Viz Media has just announced their acquisition of the Ultraman manga series. Inspired by the 1966-1967 Japanese sci-fi superhero TV series, this 2011 manga adaptation is updated with new elements to appeal to a new generation of fans.
This adaptation was created by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi for Japan’s monthly comic magazine Hero’s. The English translated version will be available beginning August 18, 2015, under the Viz Signature label.
Eiji Tsubaraya’s Ultraman series has become a major Japanese pop-culture phenomenon since premiering nearly 50 years ago in Japan. Several adaptations of the series have been produced since then. The original live-action series is still available on DVD in North America with dual audio.
If anyone reading this can remember how hard it was to find a copy of Pokemon Stadium on the Nintendo 64 when it first released then you know that’s how hard it is to find an Amiibo on the store shelf (that’s not Link, Mario or Pikachu). I recently described my own Thursday morning rush experience when Wave 3 was released. To try and remedy the situation, Nintendo Australia is restocking certain Amiibo over the coming months.
This is a very general announcement and it’s not stated which Amiibo are being restocked or when, but in an interesting move Nintendo Australia have revealed it will be sourcing the Amiibo stock from other regions and have stated the packaging may not be of the standard Australia/New Zealand type. Most likely the stock will come from Europe where the packaging is identical. Amiibo can be used in a number of titles including Super Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS, Hyrule Warriors and Mario Kart 8 most noticeably.
The 21st of March will see the release of 6 new Amiibo in a new collection titled the Super Mario Bros. series and will feature Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, Bowser and Yoshi. Wave 4 of the Smash Bros Collection are due out sometime in April and will include Robin, Lucina, Pac-Man, Wario, Ness and Charizard.
UPDATE: Seems Target have began receiving their restocks already (25th of February) and based on the packaging the Amiibos are coming from Japan.
Following FUNimation’s announcement of the English dub casts of Assassination Classroom and Death Parade, they have revealed the dub cast lists for three more of the anime titles they acquired from the summer 2015 season.
Here is the dub cast list for Tokyo Ghoul √A:
Kaneki – Austin Tindle
Touka – Brina Palencia
Tsukiyama – J Michael Tatum
Yamori – Christopher Sabat
Rize – Monica Rial
Hide – Clifford Chapin
Nishiki – Eric Vale
Hinami – Lara Woodhull
Mado – Kenny Green
Amon – Mike McFarland
Ayato – Todd Haberkorn
Eto – Lindsay Seidel
Tatara – Chris Wehkamp
No announcement has been made about an English dub for the first season. The dub of the second season premiered on Wednesday at 9:00pm ET.
Next up is the dub cast list for World Break: Aria of a Curse for a Holy Swordsman:
Moroha – Clifford Chapin
Satsuki – Felecia Angelle
Shizuno – Jad Saxton
Gen – Michael Jones
Angela – Morgan Garrett
Edward – Seth Magill
Jin – Garret Storms
Mari – Heather Walker
Maya – Tia Ballard
Sofia – Alexis Tipton
Tanaka – Sonny Strait
Tokiko – Trina Nishimura
The English dub of this series will premiere on Sunday the 22nd of February at 11:05am ET.
The English dub of this series will premiere on Saturday the 21st of February at 12:58pm ET.
As with their previous announcement, FUNimation has confirmed that there will be a DVD and Blu-ray release for each of these series following the release of the uncut and uncensored Japanese home video releases. The dubs will be revised for the home video releases.
Viz Media has just announced their upcoming release of the fifth limited edition Blu-ray box set 5 of Ranma 1/2. The details are as follows:
Episodes 93-115 will be featured across three discs. The Blu-ray set will feature a 32-page booklet with episode summaries for every episode. On-disc extras will include the textless opening and ending animations, series trailers and the “We Love Ranma Part 5 – We Love Collecting” segment. The set has a suggested retail price of $54.97 USD and $63.99 CAN.
The standard edition DVD set will not feature the special segment or the physical bonuses. It has a suggested retail price of $44.82 USD and $51.99 CAN. Pre-orders for both editions are now available ahead of its March 3, 2015 release.
If you happen to be a big fan of Sexual Chocolate, now simply called Mark Henry, then you’ll be happy to hear that WWE 2K15‘s latest piece of DLC focuses entirely on Mark Henry’s rise to dominance during his time of putting various superstars into the ‘Hall of Pain.’
