Surprise!
It was back in January 1998 that I launched VegettoEX’s Ultimate DBZ Links Page, which quickly transitioned into a fleshed-out VegettoEX’s Home Page. My goal, as a new and incredibly enthusiastic Dragon Ball fan, was to collect the best information — or at least point people in the right direction to said information — and spread that enthusiasm and joy across the English-speaking fandom.
We became Daizenshuu EX in 1999 with a larger focus on news and detailed information. We re-launched Daizenshuu EX yet again in January 2003 with a focused mission: to spread the love and enjoyment we had for the original Japanese version of the franchise across the entire world, and to be the central resource and community base for the English-speaking fandom (and beyond!). Over these fourteen years, we have truly built that global resource and community into something larger than I could ever imagine. 16-year-old “VegettoEX” would be equally confused and proud.
In 2005, Kanzentai launched with a similar mission, and an appropriate tagline: “the perfect Dragon Ball database”. Over these last seven years, Kanzentai focused on areas we had not yet covered. While Daizenshuu EX focused on music and video games, Kanzentai focused on the production of the series. While Daizenshuu EX created an extensive catalog of American home video releases, Kanzentai created the Japanese complement. Daizenshuu EX cited and cataloged the rumors; Kanzentai detailed the larger stories behind them. We naturally became comrades in our mission.
We have been talking about this in various levels of seriousness for a few years. If you have been with us for a while and look back at the way we have arranged our content, coverage, and collaboration… it probably comes as no surprise.
Daizenshuu EX
Kanzentai
It is with truly bittersweet excitement that we announce the launch of Kanzenshuu. The comprehensive “completeness” of Daizenshuu EX has combined with the extensive “perfectness” of Kanzentai to form what we hope and know will be the best and most authoritative “collection” of Dragon Ball information and community members the franchise has ever seen. Everything you have come to expect and trust from both sites now lives under the same roof.
We could not wait any longer to show you all what we have been working on. We thought about waiting until December 21st this year to launch, but the chance to hit that hilarious April 1st milestone was an idea we loved too much. That being said, you may notice a couple rooms around the house still need their second coat of paint — look for our “Transformation Guide” and “Video Game Guide” to re-launch with even more information in the near future, and the “Music Database” is still in copy-and-paste Hell for a few more days. On the other hand, some of the old staples have received a nice makeover. Our “Lyrics” have been fleshed out and re-translated. Our “Tidbits” have been updated and of course combined with a few “Mini-Guides”. Some of our (and your!) favorites like the “Rumor Guide” have new citations and images. Our weekly podcast — the one and only Dragon Ball podcast you could ever want! — receives a new name, but continues counting upward this month toward #300 with even more special guests and great topics coming your way. Best of all, if you are already subscribed to the show, there is nothing you need to do to keep receiving new episodes of “Kanzenshuu – The Podcast” each and every week.
One of our favorite aspects of the sites joining forces is the news archive. Not only have we reconciled all of the news updates between both Daizenshuu EX and Kanzentai, we also dug into the archives a bit — while we used to only have news updates dating back to the January 2003 re-launch on Daizenshuu EX, we now have news updates going all the way back to 1998. Everything has its own individual entry, links, and in many cases updated and higher-quality images that were and would have been available at those points in time.
Best of all, you community members will soon have everything integrated into one place. A single login will work for commenting on the site, participating on the forum, and eventually contributing to the best and last Dragon Ball-focused wiki you will ever need. We will need a lot of help to get there, so stay tuned, but know that everything you ever wanted is in the cards.
Truly the essential resource for Dragon Ball fans across the entire globe, this site is not an addition to your Internet wanderings – it is your home. Your wish is finally granted.
Kanzenshuu is here.
After months of inadvertent leaks, Manga Entertainment has officially announced that the Dragon Ball Z TV series is coming to DVD in the UK.
As anticipated and revealed in earlier leaks, Manga will be releasing a version of FUNimation’s orange bricks originally released in North America from 2007-2009. The first of nine sets will be released 02 July 2012 for £34.99. A time table has already been set for all of the “seasons”, slated to finish up with the ninth set 16 September 2013.
On their Twitter account, Manga UK noted in response to fan inquiries that the masters used will be the PAL versions from Madman’s Australian release, itself converted from FUNimation’s original version.
At the time, the orange bricks were the first and only consistent release of the Dragon Ball Z TV series available in North America from episode 1 all the way through 291, replacing a canceled home release of the “Ultimate Uncut Edition“, itself redubbing and replacing the first two “seasons” of the show with an uncut and bilingual home release.
