It is with the greatest sadness that we must report the passing of voice actor Takeshi Aono, as initially reported by Anime News Network. The news was first made public by fellow voice actress Eiko Yamada via her Twitter account.

Takeshi Aono of Theater Troupe Geikyou passed away this morning. (Voice of Chibi Maruko-chan‘s grandfather, etc…) I liked his plays where he was way too serious. He was wonderful as a voice actor too, but he was something special on the stage. He had a presence that was overwhelming and full of life!! How can he be gone…?! I offer my sincerest prayers.

Dragon Ball fans will best remember Takeshi Aono as the voice of Ninja Murasaki, Piccolo Daimaō, and of course, God.  However, in June 2010 Aono suffered a stroke after undergoing surgery for an aortic aneurysm. Since that time he had remained in the hospital, and the majority of his roles were given to veteran voice actor Bin Shimada, including the role of “God” in Dragon Ball Kai. He was 75 years old, and will be greatly missed by all.

Thanks to Rachel for her quick translation.

The last we heard about any possible Dragon Ball game for the Nintendo 3DS was back in June 2010 when the system was unveiled during that year’s E3 — Namco-Bandai listed the franchise as coming to the system in the future, and that was that.

While not really adding much concrete information to the mix, Namco-Bandai’s website now at least lists an entry for a Dragon Ball game on the 3DS:

The listing still has no real title — just “Dragon Ball Series (tentative name)” — and no known release date.

After months of inadvertent leaks, Manga Entertainment has officially announced that the Dragon Ball Z TV series is coming to DVD in the UK.

As anticipated and revealed in earlier leaks, Manga will be releasing a version of FUNimation’s orange bricks originally released in North America from 2007-2009. The first of nine sets will be released 02 July 2012 for £34.99. A time table has already been set for all of the “seasons”, slated to finish up with the ninth set 16 September 2013.

On their Twitter account, Manga UK noted in response to fan inquiries that the masters used will be the PAL versions from Madman’s Australian release, itself converted from FUNimation’s original version.

At the time, the orange bricks were the first and only consistent release of the Dragon Ball Z TV series available in North America from episode 1 all the way through 291, replacing a canceled home release of the “Ultimate Uncut Edition“, itself redubbing and replacing the first two “seasons” of the show with an uncut and bilingual home release.

Created from a multi-generational film master, the top and bottom of the frames were cropped off to fit the video into a widescreen format and downscaled from an HD version captured with support from Studio Post & Transfer (now “&TRANSFER”) in Texas. Despite going on to massive sales figures, the sets were met with harsh critiques from fans (notably us), with even Madman noting for their sub-licensed Australian release that they “would have ultimately been happier with a 4:3 release“.

North America saw the “Dragon Box” release from 2009 to 2011, offering fans a 4:3 remaster of the show originally performed by Toei and Pony Canyon in Japan for its first-ever home release in its native country.

A new remaster of the show by FUNimation for Blu-ray — preserving the 4:3 aspect ratio and addressing many other concerns from the orange brick releases — was announced last summer and unceremoniously killed off just this past January after only two releases.

DRAGON BALL Z SERIES ONE Comes to U.K. DVD on 2nd July 2012

DRAGON BALL Z SERIES ONE (cert.12) will released on DVD (£34.99) by Manga Entertainment on 2nd July 2012. Manga Entertainment will release all 291 episodes across nine season box sets starting on 2nd July (full dates below).

Fast Sell: One of the biggest anime franchises of all time – and the one that introduced many anime fans to the genre in the first place – finally comes to DVD in the UK, digitally remastered from the original Japanese film masters and captured in high-definition widescreen!

Key Talent: Scripted by Akira Toriyama< (creator of the manga on which it was based) and directed by Daisuke Nishio.

Synopsis: The Saiyans are coming! The last survivors of a cruel, warrior race, these ruthless villains have carved a path of destruction across the galaxy, and now they have set their sights on Earth. They will stop at nothing until they have the wish-granting powers of the seven magic Dragon Balls for their very own.

