It’s time to announce the winners of the Dragon Ball contest.
 

 
This was actually a really tough one, because quite a few of the entries were really good stories. I ended up picking two stories, and one amusing little aspect that has always made me smile myself.
 
First place is Joe Ricard.
 
Second place is Jack Bass.
 
Third place is Matt Fritz.
 
Here’s Joe’s entry:
 
If it can really be considered a “thing” then I’d say my favorite thing about Dragonball is sharing it with my nephew’s over the years.
Being an Uncle since I was six months old and having more neices and nephews come about over the years there always seems to be someone at just the right age to introduce to Goku and the gang.
When I was first getting into the series, I’d buy the VHS releases and bring them over to my sisters to watch with a nephew only a couple years younger than myself. When the “season sets” came about I bought the first one and would watch a few episodes every day with a nephew who would come to my house after school until his mother would pick him up after work. Finally I have a nephew who lives in Virginia and that I only see a couple of times a year. Everytime he visits, he checks my bookshelf to see how many new volumes of the manga I’ve gotten so that he can take them upstairs and read them before bed.
While the last nephew I mentioned is the only one with a continued interest in the series, I still enjoyed the time I spent with the others watching Goku and co. engaging in their crazy adventures and can’t wait for others to be old enough (not to mention when I have kids of my own) to introduce them to “Bloomers and the Monkey King”.
 
Here’s Jack’s:
 
Kame Sennin’s pafu pafu!
 
Makes me laugh so hard every single time! Bulma’s shoryuken follow up is just icing on the cake in that particular scene.
 
And Matt’s:
 
My favorite “thing” is by and large the VHS tapes of the first 13 episodes of Dragon Ball I received for Christmas when I was 10 years-old. I’ve watched those tapes at least a dozen times over the years, and now I hope to finally win (if not, buy) these episodes without all the edits and a Japanese track.
 
Now to go ahead and reveal all the prizes.
 
First place obviously gets the Dragonball set.
 
Second place will get to choose between the Bardock and Trunks’ singles, while Third will get the remaining single.
 
Got lots of great entries and I’ll post more up in a week or so.  And stay tuned, a few more DB related contests may be coming soon (and the next one, assuming it happens, is very likely to get far more entries than this one), and I may even end up awarding a few extra prizes for this one…
 

Contest closed a few days ago. I will be going over all entries over the weekend and get in contact with the winners, and I’ll be sure to post the winners and some of my personal favorites.
 
And based on if I’m able to get out to where I need to be to make it happen, may be a special early review tomorrow for shonen fans.
 

Just thought I’d remind anyone who wanted to enter that our contest ends tomorrow night.
 

 
The main prize is Dragon Ball Season 1 on DVD, but there are a few other prizes that aren’t being revealed.
 
Contest article is here.
 

It appears Seifer misread.  Thanks to A PR rep from Funimation who checked the trailer frame by frame Digimon Frontier definately does not appear in it.  Fanboy Review regrets the error, and Seifer is currently getting his 12 lashings.
 
It appears when ShoDojo launches it will launch with a few new shows (or it’s possible they will show up slightly after launch.)
 

 
A recent convention apparently had a new ShoDojo trailer that showed Digimon Frontier as one of these new series (Digimon Frontier was the only show that was recognized.)  There had previously been no news from either Toei USA or Funimation about Digimon Frontier streaming.  It’s also possible this may be the beginning of a new wave of Toei On-Demand titles.  No news on Digimon Adventure or Digimon Tamers. Hopefully the trailer will be put online and we will find out more about this soon.
 
ShoDojo is Funimation’s new Anime video and community website that will be launching soon.
 
Thanks to Seifer for seeing the trailer and bringing it to my attention (at least I can thank him for something, he’s supposed to be staff…. get to work lazy!)
 

 

Wow, it’s been a long trek to get this on DVD.  It’s kinda ironic that the last bit of all the original Dragon Ball/Z/GT related animations we finally get uncut are the first few episodes of the series (not including the 2008 special or Kai in that, purely all the originally released stuff.)
 

