Anime Title: Dragonball Kai
Reviewer Name: Cool Beans
Anime/manga Rating: 3/5
Creator/Artist: Akira Toyrama
Short Summary: Goku the lighthearted martial artist hero of dragonball is surprised to discover he is in fact an alien sent to take over earth but instead vows to protect it from the exterestial menaces that wish to take it over.
Anime status: Ongoing 40+ episodes


The Dragonball series whilst not being the most sophisticated nor well written series ever is without a doubt one of the most promiment shonen series ever conceived being the forefront of the genre and the influence of many a big series out today, and even while the original run of the series ended almost 20 years ago it seems to still be as popular today as it ever was, even if the franchise has been milked dry with multiple movies, video games, toys, t-shirts, food and even *shudder* live action movies it is still going strong and to celebrate its 20th aniversary the action based part of the series Dragonball Z has been refreshed, rereleased and even renamed Dragonball Kai.
Dragonball Z was my first anime and the reason i got into it as a whole, i had never seen anything like it, the animation and art style, the action and the story was just so different to anything else we had on television at the time (dexters lab and the powerpuff girls for example) so its hard not to watch this series without a sort of sense of nostalgia, however i say sort of as with this franchise it has not seemingly had a chance to rest so maybe its too soon to be nostalgic over it.
Brand new openings and endings drawn from scratch build your hopes up for the rest of the series however its still the same old dragonball z just a spat and polished version desigined to look better in HD. Filler episodes have been removed from the run so the storyline is closer to that of the original manga and there have been some extensive edits to at times which is one of the most surprising things about this series. So one begins to wonder whether Kai is a heartfelt homage to the original series or a more cynical point of view another way to milk some more money out of this series.
If your a fan of the original series and havent watched it for some time i'd recommend this to watch just for a nostalgic trip back to more innocent times, however dont expect anything new or significantly different apart from the violence censorship and lack of filler episodes.
I give this series a 3/5 simply because it could have been so much better if they had just started from scratch like the opening animations, chuck on an extra point to the score if your a hardcore dragonball fan.

I most certainly am and this is some of the most exciting news i've heard in weeks!

well 40 episodes in and they are already in the thick of the Freezia fight on namek, its well worth watching just for the HD aspect of it (and defiantly a cheaper alternative to buying the re-re-re-re mastered versions on dvd) glad to be spreading the word, cheers!