After just announcing the new book "DragonBall Uranai", Shueisha has announced it will be releasing an Anime Illustration Collection book entitled, "DragonBall: The Golden Warrior" (ドラゴンボール 黄金の戦士; Doragon Booru Ougon no Senshi). The title suggests the illustrations will focus on Super Saiyans, or Son Gohan's exploits as the Golden Warrior before becoming the Great Saiyaman. My vote is for the first option. This will be the first DragonBall illustration book since "Daizenshuu 1: Complete Illustrations" was released back in 1995. It is set to be released 16 April 2010 for ¥1,200 (~$12.00), and is already up for pre-order on Amazon Japan. We'll be sure to keep you updated as we hear more about it.

It seems it's that time again. The next three episode titles have been leaked early for DragonBall Kai, and are now appropriately listed in the "Episode Guide". Here's a quick run-down of what to expect in the upcoming weeks:


We are working on getting caught up with our episode updates, but other kick-ass content has taken over our lives. Hopefully that'll all be finished sooner, rather than later. But in the meantime, if you missed Kai last week and are at all interested in seeing Son Goku's Super Saiyan transformation, you can view it over on YouTube. For now, we'll hold back our comments and let the clip speak for itself.

The second volume of the Majin Buu Battle arc has been added to the TV animation comics section of the "Manga Guide". It was released earlier this month on 4 March 2010 for ¥730 (~$7.50), so grab it if you want it. The next two anime comics have been announced and are scheduled to be released next month on 2 April 2010 and 30 April 2010, respectively. In addition, the eighth volume of the Jump Remix comics was also released earlier this month on 1 March 2010 for ¥550 (~$5.50). Shueisha also announced the remaining releases up through April, and oddly enough there is only one scheduled release for April even though all other previous months had at least 2-3 releases.


In other news, Shueisha announced a new DragonBall book, "DragonBall Uranai" (ドラゴンボール占い). You may recognize the term uranai as that used in the character Uranai Baba's name, meaning "fortune-telling". Unfortunately, there's no other information about the book at this time, considering it isn't even listed on any other online store. So really, we have absolutely no idea what this book is, or what it's about. Although, it unfortunately doesn't appear to be a new guidebook of any kind.


Anyway, the book is set to be released on 31 March 2010 for ¥840 (~$8.50). Hopefully we'll get a little more information about it soon, like what it is exactly.

Hey, remember when I jumped the gun and speculated that we'd be seeing Goku's Super Saiyan transformation in Kai episode 047? Well, it is no longer speculation! The next three episode titles have been leaked early for DragonBall Kai, and are now appropriately listed in the "Episode Guide". But for simplicity, here's a quick run-down of what to expect in the next two weeks:


So there you have it, Super Saiyan Son Goku will make his Kai debut in episode 047. It will be interesting to see how Toei handles this scene musically and visually. Will the entire scene be re-animated, and will the cropping have much effect negatively? I guess we'll find out in two weeks!

Although it typically gets updated each week with chapters, it's time for a proper, and much larger update. We've actually got a couple new things, some of which we've been working on since last June (don't judge us). So, we'll start off with the "best" part of the update, everybody's favorite, some movie ani-manga!

As you may know, Shueisha released 20 film animation comics from 1992 to 1997, covering all of the DragonBall movies and TV specials. These "ani-manga" releases contained screen shots of the film presented in a comic format, and were much cheaper than buying the actual movie on a home media format, which made them quite popular at the time of their release. Unlike typical tankoubon sized releases, they were printed in full-color on high quality paper. Each volume contained short biographies of all the characters in that respective movie, and on occasion featured some special bonus material relating to either the movie or the TV series.


You'll now find dedicated pages for the first 10 of these comics in the "Manga Guide"! Each page includes full scans of the cover, insert posters, and some of the comic's pages. You'll also find a translation of the table of contents, along with notes describing each section of the comic. Of particular interest is the very first film comic that was released, DragonBall Z Movie 5 (pictured above). It was actually the very first film comic ever released by Shueisha, and because of that, it came with some pretty neat things. Also note that for the most part, all of the comics were released out of chronological order, giving the currently running movies preferential treatment.

Moving on, we have a new addition to guides main page; Kids Animation Comics. At the moment we have no dedicated page detailing each individual release, but for better or worse, it is now listed on the page. I've been meaning to put them up and acknowledge their existence, but better late than never I suppose.

Finally, something a little more current has been added to the guide. Since late 2005 we've been updating with Shueisha's TV animation comic releases. Well, it appears that Shueisha has begun to release remix versions of these comics in Shueisha Jump Remix magazine, a line that publishes previous Jump series. This line had previously re-released all of the film animation comics back in 2004 and 2005.


Similar to the film comic re-releases, each volume is comprised of roughly two volumes from the original release. The Jump Remix re-prints are printed on lower quality paper, similar to that of the tankoubon, allowing them to be sold at a much lower price mark of ¥550 (~$5.50). However, these re-prints omit almost all of the extra supplemental material available in the originals. But if all you want is the comic, they'll suit you just fine. So far 7 volumes have been released, covering up to Goku's battle with Freeza on Namek. If anything, this gives us another release to keep track of...

Links: Manga Guide, Film Animation Comics, Shueisha Jump Remix Comics, Picture Archive

DragonBall Kai episode 044 is now available in the "Episode Guide" for your viewing pleasure. This episodes covered DragonBall Z episodes 089 and 090, which is equivalent to chapters 311 and 312. Goku is holding his own against Freeza, but only barely. Meanwhile, Bulma's body is stolen by Ginyu, who makes "her" way to the battle field. Will a 20-fold Kaio-ken powered Kamehameha be enough to best Freeza?! Be sure to check back next week to find out, in another exciting episode of DragonBall Kai!


As always, DragonBall Z episodes 089-090 have been added to the "Episode Guide" and chapters 311-312 have been added to the "Manga Guide". You can also check the "Picture Archive" to find scans of all of the respective manga chapter title pages.

In other related news, Fuji TV has revealed the title of DragonBall Kai episode 046 a tad early this week; "This is the Last Trump Card! Goku's Extra-Large Genki-dama". With this, I think we can confidentially say that Goku's Super Saiyan transformation will be in episode 047, which is scheduled to air on 7 March 2010. So don't miss it!

Links: DragonBall Kai Episode 044, DragonBall Z Episodes 089-090, Chapters 311-312

Earlier this afternoon at Katsucon 16 in Maryland, FUNimation announced some additional details concerning Dragon Ball Z Kai at their industry panel. FUNimation confirmed that the series main cast will remain the same as in their original English dub of Dragon Ball Z, except for four new cast members; Doc Morgan (Narrator), Colleen Clinkenbeard (Son Gohan), Monica Rial (Bulma), and Brina Palencia (Chaozu and Puar). The announcement also featured the box art for the first domestic release of the series (photo courtesy of Zach Logan), and confirmed a release date of 18 May 2010.


We have no official confirmation on the following, but according to some sources that attended the panel, FUNimation representatives did indicate all releases of Dragon Ball Z Kai (DVD and Blu-ray) will be in a 4:3 fullscreen format. The representatives also speculated that each release would be comprised of 13 episodes. Again, this is unconfirmed, and some details may change before the release date. However, this information does seem to be fairly reliable and in line with FUNimation's current release practices.

We'll be sure to keep you updated with any additional details or changes. Also, a big thanks to both Zach Logan and Yuugi's Black Magician for most of the information.