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In conjunction with Tokyo Game Show 2019 this week, Bandai Namco revealed both the domestic (16 January 2020) and international (17 January 2020) release dates for the forthcoming Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot video game, alongside various bonus items available to those pre-ordering either the standard or “Collector’s Edition” versions of the game.
All pre-orders of the game will come packed with access to the sub-quest “A Competitive Party With Friends” (仲間たちの危険なパーティー in the Japanese edition), early access to training with Bonyu (a new character designed by Akira Toriyama, debuting here as an ex-Ginyu Special-Squad member), and a cooking item that boosts melee attack power and health points.
A “Collector’s Edition” priced at $199.99 will also be released for the console editions, which is set to include an 8x8x8-inch diorama, a 10×12-inch hardcover artbook, a steelbook case, and a copy of the game.
Additionally, the company announced that Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will cover from the Saiyan arc straight through to the Boo arc of the original series.
The standard edition of the game is available for pre-order on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One via Amazon (currently priced at $49.94, down from its $59.99 MSRP). The collector’s edition is currently available for pre-order via Best Buy and Bandai Namco’s own online storefront.
Developed by CyberConnect2 for Bandai Namco, the action role-playing game is set for release on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam). The game will retail for ¥7,600 + tax in Japan, where the Xbox One edition will be a download-only version.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0477! Mike and Joe dig into some of the hidden easter eggs littered through the eighth Dragon Ball Z film. From the Turtle Hermit busting out an Arale mask, to Kuririn singing a popular folk song, to Gohan’s seminar application, the film is a freeze-frame-frenzy of fun! A brief news recap and continued wiki teases round out the episode.
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Our podcast is available via iTunes and/or Google Play Music, or you can pop the direct RSS feed into the program of your choice. You can also listen to this episode by directly downloading the MP3 or by streaming it on Spotify, SoundCloud, or YouTube. We invite you to discuss this episode on our forum.
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As originally revealed in the October 2019 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine (released 21 August 2019), Bandai Namco has announced that a brand-new character — Bonyu, designed by Akira Toriyama — will make an appearance in a short sub-quest in the forthcoming Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot video game.
Bonyu, from the same planet as Jheece, was once part of the Ginyu Special-Squad, but left because she hated that pose…?! Wait for more info!
The Ginyu Special-Force’s unknown past will come to light!
The character’s name of ボニュー bonyū likely comes from 母乳 meaning “breast milk” (also read as bonyū), continuing the ongoing pun series of items that would be stored inside a refrigerator (as explained by Akira Toriyama in 2009’s Super Exciting Guide: Character Volume):
It’s a real pain to decide on the names for lots of characters. If you unify the names into a series, it makes it easy to think them up. For instance, there’s Freeza, who directed the Saiyans and the other evil aliens. Strictly speaking, a “freezer” is a reitouko, but I named him with the image of a refrigerator [reizouko] in mind. So, the names would be unified as food items that one puts inside [a refrigerator]. The Saiyans are vegetables, the Ginyu Special-Squad are dairy products, that kind of thing.
Developed by CyberConnect2 for Bandai Namco, the action role-playing game is due in early 2020 on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam).
Amazon is currently offering the game for a $49.94 pre-order on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Each month, Toyotarō provides a drawing — as well as a brief comment — on the official Japanese Dragon Ball website. Thus far, Toyotarō has provided drawings of #8, Lunch, Chapa with Oob, Tambourine, Man-Wolf, Tapion, Janenba, Broli, Ozotto, Ginyu, Bardock, Paragus, King Cold, Bardock’s original television special crew, Onio with his wife, Shiirasu, Great Saiyaman, Nail, Toninjinka, and Zarbon. For his August 2019 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a sketch of Pui-Pui:
Pui-Pui.
He’s one of the mind-controlled underlings of the sorcerer Bobbidi.
Since he was taken in by his wicked heart and mind-controlled, there’s no doubt he’s evil. But, given Bobbidi could control someone with only Vegeta’s level of evil, maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all…
Incidentally, he appears in a single panel in volume three.
Pui-Pui briefly appeared — dead! — in a single panel in chapter 16 of the Dragon Ball Super manga. Pui-Pui’s name (likely derived from the phrase chichin-puipui in Japanese) is localized as “Pocus” in Viz’s English translation of the Dragon Ball manga.
This drawing and comment set has been added to the respective page in our “Translations” archive.
Bandai Namco Holdings has posted a ¥16.924 billion (approximately $160 million) profit for the first quarter of fiscal year 2020, compared to a ¥14.637 billion profit the same quarter last year.
Dragon Ball once again handily came in as the company’s best-performing franchise for the quarter, pulling in ¥28.4 billion (a jump over last year’s ¥25.6 billion in the same quarter); Dragon Ball beat out the number-two franchise, Mobile Suit Gundam, by just over ¥10 billion. The company is holding on its projection of ¥115 billion for fiscal year 2020.
In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games), the franchise also jumped from ¥4.5 billion in Q1 2019 to ¥5.3 billion this year’s first quarter, with a similarly-held-projection for the full year at ¥20 billion.
Continuing onward from previous chapters, Shueisha and Viz have added the official English translation of the Dragon Ball Super manga’s fifty-first chapter to their respective Manga Plus and Shonen Jump services, moving further into the original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc”. Alongside other initiatives including free chapters and a larger archive for paid subscribers, this release continues the companies’ schedule of not simply simultaneously publishing the series’ chapter alongside its Japanese debut to the release date, but to its local time in Japan in today’s October 2019 issue of Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine in Japan.
