

This indeed turned out to be the case, as a pre-title card shown before the first 13 episodes stated that Kai was the “Akira Toriyama Original Cut Version”. Toei Animation’s announcement stressed that the series would have a higher “sense of excitement”, indicating that the majority, if not all, of the “filler” material would be cut. The series featured re-recorded dialogue, new music, updated sound effects, and new digital effects, but the majority of the footage was recycled from Dragon Ball Z. The block began with Kai at 9:00AM (hence the “9” in the block’s name), and was followed by Toei Animation’s other mega-hit anime series, One Piece, at 9:30AM. The first episode of Kai aired on 05 April 2009 (Toriyama’s birthday) as part of Fuji TV’s new hour-long Sunday morning anime block, “Dream 9”. In early 2009, Toei Animation officially announced (in Weekly Shōnen Jump issue #11) that a “refreshed” version of the Dragon Ball Z TV series, re-titled Dragon Ball Kai (改 Kai meaning “renewed” or “revised”), was being produced for a high-definition presentation in honor of its 20th anniversary. Music - Kenji Yamamoto (original) / Shunsuke Kikuchi (replacement) Planning - Yōko Matsuzaki & Kōzō Morishita Series Organization - Kazutaka Sado & Caramel Mama

2.3 chapters per episode)Ġ6 April 2014 – 28 June 2015 (1 year, 3 months spent 3 weeks on break)ĭragon Ball Kai Episodes 099 – 159 (61 broadcast episodes)ĭragon Ball Chapters 421 – 519 (99 chapters approx. Series Information Phase 1: Saiyan – Cell arcĠ5 April 2009 – 27 March 2011 (2 years spent 7 weeks on break)ĭragon Ball Kai Episodes 001 – 098 (97 broadcast episodes + 1 unaired episode)ĭragon Ball Chapters 195 – 420 (226 chapters approx.