 
This is where the king of shonen anime started over twenty years ago.  How does it stand up to it’s bigger brother Dragon Ball Z?  Let’s take a look. Continue reading →

So I sat down to start watching Gonzo’s “Gad Guard”, not knowing much about the series, except that it was a mecha anime.  Now I know what you’re thinking (I thought it too); if you’ve seen one mecha anime, you’ve seen ‘em all.  But don’t count out “Gad Guard”; it may surprise you, a little.
 

 
I actually watched the show subtitled on FUNimation’s website via their free internet stream.  So for obvious reason I won’t get too technical about the video or audio quality, but stick more to the story and animation elements.  Also, this review pertains only to the original subbed version of the show and not the dub.  However, from watching the dubbed series trailer, it doesn’t sound half bad.  In fact, it sounds damn good, but I’m only saying that based off a trailer, so I wouldn’t take that statement to heart. Continue reading →

Wow, been almost seven months since we found out this would be coming out in the USA.
 

 
It’s been a few years since the last time we checked in on Ed and Al, let’s see if the Fullmetal Alchemist still shines (I really should stop with the puns and bad jokes in reviews…) Continue reading →

 
Introduction by Marc- We get to welcome a new staff member to FBR today.  Heath will be writing some editorials and reviews for us in the future.  Many Dragonball Z fans will know him as Hujio, from one of the premiere American DBZ sites, Kanzentai.  For his first article he wrote up a little history of DBZ DVDs, including some of his personal thoughts on the matter.  I actually asked him to do this prior to his first review because a lot of the more casual DBZ fans out there don’t get why the announcement of the American ‘Dragon Boxes’ are such a big deal to many of the more hardcore DBZ lovers.  So I’ll pass the dragonball over to Heath for his initial post at FBR.
 

Continue reading →

We are finally getting an American release of the fully remastered Dragon Ball Z Dragonboxes.
 

 
Not generally a person to just post post press releases, but for now I’m just quite happy that it’s actually happening, so I’ll let Funi’s press release do the talking. There are also more pictures of early packaging mockups from our friends at DaizenshuuEX at the bottom.
 
Flower Mound, TX – July 18, 2009 — FUNimation Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, today announces that it has acquired the original masters for the entire Dragon Ball Z anime series, episodes and films, and will release all as the Dragon Box for the first time in the U.S. The first of seven Dragon Boxes will be available at major retailers nationwide this Fall.

The Dragon Box will be produced from the original Dragon Box masters after a frame by frame restoration and will span the entire 291 episode television series and all 13 of its movies.
 
This definitive DVD box release begins with Dragon Box One which includes the first 42 episodes, uncut, on 6 discs.

The Dragon Box releases will feature an aspect ratio of 4:3, the original Japanese audio (with options for an English track or English subtitles), the original episode previews, complete opening and closing credits and a collector’s booklet.
 
Dragon Box One will be available at major retailers nationwide on November 10, 2009 and will have an SRP of $79.98.
 
About FUNimation Entertainment
 
FUNimation® Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, is the leading company for home video sales of Japanese animation in the United States.  FUNimation has a proven formula for launching and advancing brands, and manages a full spectrum of rights for most of its brands including broadcasting, licensing, production, internet, and home video sales and distribution. For more information about FUNimation Entertainment and its brands, visit www.funimation.com
 

 

 
FUNimation has partnered with the Japanese production company Media Factory to stream the action anime, “Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom” on the FUNimation Video Portal. The first five episodes are now available for streaming, and are all rated TV-MA. Each episode is free to stream and will be presented in its original Japanese dialogue with English translations.
 
Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom is produced by the popular animation company Bee Train (.Hack//Sign, Tsubasa), and is directed by Koichi Mashimo (Blade of the Immortal, Noir). The show is an adaptation of the “Phantom of Inferno” visual novel, which follows an unsuspecting witness that is brainwashed into joining a mysterious organization called Inferno and becoming their newest assassin.
 
The fifth episode of Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom was released onto the FUNimation Video Portal within 45-minutes of its Japanese broadcast debut on TV Tokyo. Future episodes are expected to be released online within 24 hours of its Japanese broadcast debut.
 
FUNimation Video Portal- Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom, Main Page
 

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom – © 2009 Project Phantom. Licensed by FUNimation® Productions, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.