{"id":77840,"date":"2015-08-03T01:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T00:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=77840"},"modified":"2015-07-17T14:41:32","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T13:41:32","slug":"dragon-ball-z-kai-season-1-review-gokus-gamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/dragon-ball-z-kai-season-1-review-gokus-gamble\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Ball Z Kai Season 1 review: Goku’s gamble"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dragon Ball Z: Kai<\/em><\/b>\u2019s main intention is to make the series more accessible to those that had a passing interest in the property, but could never fully commit (and with 450+ episodes in the original roster, who could blame you?). <\/span><\/p>\n

Kai<\/strong><\/em> exists as a re-do, a start-over, using the original cells and episode structures to tell the saga \u2018as it was meant to be told\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

The thing is, Kai<\/strong><\/em> honestly feels more like the result of an anime chop-shop than a coherent series \u2013 Season\u00a0One replaces the original 30 episodes with only 13. It cuts through a lot of the fluff, but the result will confuse newcomers to the series. <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, once the two real antagonists of the series get introduced, the show cuts to a reaction from the team of do-gooder earthlings, and there are miraculously four characters with them that you\u2019d have no idea about if you hadn\u2019t watched the original season. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small thing, but there are more oversights like this than we can forgive, and it\u2019s something even veteran fans would find frustrating.<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, the standout moments of the original series make a return \u2013 Kai<\/strong><\/em> actually manages to make training montages fun \u2013 and some of the silliest moments look dazzling in the Blu-ray animation ( like when Piccolo blows up the Earth\u2019s moon). <\/span><\/p>\n

This is undercut by some of the lazy plot-point executions, though \u2013 there\u2019s a scene where a character sacrifices himself (a big deal in the original series), but in Kai, we\u2019ve only known him for half an episode. <\/span><\/p>\n

The show makes a huge deal about the level of this sacrifice, but the only emotional reaction you\u2019ll have to the whole scene is confusion. It looks pretty, but at what cost?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kai<\/strong><\/em> cuts down the time investment required to enjoy Dragon Ball<\/strong><\/em>, but it comes at a pretty weighty cost \u2013 and that, simply, is comprehension. <\/span><\/p>\n

This was a release intended for newcomers, but ultimately, it appeals to neither those that have a passing curiosity in Dragon Ball<\/strong><\/em>, nor those that grew up with it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does the abbreviation of the Dragon Ball saga hit the right spot?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":77842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2617,8,207],"tags":[4600],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Dragon-Ball-Z-Kai.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}