The story of Part 1, which features 13 episodes about the martial artist Son Goku and his allies as they fight off an evil alien race called the Saiyans, moves along at a brisk pace, with barely any of DBZ's trademark scenes of laborious power-ups and staring contests. In fact, the 13 episodes of the first DVD set cover the events of the first 30 episodes of the 1989 Japanese TV broadcast, setting a pace that nearly matches that of Toriyama's manga. Granted, there are a few scenes not depicted in the manga, such as a brief moment of comedy when the Saiyan Nappa scares away a news crew, screaming, "I hate the media!"

Furthermore, Kai includes new opening and ending songs from Tanimoto Takayoshi, called "Dragon Soul" and "Yeah! Break! Care! Break!" respectively. (Beware of the awkward — yet thankfully optional — English versions of the songs included by FUNimation!) Fans of the recent Dragon Ball video games might also notice flashy new eyecatches and opening/closing animations, which I assume were drawn by the same team that creates the art for games like the Budōkai Tenkaichi series.

FUNimation's new dub (presumably made up of all new audio) sounds scarily accurate to their fantastic original, which was recorded over 10 years ago! However, the folks at FUNi have clearly made a concerted effort to appeal to hardcore anime fans this time, with frequent uses of mild profanity ("damn," "hell," and the occasional "bastard"), untranslated attack names ("Makankōsappō" instead of "Special Beam Cannon"), and a subtitle track with a notably different, more accurately translated script. Clearly this is a release for the kids who grew up on DBZ and have now grown into older otaku with the disposable income to buy a fan-centric re-release. Considering this, it's surprising that the DVDs have no special features beyond textless openings and closings, but such is the state of the struggling anime industry at the moment.

Most importantly, behind all of the great modifications from both the animators at Toei and the folks at FUNimation, the backbone of Dragon Ball Z is still surprisingly strong, even two decades after its Japanese TV release. Toriyama's unforgettable characters and trademark slapstick comedy are still an absolute joy and the action scenes have a quickness and a sense of power that served as the inspiration for many modern shōnen fighting anime. What's more, there are actually some really great-looking pans around characters in the show, notable for their fidelity despite being drawn entirely using cel animation on a weekly TV budget. Unfortunately the anime version fails to fully bring out the beauty of Toriyama's exquisite sense of shot composition, though it makes some noble efforts in many of the fight scenes.

All in all, Dragon Ball Z Kai is well worth the $50 for anybody with an interest in experiencing the joy of DBZ all over again. It distills the best qualities of the show through improvements to its visuals, sound, pacing, and top-notch English adaptation, and should be a treat for anybody who grew up watching the TV airing. For new fans of the series it might not work so well, since the 13 episodes finish up partway through the fight with main villain Vegeta, prompting a necessary purchase of Part 2 for interested viewers. Actually, newcomers might even be better served by picking up volumes 1 through 4 of Viz's release of the Dragon Ball Z manga, which cover the entire Vegeta fight and can be purchased for well under the price tag of DBZ Kai Part 1.

Still, as a lifelong fan of Dragon Ball Z, I can confidently say that, if given the choice, this is absolutely THE release of the Dragon Ball Z anime that I would purchase. With Dragon Ball Z Kai, you don't just get 13 episodes of Dragon Ball Z, but you get 13 legitimately good episodes. It's a wonderful chance to experience the best that DBZ has to offer and a chance that no true fan of the show should pass up.

[Recommended]

It's at this point that DBGT really begins to crash and burn. The Baby Arc lasts for 24 episodes, of which only five minutes per episode are dedicated to fighting. The rest either revolves around talking about a strategy that doesn't work out or useless back-story that anyone who's watched any part of this series should already know.

The other 21 episodes are divided into two arcs: the Super 17 Arc that lasts 7 episodes and is the equivalent of a Bleach Filler Arc as far as story is concerned, and the Shadow Dragon Arc. In the latter, we get a long-winded explanation about the Dragon Balls containing positive and negative energy and we find out that when you make a good wish the negative energy increases to balance out the absence of positive energy that was used to make the wish. Then the balls each turn into dragons that want to rule the Earth ...

This doesn't even make sense! All the wishes that create the negative energy responsible for creating the dragons aren't “good” wishes. Wouldn't wishing for power be a selfish act, thereby releasing negative energy and allowing more positive energy into the ball to counteract it? Also, why is it that all of the wishes together didn't create the dragons? Why did only some wishes create dragons while others didn't?

Overall, there are way to many plot holes and not enough fighting to warrant watching DBGT. (Not to mention, this isn't even considered canon by most fans.)

After that, Sheehan entertained the room with some questions and answers. One of the first pieces of info that we gleaned was that "September sounds like a good month" for the release of the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood dub, though release format (DVD, streaming) was not discussed. On a slightly related note, Sheehan said that we will have an "update very soon on the online status" of One Piece, which has been missing from the FUNimation video portal for about a month now due to online video pirates (har har). Phantom, which has been airing on the video portal as well, will also see a dub and a DVD release in early or middle 2010, though Sheehan seemed to be leaning toward earlier in the year.

Finally, when I asked him about the potential for FUNimation picking up some of Central Park Media's titles (the company went out of business in April), he replied: "We'd love to, we'd love to. There's some stuff that CPM left out on the table that's just great, great stuff. So we're going to be looking at that."

That's about it! Look forward to some more Otakon 09 coverage of a considerably less industry-centric bent in the coming weeks!