Kanzenshuu

“Battle of Z” (360/PS3/Vita) Day 1 & Pre-Order Bonuses

Published by VegettoEX24 September 2013, 10:31 PM EDT1 CommentBattle of Z

As initially teased in the latest English-language trailer for the game, the upcoming Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z (360/PS3/Vita) fighting game will receive a few special bonuses for those pre-ordering and picking up the game on its release date. As previously revealed, those picking up the game at launch will be treated to a bonus costume for Goku: a specially-customzied Naruto “Sage Mode” outfit, which also includes updates to Goku’s movements to mirror Naruto’s more closely.

In addition to this, the European branch of Namco-Bandai has revealed that customers pre-ordering the game will receive two additional characters: Super Vegetto and Super Saiyan Bardock.

The Pre-order offer comes in with 2 exclusive in-game DLC Characters, the almighty SUPER VEGITO and the father of our main hero and saviour: SUPER SAIYAN BARDOCK. Those two characters will be available solely via pre-order across Europe and Australasia!

In North America, the two characters will be made available via retailer-specific pre-order deals, with more info to come as the game heads toward release.

DRAGON BALL Z®: BATTLE OF Z TO RECEIVE SPECIAL DAY ONE EDITION AND SPECIAL PRE-ORDER ITEMS IN THE AMERICAS

Exciting DLC Items Deliver Special Cross-Over Experience and Additional Characters for Dragon Ball Z Fans to Master

SAN JOSE, Calif., (September 19, 2013) Leading video game publisher and developer NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today announced its Day One Edition and Pre-Order offers for Dragon Ball Z®: Battle of Z for North America, Latin America, and Brazil on the Xbox 360® games and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z delivers over-the-top anime action and intensity, presented in new cell-shaded HD graphics. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z’s expanded team battle and co-op modes will also allow players to create teams of four characters to take on opponents across the globe.

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z’s Day One Edition will be offered while supplies last at participating retailers and will feature a download code for Goku’s Naruto Uzumaki Sage Mode Costume from the popular NARUTO SHIPPUDEN series. Players will be able to execute all of Goku’s famous attacks including the Kamehameha and Meteor Smash while dressed in one of the NARUTO universe’s most recognizable outfits. Dragon Ball Z and NARUTO fans will want to reserve a copy of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z in order to guarantee their Naruto Uzumaki Sage Mode Costume for their video game collection.

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z will also be offered with special Pre-Order bonuses. Exclusive characters Super Vegito and Super Saiyan Bardock will be available in different pre-order programs at participating retailers. These characters have proven to be fan favorites with popular attacks and character storylines. Additional details regarding how and where to pre-order Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z to receive Super Vegito or Super Saiyan Bardock will be announced in the near future.

“Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z marks a significant push forward for Dragon Ball Z games both in its expanded team and online gameplay mechanics and improved HD graphical presentation,” said Chris Gilbert, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “The Dragon Ball Z franchise has been a perennial favorite amongst Japanese videogame, manga, and anime fans and we’re excited to offer our loyal Dragon Ball Z fans additional content to go with the innovative and heightened experience they will have with Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z.”

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z will be available in early 2014 for the Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, and PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system (digital download only) in the Americas. For more information on the game, please visit: http://dbzboz.bngames.net, http://dragonball.namcobandaigames.com, https://www.facebook.com/DBZ.videogames or www.facebook.com/NamcoBandai.

Bardock’s Super Saiyan transformation was originally developed for Naho Ooishi’s three-chapter spin-off manga, Episode of Bardock, which was later adapted into a short video feature for Jump Festa 2012, itself later included as a part of Dragon Ball Z for Kinect. Super Saiyan Bardock was also playable in the Kinect game, but only via a special QR code unlock that was not distributed until after the game’s release.

DLC has been made available for this generation’s Dragon Ball fighters before, but have generally been distributed as codes within “Limited Edition” versions, pre-orders, retailer exclusive bonuses, etc. and were not later available for download (either paid or free). Most of these have been color palette adjustments, and only a few have actually made their way out at all in North America.

With Battle of Z appearing to go back to the style of character transformations acting as their own individual selection (rather than using “in-game transformations”), fans of Vegetto and Bardock may want to think about picking the game up sooner than later.

