I figured February’s Kai releases might be the last music we would see for a while, but leave it to Japan to prove me wrong!

A soundtrack for Raging Blast 2 (LACA-15111) is due out 23 March 2011 in Japan for ¥3000. No track listing details are available just yet, and we usually do not expect them until shortly before the disc’s release. By itself this is not surprising news, but is moderately interesting if you look back just one game prior.

Europe received a “Collector’s Edition” of the first Raging Blast (PS3/360) in 2009. Part of the giant package was a bonus soundtrack disc which contained 29 tracks (though the opening theme, “Progression”, was not among them). Beyond this European-only inclusion, no soundtrack for the game was formally released, even in Japan.

Europe also received a “Collector’s Edition” of Raging Blast 2, though this edition did not come with a soundtrack disc.

Other than CD singles with opening theme songs, the last game to receive a full soundtrack was Infinite World two years ago back in January 2009 — last year’s Wii game did not receive a soundtrack, and portable games generally do not get soundtrack releases.

FUNimation has indeed launched their online streaming for the franchise, beginning with the first fifteen episodes of the Dragon Ball Z TV series. As previously reported, these episodes are based off their orange brick “season set” masters (which includes all extraneous smoothing/filtering, cropped image, etc.). A bit of clarification, though — while the episodes are available subtitled in their original Japanese format, the corresponding English versions do not feature the North American broadcast music, but instead feature the original Japanese score from Shunsuke Kikuchi.

Well this is some unfortunate (if not expected) information. According to a tweet from FUNimation (and later reiterated via a blog post), their upcoming streaming of the Dragon Ball ZTV series will use the video masters created for their orange brick “season sets” released from 2007-2009 (with the questionable remastering process and cropped video). While the episodes will be available both in its original Japanese and English dub, the dub side will apparently use the American broadcast music, a harsh step in the opposite direction from what FUNimation has been doing in recent years by exclusively sticking to and reverting back to non-replacement scores.

Our recommendation? Stick with and show your support for the Dragon Box sets.

No such cropped masters exist for the first TV series or Dragon Ball GT (though the latter of which did have a replacement score), and all work FUNimation has done with Kai has been in its intended 4:3 aspect ratio, so we have much higher expectations for the eventual streaming of those shows.

Our buddy LaRésistance slapped together a fun little video showcasing his “Top 5 Dragon Ball Z game intros“. As a true showcase of worldwide fandom, the video is narrated in French and subtitled in English. Check it out over on blip.tv:

Almost immediately after Nintendo unveiled the upcoming 3DS at the most recent Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3), Namco-Bandai announced they would release a Dragon Ball game for the platform. No specific title or even time frame was given. Nintendo has unveiled their tentative 3DS game release schedule through Spring 2011, and no Dragon Ball game appears on the list (though the recently-revealed Naruto 3DS game is on there).

The next game due out for the franchise is Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butōden, a fighting game for the existing Nintendo DS, dropping in Japan 03 February 2011 for ¥5040. The game has not been announced for distribution outside of Japan just yet. The game is available for pre-order on CDJapan and Play-Asia — note that standard Nintendo DS games are region free (though it sounds like 3DS games will not be), so rest assured that you can import and play Ultimate Butōden on your system, though the text will be entirely in Japanese, as should be expected.

It seems as if these are only just starting to make the rounds to retailer listings! Amazon Japan currently has pages for two new Dragon Ball Kai CDs, both due out the same day in Japan on 23 February 2011, and both of which have heavy implications for the fate of the “refreshed” version of the show:

Dragon Ball Kai Original Soundtrack IV will be a single disc retailing for ¥2960, and while a track listing has not been divulged, it will likely follow the style of November 2009’s Dragon Ball Kai Original Soundtrack 2 with TV-sized versions of the opening and ending themes, along with a decent amount of background music from the show (see: Amazon Japan).

Dragon Ball Kai Complete Song Collection is another single disc which will contain all eleven tracks from the previously-released Dragon Ball Kai Song Collection (sans-“Complete”) from November 2009. In addition to those songs, it will also contain the three new vocal songs (all also used as insert songs in the show) from this past September’s Dragon Ball Kai Soundtrack III & Songs, as well as the current ending theme, “Kokoro no Hane”. The track order has yet to be finalized, but those will indeed be the contents of the disc. The disc will retail for ¥2625 (see: Amazon Japan).