With the fate of his family, friends, and the entire human race hanging in the balance, Goku, the Earth’s greatest hero, must rise to meet the approaching threat. As he prepares for the fight of his life, Goku embarks on an epic journey that will take him to other worlds, pit him against new and old enemies alike, and force him to confront the dark secrets of his own past. At the end of his path, the most powerful opponent he has ever faced awaits – the evil Saiyan Prince Vegeta!

We Like It Because: This release is pretty much the Holy Grail for Dragon Ball Z fans. Featuring 39 episodes over six discs, it delivers over 900 minutes of pure anime action beautifully remastered to create a stunning visual and audio experience. Dragon Ball Z has never looked or sounded this good before.

Hot Quotes:

“A lot of fun from start to finish.” DVD TALK

Special Features:

Revised English dialogue – English voice track with original Japanese music in Dolby 5.1.

Dragon Ball Z Rebirth featurette.

A New Look featurette.

Textless opening and closing.

Trailers.

DRAGON BALL Z SERIES ONE (cert.12) will released on DVD (£34.99) by Manga Entertainment on 2nd July 2012. Manga Entertainment will release all 291 episodes across nine season box sets starting on 2nd July.

Series 2 – 27th August 2012

Series 3 – 1st October 2012

Series 4 – 5th November 2012

Series 5 – 7th Jan 2013

Series 6 – 11th March 2013

Series 7 – 13th May 2013

Series 8 – 15th July 2013

Series 9 – 16th September 2013

A couple folks have sent this in, and while it seems slightly early (compared to prior years and the games’ usual April/May formal reveals), we should probably not be too surprised to see the first hints at this year’s main video game for the franchise.

Listings for a (likely tentatively titled) “Dragon Ball Z HD” have made their way to Walmart’s website (on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) with a release date of 02 October 2012. There are a couple tidbits to take away from the listings, beyond the basic “new game” and “coming out in October” that we see year-in and year-out. First off, since there is a listing for a PlayStation 3 version of the game, it is likely that this will be a separate entity from the upcoming Xbox 360 Kinect game. Additionally, Wal-Mart’s genre for the game is “Fighting / Shooting”, the same as last year’s Ultimate Tenkaichi.

As noted earlier, Namco-Bandai does have a press event coming up in April, and it is likely that any tidbits about any upcoming Dragon Ball games will make their way to us around that time.

Walmart was a great source of information leaks back in summer 2009 when they revealed the “season sets” for the first Dragon Ball TV series, which would go on to include the first thirteen episodes uncut and bilingual for the first time in North America.

Following up on its ratings in Korea and then the UK, the apparently-upcoming Dragon Ball Z game for the Xbox 360’s Kinect was issued a “PG” rating down in Australia back on February 27th, as reported on Gamekyo:

Namco-Bandai does seem to have a press event coming up next month — while the Internet is aflutter with speculation on a PC port of Dark Souls for this year, fans may remember last year’s event in Dubai did more officially unveil Game Project Age 2011, which became Ultimate Blast/Tenkaichi for the PS3 & 360.

Come 22 March 2012, Dragon Ball Heroes will officially be entering the realm of Dragon Ball GT as they role out their first “Galaxy Mission” stage for the arcade game. This of course means that they will also be releasing numerous new cards to go along with the stage. In celebration of this new milestone the next issue of V-Jump, which is slated to be released 21 March 2012, will come with an exclusive Dragon Ball Heroes card featuring a chibi Super Saiyan Son Goku and a giant B2 (roughly 28 X 20 inches) size Dragon Ball GT poster.

Back in August, Manga UK had an “interesting” (for lack of a better phrase) back-and-forth with fans when listings for a Dragon Ball Z DVD release attributed to them was discovered on the British Board of Film Classification website. The company denied the rumors even up through this past October when a flyer for their release— citing a December pre-order date — was leaked online.

Toei Animation themselves seem to have broken the news in a much more official capacity, however:

Manga Entertainment has acquired the licensing rights to release, for the 1st time, the Dragon Ball Z series in DVD (291 episodes of 26′) in the United Kingdom.

The new licensee is planning to release the 1st of the 9 boxes this summer and to support the launch with a complete cross-media promotion campaign.

As expected, it seems to be the orange brick “season” releases originally produced by FUNimation for North America over the span of 2007-2009.

Thanks to TestDemo for the heads-up.