As expected, the Raging Blast 2 soundtrack has been delayed — Lantis has officially stated that all CD releases planned for March 23rd, 24th, and 30th have been postponed.
When a new release date is announced, we will be sure to let you know.
We have been working on it, and you have been waiting on it, so it is time to finally answer the big question:
What the Hell just happened to Dragon Ball Kai…?
Heath and Corey joined us in-house this week to attempt to answer that big question. By diving into publicly-available corporate presentations and financial reports, we can paint a crystal-clear picture of why the series was “refreshed” at the time it was, what their plan was for it all along, if they even partially saw that plan come to fruition, and what we might be able to expect from the franchise in the future.
Long story short, it was a meticulously-calculated grab at getting new/younger fans (to lay a groundwork for another popularity wave even more years down the road) by a company that is attempting to react to changing market conditions as rapidly as possible, but a company that is also not afraid to cut their losses while they can and then go out to seek opportunities with a higher profit-margin. Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0252! VegettoEX, Meri, Hujio, and Corey are all in-house to discuss what the Hell just happened to “DragonBall Kai”. By diving back into corporate presentations and financial reports, we are able to paint a crystal-clear picture of just why exactly the show was “refreshed” in the first place, if their plan even partially came to fruition at all, and what we can expect for the future of the franchise.
REFERENCED SITES:
As we reported last week, Fuji TV’s schedule was thrown off track by an entire week due to news coverage of the horrific earthquake that hit Japan. Fuji TV has finally released their updated TV schedule for the next two weeks, and it now appears they are sticking to the schedule they originally announced back in December: Toriko will in fact be taking over Dragon Ball Kai‘s time slot on 03 April 2011. So now the question stands: will episode 98 of Kai ever see the light of day?
As of now there has been no official word concerning the fate of the episode. It may be broadcast at a later date, or it may only be available on the final Blu-ray box set and DVD home releases. Maybe it will not be released at all with the recent music fiasco. In all honesty, we just do not know. This is definitely a situation no one wanted to see happen, but we will keep you posted as more information becomes available.
The website worldscreen.com is reporting some moderately extensive home release licensing for the Dragon Ball franchise in Latin America by way of two companies, including the “refreshed” Dragon Ball Kai TV series:
Toei scored a DVD deal for Dragon Ball Kai with Televisa in Mexico, which picked up episodes one through 54. Separate DVD agreements were wrapped up with En Pantalla in Mexico for Dragon Ball episodes one through 28, Dragon Ball Z episodes one through 72 and Dragon Ball GT episodes one through 64.
To break down the episode numbers:
This is the third home release of the Dragon Ball Kai TV series (following its ongoing release in Japan and later North America). The Mexican dub of the series came under fire from fans when voice director and actor Irwin Daayan announced that many of the character voices would be recast. Even in Brazil, the role of Goku stayed with prior actor Wendel Bezerra only after a “long talk” with the show’s producers about production processes and fan input.
Let us know how this all plays out, Latin American fans!
It seems that FUNimation has delayed their release of their fifth volume of the “refreshed” series approximately one month to 07 June 2011. Whether this delay is related to the series’ situation in Japan is unknown.
The cover art for this month’s Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 soundtrack gives us plenty to talk about. While the primary soundtrack for the Raging Blast games in Japan has been a synthesized version of Shunsuke Kikuchi’s original score for Dragon Ball Z, the cover art reveals that the soundtrack release will consist (exclusively?) of music from the “overseas version”.
It is likely that the soundtrack will be pushed back, however, so we will keep an eye on that one.
This time around on our podcast, in addition to the big news surrounding Dragon Ball Kai and Kenji Yamamoto’s musical score, we finally get a chance to dive back into the manga with Volume 38. The fight against Bobbidi’s minions has begun, Vegeta has turned back into the demon prince he once was, and a new villain is on the horizon. Is Toriyama writing by the seat of his pants, or is the magic still there (in more ways than one!)…? Download the show now, or head on over to the podcast page for more information or to subscribe.
