The cover art for the third Dragon Ball Kai DVD volume has been unveiled. It is set to be released 20 November 2009 and will contain episodes 007-009. It will run you the nice price of ¥2,940 (~$30).

Last week saw the release of the first Dragon Ball Kai Blu-ray box set which contains episodes 004-015 and will set you back a pretty ¥15,960 (~$160). The box features non-credit versions of both the opening and ending themes, “Dragon Soul” and “Yeah! Break! Care! Break!”, respectively, and also contains an extra spot to put the first Blu-ray volume released last month. However, the real highlight of the box set is its short “Dragon Book”. Luckily for us, as I have yet to grab this box set myself, Dan_the_Rebirth was kind enough to send us some scans of said Dragon Book which includes a new interview with Masako Nozawa! So, here it is, as translated by our beloved Herms!

Cast Interview #1: Nozawa Masako, voice of Son Goku and Son Gohan
We’re interviewing the performers of “Dragon Ball Kai”! So of course, first up is Nozawa Masako-san, who performs the roles of Goku and Gohan!! According to Nozawa-san, who has supported the series for many years, what is the appeal of Dragon Ball Kai?

It’s Fast, At Any Rate
“Dragon Ball Kai” (“Kai” from here on out) certainly develops at an incredibly fast rate. It really surprised me!! For instance, Goku is already dead by episode 3! It made me wonder what kind of a beginning this was. But things are progressing rapidly in the world today, so perhaps this kind of tempo is a good thing. In “Dragon Ball Z”, just gathering ki would be dragged out over 3 weeks, while in “Kai”, I can fire right away! I think only “Kai” has that sort of compactness.

The Secret of Post-recording
Speaking of the advantages of “Kai”, when doing post-recording I can see the images for every scene. This allows me to more naturally perform the mid-battle banter, which is the best part of the “Dragon Ball” series, and makes it easy for me to put some real force into it. And my chemistry with everyone during post-recording is great! There’s been no letup in performing Goku for the games and other jobs like that, so from the first post-recording session, while I didn’t get a feeling of “it’s been so long”, I didn’t feel out of place either. While in “Kai” right now I’m performing Goku, Gohan, as well as Goku’s father Bardock in episode 1 [*1], I’m not really conscious of switching between roles. For example, even when performing a scene where Goku is fighting and Gohan is crying, there are two switches in my head for “Goku” and “Gohan”, and I picture myself naturally switching between them. In particular, I never have to get myself ready if Gohan’s crying scene is next. In this way I can make the flow of my lines even smoother. So in this sense, the pictures being already done in time for post-recording makes acting easier.

Empathizing with Goku and Gohan
Me, I really love Goku. No matter what kind of pinch he’s in, he never gives up, and protects everyone with all of his strength! I’ve been privileged to perform many heroes like that, but Goku stands out! I think people who use their power for others are really something. Gohan’s like that too. He’s a good little kid, without any snottiness to him, so he’s almost like a representative of all children. I mean, he was able to change Piccolo’s personality, when Piccolo was such an evil guy! He was still only 5 during the battle with Vegeta. Though he was a real crybaby at first, he turned out just fine (laughs). I think part of the appeal of “Kai” is how Gohan, unaware of the power he has, grows strong through his training with Piccolo and the battles on Planet Namek. As we recorded things this time around, I thought again about how unforgivable Vegeta is (laughs). I can empathize with Goku and Gohan no matter what, but Vegeta is always hard. Horikawa Ryō-kun, who plays him, says that it feels good, but that sort of cruelty really gets to me (laughs). I just thought “damn!” to myself whenever doing post-recording for times like when Vegeta attacks Goku even though Goku is all beat up. I think everyone watching the TV broadcasts already knows about this, but when it looks like Kuririn is going to finish off Vegeta [*2], Goku stops him. The week after we recorded that, Tanaka Mayumi-chan (who plays Kuririn), and Tsuru Hiromi-chan (who plays Bulma), both said to be “Mako-san! Why did you let Vegeta get away!” I told them that it wasn’t me, it was Goku who did it!! Somehow it seemed to them as if I was the one who stopped Kuririn (laughs). But even though Vegeta is a real nasty guy, of course we seiyuu all get along just fine (laughs). I’m always a little hungry after recording [*3], so I go out to eat with everyone. We even talk about the “Kai” episode: “What, today’s episode was made from 10 episodes of Z?!” (laughs). The producers will even join us too, and we’ll enjoy the meal together.

Kuririn and Bulma, My Best Friends
Of course, since I’ve been doing this for so long, I’ve grown attached to other characters besides just Goku and Gohan. It’s hard to choose one over the other, but Bulma and Kuririn are certainly two special cases. Bulma was Goku’s very first partner, and was the first to help him out when he was in trouble. That’s really cute. And even after the battle with Vegeta, Bulma was the first to go over to Goku. Chi Chi is his wife, but even she went over to Gohan, and I thought “what the hey?!” (laughs). And then Goku really loves Kuririn, which is quite nice. Oh, and I also like when Gohan and Kuririnteam up! It’s great how, despite the difference in their ages, they still both trust each other as comrades! In particular, the two of them are really active during the Planet Namek arc, so I hope you look forward to that!

I Want All of Japan to Watch
For those who have bought this box set, I think that instead of just having one, you should have 2: one for regular viewing, and another for permanent preservation (laughs). And when watching it, always invite 3 friends over. Then those 3 can recommend the show to 3 more people, and it will increase even further (laughs). I’d be really happy if people from all over Japan watched “Kai”! In Dragon Ball, above all else, the characters have a great way of living! The way that they rescue the weak really tugs out the heartstrings. So I’d love for everyone to enjoy the show: parent, child, and grandparent. If you raise your kids watching “Kai”, they’ll definitely become good little kids like Gohan! I want people throughout all of Japan to be going “Dokkan-Dokkan”!!

*1 – Goku’s father appears at the beginning of episode 1. He quickly realizes Freeza’s true motives, but is destroyed by Freeza’s overwhelming power, together with Planet Vegeta.
*2 – The climax of the battle with Vegeta, which takes place from episodes 16 to 17. It’s included in Box 2 of the Blu-ray boxes!
*3 – Because the post-recording sessions for “Kai” begin at 4:00 PM, after recording ends the performers are all very hungry.

We will have more from the new Dragon Book shortly, so stick around!

It may just be a matter of shipment availability and retail restocking considerations, but Amazon is now listing FUNimation’s upcoming Dragon Ball Z “Dragon Box” volume one as coming out on 17 November 2009, a delay of exactly one week. In addition, my own e-mail update from Amazon stated:

Unfortunately, the release date for the item(s) listed below has changed, and we need to provide you with a new delivery estimate based on the new release date:

“Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box One”
Estimated arrival date: December 02 2009 – December 08 2009

We are waiting on some additional confirmation, but it looks like shipments may be coming in at least one week later than previously planned.

For whatever reason, it seems that several folks across the net seem to claiming Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta’s upcoming inclusion in Raging Blast is not real, and that all of the images are doctored. Regardless of how you actually feel about the inclusion of such a character and transformation (in addition to Super Saiyan 3 Broli), let us at least be realistic about it: he is in there.

Special thanks to our Japanese buddy kei17 for the above new scan. In addition to that, the official website for Dragon Battlers (the latest card-based arcade game) has also updated with Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta:

Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta. Confirmed, folks.

A demo for the upcoming fighting game Dragon Ball: Raging Blast is available in North America for both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

It is a relatively small download (269.39 MB on the 360), and allows for a single battle against the CPU using either Goku (regular or Super Saiyan), Piccolo, or Raditz. The North American demo only contains English voices, does not showcase the game’s opening theme, and will revert back to the menu after a single fight.

Former Dragon Ball editor at Viz and current author with Otaku USA magazine and on his own, Jason Thompson, has written a new article about the manga’s situation in Maryland. There are some great comparisons and recollections, so be sure to give it a read.

All the regular sites (CDJapan, Amazon Japan, Columbia, etc.) have posted up the cover art for the forthcoming second soundtrack to Dragon Ball Kai:

While we still do not have a track listing for it, the disc drops in Japan 18 November 2009 for ¥2940. Ours is already on pre-order, so look for a review probably in early December when all the new music arrives!

Amidst their criticizing of delmarvanow.com staff writers about fact-checking and conflicting quotes within their stories, author “Cato” (a one “G. A. Harrison”) over on Delmarva Dealings apparently cannot be bothered to do his own research beyond Council Member Holloway’s photocopied “examples” (PDF) mentioned earlier this week, and has determined that Dragon Ball is “smut”.

The stories (split among three parts: one / two / three) are a fascinating read from an educated perspective. While our own commentary here on the website and in our latest podcast episode basically comes to the conclusion that nearly everyone can agree on (in the school library, maybe not so much; pull it on out and let’s be done), the articles’ continued demonization of this wacky story about a monkey boy reaches extreme new levels. It seems as if only their commenter Kevin Waterman has a realistic viewpoint, clearly noting that nothing shown is “erotic” in any way. Further comments and discussion go on to whine how the series clearly is not “high art”, and commenters latch on to “Cato” and their wondrous use of the word “smut” to define the series over and over. Parents also go on to complain how their children are reading Naruto with its few redeeming qualities.

To be fair, we here are not yet parents… but it is not all that far off in the future. They are going to be exposed to Dragon Ball at some point in their young lives, and it is not going to be too much of a problem for us. As we have noted before, this stuff always has been for kids and always will be. Is it just that our generation actually has a realistic perspective on media that is completely unmatched by anyone other than our own peers? Were the childhoods of these people so barren that they never said the word “poop” aloud, saw funny pictures, or read trashy stories (yes, even comic books) which their own parents could not understand the educational value of? We seriously wonder, sometimes, if these people forget what it was like to be a kid.

I asked my co-hosts on the podcast if we were making a bigger deal out of this story and giving it more attention than it should otherwise be given. The consensus was that once the “child pornography” card was played, all bets were off and the commentary was free to flow.

“Cato” has decided that the series is “smut”; I wonder what that makes us…? Well, regular visitors… you know where you can check in every day for the latest news, commentary, and multimedia for your favorite low-class smut from plenty of college-educated adults!

Namco-Bandai sent us over a couple gashapon this week in celebration of their upcoming domestic release of Revenge of King Piccolo (originally released in Japan as Tenka’ichi Dai-Bōken):

I reached out to our buddy Oldphan over at dragonballtoys.com to find out exactly what line these figures come from, etc. They are a part of the general Dragon Ball Collection series, and specifically the third line there-of. She also noted for us that it looks like the third series is of a little higher quality than the first two, and this is actually one of the few Grandpa Gohan figures ever made!

Revenge of King Piccolo is due out here in North America 20 October 2009. We look forward to reviewing the game solely because we are finally getting something other than a fighting game! Unfortunately for the game, its Famitsu scores (6/6/5/6 = 23/40) do not give it a great lead-in — we will give it a fair shake, though. Look forward to that review on the podcast (and hopefully written up on the website, as well) within the next couple weeks.