The TV series My Love From Another Star was released on Blue Ray yesterday, January 7th, at least in Asia. It was previously released in Standard Definition, which hasn’t been the standard for a while now (tech advances way faster than marketing scams). In honor of that, NBCUniversal Entertainment has posted an embeddable version of the first episode on their YouTube channel, which I almost posted here. But, since it is in Korean with Japanese subtitles, I decided that didn’t make a lot of sense for a blog hosted in North America. If you want to watch that version, it is at the second link. The first link will take you to the Hulu page where you can watch it with English subtitles. The story is he crashed his flying saucer on Earth in 1609, had to dodge being killed by Earthlings and therefore missed the rescue craft, and has been waiting for 400 years for his chance to catch a ride on a comet and go home. But now, with just 3 months to go, he has made the mistake of interacting with someone and getting to know them; his terminally annoying new neighbor, the airhead actress. I rather enjoyed this sci-fi rom-com, and thought this was a good excuse to mention it here.
The next blockbuster from Marvel, even before the Avengers. I am so ready!
Most of these are classics, meaning more than 50 years old, although some are noticeably more recent; but there are so many excellent books included here that pretty much everyone will find goodies for their ears and brain. The collection of links is from Openculture’s Free Audiobooks Archive, and it includes the works of Issac Asimov, JG Ballard, Frank L. Baum, Jorge Luis Borges, Ray Bradbury, William S. Burroughs, Lewis Carroll, G.K. Chesterton, Arthur C. Clarke, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Philip K. Dick… and that only takes us through a few of my favorites out of the first four letters of the alphabet. You can stream these in realtime or download them to load into your favorite media player or burn them to disc if you still have a CD player in your vehicle. There are a ton of free radio drama/audio book resources available online, and this one is a great way to get started.
The Australian film Predestination is based on the Robert A Heinlein story All You Zombies, and it will be on the big screen in some US major market theaters this Friday. It will also be available On Demand on most systems Friday, so if a theater near you isn’t showing it you can still get to watch it.
In Movies we get Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who is John Galt, the final film which completes the trilogy adapted from Ayn Rand’s novel. We also get Horns, a fantasy based on Joe Hill’s novel. Left Behind is another fantasy about how the world fell apart after a lot of people evaporated off the planet suddenly. They are also releasing the 1967 classic The Sword of Doom on Blue Ray for the first time. I didn’t find anything interesting in the way of genre TV shows this week.
In Anime, Fairy Tail: Collection 3 brings episodes 49 through 72 to the shelves in one box, complete with all the collateral damage those wizards are famous for. The collection editions are a lot more cost effective than the individual seasons, which run at the same price for half the number of episodes; you just have to be willing to wait a bit longer for them to be released. Likewise, One Piece – Collection Box 1 puts the first 4 seasons into a single box set, for a total of 103 episodes. The second one of those will be along in February.
Qwaser of Stigmata: Complete Collection contains all episodes from season 1, season 2, and the OVAs. Super powered combat with a battle for the fate of mankind puts the sisters Mafuyu and Tomo in danger, but it also gives them the power to help determine the outcome. Fantastic Detective Labyrinth: Complete Collection is about a boy detective in a Shinto filled with supernatural crime, 30 years after Tokyo was destroyed. Also, Dog & Scissors is being released on Blue Ray (previously only available as a DVD), a fantasy about a boy who is reincarnated as a dog owned by his favorite author… only he can not read as a dog.
They may be inspired by One OK Rock or they may just share a similar style, but My First Story is quite a good band in their own right. The first track is Irreversible Replacement, which you will no doubt recognize as the theme song for the Anime series Nobunaga Concerto, which just came out a few months ago. The second track is the song Second Limit from their first full album, a self-titled disc released in 2012. The third one is The Story Is My Life, from their second full album released in 2013. As usual you can pick up their music on iTunes and from Amazon Japan.