We already told you all about how Wal-Mart’s website updated with a listing for a so-called “Dragon Ball: Season One (Widescreen)” set, which FUNimation has officially stated was a “mistake”. Well, now that Wal-Mart’s listing has gone even further and included cover art for the set, it is pretty safe to assume that the “mistake” was on FUNimation’s part for leaking information to retailers ahead of time yet again (just like in 2006 with the original remastered “Z” sets).

Unless there is some cunningly-nefarious IT intern at Wal-Mart that specifically has it out for North American-based Dragon Ball fans, we are getting pretty close to calling bullocks on FUNimation’s denials, here. The box art falls right in line with the “remastered” releases for both the DBZ and DBGT TV series, and is different enough from the original 1995 dub’s box art and the box art used for the Australian release of these episodes in conjunction with Madman (where Lionsgate’s sub-license did not apply).

We will continue to keep you updated as this develops, but it does not seem like much more needs to “develop”… with the exception of FUNimation coming out and admitting it is coming, anyway! As it stands right now, the set appears to be coming out 15 September 2009 for an MSRP of $49.98. The Wal-Mart listing indicates it will be “widescreen”, most likely in the faux-“remastered” style of the DBZ TV sets. There is no word on running time or the number of episodes it will contain, as well as the story with the oft-forgotten first Dragon Ball movie.

A quick article over on ICv2 about Navarre/FUNimation notes that they have extended their license on the Dragon Ball franchise for another five years. Nothing is stated with regards to when their prior license agreement runs (or ran) out, and what the new end-date in their contract may be.

Navarre, FUNimation’s parent company, issued their annual report earlier this month. There are quite a few interesting tidbits we can pull out of this relating to Dragon Ball. Here are just a few of them:

In particular, one licensed property accounted for $32.0 million, or 46%, of FUNimation’s revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009.

Seems pretty safe to assume that this “one licensed property” was DragonBall. It is certainly interesting how the property seems to account for half the money its licensees make.

Our gross profit decreased to $67.0 million or 10.6% of net sales for fiscal 2009 compared with $101.6 million or 15.4% of net sales for fiscal 2008. The decrease in gross margin of $34.6 million was a result of:

• impairment and other charges of $16.4 million related to accounts receivable reserves, inventory and prepaid royalties associated with the BCI restructuring;

• impairment and other charges of $8.8 million related to license advances, production costs and inventory associated with the FUNimation restructuring; and

• decreased sales volume.

While the restructuring over at FUNimation certainly caused a bit of a hit, it was no surprise and most likely necessary for them to continue operations.

In connection with the FUNimation acquisition, the Company entered into an employment agreement with a key FUNimation employee providing for his employment as President and Chief Executive Officer of FUNimation Productions, Ltd. (“the FUNimation CEO”). Among other items, the agreement provides the FUNimation CEO with the ability to earn two performance-based bonuses in the event that certain financial targets are met by the FUNimation business during the fiscal years ending March 31, 2006-2010. If the total earnings before interest and tax (“EBIT”) of the FUNimation business is in excess of $60.0 million during the period consisting of the fiscal years ending March 31, 2009 and 2010, the FUNimation CEO is entitled to receive a bonus payment in an amount equal to 5% of the EBIT that exceeds $60.0 million; however, this bonus payment shall not exceed $4.0 million. No amounts have been expensed or paid under this agreement as the targets have not been achieved.

While we have noted this plenty of times before, we will continue to bring it up as we get closer to the magical money date for Gen Fukunaga. It appears that they have still not hit the threshold for the bonus payout. 2010 seems to be a de facto big ending point for a lot of organizations, with the Atari license also supposedly ending in January 2010 (but with Namco-Bandai seemingly releasing things on their own, already… who knows?).

The big news of the day is clearly the Dragon Ball Kai Blu-ray and DVD sets and their listed details. The first Blu-ray set is due out 23 October 2009; keep in mind that the first disc (with the first three episodes) is due out 18 September 2009. That first disc is important because this first set appears to contain only episodes 4-15, rather than the entire 1-15. Amazon Japan has it with a list price of ¥15,960 (~$163) but with a decent pre-order price of ¥11,810 (~$120).

Furthermore, the description for the box specifically details it as being 4:3 with a description of now seeing the full image from the broadcast 16:9 version and how we will now finally be able to see everything in full detail. While we are excited to see someone take the lead with a high-def release of the series in its intended aspect ratio, this goes against everything we have seen and heard so far with regards to Kai and its production. Extras with this first set will include a promotional video for the upcoming Raging Blast PS3/360 game, creditless versions of the opening and ending, and more.

Amazon Japan actually has release dates for the first three Blu-ray sets:

• 23 October 2009 – Dragon Ball Kai Box 1 (episodes 004-015)
• 19 February 2010 – Dragon Ball Kai Box 2 (episodes 016-027)
• 23 April 2010 – Dragon Ball Kai Box 3 (episodes 029-040)

Episode 028 appears to have vanished — if we had to guess, we would say the last box set actually contains episodes 028-039. From these details, it seems that the Blu-ray version of the release will start with the single disc, and then move on to box sets only.