Created from a multi-generational film master, the top and bottom of the frames were cropped off to fit the video into a widescreen format and downscaled from an HD version captured with support from Studio Post & Transfer (now “&TRANSFER”) in Texas. Despite going on to massive sales figures, the sets were met with harsh critiques from fans (notably us), with even Madman noting for their sub-licensed Australian release that they “would have ultimately been happier with a 4:3 release“.
North America saw the “Dragon Box” release from 2009 to 2011, offering fans a 4:3 remaster of the show originally performed by Toei and Pony Canyon in Japan for its first-ever home release in its native country.
A new remaster of the show by FUNimation for Blu-ray — preserving the 4:3 aspect ratio and addressing many other concerns from the orange brick releases — was announced last summer and unceremoniously killed off just this past January after only two releases.
DRAGON BALL Z SERIES ONE Comes to U.K. DVD on 2nd July 2012
DRAGON BALL Z SERIES ONE (cert.12) will released on DVD (£34.99) by Manga Entertainment on 2nd July 2012. Manga Entertainment will release all 291 episodes across nine season box sets starting on 2nd July (full dates below).
Fast Sell: One of the biggest anime franchises of all time – and the one that introduced many anime fans to the genre in the first place – finally comes to DVD in the UK, digitally remastered from the original Japanese film masters and captured in high-definition widescreen!
Key Talent: Scripted by Akira Toriyama< (creator of the manga on which it was based) and directed by Daisuke Nishio.
Synopsis: The Saiyans are coming! The last survivors of a cruel, warrior race, these ruthless villains have carved a path of destruction across the galaxy, and now they have set their sights on Earth. They will stop at nothing until they have the wish-granting powers of the seven magic Dragon Balls for their very own.
With the fate of his family, friends, and the entire human race hanging in the balance, Goku, the Earth’s greatest hero, must rise to meet the approaching threat. As he prepares for the fight of his life, Goku embarks on an epic journey that will take him to other worlds, pit him against new and old enemies alike, and force him to confront the dark secrets of his own past. At the end of his path, the most powerful opponent he has ever faced awaits – the evil Saiyan Prince Vegeta!
We Like It Because: This release is pretty much the Holy Grail for Dragon Ball Z fans. Featuring 39 episodes over six discs, it delivers over 900 minutes of pure anime action beautifully remastered to create a stunning visual and audio experience. Dragon Ball Z has never looked or sounded this good before.
Hot Quotes:
“A lot of fun from start to finish.” DVD TALK
Special Features:
Revised English dialogue – English voice track with original Japanese music in Dolby 5.1.
Dragon Ball Z Rebirth featurette.
A New Look featurette.
Textless opening and closing.
Trailers.
DRAGON BALL Z SERIES ONE (cert.12) will released on DVD (£34.99) by Manga Entertainment on 2nd July 2012. Manga Entertainment will release all 291 episodes across nine season box sets starting on 2nd July.
Series 2 – 27th August 2012
Series 3 – 1st October 2012
Series 4 – 5th November 2012
Series 5 – 7th Jan 2013
Series 6 – 11th March 2013
Series 7 – 13th May 2013
Series 8 – 15th July 2013
Series 9 – 16th September 2013
A couple folks have sent this in, and while it seems slightly early (compared to prior years and the games’ usual April/May formal reveals), we should probably not be too surprised to see the first hints at this year’s main video game for the franchise.
Listings for a (likely tentatively titled) “Dragon Ball Z HD” have made their way to Walmart’s website (on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) with a release date of 02 October 2012. There are a couple tidbits to take away from the listings, beyond the basic “new game” and “coming out in October” that we see year-in and year-out. First off, since there is a listing for a PlayStation 3 version of the game, it is likely that this will be a separate entity from the upcoming Xbox 360 Kinect game. Additionally, Wal-Mart’s genre for the game is “Fighting / Shooting”, the same as last year’s Ultimate Tenkaichi.
As noted earlier, Namco-Bandai does have a press event coming up in April, and it is likely that any tidbits about any upcoming Dragon Ball games will make their way to us around that time.
Walmart was a great source of information leaks back in summer 2009 when they revealed the “season sets” for the first Dragon Ball TV series, which would go on to include the first thirteen episodes uncut and bilingual for the first time in North America.