One has to wonder that with the word “Complete” tossed into the title and having a release date so soon after a prior compilation, does this add fuel to the fire of speculation that Kai is indeed coming to a close before it reaches the Majin Boo story arc?

It is unfortunate to see a collection add a mere four songs to what already exists as a disc, which I can only speculate is another last-ditch grab at their audience.

Wow. Certainly was not expecting this kind of e-mail to hit my box this morning. This is the kind of wild prediction one of us should have made last podcast episode.

FUNimation Entertainment and Toei Animation Announce Online Streaming of Dragon Ball Z

Anime Leaders to Stream Episodes of Iconic Anime Series

Flower Mound, Texas – January 3, 2011 — FUNimation® Entertainment and Toei Animation Co., Ltd. have entered into an agreement giving the American anime leader exclusive rights to the U.S. and Canadian online streaming of the studios’ signature animated series “Dragon Ball Z.”

Starting Saturday, January 15th at 7:30 PM CDT preceding the One Piece simulcast at 8:00 PM CDT, FUNimation will stream the series from its beginning via the official Dragon Ball Z website www.dragonballz.com in addition to www.dragonballzkai.com , www.funimation.com and FUNimation partner site www.hulu.com.

FUNimation will offer its professionally-produced, uncut, English-tracked and English-subtitled adaptations of the hugely successful series beginning with the first episode as well as other chapters of the Dragon Ball franchise: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Z Kai.

“We are pleased to offer the first legal streaming of this seminal anime series,” said Gen Fukunaga, president and CEO of FUNimation Entertainment. “Dragon Ball Z and One Piece are the crown jewels of our digital content strategy and we are proud of the diverse selection of series that entertains established fans and new ones as well.”

So there you have it. Apparently the entire franchise will be making its way, both in its original Japanese incarnation (subtitled) along with an English dub, streaming online starting with the first episode of Dragon Ball Z, and it all goes down on January 15th.

The online coupling of Dragon Ball and One Piece mirrors the current “Dream 9” time slot on Fuji TV right now, which airs Dragon Ball Kai at 9:00 am, followed by One Piece at 9:30 am on Sunday mornings. This coupling appears to be in for some type of shift this coming April, however, with the series Toriko taking the Kai slot.

This is just hitting today, so we will of course continue to follow-up with additional information as it becomes available (items such as musical scores being used, possible availability outside North America, etc.).

Amazon Japan has released the cover art for the fourth and fifth DVD volumes of the Artificial Humans & Cell arc. The fourth volume is set to be released 07 January  2011, with the next volume following a month later on 04 February 2011. Both are retailing for ¥2,940 (~$35), but you can pre-order them for a tad cheaper from most online retailers. These volumes will contain episodes 64-66 and 67-69, respectively, presented in 16:9 widescreen.

It was recently announced that Banpresto would be releasing a new line of figures entitled the “Master Stars Piece” collection, which will span across multiple anime series, including Dragon Ball Z, Naruto Shippuden, and One Piece. The figures were recently unveiled at Jump Festa 2011. However, unlike the other anime series in the line, Banpresto is holding a Budōkai-style competition to determine which Dragon Ball Z figure will be produced: the Zōkei (“Model”) Tenkai’chi Budōkai…!

Each figure model is set in a head-to-head match-up and will proceed through the tournament based on your votes! The first round match-ups end on 31 January 2011 at 6:00pm JST. Simply visit the tournament website and place your vote for the model you like the best in each match-up. Much of the site is in English, so voting for international fans is quite simple: select “Tournament Table” from the menu in the upper left corner, select a tournament block, view the product details as needed, and then click the red button under the “VS”. From there, click one of the red buttons that has appeared nearest to the product you would like to vote for and confirm your vote by clicking the top button when prompted. By clicking the scouter in the middle of the screen you can view how many votes each competitor have been placed.

In total there are 10 models facing off in five rounds; No. 20 vs Super Saiyan Vegeta, Super Saiyan 3 Goku vs Piccolo, Super Saiyan Goku vs Full Power Freeza, Super Saiyan 2 Gohan vs No. 16, and Perfect Form Cell vs Son Goku. Not only will the winner get their model produced as part of Banpresto’s new line, but they will win the grand prize of one million yen! Now the question is: who will you vote for?