The DVD release on the other hand appears to be single discs only with no box sets at all. Amazon Japan has updated with release dates for the first ten volumes on DVD:

• 18 September 2009 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 01 (episodes 001-003)
• 23 October 2009 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 02 (episodes 004-006)
• 20 November 2009 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 03 (episodes 007-009)
• 18 December 2009 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 04 (episodes 010-012)
• 29 January 2010 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 05 (episodes 013-015)
• 19 February 2010 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 06 (episodes 016-018)
• 19 March 2010 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 07 (episodes 019-021)
• 19 March 2010 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 08 (episodes 022-024)
• 23 April 2010 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 09 (episodes 025-027)
• 23 April 2010 – Dragon Ball Kai Volume 10 (episodes 029-031)

Although the first volume is retailing for ¥1,995 (~$20), volumes 02-10 are retailing for ¥2,940 (~$30). Much like the Blu-ray release, you can pick up the first few episodes on the cheap to see if you are into the series. Once again, episode 028 is not listed for some reason.

All of the case artwork will be drawn by Naoyoshi Yamamuro, a veteran animator involved with all three series and one of the animators responsible for the opening and ending animations in Dragon Ball Kai. You may not know it, but you’ve seen his work before — he is responsible for all of the artwork for the Dragon Box individual discs, Dragon Box The Movies, and the recent Jump Super Anime Tour DVD. Some of his new art is also being used as a place holder on Amazon Japan and the official release site.

We will continue to keep you updated as more information about these sets leaks its way to us.

The CDJapan entry for what would have been the July release of the Koro-chan Pack Dragon Ball Kai CD (which was also set to include a little picture book) is now listed as “Release Cancelled”. I had not actually put in my order for it yet, so if anyone out there did and received any kind of addition word (from either CDJapan or whomever you pre-ordered from) let us know if you received any additional details. Perhaps Columbia released how much of a redundant release this was, coming a month-after-month-after-month with the OP and ED singles…?

FUNimation has officially stated that the Wal-Mart listing for Dragon Ball: Season One (Widescreen) is a “mistake”. Things still seem a little too fishy based on the comment we received from Lionsgate and the original Saga of Goku sets mysteriously becoming unavailable on retailer sites. While the commonly-accepted “Lionsgate’s rights expire in 2010” nonsense is nothing more than just that — nonsense — based on random Wikipedia edits, we may see some additional developments sooner rather than later. Keep in mind the runarounds in June 2006 when information about the first DBZ remastered “season set” leaked via online retailers.

Dragon Ball Kai will be receiving a high-definition Blu-ray release in Japan:

Set to release on 18 September 2009 for ¥3045, the first volume will contain three episodes. There will also be a standard DVD release with the same contents (albeit not in high-def) retailing for ¥1995.

For a bit of comparison, and making no justification for the pricing scheme, here is a breakdown of some of the currently- and previously-offered deals on episodes both in the US and Japan.

• FUNimation’s DBZ Season One Set on standard DVD contains 39 episodes and has an MSRP of $34.98. This breaks down to approximately $0.90 per episode. These sets were “remastered”, are missing approximately 20% of the footage, encoded as progressive, and contain three voice tracks. These sets were the second full release of these episodes on DVD in the US, and a third release for the beginning of the series.
• FUNimation’s “Ultimate Uncut Edition” on standard DVD contained 3 episodes and had an MSRP of $24.98. This breaks down to approximately $8.32 per episode. These sets used old masters, were encoded with low bitrates, and contain two voice tracks. FUNimation’s original DVD singles retailed for the same amount and contained 3-4 episodes per disc.
• Toei’s R2 singles based on the “Dragon Box” sets for DBZ contained 6 episodes each and retail for ¥3990 (approximately $40 US). This breaks down to approximately $6.66 per episode. These discs are remastered, are encoded at an extremely high bitrate, encoded as progressive, and were previously unavailable in Japan in any home format (other than the box sets they came from).
• Toei’s upcoming releases for Kai contain 3 episodes each and retail for ¥3045 on Blu-ray and ¥1995 on DVD (approximately $31 US and $20, respectively). This breaks down to approximately $10.33 and $6.66 on Blu-ray and DVD, respectively).

We contacted Lionsgate back in April regarding their sub-license to the first 13 episodes (and first movie) of the original Dragon Ball TV series — productions that have always been available edited and English-dubbed-only due to a distribution deal FUNimation wrangled themselves into back in 1995 when they first began producing the series. At that time, Lionsgate would neither confirm nor deny any information at all to us, saying that the information we were seeking “… is confidential and cannot be used for a website.”

Since then, our forum members have noticed a listing on Wal-Mart’s website for a Dragon Ball: Season 1 (Widescreen) with an MSRP of $49.99 and a release date of 15 September 2009. As Wal-Mart’s site has hosted inaccurate information in the past, we all mostly shrugged it off. Since then, other forum members have brought to our attention that many online retailers are now listing Lionsgate’s (originally Kidmark’s) Saga of Goku as “discontinued” and no longer available.

Did FUNimation obtain new film masters for the first TV series and now have plans to released a faux-“remastered” version a la their DBZ TV season sets, including the first 13 episodes? Is it all one big misunderstanding? We await further clarification as the longest-running business blunder in FUNimation’s entire history perhaps moves into a new chapter!

Our forum member GotenZ1 spent some time at E3 this last week and got a chance to play Tenka’ichi Dai-Bōken for the Nintendo Wii (being released outside Japan as Revenge of King Piccolo). Confirmed is a new vocal theme song! We do not yet have any details on the performer, but do know that it will not have 2D animation for the opening sequence (which we still have not seen since Budokai 3 back in 2004).