It’s not exactly a secret that I like Dragon Ball Z. It’s one of the first anime series I watched, pretty much defining my childhood. I have all of the currently released Dragon Boxes, though I’ve yet to actually watch any of them, for a good reason. As much as I love DBZ, it’s way too long. I just don’t have the time or patience to commit to rewatching the entire thing. I buy the Dragon Boxes for the sake of collecting them, but it’s possible I’ll go my entire life without ever watching them. That’s what makes Dragon Ball Z Kai so appealing. I can enjoy the show I loved as a kid in a fraction of the time.

Dragon Ball Z Kai tells the story of a fighter named Son Goku and his friends. Several years of peaceful times for the group are quickly interrupted when a strange person arrives from space. The person claims to be Goku’s brother Radditz, revealing that Goku is actually part of an alien race known as the Saiyans. Radditz wants Goku to join him on a mission to conquer another planet, but when Goku refuses Radditz takes his son as a hostage. When Goku faces off against Radditz to save his son, he sets off a chain of events that puts the entire world in peril when two more Saiyans, Vegeta and Nappa, decide to head to Earth.

The story of Dragon Ball Z isn’t a very deep or complicated one. It’s a straightforward “Good vs. Evil” story where a man with the mental capacity of a 12 year old punches bad guys in the face, with some training arcs thrown in for good measure. Such is the case for many shounen fighting series though; there’s as much story as is necessary to get the characters from one fight to the next. So taking a series known for its often horrendously slow pacing and trimming it down to the bare necessities, like Kai does, is a pretty good idea. However, this does have some downsides to go along with the benefits.

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