25 November 2007

Podcast Episode #0104 Available!
VegettoEX @ 7:51 pm EDT -- Episode #0104 of the podcast is available for download! This week, we took a look at the single greatest achivement in cinematic history. That's right, kids... nothing will ever top Dragon Ball Ultimate Edition. Yeah. I said it.

So in addition to covering this week's news (which you've certainly already read, below), we brought in Jeff and Andrew for the outside perspective on this travesty. Definitely check it out.

24 November 2007

Mexican Actress, Toei Goes Blu, eBay Reminder
VegettoEX @ 10:52 am EDT -- Been a few days since the last update... it's not that there hasn't been any news, so let's just blame the lack of effort on Rock Band and Super Mario Galaxy.

So this post popped up on Kotaku a few days ago noting that Mexican actress Camila Sodi (note: unofficial website) has auditioned for the role of Bulma in the upcoming American live-action adaptation of DragonBall for the big screen. Do with this information as you will.

SonGokuGT over on our forum pointed us to bluray.com which notes that Toei has gone (at least for now) with Blu-Ray as their preferred high-definition home format.

Toei International has announced that they are planning to release 'Clannad' for Blu-ray on March 7th in Japan. This will be the first Blu-ray release for the studio, and adds yet another strong content provider to the Japanese Blu-ray market. The release will make use of a new HD master which is said to have a "beautiful image which cannot be reproduced with DVD".

Finally, I just wanted to remind everyone that Meri and I have some stuffage up for sale over on eBay. For you DB fans, the biggest steal is probably Shin Butôden for the Sega Saturn.

As a reminder, the game is fully playable on a US system via the use of something like the Action Replay 4M Auto Plus. If you're interested in any other stuff, we have more video games, posters, and other non-DB stuff for sale. Check it out; it's over tomorrow.

19 November 2007

Atari vs. FUNimation Update — Advertising Shortfalls
VegettoEX @ 5:52 pm EDT -- Everyone's favorite battle in the Dragon World, Atari vs. FUNimation, continued onwards today with Atari's next quarterly report (also delayed, but not so delayed as their ridiculously delayed previous quarterly report... if that made any sense what-so-ever):

We are a party to two license agreements with FUNimation Productions, Ltd. (“FUNimation”) pursuant to which we distribute the Dragonball Z software titles. On October 18, 2007, FUNimation delivered a notice purporting to terminate the license agreements based on alleged breaches of the license agreements. We dispute the validity of the termination notices and have continued to distribute the titles covered by the license agreements. We and FUNimation are currently in discussions regarding a “standstill” agreement that would permit them to discuss and attempt to resolve the issues under the license agreements that resulted in FUNimation delivering the purported termination notice. There is no assurance that the parties will agree on the terms of the standstill or that they will be able to successfully resolve the issues under the license agreements. While we believe we have valid defenses to the purported termination, in the event that FUNimation is successful in terminating the license agreements it could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial position. We have recorded an additional $2.8 million expense related to the FUNimation dispute during the six months ended September 30, 2007. This amount is comprised of an additional royalty expense of $1.2 million and $1.6 million related to minimum advertising commitment shortfalls. As part of this dispute we have reduced our FUNimation prepaid license advance by approximately $0.8 million during six months ended September 30, 2007 and have a liability of approximately $2.5 million as part of royalties payable as of September 30, 2007.

So what is this actually saying in non-corporate-ese? Basically, their battle is still on-going, they've already put $2.8 million into the fight, and they expect more to go into the whole scenario. I'm really grabbed by that phrase "minimum advertising commitment shortfalls"... Huh.

Does this mean that one of the reasons FUNimation is going after the license the fact that Atari has not put enough advertising support behind the franchise? Certainly we have seen the amount of television advertising drop over the years (think back to Budokai 3 ads). I know Filter was involved with some new-media advertising on Atari's behalf during the Super DragonBall Z era (as shown by our giving away a copy of the game based on their involvement back on podcast episode #0045), and I was never able to get in touch with anyone at Filter regarding subsequent games. We couldn't go anywhere without seeing Shin Budokai: Another Road flash banner ads, though, quite recently.