News

“Battle of Gods” Home Video Week #2 Sales Updates

Published by VegettoEX24 September 2013, 7:18 PM EDTCommentDBZ Movie 2013

The Oricon sales charts note (with specific DVD and Blu-ray data via Anime News Network) that the home video release of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods continues to be a top seller in Japan for its second consecutive week, though it has relinquished the top spot on both the individual DVD and Blu-ray charts.

For the period of 16 September 2013 to 22 September 2013, the standard edition of the film did another 4,598 copies on DVD (bringing the total to 18,860) and 2,606 on Blu-ray (bringing the total to 8,483), while the special edition did another 3,558 copies on DVD (bringing the total to 15,856) and 2,861 on Blu-ray (bringing the total to 20,805).

News

Madman Announces “Battle of Gods” License For Australia

Published by VegettoEX22 September 2013, 1:00 PM EDT4 CommentsDBZ Movie 2013

In addition to its upcoming screenings as a part of the 17th Japanese Film Festival, Madman announced this week its license of the new film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods for the Australian market.

MADMAN ACQUIRES DRAGON BALL Z: BATTLE OF THE GODS

Madman is proud to announce the acquisition of the latest feature in the evergreen DRAGON BALL Z franchise, DRAGON BALL Z: BATTLE OF THE GODS.

DRAGON BALL Z: BATTLE OF THE GODS is the first DRAGON BALL Z movie to receive a Japanese theatrical release in 17 years, and with original manga creator, Akira Toriyama heavily involved, the first film in the series to be considered an official part of the original DRAGON BALL manga storyline.

When Birus, The God of Destruction awakes from a long slumber, he learns of the defeat of the galactic overlord Freeza by the hands of Son Goku. Seeking an opponent worthy of his power, Birus, along with his companion Uis, travels to the North Quadrant of the universe to challenge Goku to a battle.

Shooting straight to the number one spot in its opening week at the Japanese box-office, DRAGON BALL Z: BATTLE OF THE GODS took in over $7 million USD and sold over 500,000 tickets in just two days. The film has since become the fastest-grossing film of 2013 in Japan, earning a total of US$30 million [2.9 billion Yen].

One of the most beloved manga and anime brands in the world, DRAGON BALL and DRAGON BALL Z have a rich cultural history spanning two decades, significantly boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in Western culture and influencing multiple generations of fans.

In Australia, DRAGON BALL Z has enjoyed a regular television broadcast across Channel 10 and Cartoon Network and has sold in excess of one million units across DVD and VHS formats alone.

DRAGON BALL Z: BATTLE OF THE GODS will premiere at the 17th Japanese Film Festival, touring Australia Oct – Dec, 2013. For more information, visit www.japanesefilmfestival.net.

DRAGON BALL Z: BATTLE OF THE GODS will also screen in select cinemas in 2014.

Throughout the press release, Madman refers to the movie with a title of “Battle of the Gods” despite appearing directly below a promotional banner clearly outlining the title in its original “Battle of Gods” moniker. The “Birus” and “Uis” name romanizations appear to come directly from the Japanese Film Festival advertising. It rather obviously remains to be seen whether or not the title of the movie and/or further name change adaptations will make their way to whatever the final product is from Madman.

Tied in with the Japanese Film Festival, the movie will also be screened in New Zealand via Event Cinemas in October.

News

First North American Trailer for “Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z”

Published by Hujio20 September 2013, 11:41 AM EDT6 CommentsBattle of Z

Video gaming website GameSpot recently posted the first North American trailer for the next big video game coming to the Dragon Ball franchise, Battle of Z. The trailer, narrated by Christopher Sabat (Vegeta, Piccolo, etc.), also highlights the inclusion of Beerus and Whis, characters from the recent Battle of Gods theatrical film. Super Saiyan God from the new film will also appear in the game.

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z is currently scheduled for a nebulous “early 2014” release. In North America, the game will see a retail release on both the 360 and PlayStation 3, while the Vita version will be download-only.

News

“Dragon Ball Z: Season 1” Blu-ray Set Coming, In Widescreen

Published by Hujio17 September 2013, 10:43 PM EDT6 Comments

Listings for a “Dragon Ball Z: Season 1” Blu-ray release, now officially scheduled for 31 December 2013, have begun popping up online. So far most listings contain only basic product information: $44.98 MSRP, 925 minute running time, and 4 discs. However, a recent product listing shared by WTK has really grabbed some attention among fans across most social media outlets.

