Follow-up on the French IPTV deal we noted the other day, our new forum member SanGoku 13 signed up to give us a couple extra details about what specifically is available.

It is apparently the French dub, but it is at least the recent remastered version of the series. Twenty new episodes will be made available each month, culminating with at least the first 100 episodes for now. In terms of cost, the deal will run you 4,99€ per month, or 1,49€ for just a single episode.

Toei has announced a deal in Brazil with Algazarra for toy figurines and separately with Richtex for a line of towels. If you think towels are weird, Bolivia has the win for strangest products coming your way. Pil Andina is on board to create Dragon Ball-branded flavored milk, while Doobalo is signed up to create socks. Finally, Bondy Fiesta has been licensed the rights to chewing gum.

Namco-Bandai has posted a ¥29.08 billion (approximately $319 million) loss for the fiscal 2010 year.

In terms of Dragon Ball overall, the franchise dropped in net sales from ¥15.8 billion in 2009 to ¥12.5 billion this fiscal year, and the company is forecasting an even sharper drop down to ¥8.5 billion for fiscal 2011 with ¥3.0 billion of that in the first half. While not concrete, an educated guess leads us to believe that stronger (or at least more numerous) releases will come in the second half of the next fiscal year.

As for individual games, there were 700,000 copies of Dragon Ball: Raging Blast shipped worldwide in fiscal 2010. This was the only Dragon Ball game in the company’s “Top 10 Game Titles” for the fiscal year, meaning that any worldwide sales of the latest DS and Wii games would be lower than approximately 400,000 copies shipped — it is at least somewhat relevant to note that Attack of the Saiyans was released significantly earlier in Japan than it was in the rest of the world, however.

In terms of general toys and hobby merchandise (non-video games), the franchise dropped in net sales from ¥3.7 billion in fiscal 2009 to ¥3.0 billion this fiscal year. The forecast for fiscal 2011 is ¥2.7 billion, with a mere ¥1.0 billion forecast for the first half of the year.

All across the board sales are down, and fiscal 2011 is not looking much brighter, though the second half sounds like it might be better than the first.

The Amazon listing for FUNimation’s re-release of the first Dragon Ball movie has recently gone online, and also includes a trailer for the product.

No concrete release date is given in the trailer (just a “Coming Soon” ending splash). Nowhere in the trailer are any words such as “uncut” or “unedited” or “Japanese” used, a major departure from anything as-of-late from FUNimation. Furthermore, observant fans in our forum’s dedicated thread have pointed out scenes from Dragon Ball TV episode 2 — scenes that were spliced into FUNimation’s edited dub of the movie from 1995, which contained the original Canadian voice cast and replaced musical score.

Based on what we heard last month, this upcoming release would include the original Japanese version uncut, but would not include a re-dub.

We have been unable to get solid clarification as to what this release will actually have. Here is what we think:

• POSSIBILITY #1: UNCUT, JAPANESE + SUB ONLY
  ANALYSIS: The day that FUNimation releases a sub-only Dragon Ball product is the day I truly eat my own shorts. We can pretty safely assume that some version of an English dub will appear on this disc.
• POSSIBILITY #2: UNCUT + JP + SUB / EDITED + DUB
  ANALYSIS: If the information is true about it being both “uncut” and not having a re-dub, the only way for it to work would be to have two video tracks: one for the original Japanese version, and one for the edited, English-dubbed version from 1995 with the first FUNimation voice cast and replaced musical score. If what we hear about the movie not having a re-dub is true, this option might make the most sense.
• POSSIBILITY #3: EDITED, ENGLISH DUBBED ONLY
  ANALYSIS: FUNimation has not released a dub-only (including an edited, dub-only) Dragon Ball product in many years, and it was always accompanied by an uncut release to go along with it. Releasing a stand-alone disc with the edited 1995 dub that contains neither the original Japanese musical score nor their current voice cast seems incredibly unlikely and out-of-character for the company.
• POSSIBILITY #4: UNCUT, JP + SUB / DUB
  ANALYSIS: It makes the most sense in the modern world for FUNimation to re-dub the movie (uncut) with their current voice cast and release a standard, dual-language, unedited release. If what we hear about it not having a re-dub is true, though… that alone might toss this option out the window.