The Dragon Ball Super “comicalization” began in June 2015, initially just ahead of the television series, and running both ahead and behind the series at various points. The manga runs monthly in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ fifty-first chapter coming today in the magazine’s October 2019 issue. Illustrated by “Toyotarō” (in all likelihood, a second pen-name used by Dragon Ball AF fan manga author and illustrator “Toyble”), the Dragon Ball Super manga covered the Battle of Gods re-telling, skipped the Resurrection ‘F’ re-telling, and “charged ahead” to the Champa arc, “speeding up the excitement of the TV anime even more”. Though the television series has completed its run, the manga continues onward, having recently entered its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” arc. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The sixth collected volume is due from Viz this December.
The Dragon Ball Super television series concluded in March 2018 with 131 total episodes. FUNimation owns the American distribution license for the series, with the English dub airing on Cartoon Network, and the home video release reaching its eighth box set last month.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0476! Mike and Stacey attempt to arrive at a spelling consensus for the “Ritto-sei-ningen” following some recent wiki-work revelations, and we check in on Volume 10 of the “Dragon Ball Super” manga in Japan for a two-page bonus chapter revolving around Cranberi.
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Our podcast is available via iTunes and/or Google Play Music, or you can pop the direct RSS feed into the program of your choice. You can also listen to this episode by directly downloading the MP3 or by streaming it on Spotify, SoundCloud, or YouTube. We invite you to discuss this episode on our forum.
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Having been formally announced back in the spring, Bandai Namco is committing to a “summer 2019” launch for Majin Boo as an upcoming paid downloadable character for Jump Force, the 50th anniversary crossover fighting game released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
The “Good” version of Boo helps round out the full lineup of nine characters included with the game’s optional $29.99 “Characters Pass”, which also includes four days of earlier access to said characters and each coming with abilities and costume elements for the player’s avatar character. Back in March, Bandai Namco shared their 2019 roadmap for Jump Force, outlining the tentative schedule of upcoming character additions and free updates.
Jump Force, a crossover fighting game in celebration of Jump‘s 50th anniversary, contains four brand new characters designed by original Dragon Ball author Akira Toriyama. The game released worldwide on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam) with a Japanese launch 14 February 2019 followed by an international release the following day on 15 February 2019. Jump Force currently features Son Goku, Vegeta, Trunks, Piccolo, Freeza, and Cell as playable characters. We discussed Jump Force on episode #0467 of our podcast.
Spike Chunsoft previously developed J-Stars Victory Vs., a crossover fighting game celebrating Jump‘s 45th anniversary; the game was originally released on the PlayStation 3 and Vita, with a PlayStation 4 port eventually coming alongside an international localization. Prior to this, the company developed the Sparking! (released internationally as “Budokai Tenkaichi”) and Raging Blast series of Dragon Ball fighting games.
In conjunction with the game’s performance at the 2019 Evolution Championship Series (“Evo”) this weekend, Janenba was formally unveiled as the sixth character coming as optional paid downloadable content to Dragon Ball FighterZ within the game’s “FighterZ Pass 2”.
The reveal followed two inadvertent “leaks” from Microsoft and Nintendo.
Janenba debuted in 1995’s twelfth theatrical Dragon Ball Z film, and has appeared in various video games since then. The character’s name is a adaptation and contraction of 邪念な念波 (ja-aku na nenpa, or “evil thought waves”), an effective description of the character himself.
Janenba rounds out the six announced slots for “FighterZ Pass 2”, with Jiren, Videl, and the 2018 theatrical versions of Broli and Gogeta announced from the start, with the Dragon Ball GT version of Goku also later announced.
The 3-on-3, “2.5D” fighting game is developed by Arc System Works and is currently available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam); on these systems, the game runs at a 1080p resolution and 60fps frame rate, with higher resolutions available on the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X consoles, as well as the PC. Playable characters include Son Goku, Son Gohan (Cell arc design), Vegeta, Freeza, Cell, Boo (Good), Trunks, Piccolo, Kuririn, #16, #18 (with #17), Yamcha, Tenshinhan (with Chiaotzu), Ginyu (with teammates), Nappa (with Saibaimen), Gotenks, Son Gohan (Boo arc design), Boo (Pure), Hit, Beerus, and Goku Black (with Zamasu), as well as “Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan” (SSGSS, or “Super Saiyan Blue”) versions of Goku and Vegeta that can be accessed early via pre-orders or unlocked through gameplay. The Akira Toriyama-designed “#21” is a new character central to the game’s story mode.
A first “FighterZ Pass” with eight additional playable characters is available for $29.99, with the aforementioned “FighterZ Pass 2” available for $24.99. Said additional paid characters are also all available piecemeal at $4.99 each.
Dragon Ball FighterZ was originally released 26 January 2018 in North America and Europe, and 01 February 2018 in Japan. Alongside its Japanese release, Bandai Namco announced that they had shipped two million copies of the game, making it the fastest-shipping game in the franchise’s history. The game shipped on the Nintendo Switch back in September 2018.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0475! Mike and Meri field a bunch of great audience feedback from last episode’s “Captain Ginyu – Assault” retrospective, and Joe joins in to chat a little bit about some of the insane and absolutely-totally-real wiki work going on behind the scenes!
SEGMENTS:
Our podcast is available via iTunes and/or Google Play Music, or you can pop the direct RSS feed into the program of your choice. You can also listen to this episode by directly downloading the MP3 or by streaming it on Spotify, SoundCloud, or YouTube. We invite you to discuss this episode on our forum.
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