This DLC is priced at $13.45 and is available with the Season Pass and in this DLC the 2K Showcase: Hall of Pain will feature Mark Henry’s highest profile matches from 2011-2013 including his battles against Kane, The Great Khali, the Big Show, and even Randy Orton.
Full details about what is included in the DLC, as well as a trailer for the DLC, can be found below:
2K Showcase: Hall of Pain
Story focused on top matches for WWE Superstar Mark Henry
Playable WWE Superstars (2011 versions): Mark Henry, Big Show, Kane, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Sheamus, The Great Khali, Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan and Ryback
Playable arenas: SmackDown (2011), Vengeance (2011) and WrestleMania 29
Big titles these days either suffer countless delays or require some sort of day 1 patch to fix many of the games problems and Slightly Mad Studios and Bandai Namco have opted for the former. Yes, Project CARS is delayed again. The ultra realistic racing simulator will now release on April 2nd for PC via Steam as well as Xbox One and PS4 in Australia and Europe. April 7th is the release date in North America for the Xbox One and PS4 versions. The release date prior to this change was March 20th. The game was originally slated to release in the first quarter of 2014.
Head of Studio at Slightly Mad Studios Ian Bell had this to say on the delay:
“Moving the release date was not an easy decision to make, as we know our fans are eager to get their hands-on on Project CARS… but we know that these extra days will allow us to provide the best game experience that our fans deserve. We assure you the wait will be worth it when the game does arrive early April”.
A very talked down Wii U version should also be close to completion by this time but no release date has yet been given. You can check out our impressions of the game here.
Three-in-a-row games seem to dominate the mobile app markets. Candy Crush, Free-Fall and Scurvy Scallywags are just a few of the heavy hitters out there. Well now Nintendo have gotten in on the action with Pokémon Shuffle for Nintendo 3DS.
As you could probably have guessed, Pokémon Shuffle has you matching three identical tiles in order to progress through its many stages and capture a bunch of wild Pokémon. Pokémon Shuffle is available now through the Nintendo 3DS eShop absolutely free. The only draw back is that like the mobile games that inspired it, the game uses a life-system where once you have expended your five hearts you are required to wait for them to replenish before you can continue playing.
You know, when I first got my 4G-compatible phone, I was absolutely blown away by how quick it ran. YouTube videos, web pages and emails all loading in the snap of my fingers. Even now when I’m out and about on the weekend, loading up a video to kill time while I’m bored is faster than my home’s WiFi.
So with 4G being so fast, I’m sure you will be as shocked as I am to hear that Telstra are introducing even faster mobile speeds with their new 4GX network. Just how fast is 4GX? Well Telstra have put up a little video below that shows off just how fast the network is. Not only that, but selected mobile phones and tablets can access 4GX right now! Check out the video below then click “Find Out More” to see if you can tap into the lightning fast seeds in your area.
Team17 has announced that the Kickstarter title, This is the Police by Weappy Studio, has been added to it’s official line up. This means that marketing, PR, and general assistance to development and release will be aided by the publishing company. Additionally, there is now the added hope that This is the Police will come to other platforms besides PC.
The title is nearing the end of it’s Kickstarterfunding period, and while This is the Police hasn’t quite reached it’s goal it’s close. Hopefully with this announcement from Team17 the title will be produced even if Weappy Studio’s Kickstarter isn’t fully funded.
We’ve covered This is the Police before and the title is quite promising. It appears to be a mash-up of genres, involving strategy and adventure aspects. Additionally, the overview of the game is set up like city management games as the protagonist works to earn money though police corruption. Hopefully the story will be strong as well, since the game looks to lean heavily on it’s corrupt police narrative for setting. Look for This is the Police in December 2015.
Dragon Ball Z Season 9 brings us the conclusion of the Buu Saga and also the end of the entire Dragon Ball Z series and the anime itself if you prefer to discount the Toei Animation produced Dragon Ball GT as canon. There are more fusions, more transformations, more battles and even another time skip to end the series. Featuring 38 episodes, does Season 9 offer the finale Dragon Ball Z deserves? Read on to find out.
Story
Spoilers ahead, so any new fans of Dragon Ball who haven’t seen the final arc of the Buu Saga and don’t wish to be spoiled please skip to the visuals section. After an unfortunate event that provides a rather interesting social commentary on the actions of men, Buu has an anger induced meltdown causing him to transform into a much more sinister, slimmer form. From then on the plot focuses on how to destroy the newly formed monster, which encourages new transformations and new strategies, many of which fail.
