Podcast Episode #0234: Bromance to the Max VegettoEX @ 11:23 pm EDT -- We have not had an opportunity to crank out a show in the last couple weeks, so hopefully this makes up for it! Our buddy Hujio sat in with me to talk about all the news we have been covering this month, along with your feedback on the Ano-Yo-Ichi Budôkai filler arc from last podcast episode. Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
The official Japanese website for Raging Blast 2 has a new trailer up specifically for Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans. Some new footage is showcased, but it is certainly just a tease!
We are officially on vacation for about a week, so expect very little in the way of updates during this time. Forum registrations may also be put on hold. We will see you soon!
28 September 2010
Various Gaming & General Interest News VegettoEX @ 3:57 pm EDT -- Channel NewsAsia has an interesting piece about Edison Chen from Hong Kong and his debut in an exhibition entitled The Treacherous Tries. As a part of the exhibition, Chen has created fiberglass statues of notable DragonBall characters:
Chen has other "pop-art" creations, but that giant Goku will be of most interest to you all, I would assume!
Our Japanese buddy Kei17 wrote in to let us know that Toshiba will be releasing a new refrigerator line starting later this year called "Vegeta"...! The official romanization is indeed "VEGETA" (just as we traditionally spell the character's name), and its katakana is exactly the same, as well: べジータ. It obviously has nothing to do with the DragonBall franchise, but is pretty hilarious none-the-less.
In video game news, the English version of the TAG VS demo for the PSP (re-named to Tenkaichi Tag Team for international distribution) should be available on the PlayStation Store at some point today. It is not showing up for me just yet, so perhaps the store was not been refreshed. A new English-language trailer has also been released:
Those of you who follow our Facebook community have already seen this video, but the rest of you may be interested in a fun tour of the basement here at "Daizenshuu EX Headquarters":
Our weekly "Podcast" has been less-than-weekly as of late. Lots of things have been happening behind the scenes, and we have some great content coming your way — we also have all that "regular life" stuff holding us back a little bit! We are going to have a much-needed vacation coming up next weekend, but we will do our damndest to get something significant in the audio department up for all you eager folks. Stay tuned!
23 September 2010
Various Raging Blast 2 + TAG VS Updates VegettoEX @ 2:44 pm EDT -- The first Raging Blast received a special Collector's Edition over in Europe which included a booklet and soundtrack — those of us over here in North America had no such luck. It seems as if the sequel's release will play out in exactly the same way, with Europe getting another Collector's Edition for Raging Blast 2... while the rest of the world gets left out in the cold, again!
In addition to a pop-up game cover and a laser-etched version of Goku's character design for Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans (the video feature that will be included on all global versions of the game), codes to unlock downloadable content will be included which provides the player with special costumes and strength upgrades for Piccolo, Broli, #17, #18, Bardock, Kuririn, Yamcha, and Tullece.
Namco-Bandai's official Japanese site for the game features a new trailer, itself showcasing the recently-announced vocal opening theme song, "Battle of Omega", performed by Hironobu Kageyama.
In other news, TAG VS is due out next week in Japan on 30 September 2010 for ¥5229. Its American release, re-titled Tenkaichi Tag Team, has gone gold and is ready for release on 19 October 2010 for $39.99:
DRAGON BALL Z®: TENKAICHI TAGTEAM GONE GOLD FOR THE PSP® (PLAYSTATION®PORTABLE) SYSTEM
Intense Two Vs. Two Action Heading to PSP® system this October
SANTA CLARA, Calif., (Sept. 22, 2010) – Leading video games publisher and developer, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., announced today that Dragon Ball Z®: Tenkaichi Tag Team has gone gold for the PSP® system. With 70 playable and deeply customizable characters, multiple modes, and gameplay, Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team is chock full of Dragon Ball Z action for your portable PSP system.
For the first time ever Dragon Ball Z fans can enter into high-impact two vs. two combat in Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team for the PSP system. Play solo or team up via Ad Hoc mode to tackle memorable battles in a variety of single player and multiplayer modes, including Dragon Walker, Battle 100, and Survival Mode. Dragon Walker Mode takes fans through the entire epic Dragon Ball Z story arc from the Saiyan saga to the Majin Buu saga. Battle 100 Mode tasks players to relive the most epic encounters and newly created scenarios from the Dragon Ball Z world in ever-increasingly difficult situations.
Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team will be available throughout North America for the PSP system on October 19, 2010 with an ESRB rating of T for Teen and will carry an MSRP of $39.99.
Namco-Bandai also released a batch of ten new screen shots yesterday (click through for full-sized versions):
If you have not been keeping up with the game, this PSP release is getting a pretty hefty character roster in its own right. The 70 characters are slowly being revealed over on its Japanese website, though some of the "unannounced" characters have been divulged through prior trailers and screen shots... such as our favorite "Freeza Soldier A".
As a bit of a fun aside, our ever-observant forum members have recently discovered a slew of "hidden messages" on FUNimation's most recent Dragon Box sets:
FUNimation's fourth Dragon Box for the DragonBall Z TV series was released just this week (and is a sweet $36.49 on Amazon). Check out our reviews of the first and second boxes to learn why you should be buying them!
18 September 2010
Raging Blast 2 Updates + Miscellaneous News VegettoEX @ 3:24 pm EDT -- We have not been keeping up with every single last character announcement for Raging Blast 2 lately, but a few have cropped up over the last few weeks that are worth mentioning. Making their first playable appearances will be characters like Jinzôningen #14 (from the seventh DragonBall Z movie), along with other characters like "Ultimate" Gohan.
A new Jump scan also (finally!) confirms that the game will be receiving a vocal opening theme song from Hironobu Kageyama entitled "Battle of Omega", complemented by another CG animation (a la the prior Spike-developed games):
This may be the latest that a vocal theme song has been announced in the time leading up to a game's release since the series' revival early last decade — we typically know many more months in advance. No CD single seems to have been announced yet, but the Hironobu Kageyama and Hiroshi Kitadani collaboration "don't give up" (from Battle Stadium D.O.N.) is one of the only modern examples that did not eventually end up on CD in some capacity.
In other music news, Amazon Japan seems to be the first retailer with a full track listing for the upcoming DragonBall Kai Soundtrack III & Songs, due out next week in Japan on 22 September 2010, which has been broken down on our forum by DragonBall BGM guru kenisu3000.
We have been covering the potential sale of FUNimation by their parent company Navarre for a while now, but no major updates have come since the potential sale was announced at the end of this past May. This week, however, Navarre filed an 8-K noting that during its Annual Meeting of Shareholders that prior day, they have so far received "six indications of interest from potential acquirers", and that they anticipate receiving final offers within the next sixth to ninety days. There is really nothing more to report right now, though — business continues as usual for FUNimation with Navarre's full support in the mean time. We will of course keep tabs on things, as FUNimation's position in the North American anime industry combined with the types of releases that the DragonBall franchise is receiving right now makes the situation enthralling to all of us.
That covers us for now. We will be taking a short break from the podcast this weekend as some news dust settles, so we hope to catch you all there again in one week's time. We should have some new "Reviews" additions coming your way, though, so stay tuned for them!
15 September 2010
DragonBall (Z) Kai Home Release Details VegettoEX @ 11:44 am EDT -- Those of you Australians still waiting for "Part 2" of Kai to come out will not have to wait much longer. As we have mentioned on the podcast, Madman will be distributing FUNimation's release both on DVD and Blu-ray on 03 November 2010. This set contains episodes 13-26, and was released in North America yesterday.
Back over here in North America, we can expect "Part 3" of the series on both DVD and Blu-ray from FUNimation on 14 December 2010, only a three month break in between releases (as opposed to the four months between "Part 1" and "Part 2").
14 September 2010
Masayuki Uchiyama's Passing VegettoEX @ 9:08 pm EDT -- We are devastated to learn that Masayuki Uchiyama, animation director and key animator for much of the various series and early movies for the franchise, passed away due to heart failure on August 31st at age 58. His work left quite an impact on the series, and we will all miss him.
12 September 2010
Podcast Episode #0233: Ano-Yo-Ichi Budôkai Review VegettoEX @ 8:21 pm EDT -- Having finished off the Cell Game in our regular "Manga Review of Awesomeness" monthly podcast segment, we decided that it was an appropriate time to review the second, self-contained filler arc in the DragonBall Z TV series: the Ano-Yo-Ichi Budôkai. The afterlife tournament takes place exclusively in the TV series, and provided some extra buffer time for the manga to trudge on forward. It has been many years since Meri and I saw these episodes, and like with the manga, Jeff was jumping in completely fresh. How did this five-episode story arc hold up for us? Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
Since the English dub of DragonBall Kai was first announced for North American television broadcast, we have covered very few examples of the censoring due to the uncut home release being readily available and essentially nullifying any complaints we could have about the censoring.
That was until this popped up in the most recent episode aired as a part of TheCW4Kids block:
The worst Mr. Popo has seen in America so far has been Viz censoring his lips throughout the entirety of their manga, but this is just blinding.
10 September 2010
"Viz Big" DBZ Vol. 9 Minor Delay VegettoEX @ 4:54 pm EDT -- The "Viz Big" re-releases of the DragonBall manga have finally been back on-track since the very beginning of the year when DragonBall Z volume 6 was delayed from January to February and then again to March.
It looks likeDragonBall Z volume 9 has been pushed back from 19 October 2010 a little ways to 09 November 2010, though.
The "Viz Big" omnibus line generally tosses three volumes into one larger book. This particular volume contains the very end of the manga, and comprises the remaining two volumes (original Japanese tankôbon 41 and 42). While printed on a higher-quality stock of paper and regaining some of the color chapters, the "Viz Big" line retains the art and script censoring from their prior "Graphic Novel" releases.
There is no word from Viz what their plans are, if any, for the franchise after this release, including any additional daizenshuu releases or the fandom-desired uncut kanzenban release.
"Creatures" Figure Review + Alternate English Kai Dub VegettoEX @ 11:03 am EDT -- Our "Reviews" section grows by one more today with the addition of another figure review, this time Mecha Freeza from the "Creatures" line:
With the recent news about the upcoming Mexican dub of DragonBall Kai, it seems that fans are all-ears about additional international versions of the series. We heard some rumblings way back in April with some Facebook shenanigans about a possible "alternate" English dub of Kai (a la the English dub of DragonBall Z produced with the Ocean Studios cast for Canada and parts of Europe) covering the Freeza story arc to the end of the series. Absolutely nothing more had come of that for several months.
Regular visitor Ricky tipped us off to a recent episode of "Voiceprint with Trevor Devall and Guests", a podcast with regular appearances by Ocean voice actors. In this particular episode (September 8's episode 26), Kirby Morrow (the eventual voice of Goku following the series of Ian James Corlett -> Peter Kelamis -> Kirby Morrow) revealed:
I'd like to mention that a show is coming back... a little-known show called DragonBall Z.
...
It's already been released in Texas, they're recording it in Texas, it's known, it's on the Internet. DragonBall Z Kai is being recorded in Texas by the crew in Texas for release only in America, and we're doing a dub in Canada.
...
It's already being recorded in Texas, they're talking about it and everything else at the cons, but ya' know, I did well over 100 episodes, three years of recording as the main character, Goku... and a new company has the project, and they think I might not be right for the role. I sound, in their words, "too cool", to be Goku.
No time frame was given for the show's production or debut, though from the sounds of it we can expect a staggered release schedule following behind FUNimation's English dub for the series, exactly how DragonBall Z wound up at the beginning of last decade.
This would be the third international version of DragonBall Kai, following FUNimation's English dub which debuted in May 2010, and the forthcoming Mexican dub. It will be interesting to see who comes next. Italy? Germany? Spain? Brazil?
We will have a review of FUNimation's second home release of Kai at some point later this month, but our buddy Tanooki has already gotten his copy in and broken down a few of its details. Most surprising was a third version of an English "Dragon Soul" performed by Justin Cook.
FUNimation has since revealed that each subsequent home release of Kai will feature a new performer on the opening theme.
Thus far, "Dragon Soul" has exclusively been performed by Takayoshi Tanimoto in Japan for the Kai broadcast and home release (as well as the CD single).
05 September 2010
Podcast Episode #0232: Spanish Revolt & "TAG VS" Demo VegettoEX @ 9:46 am EDT -- Big thanks to Andrew for hopping on the show this week to talk about the demo for TAG VS which was recently put out for the PSP in Japan. Is what appears to be Sparking!-on-the-go a step forward in any way after Raging Blast...? The game is not due out for another month in Japan, but the demo gave us a good look at new aspects like the consolidated HUD and "tag" mode.
