Dragon Ball Z Kai Review

 Dragon Ball Z, a series that I have a number of fond memories yet oddly hard to recall memories for. I played the fighting games in the 00s a lot more than watching the anime and while I did watch the original anime, it was only random episodes here and there since it would air on one day only and I remember not being able to watch it consistently. The original DB, Z and GT all aired at the same time and the whole thing was a disjointed experience. Over time, I would keep playing the fighting games but I would slowly start to get sick of the same story being told over and over to the point where I would get sick of the overall DBZ story and I went on to criticize it for many years mainly due to the whole "main character or GTFO" criticism that anime fans would often do and I eventually fell for that lousy excuse for a criticism myself. Recently, I have come to respect DBZ's writing a lot and get why the series' creator Akria Toriyama made the choices he did at least from Sayain Saga to Cell. Watching Kai and finally being able to properly experience the DBZ story from start to finish from Sayain to Cell reminded me why this series hooked me even as a kid. After not being exposed to it for so long, I finally understood why I liked it to begin with. Long intro out of the way, this will be like my original Dragon Ball review where I will rate each Saga individually and then give my overall thoughts.

Sayain Saga - 8 out of 10. DBZ starts off in a rather strange way, it might seem to be a sequel to the original DB at first but I argue Z was a soft reboot of the series before those really started to take off in other franchises. But the difference is DBZ does it better than a lot that has come before and after. The thing with Z is that it retcons Goku's backstory and while retcon is a dirty word on the internet, I think it depends on the execution more than anything and Z executes it really well. Goku's retconned backstory of him being part of a bloodthristy group of alien space pirates in many ways raises the stakes of the overall Dragon Ball story and since Z introduces at the start, it means you don't even have to watch the original series, I reccomend you do but if you start with Z first, it's not that bad of a decision due to the inclusion of this retcon. Z also names Goku's son after his adopted father and never mentions his adopted father ever again, Piccolo who was called "Junior" at around the end of the original series is now just called "Piccolo" and his father is rarely mentioned. From the start, it's easy to see how much Toriyama has improved as a writer from the original series particularly with his foreshadowing, he is often infamous for the fact that he made up much of the story as he went along but I argue with the Sayain all the way to Freiza and to varying degrees even the Cell Saga all have Toriyama improve his foreshadowing skills from the original series. Where in the original DB, stuff like the Red Ribbon army, and Demon King Piccolo would all just come out of nowhere and every arc existed in a small contained vaccum but with Z from the start Raditz is already mentioning Nappa and Vegeta, and that he sells worlds to the highest bidder which will get mentioned later. Gohan's power which will be mentioned later also bares fruit here. Raditz despite being Goku's brother which is the only thing this saga does wrong is never mentioned again and the series makes it sounds like he is an important character but really isn't but in spite of that Raditz is still a memorable character, and this where Toriyama loves to use his favorite trope: the worf effect. Raditz makes Piccolo scared as all hell and this is where if you watch the original series can greatly add to it because Piccolo gave Goku a run for his money in the final arc of the original series and the fact that Piccolo barely lays a scratch on Raditz when the latter lands on earth does a great job at selling him and him beating up Goku and Krillin so despite Raditz's personal connection to Goku being a missed opportunity he still manages to be a memorable character and he's the weakest villain in the series next to the Saibamen. And the fact that Goku gave up his life to beat Raditz just sells you on how powerful the Sayains are. DBZ often gets made fun of for death "not mattering" but I argue killing Goku off the first time made sense for the story considering if Goku lived and 2 stronger Sayains from Raditz showed up, where would Goku train? Kami's training didn't have him last a chance against Raditz and who were they going to find to train Goku? This where the afterlife actually works since it gives Goku next level training without needing to search for someone else to train Goku. Piccolo and his relationship with Gohan is also foreshadowed really well too. Since in the original series, the viewer nevers sees Piccolo murdering innocent people which makes his "face turn" easy to buy since the series already foreshadowed that Piccolo wasn't always evil, he saved a kid and his mom in the original series from rubble, so despite DBZ being a "soft reboot" watching at least the final torunament arc of that show only adds to Z. Nappa is another good example of how Toriyama is good at making one off villains memorable. He kills 3(arguably 4 if you count Yamcha) core memembers of the original Dragon Ball with Choitzu, Tien and Piccolo which does a good job at establishing that even with Kami's training, the Sayains are still a huge threat and what makes Nappa even more impressive is how he establishes multiple ideas in a short amount of time. First, he establishes the power gap between Goku's friends and the Sayains, then he establishes how powerful Goku has gotten since the fight with Raditz, sets up the Namek arc by him killing Piccolo, establishes the limitations of the Kaioken technique with Goku needing to strain himself, AND he establishes how ruthless Vegeta is. The final fight with Vegeta is fantastic with how it reincoporates the rules of full moons and great apes into the series and it does a good job at redeeming Gohan for how useless he was when he was Piccolo and Krillin for how useless he also was. The fight with Vegeta with great, in how Vegeta is stronger than Goku but Goku has to strain himself to reach his level, keeping the stakes and tension high. Honestly, this Saga gets a lot right, my only big gripes is the before mentioned thrown aside personal connection between Goku and Raditz and some of Gohan's training being rushed. That the retconning of Launch and the lack of mentioning "Grandpa Gohan" was a bit grating.

