After the announcement and then some track listings, we now finally have the complete information (including cover art) for the three new Koro-chan Pack Dragon Ball Kai CDs all due out 24 February 2009. Each will retail for the standard ¥1,500 and contain a small number of songs on the mini-CD, as well as a picture book. As previously noted, all of the songs included were previously released on the Dragon Ball Kai Song Collection CD except for the three karaoke tracks… so if you already own that, then you might want to pass on these and save your money.

Koro-chan Pack #1 Dragon Ball Kai ~Goku vs Vegeta~ Amazon Japan / CDJapan  01 Dragon Soul / Takayoshi Tanimoto  02 Saiyan Blood / Vegeta (Ryō Horikawa)  03 Win Tough Fight! / Yō Yamazaki  04 The Invincible Aura’s Energy / Dragon Soul  05 Yeah! Break! Care! Break! / Takayoshi Tanimoto  06 Win Tough Fight! (Original Karaoke)

Koro-chan Pack #2 Dragon Ball Kai ~Goku vs The Ginyu Special-Squad~ Amazon Japan / CDJapan  01 Dragon Soul / Takayoshi Tanimoto  02 Take the Stage!! Ginyu Special-Squad!! / Yō Yamazaki  03 CHASER! / Shinichi Sakurai  04 CURE ~I’ll Be Here~ / Dende (Aya Hirano)  05 Yeah! Break! Care! Break! / Takayoshi Tanimoto  06 CHASER! (Original Karaoke)

Koro-chan Pack #3 Dragon Ball Kai ~Goku vs Freeza~ Amazon Japan / CDJapan  01 Dragon Soul / Takayoshi Tanimoto (Dragon Soul)  02 An Ultra-Super Dragon Soul / Takayoshi Tanimoto  03 Over the Star / Saki Oshitani  04 Only a Chilling Elegy / H.E. DEMON  05 Yeah! Break! Care! Break! / Takayoshi Tanimoto  06 An Ultra-Super Dragon Soul (Original Karaoke)

The cover art for Volumes 5 and 6 of the individual DVD run, as well as the second Blu-ray box set, for Dragon Ball Kai have made their way online. Both are set to be released 19 February 2010; the DVD releases will contain episodes 013-015 and 016-018 respectively, while the Blu-ray box will contain episodes 016-027. The high definition Blu-ray release will set you back a pretty ¥15,960 (~$160), while the the standard definition DVD release is the typical price of ¥2,940 (~$30).

C21Media.net is reporting that Toei Animation has struck a deal with Megavision TV to air the Dragon Ball TV series in Chilé. No specific time frame or episode content was listed.

We know that the franchise already has a huge following down in Chilé and has aired before (as well as received tons of great merchandise), so it makes sense that this would just be a new deal to re-air the show. Just as all our Brazilian friends came out of the woodwork last November, those of you in Chilé need to drop us a line and let us know what the current situation is down there. Has it not been on the air for a while?

Game Trailers has a new trailer for Dragon Ball DS 2 up for viewing, showcasing some of the playable secondary characters (including Arale!), the multi-player mode, control configurations, and more. It continues to promote the bonus inclusion of the Shenron no Nazo Famicom game, this time with more footage than just the first stage of the game. The game is due out in Japan 11 February 2010 for ¥5229, with no word on a North American release from Namco-Bandai just yet. You can pre-order the Japanese release of the game (which is region-free) over on Play-Asia for $54.90.

At the end of the trailer, it is revealed that the first Dragon Ball DS is being re-released under the “Welcome Price 2800” line on 28 January 2010, a budget-priced line for (obviously) ¥2800. The original run is still available on Play-Asia for $48.90, though retailers like Amazon Japan have dropped it to ¥2400. The new re-release is up for a pre-order price of $34.90 over on Play-Asia.

The American release of the first game, put out in November 2008 by Atari before losing the license in 2009, came out as Dragon Ball Origins, and is currently available on Amazon for only $17.56. Unlike the recent Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans release on DS from Namco-Bandai which exclusively featured the original Japanese voice cast, Origins exclusively featured English spoken dialogue from FUNimation’s cast.

UPDATE: Our buddy Tsukento wrote in to let us know that GameStop is currently offering the first game for only $9.99 new (and $8.99 used). It is not available online, so if you are interested, hop over to your local store to see if they have it.