In a nutshell, it sounds like everyone's still at a "standstill" and money is being pumped into the battle. As you know, Atari has completely bowed out of the game development business; this doesn't seem to affect DB in any way, since the last game they developed (as opposed to simply licensing from Japan and distributing) were DBGT: Transformation (GBA; August 2005) and DBZ: Sagas (GCN/PS2/Xbox; March 2005). Sparking! METEOR Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for the PS2 is on shelves right now, and it looks like it will still be coming out for the Wii next month.

Daizenshuu EX continues to be the best place to keep up-to-date on all this, so stay tuned.

18 November 2007

Podcast Episode #0103 Available!
VegettoEX @ 4:36 pm EDT -- Episode #0103 of the podcast is available for download! This week we tried to answer a question... what will it take to make a watchable American live-action DB movie? Not even good... just watchable. We definitely have some thoughts on the matter, so tune in for that. Oh, and by the way... this is the two-year anniversary of the podcast! Holy snaps! Back on November 19th, 2005, we released little ol' #0001, and here we are with #0103 two years later (not only that, but the website as a whole turns ten in January!). To celebrate the two years... well, we celebrated #0100 a couple episodes back by starting up a contest to give away daizenshuu numero dos ("STORY GUIDE"), so we're giving it away this episode! Did you win?! You'll want to tune in to find out. Definitely check it out.

Oh yeah... the eBay list is up. You want this stuff. There's four video games for sale, including Shin Butôden for the Saturn. Aww hellz yeah!

Viz Omnibus Additional Details: Color? Updated Text?
VegettoEX @ 1:06 am EDT -- Geeze, some random guy I've never met and never get any e-mails from happened to send me something out of the blue today! I don't know how this happens, but I love getting news! :D

So RightStuf has yet another new listing, this time for the DragonBall Z "omnibus" versions coming out from Viz (note that we had news on the original DB release back on November 12th). Pretty interesting description, here:

This VIZBIG edition of Dragon Ball Z contains volumes 1-3 of the series, bonus color content and updated text.

Hmm... so let's tear this apart. First off, we know they're doing "DB" and "DBZ" separately, just like they did with the original "graphic novel" releases previously (despite the fact that the entire 42-volume series is simply called DragonBall, beginning to end, in Japan; the "Z" distinction is anime-only). Second, "bonus color content". This implies the color chapters have returned, similar to the kanzenban release in Japan. "Updated text"...? That's a doozy of a speculation to make. Are the translations simply "touched-up"? Censoring being addressed? Who knows...?!? Well, someone at Viz does. It would be nice if they would speak up. Drop us a line, guys! Help a fan out.

Look for Episode #0103 of the podcast later on today, after I sleep and play more Super Mario Galaxy... :P We have a contest winner! Is it you...?! You'll just have to tune in to find out!

15 November 2007

Daizenshuu 2 ("STORY GUIDE") Contest Reminder!
VegettoEX @ 10:08 pm EDT -- Don't forget! You've only got about one day left to get in your contest entries! It's so easy... all you have to do is send a little email with a couple words... and you get this:

Why would you not enter...?! Such would be insanity! If you're looking to get info quick, just tune into the latest podcast episode around 81:20 into the episode (where the blank space is 'cuz I forget to put in the bumper music... ;_;). Get those entries in by 12:00 noon tomorrow...!

14 November 2007

Justin Chatwin & James Marsters in Live-Action Movie...?
VegettoEX @ 6:57 am EDT -- Argh, someone please make this American live-action movie news stop. My poor soul cannot take it any further...! According to Hollywood Reporter (and also being posted on sites like comingsoon.net and movieweb.com), Justin Chatwin (known for the most recent War Of The Worlds), and James Marsters (most well known as "Spike" in the Buffy & Angel universe) have apparently been picked up, and the story is reporting a 15 August 2008 "worldwide release date" with James Wong indeed at the helm.

Now, this completely contradicts the news from the other day of James Kyson Lee (who auditioned for the role of Yamcha) saying that it's looking like a 2010 release timeframe... aiya... This doesn't mean that Lee was simply wrong in everything he said, and this doesn't mean that everything we've heard thus far has been complete Hollywood fabrication... so, eh, do what you will with the info.

Thanks to all the forum folk for the info.