Frieza Saga - 9 out of 10. What can I say? This saga is great. All the foreshadowing where Raditz he was selling planets to the highest bidder pays off here. All though the existence of Frieza retcons what "Demon King" Piccolo said where he fought warriors from the universe and said Goku was the strongest. Only furthur proves my point that DBZ is a soft reboot. But yeah, the stakes feel high in this Saga, the villains are portrayed very dominently and even smaller villains like Zarbon and the Ginyu Force are memorable due to how much Toriyama uses the worf effect. Vegeta being an "x factor" adds to much more since you don't know Vegeta can be trusted or not. Frieza really is shown off as a powerful threat here and while DBZ is infamous for having a fight take many episodes, I argue, when done well, it does a good job at showing off how important and powerful a villain is so it makes sense for the final fight with Freiza being as long as it is even if stuff like, "the planet will blow up in 5 minutes" makes more sense in manga form than fully animating it. Having Goku get taken out a lot while a Z overall has a habbit was a rather smart choice since it gives Goku's friends the ability to surpass him and it shows how big the threats are. And a nice touch and what makes me respect Toriyama as a creator is that the guy turned Dragon Ball which was just a straight forward adventure story homage to Journey to the West and turned into a weird alien Skeasperen tradegy of sorts witht chracter of Frieza, it's really quite fascinating in that Frieza saw how powerful the Sayains were becoming and feared his own death so he tries to take action and prevent that from happening but by doing so, he sealed his doom. I never expected something like this for a show that is often known for having a simple plot. The character of Bardock was introduced so well into the series too, no need for prequels that establish him later, he was in the original series of Z. That and the alien prophecy was handled well too and does a good job at showing just how much Goku stands out from the other memembers of his race in that while he fights for the thrill, he isn't a bloodthirsty killer. Honestly, my only big gripes with this saga is how annoying Bulma can especially when they touch down to Namek, the before mentioned 5 minutes issues, Vegeta making killing those Namekian villagers making his eventual face turn a little harder to buy since he is seen killing innocent people, and how many different rules the series tries to come up with regarding the dragon balls which kind of makes the rules of them getting increasingly harder to follow. Overall, despite my problems I really enjoyed it.

