Namco-Bandai has posted a ¥19.3 billion (approximately $241.7 million) profit for the fiscal 2012 year.

Unlike last year, Dragon Ball rebounded enough to warrant an inclusion on the top-performing list of franchises for the fiscal year. The franchise dropped from ¥15.8 billion in 2009 to ¥12.5 billion in 2010 to ¥8.3 billion in 2011, but 2012 saw a nice little jump back up to ¥11.8 billion. Interestingly, the company is only forecasting ¥8.5 billion for fiscal 2013, so this might have been an anomaly along the slow decline we have otherwise seen over the last few years.

As for individual video games, the company shipped 700,000 copies of Ultimate Blast/Tenkaichi worldwide, surprisingly up from the 580,000 copies of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 shipped worldwide last year, and right back up to where Dragon Ball: Raging Blast shipped worldwide in fiscal 2010. Ultimate Blast/Tenkaichi was the fifth-best performing title for the company this past year as indicated in the report, though not all territories seem to be reported for all titles — for example, Soul Calibur V is right behind Ultimate Blast/Tenkaichi at 690,000 copies, but said number only includes Japan and Europe figures.

In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games), the franchise jumped from ¥2.7 billion last fiscal year to ¥4.4 billion this year — interestingly, the company only forecast ¥2.5 billion for the year, so the jump was clearly not expected by anyone! For what it is worth, Namco-Bandai is forecasting a slight drop to ¥4.0 billion for next year.

Fiscal 2012 was essentially the first full year after Dragon Ball Kai left Japanese airwaves. Despite this (or perhaps because of this?), the franchise appears to be back on the upswing, at least for the time being. Forecasts put it at another slight drop next year though, so — as always — it will continue to be interesting to keep an eye out for how our favorite franchise performs.