Dragon Ball Kai is an anime series that is an HD Remaster and Recut of Dragon Ball Z done for its 20th Anniversary.

The series is being extensively "refreshed" for Japanese TV. It is notnew animation, but simply a remastering of the original film. Part ofthis will be reformatting and extending the picture to 16:9 Widescreen(the Jump image says it will not be a cropping of the series, at leastnot completely). Through digital processing, the image will be madevibrant. All the grime, damage and noise remaining on the "Z" film willbe removed, making the image much clearer in HD.

Dragon Ball Kai will include a complete re-recording ofthe dialog by most of the original Japanese voice cast, as well ascompletely new sound design with updated sound effects. The opening andending themes are completely new, having nothing to do with theoriginal themes. Takayoshi Tanimoto performs the series' new openingand closing themes, "Dragon Soul" and "Yeah! Break! Care Break!".

Non-confirmed reports have stated that the series will be cut down from 291 episodes to approximately 100. Toei Animation stated that the episodes would be edited to more closely follow Akira Toriyama's original story in the manga, resulting in a faster moving story, and to remove any damaged frames. This may indicate that Dragon Ball Kai will minimize the filler material produced for Dragon Ball Z's original production run.

The "Kai" in the series' name means "updated," "modified," or "altered." Interestingly, despite the series being only a directors cut of Dragon Ball Z, the Z has been completely removed from the title.