According to this product listing, the upcoming Dragon Ball Z Blu-ray “Season” sets will indeed be presented in a 16:9 cropped widescreen format. You may recall that FUNimation conducted an online survey this last June asking fans to weigh in on a possible, now confirmed, Blu-ray release for the company’s flagship series. One of the survey questions specifically asked about aspect ratio preferences, providing options for both 4:3 (“Original Production Release”) and 16:9 (“Crop of Original Production Release”) aspect ratios. At this point it appears that a majority of fans were in favor of a cropped release, however we have reached out to FUNimation for further clarification on this actually being the case.

While the orange brick sets were cropped to 16:9 — removing approximately 20% of the original picture — FUNimation’s “Level” Blu-ray sets had remained in their original 4:3 aspect ratio. However, with the increased price point for the “Level” Blu-ray sets due to production costs of remastering the scanned footage “frame-by-frickin’-frame”, FUNimation canceled their production in pursuit of a more cost effective remastering method after releasing only the first 34 episodes. The first new Blu-ray “Season” set appears to contain 39 episodes, based on the listed running time of 925 minutes, which lines up with the episode count seen on the first orange brick set.

The listing also notes that the cropping of these new sets will be achieved by using “pan & scan technology” to ensure an “optimal viewing experience”. This does imply that the cropping of the footage will be more selective than that seen on the orange brick sets, which were auto-cropped to the center of the frame. This is likely intended to reduce the number of instances where important visual information (i.e. character’s heads, mouths, etc.) is unnecessarily cut out of the frame, similar to what was done by Toei Animation for the Japanese television broadcast of Dragon Ball Kai.

All indications at this point lean toward FUNimation’s cost effective solution being a somewhat similar release to the orange bricks, although this time in an actual high-definition format with a little more care taken in cropping the footage. At the moment there has been no confirmation as what film master this release will be based on — an entirely new scan performed specifically for this release, a possible scan previously done for the “Level” sets, or the original scan for the orange brick sets. No matter which film master is used this release, with a less intense remastering process, it is nearly guaranteed to be sub-par to the “Level” sets.

However, on a positive note, this release will have a much more affordable price point in comparison to the “Level” sets, which had an MSRP of $34.98, and thus be more appealing to the mass market. The new set breaks down to roughly $1.15 per episode, as opposed to the $2.06 per episode cost on the “Level” sets. That is not too shabby, but for some of us it is not quite worth reliving 2007 all over again.

Update: Amazon Canada has posted a listing for the new “Dragon Ball Z: Season 1” Blu-ray, which includes an updated product description.

The Saiyans are coming! These ruthless, intergalactic villains carved a path of destruction across the galaxy, and now they’re headed for Earth! The evil Saiyan warlord Vegeta will not rest until he’s seized the wish-granting powers of the Dragon Balls for himself! For the first time ever, the Dragon Ball Z season sets are available on Blu-ray! This epic collection presents the first thirty-nine episodes of the legendary series in remastered, high definition quality and 16:9 aspect ratio using frame by frame, pan and scan technology. An elite team of Capsule Corp. scientists worked around the clock to put the greatest anime in history on the cutting edge of modern technology. You may think you’ve seen all there is to see in the DBZ universe, but you’re wrong. Take home this thirty-nine episode collection today, and fire your next Kamehameha in the brilliance of Blu-ray!

Thanks to Super Sayian Prime for the heads up!

Podcast

Special Podcast Episode: DBZ Video Game Music #2

Published by VegettoEX15 September 2013, 6:21 AM EDT1 Comment

This week on the show we are taking a break from our usual news and topical discussions — even amidst Battle of Gods…! — to provide a follow-up to one of our favorite podcast episodes.

Earlier this year we dove into the past of Dragon Ball video game music, up through the 32-bit era, with great stories and great tunes. This time around, we invited another batch of friends on to tell us similar stories starting with the big gaming resurgence in 2002 and leading up into today’s most recent games. Last generation was absolutely huge with the DBZ / Budokai and Sparking! / Budokai Tenkaichi trilogies (and their respective spin-offs), along with tons of other great singular outings both on the consoles and portable systems.

Please enjoy this jump into our collective fandom’s most recent history, as well as the songs that defined these last couple generations of games.

SHOW DESCRIPTION:
The Kanzenshuu crew brings on an incredible group of special guests to dive into the Dragon Ball franchise’s rich history of video game music. What were some of the songs that defined our fandom from the previous and current generation of games? Our focus is 2002-2013, so join us for a history lesson and some rockin’ tunes!

