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Something to Watch: DVDs, 19Nov13

Top spot this week goes to The World’s End, another excellent collaboration between Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost. Not only will it be released as a stand-alone, but they will also bring out the box set with the entire Cornetto Trilogy; Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End. There is a rather unusual Vampire film coming out called Sanguivorous, with no spoken dialog and an acting style based on Noh or Butoh, a form of Japanese story telling through dance. It only played in a handful of theaters across the US, in part because a live band (composed of Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and Chicago saxophonist Edward Wilkerson, Jr.) toured with it to play the soundtrack for this silent film. The 3rd interesting film this go round is Mars, a 2010 animated comedy romance about space exploration that has been on the Film Festival circuit for the last several years, and is finally getting a DVD release.

In TV, Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet is story number 29 with William Hartnell as the Doctor, and companions Ben and Polly. This was Hartnell’s final tale as the Doctor, and the first time we got to meet the Cybermen. It was also the first time a Regeneration happened on screen as the role was passed on to Patrick Troughton. Star Trek The Next Generation: Season Five makes its Blu-Ray debut this week as well, and they are also extracting a two-part story to roll out separately, Star Trek The Next Generation: Unification.

In Anime, Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance Part 2 delivers the final 6 episode of this excellent little series. I think they should have packaged them up in season 1 and season 2 boxed and sold them for the same price that they have been selling the half seasons, so I will be waiting for a more cost effective packag before I buy my copy. One Piece Movie 10: Strong World continues that series, with a new film. I mention that because sometimes the feature length presentations are retellings of the TV show stories.

Good Luck Girl is about a rich, beautiful, and very lucky girl who has everything going her way. That is because she is siphoning off the good luck of everyone around her, and a minor god notices and decides to follow her around and give the luck back. A lot like spiritual wack-a-mole, really, with all the fun and silliness the situation can deliver. This is from the folks who did Bleach and Gintama, I recommend you check it out. Finally, Little Busters!: Collection 1 is about 5 childhood friends who have grown up, letting their dreams of becoming defenders of justice fade over the years. But now cats are bringing two of them messages about a secret world that needs their help, and their dreams might not be as far in the past as they had thought.

Museum of Science Fiction needs you!

Not the Experience in Seattle, home of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, but a real live Museum of Science Fiction is being built in Washington, DC, and it is yet another project being built by crowdfunding. It will cover the history of the genre in all the various media, and examine its relationship to the real world. As they say on their You Tube page: Our mission is to create a center of gravity where art and science are powered by imagination. This effort is headed up by science fiction authors Greg Bear and David Brin, and their crowdfunding is centered at Indiegogo. They are starting by building a preview museum to open next year, and hoping to open the full scale facility by 2017. The preview museum will have exhibits including Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who artifacts, as both a warm up and an additional fund raising effort. Thanks to USA Today for the heads up on this one.

Something to Watch: DVDs, 24Sep13

If the only release I mentioned this week was Iron Man 3, it would be sufficient. It truly gave that particular subset of the Marvel franchise a beginning, a middle, and an end, making each of the previous offerings fulfill a part of the overall story arc, when they appeared to just be stand alone films when they were first made available. The TV series Doctor Who: The Complete Seventh Series is also being released, but it came out in Part 1 and Part 2 sets a while ago; this is just more cost effective packaging.

In Anime, Is This a Zombie: The Complete 2nd Season brings Ayumu’s problems to the forefront. He was murdered by a serial killer and resurrected by a cute Necromancer who refuses to talk with him. Then a magical girl with a deadly pink chainsaw and a vampire ninja each decided he was worth doing. Between his harem of mystical misfits and his decaying body, Ayumu could end up even deader before he solves the mystery of his own death! The other new anime is Rio: Rainbow Gate!, about the woman on her way to becoming the Most Valuable Casino Dealer in the world. She is Luck Incarnate, but she has a serious set of challenges in front of her. The once noble Queen Claudette has devolved into a tyrant with the support of the court and the church, and a new generation of women warriors are banding together to oust her from power in Queen’s Blade: Rebellion. Like many other programs, you can watch it on Crunchyroll.

There are a few classic anime series being re-released this week as well, including GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka is in a complete series box set, as is Blue Submarine No. 6. The 2004 live action feature film Casshern is an alternate history tale of genetic engineering in the hands of a multinational conglomerate who uses it to create mutants bent on the destruction of humanity, and the hero who emerges to save us all. Dreamworks is putting it back on US shelves for the first time in years, if you missed this when it initially came out now is your chance to catch it. It is based on the 1973 anime Robot Hunter Casshern, in that series it was androids rather than mutants putting humanity at risk.

Something to Watch: DVDs, 30Jul13

I somehow missed G.I. Joe: Retaliation when it was in the theaters, but I suspect I will watch it eventually. After all, it has both Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson, so it has to be a roller coaster of an action film. Something to watch for the mindless violence and special effects, in other words.

There seems to be some conflicting information about Time Trax: The Complete Second Season, which is listed as a new release on the Warner Archive site, and listed as coming out this week on Video ETA, but at the same time is listed as being In Stock at most of the sites where you can buy it. I have the feeling some of the confusion is generated by the fact that this is an On Demand release, meaning they do not actually burn it to DVD or Blue Ray until you order it. I like this approach a lot, since it means a lot of shows that would otherwise never get released because of low audience demand become available. The flip side of that coin is they are generally a bit pricier than they could be because they will never go on sale to clear out the stock. The other release worth noting this week is Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4 on Blue Ray. They have been doing quite a fine job of upgrading this series to 1080p, although I have to wonder how long it will be before they start working up the 3D version, then the 4K version…

In western animation this time we have Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, which brings into existence a very different alternate timeline to the DC universe.

Anime starts off with Another: Complete Collection, a story about a popular girl still hanging out at her school 23 years after her death, and the boy who can see her. He has to solve the mystery of her death before his own demise comes to claim him. Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie is the first two films they have put out, Beginnings and Eternal; the third film in the series, Rebellion, will be on the big screen soon. The problem from my perspective is these animations are being released as imported special editions, which makes them about 6 times more expensive than I consider the programming itself to be worth. So I will be waiting for something more realistic in the way of a release format before they are added to my collection.

I normally don’t mention re-releases, but there is a classic being made available for the first time in a while that is very worth watching. Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine takes you back to the beginning of the franchise, so you can see how it all began, and come to know the woman at the core of the stories. Hard to believe this animation is now 40 years old; while the character design is old school, the animation style is still quite fresh and holds its own to this day.