I will admit when “Dragon Ball Z Kai” came across my desk for review I just rolled my eyes. Let’s face it DBZ has been released so way too many times already: season box sets, dragon box sets, various individual volumes, on VHS, DVD & Blu-Ray and they are always claiming it is somehow “different” from the previous releases. And for the most part all I was able to tell that was different in all those releases were the covers, occasional “bonus features’ (textless songs & trailers), and every once in awhile you might get a cuss word. All these releases are pretty much just bleeding DBZ fans dry and costing them tons in the process.

So what does “Dragon Ball Z Kai” have to offer? Well there is some mild cussing & things like crap said & in the first episode you get some flashbacks showing clips from the Bardock movie & from “Dragon Ball”. But the biggest difference I did notice was they cut out things that could be seen as filler by some. Example when Goku is on Snake Way he encounters the Princess Snake, well in this release that is no longer part of the story. In fact to give you an idea of how much is cut from the show this release ends with the episode “The Power Of The Kaio-Ken! Goku Vs. Vegeta!” and has it listed as episode 13. If you compare it to the previous DVD releases this episode is the 23rd of the edited version and the 30th episode of the uncut version.

This creates a faster moving story that gets right to the point and doesn’t leave you sitting around for a whole episode while characters power up to prepare for battle or starring mindlessly at the screen as Goku goes into one of his longwinded speeches about saving everything. It gets straight to the action while not cutting out vital parts of the story. Which I would be all over owning this release if perhaps it was the 2nd one put out by Funimation. I would choose to have the Kai series and the uncut season box set and call it a day. But for all those fans out there that have already spent 100’s to 1000’s of dollars on so many different releases I just don’t know if it is worth spending even more money on what will end up being less of the anime. But if you are one of those that have to finish off a collection they will run you around $38-$55 for the Blu-Ray & $32-$50 for the DVD. All I can say is luckily it won’t be as bad as some of the past releases since it seems there were be a significant less amount to purchase.

This one is tough to grade. The release itself is decent & as I said before if it had been the 2nd time DBZ was released on DVD one to pick up and would have gotten an A from me. But because of how many times it has been released, there is nothing new added to the anime only things cutout & there aren't even new bonus features available or a cut in the cost I feel I should give this one a D to D- grade. So I am going to go somewhere in the middle and give it a C. Great concept for DBZ but they are just beating a dead horse at this point.