I had planned on using that headline as a joke, but then things happened, and getting even the poster done seemed questionable. But it has indeed been revised, along with Toriyama’s message, the table of contents, and the first few pages of the timeline. The last revised page is 19, as conveniently marked by the last horizontal ruler on the webpage. I kept falling asleep working on page 18, probably because the official companies have made me grow tired of Saiyan history.

As far as Dragon Ball webmasters go, I feel like a deadbeat dad. But I’m trying to clean myself up, and I’ve gone back to work now. Even if it’s only a few pages a month, I’ll give you kids as much support as I can. Odds are I’ll at least finish the timeline and re-do some of the images next month, but I’m still trying to get back on my feet and re-discover the best way to hold this giant book at my desk.

Mars Ready: Act 36 is up! Along with its PGSM version, Act 41, and the differences between them.

But if that’s not enough Rei for you, I’ve also got a script for Casablanca Memory! This is a side story that takes place during the first arc, but was published during the second arc, compiled into a tankoubon between the third and fourth arcs, and of course the PGSM version was released after the fifth arc. And here’s looking at some comparisons.

Also, the second Chibi Usa Picture Diary! And its PGSM counterpart, though I think this might be the first chapter I’ve done with no real dialogue changes. And this finishes up old books 10, 11, and 12. Next month will probably include at least some of the side stories from 13, but not at the expense of doing two normal chapters.

At long last, I bring you the anime version of the 21st Budoukai. One of the main reasons for the delay is that I was timing myself, in the hopes of figuring out a reasonable pace to update regularly. And while I did figure out what a reasonable pace would be, I also realized I can’t justify the time required for it right now.

As you may have read elsewhere on the site, one of my biggest priorities right now is improving my Japanese. While reading and watching raw Dragon Ball is helpful toward that goal, all the writing and analyzing in English I do on the summary pages kind of eclipses all that. This doesn’t mean the project is dead; it just remains on the backburner. Which brings me to the other half of this update.

After all of the above happened, I realized it’s finally time to resume my guidebook translation project. Starting with something new to the site: Shen Long Newswire #7. I actually had the bulk of this done in 2008, but editing images for it (which I didn’t even use now) was extremely tedious, and then the whole guidebook project fell into the cracks before I ever got back to it. Although I’m still not perfect, I have improved considerably since 2008, so this is much better than anything you would’ve gotten back then anyway. I ended up revising and/or correcting pretty much every line (aside from the interview, which I revised last year, so I barely touched it this time).

On that note, before I start on any new pages or sections, I really, really, really need to re-do the stuff I did before. I have no idea how long that will take, but the rough plan is to update monthly with however much I can. So this time I’ll be timing myself more publicly, and we can figure out a reasonable pace together, I guess. So expect something or other (“Daizenshuu 7 Poster Revised!”) around September 15th.

And with this update, I can finally implement the new site news blog into the Dragon Ball section, so you can leave comments and whatnot. If not for the semi-urgency of getting that implemented, I probably would’ve waited until I had all my old guidebook stuff revised.

Time for some Fish Eye fun with Act 35! And its reprint counterpart, Act 40! With comparisons between them, of course. But I only had time for one main story act because I also did a really, really long side story. Next month I’ll probably even it out with 36 and some shorter side stories, and then go back to normal.

That really, really long side story is of course Princess Kaguya’s Lover! And its reprint version. Plus comparisons, too, full of many minor art changes, and yet the disguise pen incantation was left alone (!?). After last month, I’m stuck going slightly out of order with the old tankoubon, and these 130 or so wordy pages (science! medicine!) were one of the biggest hurdles to fixing that.

Also, how about that new anime? I’ve noticed the PGSM books seem to be going out of print in Japan, and the same thing happened a decade ago with the original tankoubon. But then we got new cover reprints as a tie-in with the live-action series, so maybe we’ll get a third version as a tie-in with the new anime. I sure wouldn’t mind a kanzenban style release, with better paper and ALL the color pages.

