When Toei announced that they would be re-airing Dragon Ball Z with all the filler edited out, I speculated that this title wouldn't be licensed. Really, who would buy it? Casual fans of the show already had Funimation's DBZ Uncut DVDs, and the hardcore fans had probably purchased that and The Dragon Box. Who would be left? The obvious answer, of course, is the really hardcore fans. And then there's people like me, who have never seen Dragon Ball Z and aren't willing to start because of its extreme length and notorious filler. Hey Funimation, here's your pull quote: if you have never seen Dragon Ball Z, this boxset was made for you.

Of course, the truth is more like it was made to milk a decades old cash cow in a time when the industry seems more unstable than ever, but I'm not complaining, and nor should anybody else. Kai covers in thirteen episodes the material that took the original broadcast over thirty to finish. This probably contributed to what made it such an engaging, lightweight watch that I easily burned through it over the weekend. But unfortunately, when I was finished I was left wondering what it was that made this series so popular, because while it's a fun watch, it hardly seems to deserve all the love it gets.

Raditz, an alien from dying race of warriors, has come to Earth with a dramatic revelation for its famous hero, Son Goku. Goku is a Saiyan like Raditz, who was sent to Earth as a baby to destroy its pesky inhabitants so that the Saiyans could sell the planet off to the highest bidder. But Goku lost all memory of his galactic heritage, and now is ready to fight back against these new invaders. But it turns out even the weakest of the Saiyans is many magnitudes stronger than Earth's best warriors, and after narrowly defeating one invader, Goku will have to do extensive training in the afterlife if he is to have any hope of defeating the rest of the Saiyans.

It's an apocalyptic premise that sounds like it's better suited for the end of a long running shounen series than for the opening salvo, but that's part of the fun of watching this. Forget the long buildup to insane superpowers after many episodes of training and defeating weak bosses- let's get to the good stuff now! And what good stuff it is- mountains are ripped into the ether, searing balls of energy tear across the sky, and mighty men pound each other with high end martial arts at speeds so fast, nobody can see them move. Even the moon isn't safe. It has all the set pieces for an epic finale, including some tragic sacrifices. But shounen series take so long to get to a story like this for good reasons: it takes time to get to know it's characters, and stories like these feel more epic if there's an incremental buildup to it. There's a price to be paid for eating dessert before dinner. It's a fun spectacle to watch, but it's completely devoid of any emotional involvement. We're not given any reason to care for these characters beyond who are the black hats and the white hats.

Sharp readers are already thinking to themselves, But Dragon Ball Z is a sequel! All that buildup you're moaning about missing is there, just in a different series. And that's true, but that doesn't make it any less of a weakness. Assuming familiarity might come naturally to the creators and benefit long time fans, but at the same time, it leaves new viewers out in the cold.

This is just one reason that the series doesn't look so hot twenty years after its broadcast. There are others, most notably the dated animation. For something that was supposed to get a hi-def makeover, beyond the new opening animation, it doesn't look that much better. On top of that, it's all little too straightforward: meet the bad guys, beat the guys, do some wacky training, beat the new bad guys. Beyond that, there's not much else to sink your teeth into. It doesn't have Bleach's sense of style, HunterxHunter's intelligence, or One Piece's wackiness. Of course, the reason for this may be that those series, which are basically Dragon Ball with a different coat of paint, needed some way to distinguish themselves from their granddaddy. Perhaps Dragon Ball Z only suffers from being so popular that its successors knew exactly how to improve on it- still, modern shounen fans should be sure to moderate their expectations.

I've heard that the opening arc is one of the weaker stores in Dragon Ball Z, and that later on in the seasons that cover the Frieza and Cell Sagas, things get really nutty.  I could easily see that being true, if only because shounen series are always on a quest to out-do themselves. Every successive arc must be louder, bigger, and progressively more mind blowing than the one that came before it. If that holds true here... I can't imagine what's coming up next. This is a bit of a truism whenever reviewing anything in incremental volumes, but how strong my recommendation is depends on where the series goes from here. By itself, Kai Vol. 1 is a fun but very lightweight watch. As part of a whole, it might be the start of something that will break your mind.

Rating: B-
Produced By: Toei Studios
Distributed By: FUNimation Entertainment
Review By:  Bradley Meek
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