It was announced that a brand new Digimon game for the DS, "Digimon Story: Lost Evolution," would be coming out in 2010. Which seemed pretty, what with an old seemingly retired franchise like Digimon coming out with a new game out of the blue like that. But that's when things really started to get interested. Reports about a new Digimon anime series began to spread online not too long after that. Apparently, a brand new series tentatively titled "Digimon Around" will begin airing next year in Japan (let's not forget though that the original tentative title for "Frontier" was "Scanners"). An official announcement, if true, is expected to be made soon either in the pages of V-Jump or at Jump Festa.

Granted this all seems out of the blue, but don't forget that Digimon Savers also came out of nowhere as well. The one thing really holding a new season of Digimon back right now is its timeslot. All five seasons of Digimon have always aired Sunday mornings at 9am on Fuji TV, but that slot is currently taken by DragonBall Kai as part of Fuji's Dream9 hour along with One Piece. It's possible that Kai might end come April with the conclusion of the Freeza saga, or will perhaps move to a different time. But more than likely, it'll be Digimon Around getting the new time slot if it indeed becomes a reality. Let's keep our fingers crossed for now.

Source: http://www.wtwnews.net/exclusive-news/499/New_Digimon_Series

Episode 43 - Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mai

Who knew Tristan had such an angelic singing voice? Probably because he's black in this episode & was born with soul. Odion will surely be okay now that the gang has that & the power of friendship! Except for the fact that Melvin keeps trying to kill him with his Millennium Lightsaber. Although his hugs seem a lot more dangerous. & in the second episode, Ishizu doesn't just break the fourth wall. She completely shatters it into a million pieces. She also puts Kaiba in a very tough predicament. His only way out of it now is to kick her in the nads.

Arise, Chicken, arise!

That wasn't the only Aqua Teen Hunger Force reference this time around. The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future plays a pretty big role in the second episode, explaining to Kaiba the vague details of his ancient past. Hopefully you've all seen ATHF to really appreciate this bit. LittleKuriboh is no less than amazing as he portrays the Cybernetic Ghost (both in voice & dialogue) perfectly as if the Aque Teen staff worked on it themselves. Bonus points for using actual footage from the Millennium World saga.

Tristan with giant breasts might be the scariest thing ever.

What was truly notable about these two episodes was that LittleKuriboh really started to use background music to a great extent for the first time. Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged has gone 42 episodes with little to no BGM, & the few times it did play was as part of a joke or something. But this time LK added some really nice BGM for no other purpose then to make the scenes feel more intense or cinematic. Very nice touch. More below:

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DragonBall Online:


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In case you haven't heard yet, TeamFourStar is back on YouTube after having been taken down by Toei. They got a brand new channel up, & are trying to float under Toei's radar. I mean if FUNimation is allowing TFS to keep uploading, it's only fair for Toei to do so as well. No new episodes yet, or even official reuploads of season one. Just the following message for now:

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So Toei has flagged TeamFourStar & removed them from YouTube for copyright infringement. Yeah, it sucks. Especially since what TFS is actually doing with the DragonBall Z footage doesn't actually qualify as infringement. Sure if you look around on YouTube, you can find tons of fansubbed eps of DBZ all over. But when a parody series gets hundreds of thousands of views per upload, Toei all of a sudden feels it's gotta go. Never mind that the TFS abridgers are virtually giving them free advertisement by doing uploading their fandub.

Don't worry too much though. Look around on YouTube & you can still find all their episodes uploaded by others. & it's not like TFS is gonna stop making new episodes just because their YouTube account is gone. LittleKuriboh lost his original account a long time ago, but is now back & stronger than ever with his CardGamesFTW account. We'll keep you in touch as to when & where they'll rise again.

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Popular voice actress Aya Hirano (Haruhi in Haruhi Suzumiya, Konata in Lucky Star, Misa in Death Note) will now be able to add something truly truly special to her long resume- she can say she's played a character in the infamous DragonBall anime franchise. Hirano has been cast as the new voice of Dende in DragonBall Kai, the new remastered version of DBZ currently airing in Japan. The original seiyuu for Dende passed away some years ago, & since Kai consists of entirely newly recorded dialogue, they needed someone new to take over the role. At the same time, it was also announced that the role of Cargo (Dende's brother) has also been recast & given to Satomi Satou (Ritsu in K-On, Yuu in Hatsukoi Limited, Aine in Asura Cryin), which is a much smaller role.

