Kanzenshuu

Supplemental “J-Stars” Character Reveals: Vegeta, Sasuke, Zebra

Published by VegettoEX02 September 2013, 9:29 PM EDTCommentJ-Stars

When we last left J-Stars Victory Vs, the upcoming PS3/Vita crossover fighting game, Yūsuke and Gon had been revealed bringing the roster up to ten character representing ten distinct series.

This week’s 2013 #40 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump brings us three new character reveals, but for the first time since the game’s announcement, they are characters from previously-included series. The three new stars include Vegeta (Dragon Ball), Sasuke (Naruto), and Zebra (Toriko).

In addition, more tidbits about gameplay have been revealed, such having a third, support character in the battle, and transformations for other characters besides Goku, such as Yusuke’s demon form, Ichigo’s Hollow form, and powered-up forms for both Naruto and Sasuke.

Along with Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z (360/PS3/Vita), J-Stars Victory Vs will be on display in video and playable form at Tokyo Game Show later in September.

Podcast

Podcast Episode #0343

Published by VegettoEX02 September 2013, 7:48 PM EDTComment

We are less than two weeks out from the Japanese home release of the new film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, so things are in a holding-pattern here at Kanzenshuu. This week on our show we take it a little easy with a news recap and a bit of catching up on questions from you, the listeners!

SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0343! VegettoEX and Julian tackle the week’s news as well as a bunch of your questions. Some quick Japanese lessons, Goku’s teleportation, and a good batch of other topics take us through an episode.

REFERENCED SITES:

Enjoy! Discuss this episode on the Kanzenshuu forum.

News

“J Legend Retsuden” (JP 3DS) Bonus Downloadable Game

Published by VegettoEX01 September 2013, 1:30 PM EDT1 CommentJ Legend Retsuden

The Amazon Japan listing for the upcoming J Legend Retsuden on the Japanese Nintendo 3DS promises an interesting bonus for customers that grab it early from the online retailer: some sort of downloadable game.

The listing mentions that you will be able to play “that” game in its entirety via a special download game, but of course neglects to mention what said game might be, and if it is one already part of the game’s compilation or some sort of separate bonus.

The official website for J Legend Retsuden recently added an interview with Arino-san of Game Center CX, though he speaks about himself rather than talking about the game compilation or its contents.

J Legend Retsuden will be shown off in video form only at Tokyo Game Show in late September. The game is due out 07 November 2013 for ¥4,980 and is so far set to include three Dragon Ball games from the Nintendo Famicom.

The game is also available for pre-order from Play-Asia, which is currently offering free shipping on the game. Play-Asia’s listing makes no reference to any bonus downloadable content. As always, we have to note that the Nintendo 3DS is indeed region-locked, so players looking to pick it up will still need a Japanese Nintendo 3DS.

News

Color Manga Likely to Use Updated Kanzenban Ending

Published by VegettoEX31 August 2013, 12:17 PM EDT4 CommentsFull Color

Today is the final day of the “Mainichi Dragon Ball” (“Dragon Ball Every Day”) feature on the “Jump LIVE!” app. The app has been an interesting experiment from Shueisha, with new content — some free, some available for a 100-yen “subscription” — every day throughout the month of August. Plenty of exclusive material (including supplemental Jaco the Galactic Patrolman information) has been made available, and this last day’s content may be of interest to Dragon Ball manga superfans.

A preview of the last chapter in the fight against Majin Boo — 516 — is displayed in its (eventual) full color variation, and it is indeed the updated version from 2004’s Kanzenban release. In the revised chapter, the final page depicting the pure Majin Boo’s death is extended to two pages, with additional dialogue given to Vegeta.

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This was not the only change in the Kanzenban, of course: the final chapter was extended in order to more clearly show Goku “passing the torch” to Oob, and also (somewhat controversially among fans) give Vegeta the last word. While we cannot say for certain, this and previous art edits (such as the corrected “WELL COME” sign in chapter 205) make it seem increasingly likely that the colorized version, if and when it is released, will contain the altered ending.

Print editions of the “Full Color Comics” came from Shueisha earlier this year covering the entirety of the Saiyan and Freeza arcs of the “Z”-portion of the series alongside digital versions of the same portion and earlier chapters. The “Artificial Humans & Cell arc” was recently announced for digital release this coming September.

Viz is currently publishing the digital version in English (beginning with the Saiyan arc this past February) as a single chapter in each issue of their own Weekly Shonen Jump with a print edition coming in February 2014.

News

“Dragon Ball Tap Battle” Now Available on iOS

Published by VegettoEX30 August 2013, 6:23 AM EDT1 Comment

When Dragon Ball Tap Battle was first revealed in the May 2013 issue of V-Jump, it was announced that an Android release would come first followed by an eventual iOS release. Months and months passed by after its Android debut with no word of this fabeled iOS version.

Well, apparently it is out!

The game initially launched for ¥350 on iOS back on 25 July 2013. A 1.1 update to the iOS version dropped last week on 23 August 2013 fixing a few bugs. The Android version is currently up to a 1.3 update which added a character shop, a feature that is also available in the iOS version.

The current in-app top purchases include Super Saiyan 3 Son Goku, Super Saiyan Vegetto, and Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks.

Of course, purchasing in the game would require you to be able to play the game. Various one-star reviews warn against the game crashing on the early screens, and indeed, our experience backs that up — the game crashes soon after its initial data download.

Hopefully further updates correct these issues, but it is not a particularly faith-inspiring iOS outing so far.

News

DBZ Movie 8 Film Anime Comic Re-Release Announced

Published by VegettoEX28 August 2013, 8:23 AM EDT3 Comments

Snuck in with the rest of October’s book announcements — which include a comic version of the film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, which also sees its home video release in just a few weeks — was yet another film comic, but this one a re-release of DBZ Movie 8’s.

