FUNimation’s parent company, Navarre, recently filed an 8-K approving a bonus opportunity of 50% his base salary for FUNimation CEO Gen Fukunaga at the completion of the upcoming 2011 fiscal year. The bonus opportunity is dependent upon EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) and net sales targets.

In related news, Fukunaga’s employment agreement with Navarre also provided an opportunity to receive two “performance-based bonuses” if FUNimation’s EBIT exceeded $60 million by the end of the 2010 fiscal year. Navarre will be releasing their fiscal 2010 report 03 June 2010, so we will not only get a further glimpse into these results and bonus opportunities, but also hopefully receive another batch of hints at where the domestic industry stands and how FUNimation will continues to play a role in it. That is important to all Dragon Ball fans here in the US!

We just learned about Raging Blast 2 over the last couple days, and TAG VS was announced almost exactly one month ago for Japan. Today, however, Namco-Bandai has officially announced both games for North American distribution. Both will be coming this fall, though no specific time frame was given beyond that. With no time frame given in Japan for the games yet, either, we will put an educated guess out there that we will see release dates pretty close to simultaneous worldwide.

The official press release received is as follows:

NAMCO BANDAI GAMES ANNOUNCES TWO ADRENALINE PUMPING DRAGON BALL® Z TITLES
Duo of Hyperkinetic Dragon Ball Games Blasts onto Multiple Consoles This Fall

BARCELONA, Spain, (May 11, 2010) – Leading video games developer and publisher NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc., announced today two highly anticipated Dragon Ball® Z fighting titles, Dragon Ball® Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team™ for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, and Dragon Ball®: Raging Blast™ 2 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system.

For the first time ever Dragon Ball Z fans can enter into high-impact two vs. two combat in Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team for the PSP system. Play solo or team up via Ad Hoc mode to tackle memorable battles in a variety of single player and multiplayer modes, including Dragon Walker, Battle 100, and Survival Mode. Dragon Walker Mode takes fans through the entire epic Dragon Ball Z story arc from the Saiyan saga to the Majin Boo saga. Battle 100 Mode tasks players to relive the most epic encounters and newly created situations from the Dragon Ball Z world in ever increasingly difficult situations. With more than 70 playable and deeply customizable characters, multiple modes, and Ad Hoc Party gameplay, Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team is chock full of gameplay for your portable PSP system.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 is the sequel to last year’s high-flying, fast-hitting, and intense versus battles series. Dragon Ball Z fans can rest assured that the destructible environment, and character trademark attacks and transformations will be true to the series. These include 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 sport the new Raging Soul System which enables characters to reach a special state, increasing their combat abilities to the ultimate level. Sporting more than 90 characters, 20 of which are brand new to the Raging Blast series, new modes, and additional environmental effects, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 is the next evolution in the home console series.

Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team for the PSP system, and Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system will be available this Fall.

For more information about the game, please visit www.namcobandaigames.com or http://dragonball.namco.com. To join the official fan community, please visit http://www.gokuscorner.com.

With TAG VS getting a domestic re-name with “Tenkaichi” in the title, it would be a safe bet to assume the game will play similar to the Sparking! series of PS2 games (which were re-named as Budokai Tenkaichi here in the states), and which Raging Blast was itself a successor to.

At this point, all new-and-currently-announced Japanese video games have now been announced for North American distribution. Dragon Ball DS 2 is coming out 22 June 2010 as Dragon Ball Origins 2, and now both Raging Blast 2 and TAG VS (re-named Tenkaichi Tag Team) are covered.

UPDATE: Both Raging Blast 2 and Tenkaichi Tag Team have been confirmed for European release in the fall, as well.

In somewhat interesting news (especially based on the shipment figures of the first game and the general state of Namco-Bandai at the moment), Raging Blast 2 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 has been formally announced through the pages of Jump:

There is not a whole lot to talk about just yet. We are being promised about 90 characters (the first game had just over 70, which includes all of the various transformations when appropriate), and it looks as if the graphics engine is getting a nice little overhaul. The game is due sometime this year in Japan, though no specific time frame is given.

Follow-up on the French IPTV deal we noted the other day, our new forum member SanGoku 13 signed up to give us a couple extra details about what specifically is available.

It is apparently the French dub, but it is at least the recent remastered version of the series. Twenty new episodes will be made available each month, culminating with at least the first 100 episodes for now. In terms of cost, the deal will run you 4,99€ per month, or 1,49€ for just a single episode.

Toei has announced a deal in Brazil with Algazarra for toy figurines and separately with Richtex for a line of towels. If you think towels are weird, Bolivia has the win for strangest products coming your way. Pil Andina is on board to create Dragon Ball-branded flavored milk, while Doobalo is signed up to create socks. Finally, Bondy Fiesta has been licensed the rights to chewing gum.

Namco-Bandai has posted a ¥29.08 billion (approximately $319 million) loss for the fiscal 2010 year.