This isn't the first time DragonBall Kai has had to recast some roles. Freeza's three flunkies of Cui, Zarbon, & Dodoria have all been announced as recast as well. Similarly, the original seiyuu for Master Roshi actually passed away right before DBZ ended in Japan nearly 15 years ago. The replacement used for the final eps & GT returned for Kai, though. However, this is the first time a modern A-list seiyuu has been cast in the DragonBall franchise. This actually isn't Aya's first involvement in the world of DBZ, though. She voiced the live-action Bulma in the Japanese dub version of DragonBall Evolution. But now we can say Haruhi has an official connection to DragonBall. Certainly makes this old picture seem more official now.

Source: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/08/11/aya-hirano-joins-dragonball-kai-cast

Been awhile since I last got one of these up, & a lot has happened since. Including, the passing of Michael Jackson. So we'll pay tribute to him with this video game MAD of Michael Jackson Forever mixed with various Famicom games, as you can view above. Then check out the videos below, which feature trailers for games such as Gundam Senki, DragonBall for the Wii, Claymore, Naruto Shippuden, & much more:

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Even though the biggest anime convention outside of Japan was held just the other weekend, FUNimation still had a lot of exciting announcements to make at Otakon this weekend. In fact they were awesome enough to tape the main part of their panel yesterday & post it online, which you can see above. Or to summarize, keep reading on.

Funi still isn't interested in licensing any more seasons of Detective Conan, but they have licensed the next four movies in the series (in addition to the first two that they've already released). Last Magician of the Century, Captured in her Eyes, Count Down to Heaven, & Phantom of Baker Street will start to roll out this winter in the US. They also licensed an amusing looking live-action Korean movie titled Daytime Drinking, which you can see a trailer for in the aforementioned video.

Onto new anime licenses though, FUNimation had two big ones to announce- "Casshern Sins" & "Eden of the East!" Both will be released on DVD sometime in 2010. Now you might think that because "Eden" uses the English song "Falling Down" by Oasis as its opening theme that it's a perfect acquisition for American (& British, I guess) audiences. However, Funi points out that they're not sure if they'll be able to get the rights to use the song for the opening. Because of the very fact that it is a popular English song, it'll be a lot harder to clear all the legal channels to use it. Something similar happened when Funi licensed "Speed Grapher," & weren't able to use the English song "Girls on Film" by Duran Duran. So unfortunately I can easily see the same thing happening again.

Finally, FUNimation got the rights to release the DragonBall Z collector's set Dragon Box. Originally only released in Japan as a very expensive & nice looking complete series box, Funi will be releasing it in the US in seven parts. This version of the series was remastered by the Japanese studios, unlike Funi's recently concluded remastered sets which they redid themselves. & as many fans will probably be pleased to hear, this version retains the show's original 4:3 aspect ratio, & wont be pseudo-widescreen like Funi's (even Japan is now doing that themselves with DragonBall Kai). The first Dragon Box will contain the first 42 episodes & will come out this Fall for a whopping $80. So for those of you playing at home, Funi just finished releasing a remastered widescreen version of the series. Now they're starting to release a different remastered version of the series in fullscreen. & by the time they finish releasing that, Funi will likely announce their license of DragonBall Kai & release that yet again remastered series, once again in widescreen. Who says DBZ has to end?

Bonus Funi at Otakon video after the jump:

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Here it is! The epic 3-part season 1 finale to DragonBall Z Abridged! Yup, the Goku vs Vegeta fight deserves that much time & attention. Now that Nappa's dead, Vegeta sets his sights on the few remaining Z Warriors. Vegeta may be strong, but he didn't expect Goku's Kaio-Ken technique to pack quite the punch. But then Vegeta releases his giant monkey... form! Luckily Goku discovers his weakspot- his eye. But when things look the darkest, leave it to the greatest Z Warrior of them all to save the day... Yajirobe! Special guest appearances by Kirk & Spock from the new Star Trek film! Also, amazing ending theme song.