Our forum member Amaranth Sparrow has dived head-first into translating new information coming out of the current open-beta for Dragon Ball Online in Korea. You can read all the juicy details for yourself on our forum, but here are some of the highlights:

• The main villain is referred to as “The Pale Man” and is named “Miira” (not to be confused with Miira-kun, one of Baba’s fighters). While he does not appear to himself be a part of the Makaiōshin as previously speculated, there is a good possibility that the female that accompanies him is, and may be the one who created him
• Gohan published a book called “Groundbreaking Science” around Age 800, which appears to have taught the general population concepts such as ki control; he also explained how the Katchin metal (which was used to test the Z-Sword) could indeed be cut, which led to a new-found interest in swordsmanship, as well as Goten and Trunks founding the Kikoukenjutsu Sword School which teaches how to infuse blades with ki to overpower opponents
• This aided them when the remnants of Freeza’s army attacked in Age 820
• Kuririn founded the “New Turtle School”, which taught humans how to fight alongside each other in groups to take advantage of their collective strengths, allowing them to compete against stronger, individual enemies
• Tenshinhan believed it was more important to to develop individualized attacks than with support from others, and developed new attacks that revolved around collecting ki in strategic ways to unleash incredible bursts of energy with precise timing
• In Age 790, Majin Boo accidentally found Mr. Satan’s “Bob & Margaret” adult book, and used it to form ideas about female mates and ultimately create his wife, “Booby”, from a part of his own body, and also hit her with his “Love Beam” causing her to give birth to a “Baby Boo”; the family grew quickly, and was later recognized as its own race

There is a ridiculous amount of extra information over in our forum, so be sure to check it out!

Kotaku is reporting that Nintendo of Japan is introducing a new line of budget titles for the Wii called the Minna no Osusume Collection (or the “Everyone’s Recommendation Collection”). Games re-released under this line are ones that have received high user-given scores on Nintendo’s own Minna no Nintendo Channel (released in North America under the simple “Nintendo Channel” title). The ¥2800 price point for this series falls in line with the standard budget price of similar lines in the past, such as Sony’s “PlayStation THE BEST” line. As a part of the launch on 25 February 2010, our own franchise’s Sparking! METEOR will be included. Note that this is only for the Wii release, and does not affect the PS2 version of the game which still retails for essentially full-price at $74.90 on Play-Asia, and a reduced ¥5643 on Amazon Japan. As a contrast, the MSRP for the American release of the Wii version (Budokai Tenkaichi 3) has a current MSRP of $19.99, and is available on Amazon for $17.84.

As for American video game price-drops, our deal-hunting forum buddy Tsukento noticed that Revenge of King Piccolo has dropped down to a $19.99 MSRP across retailers, and is currently available on Amazon for $17.96. We gave our thoughts on the game in a full review shortly after its release last October, so you know that this is the sweet-spot in terms of pricing for those that may have been holding out on it.

Our buddy Tanooki Kuribo posted up a screen shot from a trailer for the forthcoming fourth “season” of the original Dragon Ball TV series, which reveals some cover art and a 30-episode-count:

Based on these tidbits, it seems the blue bricks will probably finish out their release comfortably in 2010, with the fifth and final set containing approximately 30 episodes, as well; assuming the fourth set has exactly 30 episodes, that will take us from 93-122, leaving a final set to go from 123-153.

Any time we post about current releases that are non-Dragon Box sets, we receive a deluge of e-mails and questions from folks asking about future prospects for Dragon Box re-releases of these episodes. To reiterate what we know: we do not know. FUNimation has said absolutely nothing regarding the franchise and further home releases beyond the Dragon Ball Z TV series and its movies in the original Dragon Box press release from last summer. We cannot make a recommendation for you in terms of what you should purchase or wait for — if you want the series to watch right now, go ahead and buy it! If you want to play your cards differently and wait on domestic Dragon Box sets that may or may not come for the original DB and GT, that is up to you! No matter how it plays out, rest assured that you will learn about any future releases first (be they from Japan or the US), right here on our site!

Daisuke Gōri (the stage name of Mr. Yoshio Nagahori) has passed away. From the Tokyo Shimbun and Anime News Network:

The Tokyo Shimbun paper reports that Daisuke Gouri, the voice actor best known for playing Robin Mask in the Kinnikuman television anime series as well as Umigame and Mr. Satan in the Dragon Ball franchise, has passed away in Tokyo on Sunday. He was 57.

…

The newspaper reports that Gouri was discovered, with blood dripping from his wrist, by a passerby on a street in Nakano ward. Police officers at Nakano station are investigating his death as a possible suicide. According to the authorities, Gouri apparently collapsed face-down onto the street at about 3:00 p.m. The Yomiuri Shimbun paper adds that a knife was found under him along with a last will nearby.

Gōri was easily one of the most prolific voice actors in our beloved series, playing characters such as Umigame, Gyū-Maō (Ox Demon King), Enma-Daiō, King Cold, Mr. Satan, and a constant flow of side characters throughout the entire airing.

His unbelievably deep voice ran the gamut of roles from stern to friendly back to cold-hearted and wacky, again. His talent was unmatched. If you watch anime at all, you know his voice. It is difficult to imagine anime, let alone just Dragon Ball, without Daisuke Gōri.

Voice actor Isamu Tanonaka passed away this week on the 13th at the age of 77 from a heart attack. While having more prominent roles in other series, he did have bit parts in Dragon Ball Z as Bibbidi (Bobbidi’s father) and Raichi (one of the two fake Namekians).