In the franchise’s first-ever super battle royale, you can team up with a friend for the ultimate in joint attacks such as “Synchro Rush”, “Meteor Chain”, and “Revive Soul”. “Meteor Chain” appears to be you and your partner teaming up to launch attack after attack, following up each other’s attacks, timing it so the opponent has no time to counter. “Synchro Rush” is rushing your opponent at the same time as your partner, resulting in simultaneous hits. “Revive Soul” is reviving a fallen partner, giving them energy to get back in the battle.

Up to four people can play cooperatively, and up to eight can play in battle royale, which includes an online multiplayer option. Descriptions of the game make a big deal about this being a brand new experience for players and Dragon Ball Z games, saying how its biggest feature is team battle action of four versus many. Using four different battle types, you can be victorious at high-speed battles on the ground and in the air.

The game will include real-time team battles against giant bosses, such as Ōzaru Vegeta. Your opponents can also fight as a team, with an example shown in a screen shot being the Ginyu Special Force. Super Saiyan God from the new film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods will also appear in the game, making this the first console appearance for the movie; Super Saiyan God, Beerus, and Whis have separately and jointly appeared in previous games such as Dragon Ball Heroes for the arcade and Nintendo 3DS as well as Zenkai Battle Royale in arcades.

The price and release date for Battle of Z have yet to be determined. Battle of Z is scheduled for public preview at this year’s Saikyō V-Jump Festa taking place late-July in Tokyo (20th) and Osaka (27th).

There is no definitive language that specifies whether Battle of Z is a port of the continually-in-progress arcade game Zenkai Battle Royale, but the ties between the two are hard to ignore (multiplayer team fighting, graphical style, etc.). The arcade game received a “Super Saiyan Awakening” update back in 2012 that also included a story mode, and screen shots between that arcade update and story mode screens in the pages of Jump for the “new” game are similar to each other.

Still due out at some point in the relative near future is also the multi-series crossover extravaganza J-Stars Victory Vs for the PlayStation 3 and Vita, which recently added Ichigo (Bleach) and Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin) to its roster.

The post “Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z” (360/PS3/Vita) Announced appeared first on Kanzenshuu.

Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission for the Japanese Nintendo 3DS is available for purchase at CDJapan and Play-Asia. As we have noted in previous updates, however, the Nintendo 3DS is region-locked and Ultimate Mission will require a Japanese system for play. There is currently no word on an international release of the game.

The post “Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission” 16th Week Sales appeared first on Kanzenshuu.

Both DVDs are due out 13 October 2013 from FUNimation (cataloged under their new parent company, Group 1200 Media) and are listed at an MSRP of $7.50 with Walmart knocking that down to $6.38.

Walmart has been the source of multiple Dragon Ball product leaks in the past, most notably back in 2009 listing FUNimation’s then-still-unannounced blue season sets for the first TV series.

While this type of “Best Of” compilation release is typical for older American cartoons, it is rare — if it has ever happened at all? — for licensed products like anime to see this type of release. Most of us immediately think to something like the Super Mario Bros. Super Show compilations, but for a serial like Dragon Ball…?

How many episodes? Will there be a language option? Will the episodes all be in a row, or chosen from different parts of the series? Edited or uncut? We will just have to wait and see!

The post Dragon Ball Z “Best Of” DVD Releases Listed on Walmart appeared first on Kanzenshuu.

SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0336! To celebrate Father’s Day, we tear apart all the bad dads in the series. Goku usually takes the brunt of the criticism, but is this fair? Who else ignores their children, and who does the best job in being a part of their children’s lives? Goodbyes to the great voice actor Kenji Utsumi and news recaps wrap up the show.

REFERENCED SITES:

• “Battle of Gods” Japanese Home Release Full Details
• FUNimation DBZ “Rock the Dragon” Edition Trailer & Pre-Orders
• “Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission” 14th Week Sales
• “Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission” 15th Week Sales
• Voice Actor Kenji Utsumi Passes Away
• Special Podcast Episode: DBZ Video Game Music #1

Enjoy! Discuss this episode on the Kanzenshuu forum.

The post Podcast Episode #0336 appeared first on Kanzenshuu.

The final Daizenshuu — colloquially referred to as “#10” but officially titled “Supplemental Daizenshuu: TV Animation Part 3″ — covered the rest of TV animation material up through the end of the Dragon Ball Z series and the 10th anniversary movie (which had only been previewed at the time of the “Movies & TV Specials” volume). The book’s material was appropriately spread out and recontained within the two “Animation Guide” volumes of the recent Chōzenshū. In the interest of proper documentation, however, we have (finally!) put together an overview page for the final Daizenshuu.