The Z warriors are at their most powerful here and it is a real treat for the viewer. Gohan’s potential being unlocked through Elder Kai, Gotenks reaching Super Saiyan 3 and the most ridiculously powerful character in all of the series, Super Vegetto, the fusion of Goku and Vegeta gone Super Saiyan all reach awesome new heights. These transformations and how they occur are good fun to watch play out, but it can get annoying when the heroes continue to toy with their enemies instead of finishing them off, particularly Gohan who seemingly hasn’t learnt his lesson from fighting Cell.
The fights continue to be a strong point for the series and are pushed to new limits along with the fighters power. From the over-the-top creative super attacks of Gotenks to the punishing melee of Ultimate Gohan, the fights somehow manage to remain interesting and fresh after the series long run. Buu’s absorption techniques and the way he can warp his body also lead to a handful of interesting techniques. This is classic mountain smashing, planet destroying, energy blast firing Dragon Ball Z action.
While all the awesome power ups and fights are great, both the story and main villain is weaker here than in former arcs. The Buu Saga is often ridiculed for being contrived, overly long and contradictory (there are still debates to this day over which Buu form is the strongest) and rightfully so. The convenience of some characters not mentioning certain information or performing questionable acts (or not performing any act) makes you question Toriyama’s ability (or willingness at this point in the series) to craft a complete story and take into account past series lore.
The saga is also full of coincidences that only seem exist to forward the plot to the next transformation that will most likely fail again and unfortunately, these coincidences happens a few times within the saga. It can also be argued Buu is a rather average villain only bent on destruction, a far cry from the scheming, iconic villains of Frieza and Cell that always seemed to have a connection to the Z warriors past where as Buu does not. While his back story is revealed and is actually rather interesting, it really doesn’t help Buu become any more interesting of a villain.
On to the ending, the story of Dragon Ball Z has always depended on its well fleshed out cast and the ending does a fantastic job of giving each of those a proper send off, right from the final moments of the battle with Kid Buu. The Super Spirit Bomb Goku forms to take out Buu gives a reason to show characters dating back all the way from original Dragon Ball to the newer Z sagas so you can see where they have ended up. Vegeta’s character is resolved beautifully, finally coming to peace with Goku’s natural talent that surpasses his own and letting go of the anger that came with the rivalry.
The epilogue takes place ten years after the defeat of Buu and gives us a few more concluding revelations. Gohan has finally achieved his dream (or should I say his mother’s dream) of becoming a scholar and is married to Videl with a daughter of his own. Many of the Z warriors are enjoying the peace, relaxing with their families and even expanding them. Of course Goku is the main focus at the very end and his ending is perfect for him, despite being a rather selfish decision on his part that gives some credibility to the theory he is not the universe’s best father or husband.
Visuals
There is no doubt the quality offered by this Blu-ray collection is margins above its old DVD counterparts. The most noticeable difference in the remaster is the sharpness which has improved three fold thanks to the high definition offered by the Blu-ray format and the removal of the ‘low bit rate’ effect. The Majin Buu Saga has always looked better than past sagas simply by virtue of being newer and being drawn with more detail and that has aided in the better image quality present here, with Season 9 stealing the crown for best looking season. A couple of comparison screenshots are below for you to see the drastic difference in quality for yourself with the DVD image on top and Blu-ray on the bottom.
I’ve mentioned the cropping issue in all my prior DBZ Blu-ray reviews but it is important to a lot of fans so I will mention it again here. Dragon Ball was first broadcasted in the old 4:3 aspect ratio but has been converted to 16:9 widescreen for this release without the option to view it in its original form, resulting in about 20% of the original image being lost. In the Blu-rays, Funimation have selectively cropped each scene instead of leaving the crop confined to one spot for the entire run of the show like they did with the older DVD release. This obviously does not eradicate the problem entirely however the selective cropping is a much better solution, with one such example being the above shot where you can much more of Goku’s face now.
The colours, brightness and contrast here are perfect and the grain removal is spot on. The new release does not suffer from any type of over saturation like the DVD releases but colours still manage to pop on screen. Lines are sharper and cleaner, colours are not over saturated and light and shadows are visible where they previously were not, allowing for more detail on screen and a more natural look. You can see the rocks and the light around the Kamehameha really benefit from the new remastering process as opposed to looking blurry.
