The cover art for the next two DVD volumes and Blu-ray box set of the “Artificial Humans & Cell arc” of Dragon Ball Kai have been unveiled via Amazon Japan. All three are scheduled to be released 02 June 2011, with the DVDs retailing for ¥2,940 (~$35) and the Blu-ray running a hefty ¥14,679 (~$175). The DVDs will contain episodes 85-87 and 88-90 presented in 16:9 widescreen, respectively, while the third Blu-ray box set will contain episodes 77-87 presented in 4:3 full screen spread across four discs. These releases now all contain the Shunsuke Kikuchi replacement score, as opposed to their original broadcast score from Kenji Yamamoto.

animeanime.jp (also adapted and translated by Anime News Network) has revealed that Dragon Ball background music composer Shunsuke Kikuchi has received the 2nd place “International Award” from the Japanese Society for Right of Authors, Composers, and Publishers (“JASRAC”) for the amount of money generated overseas in the previous year thanks to his score for Dragon Ball Z. Kikuchi also received the 9th place award for his work on Doraemon.

With Kikuchi’s original score for the series currently being retroactively inserted into Dragon Ball Kai (as well as being featured in the arcade game Zenkai Battle Royale and the Japanese releases of the Raging Blast video games, not to mention international releases and streams of the TV series), it is no surprise to see Kikuchi so high on the list. Congratulations!

By way of Robert’s Anime Corner, we have learned that FUNimation’s “Part 5” of their home DVD and Blu-ray release of Dragon Ball Kai (released domestically as Dragon Ball Z Kai) has been delayed for a second time to 28 June 2011. This delay was in conjunction with a slew of other FUNimation products, unlike the first delay, which we are assuming was due to the music replacement affecting all on-going broadcasts and releases of the series.

Namco-Bandai just sent out the official press release announcing Dragon Ball Game Project Age 2011, confirming its development by Spike, who has been responsible for the Sparking! (PS2, Wii) and Raging Blast (PS3, 360) games over the last half-decade.

THE UNSTOPPABLE SAGA LIVES ON WITH DRAGON BALL® GAME PROJECT!
Dragon Ball Game Project AGE 2011 Scheduled for Release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3 System for Fall 2011

SANTA CLARA, Calif., (May 11, 2011) – Leading video game publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. delivered a KAMEHAMEHA today with the announcement of Dragon Ball® Game Project AGE 2011 (working title) for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Prepare to dive into the world of Dragon Ball Z with Earth-shaking combat, a massive character selection, faithful manga-style graphics as well as exciting new features sure to please Dragon Ball fans around the world.

The upcoming Dragon Ball Game Project is currently in development by Spike Co. Ltd., who are honing their considerable talents to create a new landmark game for the Dragon Ball Z franchise. The game features upgraded environmental and character graphics, with designs drawn from the original manga series. Destructible battle fields, including massive craters and ki energy blasts cutting across the sky deliver a more dynamic experience and immediate sense of urgency to the exhilarating fights. An enhanced story mode drops players into the rich Dragon Ball Z universe, filled with beloved characters and powerful enemies. An accessible battle system allows gamers of all ages will be able to hold their own in fast-paced battles, while still retaining tactical depth for hardcore fans.

The new Dragon Ball Game Project will be playable at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con in July. For more information related to Dragon Ball Z, please visit: http://www.namcobandaigames.com.

While the rest of the Internet is busy talking about SoulCalibur V (which is admittedly pretty exciting), those of us following along with the Dragon Ball franchise have been waiting for additional tidbits on the so-called Game Project Age 2011, first revealed in Jump this past week.

The game was further unveiled by Namco-Bandai at their “Level Up” event in Dubai today. Details are still pretty scarce, but we at least have a teaser trailer!

What we do know is that “Game Project Age 2011” is indeed a working title and is subject to change. Additionally, FUNimation’s logo is present at the end of this first trailer, and Namco-Bandai US is already making these assets available to their associates, so the game is essentially confirmed for North American distribution.

Check out a couple new screen shots below:

As for a little speculation on our part, the game appears to have a different HUD from Zenkai Battle Royale (currently only in Japanese arcades), and while it will be another 3D action/fighting game, it does appear to be slightly different from the Sparking! and Raging Blast games from the last half decade, particularly with hints of a grappling system at close range. The trailer does end with a pretty fantastic shot of Goku in front of an enormous Ôzaru, so the prior claims of being faithful and as realistic to the source material as possible certainly seem more in reach than ever before.

As always, we will continue to update as we get more information about the game!

Namco-Bandai has posted a ¥1.8 billion (approximately $22.3 million) profit for the fiscal 2011 year.

In comparison to their other franchises, Dragon Ball did not perform well enough to warrant an inclusion on the top-performing list of franchises for the fiscal year, something hinted at in Q3 2011 when it did not show up for similar reasons. The franchise dropped from ¥15.8 billion in 2009 to ¥12.5 billion in 2010; with Ben 10 down at ¥12 billion for fiscal 2011 (the last one listed in the financial highlights), it is evident that the Dragon Ball franchise continued its drop even further.

As for individual video games, the company shipped 580,000 copies of DragonBall: Raging Blast 2 worldwide in fiscal 2011. This is a drop from the 700,000 copies of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast shipped worldwide in fiscal 2010. We know that approximately 87,000 of these were sold in Japan by the end of December, so this points to all markets contributing to the (downward spiral of) success the game has enjoyed.

This was the only Dragon Ball game in the company’s top titles for the fiscal year, meaning that sales of Dragon Ball DS 2 (Origins 2) for the DS, TAG VS (Tenkaichi Tag Team) for the PSP, and Ultimate Butōden for the DS would be lower than approximately 400,000 copies shipped each — this should be fairly obvious for the latter, however, considering that the game was only released this past February and exclusively in Japan so far.

In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games), the franchise dropped in net sales from ¥3.3 billion in fiscal 2010 to ¥2.7 billion this fiscal year. The forecast for fiscal 2012 is ¥2.5 billion, projecting a slight drop from this past year.

None of this comes as any real surprise to those keeping up with the franchise on this level. It will be interesting to keep an eye on fiscal 2012 with a complete lack of the series on Japanese TV again and whether the bottom line sticks it out or drops even further.

From today until next Sunday, Viz is offering 20% off the price of volumes 1 through 16 of the Dragon Ball manga via their iOS manga app.

For those of you living in the future and who care about saving trees, this might be a good route to go to catch up on how the series actually began (both in time frame and in format).