Strider's Sci-Fi

The animated romantic comedy The Book of Life is being released this week, with a unique visual style from Guillermo del Toro. Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, also animated, has Aquaman having to choose sides between Atlantis and the Justice League when war with the surface breaks out. The one unanimated selection this time, The Remaining, is closer to horror than fantasy or sci-fi. I didn’t find much in the way of genre western TV this time around.

In Anime we have Log Horizon: Collection 2, continuing the story of 30,000 players trapped in the online game Elder Tales, unable to escape. We also have Lupin the 3rd: Napoleon’s Dictionary, in which the secret of the Lupin family treasure is revealed. Both of these shows are adventurous and funny, if you are not already familiar with them you might want to start at the beginning; click the Oldest button on the Crunchyroll page to start with the first episode of the first season. The first season of Lupin the 3rd is streaming on Hulu, and about half of it was done by the legendary Miyazaki; he also did the feature film sized Castle of Cagliostro, a truely excellent Lupin the 3rd outing.

I am not sure how to categorize “>Yasuko Omori‘s music; Kawaii Punk maybe? Or perhaps Hyper-Energized J-Pop would be closer. Whatever it is, I like it, and wanted to share it here. The first track is something like absolute despair is the best condition, while the second one is Kyurukyuru, both from 2014.

This award winning short animation was put together by four very talented animators at Supinfocom Arles School of Digital Filmmaking over the course of their final year. It pulled in a ton of awards, and probably earned them job offers as well. It is another gem I found over at the CGI Bros. Channel.

The first two episodes of Haphead go live on their web site tonight, right after they show the entire first season at the Royal Theatre in Toronto tonight. It is a cyberpunk tale about a new haptic peripheral which makes videogames so immersive that people learn skills just by playing them (yes, that is pretty much their tag line). Thanks to Cory Doctorow for the heads up on this one.

The Gundam Fever Project created a simulated Gundam visit to a Tokyo office building and played it for the unsuspecting office workers. They say this is just the first in a series of such pranks. Thanks to Otaku USA Magazine for the heads up on this one.

There is a new trailer out for Avengers: Age Of Ultron, as if we needed any additional urging to see this film.

Wishing a happy 81st birthday today to Tom Baker, the 4th Doctor.

This week we get Strange Magic, an animated film about the culture clash and confusion that ensues when goblins and fairies find each other for the first time. Both the animation quality and the story look first rate, I will be in the theater for this one.

We have a couple of good choices in the Movie category this week. The Zero Theorem is the latest sci-fi film from Terry Gilliam. As usual with his films, you can watch it as a twisted adventure or you can enjoy the more cerebral aspects. Luc Besson’s tale of forced evolution, Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman also hits the shelves. The animated feature film The Boxtrolls is one of the best examples of stop motion I have seen in a while, tells a wonderful story, and is nominated for the Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature category. Finally, Coherence is also coming to disc, and has won some awards on the Film Fest circuit. I didn’t really see anything this week in genre TV.

In Anime, A Certain Scientific Railgun: Season 1 takes place in Academy City, and involves the scientific induction of Psy powers into a percentage of the population. Total Eclipse: Season 1, also known as the Muv Luv Alternative, is about an alternate timeline where the Eurasian continent was invaded by aliens in 1967, and mankind has been in a desperate fight for survival ever since. By the present day the invaders own a third of the land surface on the planet. We also get Naruto Shippūden: DVD Box 21 with episodes 258 through 270.

The band is called Good Morning America, and the first song is the title track of their new album In Tokyo City, released this past October. The second tune posted here was their 2nd single, Dear Sirs, Tsuratsusutora, released in April of 2014. They had to use goodmorningameica as the name for their YouTube channel, because someone else had already taken the bands actual name for use there.