In April 2013, Sean Schemmel and Kyle Hebert (the Funimation dub voice actors for Goku and Gohan) confirmed they were recording their lines for the Funimation dub of the Buu Saga.
Her post went on to specify that the series revival is for the overseas market, and as of the time of her post there are no plans to air the new episodes in Dragon Ball's home country of Japan. Mayumi Tanaka (the Japanese voice of Krillin in the series) posted news on her blog confirming that Dragon Ball Kai would be continuing, as voice work was already under way for the early stages of the Majin Buu story arc. In November 2012, it was confirmed that production of Dragon Ball Z Kai would continue and air outside of Japan. The 98th episode of the series, which recapped the entire series and provided some closure, was released to DVD/Blu-ray on Augin Japan and was aired on Nicktoons in the U.S. Despite this, the series has been one of the top 10 rated anime series every week since syndication began in April 2009. The series was in syndication in Japan for exactly two years. The 97th episode of the series was broadcast on Main Japan, and Januin America. A new anime series based on the Toriko manga debuted in April 2011, taking over the Dragon Ball Kai time slot at 9 AM on Sunday mornings before the One Piece anime series. It was shown on Kix in the United Kingdom.Īfter episode 97, there were initially no plans for Dragon Ball Kai to reach the Majin Buu Saga. The uncut version of the series began airing on Adult Swim's Toonami block on November 8, 2014. On August 14, 2010, the series premiered on The CW's Toonzai block. This was quite a change, as all the Dragon Ball series have almost always appeared on Cartoon Network in the United States.
The series premiered on the Nicktoons network on May 24, 2010. Interestingly, despite the series being only a director's cut of Dragon Ball Z, the Z has been completely removed from the title (at least in the original Japanese version).įunimation has dubbed Dragon Ball Kai into English for a North American release, under the release title of Dragon Ball Z Kai (more information can be viewed below). Two issues of Shonen JUMP have included some primary information about the series.
The "Kai" (改「かい」) in the series' name means "updated," "modified," or "altered," reflecting it being an abridging of the original anime that removes a majority of its filler. ĭragon Ball Kai promotional image featuring Goku (center), Gohan (bottom-left), Piccolo (bottom-right), Vegeta (top-right) and Frieza (top-left).
Dragon Ball Kai returned to Japanese TV on April 6, 2014, with the Majin Buu Saga, and ended its run for the second and last time on Jwith 61 episodes while the original uncut international version would go on to have 69 episodes (bringing the total episode count of the series to 159 for the original Japanese broadcast and 167 for the extended International broadcast). The series average rating was 9.4%, with its maximum being 12.3% ( Episode 47) and its minimum being 6.4% ( Episode 18). It premiered on Fuji TV on Apat 9:00am just before One Piece and ended initially on Mawith 97 episodes (a 98th episode was later released straight-to-video), and the two shows were marketed together as "Dream 9", which refers to the hour in which they both aired. Dragon Ball Revised), is an anime series that is a high-definition remastered and recut of Dragon Ball Z, done for its 20th Anniversary. Dragon Ball Z Kai, known in Japan as Dragon Ball Kai ( ドラゴンボール 改 ( カイ ), Doragon Boru Kai, lit.