Enjoy! Discuss this episode on the Kanzenshuu forum. We would love to hear what some of your own picks are from this era of video games!

News

“Battle of Z” (360/PS3/Vita) Naruto Costume & Opening Theme News

Published by VegettoEX15 September 2013, 5:44 AM EDTCommentBattle of Z

This week’s 2013 #42 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump (released yesterday, 13 September 2013, a bit early due to the holiday of Respect-for-the-Aged Day on Monday) unveils a special costume for Goku in the upcoming 360 / PlayStation 3 / Vita fighting game, Battle of Z: Naruto’s “Sen’nin Mode” outfit.

The costume will be made available to all first-run copies of the game via a special download code that will be included. The magazine states that not only will Goku be dressed as Naruto, but his movements will become like the shinobi’s as well.

Last year’s Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 included the opposite: a Goku outfit for Naruto. As with this year’s Naruto costume for Goku, it was included as a special addition for first-run customers. Both this costume for Goku and the previous outfit for Naruto are derived from illustrations that Akira Toriyama and Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto drew of their own characters in each other’s clothes.

Additionally, Jump also reveals that the game will have a “super-deluxe” opening animation, with a “super battle” at “breakneck speed” and featuring all the super-warriors together (including Super Saiyan God). After years of CG openings, 2011’s Ultimate Blast / Tenkaichi was the first in quite some time to have a traditional 2D animated opening, set to the classic “CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA”, even in international releases of the game which otherwise had its musical score replaced.

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z is currently scheduled for a nebulous “2014” release. In North America, the game will see a retail release on both the 360 and PlayStation 3, while the Vita version will be download-only.

News

FUNimation Blu-ray DBZ “Season One” Listed For January 2014

Published by VegettoEX13 September 2013, 3:48 PM EDT3 Comments

In July 2011, FUNimation announced a new Blu-ray remaster of the Dragon Ball Z TV series. Half a year later, after only two volumes hit store shelves, they announced their work on the release would be indefinitely suspended.

Last June, the company conducted an online survey asking fans about their potential interest in a revived Blu-ray release of the series, putting forth questions about cropping, a release schedule, pricing, etc.

Listings-superfan WTK posted up a link to the latest Previews sheet for October’s solicitations, which clearly lists a “Season One” version of some type of Blu-ray release:

Are we looking at a January 2014 re-try for FUNimation and an HD version of Dragon Ball Z at $44.98? Will it be 2007 all over again with cropped video? Will the first batch of episodes be re-remastered to fall in line with whatever new process they have decided upon, or will it be the same remastering process just with a few more years worth of experience behind them?

As of right now, we know nothing… so stay tuned!

Content

“Battle of Gods” Home Release Packaging First Look

Published by VegettoEX12 September 2013, 6:08 AM EDT1 CommentDBZ Movie 2013

Living in Japan has its perks sometimes, like being able to see the new film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods on its release day in theaters, and also being able to receive its home release a day early!

Our own Julian (“SaiyaJedi”) received his shipment at work today, and took a couple quick videos to show off the “Limited Edition” version.

Look for more great coverage of the movie’s home release in the coming days! Be sure to follow along here on the site as well as Twitter and Facebook for all the goods.

The film’s official Japanese home release date is tomorrow (13 September 2013).

News

“Battle of Gods” Screening at Japanese Film Festival in Australia

Published by VegettoEX10 September 2013, 8:23 AM EDT4 CommentsDBZ Movie 2013

Next up in the lucky line of recipients are those of you down under in Australia: the new film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods is coming to the 17th Japanese Film Festival later this year!

So far, the film is scheduled for five screenings across the tour: Brisbane (16 October 2013 – 20 October 2013), Perth (23 October 2013 – 27 October 2013), Canberra (30 October 2013 – 03 November 2013), Sydney (14 November 2013 – 24 November 2013), and Melbourne (28 November – 08 December 2013).

Big thanks to SaiyamanMS for the heads-up.

Before Battle of Gods hits Australia, a good deal of Latin American screenings are on deck for this month and beyond, while it recently hit areas such as the Philippines and Hong Kong.

The film will be receiving its official Japanese home release this week (13 September 2013) on Blu-ray and DVD, with both standard and special editions of each. The special edition will come packed with a bonus disc containing production footage and the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour Special. Special retailer-exclusive versions are also available with extras such as special steelcase packaging.