This past Friday, a news posting to the official website for “Battle of Gods” laid out a list of “media exposure” for the new movie up through 10 March 2013, and first on the list was a Dragon Ball segment on the late-night NHK program “MAG Net”. Julian stayed up to watch it… and then fell asleep before the segment got underway. Luckily, forum regular kei17 was there to pick up our slack.

This episode, the program’s last, covered the ways Dragon Ball appeals to fans around the world, and gave a (very short) inside look into the new movie’s production. The highlight was an interview with Toei Animation producer Gyarmath Bogdan, the setup for which revealed matter-of-factly what we had long suspected:

『ドラゴンボール』のこうした多面的な威力を膨らませるため、今回の作品には、外国人のプロデューサーが起用されました：ギャルマト・ボグダンさん、44歳。ルーマニアで生まれ、民主化運動に参加、21年前、日本文化を学ぶため来日した、異色の経歴の持ち主。現在は、大手アニメ制作会社で活躍しています。海外での興行を見すえた、新作の『ドラゴンボール』。外国人目線で作品に関わるボグダンさんのこだわりは、バトル中心だったこれまでの劇場作品に、ギャグを多く入れ込んだことです。

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To expand this sort of multi-faceted force in Dragon Ball, a foreign producer has been appointed for this work: Gyarmath Bogdan, age 44. He holds a distinctive résumé: born in Romania, he participated in the democracy movement before coming to Japan 21 years ago in order to study Japanese culture. Now, he has a role at a major animation production company. A new Dragon Ball release, with a view toward screenings overseas. Bogdan-san, involved in the work with a foreigner’s perspective, is obsessed with putting in many gags, where previous theatrical productions were centered around battles.

As for Bogdan himself, he had this to say about the movie’s production:

今回も特に（鳥山明）先生の方から、アクションだけでなく、本当に楽しい、その、『ドラゴンボール』の楽しいところを是非残してください、っていう依頼があったので、『ドラゴンボール』の楽しいドタバタの感じと、悟飯のバトルのアクション、Z戦士たちのものがうまく絡みついてますので、それもまた楽しい映画になったと思います。

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This time in particular, we had a request from (Akira Toriyama-) sensei to leave in not only the action, but also some truly enjoyable… the truly enjoyable aspects of Dragon Ball; Dragon Ball‘s chaotic feeling, and the action of Gohan’s battles, and of the Z Warriors, are mixed together very well, so I believe that has also helped make it an enjoyable movie.

While no overseas release has been announced at this time, it increasingly seems as though it will only be a matter of time until that happens.