Let’s bring the third arc to a close with Act 33! And its reprint counterparts, Act 36, Act 37 and Act 38! Plus comparisons for all that infinitely infinite stuff.

I had wanted to do some more side stories before starting the Dream arc, but I got a big surprise as I was doing comparisons. That is, PGSM 38 had a bunch of extra pages about eclipses and stuff. Which kind of forced me to do Act 34, too! And reprint Act 39 to correspond to the remaining pages. So now we’re in the fourth arc a little sooner than I expected, but I guess that beats being stuck in the second arc for 4 years.

Busters Ready Go! This month we have both labyrinth chapters (but no Bowie): Act 31 and Act 32! Plus their 21st Century counterparts, Act 34 and Act 35! And some comparisons between all of them, of course, with much less atashi/watashi nonsense this time.

Also! I’ve finally revised, compared, and PGSM-ized Chibi Usa Picture Diary 1! Now the revision project is really REALLY complete. But it turns out redoing 25 pages on a whim at the last minute is a bad idea, because every problem will happen.

Anyway… The old tankoubon are still my primary source, which means there’s only one Infinity chapter left. It’s triple size, but I do plan to do the whole thing in one go. I guess it will be a warm-up for potentially doing both a double size and normal act in the same month, or the super long Kaguya side story.

First attempt at a double is a success, because both Act 29 and Act 30 are up! Also their reprint versions, Act 32 and Act 33! I guess it’s not a huge surprise, because I’ve done double-length chapters before, but time is a precious commodity. And there are comparisons for both of them, but there are surprisingly few changes considering the amount of exposition in these two chapters. There were a lot of minor atashi/watashi changes, but not nearly as many as there could have been.

I did break one minor thing with the RSS feed last month, and fixing it might cause a double post, so apologies if so. This should be the last of all that.

Despite the date, this is a completely genuine update. Act 28 is done! As is the reprint version, Act 31! Also, Acts 21-23 (23-26 in the reprints) have been revised and given separate scripts. And it all has comparisons, of course. With this, the gap between the old stuff and new stuff is now gone, and everything I’ve done so far has comparisons and separate scripts.

So from now on, it will be all Death Bastards all the time (at least until the arc is over). After a whole year of doing things once a month, I want to try bumping the pace up to two Acts per month. That would still include separate scripts and comparisons, of course. So that means 29-30 (reprint 32-33) is the goal for next month. But we’ll have to see how that works out in practice.

Also, I apologize if this update breaks the RSS feed. I’ve done my best to avoid it, but I’m currently setting up a new site-wide news system and changing stuff around. You can leave comments now!

March is here, and so is Act 27! And the reprint version, Act 30! This marks the actual halfway point of the main story, which is reflected better in the PGSM structure. As for the older stuff, I now have Acts 19-20 revised and page number’d, which is more than it sounds because that’s 20-22 in the reprints. Of course there are script comparisons for all of this stuff, too. The revision/comparison gap is nearly closed now, and then I can put more time into 100% new stuff.

You may or may not have noticed that I skipped Chibi Usa Picture Diary 1 this time. (It comes after Act 19 in the old tankoubon.) I wanted to get the main story re-done ASAP, so I’m leaving the book on my desk until after the Black Moon arc is fully revised. Maybe I’ll wait and do it at the same time as Picture Diary 2, which comes after Act 33 (end of the third arc) in the old tankoubon. The reprints group all the side stories together, after all.

I’m (sort of) halfway done now, because the script for Act 26 is done! Along with the reprint version, Act 29! I forgot to do the reprint script until last night, but luckily for me there were very few changes. Also, I have revised and compared Acts 15-18 (16-19 in the reprints), which means I’m finally done cleaning up the 2006-2007 stuff. So now it’s just a matter of getting comparisons done for the rest of the 2011 stuff.