There do not seem to be any new genre films this week that I can find. There is a new documentary that I have been waiting for: The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years covers the band from 1963 to 1966, and was put together by Ron Howard from a ton of clips, interviews, and found footage. It got 100% Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, and is the first film I have ever seen with that score. I am looking forward to seeing this one on the big screen, it should be fun.
Captain America: Civil War is pretty much it for western movies and TV this week, but if you can only have one, what an excellent choice! Anime doesn’t do any better, having only two titles, neither of them new. Maken-Ki!: Season One is being re-released in a S.A.V.E. edition, and everything from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is being released in an Ultimate Collector’s Edition. That means 28 episodes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (seasons 1 and 2), 25 episodes of The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya (likewise 2 seasons), 13 episodes of Nyoron! Churuya-san, and 16 episodes of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, along with some artwork and extras, all in a single boxed set for over $100. The good news is, they are also re-releasing each of those titles individually at reduced rates, so if you already have a lot of them, this is a great time to complete your sets. I will be picking up The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan since that is the title I am missing, as an example.
The Power Punk/Doujin band Story of Hope burst on the Indi scene in April of 2013, selling CDs in the back of the halls where they played. In 2015 their Historia EP was released nationally and immediately outsold everything they had done to date, earning them a small but intensely devoted audience. The first track here is from that release, Your Colors, Your Feelings, a Screamo anthem featuring Ryuto Ajima, the second track is Forever from the Alethea full album released in January of 2016.
Both sites have made the announcement front page news: Funimation is teaming up with (or perhaps merging with is more accurate) Crunchyroll. They will be sharing titles, with each side playing to their strengths; Crunchyroll continuing to bring you streamed subtitled shows within an hour of their airing in Japan, Funimation using their in house voice acting team to get them dubbed and available streaming in English in just a few weeks, and available for digital downloading or disc purchasing. I haven’t seen any mention of what happens to those of us who own premium memberships with both companies yet, I am hoping the new operation rewards us for years of loyalty with some kind of discount combo membership.
Disney has been having a lot of fun redoing various classic tales of theirs As Told By Emoji, so just for grins and giggles I thought I would post one here. Posted just 2 days ago, it already has more than 350,000 views.
Max Steel has Max McGrath getting together with the alien cyborg/robot Steel to combine into a superhero. The human doesn’t have a clue, the Borg’s awareness is unresolved, but when they combine good things happen. Yes, this all is based on a game from the last century, but it has some serious amusement value.