In my original Dragon Ball Z series review I mentioned that as much as I love the seriesand think either the original Z or Kai are great ways to experience itif you drop the nostalgia and judge it by modern anime standards especially in English dub form Kai is easily the better choice. Dragon Ball Z Kai basically fixes two of the biggest issues with the original Z: the filler episodes and the overall slow pacing. Sure the series is still longcertainly longer than your average battle shonenbut the way it gets to the point much faster makes it way more enjoyable. You dont have to sit through episodes of unnecessary padding and events that are never referenced again in any Dragon Ball series. Now do these changes suddenly make Kai a perfectly paced series? Obviously not. Even without filler battle shonen series tend to drag out certain scenes and arcs longer than necessary. But Kai at least trims things down to a more compact digestible format which helps a lot. In my original Dragon Ball Z review I focused more on the macro levelhow the fight scenes are consistently great and more importantly how much I love the character growth and interactions. Gokus love of fighting Gohan and Piccolo finding their places in the group Vegetas drive to surpass his rivalthese elements all add depth beyond just the action. Now for this Kai review I want to give more specific thoughts on the various arcs. The Saiyan Saga is a great way to introduce the everexpanding scope of Dragon Ball. Before this outside of Piccolos introduction and Gokus tail becoming irrelevant the series was pretty grounded in terms of power progression. The reveal that Goku is an alien was the ultimate retcon in the best way possible. Toriyama opened up the world in a way that explained Gokus powers beyond just being mysterious. Plus the Saiyan Saga had real stakes before Dragon Balls became ridiculously overpowered which added a layer of tragedy that later sagas lacked. The Frieza Saga while iconic is honestly a bit overhypedor as the zoomers say glazed. Once the fight with Frieza starts its amazing. But everything leading up to it drags even with Kai cutting the filler. I like the idea of Gohan Krillin and Bulma having to strategize to survive while different groups hunt for the Dragon Balls but theres just too much running around that ultimately leads to nothing. This saga also kicks off the annoying trend of sidelining characters while waiting for Goku to the point where they have to keep knocking him out just so he doesnt end the arc too early. The Cell Saga at least fixes this by keeping more characters involved but watching just Gohan Krillin and Vegeta go up against various enemies gets dull fast. That said once Frieza himself finally enters the battle the long grueling fight to take him down is incredible and serves as the ultimate payoff to everything set up since Raditzs arrival. The Android and Cell Sagas are widely considered the best parts of Dragon Ball Z for good reason. Pacingwise theyre the best of the longer arcs though this happened somewhat by accident due to Toriyamas editor constantly pushing him to change the main villain. Despite these changes the saga still feels cohesive which just shows how good Toriyama is at improvising and making things work with his simple yet engaging writing style. The Cell Arc serves as a necessary turning point for characters like Goku Vegeta and Gohan showcasing their flaws and forcing them to learn from their mistakes. Cell himself is an awesome villaingenuinely terrifying in his early forms and hilariously cocky once hes perfect. That said as much as I love this arc I have issues with it that keep it from being the perfect arc many fans claim it is. The constant villain changes while interesting make it hard to take each new villain seriously knowing theyll be replaced in 20 episodes. Similarly while I like the idea of negative character development leading to growth there are too many moments where characters act downright stupid just to drag the plot out. Characters like Krillin Android 18 Android 16 Vegeta Goku and even Piccolo and Trunks make baffling decisions that stretch things out unnecessarily. Its entertaining to watch the train wreck that leads to Cell reaching his perfect form but its also frustrating how much of it happens purely because characters act dumb. Also while this arc tries to keep nonSaiyan characters relevant its obvious Toriyama was struggling. Tiens TriBeam Krillins attempt to deactivate 18 and even Piccolos brief power boost all feel like lastditch efforts before those characters become completely outclassed. This review might sound a bit harsh for a series Im ultimately rating very highly but thats just because Im passionate about it. Dragon Ball Z Kai is still one of my favorite anime to just pick up and watch anytime. I just wanted to point out that its not flawless especially since so many fans overhype the preBuu Saga arcs. Regardless Dragon Ball Z Kai is easily one of my favorite anime of all time and is hands down the best way to watch the series from start to finishunless youre really attached to the oldschool delivery of certain quotes in the original English dub.