Dragon Ball Z Kai

For anyone that collects anime on DVDs or Blu-ray Discs would know, Dragon Ball Z was one of the most annoying to collect. This is because of the multi-part releases. Luckily FUNimation has finally done something to help the fans by putting the parts together into seasons. You can still buy Dragon Ball Z Kai in separate parts if you want (eight to be exact), or if you want to take up less space on your bookshelf, you can wait for the season releases.

So far just two seasons have been released, if you want them the direct links are here and here for blu-ray, or here and here for DVD.

Season One was originally released on October 18, 2011 however the audio was incorrect. Season One was re-released on May 22, 2012 and that's the version in the links above. It features correct audio. Season Two was also released on May 22, 2012. I ordered both seasons on the day they were released and will get them in the mail this upcoming Thursday (May 31). Season One comprises of "Part One" and "Part Two" of the multi-part release. Season Two is "Part Three" and "Part Four" and I'm sure the other two seasons will be released soon. If you don't wish to wait, you could just get these two seasons then buy parts 5-8 on their own. But again, who wants to take up the extra space on your shelf?

For those that don't know, Dragon Ball Z Kai is the more "correct" version of Dragon Ball Z that was released in 1989 and ran until 1996. Dragon Ball Z included a lot of fillers and was edited for American audiences. Dragon Ball Z Kai removes the fillers, fixes some of the dialogue and brings the series closer to the manga.

One negative about Kai though is that the Majin Buu arc is removed. This is the last part of the series and the entire thing is missing from Kai. You can still buy this arc in the original Dragon Ball Z DVD sets, however it would have been nice if they included it in Kai

How Nintendo ruined the Zelda series

The Legend of Zelda is one of the best game franchise on the Nintendo platforms. And in my opinion, the only reason to still play your Wii (the poor 480p resolution is horrible to look at on an HDTV). However, Nintendo has ruined the Zelda series for me by butchering the story in Skyward Sword.

For starters in the book Hyrule Historia it is mentioned that Skyward Sword is the first Zelda game in the timeline (see a translation of the timeline here). We also know that after chaos ended, the kingdom of Hyrule started. Yet after winning enough battles in the challenge Lanayru gives you, he'll reward you with the Hylian Shield. However, at this point the land is just the nameless surface! If there is no Hyrule at this point, then why is the shield called "Hylian?" Now I guess you could say "Well the Goddess is named Hylia" – however then why not call it Hylia's Shield? Besides, there already is a shield named the Goddess Shield in the name. No, it is obvious the shield is named after the at-this-point-non-existent kingdom Hyrule.

Another problem with this being the first game are the fairies. In Ocarina of Time a fairy in a bottle will give you full health when you fall. In later games, you only get a few (6-8) hearts when revived by a fairy. The same is true for Skyward Sword. Are we really to believe that the once limited fairies became strong enough to grant full hearts, only to be limited once again years later? It would be more believable if you could get full hearts in Skyward Sword then the argument could be made that over time the fairies became weak, and that is believable. Growing weak or strong over time is more believable, than growing strong for a brief period and then getting weak again.

One of the biggest problems are the moblins in the game. Moblins are created in Ganon's image. Yet in Skyward Sword there is no Ganon, he hasn't been born yet. So how can you have moblins if there is no Ganon?

Nintendo took a once great series and ruined it. I have played every console Zelda game (on their original consoles) and a handful of the handheld Zelda games. It's bad enough that Nintendo makes sub-par handheld games, don't ruin a perfectly good console series!

Optical media still has its uses

Blu-ray is not dead, not by a long shot. The problem with streaming media is it's limited to how many bits you can push down the pipe. Take the newest Apple TV for example, it now can stream at 1080p but still suffers horrible audio. Most blu-rays discs these days can handle either 5.1 or 7.1 audio, but iTunes movie audio is limited to 2-channel.

Another problem is buffering, like with Netflix. Netflix often pauses the video to buffer in the middle of whatever you're watching. And let's not even mention how had the video quality of Crackle, a service by Sony that delivers TV shows and movies over the Internet. Unlike iTunes and Netflix, Crackle has advertisement breaks, but the video quality is awful.

So next time some loud mouth tells you how much optical media is "outdated" and now new blu-rays discs are dead on arrival, remind that person that they are an idiot. Then link them to this article ;-)