inoue
* Animation: Naotoshi Shida (OP & ED Staff), Tadayoshi Yamamuro (OP & ED Staff), Tatsuya Nagamine (OP & ED Staff), Yasunori Gotō (OP & ED Staff)
* Music: Kenji Yamamoto, Shunsuke Kikuchi, Norihito Sumitomo
* Sound Director: Yukio Nagasaki, Satoshi Motoyama
* Sound Effects: Hidenori Arai (Fizz Sound Creation)
* Editing: Kenta Katase, Shinichi Fukumitsu (eps 1-10)
* HD Editing: Emi Maruo, Tetsuro Tsukada

## Theme songs

* Opening (OP):
	+ "Dragon Soul" version 1: episodes 1~29
	+ "Dragon Soul" version 2: episodes 30~54
	+ "Dragon Soul" version 3: episodes 55~68
	+ "Dragon Soul" version 4: episodes 69~98
	+ "Kuu-Zen-Zetsu-Go": episode 99~159 (Japanese version)
	+ "Fight It Out!!" (Performed by Masatoshi Ono, with the musical composition by Yō Yamazaki and lyrics by Hiroshi Yamada): episode 99~167 (international version)
* Endings (ED):
	+ "Yeah! Break! Care! Break!: episodes 1~54
	+ "Wings of the Heart": episodes 55~98
	+ "Dear Zarathustra": episodes 99~111 (Japanese version)
	+ "Junjō": episodes 112~124 (Japanese version)
	+ "Oh Yeah!!!!!!!": episodes 125~137 (Japanese version)
	+ "GALAXY": episodes 138~148 (Japanese version)
	+ "Don't Let Me Down": episodes 149~159 (Japanese version)
	+ "Never Give Up!!" by Junear: episodes 99~167 (international version)
* Insert Songs (IN):
	+ "Over the Star" by Saki Oshitani (episode 17)
	+ "Saiyan Blood" by Ryō Horikawa (episode 41)
	+ "Chou Super Dragon Soul" by Takayoshi Tanimoto (episode 41)
	+ "Tatta Hitori no Senshi" by Takeshi Kusao (episode 82)
	+ "Only a Chilling Elegy" by Demon Kakka (Funimation dub)
	+ "Let it Burn" by Masatoshi Ono (episode 158; international version)
	+ "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" by FLOW (episode 167; international version)