Our forum buddies DNA and rereboy dropped a ton of information regarding a new re-release of the Dragon Ball manga in Portugal from Edições Asa— the prior version came from Planeta DeAgostini and was poorly translated from the Spanish version, though this new version from Asa appears to be translated from Viz’s English version rather than the original Japanese.

So far only the first volume is out, released for an MSRP of €9.6 (though Asa’s online store has a 10% discount bringing it down to €8.64). While based on the original tankōbon run, it sounds like the paper is of a higher-quality print. It looks like Asa will be on-schedule with one volume per month for the foreseeable future, so those of you in Portugal looking for a better release of the manga in your own native language, it sounds like you finally have a decent option.

While no specific date has been pinned down, FUNimation has been tossing out on Twitter that we can expect the fifth Dragon Box for the Dragon Ball Z TV series in “early 2011”. This set will pick up with episode 169 and presumably take us through episode 210 into the Great Saiyaman story arc.

The game is still three-to-four weeks out depending upon where you are in the world, but a couple extra tidbits are leaking out in anticipation of the final release of Raging Blast 2 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Namco-Bandai EU released a new trailer for the game showcasing much more of the game’s opening sequence, which includes the new opening vocal theme song (“Battle of Omega”) from franchise veteran Hironobu Kageyama. The trailer also showcases some new scenes from Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans, the included remake of the 1993/1994 Famicom/Playdia video games and OVA/guide.

The final roster also appears to have been revealed, which includes newcomers such as all three members of Coola’s Armored Squad from Dragon Ball Z Movie 5 as well as Tarble from the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour special.

GameTrailers has a quick developer walkthrough for the game with Dennis Lee, brand manager with Namco-Bandai. A quick look is given at some fighting mechanics, but also at the “Museum” mode which houses the character profiles, voice samples, BGM collection, movies, and more.

Reports are coming in that a demo for Raging Blast 2 is popping up across some of the European PlayStation Stores (though not the Japanese or American…), so start making those extra accounts and get your download on!

The newest PSP game for the Dragon Ball franchise, developed by Spike, saw its release in Japan a couple weeks back on 30 September 2010. It is due out here in the US next week on 19 October 2010 for an MSRP of $39.99. Amazon actually has a pretty good deal on the game for a slightly-lower $39.82, but also a free $10 credit toward any future video game purchase.

A demo for the game is available both on the Japanese and American PlayStation Stores, so give it a whirl.

Namco-Bandai also released a new trailer for the game today showcasing “Dragon Walker Mode”:

The official Japanese website for Raging Blast 2 has a new trailer up specifically for Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans. Some new footage is showcased, but it is certainly just a tease!

The English version of the TAG VS demo for the PSP (re-named to Tenkaichi Tag Team for international distribution) should be available on the PlayStation Store at some point today. It is not showing up for me just yet, so perhaps the store was not been refreshed. A new English-language trailer has also been released:

Our Japanese buddy Kei17 wrote in to let us know that Toshiba will be releasing a new refrigerator line starting later this year called “Vegeta”…! The official romanization is indeed “VEGETA” (just as we traditionally spell the character’s name), and its katakana is exactly the same, as well: べジータ. It obviously has nothing to do with the Dragon Ball franchise, but is pretty hilarious none-the-less.

Channel NewsAsia has an interesting piece about Edison Chen from Hong Kong and his debut in an exhibition entitled The Treacherous Tries. As a part of the exhibition, Chen has created fiberglass statues of notable Dragon Ball characters:

Chen has other “pop-art” creations, but that giant Goku will be of most interest to you all, I would assume!

As a bit of a fun aside, our ever-observant forum members have recently discovered a slew of “hidden messages” on FUNimation’s most recent Dragon Box sets:

FUNimation’s fourth Dragon Box for the Dragon Ball Z TV series was released just this week (and is a sweet $36.49 on Amazon). Check out our reviews of the first and second boxes to learn why you should be buying them!