I am definitely looking forward to Disney/Pixar’s next entry in the scaring franchise Monsters University. It should be hitting the big screen on June 21st, hope to see you there.
This Friday we have The Croods, the cave family working hard to invent civilization as we know it. I enjoyed the various trailers, and think this one should be quite amusing. And let’s face it, I’ll watch anything made by Dreamworks.
There isn’t much this week, but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is worth checking out. I was hoping they would have stuck with the one book = one movie format they did with the Ring series, but this one book they are dragging out into 3 movies. They are doing this by showing you a number of complete battles they mentioned in one or two sentences in the book, dragging in filler from some of Tolkien’s other works, and so forth. That’s it for movies, and there do not seem to be any live action TV shows this time around.
We do somewhat better in Anime, with One Piece Season 4 DVD Part 4 bringing us episodes 242 through 252; at this rate, we may catch up with real time episodes in another few years. Toriko: Part 3 continues the gastronomic combat series (it doesn’t deserve to be on the menu if it doesn’t have at least as good a chance of having you for diner when the hunt finishes).
Fate/Stay Night: Complete Collection is all 24 episodes of the Stay Night storyline, but remember there is also a movie called Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, which is an alternate retelling, an OVA collection called Fate: Prototype, and another TV series titled Fate: Zero, so I tend to take exception to the Complete Collection part of the designation.
Vampire Princess Miyu TV is an actual complete collection of the TV series, although there was an OVA set for this show as well. The half human vampire girl is doomed to be a teenager forever, fighting the forces of darkness to save mankind. The series aired in 1997 through 1998, but it was a sequel to the original 1988 show, so this is old school style anime. Another classic being re-released this week is Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter, a Giant Mecha battle drama from 2000. It is an OVA of four 30 minute episodes. Finally, the much more recent Corpse Princess: The Complete Series is being released in a S.A.V.E. edition, which means you can add it to your collection for $20 or so if you shop around. She’ll kill anything that’s dead, to protect the living.
This week seems to be all about the music, so here is Kyary Pamyu Pamyu with her new song Ninja Ri Bang Bang. It is just as kawaii as you would expect, although this time her dancers without faces (why does nobody but Kyary ever have a face in one of her videos?) are animated rather than live action. She performed this live on last week’s episode of Music Station, where it came in ranked number 4 for the week in Japan.
Глюк’oZa has made some excellent animations to go with their high quality music, and I just thought I would share a few more of them with you today. I appreciate the Machinema 3D modeling they do for a bunch of them, while on others they use western animation styles, and still others are done Anime fashion. The fact I enjoy the hell out of her music doesn’t hurt any either.
OK, this one is just downright silly, but has the same cunning as Bernstein’s Peter And The Wolf. Tricking children into becoming music lovers by explaining to them what is going on, or by making sure they get to attend a presentation by a live orchestra. I don’t care which method is used, I enjoy the fact that Wallice and Gromit’s Musical Marvels is helping more and more young people understand and learn to appreciate music.