One of our forum members, TheBlackPaladin, has done some great digging around ANMTV regarding the upcoming dub of Dragon Ball Kai for Brazil, who will be third in line to receive the show internationally following U.S.A. and Mexico. It seems that the local Portuguese dub of the show will be retaining its original Japanese title (sans “Z”), the new dub is already being worked on, and it will air on their Cartoon Network beginning in early 2011.

Similar to the Mexican dub, however, the new Brazilian dub will have a number of re-cast voice roles. Confirmed to be re-cast so far are the characters Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan, Yajirobe, and Freeza; confirmed to return include the actors and actresses for Bulma, Chi-Chi, and Kuririn. Also returning will be Wendel Bezerra, the original voice of Goku, who took up a campaign on Twitter and directly appealed to the show’s producers and licensors (having a “long talk” with them about the role and its fans).

Much of this situation directly mirrors the upcoming Mexican dub of Kai with its financial issues, voice replacements, and online campaigns fronted by those directly involved in its production.

Speaking of the Mexican dub, rumors of the English version somehow coming into play with its translation may indeed be true. While FUNimation does not appear to have any influence over the production itself, as voice actor and director Irwin Daayan previously hinted, materials received appear to be FUNimation’s (including the “Z” title addition), and the script may be based on FUNimation’s English adaptation rather than directly from the original Japanese. Some fine translation work over on our forum revealed that the new Mexican versions of “Dragon Soul” and “Yeah! Break! Care! Break!” appear to be based on FUNimation’s own lyrics for the songs (which change certain lines rather than adapt them from the original lyrics). It should be noted that, as of right now, this is only the case with the lyrics to the songs, as no proper footage from the series exists with the upcoming Mexican dub to compare just yet.

In additional Mexican Kai dub news, Ayelén dropped us a note letting us know that René García (previously the voice of Vegeta) announced at the event Fahrenheit 2010 in Argentina that he will indeed not be working on the upcoming Mexican dub of  Dragon Ball Kai due to the same money issues we previously heard about. He even tried getting in contact with the appropriate folks at Toei over it, but it was all for naught.

There is a lot of speculation floating around out there about a playable demo for the upcoming Raging Blast 2, so let us put the rumors to rest!

Namco-Bandai has announced that, in North America, the demo will remain exclusive for the Xbox 360 (until an as-of-yet unspecified time later this month) and will be released today:

NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. is pleased to announce the downloadable demo for Dragon Ball®: Raging Blast 2 is now available on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The demo will first be available exclusively on Xbox LIVE Marketplace on October 14 and will be available for download on the PlayStation®Network for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system later this month.

Download the demo to freely command Super Saiyan Goku, Ultimate Gohan, Kid Boo or Demon King Dabura in the ultimate battle of strength and stamina. Feel the power of your bone-crushing attacks as you square off in VS. Mode using an arsenal of special moves to dominate your rival in two of the game’s large-scale 3D environments.

The sequel to last year’s high-flying fast-hitting, versus battles series, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 promises to bring the intensity that Dragon Ball fans know and love. Fans of the series can expect the anime’s hyper-kinetic trademark gameplay, including destructible environments, character attacks and transformations, and signature Pursuit Attacks which enable players to initiate attack combo strings, juggling your opponent in a string of devastating strikes throughout the environment.

Additionally, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 will feature an exclusive 30-minute Dragon Ball anime episode “Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans” on the game disc, making this latest chapter a must-have for diehard fans.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 will be available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system on November 2, 2010. Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 is rated “T” for Teen and will carry an MSRP of $59.99.

The Xbox 360 demo should also be available worldwide according to Microsoft’s Major Nelson.

The Xbox 360 exclusivity applies only to North America, however. The German PlayStation Store currently features the same free, downloadable demo for the game (released yesterday) which is playable on any PlayStation 3 system (provided you have the knowledge to create a German account, as well as are playing on an HDTV; many reports are coming in noting the game will not play on an NTSC standard definition television due to NTSC/PAL issues).

Furthermore, the demo is also available on the Japanese PlayStation Store for those of you who can navigate your way on over for downloading goodness.

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!