The book contains a wonderful “Super Voice Talks” roundtable which brings together seven of the most important voice actors in Dragon Ball to reminisce about their time recording the series, share amusing moments in and out of the studio, their unanimous respect for Masako Nozawa, and memories of Kōhei Miyauchi (the first Kame-Sen’nin), who had passed away the previous year. In addition to the book’s overview page, we have also translated this discussion.

Please enjoy, and look forward to continued coverage of guides and databooks, old and new alike!

The post Supplemental Daizenshuu Overview & Roundtable Translation appeared first on Kanzenshuu.

Utsumi, born in Kita-Kyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu, also played a number of other characters throughout the series, including the Tenka’ichi Budōkai announcer (for the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd tournaments), Commander Red, Mutaito, and Recoom.

The entirety of the Ginyu Special Force was recast for Dragon Ball Kai, with Seiji Sasaki taking over the role of Recoom. Utsumi had continued to play Shenlong in the “refreshed” series, however, at least until the character’s final appearance at the end of the Cell arc when Shenlong was portrayed by Ryūzaburō Ōtomo. The role of Shenlong in the original Dragon Ball Z and various features was occasionally handled by other voice actors such as Masaharu Satō, who himself went on to replace the late Kōhei Miyauchi as the voice of Kame-Sen’nin for Dragon Ball Kai.

Utsumi’s final work on Dragon Ball was likely his reprisal of Shenlong for the new film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods.

One of Utsumi’s most famous roles — and one partly related to Dragon Ball in a roundabout way – was Senbei Norimaki from the original Dr. Slump – Arale-chan anime series. Incidentally, Discotek Media recently announced the first five Dr. Slump movies as a DVD pack for the North American market “coming soon”. Utsumi was also the official voice-over artist for dubbing actors such as Steve McQueen and Jack Nicholson.

Funeral and memorial arrangements have not been set, but will be handled by his wife, voice actress Michiko Nomura.

The post Voice Actor Kenji Utsumi Passes Away appeared first on Kanzenshuu.

Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission for the Japanese Nintendo 3DS is available for purchase at CDJapan and Play-Asia. As we have noted in previous updates, however, the Nintendo 3DS is region-locked and Ultimate Mission will require a Japanese system for play. There is currently no word on an international release of the game.

The post “Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission” 15th Week Sales appeared first on Kanzenshuu.

The set is slated to contain the original 53 episodes of FUNimation’s edited English dub produced from 1996-1998 in conjunction with Ocean Studios (voices) and Shuki Levy (music), as well as the first versions of DBZ Movies 1-3 as produced from 1997-1998 in conjunction with Pioneer (later Geneon). DBZ Movie 3 first saw the light of day in North America from FUNimation as a three-part series of “episodes” during the second season of the original syndication broadcast. If we had to guess from the trailer, it appears that this version will be contained within the set, as opposed to the uncut, faithful re-dub that was produced for VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD in 1998.

All of this material was released on VHS and DVD, with the exception of the TV edit of DBZ Movie 3. A home release appeared to have been planned at some point for the edited version, and it was this edited version that was later reused for Cartoon Network broadcasts, but only the uncut re-dub ever made it to home video.

The trailer also gives a very brief glimpse at the 48-page booklet that will accompany the set, which is stated to showcase, “the characters, history, and tropes that helped elevate Dragon Ball Z to the pop culture phenomenon it is today.”

In addition to Anime Corner Store and RightStuf, pre-orders have also gone up on Amazon. While the MSRP for the set is $99.98, retailers have it priced online between $60-70. The set drops 20 August 2013, and we will rock the wagon with the rotten dragon as we watch our “Rock the Dragon” set.

(Didn’t anyone else ever watch the original broadcast with the closed-captions on…? Just us…?)

The post FUNimation DBZ “Rock the Dragon” Edition Trailer & Pre-Orders appeared first on Kanzenshuu.

The first guide ever to come out for the Dragon Ball franchise was the Bōken Special (“Adventure Special”), released in late 1987 around the time of the battle with Piccolo Daimaō. It was, in fact, one of the very few supplemental books that came out during the series’ actual serialization! A complete overview of the book has been added to our “Databook Guide”.

The book also contains a special Q&A session with original manga author Akira Toriyama entitled “Is That So?! The Dragon Balls”, which was originally translated on Kanzentai, and has been cleaned up and added (appropriately enough!) to our “Translations” section. Toriyama is in prime perverted form here back in 1987, providing some potentially-shocking insight into his home life, but more importantly, some fun details (as he saw them at the time) surrounding many of the characters in the early parts of the series.

The post “Adventure Special” Overview Page & Toriyama Q&A appeared first on Kanzenshuu.

Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission for the Japanese Nintendo 3DS is available for purchase at CDJapan and Play-Asia. As we have noted in previous updates, however, the Nintendo 3DS is region-locked and Ultimate Mission will require a Japanese system for play. There is currently no word on an international release of the game.

The post “Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission” 14th Week Sales appeared first on Kanzenshuu.