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3,853 Posts & 2,435 Pages Documenting Dragon Ball, since 1998. We've got you covered!
News
“Dragon Ball SD” Continues For Another Chapter
Published by 29 March 2011, 3:37 PM EDTComment

Last November we learned about a new quarterly magazine from Shueisha called Saikyō Jump, which would contain spin-off chapters from their various popular series. For their first issue, a special chapter called Dragon Ball SD was drawn by Naho Ooishi, who had previously drawn the two-part manga adaptation of the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour Special. It was a retelling of Goku’s early adventures with Kuririn while training under Kame-Sen’nin.

No second chapter was listed in the debut issue (despite other series having announced second chapters), but it was revealed yesterday that Dragon Ball SD would return for another chapter, again by Naho Ooishi, in the next issue of Saikyō Jump. This chapter will retell Super Saiyan Goku’s fight against Freeza.

Unfortunately, due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the 01 April 2011 release date of the issue has been pushed back to a new release date of 11 April 2011. As with the last issue, this one will come with an exclusive Dragon Ball Heroes card, but will also include an exclusive “Strongest Hero Grand Collection DVD”. The DVD will include “movie manga” versions of the twelve stories from the first issue.

We reviewed the first chapter back on Episode #0241 of our podcast if you want to learn more!

Podcast
Podcast Episode #0253
Published by 28 March 2011, 9:23 AM EDTComment

Dragon Ball Kai may have come to a close, but that does not have a whole lot of impact on the plethora of discussions yet to come! This week, Herms joins us for part one of our look at the “intended endings” to the series. Fans often claim that the author absolutely intended to end the manga with the Freeza story arc, but is this actually true? What evidence exists pointing to specific story arcs that could have served as the ending? Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.

SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0253! VegettoEX and Meri discuss a few news tidbits (such as the end of the “DragonBall Kai” TV broadcast in Japan) before turning it over to Herms for part one of our look at the “intended endings” to the series. Fans often claim that the author absolutely intended to end the manga with the Freeza story arc, but is this actually true? What evidence exists pointing to specific story arcs that could have served as the ending?

REFERENCED SITES:

News
“Dragon Ball Kai” Comes to a Close in Japan
Published by 27 March 2011, 3:29 PM EDTComment

This morning in Japan, Fuji TV broadcast the 97th episode of Dragon Ball Kai. While the “Artificial Humans & Cell arc” had been previously announced by Happinet as ending with episode 98 of the series (which even had an episode title set to go), the TV broadcast was shortened by one week due to delays associated with coverage of the recent earthquake and tsunami. Fuji TV has since updated their schedule to list episode 97 as the new “final episode” (最終回) of the series.

Toriko is still set to debut next week in the 9:00 am time slot previously held by Dragon Ball Kai (and was previewed at the end of this week’s Dragon Ball Kai episode), leaving the 98th episode lost to the ether. There is no word on whether the episode will eventually be broadcast in repeats or possibly included on the home Blu-ray/DVD release. The way in which the episode was re-classified as the final episode and how it used the series’ opening theme (“Dragon Soul”) as an insert song to wrap things up certainly point toward episode 98 being tossed aside for good.

Episode 98 would have likely covered Dragon Ball Z episode 194, where Trunks returns to his future timeline to defeat its own respective #17, #18, and Cell. While this material is indeed canonical to the original manga, episode 97 wrapped things up in a way that it is not necessarily essential to toss into the mix.

Podcast
Podcast Episode #0252
Published by 21 March 2011, 8:43 PM EDTComment

We have been working on it, and you have been waiting on it, so it is time to finally answer the big question:

What the Hell just happened to Dragon Ball Kai…?

Heath and Corey joined us in-house this week to attempt to answer that big question. By diving into publicly-available corporate presentations and financial reports, we can paint a crystal-clear picture of why the series was “refreshed” at the time it was, what their plan was for it all along, if they even partially saw that plan come to fruition, and what we might be able to expect from the franchise in the future.

Long story short, it was a meticulously-calculated grab at getting new/younger fans (to lay a groundwork for another popularity wave even more years down the road) by a company that is attempting to react to changing market conditions as rapidly as possible, but a company that is also not afraid to cut their losses while they can and then go out to seek opportunities with a higher profit-margin. Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.

SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0252! VegettoEX, Meri, Hujio, and Corey are all in-house to discuss what the Hell just happened to “DragonBall Kai”. By diving back into corporate presentations and financial reports, we are able to paint a crystal-clear picture of just why exactly the show was “refreshed” in the first place, if their plan even partially came to fruition at all, and what we can expect for the future of the franchise.

REFERENCED SITES:

News
Last Episode of “Dragon Ball Kai” To Not Air in Japan?
Published by 21 March 2011, 1:50 PM EDTComment

As we reported last week, Fuji TV’s schedule was thrown off track by an entire week due to news coverage of the horrific earthquake that hit Japan. Fuji TV has finally released their updated TV schedule for the next two weeks, and it now appears they are sticking to the schedule they originally announced back in December: Toriko will in fact be taking over Dragon Ball Kai‘s time slot on 03 April 2011. So now the question stands: will episode 98 of Kai ever see the light of day?

As of now there has been no official word concerning the fate of the episode. It may be broadcast at a later date, or it may only be available on the final Blu-ray box set and DVD home releases. Maybe it will not be released at all with the recent music fiasco. In all honesty, we just do not know. This is definitely a situation no one wanted to see happen, but we will keep you posted as more information becomes available.

News
Latin America Home Release Licensing
Published by 19 March 2011, 3:08 PM EDTComment

The website worldscreen.com is reporting some moderately extensive home release licensing for the Dragon Ball franchise in Latin America by way of two companies, including the “refreshed” Dragon Ball Kai TV series:

Toei scored a DVD deal for Dragon Ball Kai with Televisa in Mexico, which picked up episodes one through 54. Separate DVD agreements were wrapped up with En Pantalla in Mexico for Dragon Ball episodes one through 28, Dragon Ball Z episodes one through 72 and Dragon Ball GT episodes one through 64.

To break down the episode numbers:

  • For Kai, that takes the series up before its designated “Artificial Humans & Cell arc”, approximately half of the series.
  • For the Dragon Ball TV series, this extends from the beginning of the series through the end of the 21st Tenka’ichi Budōkai.
  • For the Dragon Ball Z TV series (which Kai is based on), this extends partway through the Freeza story arc.
  • For the Dragon Ball GT TV series, the entire 64-episode run is noted.

This is the third home release of the Dragon Ball Kai TV series (following its ongoing release in Japan and later North America). The Mexican dub of the series came under fire from fans when voice director and actor Irwin Daayan announced that many of the character voices would be recast. Even in Brazil, the role of Goku stayed with prior actor Wendel Bezerra only after a “long talk” with the show’s producers about production processes and fan input.

Let us know how this all plays out, Latin American fans!

News
“Raging Blast 2” Soundtrack Details
Published by 15 March 2011, 8:45 PM EDTComment

The cover art for this month’s Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 soundtrack gives us plenty to talk about. While the primary soundtrack for the Raging Blast games in Japan has been a synthesized version of Shunsuke Kikuchi’s original score for Dragon Ball Z, the cover art reveals that the soundtrack release will consist (exclusively?) of music from the “overseas version”.

It is likely that the soundtrack will be pushed back, however, so we will keep an eye on that one.