Dragon Ball Z Kai

Production

In February 2009, Toei Animation announced a remastered version of Dragon Ball Z for the series' 20th anniversary, premiering on Fuji Television on April 5, 2009, as Dragon Ball Kai. The suffix "Kai" means "updated" or "altered", reflecting improvements to the original work. The original Z footage was remastered into high definition, with new animated opening and ending sequences, a new original soundtrack, and re-recorded vocal tracks. Damaged or erroneous cel frames were redrawn, and most filler content from Z was omitted to align more closely with the manga, resulting in a faster-paced series.

According to Kazuhiko Torishima, Kai was conceived when Bandai asked Toriyama for a new Dragon Ball anime to boost merchandise sales; Toriyama declined to write a new story, so a new version of Dragon Ball Z that better matches the manga was produced. Toriyama reacted positively to the concept. Originally scheduled for 98 episodes, the final episode was not aired due to news coverage of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and was released as a direct-to-video exclusive on August 2, 2011.

In November 2012, voice actor Mayumi Tanaka announced that she and the cast were recording more episodes. In February 2014, the Majin Buu arc adaptation was confirmed. The continuation, internationally titled Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters, aired on Fuji Television from April 6, 2014, to June 28, 2015. It was produced for 69 episodes, but the Japanese broadcast was edited to 61 episodes to fit a timeslot taken over by Dragon Ball Super, which premiered on July 5, 2015.

Music

Kenji Yamamoto originally composed the score for Dragon Ball Kai. The opening theme "Dragon Soul" and the first ending theme "Yeah! Break! Care! Break!" (used for episodes 1–54) are performed by Takayoshi Tanimoto in Japanese. English variants of the opening were performed by Sean Schemmel, Justin Cook, Vic Mignogna, Greg Ayres, Sonny Strait, and Brina Palencia; the English ending was performed by Jerry Jewell.

The second ending theme, used from episodes 55–98, is performed by Team Dragon from AKB48 in Japanese, with an English version by Leah Clark. On March 9, 2011, Toei Animation announced that due to Yamamoto's score infringing on third-party rights, music for episodes 96–98 and future reruns would be replaced. Later reports stated that except for opening and closing songs and eyecatch music, Yamamoto's score was replaced with Shunsuke Kikuchi's score from Dragon Ball Z. For The Final Chapters, Norihito Sumitomo composed the score.

The opening theme is "Kuu Zen Zetsu Go" by Takayoshi Tanimoto. The ending songs are: "Good Morning America" (episodes 99–111), a song by Leo Ieiri (episodes 112–123), "Oh Yeah!!!!!!!" by Czecho No Republic (124–136), "Galaxy" by Kyuso Nekokami (137–146), and "Don't Let Me Down" by Gacharic Spin (147–159). All these songs are exclusive to the Japanese cut. The international cut uses the opening "Fight It Out" by Masatoshi Ono and the ending "Never Give Up!!!" by Junear, both sung entirely in English, so no localized versions were produced by Funimation.

Home media release

In Japan, the widescreen version of Dragon Ball Kai came out on 33 DVDs, while the fullscreen version was spread across eight Blu-ray sets, each with four discs, hitting shelves between September 18, 2009, and August 2, 2011. Funimation put out eight box sets for Dragon Ball Z Kai on both DVD and Blu-ray from May 18, 2010, to June 5, 2012, featuring the original Japanese audio with subtitles and the uncut English dub free of TV edits. Even before the last box set dropped, Funimation started reissuing the series as four season sets on DVD and Blu-ray from May 22, 2012, to March 12, 2013. The Final Chapters later arrived in three DVD and Blu-ray volumes between April 25 and June 20, 2017.

Reception

The first episode of Dragon Ball Kai earned an 11.3 viewer ratings percentage in Japan, ahead of One Piece and behind Crayon Shin-chan. Following episodes had lower ratings, but Kai was among the top 10 anime in viewer ratings weekly for most of its run, with ratings around 9–10% toward the end. Dragon Ball Z Kai premiered on Nicktoons in May 2010, setting a record for the highest-rated premiere in total viewers and in tweens and boys ages 9–14. Nielsen Mega Manila viewer ratings gave Kai a high of 18.4% for October 30–November 4, 2012.

At the end of April 2013, Kai trailed One Piece at 14.2%. On Kix, it was the second most viewed show in its debut week. On Vortexx, it was the third highest rated Saturday morning show with 841,000 viewers and a 0.5 household rating.