Amazon Japan has posted the cover art for the first volume of both the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD releases of Dragon Ball Kai. Both volumes will contain the first three episodes and are set to be released 18 September 2009. Both volumes will also come with a special Data Carddass “Dragon Battlers” card and the Blu-ray volume will come in a slip cover. The high definition Blu-ray release and the standard definition DVD release are retailing for ¥3,045 (~$32) and ¥1,995 (~$20), respectively.

CDJapan has updated with the cover art for POWER OF DREAMER, the opening theme song CD single for the new Wii game Tenka’ichi Dai-Bōken performed by Hiroki Takahashi:

It is mostly a cropped version of the actual game’s cover art. The CD single is due out 26 August 2009 for ¥1200 in Japan. Unfortunately, we still do not have a track listing for the CD yet…

Amazon also has a new listing for the first Dragon Ball Z movie, “Dead Zone”. Based on the release date of this new listing, which is the same as the first FUNimation Dragon Box, could this contain the Dragon Box footage rather than the normal footage FUNimation has been using since 1997? If you remember, FUNimation announced in their official Dragon Box press release that they had “the entire 291 episode television series and all 13 of its movies.” It is set be released along with the Dragon Box 10 November 2009 for $9.98.

Amazon now has a listing for the first domestic “Dragon Box” set coming from FUNimation. The pre-order price (for now) is a solid $55.99. Not too shabby.

Long-time friend of the site Rachel pointed out to us that Mitsuaki Madono, who replaced Hirotaka Suzuoki as Tenshinhan in Burst Limit (PS3 & Xbox 360 fighting game last year), is reprising that role in the new Wii game Tenka’ichi Dai-Bōken… despite Hikaru Midorikawa sealing it up for Dragon Ball Kai.

Very strange situation with Madono here, and certainly not our first choice of a replacement voice.

Namco-Bandai has posted a ¥2.8 billion loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2010.

In terms of Dragon Ball overall, the franchise dropped in net sales from ¥4.3 billion in Q1 2009 to ¥2.3 billion this quarter, though the company is forecasting a full year net sales figure of ¥17 billion, up from ¥15.8 last fiscal year.

Additionally, Dragon Ball Kai: Saiya-jin Raishū for the Nintendo DS (listed in the document under its international name, Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans) was the company’s third-best selling game of the quarter, despite only being released in Japan for the time being, with 190,000 copies sold.

It is possible that with the international release of the DS game, as well as the domestic and international releases of new Wii, PS3, and 360 games, this will give the DB franchise the push that the company seems to expect it will have.

The official Dragon Ball Kai website has been updated with voice actor information for Freeza’s main henchmen Kewi, Zarbon, and Dodoria. Unfortunately, none of the original voice actors will be returning to reprise their roles. Here is a quick look at the new voice actors:

Kewi Eiji Takemoto (竹本英史)

Zarbon Hiroaki Miura (三浦祥朗)

Dodoria Takashi Nagasako (長嶝高士)

All three have been involved in many of today’s popular anime series, such as Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece, just to name a few. From the sounds of it, the three may fit the roles very well. Although, I am still sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to find out who will be voicing Appule. Come on Yūji Machi!

It is a bit interesting to see these replacements, however, considering the situations with some of the prior actors:

• KEWI: With Kōji Totani passing away in 2006, Eiji Takemoto will be stepping in to take over the role. Known to many of us as Rock Howard in SNK video games, he also stepped up to take over the role as Namu in Sparking! METEOR back in 2007 with the passing of Kaneto Shiozawa in 2000.
• DODORIA: Here is where things get interesting. Yukitoshi Hori (who also played Sauza in DBZ Movie 5) is alive and well, but will be replaced by Takashi Nagasako for Kai.
• ZARBON: In a similar case, Shō Hayami (who also played #19, Sansho in DBZ Movie 1, and Medamatcha in DBZ Movie 4) will be replaced by Hiroaki Miura.

So we have a replacement for a replacement, a replacement with no real reason, and another replacement with no real reason (albeit in this last cast for someone who has become a very high-profile voice actor).

As opposed to the unfortunate news out of Germany, our buddy sangofe also popped in to let us know that France will finally be getting a proper release of the original Dragon Ball TV series. It will be dual-language, and where the French dub was edited, the language track will swap over to Japanese to retain its uncut video track. It is looking to start a release sometime between October and December of this year, and will consist of two giant boxes containing episodes 1-68 on twelve discs, and then 69-153 on fourteen discs.

Our buddy Timo popped in to let us know about an exciting home release coming in Germany! Not only are they getting box sets from “Anime Virtual”, but it is… the old edited, dub-only version as-is from its airing on RTL2 with video material nearly 20 years old. Timo goes on to note that the distributor’s retort for not releasing a proper uncut version is that it would cost nearly 50€ more per volume in order to do so.

It is extremely unfortunate to hear Germany stay in the “stone age”, as Timo so accurately puts it, in this era of even North America finally getting a proper, quality release of the series.