These gems have been going on for years, even so far back as when DragonBall Z was still on TVs across Japan. However, we've never really had the opportunity to document them quite like this. I'm of course talking about... live action DragonBall, in big rubber suits!


In early 2010, the Greenland Amusement Park in Arao City held three live action battle shows entitled the "Three Great Hero Super Battle Stage". One of the battle shows was DragonBall Kai, which brought back fan-favorite movie villain, Broli. However, the show does not depict the events of DragonBall Z Movie 8, but instead creates an entirely new story line. The show featured background music from the Kai TV series and even used "Dragon Soul" as the show's main theme.

Not only do we have a new page in the "Miscellaneous DragonBall Guide" detailing the show, but luckily for us, someone actually recorded the entire thing! Enjoy~!

Amazon Japan has posted the cover art for the new Kai CD release, officially titled "Soundtrack 3 & Songs". The album is due out in Japan on 22 September 2010 for ¥2,940 (~$35).


Again, the entire track listing for the album hasn't been revealed yet. Besides the new background music to be included, here's what vocal tracks we do know will be included on the release:
In the meantime, you can still pre-order a copy for yourself at CDJapan or Amazon Japan.

Shueisha's official listing website has been updated with all of the final information for the "JSAT Edition: DragonBall - Heya! Son Goku and Friends Return!!" anime comic. The listing includes the books cover and some additional details about the book. You can grab the book from both CDJapan and Amazon Japan at the full retail prices.


Some additional images and details should be available in the next few days, so be sure to check back for those. If you'd like more information about the special itself, you can read more about that here.

In addition, Shueisha has also listed its October release schedule. It looks like that for the first time in a very long time, October will actually have no DragonBall book releases. In a way, I'm glad we can finally take a break from buying all these books.


Shueisha has posted a brief preview of the anime comic, which you can view here. As expected, the comic will be printed in full-color and feature screen shots taken from the animated special. The story has been split up into three main chapters with a short ending chapter. Besides the brief character profiles at the front of the comic, the only other supplemental information available is the "Staff & Cast List" at the end of the comic.

So, long ago, we actually used to have a "Character Guide" on the site, but not liking how generic it was, I sent it to the bowels of the internet. Finally, all these years later, we finally have something I'm content with putting on the site for good. Of course, it's not your typical "DragonBall Biographies" section that you'll find other places. Think of it as more of a "Character Index", or listing, if anything. You won't find any lengthy biographies with fan speculation here, but what I think most of you have come to expect from us; just the facts. Of course, we've added some unique notes about specific characters from various official guidebooks, specifically anything obscure or not well known.


Over time this guide will evolve and contain just about every conceivable character, but for now, it only lists characters up through the Red Ribbon Army arc of the series. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean we've remembered every single character. So if you can think of any we missed, please let us know. However, I should note that some discretion should be used, as it's impractical to include every character ever shown. Many have no relevant information, or even a name. So just because you think a character should be added doesn't mean we always will.

You'll also note that the guide is organized a tad differently than most you've probably seen. So be sure to familiarize yourself with the guide's introduction, as it should explain everything. With that, go enjoy the new guide, and we'll be back with some more content and news shortly... I hope.

Happinet's official release website has unveiled the cover art for the next set of DragonBall Kai DVD volumes, both of which are set to be released on 27 August 2010 for ¥2,940 (~$30). Volume #17 will contain episodes 49-51, while Volume #18 follows with the next three episodes, 52-54. This will be the last set of the Freeza arc DVDs, with the first DVD volume of Artificial Human & Cell arc coming this October. It seems they've run out of new ideas for cover art anyway... And for those of you that have been asking for the new DVD placeholder image, here you go!


Finally, since we're on the subject of Kai, we have translated the series' second ending theme, "Kokoro no Hane". And when I say we translated, I of course mean Herms. Enjoy~!

Columbia Music's official website has been updated and is now listing the recently announced Kai CD release, officially titled "Soundtrack 3 & Songs", which is due out in Japan on 22 September 2010 for ¥2,940 (~$35). Early reports indicated that the album would be a continuation of previous Kai albums and would include TV versions of both the opening and ending themes, new background music from the series, and new image songs, which I believe is now solidly confirmed. While Columbia's listing doesn't provide the entire track listing for the album yet, it does list three of the image songs that have already been recorded and are set to be included on the release.
For all you Trunks fans out there, Kusao Takeshi has recorded an image song, about Trunks, which to my knowledge has never been done before! In addition, cAnON., who previously gave us the insert song "Over the Star", is returning with "My 18th Magic". And unfortunately it appears that mine, and many others, have had their dreams crushed, since Wakamoto Norio will not be doing an image song about Cell. Instead, rock singer Ootsuki Kenji will be covering that image song.

As of right now, there is no cover art for the release, so we'll keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, you can pre-order a copy for yourself at CDJapan or Amazon Japan.

Here we go again, it's time for another Kai episode update, since we've gotten way behind! This time we have five new episodes for you, with another one hopefully coming very soon. After being handily defeated by the artificial humans, Piccolo heads to fuse with God. Meanwhile, a mysterious time machine has been discovered, but how did it get there and what mysteries does it hold?! Here's a run-down of all the new episodes now available in the "Episode Guide".


So as we always do, we have a lot of supplemental material to go along with these episodes. With this update you'll find eight episodes of DragonBall Z, and eleven chapters of the manga in their respective guides. All of the chapter title pages have also been posted in the "Picture Archive". In addition to all that, you'll find all of the re-animated scenes are listed within their respective Kai episode pages and the new eyecatches are now listed in the "Theme Guide".

Check back soon, for some other updates...