While Amazon is still listing a 27 July 2010 release date, RightStuf has shifted to a 28 December 2010 release date. The trailer says “Coming Soon”, which leads us to believe the July date is more accurate.

Sadly, the trailer leaves us with just as many questions as it does answers. Other than some auxiliary features, this remains the only primary feature presentation for the franchise that has never seen an uncut / Japanese release in North America. Since North American distribution does not affect Japanese releases in any way, the movie was released both as a part of “Dragon Box: The Movies” (2006) and on individual DVD (2009) — we gave it an in-depth look and review back on Episode #0112 of our podcast if you want to dive in with us ahead of this domestic re-release.

EDIT: Just heard back from FUNimation that the release has indeed been pushed back to later this year. What does this hold for us? I guess we will find out… well… later this year!

C21Media.net is reporting that Toei has licensed the Dragon Ball Z TV series (along with Saint Seiya) to two “internet and IPTV on-demand platforms” over in France.

Both series are available via Orange’s PC and IPTV on-demand service, 24/24 Video, and via Club Video, SFR’s IPTV on-demand service. “This is a new way for the fans to have access to these series,” said Toei Animation Europe MD Kanji Kazahaya.

We would love to hear from our French visitors about this. Is it the French dub that is available on these services, and is it an uncut version? Have the recent box sets all across Europe (with the exception of the edited German sets!) created a market for a subtitled Japanese version on-demand, or is that left to the physical product?

There are a few things related to Kai and its foreign (that is, outside of Japan) distribution that have been stated and suggested over the last week, such as a possible “alternate” English dub a la the AB Groupe’s commission of Ocean & Blue Water Studios in the previous decade for European and Canadian broadcast. We have not been able to get any kind of independent confirmation on any of it, so we will keep it squarely in the “rumor” category for now. Until we have something to report, there just is not a whole lot to talk about!

We knew that a new ending theme from “Team Dragon” (which comprises members from idol power-house AKB48) would be coming with Episode 55 of Kai, which was later revealed to be titled “Kokoro no Hane” (“Wings of the Heart”).

We will save the majority of our editorializing for the next podcast episode (and the impending CD single release and review, I am sure [though none has been announced as-of-yet]), but suffice it to say… the ending was pretty much what we all expected. Somewhat unexpected was the vast amount of new footage in the opening theme, “Dragon Soul”. While the first half of the opening remains the same as the first two versions, the second half is almost entirely brand-new; the song itself remains exactly the same. The animation showcases some of the new villains (though not showcasing Cell directly, other than hints of his tail), and focuses on Gohan with foreshadowing-esque shots quite often.

Toei Animation’s official website for Dragon Ball Kai was updated over night with a nice little face-lift to reflect the upcoming Artificial Human arc. They have also updated the majority of their sections with new information regarding this story arc, in addition to removing their bulletin board. However, they note that the bulletin board is being replaced with a new “special” section which is still listed as “coming soon”.

The cast page confirms (but you already knew this, right?) that Takeshi Kusao will be returning to provide the voice of Trunks. It also confirms that both Gyū-Maō (Ox Demon King) and King Cold will be voiced in Kai by veteran voice actor Ryūzaburō Ōtomo, both of which were originally voiced by the late Daisuke Gōri. Ryūzaburō Ōtomo recently stepped into voicing the role of Porunga in the last few episodes of Kai, but most will know him as either the voice of Dabra in Dragon Ball Z or Ryū Shinron from Dragon Ball GT.

The page also confirms the song title of the new ending theme that will air tomorrow with episode 55: “Wings of the Heart” (心の羽根; “Kokoro no Hane”). The new ending theme is being sung by “Team Dragon”, which is formed by members of the idol group AKB48. The theme’s lyrics were written by Yasushi Akimoto and the song was composed by Kensuke Yoko, who have both worked on AKB48 songs before.