13 November 2007

Breaking News — Atari Restructuring, CEO Departs
VegettoEX @ 6:40 pm EDT -- Atari's been on a roll, today. Two additional press releases have come out, (1) announcing the complete departure from the production business, a refocusing on the distribution business, and a workforce reduction, and (2) announcing the departure of their current CEO, David Pierce.

What does this mean for DragonBall? Nothing, quite yet. As you can read below, Budokai Tenkaichi 3 has already shipped, and they are nothing more than the North American (and abroad) distributor for the game (remember, it's created and developed over in Japan for Bandai by Spike as the Sparking! series). As far as we know, they're also still in corporate bullshit shenanigans land with FUNimation regarding supposed breaches of contract. We'll let you know if anything else surfaces.

Budokai Tenkaichi 3 On Store Shelves
VegettoEX @ 5:28 pm EDT -- Even though today's only the ship-date, I confirmed a whole bunch of Sparking! METEOR Budokai Tenkaichi 3 PS2 games on-shelf down at my local Target, today (no, I wasn't out getting it... I was picking up Galaxy, of course!). Get out there, kids, and pick it up... just make sure to call ahead, in case your local store is not putting it out until tomorrow. In the meantime, Atari's got a little press release about it. While the music in the North American version is supposedly better than average, there is no selectable Japanese music option, which is a bummer for all of you that were holding out hope. The Japanese voice cast is at least selectable, though.

As a reminder to everyone, Meri and I gave our initial thoughts on the game (based on the JP Sparking! METEOR, of course) back on Episode #0099 of the podcast. We'll be following up with our final thoughts on the game in the next week or so... look forward to it!

Also got in my copy of the "remastered" Chinese live-action movie... expect a "lively" review of that one in the near future on the podcast...!

12 November 2007

Viz Omnibus First Details: Price, Release Date, etc.
VegettoEX @ 5:31 pm EDT -- As we reported quite a while back, Viz has announced they're going to be putting out so-called "omnibus" version of the manga, which in a single volume will collect three individual volumes of the original tankôbon / graphic novel run. The first of these is apparently due out on 06 May 2008 for a retail price of $17.99, though RightStuf has it listed for a pre-order price of $13.49. This should cover DragonBall volumes one, two, and three... which itself cover chapters one to thirty-six (into the 21st Tenka-ichi Budôkai). Thanks to "some guy" (who happens to e-mail us stuff all the time) for the heads-up on this one... ^_~

We'll give details on the cover art (which we expect to be kanzenban-related, though there's no full confirmation) and assorted other things as they come in.

11 November 2007

Podcast Episode #0102! Live Action Movie News!
VegettoEX @ 8:55 pm EDT -- Episode #0102 of the podcast is available for download! We dive into volume ten of the "Manga Review of Awesomeness" this week. I'll let that discussion speak for itself, but I will definitely point out that it was one of our favorite volumes and I really enjoyed the discussion on it. In addition to that, we had an awesome debunking of some supposed "translations" of daizenshuu material that's been floating around on specific sites, per an e-mail request we received. Oh, and we talk about this thing:

Yep! All good times. Let's also not forget that we're giving away daizenshuu number two ("STORY GUIDE") next week. Get in your entries! Right now! Listen in for full details! Definitely check it out.

I supposed we should talk about all this live-action movie news that's coming out of all sorts of places. I received an e-mail from MidoriVX earlier today linking to this page on SuperHeroHype.com; apparently some filming is going to be done in Mexico...? Hrm. Negates what we heard earlier about being filmed in Canada. Then, of course, there is what was posted earlier today on Anime News Network regarding James Kyson Lee (who I guess does something in the TV show Heroes) auditioning for the role of Yamcha.

In other news, the Sparking! METEOR official website has updated with four more passwords for crazy-powerful customized characters (Trunks, Piccolo, Gohan, Buu).

Finally for one last bit of video game news, Bandai has announced that their subsidiary Banpresto is going to be dissolved and brought back into the fold. Nothing really interesting here, since Banpresto hasn't done any DBZ stuff in a while, but it's still note-worthy.