SHOW DESCRIPTION:
Episode #0251! VegettoEX, Meri, Julian, and Jeff dive into Volume 38 in our “Manga Review of Awesomeness”. The gang is all here with a new set of villains, but is Toriyama truly writing by the seat of his pants, or is the magic still there (in more ways than one)? In the news, Kenji Yamamoto has lost his music composition job for “DragonBall Kai” after years of fans pointing out plagiarism, leaving the end of the series in even more shambles than before.
REFERENCED SITES:
Our hearts go out to everyone in Japan affected by the recent earthquake and its subsequent destruction. Many thanks go out to all of you who have shown such amazing generosity and caring, particularly for our own Julian. Rest assured, he and his family are safe and sound in Osaka, and can be heard on this week’s podcast episode (the little one even makes a special appearance!).
No doubt you have seen the image of support from Akira Toriyama himself, with Goku and Arale atop Kinto-Un. Ganbare, indeed!
Shueisha also included their own note wishing everyone a “speedy recovery”. In addition, Toriyama’s message was also posted as a set of wallpapers, which are available in two colors. You can download the wallpapers below, or you can grab them on the Shonen Jump website.
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Due to these recent events, the “Dream 9” block was canceled this weekend. While we now know that rebroadcasts of Dragon Ball Kai have a replaced score using Shunsuke Kikuchi’s original music from Dragon Ball Z, the first “new” episode since the BGM scandal broke last week has been delayed, though it sounds as if things are all being pushed back just one week.
Our buddy kei17 has reached out to a friend who lives in Akita Prefecture, Japan, to find out exactly what measures Toei Animation has taken with the musical score. It should be noted that in Akita Prefecture the broadcast of Dragon Ball Kai is 17 days behind that of the most recent episode and airs on a Wednesday at 4:30PM. Here is the reply he received from @syoujikimura:
Yesterday, in Akita the episodes up to Gohan’s awakening have been broadcast, but the opening title display, the sub-title BGM, and then all the BGM throughout the show has been changed to the Z stuff. The OP, ED, CM opening and closing, and the seiyuu’s voices have been left the same as in Kai.
So it appears that Toei Animation is not taking any risks and is entirely replacing Kenji Yamamoto’s Dragon Ball Kai score with Shunsuke Kikuchi’s original Dragon Ball Z score. The only pieces left intact are the opening theme (“Dragon Soul”), the ending theme (“Kokoro no Hane”), and the eyecatch music, which are based on “Dragon Soul”. Note that none of these remaining themes were composed or arranged by Yamamoto, which is most likely why they were retained.
Fuji TV has announced the final episode titles for Dragon Ball Kai — here is a quick run-down of what to expect in the upcoming weeks as Kai comes to a close:
「笑顔の別れ！新しい日々へ…」
“Farewell with a Smile! Heading for New Days”
「未来に平和を！悟空の魂よ永遠に」
“Bring Peace to the Future! Goku’s Spirit is Eternal”
The title for episode 97 is a combination of the titles from Dragon Ball Z episodes 192 and 193, indicating it will cover the entirety of both. However, the title for episode 98 is a bit more interesting, as it combines the title of Dragon Ball chapter 420 with a standard, if somewhat rare, Japanese phrase. This phrase is often used to indicate that something is ending, and is nearly identical to that of the last chapter of the Kinnukuman manga series (and subsequently the anime series’ as well), with both ending in the phrase “(something) yo, towa ni“, meaning “(something) forever”, or that (something) is “eternal”. If anything, it is a nice touch to the last episode of Kai, showing us that the spirit of Goku, and in essence Dragon Ball, will indeed live on for a long, long time.
Finally, with the recent news concerning Kai‘s music infringement, it will be interesting to see just how these events may drastically affect these last three episodes. Fortunately we should not have to speculate too much longer, as the next episode will air in only a few days. We will be sure to keep you updated as more information becomes available.