Podcast Episode #0272: The History of the Saiyan Race VegettoEX @ 7:13 pm EST -- We hinted at it last episode, and decided to go full-force with it this week: just what is the history of the Saiyan race?
From the manga to the TV series to the guide books to the various other adaptations and reference materials, what is said about where the come from and how they evolved? What types of plot holes are created, fixed, and then broken all over again by the increased amount of information tossed out there? Does any "fact" stay consistent throughout the entire series at all? Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
18 September 2011
Podcast Episode #0271: "Episode of Bardock" Review VegettoEX @ 7:01 pm EST -- Everything here at Daizenshuu EX podcasting headquarters is back to normal after Hurricane Irene decided to ruin our plans for two weeks! This time around on the show, we finally got a chance to catch up on this summer's three-part spin-off manga from Naho Ooishi, "Episode of Bardock".
Penned as a sequel to the Bardock TV special, Ooishi gets a little more of a chance to shine with a quasi-original story as opposed to her usual retreads. Is this the true legend of the Super Saiyan that we have all been curious about for so many decades, or is it just another fluff piece of media that we can all casually pass over without missing much? Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
I profusely apologize for not doing so during the podcast episode itself, but amazing thanks go out to John for a donation that covered the balance on the orders and shipping costs to cover this special release. In addition to the podcast episode this week, we have a full extravaganza coming to our "Reviews" section very soon!
13 September 2011
Ultimate Blast/Tenkaichi Opening Theme & Animation VegettoEX @ 10:19 am EST -- From this week's pages of Jump we have received confirmation that Hironobu Kageyama's classic DragonBall Z TV first opening theme, "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA", will be used as the opening theme for Ultimate Blast in Japan. As reported a few days ago, the game will also feature new 2D animation in its story mode, now revealed to be over 30 minutes worth of footage.
With a couple minor exceptions, both Atari and now Namco-Bandai have consistently kept in Kageyama's vocal theme songs for the game localizations since approximately 2007 with the international release of Sparking! METEOR ("Budokai Tenkaichi 3") — incidentally, one with a replacement theme song was Super DragonBall Z on the PS2, which originally used the 2005 remix of "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" in Japan.
The standard version of "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" was also used as the opening to 2006's Sparking! NEO on the PS2 (later ported to the Wii), as well as back in 2003 for the first DragonBall Z on PS2. Dipping even further back, it was also used with the original TV opening's animation re-envisioned as 8-bit art in 1994's Idainaru Son Gokû Densetsu for the PC-Engine.
Namco-Bandai has been promoting "original Japanese music" from the start for the new game's international release as Ultimate Tenkaichi, but we will of course follow-up for solid confirmation.
09 September 2011
FUNimation DBZ TV Blu-ray: First Comparison Shots VegettoEX @ 12:49 pm EST -- FUNimation's Clarine Harp (Director of DVD, Blu-ray and Video Production) and Matt O'Hara (Manager of DVD, Blu-ray and Video Production) were interviewed this week on Anime News Network's ANNCast, where some new tidbits and discussion regarding the company's upcoming Blu-ray release of the DragonBall Z TV series were dropped.
Also included as a part of the discussion were a series of screen shots comparing the last few releases of the TV series (orange bricks, Dragon Box, upcoming Blu-ray).
Unfortunately, while a pretty good estimation of the quality comparison, all examples were provided as JPGs instead of a lossless format. Never fear, as a crack team of our forum's international fanboys and fangirls are on the case, with folks across the globe tossing up PNG examples from all of their localized DVD sets.
It is great to see the company take a new approach to remastering the series (with the understanding that, particularly with 16mm film, grain is an inherent part of the image and removing it will also remove detail from the image), but we still have plenty of outstanding questions. What will the Japanese audio source be, and what type of encode can we expect? Since it is a film source, will the title cards remain in their original Japanese? How about the recaps, previews, and eyecatches? Stay tuned as we keep tabs on this new remastering as we head toward Level 1.1's release in North America on 08 November 2011.
Ultimate Blast/Tenkaichi Story Mode Trailer VegettoEX @ 11:40 am EST -- Namco-Bandai EU has been on a roll with promotion for the upcoming Ultimate Tenkaichi (Ultimate Blast in its home country of Japan) — yesterday, the branch put up yet another trailer for the game, this time focused on a portion of the story mode, which features new 2D animation:
While I am personally hesitant about another DBZ fighting game with a mode that starts against Raditz and moves through the story verbatim from what I have already seen, read, and played for approximately 15 years... the allure of new animation is quite a draw for even someone like me.
So far it appears to be frame-for-frame accurate to the original version of the show (with a few minor differences here and there due to the new framing and size, of course). With all of the other aspects being tossed against the wall for this game, hopefully there are enough that will stick for fans of all types of gameplay.
Check it and plenty of other long bits of examination out over in our extensive "Reviews" section!
01 September 2011
Ultimate Blast/Tenkaichi Character Creation Mode Trailer VegettoEX @ 12:42 pm EST -- Namco-Bandai EU recently uploaded a new trailer for DragonBall Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi (coming out as Ultimate Blast in Japan) which showcases the game's character creation mode:
Unsurprisingly, the custom designs shown off all fall squarely in the typical Saiyan-overload promotion the games receive internationally, many even fitting in with the DragonBall AF-style of over-design. It will be interesting to see just how extensive this mode is — we see a few hints of additional templates available (such as Uub), but to what degree the player can control things like clothing style and voices will be the real clincher for many fans.
DragonBall Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi is due out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America on 25 October 2011, Europe on 28 October 2011, and later in Japan (as Ultimate Blast) on 08 December 2011.