FUNimation Bardock/Trunks Disc... "Remastered" ;_;
VegettoEX @ 11:18 am EDT -- Word on the street from quite a few people is that the new re-release of both the Bardock and Trunks TV specials, which FUNimation is releasing as a "double feature" combining both TV specials on a single DVD, is going the route of the faux-"remastered" nonsense as the rest of the TV series. We are extremely disappointed to hear this, although it comes as absolutely no surprise. Apparently the latest disc inserts from FUNimation have a confirmation on this. As I haven't gotten anything new from FUNimation in a while, if anyone wants to send in a scan of this, we'll plop it up here and give ya' the shout-out. w0rd. Thanks to everyone on the forum for the info.

Podcast Episode #0102 will hopefully come out tonight, if I don't keep distracting myself with other things :P.

10 November 2007

New Bandai DBZ Figures Already On The Way!
VegettoEX @ 4:47 pm EDT -- Due to the fact that I'm looking for any possible reason to procrastinate additional work on podcast editing (even though I loved the episode, it's long, and I'd rather be doing other stuff right now :P), here I am with a brief little news update. Tanooki Kuribo is my enabler in this case, giving the heads-up that toywiz.com has updated with some pre-orders for new DBZ figures from Bandai. You can get some small images over the figures over on their site (yes, we're just taking their image... at least we're not hot-linking it!).

I guess these look kinda cool. We'll check them out upon release, which appears to be in February.

07 November 2007

"USSJ" Updates & Atari Loses More Money!
VegettoEX @ 7:31 am EDT -- I've updated the "Saiyan" (that's "Sigh" and not "Say") page over in the "Transformation Guide" to include the full history of the phrase "Ultra Super Saiya-jin". See, this is why Daizenshuu EX is a step above the rest... we actually know what we're talking about ^_~. Cheers, cheers, hurray... Julian will be performing this weekend at Chip & Helena's wedding, also signing autographs for $5.

Anyway...

As you may have read elsewhere, Atari's much delayed financial statement for Q1 2007 has been released, to the tune of a $12 million loss. They're concerned about being able to continue as a company. Yeah, this is looking fantastic.

06 November 2007

Random Gaming Updates
VegettoEX @ 7:32 pm EDT -- Donny Clay's blog at IGN for Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (which I guess is still coming out...) has been updated, again... with... uhh... some random talking. Dunno what else to say about it, since there's not a whole lot of content to speak of.

Anyway, for those of you that "can’t comment on the best new feature of Budokai Tenkaichi 3 since nobody’s played it yet" own the Japanese version of the game (Sparking! METEOR), the official website has updated with another batch of passwords for some super-duper awesome maximum power crazy versions of Trunks, Piccolo, Gohan, and Buu. Rock on, my brothas and-o my sistas.

04 November 2007

Podcast Episode #0101! Atari vs. FUNimation!
VegettoEX @ 6:47 am EDT -- Episode #0101 of the podcast is available for download! This episode, we discuss the greatest match-up and rivalry the series has ever known. It has years of histrionics and drama behind it, along with all sorts of members coming and going throughout the years. Still haven't figured it out? Well, you're clearly not reading, because this update's header already says what it is. However, a funny picture will help drive the point home!

As you read below a few days ago, FUNimation has issued all sorts of legalese over to Atari demanding they cease distribution of DBZ games immediately. During the episode we read the actual SEC filing, discuss where the companies may be coming from, and try to determine where this situation is heading. Hopefully you fanboys waiting on the American release of Sparking! METEOR (being the Booty-Kye Ten-Kai-Chi Three) won't be sitting all alone, cold, and with nothing to keep the PS2 from leaving you for good. Definitely check it out.

03 November 2007

Random DragonBall Z 2 Kuriza Screenshots
VegettoEX @ 5:29 pm EDT -- No real rhyme or reason to this update, other than that I've had these sitting around for a while and never really did anything with them.

If you remember from either (1) buying it, or (2) learning about it on this website from something like the "Rumor Guide", you know that DragonBall Z 2 (the Japanese release of Budokai 2) contained a couple extra things, including an extra, alternate outfit for Freeza... Kuriza! Of course, you'll also remember that Kuriza is Freeza's son from Toriyama gag/parody manga Neko Majin Z. Anyway...

So yep. That is all.

Look forward to a good deal of discussion regarding the Atari vs. FUNimation license fiasco in this weekend's upcoming Podcast Episode #0101... but you're probably still working your way through the big one-zero-zero right now, anyway :P.