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Dragonball's Toriyama Sketches Ayumi Hamasaki as Goku (Updated)

Not-So-Daily Link of the Day: Dragonball manga creator Akira Toriyama has sketched a portrait of singer Ayumi Hamasaki for the CD single of "Rule," the theme song for James Wong and 20th Century Fox's live-action film adaptation of the manga. The sketch puts Hamasaki in the trademark orange outfit of Son Goku, the main character of Dragonball. This is the first time that Toriyama has done something similar for a release by a musical artist. It is also the first time that a portrait that Toriyama drew of an actual person has been made into a product.

According to Sankei News, Hamasaki is a big Toriyama fan who has all of the Dragonball anime DVDs. Toriyama was worried about making the portrait's likeness close enough to satisfy fans, while Hamasaki complimented and thanked Toriyama on the sketch. As a fan who listened to all of Hamasaki's music, Wong had personally requested her for the film's theme song.

The first pressing of the CD/DVD set will include picture labels with the sketch for both discs. The set goes on sale on February 25, while the actual film opens in Japan on March 13 and in the United States on April 8. "Rule's" music video has Hamasaki and her dancers performing one particular piece of choreography that is patterned after Goku's Kamehameha attack.

20th Century Fox's website in France has posted the French version of the movie's trailer. Bandai Europe is previewing images of a Son Goku and a Master Roshi action figure.

Source: Sankei News, the unofficial Dragonball the Movie blog for the French trailer and action figure news

Update: The website for Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype magazine reported on the Japanese dubbing cast for the film:

Goku: Kappei Yamaguchi (Justin Chatwin)
Piccolo Daimaō: Houchu Ohtsuka (James Marsters)
Master Roshi: Tsutomu Isobe (Chow Yun-Fat)
Bulma: Aya Hirano (Emmy Rossum)
Chi-Chi: Ami Koshimizu (Jamie Chung)
Mai: Yūko Kaida (Eriko Tamura)
Gohan: Hiroya Ishimaru (Randall Duk Kim)
Yamcha: Hisao Egawa (Joon Park)
Narration: Mami Koyama

Update 2: Gohan's actors swapped. Thanks, Michi.