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There have been museums and clubs and cans and so much more, but never before has there been an Anime/Manga Theme Park; J-World now fills that bill. Primarily sponsored by Shonen Jump, the weekly Manga with so many excellent series in it, the place has some good immersive displays to explore. The very popular Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto are the core of the park, but it includes several of the other Shonen Jump favorites, like Bleach. This is not a get-on-the-ride kind of theme park, but a place a lot like the Doctor Who Experience, where they put you in the center of a 360 degree environment that makes you feel like you are there. Thanks to the folks at Otaku USA for the heads up on this one.

J-World Theme Park Logo

This is a silly app, spun off from a silly program that I like a lot. The Crazy Talk App allows you to take an Actor, record some dialog, and slave them together for lip syncing. Yes, I know, lots of apps do that. But this is the only one I know that gives you some slider bars that allow you to create and edit animated facial expressions for the resulting video. They have 2 App versions, one free and the other 99 cents. It does have a bit of a learning curve, and to take advantage of everything you will need to get the actual Crazy Talk Program, so you can do stuff like create your own Actors.

The Wall is a German fantasy adventure about a woman who suddenly finds herself isolated from humanity by an invisible barrier she can not cross. This looks like it could be a very powerful interior movie if it is done right. The documentary this time is Necessary Evil: The Villains of DC Comics, because there just isn’t enough nerdyness already in the world.

In TV, the excellent but short lived Primeval New World: The Complete Series is available to bring home. I liked that series, and was very sorry it did not get renewed. The other tasty series is Nikita: The Complete Third Season, spy fun for the whole family.

In Anime, Blood-C: The Last Dark is the feature film that complements the TV series about the half-monster vampire killing girl. Kokoro Connect: Complete is about a group of friends who suddenly find themselves swapped in each others bodies with no clue as to why. Even with the cross-gender swapping, objectionable content is mild; this one is played strictly for the laughs.

Winning the award for this rounds longets title, Yamibo – Darkness, the Hat, and the Travelers of the Books: Complete Collection, I find the premise of this one interesting. Our protagonist has had her elder sister/love interest vanish in front of her. In the process of seeking her out, a talking parakeet leads her to the Great Library, where every book is a gateway to its own unique world. Not surprisingly, this is from Bandai, the same folks who distributed Read Or Die.

Di Gi Charat: Complete is centered around an extraterrestrial princess and her friends who descend on Tokyo with the objective of making her an Idol. The original anime and OVA were kind of promotional, since the Gamers store it is set in, in Akihabara, actually exists, and is part of a chain that has stores as far away as LA, California. This is more of a re-release, but it has been quite a while since the series was available in North America.