In terms of Dragon Ball overall, the franchise dropped in net sales from ¥15.8 billion in 2009 to ¥12.5 billion this fiscal year, and the company is forecasting an even sharper drop down to ¥8.5 billion for fiscal 2011 with ¥3.0 billion of that in the first half. While not concrete, an educated guess leads us to believe that stronger (or at least more numerous) releases will come in the second half of the next fiscal year.

As for individual games, there were 700,000 copies of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast shipped worldwide in fiscal 2010. This was the only Dragon Ball game in the company’s “Top 10 Game Titles” for the fiscal year, meaning that any worldwide sales of the latest DS and Wii games would be lower than approximately 400,000 copies shipped — it is at least somewhat relevant to note that Attack of the Saiyans was released significantly earlier in Japan than it was in the rest of the world, however.

In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games), the franchise dropped in net sales from ¥3.7 billion in fiscal 2009 to ¥3.0 billion this fiscal year. The forecast for fiscal 2011 is ¥2.7 billion, with a mere ¥1.0 billion forecast for the first half of the year.

All across the board sales are down, and fiscal 2011 is not looking much brighter, though the second half sounds like it might be better than the first.

The Amazon listing for FUNimation’s re-release of the first Dragon Ball movie has recently gone online, and also includes a trailer for the product.

No concrete release date is given in the trailer (just a “Coming Soon” ending splash). Nowhere in the trailer are any words such as “uncut” or “unedited” or “Japanese” used, a major departure from anything as-of-late from FUNimation. Furthermore, observant fans in our forum’s dedicated thread have pointed out scenes from Dragon Ball TV episode 2 — scenes that were spliced into FUNimation’s edited dub of the movie from 1995, which contained the original Canadian voice cast and replaced musical score.

Based on what we heard last month, this upcoming release would include the original Japanese version uncut, but would not include a re-dub.

We have been unable to get solid clarification as to what this release will actually have. Here is what we think:

• POSSIBILITY #1: UNCUT, JAPANESE + SUB ONLY
  ANALYSIS: The day that FUNimation releases a sub-only Dragon Ball product is the day I truly eat my own shorts. We can pretty safely assume that some version of an English dub will appear on this disc.
• POSSIBILITY #2: UNCUT + JP + SUB / EDITED + DUB
  ANALYSIS: If the information is true about it being both “uncut” and not having a re-dub, the only way for it to work would be to have two video tracks: one for the original Japanese version, and one for the edited, English-dubbed version from 1995 with the first FUNimation voice cast and replaced musical score. If what we hear about the movie not having a re-dub is true, this option might make the most sense.
• POSSIBILITY #3: EDITED, ENGLISH DUBBED ONLY
  ANALYSIS: FUNimation has not released a dub-only (including an edited, dub-only) Dragon Ball product in many years, and it was always accompanied by an uncut release to go along with it. Releasing a stand-alone disc with the edited 1995 dub that contains neither the original Japanese musical score nor their current voice cast seems incredibly unlikely and out-of-character for the company.
• POSSIBILITY #4: UNCUT, JP + SUB / DUB
  ANALYSIS: It makes the most sense in the modern world for FUNimation to re-dub the movie (uncut) with their current voice cast and release a standard, dual-language, unedited release. If what we hear about it not having a re-dub is true, though… that alone might toss this option out the window.

While Amazon is still listing a 27 July 2010 release date, RightStuf has shifted to a 28 December 2010 release date. The trailer says “Coming Soon”, which leads us to believe the July date is more accurate.

Sadly, the trailer leaves us with just as many questions as it does answers. Other than some auxiliary features, this remains the only primary feature presentation for the franchise that has never seen an uncut / Japanese release in North America. Since North American distribution does not affect Japanese releases in any way, the movie was released both as a part of “Dragon Box: The Movies” (2006) and on individual DVD (2009) — we gave it an in-depth look and review back on Episode #0112 of our podcast if you want to dive in with us ahead of this domestic re-release.

EDIT: Just heard back from FUNimation that the release has indeed been pushed back to later this year. What does this hold for us? I guess we will find out… well… later this year!

C21Media.net is reporting that Toei has licensed the Dragon Ball Z TV series (along with Saint Seiya) to two “internet and IPTV on-demand platforms” over in France.

Both series are available via Orange’s PC and IPTV on-demand service, 24/24 Video, and via Club Video, SFR’s IPTV on-demand service. “This is a new way for the fans to have access to these series,” said Toei Animation Europe MD Kanji Kazahaya.

We would love to hear from our French visitors about this. Is it the French dub that is available on these services, and is it an uncut version? Have the recent box sets all across Europe (with the exception of the edited German sets!) created a market for a subtitled Japanese version on-demand, or is that left to the physical product?

There are a few things related to Kai and its foreign (that is, outside of Japan) distribution that have been stated and suggested over the last week, such as a possible “alternate” English dub a la the AB Groupe’s commission of Ocean & Blue Water Studios in the previous decade for European and Canadian broadcast. We have not been able to get any kind of independent confirmation on any of it, so we will keep it squarely in the “rumor” category for now. Until we have something to report, there just is not a whole lot to talk about!