The book for DBZ Movie 8 (Moetsukiro!! Nessen · Ressen · Chō-Gekisen / “Burn Up!! A Red-Hot, Raging, Super-Fierce Fight”) is due out 04 October 2013 for ¥700 on the Home Comics label from Shueisha. The book will be released under the Shinsō-ban (“New Cover/Packaging Edition”) branding.

The “Film Animation Comics” are what are sometimes referred to as “animanga”, which literally just take screen shots from the original film version, arrange them on the page in manga form, and add in dialog bubbles. For Dragon Ball, they originally kicked off back in 1992 with DBZ Movie 5 and then moved forward and backward to fill in the holes to hit up each movie (as well as the three feature-length TV specials for the franchise). They were re-released from 2004-2005 in two-in-one “Jump Remix” versions.

There are no listings beyond the single entry for DBZ Movie 8’s “Film Animation Comic”, so it remains to be seen if the entire line of movies and TV specials will be re-released, or if this is a one-off deal. The “Home Comics” label is typically reserved for more limited-edition or limited-timeframe releases, so it is an interesting situation for this particular book.

Podcast

Podcast Episode #0342

Published by VegettoEX27 August 2013, 8:18 PM EDTComment

With the color versions of the Dragon Ball comic heating up again — with more digital volumes coming in Japan next month and Viz moving into the print world in February — it made sense to catch-up on this edition of the manga. It all started back in 2009 with Shueisha tossing chapters out for free and suddenly ceasing the entire thing, likely (and quickly) coming to the conclusion that they would eventually be able to digitally monetize such a product. What is out there, how much does it cost, what changes are there from the original version, and is it worth investing in?

podcast_342_kaio_color

SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0342! VegettoEX and Julian dive into the world of Dragon Ball’s color comics. North America and Japan (as well as several other countries!) have been getting various print and digital releases of the color manga, but how do they all hold up? What else seems to be on the way? A week’s worth of standard video game news and a fun tease of future website content wraps up the episode!

REFERENCED SITES:

Enjoy! Discuss this episode on the Kanzenshuu forum.

News

Namco-Bandai Tokyo Game Show 2013 Lineup

Published by VegettoEX23 August 2013, 12:47 PM EDT1 Comment

While nothing particularly interesting is coming out of Gamescom over in Germany, Namco-Bandai has unveiled their lineup for Tokyo Game Show later this month, which includes three Dragon Ball-related games.

Both Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z (Xbox 360, PS3 and Vita) and the crossover extravaganza J-Stars Victory Vs (just PS3 and Vita) will be playable at the event in addition to video demonstrations. While Battle of Z has been shown off before, this is the first real hands-on the company is doing with the crossover game.

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This November’s J Legend Retsuden — a Nintendo 3DS compilation of older Jump-franchise games — will also be on display, albeit only in video form.

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No concrete release dates have been set for either Battle of Z (beyond 2014) or J-Stars Victory Vs.

Tokyo Game Show will take place from 19 September 2013 to 22 September 2013, with the event open to the public on the latter two days.

News

Digital Color Manga Updates: Cell arc Pre-orders & Neko Majin

Published by VegettoEX22 August 2013, 9:03 PM EDT1 CommentFull Color

The colorized version of the “Artificial Humans & Cell arc” of the Dragon Ball manga is up for pre-order in the Japanese iBookstore (though not yet via Shueisha’s “Jump BOOK Store!” app), and will officially go live 04 September 2013.

The digital version of the arc will run for eight volumes and cover chapters 330 to 420. Preview downloads are available, and now include a proper table of contents. Depending on the service used, the price ranges between ¥450 and ¥480.

Shueisha has not announced any print volumes beyond the currently-released Saiyan and Freeza arcs.

Viz is currently publishing the digital version of the “Z”-era “Full Color Comics” in English as a single chapter in each issue of their own Weekly Shonen Jump with a print edition coming in February 2014.

Additionally, Akira Toriyama’s on-again/off-again spin-off and parody series Neko Majin (originally and sporadically published as single chapters between 1999 and 2005) has actually been available on the service since this spring! The same ¥450-480 gets you all eight chapters from the various sub-series (two chapters of Neko Majin ga Iru, one chapter of Neko Majin Mike, and five chapters of Neko Majin Z). Most interestingly, the entirety of the series has been colorized a la the Dragon Ball “Full Color Comics”. All title pages and any special color pages remain the same as their original printings (both in magazines and in its kanzenban release from 2005), but all additional black-and-white pages have been updated with new colorized versions.

The final chapter of the spin-off — the fifth Neko Majin Z chapter — was printed in English (without its chapter number) by Viz in their October 2007 issue of Shonen Jump. It has not yet otherwise been officially made available in either print or digital versions.

News

“Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission” 25th Week Sales

Published by VegettoEX21 August 2013, 1:37 PM EDTCommentUltimate Mission

After three weeks completely off the sales charts, Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission for the Japanese Nintendo 3DS has put in another showing.

For the period of 12 August 2013 to 18 August 2013 (the game’s 25th week since release), the Famitsu sales list pegs the game with another 4,268 copies. According to the group, the game has now pushed 245,786 total copies since its release earlier this year in February.

Doing the math retroactively, the game pushed somewhere around 9,300 copies during its three weeks with no real representation on the sales charts.

Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission for the Japanese Nintendo 3DS is available for purchase at CDJapan and Play-Asia. As we feel compelled to note each time, however, the Nintendo 3DS is region-locked and Ultimate Mission will require a Japanese system for play. There is currently no word on an international release of the game.