We have done a variety of character breakdowns over the years, ranging from major ones like Gohan all the way through minor ones like Tapion from Dragon Ball Z Movie 13. This time around, our buddy Lance joins us to totally deconstruct Vegeta. What makes this guy tick? Did he serve his purpose in its entirety by the end of the Freeza arc, and did Toriyama successfully reinvent him well enough to last the rest of the series? Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0293! VegettoEX, Meri, and man of many Internet names, Lance (or Gaffer Tape or MistareFusion) deconstruct the character of Vegeta. From his initial introduction through the end of the series, and despite being just another villain in a long line of them, he is always written completely differently than any other character in the series. What makes this guy tick? Did he serve his purpose in its entirety by the end of the Freeza arc, and did Toriyama successfully reinvent him well enough to last the rest of the series?
Following up on its ratings in Korea and then the UK, the apparently-upcoming Dragon Ball Z game for the Xbox 360’s Kinect was issued a “PG” rating down in Australia back on February 27th, as reported on Gamekyo:
Namco-Bandai does seem to have a press event coming up next month — while the Internet is aflutter with speculation on a PC port of Dark Souls for this year, fans may remember last year’s event in Dubai did more officially unveil Game Project Age 2011, which became Ultimate Blast/Tenkaichi for the PS3 & 360.
Come 22 March 2012, Dragon Ball Heroes will officially be entering the realm of Dragon Ball GT as they role out their first “Galaxy Mission” stage for the arcade game. This of course means that they will also be releasing numerous new cards to go along with the stage. In celebration of this new milestone the next issue of V-Jump, which is slated to be released 21 March 2012, will come with an exclusive Dragon Ball Heroes card featuring a chibi Super Saiyan Son Goku and a giant B2 (roughly 28 X 20 inches) size Dragon Ball GT poster.
Back in August, Manga UK had an “interesting” (for lack of a better phrase) back-and-forth with fans when listings for a Dragon Ball Z DVD release attributed to them was discovered on the British Board of Film Classification website. The company denied the rumors even up through this past October when a flyer for their release— citing a December pre-order date — was leaked online.
Toei Animation themselves seem to have broken the news in a much more official capacity, however:
Manga Entertainment has acquired the licensing rights to release, for the 1st time, the Dragon Ball Z series in DVD (291 episodes of 26′) in the United Kingdom.
The new licensee is planning to release the 1st of the 9 boxes this summer and to support the launch with a complete cross-media promotion campaign.
As expected, it seems to be the orange brick “season” releases originally produced by FUNimation for North America over the span of 2007-2009.
Thanks to TestDemo for the heads-up.
We know that this month’s “Part 7” of the “refreshed” Kai series is definitely still on its way from FUNimation, and we now have confirmation that the eighth and final “part” is due out 05 June 2012:
At this point, all that is left for FUNimation to do is continue back with the “season” format to replace these two-disc sets.
“Part 8” is confirmed to include the 98th episode of the “refreshed” series, which was also a DVD/Blu-ray exclusive in Japan due to last year’s preempted TV programming due to the earthquake and tsunami disaster followed by Toriko taking the series’ time slot.
To mark the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, Anime Fans Give Back once again held a 24-hour live streaming fundraising event. We joined on board for a half-hour segment to talk about how our favorite franchise was affected (not only by the disaster, but also by Kenji Yamamoto). Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
Finally, big congrats go out to Ryan for winning our Saikyō Jump contest! On the way from Japan is a copy of the March 2012 issue along with its bonus DVD (which contains both Episode of Bardock and Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans). Stay tuned for even more contests in the near future!
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0292! VegettoEX, Julian, and Hujio join the cast of The Unofficial One Piece Podcast for a special Anime Fans Give Back fundraising session. Catch up with the two groups, current watchings and readings, favorite characters, and how last year’s disaster (along with Kenji Yamamoto) so heavily affected the franchise in Japan. Meri joins in to also announce the winner of our “Saikyo Jump” (and bonus DVD) contest!
REFERENCED SITES:
To celebrate 291 episodes of our podcast, we in turn celebrate one of the best and most under-appreciated artists from our favorite franchise: Minoru Maeda. When fans think of Dragon Ball, the first name that comes to mind is obviously Akira Toriyama, but Maeda shaped the series (particularly for fans of the anime) in almost as many ways as the original author. Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0291! VegettoEX, Hujio, and Herms discuss a pretty full week of news before moving into a biography and in-depth discussion of Minoru Maeda. The first name that comes to mind with our favorite franchise is obviously Akira Toriyama, but most fans (especially those of the anime) do not seem to realize that more often than not they are viewing something that Maeda touched or supervised in at least some capacity. Just who is this man, and what are some of his most important works?
REFERENCED SITES: