School Library Journal has an interview with Traci Todd, editor of the Viz Kids line. There is a good amount of discussion regarding the marketplace and using Dragon Ball and Naruto as springboards to create an entirely new market using existing franchises and “reversioning” them down to a lower target age group.

GC4K: Are you afraid that if you do have to do write-arounds for some of the titles, you might get the kind of backlash other companies have faced when they’ve done those kinds of edits?

TT: I think there is more tolerance for that kind of thing with kids titles, because the expectation is that these books have to be squeaky clean. Therefore, there’s more understanding. But I will say that we try not to choose things that we have to write around.

While this is all cute and interesting for now, we are only four volumes into this “Chapter Book” format for the Dragon Ball series and have no idea how far Viz plans to take it. With such a checkered release history for the series in both anime and manga form, we are particularly hesitant to support this release style at all. It has been a constant struggle to get the series appreciated for what it is, rather than dumbing it down even further (because, after all, it already is a franchise for children) — we have seen the censored version of the franchise affect the so-called “uncut” version far too many times.

There has been a rather large drought of Dragon Ball Online information over the last several months, but like the last time we saw the game rear its head, it comes in swinging with loads of new information… which itself just brings more questions than answers, but we are OK with that.

Most significant this time around is a new variation on the trailer for the game. It showcases many of the things we have seen before, such as the opening with a look back on the history of the Dragon World, and the new characters hopping back in time to interrupt the original battle between Goku and Vegeta. However, this trailer ends with a brief glimpse of a new, shadowy figure:

Olivier Hague on our forum brings up a good point, asking the question of whether or not Toriyama’s seemingly-random explanation of the Makaiōshin from the Super Exciting Guide books was a prelude to this game…? Blue skin and shaggy hair, huh? Seems like it might be a good theory. For more information about the Makaiōshin and the new explanations for how the Kaiōshin are born and granted their status, be sure to dig back and check out Episode #0176 of our podcast.

Our buddy LaRésistance has sent us what seems to be the near-final cover art for the PAL releases of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast:

GameTrailers.com has up the latest trailer for the game, which features “Progression”, the game’s all-new theme song performed by Hironobu Kageyama. It also showcases a very brief-glimpse of Super Saiyan 3 Broli near the very end:

Our German buddy Timo was able to attend Gamescon in Cologne this week and took some pictures and notes for us:

So, I played Raging Blast a little bit. At the beginning I was very confused. It’s been a while since I played Sparking Meteor/Budokai Tenkaichi 3, but I think I know the controls. Well, the controls in Raging Blast are pretty different. Animations, moves, the feeling, general gameplay etc., all of it is just like Sparking but the controls… Ascend and descend is now on R1 and R2 rather than L1 and L2. Block is on X (or O) if I remember correctly and I couldn’t find out how to power up and use specials TILL I noticed the little manual card far down under the HDTV. So, you have to press down on the DIGI PAD to power up and the right analog stick is for the specials. Pretty confusing and not very intuitive but I think you get used to it sooner or later.

Technically it was pretty good. Nice polygon count and VERY fast action. The camera on the other hand was awful. Many times I didn’t see my character when I or the opponent did a fast homing dash, because the characters were BEHIND the camera. Furthermore, I can’t tell much about the textures, shading and so on, because the HDTV was pretty bad. Even Tekken 6 looked like shit.

The game is due out in Japan 12 November 2009, and in North America a whopping two days earlier on 10 November 2009. The game will be available on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Our favorite Japanese forum buddy kei17 posted up a couple new Jump pages showcasing a “new” character in the upcoming Raging Blast for the PS3 & Xbox 360:

That is Broli (the main villain from DBZ Movie 8, and subsequently the 10th and 11th movies, as well) in a “new” Super Saiyan 3 transformation for the character.

… Yep.

While this is this most recent example of “new” forms created for existing characters in video games, there have been other examples in the past. Toriyama himself designed an all-new, beefed-up version of Mecha Freeza for Super Dragon Ball Z, and prior to that Majin Boo gained all sorts of new absorption modifications in Dragon Ball Z 2 / Budokai 2, along with the new fusion Yamhan and an alternate form of the “What-If?” scenario fusion of Gotan.

Our forum member SonGokuGT posted up some great information for you Spanish fans. Apparently publisher Planeta DeAgostini will be releasing the kanzenban-based guide books LANDMARK and FOREVER. No set release dates have been set, but both books are very specifically listed under the author section for Akira Toriyama. Keep us up-to-date on when they come out, Spain!

November 10th seems to be a huge day for FUNimation. In addition to the first Dragon Ball Z Dragon Box and the DBZ Movie 1 and DBZ Movie 2 single-disc releases, Amazon has updated with another release set for the same date:

“Season One” is still still set for 15 September 2009, and hot on its heels will apparently be “Season Two” on 10 November 2009. With an MSRP of $49.98 and containing 30 episodes (based on the 720-minute run time from the Amazon listing), FUNimation seems to be ready to crank out these new sets for the original Dragon Ball TV series as they continue with season two.

Man, this must really be the weekend for weird Dragon Ball news. It appears that there may be an “official” Spanish version of the Dragon Ball Kai opening and ending themes, “Dragon Soul” and “Yeah! Break! Care! Break!”, respectively. Nothing has been officially confirmed yet, but supposedly the Los Angeles based record label “MAgIc Sound Records” has produced Spanish dubbed versions of both theme songs. The themes are said to be sung by Anghelo Lopez — you can view more information about him on his personal website and on the “Latin Talent” website.

Karaoke videos of the TV sized themes have shown up on the “company’s” YouTube channel and on their recently opened (11 August 2009) MySpace page. This is all really odd, because as far as I can tell the “company” has no official website and their e-mail address is through Hotmail. However, the most convincing piece of evidence that this news may be somewhat factual is a video of a live performance of “Dragon Soul” by Anghelo at “The Mole Comic and Manga Festival 2009”.

Again, we have no official confirmation as to the legitimacy of these videos, nor do we know whether this implies there will be a Spanish dub of Dragon Ball Kai. Either way, thanks to MCDaveG for letting us know. We will definitely keep an eye out for some additional or official information.

While this is only somewhat Dragon Ball related, I just could not pass up the chance to share it. While doing some research for my massive “Cast Guide” update, I came across Ryō Horikawa’s personal blog. In his most recent update, posted on August 1st, he wrote:

さて先日、ドラゴンボールのメンバーで屋形船で飲み会をしました。
船からは花火が見えて、夏を満喫できました よ！
(荒川区の花火大会だったみたいですね。)

The other day, we had a DragonBall members houseboat get-together.
You could see fireworks from the boat, so I enjoyed the summer to the fullest!
(It seems like Arakawa had a fireworks display.)

Anyway, the phrase “nomikai” (飲み会) that Horikawa uses is interesting, since it can simply mean “get-together”, though more often than not it means “drinking party”. I have a feeling we can infer he meant both, since I don’t think that is water he is holding!