Kai

Starting in 2009, Toei’s refurbished, "refreshed" version of Dragon Ball Z began to air on FujiTV. It recieved high ratings throughout, but was cancelled after 98 episodes (97 aired, 1 DVD/Blu-Ray exclusive). The purpose behind this creation, Dragon Ball Kai, was, besides celebrating the 20th anniversary of DBZ, was to provide a filler-free version of the show, staying closer to the original manga by Akira Toriyama. It was even touted as the "Toriyama Akira Original Cut Version". There would, as a consequence, be fewer episodes. read more

 Episode 98, "Peace for the Future! Goku’s Soul Lasts Forever"

  *****SPOILERS*****   Synopsis: Trunks arrives in his timeline. Meanwhile, Gohan relaxes with Gyumao, baby Trunks learns how to walk, and Mr. Satan shows off for an audience. Goku watches from the afterlife. Kaio wants Goku to help him build a new house. In Trunks’ time, Bulma notices how grown he is. He tells his mother about how Vegeta tried to avenge him. Hearing a newscasst about the Artificial Humans, Trunks takes off to fight them. Trunks confronts the 17 and 18 of his time and destroys both of them. Time passes and Trunks is stalked by Cell. The two fight and Trunks is the victor, destroying Cell. In the afterlife, Goku accidently destroys Kaio’s new house. He convinces Kaio to show him the master martial artists in the afterlife. They head off to meet them.      Comments:   In the (unfortunately) final episode of Dragon Ball Kai, the Cell arc wraps up with Trunks’ triumph over the Artificial Humans and a few other things. It seems like they moved around the events a little by having Trunks arrive in his time, then going back to the regular timeline for a bit and back. I like the rearrangement because it allows some non-Trunks related material before we get to his stuff, thus he doesn’t quite dominate the entire episode. My favorite scene is the one where baby Trunks tries to walk, and refuses help to get up.   In his timeline, Trunks relays what he learned about his father striking out at Cell when he died and future Bulma is somewhat surprised. I think that’s my second favorite scene (Bulma says, "I guess he did have a side like that"). Soon he’s off to destroy 17 and 18. It’s worth noting, as Trunks did, that this version of them are much more cruel. However, they’re probably weaker than the 17 and 18 of the regular timeline. Of course, Trunks takes them out easily, since he’s strong enough to defeat Semi-Perfect Cell (something Imperfect Cell learns the hard way), but I got the sense that 17 and 18 in Trunks’ timeline aren’t as strong.    One wonders how society carried on after Trunks finally defeated all the Artificial Humans of his time period. Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, and others are dead and there aren’t any Dragon Balls anymore. Perhaps the Kaio from that timeline could contact the Namekians to use their Dragon Balls to wish people back to life. Come to think of it, why didn’t Kaio from Trunks’ time period help out at all?    Speaking of Kaio, what’s with the footage of him and Goku meeting the other Kais and participating in the afterlife tournament? That’s all anime filler, it doesn’t belong in Dragon Ball Kai. And it’s in this weird montage of scenes from throughout the show, set to "Dragon Soul". I think this is Toei’s way of saying goodbye to the viewer, but it comes across as a little lazy. I think they should have shown scenes of the Buu arc instead.    It’s too bad Kai ends before the Buu arc. Maybe someday we’ll see it Kai‘d. Until then, this has been interesting. Later!   Overall Score:

3.5 out of 5