Cell Saga - 7 out of 10. Okay, this Saga is weird in that there are many great moments and lots of parts that stick with me, there are a number of issues I have with it that prevent me from ranking it higher. I'll get them out of the way first. This Saga is where the power scaling of the series gets broken in half, before it was generally straight forward but now with the addition of earth androids made with the basis of aveage people being way stronger than a Cyberized Frieza and even a Cyberized Mercenary Tao, it makes me wonder where on earth did Dr. Gero and the Red Ribbon army find the technology and money to pull stuff like this off considering in the original series, General Red and Black were beaten by a child. And speaking of Dr. Gero, this is yet another example of how much of a soft reboot Z is. Dr. Gero never showed up in the original DB and Toriyama has forgotten and is expecting the viewer not to remember either. Trunks also comes out of nowhere too, it felt like Toriyama needed an excuse to ramp up the stakes by having another Super Sayain and needed to get Frieza and his crew out of the way fast so they don't have to wait for Goku to awkwardly show up. Was Android 17 and 18 abducted or did the volunteer? It's confusing because when they kill Gero, it wasn't out of revenge but more because they could. The time travel doesn't make a whole lot of sense either and it feels like it was only thrown together because Toriyama really liked the Terminator movies. It's going to take too long to describe the time travel but I am not a big fan when multiple time lines are involves, and it's weird how different Trunks' timeline is compared to the time line of the series. Finally, the biggest issue I have and is the biggest plot hole in the whole series: the Hyberbolic Time Chamber while it is cool concept, it just felt like Toriyama just needed to find ways for Goku and the gang to have new forms of training. Where Other World and King Kai made sense, here it just raises questions on why none of the characters ever bothered to use it from the Sayain Saga or before the androids showed up. It's both a Deus Ex Machina and a massive plot hole. So with my issues out of the way, I stille enjoy this Saga, mostly due to the characters. Toriyama does it yet again with the antagonists. With the exceptions of 19 and 20, all the villains in the Cell Saga are enjoyable. 17 and 18 are interesting in that they aren't pure evil which makes them intriguing to watch since they don't seem to want to kill Goku really badly, Android 16 as well in that he is a very peaceful being whose only directive is to kill Goku but despite all 3 of these characters wanting to kill Goku, they are people that aren't really people you want to see get killed due to them just being a bunch of weird misfits than murders which Goku's friends later in the story question. Cell on the other hand is pure evil and outside of Semi Perfect Cell, he is also a very despicable villain. Imperfect Cell feels like what you get if the DB universe had a weird serial killer and Perfect Cell just has that over the top smugness arrogance for a guy who loves to talk about how "Perfect" he is. Perfect Cell's motivations are strange in that he wants to throw a fighting tournament all of a sudden but he is so entertaining to watch that I don't mind. He is like an over the top villain you'd find in dumb action movie which works well for DB. What also really makes this Saga is Gohan. Throughout the whole series, it was slowly building up that he had potential and the Cell Saga is where that pay off happens and its really satisfying to see it happen. The final fight between Gohan and Cell does a good job at showing how different Gohan is from his father. And you know what? Despite my problems with this Saga, Goku giving Cell a Senzu Bean is not one of them. When Goku got out of the Time Chamber Goku is already said to be weaker than Cell and all of his friends question why he doesn't show any fear and it all comes full circle where Goku realizes that Gohan despite being powerful is not the ace in the hole that he was expecting so Goku pays for it...with his life. It was foreshadowed wonderfully which is why I can't dislike this Saga. Also Piccolo vs. 17 and Goku vs. Cell is some of the better action in the series.

Overall, DBZ is a show I have come to understand again why I like it. I even wrote a super long review about it. If DBZ just ended at Cell, it'd be my absolute favorite fighting shonen but there is stuff that comes after that this section of Kai doesn't cover. Honestly, I tend to be critical of a lot of mainstream anime but DBZ is surprisingly a show I get a lot of enjoyment out of. I may have over exposed myself to the story in the past but I understand why I did in the first place.

Also, here is a review on the final episode of Kai:

Pretty good final episode that should've been the end of the series, weird how it's a seperate entry from the other episodes of Kai but it does a good job at wrapping everything up.

Trunks gets a satisfying victory over the much more evil Androids and Cell and it really geniunely does feel like the series could've ended here but it kept going. There is overall not much to say on that I really enjoyed this and the fact that they included the Other World Tournament arc while creating confusion on what is considered "canon" in Dragon Ball was a nice piece of fan service since that arc was one of DBZ's more memorable filler arcs would've been nice if they showed Frieza, Cell and the gang getting beat up since it did a good job at selling Pikkon as a memorable character but the fact they did this at all was cool enough on it's own.

Not much to say that it was a solid ending just wish it actually was the ending.