More coverage, this time with a glimpse of the crowd in the rather cattle-car waiting area they kept us standing in for a couple of hours. They could have just opened the doors and let us sit down, but that didn’t happen. That was just about the only part of the event I found less than entertaining, everything else about the event was excellent.
Terrestrial Human
Yes, it really happened several days ago; Lady Gaga and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu shared a stage on the hit Japanese music program Music Station, and it was hard to say who was more Kawaii. It was also hard to say what they thought about each other, at least from this bit of footage. Considering no one has a face in a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu video except Kyary Pamyu Pamyu herself, my bet would be she was not happy that someone else was taking center stage on the Kawaii platform, but this is only a small slice out of the show. I haven’t seen it myself yet, but hopefully the DVR has captured it and I will be able to watch it and come to a much more informed conclusion. The show airs on Friday nights in Japan, on Sunday in the US for those with NHK Premium. It is the one Japanese rock show that musicians from all over the world drop in to sing one of their songs while they are touring the country, and all the best J-Pop bands hit as often as they can arrange (AKB48 are pretty much the show regulars). Thanks to Crunchyroll for the heads up on this one.
The Last Days on Mars is a UK movie which is borderline horror and very much a thriller, but it includes some actors I like and some excellent production values. It has been out for a while on iTunes so will only be in a limited number of theaters, but I think it will look good on the big screen. Likewise the Canadian film Ice Soldiers only gets a limited run, also includes some actors I like, and has a very tasty looking trailer. Finally, the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: The Rebellion Story will also be doing a limited run on American screens this week. The American offering this time around is Implanted, which did not look quite as interesting as the others when I viewed the trailer, so I will be waiting for that one to hit a streaming service to see it.
In movies we have The Wolverine, another excellent selection from the ongoing Marvel universe, this time from their X-Men franchise. As usual, you want to stay all the way to the end, so you don’t lose any clues about what might be coming up next. The other film of note is based on a book without so many pictures, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. That one was written by Cassandra Clare, the opening volume of her YA series The Mortal Instruments, part of The Shadowhunter Chronicles.
In TV, we continue with the 50th celebration, this weeks offering being Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 9-11. This group is Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith, and concludes the first dozen Doctors. A worthwhile grouping of the next set of characters, don’t you think?
In Western animation, Marvel’s Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United is a good companion piece for Wolverine.
In Anime, Aquarion Evol is not exactly a direct sequel to Aquarion, since it takes place 12,000 years later, but it is set in the same universe with the same underlying premise. I don’t remember the first one being quite this filled with less than subtle double entendre’s, but perhaps I just forgot; I should go back and watch it again before I start the new series. The unique series Girls und Panzer is all about the high school girls clubs which salvage, maintain, and go into combat with each other in tanks, and they are doing a duel release this week. They have the complete OVA series at 6 episodes long, and the complete TV series at 12 episodes both hitting the shelves.
One Piece continues the epic, with season 5 part 4 bringing you episodes 300 through 312. Zatch Bell mes out as the complete seasons one and two, but instead of the normal 26 episodes you might assume, this set weighs in at 104 episodes. In this series, creatures known as mamodo come to Earth every thousand years to battle it out and determine who gets to rule them for the next millennium. They can only use their magic when teamed up with a human, and the mamodo known as Zatch Bell has teamed up with 14 year old Kiyo for this round of fighting.
The Pinballs are another excellent guitar based rock band from Japan. The first track is from their second album 100 Years On A Spaceship, and the second track, Ten Bear, is just as kick ass.
Doctor Who: Legacy is a free mobile RPG/Puzzle game app from BBC Worldwide and Tiny Rebel Games, yet another celebration of 50 years of the Tardis. It starts off with the most recent Doctor, Companions, and Villeins from the latest two seasons, but the plan is to expand it to cover everyone from the entire 50 year history of the series. They have versions for Apple and Android, and I should probably mention that the game supports micro-purchases, meaning you can acquire objects and characters by spending real money. Personally I went into settings and turned that function off, but every day in December they plan to have new stuff for free including K-9 and Sarah Jane Smith, and in early 2014 they will have everyone from Series 5 also available for free. The screen shot is the first point in the game where the Doctor speaks to you and invites you to become a companion; the music and artwork for this game are quite tasty.
