The Host is a story of alien invasion, body snatchers who push out the human spirit, but some humans fight back hard. Based on the book by Stephenie Meyer, we get no sparkling vampires this time, so I think it might be worth taking a look at. Also out, GI Joe: Retaliation claims it is better than the first film, and I hope that’s true. I thought the first one was technically well done, but somehow I just wasn’t able to connect with the Joe characters. Possibly because they were supposed to be the good guys, but they killed off even more innocent bystanders than the bad guys and didn’t seem to notice, let alone care. Perhaps they fixed that problem by now and surgically attached souls to the bodies of the warriors.
The winner this week is Tatsumi, based on Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s autobiographical manga, A Drifting Life. While Tatsumi idolized Osamu Tezuka, and met him in postwar occupied Japan as a young Manga artist/writer, he decided after a while that he didn’t want to just write stories for children. So in the 1950’s he invented Gekiga (dramatic pictures), a new adult oriented genre of graphic novels. Manga (irresponsible pictures) and Gekiga started influencing each other as time went on, with even Tezuka trying his hand at it by the 1980s. Of course here in the US everyone just calls both genres Manga, even though lots of people prefer Gekiga without knowing that’s what it is. Besides segments of Drifting Life, 5 of Tatsumi’s best stories are also brought to life in this feature length animation.
The classic Futureworld is being re-released on Blue Ray, just as Westworld was a while ago. 1997’s French/Italian film Virtual Weapon isn’t a classic, and it also isn’t getting the blue ray treatment, coming out in DVD format only, but at least it is getting released. The Dinosaur Project looks like a home made cross between Blair Witch and Jurassic Park, and won’t be coming home with me.
In TV Continuum: Season One is out Tuesday, and I find I haven’t quite made my mind up about it yet. I really enjoy watching it, I like the characters and the way they interact with each other, and it is good quality production. They don’t seem to be evolving the characters or advancing the story arc very fast at all, though there has been a lot of background and setup. I am hoping that the pace picks up soon, because they have a lot of potential that I would love to see realized. Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out was a TV special they did to run between episodes IV and V. I like Lego versions of films and movies, they are always fun to watch.
In anime, Phi-Brain: Puzzle of God is releasing season 1 collection 1, the first 13 episodes of the series. Kaito love to solve puzzles, but now he is trapped inside one with his friend and if he doesn’t solve it correctly they both die. If he does solve it, a hidden organization will just set more fiendish puzzle traps for him to resolve. This show is particularly fun if you enjoy solving puzzles, you can play against Kaito and see if you can beat him to the solution as you watch. You can also watch it on Crunchyroll if you want to see what it is like.
Amagami SS+ Complete Collection continues the story of Junichi’s evolving relationship with his girlfriend… in each of seven parallel universes. As with the first season, each girl and universe gets two contiguous episodes to explore how the relationship progresses. This is an interesting exploration of the way life changes as the result of our decisions, and I don’t think I could compare it to anything quite so much as the movie Sliding Doors; if you are a fan of one, you will love the other.
Shakugan no Shana season 3 comes out in two parts, each a box set, and continues the story of the near-dead human boy and the spirit warrior woman. But now they are on opposite sides in a massive spiritual battlefield, with the future of the whole world at stake. If you were wondering, you can also watch this one online over at the Funimation channel.
Finally, InuYasha the Movie: The Complete Collection puts all four of the feature length films from that series in a single Blue Ray box set, at a reasonable price. And yeah, that is another series you can watch online, this time over at Viz Anime.
One of the least politically correct superhero comedies ever made, Misfits has been signed up for season 5 according to Digital Spy. Apparently they are also considering doing a movie, and if that happens we may get the return of a few of the earlier cast members as well. So far only the first two seasons are available in the US except through a service like Hulu Plus, and yes, this show is the reason I got a Hulu account.
For those who have not already seen this, get ready; it is going to be one hell of a ride! Star Trek Into Darkness looks like a killer production for the rebooted franchise, and if I could only get my Tardis working properly I would have already seen it.
It doesn’t sound any different than you would expect to hear here… and that is the point, isn’t it? Some things become a universal language, just by the nature of the device. This particular collection is from Japan, but it could have been from Ireland or Siberia or San Francisco for all the human ear can tell. The images being mostly still snap shots gives you no additional clues either. I do find this a tasty assortment of recorded guitar work, and look forward to adding it to the audio portion of my media collection, because it is so well done.
Ok, not QUITE back yet, but coming soon, at least, as this trailer for Despicable Me 2 tends to indicate. I love the minions, and they have yet another opportunity to become their insane selves in the new movie. It should be hitting the big screen on July 3rd, just in time for some holiday silliness.