The new box art which is featured at the top of this review showcases the events of Season 9 well and even manages to get Mr. Satan on the cover for once. You can link this cover up with Season 7 and Season 8 to form a mural that covers the events of the Majin Buu saga which is great for those who love their physical collections.
Audio
The audio options presented here by Funimation are excellent and should not leave anyone disappointed. The default audio is set to the Funimation English dub with the original Japanese Audio track and is presented in True HD Dolby 5.1 surround sound. All the intense battles, ki blast and yelling sound loud and clear in this release. You also have your original broadcast dub soundtrack done by Bruce Falconer and the original Japanese mono broadcast to select from as well. The Stereo and 5.0 options come through crystal clear and the Japanese audio, while obviously suffering from its age, does sound better than it has in past releases.
The Japanese and English music track both have some great highlights here and I recommend watching the Season twice with both soundtracks so you can hear the best of both worlds. On the dub, tracks such as Buu is Fighting fit perfectly with the out of control villain and the theme that accompanies Gohan returning to Earth brings even more epicness to the scene. More sombre scenes like Elder Kai giving his life are given appropriate backing tracks that again aid in involving you more emotionally with the scene. The Japanese audio track is also terrific, always matching the action on screen and able to stir just as much emotion as the Falconer soundtrack. Where as the DVD release had a lot of issues with audio ‘warping’ constantly, there is no such error here.
As for the voice acting, you again have the choice of the Funimation English dub or the original Japanese vocal track. The dub voices are at their best in Season 9, with some extremely well delivered lines from the cast that nail that bad ass tone, Super Buu’s “you’re missing the point” and Gohan’s “fight you, no, I wanna kill you” are particularly memorable. I can’t really comment on the Japanese vocal track but I have no complaints about what I have heard of those performances. All this voice work shines through with crystal clarity thanks to the remastering of the series original audio.
I always like to give my two cents on the menu song and I am pretty happy with it this time around. My only complaint is the background scenes of Hercule wandering around the desert that accompany it are a very poor choice for the track (and in general, especially for the final Blu-ray in the set).
Extras
Season 9 brings the extras big time, featuring an entire disc dedicated to bonus features. This time we have two standard interviews featuring Josh Martin (voice of Majin Buu) and Chris Rager (voice of Mr. Satan). In addition to that, we get a feature titled From East to West: Dragon Ball Z’s Epic Journey and another feature titled “A Completely Serious Discussion About the Comedy of Dragon Ball Z” which is six members of the main voice cast including Chris Sabat literally goofing around for an hour in a free interview format.
Personally even though there was more on offer here I wasn’t a big fan of these extras which is a shame as I have highly praised the interviews and special features on all past seasons I have reviewed. Josh Martin’s interview was particularly dry and he didn’t seem to share the love for his role as many of the other cast did which made his interview rather uninteresting. Chris Rager’s interview is easily the highlight, he shows a great appreciation for the role and reveals a lot about his past, how he got into the role as well as his inspiration for where Hercule’s voice came from. The entire interview is a pleasure to watch.
While the extras in previous seasons were always full of behind the scenes information about the show and the actors, these features are sorely lacking in that kind of information. The East to West special was mainly reused clips from previous interviews spliced together with fan accolades from various anime conventions that didn’t really have much substance (although the Goku/Gohan father son cosplay was touching and also good for a laugh). Perhaps it just didn’t appeal to my type of humour, but the hour long Comedy of Dragon Ball Z feature isn’t that funny even though the actor’s are trying really hard to be.
Apart from the big extras, there is a short U.S. trailer and a text less opening and closing segment. The ‘next time on Dragon Ball Z’ segments are missing from this release, however the previous episode recaps are present. Unfortunately the Blu-ray release is the old physical episode guide featured in the old orange remastered DVD box is completely absent.
Overall
Dragon Ball Z Season 9 is a worthy send off to the popular series. While the story falters in some regards that will stick out more to the most loyal viewers and those that love to search for plot holes, the strong personality of the characters and the still excellent transformation and fight sequences will keep you in your seat until the end. The special features aren’t as interesting as the ones included in past releases but the amazing visual and audio quality of the main content more than make up for this. If you don’t mind the transition to the widescreen format, this Blu-ray collection is how you should experience Dragon Ball Z.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
