Announced in conjunction with this year’s Jump Festa in Japan this weekend, the anime adaptation of Episode of Bardock is set to be streamed online for a limited time beginning 19 December 2011.

The “Bandai Channel” page unfortunately features some video content that will not play outside of Japan due to IP restrictions. While the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour special was streamed online globally (and subtitled in multiple languages), this may not be the case with Episode of Bardock.

It should be noted that, as of this update, a blurb lower on the page about the streaming availability notes the 19th as being a Wednesday, which is not accurate (the 19th is a Monday; the 21st is a Wednesday). The most prominent splash notes Monday the 19th.

A preview of the feature was shown at Jump Festa this weekend in 45-50 minute blocks. A flyer handed out at the advanced screenings details the online availability, along with character profiles and a few screen shots from the special (photo courtesy of Radittsu0395). There is nothing confirming earlier rumors that a TV broadcast of the new anime will taking place in April 2012. However, it has been confirmed through various Japanese blogs that Masako Nozawa did return to voice Bardock and that Chilled was indeed voiced by Ryusei Nakao (Freeza, Coola, Tambourine).

Episode of Bardock was a three-part manga series penned by Naho Ooishi as a “sequel” to the character’s original TV special from 1990. One chapter per month was published in V-Jump, Shueisha’s video game magazine in Japan, over the course of August, September, and October this year.

UPDATE: The online streaming version of the animated Episode of Bardock adaptation became available on the “Bandai Channel” website at noon on December 19th in Japan, and is indeed region-locked.