Starting on june 6th if you’re luck enough to live in Japan you can get your hands on dozens of different Dragonball canned coffees by Pokka. The “black line” of coffee series has no sugar and thus isn’t for kids — but the original line will make those of us who haven’t grown up who have a sweet tooth happy:

Found via natalie.mu/comic.

I’ve lost track of how many Dragon Ball games have flooded market in recent years. The license has been spread pretty thin with most of the titles retelling Akria Toriyama’s original plot from start to finish while taking a few liberties along the way. In addition, most of these games have featured similar cel-shaded visuals and gameplay, leading many people to believe that once you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. Of course, I’ve had plenty of people tell me that’s simply not the case. They’ve made improvements with pratically every itteration of the series and while we many have chosen to ignore them in the past, this latest entry might cause you to take notice.

There still isn’t much news in terms of the actual game itself. No gameplay footage has been made available as of yet, and the only images of the game are roughly the size of large thumbnails on the official website, but from what little we can see, we’re in for a treat. The character models appear to have more shading, giving their fine details a better sense of depth. The environments also seem less sparse, and even a tad more realistic. I imagine it’s only a matter of time until we see some actual footage of the game in action, until then I suggest fans keep an eye on the official site. It may be updated with more content in coming weeks.

Tim is a pro-blogger and freelance writer out of San Diego, California. In addition to Fanboy.com, he contributes to the ModernMethod Network of sites as the Features and Reviews Editor for the Japanese culture and entertainment blog, Japanator. He’s also an Assocaite Editor for their popular gaming blog, Destructoid, and the collectible toy culture blog, Tomopop. For more information, follow him on twitter, or check out TimSheehy.com.

I know all the “cool kids” these days watch Naruto and Bleach, but there are still some of you out there who really appreciate Dragon Ball and Akira Toriyama’s legacy. It seems like it’s been forever, but I can remember a time when obtaining your favorite anime required you to order your fan subs on VHS, and prior to being properly licensed, Dragon Ball was one of those series I scoured the net for. When FUNimation decided to bring over the recently released Dragon Ball Kai, the remastered, filler-free version of the hit series Dragon Ball Z, I was pretty stoked.

Suddenly, I don’t feel so dated for wanting one of these awesome iPhone cases. Best of all, one of them even comes branded with a Capsule Corp logo. How awesome is that? They’ll cost you a bit, but you’re getting them imported from Japan, so you’ll probably be the only guy you know with one. For 4,600 yen, they’ll cost you a pretty penny, but at least it’s not over 9,000 — sorry, obligatory meme. Other cases in the set include Goku’s Gi, and a Red Ribbon Army logo. Order yours today from GeekStuff4U, and check out the other designs below.  

Tim is a pro-blogger and freelance writer out of San Diego, California. In addition to Fanboy.com, he contributes to the ModernMethod Network of sites as the Features and Reviews Editor for the Japanese culture and entertainment blog, Japanator. He’s also an Assocaite Editor for their popular gaming blog, Destructoid, and the collectible toy culture blog, Tomopop. For more information, follow him on twitter, or check out TimSheehy.com.

I’m not sure if I could ever forgive Hollywood for their shlock epic Dragonball Evolution which nearly ruined the franchise for me! However these authentic Dragon Ball denim jeans might make might up for it. These jeans will be released by Cospa in late December just in time Christmas. Sadly overweight otaku need not apply as the jeans will range from a 30 to 36 inch waste size, but this is a martial arts anime series after all so we’d expect you to be in good shape:

Found via natalie.mu.

As of today the latest Uniqlo anime themed t-shirts are hitting the street — this latest batch includes shirts based on old school favorites Galaxy Express 999, Saint Seiya, Dr. Slump, Dragonball and Devilman. In April a new set of shirts will be released which will be based on Cobra, One Piece and Mazinger Z. Here are the Devilman shirts:

Matsumoto fans will love these Galaxy Express 999 shirts:

90s anime fans will get a kick out of these Dragonball shirts:

These are the Saint Seiya shirts:

And last but not least is Dr. Slump:

Found via natalie.mu.

In this ReelzChannel interview the stars of the new Dragonball film reveal that not only have they been signed up for a sequel — but that there may be two in the works! By the way I’ve never seen actors work so hard in an interview to unsell me on the film, you get the feeling right away that they put no energy into learning their kung fu moves (to be fair showing the strings doesn’t help). And no where in the interview do they even fake having seen the anime series and loving it. But you be the judge! Does this shot look like “the actress” engaging in intense combat or casual jazzercise:

And then check this out: Does our star look like he’s got a groovy new superpower — or — was he drinking just a bit too much before the shoot?

And if you can’t even get the publicity stills right how the hell are you going to make a motion picture work? My only guess is that this film was so cheap to make that they’re counting on making the money back on video and toy sales…

It’s amazing to me that Hollywood can do such a good job adapting American comic books to live action films, but when it comes to manga or anime they don’t always seem to know what they’re doing. A good case in point is this latest trailer for Dragonball Evolution which falls flat — and if the trailer doesn’t get you excited you know you’re in trouble! Fox is convinced that this film will indoctrinate a new generation of Dragonball fans, but it may have the opposite effect…

The Bandai booth blew me away! Most of their display was behind closed doors, but guarding those doors were two huge oversized statues of a robot from Power Rangers and Ben 10:

But behind the curtain things got much more interesting with tons of DragonBall on display:

Now these figures above are based upon the upcoming live action Dragonball Evolution film, and I’ve posted them here for a reason. The first day the show opened these figures were seen everywhere, but the photos that I found didn’t capture the scale of the toys which was small – so they didn’t do a good job of representing the detail that Bandai put into their product. But if you’re an old school fan of Dragon Ball Z fear not as I was shown an entire line of toys based upon the original anime series.

However there was much much more than just Dragonball as Bandai had a ton of very nice Power Rangers RPM (Racing Performance Machines) goodies on display. Below is the highly detailed RPM Ulrtrazoid:

But what made my day the most as an old school fanboy is that Bandai will be marketing toys associated with the Kamen Rider Dragon Knight television series! The older Kamen shows are so silly (think Batman from the 60s) but they do have this special charm to them. Below is the DX Rider Set: Dragon Cycle and Knight:

I got a very bad feeling about this film about 57 seconds into this trailer when the Transformer styled vehicle appears. To me it looks like the film is taking itself a bit too seriously…

It looks like 20th Century Fox is settling in on a name for this film, in fact they’ve already already taken the web domain DragonballEvolutionmovie.com. For a generation of anime fanboys (and fangurls) Dragonball has a cherished place in their childhood, and I hope Hollywood doesn’t get it wrong (although from what I’ve seen Im not too hopeful):

Dragonball Gets a New Title?

“20th Century Fox may have extended the title of its upcoming “Dragon Ball” adaptation to Dragonball Evolution. If it’s indeed the new title the studio is going with, we should find out for sure soon. Written and directed by James Wong, the big screen version stars Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Eriko Tamura, Joon Park, Chow Yun-Fat, Texas Battle, Randall Duk Kim and Ernie Hudson. Opening in theaters on April 8, the film is based on the manga created by Akira Toriyama.”

20th Century Fox is spending over $100 million to make the Dragonball movie and yet you’re telling me that these leaked photographs is what I can expect? I’m getting this bad “straight to video” feeling looking at these images. Above is Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshi, and below is Emmy Rossum as Bulma.

Here’s Justin Chatwin as Goku:

And lastly here’s James Marsters as Piccolo: