From now until December 18th, RightStuf is giving 40% off retail price on all FUNimation DVDs and VHS tape, which of course includes Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. When checking out, simply enter the following coupon code: sevensamurai. This is a great opportunity for those that would like to complete their collection or find cheap Christmas presents.
Thanks to M-Vegeta for letting us know about this.
FUNimation will be releasing Dragon Ball Z movie 12 (which they are accurately calling “Fusion Reborn”) on 28 March 2006. Janenba fanboys, start your engines.
Shueisha has recently begun to release “TV Animation Comics” of the Dragon Ball Z TV series. These comics are simply a manga form of the TV series comprised of animation screen shots. As these are animation comics, the titles will reflect those of the series and will remain as Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, similar to what Viz did with the American release of the manga. Also, as done with the DVD “Dragon Boxes”, Shueisha has started releasing the Dragon Ball Z comics before releasing any Dragon Ball comics (though nothing has been announced about “TV Animation Comic” adaptations for either the first TV series or Dragon Ball GT).
Shueisha began releasing these style of comics in 1995, which included both Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT TV specials, as well as the 10th anniversary movie. Similar to those of the TV animation comics, they contain screen shots of the films in a manga form.
This week we tackle such subjects as “Saiya-jin” vs “Saiyan”, Viz’s extremely confusing use of “djinn” (essentially replacing the word “Majin”), and we even review the CDs that came out in 2005. For more information (download link, other topics discussed, XML for subscription, etc.), visit our “Podcast” page.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0003! We talk about the differences and origins of both “Saiya-jin” and “Saiyan”, and Viz’s confusing use of the Arabic word “djinn” instead of the word “Majin” that we’re all familiar with. We also go over the CDs that came out in 2005, including the “Budokai” soundtracks and 2005 remake songs. Finally, we go over December’s releases and answer some listener e-mail!
REFERENCED SITES:
The Magic Box is reporting that Banpresto will release the System 246 arcade fighting game “Super Dragon Ball Z” (developed by ex-Capcom producer Funamizu, along with his studio Craft and Meister) on 22 December 2005 in Japan. The game’s official website is also up, and has tons of great stuff on it — you can find a character gallery, some basics on the fighting engine, and more.
There is no word on a home release as-of-yet, but since System 246 is based on the PlayStation 2 hardware, an eventual home release (at least in Japan) seems likely.
Toei recently launched a new “Dragon Ball History” site dedicated to the Dragon Ball movies, similar to those of the series. Titled “Theater Edition DragonBall History”, it is actually quite nice and has a lot of information that Toei had never really released about the movies — things such as the staff and cast credits for each movie, synopsis/story information, and movie character profiles. The site also contains some information concerning the upcoming release of “Dragon Box: The Movies”. They have even posted some trailers for the set. For those of you that don’t read Japanese and might have some problems finding the trailers (they are well hidden), we have posted links to the trailers at the bottom of this post.
As for the movies set itself, there have recently been a lot of Toei sites that have been updating information and images. While this does not really pertain to anything concerning the ordering of the Dragon Box, but I find the following image interesting. Albeit a great image, it displays some screen shots taken from various Dragon Ball movies. If you’ll notice, all the images are in a 4:3 format, where as the Dragon Box is being released in a 16:9 format.
A comparison picture below showcases Gogeta (DBZ Movie 12) from the advertisement (on the right) with that of the same image taken from a fansub (on the left). Very confusing!
Finally, Toei has posted some trailers for the Z Dragon Box individual disc releases. There are two trailers, one for high-speed connections and on for everyone still on 56k.
Toei has revealed the covers for their next 3 DVDs of the Z Dragon Box individual disc release. Each of these discs will contain six episodes, covering episodes 19 thru 36 and completing the 35 episode Saiyan story arc. These three DVDs are set to be released 07 December 2005. You can still pre-order any of the first nine discs at Amazon Japan.
Following up on the great response we got last week, Julian and I got together this evening and recorded the second episode of our podcast. Who is this that made a special guest appearance? None other than Meri, herself! For more information (download link, other topics discussed, XML for subscription, etc.), visit our “Podcast” page.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0002! We briefly cover our “Tenka-ichi Budokai” pronunciation lesson from last week, and go on to discuss “Kaio-Ken” and its various pronunciations from the original Japanese and various FUNimation English dubs. Due to popular demand, Meri makes an appearance and discusses her favorite filler episode with us. We also go over all the latest releases in North America and Japan.
REFERENCED SITES:
A remix of “DAN DAN Kokoro Hikarete ‘ku” (the original Japanese opening theme to Dragon Ball GT) can be found for purchase on the American iTunes Store.
The track is from the “Anipara Club – Para Para Dance No. 1 CD” released by I Love You! Project on “Anime Records” on 25 October 2005. The song sounds like an American trying to sing in Japanese. I can not find an entry for this CD on either Amazon or CDJapan, so I can not even tell which country it is originally from — seems to be more American in nature, though.
If you are looking for some new music to listen to, check it out. It is only 99 cents, so it is not going to burn a hole in your wallet. Be aware that you must have an iTunes account (and the iTunes application) in order to purchase and listen to the song.
Our buddy Li’l Lemmy posted a link to this page on AAA Anime, which seems to showcase FUNimation’s cover for their domestic release of Dragon Ball Z movie 12 (“Fusion Reborn!! Goku and Vegeta”, shortened down to simply “Fusion Reborn” by FUNimation). We are not one to post up much unconfirmed information, but since they also have a page for the next “Ultimate Uncut” DVD (with cover art that would be much harder to fake), this seems to be slightly legit.
We are truly digging this trend of using the original Japanese cover art. Way to go, guys.