relaxed
Posted by Anne in: anime
So for my 4th of July, I watched fireworks, just like a lot of people. I had a great view from my bedroom and living room, it’s good to be an end unit. 
Then I got bored and watched a different kind of fireworks display. I decided to have a Dragonball Kai marathon. For those of you who don’t know, DBK is Dragonball Z, but enhanced. The animation is the same, but they added on to the ends of the calls, or in some cases zoomed in to make it fit a widescreen format. Looks like they cleaned it up a bit as well. The completely scrapped the opening and closing and changed out the songs and animation with new stuff. The animation is great, but I miss Cha-la Head-Cha-La. It’s not the same without Kageyama Hironobu singing… 
The opening song Dragon Soul sounds like a knock-off of DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku performed by Field of View or of the original DAN DAN by Zard. I wonder if I’m the only one to notice that or if they just let it slide. It’s not like they went out of the family. Somebody over there in TOEI-land (no pun intended) probably has the rights to all these songs and they decided to mix and match Kai with GT. Trying to mess with our head. The ending song, Yeah!Break!Care!Break! is pretty fun, though!
Moving on… They also redid the sound track of the show. Many people are happy for this, but those of us that appreciated the 70s/80s epicness (dammit, spell-checker, it is a word!!) we will mourn. Those of you who celebrate the end of a musical era can rot. 
I do like the new music, it seems to me like One Piece with a bit early Naruto added. It’s nice, but it’s not my Dragonball BGM. (This coming from the person that has just about every single DB BGM except the one from when Trunks goes Super Saiyajin in the special! I NEED that one!!!) I wish they would have just re-recorded the original soundtrack in digital of Hi-Def stereo. They did re-record the voices, except those that passed away like Kame Sen’nin and Tenshinhan. Some sound different and older while others have improved. Take Kuririn, voiced by Tanaka Mayumi has improved quite a bit with all the acting as Luffy in One Piece. Another good thing they did was cut out all the filler, like all the Gohan crap. Don’t get me wrong, I love Son Gohan, but I don’t want to see 2 episodes full of him getting lost in the forest or the episodes where he plays with dinosaurs and makes friends in the wilderness while he’s supposed to be training. They’ve gotten up to episode 13 and Goku and Vejiita are already fighting. That didn’t happen in the original until episode 30! Thank you TOEI! All in all, it’s almost like watching a new anime. I can’t wait until Trunks shows up! 
All that being said, if you’re a true fan of the manga, this version is for you!
Listening to :: Yeah!Break!Care!Break! – Dragonball Kai
August 7th, 2009 at 9:42 PM
Hi! I found your site from Moonlight Legend and was particularly interested in this entry because I’m a DB fanatic. XDD SO HI. <3
I TOTALLY agree with you about Kai's music! The original stuff by Kikuchi will forever be THE soundtrack for DB+Z. My favorite thing about Kai is the clean-up they did with the animation; it really shows! And I agree, Tanaka's Kuririn has definitely improved. On the flip side, I'm not as crazy about Nozawa's Gohan; sounds more like Goten did in the original! (I'm sure it gets hard to keep up that voice though, especially after 20-some years.) She's still great though.
And, finally, if you're looking for BP? Battle Points Unlimited (the background track for Trunks killing Freeza), I have it! ^_^ Let me know and I'll upload it to Mediafire for ya.
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