Krillin owned count: 9 10

Do you know how long it's actually been since the last episode of DBZ Abridged? It was even before DragonBall Evolution debuted in theaters. Thus making ep 10 the first episode since then, & the TeamFourStar guys do make a brief reference to it. This is also the first episode since the Japanese debut of DragonBall Kai, though there's not really any reference to that.

There are tons of terrific lines in these 3 parts, too many to pick a favorite. I also really enjoy the respect that the TeamFourStar guys show towards the original material while abridging the series. Watching this three-parter shows that in addition to spoofing the series, they're still staying true to the awesome action & story that made DBZ the legend it is. I love Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged & all the others out there, but they simply make fun of the series without really being truthful to the original story. DBZ Abridged is funny as hell AND they still you feel like your watching the actual series. It's very well developed. The other two parts, as well as a few bonus goodies, below:

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On May 31st, Weekly Shonen Jump shutdown their Jumpland website. A site they were using to, among things, post online manga chapters of several of their titles. Some of the site's pages also had English versions available for international fans. This included the online manga section, which had free early chapters of titles like Death Note, Bleach, & D.Gray-man in multiple languages. That section got a lot of attention when it added the first chapter of Bakuman in four different languages, shortly after it premiered in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. Since then, Jumpland had periodically updated Bakuman & several other titles with new chapters, most notably ones like Bakuman which haven't been licensed in the US yet. In it's "twilight years," Jumpland began posting chapters of even newer Japan-exclusive titles like Beelzebub & Hoop Men in both Japanese & in English. However, Jumpland probably got the most attention when it began streaming three of the new Jump Super Anime Tour Specials for free with English subtitles, including the first new DragonBall episode in over 10 years.

But from the ashes of the now defunct Jumpland website, Weekly Shonen Jump has launched a new version of their official site that includes content from Jumpland & much more. & best of all, it has an English version as well. The new site has what should be a familiar URL to American manga fans- shonenjump.com. Entering that into one's browser will actually still redirect you to the American Shonen Jump website, now with the official URL of shonenjump.viz.com. But if you make sure to add "www." in front of it (or add "/e" at the end of it, or do even both), it'll take you to the English version of the new Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump site.

Just like Jumpland, the new site offers online manga available in English, even ones not licensed in the US yet. Though also like Jumpland, you'll need to download specific software in order to view the chapters. The manga choices available are different than what was up on Jumpland. Currently there's no Bakuman, Beelzebub, or Hoopmen up. But it does have the first chapters of Akaboshi & Medaka Box up. The first two chapters of the original DragonBall manga are also up as well, & all the pages have been colorized to boot. It also looks like One Piece will be added soon as well.

The chapters available will change periodically. For Medaka Box & Akaboshi, it looks like only the first chapter will be available to English readers for the month of June with no further chapters scheduled, & will probably be replaced by something else come July. For DragonBall, the first chapter will stay up for at least the entire month of June, but other chapters will be taken off to make room for newer ones every Friday. Chapter 2 went online today, but will be replaced with chapter 3 next week, & so on. Though it appears special "re-broadcasts" of older chapters will go up periodically for 24 hours only.

Some parts of the new website are still only available in Japanese, but there are some English translated sections. One such page is "This Week in Shonen Jump," which talks about what's in the current issue in Japan. This page also imports the "What is Weekly Shonen Jump?" flash section that was from Jumpland. The news page, serials (what titles are currently running in Weekly) comics (newest compiled graphic novels for their titles), & parts of the mini-game/wallpaper sections are also available in English. A DragonBall/WSJ history game includes English instructions of how to play. You can find the official English version of the new website here:

http://www.shonenjump.com/e/index.html

Some very nice looking, high quality DragonBall Z (or DragonBall Kai, if you prefer) figurines have been slowly revealed over the past week, all of which due to come out in Japan later this year. If the preview pics are any indication, they are absolutely stunning in their detail. You got Goku & Gohan doing the Kamehameha Wave together, Freeza sucker-punching Goku, Yajirobe (the greatest character ever, btw) cutting off Oozaru Vegeta's tale to save Goku, & a giant figure of Namek sage Guru. For serious DBZ fans with a lot of extra money lying around, these are probably must-buys.

