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Something to Watch: Discs

The only Western genre title I could find this week was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, a franchise I generally like better in comic/manga form. But I haven’t seen this one yet, I am hoping they finally live up to the promise of their original format.

Anime has Asterisk War Volume 1 which is sadly only the first half of season one of this series. I will be waiting until they release at least a full season, and preferably two, to a single box set before I pick it up. But it is an excellent story you should be watching online while waiting for a real release. Den-noh Coil 2 is the second season about the hidden secrets in the digitally augmented world beyond their VR headsets. With one of their number dead and virtual creatures that act as if they are alive, they only have so much time to unlock the mysteries surrounding them. Rozen Maiden: Zurückspulen has the Jun’s from two separate universes getting together to explore how having/not having the combat dolls in their lives changed how it all worked out. Finally, One Piece – Season 8 Voyage 3 brings episodes 481 through 492 of pirate goodness home.

MetaFive, Kimonos

I really enjoy Yukihiro Takahashi’s new project MetaFive, they are amazing. The band member who is their primary singer is Leo Imai, and he used to be with a band called the Kimonos. The first track is MetaFive’s Maisie’s Avenue, the second is the Kimonos Soundtrack To Murder, and the 3rd is Kimonos Almost Human.

VR: The Golden Record Decoded

The folks at Sci-Friday have put together their first 360 degree VR video, and it is a doozy. The recording in question is an homage to the CD they burned to go on Voyager on its journey to the stars. It could possibly be the last remaining evidence we existed if someone finds it and figures out how to play it a billion years from now. To put the journey into perspective, the Voyager satellites were launched in 1977 and are traveling at 38,000 MPH; Voyager 2 is currently at the Heliosheath, the barrier where the solar wind pushes up against interstellar gas, and so still in our local solar system at a distance of 31 light minutes. Voyager 1 made it through the Heliosheath barrier in 2012 and is now in true interstellar space at 39 light minutes, the first man made object ever to achieve that. In about 40,000 years it will do a close approach of another start 17.6 light years away, another cosmic first for our species. Yay us!

New Moana trailer

The teaser had me promising to be in the theaters for this one, now that I have seen the third full trailer of Moana there is no doubt where I will be this Thanksgiving. Both the artwork and the CG animation look excellent, and I have already seen enough just from the trailers to know I will enjoy getting to know both of the protagonists.

Humble Bundle: Game Maker Bundle

If you haven’t done so already, check out the Humble Game Maker Bundle, and add a very powerful collection of game maker tools to your personal arsenal for very little money. The fact that you get to support charity at the same time is just a bonus, made even better by the option to add your own favorite charity to the purchase! You can also select the percentage of your money that goes to each of the participants (software creators, charities, and humble bundle), although for myself I tend to let the percentages stay at the default, because it seems like a pretty equitable distribution to me. The part of this deal I found particularly exciting were the modules that allowed you to export your finished game to multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows, as well as the cross-platform power of HTML5. They give you the source code to a number of excellent games as well, so you can study them and learn exactly how they pulled off major effects and game functions. The games themselves, including the ones you create, run on the Steam game engines alongside such iconic classics as Duke Nukem, and can also be accessed through YoYoGames. There is no downside to this package; consider picking up this powerful collection of game creation packages at this insanely reduced rate, supporting charity in the process, and set yourself up to make the game you always wanted to play.