Dragon Ball Z Kai is a revised version of the anime seriesDragon Ball Z, produced in commemoration of its 20th and 25th anniversaries. Produced by Toei Animation, the series was originally broadcast in Japan on Fuji TV from April 5, 2009 to March 27, 2011. A follow-up series, which adapts the remaining story arcs from the original manga, was aired in Japan from April 6, 2014 to June 28, 2015. Kai features remastered high definition picture, sound, and special effects as well as a re-recorded voice track by most of the original cast. As most of the series' sketches and animation cels had been discarded since the final episode of Dragon Ball Z in 1996, new frames were produced by digitally tracing over still frames from existing footage and filling them with softer colors. This reduced visible damage to the original animation. To convert the animation to widescreen, some shots were selectively cropped while others feature new hand drawn portions; an uncropped 4:3 version was made available on home video and international releases for the first 98 episodes. Much of the anime-exclusive material that was not featured in the original manga was cut from Kai, abridging the 291 episodes of Dragon Ball Z down to 167. In November 2012, Mayumi Tanaka blogged that she was recording new episodes that were intended to air internationally but not in Japan. In April 2013, Funimation cast members were also reported to be recording new episodes. The series would ultimately return and run for an additional 61 episodes in Japan. Internationally, the second part of the series was titled Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters by Toei Europe and Funimation and ran for 69 episodes. The international releases of The Final Chapters contain a Japanese audio track for all episodes, including those that were never released in Japan. The first Blu-ray and DVD compilation was released in Japan on September 18, 2009. Individual volumes and Blu-ray box sets were released monthly. France was the first international country to release all 167 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD, while The Final Chapters were not released on video in Japan.
Arcs overview
In Japan, Dragon Ball Z Kai was aired year-round continuously, without seasonal breaks; The "arcs" in this list divide the series by story arc according to Toei Animation's promotional material, and do not reflect the pattern in which the series was broadcast or produced.