The part about extra money is key though, as these beauties aren't cheap. The least expensive of the four that have been revealed so far is retailing for 10,000 yen (~$105). While the most expensive one is going for 35,000 yen (~$365)! & do you want to know which one is going for that insane amount of money? Guru! A giant figure of old man Guru lying down in his chair with eyes closed, costs close to $400! How hardcore of a Dragon Ball fan do you have to be in order to buy something like that? I mean yeah, the Guru figure looks to be incredibly detailed & very high in quality, but come on. You could have a highly detailed figure of Bulma flashing her goods, & you'd still be hard pressed to find fans willing to plop down over $300 for it. Well actually, I can totally see Japan doing that. But still, this is Guru. GURU. Who the hell thought this was a good idea? But again, not to knock the quality of any of these beauts. Check out how the rest look below:

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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete (English trailer):

We begin this (final?) edition of Video Game Videos with something that's not even really a video game. It's the official English trailer for the remastered high-definition CGI anime movie "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete." I guess the original movie wasn't "complete" then, huh? FF fans will love it, I'm sure. For everyone else, there's a bunch of other great videos to check out below. These include footage of the recently announced Pokemon Gold & Silver remakes for the Nintendo DS, two new videos of the DragonBall Kai DS game, & a lot more awesomeness:

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DragonBall Kai has been doing pretty well since it started earlier this month. But this new remastering of DBZ has something else new besides music & voice recording, & at the same time has something else taken away besides filler. So what's the one answer to both these riddles? It's censorship! That's right, stuff has been taken out & painted over in order to appeal to today's TV standards in Japan.

I've commented before how kids TV shows, both in the US & Japan, can't get away with the things they used to show. 15 years ago in Japan, even kids shows could show all the blood, violence, & nudity that they wanted. Not so much today. Nudity is pretty much banned from televised anime (though there is the occasional exception), & it seems that anime shown early enough in the day simply can't be as violent as they once were. Case in point, the above image comparison of Goku's fight with Raditz. The top image shows the battle as it originally happened in DBZ, while the bottom shows the "improved" version seen in the latest episode of DBK. Who does Toei think they are? Toonami? Of course this isn't to say blood is completely gone from the series. Those who've seen this episode here on NebsTV know that the very next scene shows Raditz bleeding from the mouth.

There have been other edits to the series besides this as well. Flashbacks to Goku's youth no longer have him naked. Instead he's either wearing underpants or something is conveniently blocking his junk. & I think I've noticed a few other violent edits as well. Luckily though, we can pretty much guarantee that the DVD & Blu-ray released of DBK will be completely unedited. At least, we can hope.

Source: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/04/21/dragonball-kai-massacred-by-censors

Tonight at midnight, at long last, DragonBall Evolution will premiere across American movie theaters. Now, of course this movie is going to suck. I think we've all known that for a long time now. But that won't change the fact that I'll certainly be going to see it. Some of you may feel the same way. But for those of you who feel you don't want to spend a single penny to go see such a train wreck, behold! The entire movie, leaked online. Sure it's bad quality & the beginning is missing, but this is pretty much the entirety of DragonBall Evolution. I wont be watching the above vid myself, since I'm waiting to see it on the actual big screen. But if you have the urge to check it out, do so above.

Now, onto the rest of our show! Including the pretty version of Evangelion 2.0, a new look at Blood, & finally a working Astro Boy trailer. Also, a preview for Eden of the East, one of the new series to premiere in Japan this Spring! Sure it isn't a movie, but it looks like one thanks to a great budget, plus is said to be one of the best shows of the season. All that & more below:

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Now that DragonBall Kai has started airing in Japan, let the tie-in marketing begin! Above you'll see a first look for the first DBK-based video game, coming out to the Nintendo DS (& DSi) sometime this year. Granted, they could've called it DragonBall Z instead & released it a few years back & nothing would likely be different. But by having it back on the air & calling the game Kai, it'll be an instant best seller! But moving on, time for other video game videos with an anime slant to them:

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