That is not all we have for you this week, though. As you may be able to tell from the update title, there was a sort of "revolt" among the Latin American fanbase over the last week, all stemming from a few tweets.
Voice actor and director Irwin Daayan (who previously played Dende in the Mexican dub of DragonBall Z) recently started up a Twitter account to announce an exciting new project: their new dub for DragonBall Kai (English translations of the originally-Spanish tweets courtesy of Roddy):
Hello everyone. I hope that you have been well. My name is Irwin Daayan. I am an announcer, actor and director, involved with Spanish dubbing. The reason that I have decided to open this account is because I want to inform you all that I have been handed a project that I think is important for anime fans. (link)
It is Dragonball Kai. I will be directing the dubbing of this project and in some form, I want you all involved in this. I would like to read your comments, and I hope that I can support (the accuracy) with certain terms, names of characters and names of attacks that were in the saga of Dragonball. (link)
Things went on from there with Daayan confirming different types of name spellings with fans (such as "Shenron" versus "Shenlong"). A couple tweets in particular sent fans over the edge, and Daayan on the defensive:
Today I begin casting for the characters of Goku, Vegeta and Kuririn (link)
I understand your point of view friends, and believe me when I say that I would have loved the to have the same actors more than anyone. (link)
Unfortunately, I could not arrive at an arrangement with the actors, client and company. Believe me, I am very sorry. (link)
From the sounds of it, at least a good portion of the main voice pool was being re-cast from the original dub from many years back. Daayan's reasoning was pretty simple on the surface, and something we have been seeing pop up even with the original Japanese version of Kai, in that many of these voice actors have become much more popular over the years and therefore more expensive to hire.
At some point, FUNimation's name came up in the discussion between Daayan and his fans, saying "The DVDs come with FUNimation's name". It sounded like video masters for the series may have been coming from FUNimation (instead of directly from Toei), but it was not clear.
That was enough for fans, though. FUNimation's Facebook page was overtaken by irate Spanish fans for several days, all wishing for the original cast (led by Mario Castañeda as Goku) to be reinstated:
Things seem to have calmed down, and possibly because the Spanish fanbase has learned what Marc noted on this week's podcast episode: other than possibly providing the video masters to Mexico, FUNimation indeed has nothing to do with the production of the Spanish dub.
It was a fascinating spectacle for a few days, and an equally fascinating way to have the Spanish dub of Kai confirmed.
As you can imagine from this news alone, we have a jam-packed show for you this week. Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
If that is not enough for you, the final segments of our Otakon 2010 panel, "10 Things You Didn't Know About DragonBall", have been added to our recent "Feature" page. Wrapping things up are a recap of the various Japanese manga releases, and "The AF Conspiracy". Enjoy!
02 September 2010
Cover Art Galore (Video Game, Manga, CD) VegettoEX @ 3:34 pm EDT -- The absolutely-final Japanese cover art for Raging Blast 2 does not seem to have made the rounds yet, but if Europe and North America are any indication, the main artwork seen on the game's official website is what we can expect around the entire globe. Retailers like Amazon are showcasing the aforementioned American art, as seen below:
So far it seems that different localizations are simply moving the main logo around the art slightly. The game drops in North America on 02 November 2010 for $59.99, with the Japanese release due exactly one week later for ¥7,329.
Sticking with Japan, our buddies over at Kanzentai have been keeping up with the now-confirmed-as-an-animanga version of the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour Special. Shueisha has finally unveiled the cover art for the book, which is due out tomorrow (or today if you are in Japan!) for ¥730, and is available via the usual sources like CDJapan and Amazon Japan:
Despite still not having a full track listing for it, DragonBall Kai Soundtrack III & Songs now has cover art, as well:
The new disc, as previously described, will contain a mixture of vocal songs and background music. It is due out in Japan on 22 September 2010 for ¥2940, and is also available via the usual sources like CDJapan and Amazon Japan.
The "Music Guide" has been updated in a few areas, such as the "Miscellaneous CDs" page for this new art (and the five songs confirmed thus far), as well as the "CD Singles" page with all of the Kokoro no Hane CD Single details.
