There are several movies this week, of which Anonymous is the most interesting, as speculative historical fiction based on the concept that Shakespeare was a front man rather than a playwright. With the best cast and highest production values, it is hands down the film to beat this week. On the silly side, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas is also out on disc this week. Other options include The Yakuza Weapon and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, neither of which will be joining my collection.
I didn’t find any live action TV shows worth mentioning this week. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any coming out, I just didn’t find them.
Anime fares quite a bit better this week, starting with the second season of the ever wacky Arakawa Under the Bridge × Bridge – Complete Premium Edition and all the craziness the characters each bring to it. This release is a bit pricy, consisting as it does of a Blue Ray disk set, as well as DVD disks, and a full color 32 page hardcover art book. I am going to wait for a more cost effective release to be made available before I add this to my collection, but it will be there as soon as that happens.
Also new this week Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season 1 and Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season 2 are both coming out. They both run 325 minutes, with the first one having 13 episodes and the second 12 episodes and an OVA, but the SRP for the second one is $20 higher ($12 higher if you shop around). As near as I can tell the only physical difference between them is the second season comes with Cardboard “art box” big enough to hold both seasons. I am not sure if I want to pay $12 for 50 cents worth of cardboard even if it is printed with pretty pictures, so I will probably be waiting to catch this one on sale. Another two at once release, Tales of the Abyss – Part 3 and Tales of the Abyss – Part 4 both become available on Tuesday. This is a series of stories on another planet that seem to have one character in common from volume to volume, cementing the world together.
And the last of the new releases for this week is Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 – Complete Season 2, a parallel Earth in which our protagonist is executed and the rebellion is crushed forever… or is it? Even though it isn’t genre, I also wanted to mention that K-ON! Season 1 box set is also coming out.
Xam’d: Lost Memories – Complete Collection brings this excellent anime together in a single box set, at a much better price then you got when you bought the two seasons separately. Akira, the movie that really broke anime out into public awareness for North America, is also being re-released, no doubt because of the American live action movie project.
A re-release I am particularly excited about is Gasaraki – Complete Series Collection, another giant mecha combat story with excellent animation and production values. I first stumbled across this one in a used DVD section of a local brick-and-mortar where they had two of the volumes. Over the years I managed to find 3 more used volumes (it was already out of print when I found the first one), but I have never been able to see the entire program. Now finally I can. And speaking of giant mecha, there are a handful of classic Gundam series being re-released this time around, three different series second seasons.