Dragon Ball Z Kai General

Great now I feel like I should ask to delete this thread just to rename it "Dragon Ball (Z) Kai" because of perfection... *cough* Cell* cough cough

As for Kid/Teen Gohan, I "unfortunately" started with Kai so I guess I have a bias. But I can agree that Gohan yelling a lot in Kai isn't as epic as the original. Cell is definitely a refined version in his Perfect form but his semi-perfect (Wait how can you be semi Perfect you're either perfect or you're not me) voice was too gruff imo.

I've gotten used Gohan's Kai voice actor. I love me some Faulconer music, but I don't mind the Kai's music and can enjoy it. I do prefer Kai's pacing to DBZ. In the long run that makes Kai more accessible to watch over with friends and getting into the story faster.

I don't like Linda Young's Freeza. Never did. DBZAbridged actually has the best Frieza voice in my opinion, but Kai's is good, too. (Mostly because he sounds like Abridged Frieza.)

To me, Gohan's VA and the Faulconer music are the only solid wins the original Funimation dub has over Kai, though those are still enough to make me prefer the original.
For those characters that had the same VA in both the original and in Kai, I generally prefer the voice work of the original dub. Chris Sabat's Vegeta and Piccolo voices were less throaty in the earlier dubs, and Sean Schemmel's Goku-voice was less rough.
I have to admit that a lot of the original dub's dialogue was either inaccurate or cheesy beyond belief...but in a lot of cases, I like it better that way:
"I...WON'T LET YOU...GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

I'm going to go ahead and say that for Saiyan-saga to the defeat of Recoome, I prefer the Ocean dub, since that's what I grew up with on TV. (I love their Piccolo, Ginyu, Recoome, Zarbon, Turles, and especially the original VA for Goku, Ian Corlett.) For the rest of the series, my ideal watching experience is original Funimation dub, edited to remove the filler and cornier lines.

I've never really liked the Kikuchi score for DBZ. The style fit for the more whimsical, Jackie Chun Chan-like Dragon Ball, but seemed underwhelming for DBZ. The only score I really like is the Perfect Cell theme that Genghis introduced me to a month ago. I did really like the Yamamoto scores for Kai, though. Just not as much as Faulconer.

Frankly I never really liked Faulconer's score. Seemed to miss the mood quite often and at times felt like it was trying to... How to put it... Overshadow the scene. I do admit that Vegeta's SSJ theme was good but the vibe I had from that more subtle tune in Kai was pleasantly unsettling. Felt more like "Damn they are screwed if Vegeta's turn on them" rather than "Damn Vegeta is a badass" which was more fitting for a scene as from what we knew Vegeta was still not a good guy. Though I just never grew on Funimation dub of DBZ. After pain with Polish version I jumped to subbed one.

Yup yup that's one! Thanks!!! Though hopefully I can find a shortened version cuz like we get a minute and a half of background music.

So we can finally confirm FTrunks has PTSD cuz of the Super scene when he wakes up and sees Goku?

As for "original dub best when it's edited to remove filler" sounds like you want a shortened version, maybe... an abridged version? Eh?

Actually that makes me wonder. If Kai never got created, or actually thought up of, would Funimation have thought of redubbing the series as their version of it condensed?

So this thread is brought back to life (Cue Shenron) so that it mirrors the DBS General thread. Anyone reading this, feel free to make a new DBKai Episode thread.

On the whole:
Faulconer: Matches the speed and intensity of DBZ, but often doesn't know when to shut up.
Japanese soundtrack: Fits the original Dragon Ball perfectly, but I'd argue not really DBZ. Is willing to be quiet, but then again, often goes long periods of time with silence that I don't think is really necessary.

Rant (and whenever I say "you," I mean a rhetorical "you," not you personally, Azoth) :
Music is a very tricky business, since it can either make or break a film or TV show. DBZ's soundtrack is especially a touchy subject. On the whole I think the original Japanese score was very fitting for Dragon Ball, but by the time it got to Z it seemed a bit...out of place. The genre was changing, after all. By the time of Namek the show was very much about people flying around shooting energy blasts, not a comical Jackie Chan-like adventure. Both the original Ocean and Funimation composers, for whatever reasons, looked at the show and went for very electronic, fast-paced music to help with the localization, and as far as I can tell it worked.

I don't think I will ever be able to look at the scene where Gohan kills Cell and think the Japanese music fits it better. Faulconer's score builds up the intensity of the moment the entire episode, and when the first warning notes of Vegeta's SS Theme trail in right before Vegeta hits Cell, I get shivers. Faulconer's music matches the rage and desperation of that moment. The same could be said for many other moments. 

Now that I'm older, though, I can see weaknesses in the Faulconer. In the cartoon, it feels like it has to match what's happening onscreen at every moment. This can be quite a buzzkill at those times when Goku is fighting Cell and it switches to Hercule, since Faulconer seems determined to interrupt the pulse-pounding "Piccolo vs. 17" track with a plodding bass line. There are times when it just would've been better to shut up and let silence do the work. (This is the reverse of the Japanese soundtrack, which I think is silent too much.)

Say what you want about the Faulconer tracks' quality or how well they match the mood, but someone still put in a lot of work producing them. Someone looked at Goku vs. 19 and came up with a theme for it, someone looked at Gohan becoming SS2 and made a theme for it. Just as much work went into the American soundtrack as the Japanese (if not more--I wouldn't be surprised if Faulconer composed more music). Faulconer is probably the strongest part of the original dub, because no amount of nostalgia can hide the fact that much of the voice acting work and a majority of most of the lines were pretty shoddy.

(By the way, I've seen that same Battle of Gods edit. I think its flaws are more due to the fan making it, and no so much the music itself. I think the fight scenes become a lot more exciting with Faulconer's score over them, but the domestic scenes aren't so good. Surprisingly enough, my favorite part of the edit is the music that plays when Goku gives up and falls to Earth and Beerus catches him. I think that moment is incredible.)