A new Character Song & BGM CD release (COCX-36424) will come out for Dragon Ball Kai 22 September 2010 in Japan for ¥2940. It seems to be a continuation of both the Dragon Ball Kai Song Collection and the BGM Collection series (of which there have been two releases so far). In addition to a TV-sized version of the current closing theme, “Kokoro no Hane” (which incidentally just received its own full-version release in eleven different packages), the new CD will also contain songs for at least the characters of Cell and Trunks.

Will these songs be in-character, similar to Dende’s and Vegeta’s songs on the original Song Collection for Kai…? Early descriptions of that first disc also listed a theme for Kuririn which never came to be, so we should probably hold back a little anticipation until a final track listing is revealed.

We all want Norio Wakamoto singing, though. Seriously. We do.

Lots of folks have been tossing around a story from animeanime.jp and Anime News Network about the second annual Thai Anime Song (“Anison”) Contest set to feature a costumed version of Goku. The event will take place from July 24th to 25th this week in Bangkok. If you Thai fans could please attend the event, sing “CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA”, and somehow get Goku to dance along with you… that would be great!

Goku’s Corner has a fan Q&A session all about Raging Blast 2 with Ryo Mito, the game’s producer. There is not a whole lot divulged about the game that is not already known, though there are confirmations on new modes, about 20 “new characters” (meaning characters and forms that did not appear in the first Raging Blast from last year), and a few new official screen shots.

In related news, Paikuhan, Nail, and Future Gohan have been revealed as playable characters in the game. All three have appeared in previous video games, but were not included in the first Raging Blast.

UPDATE: Namco-Bandai has released new images of the game for Comic-Con, confirming the return of Super Saiyan 3 Broli and Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta from the first Raging Blast:

There is nothing that gets Dragon Ball fans more riled up than some awesome sticker books! Luckily, there are three new sticker books coming out over the next two months. The books are being released in conjunction with three new One Piece sticker books, so it appears they are aiming for the new, and much younger, “Dream 9” audience.

Each series’ three books are divided up into a “Character Book”, “Story Book”, and “Quiz Book”. The “Story Book” is due out 23 July 2010 for ¥780 (~$8.50) and will contain character and backdrop stickers so you can recreate your favorite scenes from Kai thus far. The “Character Book” and “Quiz Book” are both due out 20 August 2010 for ¥780 (~$8.50). The “Character Book” will contain stickers of the main characters that have appeared in Kai, while the “Quiz Book” will have quizzes, puzzles, and mazes that involve stickers. All six Dragon Ball and One Piece sticker books were originally set to be released in July, but have now been awkwardly split up over two months.

Veteran voice actor and director Yūji Mitsuya will be a guest at Otakon at the end of this month down in Baltimore. Mitsuya would be best known to fans as the voice of Kaiōshin in the Dragon Ball Z TV series. Hopefully we can snag some pictures while we are there!

We are unfortunately reaching a point where these news stories are all too common, but their impact never diminishes. Tetsuo Mizutori has passed away at the age of 71. Dragon Ball fans may remember him as Zald, one of Garlic Jr.’s new henchmen in the anime-only story arc immediately prior to Mecha Freeza’s and Trunks’ arrival, though he was more widely known for roles in series such as Kinnikuman.

The Garlic Jr. story arc was skipped for the on-going Dragon Ball Kai TV series due to it being an original story and one of Kai‘s main points being that it more strictly adheres to author Akira Toriyama’s original comic. Mizutori had played no other roles in the series or movies.

One of Garlic Jr.’s other new henchman for this part of the series, Vinegar, was played by the late Daisuke Gōri, who had played a wealth of other characters in the series (Gyū-Maō, Enma-Daiō, King Cold, Mr. Satan, etc.).

Coincidentally, the other two henchmen of Garlic Jr. from this story arc were played by actors who have stepped up as replacement roles in Dragon Ball Kai. Tard was played by Masaharu Satō, who has filled in for the late Kōhei Miyauchi as the voice of Kame-Sen’nin, while Gashew was played by Hikaru Midorikawa, who has filled in for the late Hirotaka Suzuoki as Tenshinhan (in addition to his other role as #16, as well as Paikuhan in recent video games).