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Terrestrial Human

Something to Watch: Online

Most everything being mentioned here today is from Japan, so I must start by telling you you can watch NHK live online, in English, to keep up to the minute on developments in what is the worst earthquake to ever strike that country. My heart goes out to everyone hurt or with with family killed in this disaster.

Today is the leading edge of Global Shinkai Day, the Fan-invented celebration of Anime creator Makoto Shinkai. In honor of this Crunchyroll is streaming three of his best works online: 5 Centimeters Per Second, Voices of a Distant Star, and The Place Promised in Our Early Days. These are amazing movies (one feature length, and two shorter pieces) that are quite different than you would be expecting if you haven’t seen one of his masterpieces before. His stories only ever have one subject; the human heart. The day itself is tomorrow, the 12th, but the viewing runs throughout the weekend. Trust me when I say you want to catch them before they evaporate off the server.

Also the Anime Network has added a lot of new content to their portal on Hulu. Some of the new titles include Hell Girl (Seasons 2 and 3), High School of the Dead, and Tayutama: Kiss on My Deity, to name but a few. On their primary site they just launched Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka, an Anime rendition of a VN Game (Visual Novel Game, think interactive semi-animated comic book game). The subject matter of the series is not what I usually track, but because of the source media type this one is developing in directions I had never expected, and so promises to be worth checking out.

Sci-Fi Science: Geminoid DK

The person in the video below was built, not grown. He is the Geminoid DK, and he was assembled at the Intelligent Robotics Lab at Osaka University, the next in a long line of androids they have been developing there. Also called the Ishiguro Lab after the chief scientist, Hiroshi Ishiguro, their first realistic android was modeled after its creator, and the latest one was built for and modeled after Associate Professor Henrik Scharfe of Aalborg University in Denmark. Not all of them were a success; in the final clip,the adult woman android now has a job answering questions for the IEEE, but the little girl android modeled on Ishiguro’s daughter has been retired because she thought it was creepy in the extreme. So cheer up, when it comes to our new Evil Robot Overlords, we may be living in the middle of my favorite Pogo quote: We have met the enemy, and he is us!

The Doctor for Red Nose Day 2011

Under the tag line Do something funny for money, the annual charity event Red Nose Day is coming around in the UK again on the 18th. Also known as Comic Relief, this gets a full day of support and special programing from the BBC on several of their channels, including BBC 3, BBC Radio 1, and BBC Radio 3. While you still can’t watch their streaming video feed in North America (I keep waiting for their promised paid subscription service, but so far nada), you can listen to the radio streams live. One of the things I always look forward to is the contribution from the Doctor Who team. This year they are doing a micro episode in two parts according to SFX, complete with Amy Pond flirting with herself.

Something to Do: Movies

This looks like a quality week to make it to the movie theaters! To start, we have two contenders for the Action/Adventure title, the first being Battle: Los Angeles. The next in a series of alien invasion movies that has gradually grown more intense over the last decade or so, given a serious boost with the advent of Battlestar Galactica, and refined by all the recent entrants from District 9, through Skyline, to Monster. For the hard Sci-Fi adrenalin junkys in the audience, this is the film to beat.

For the Fantasy crowd, there is a selection just as compelling: Red Riding Hood takes you through the implications the Twilight series pretended didn’t exist. I am really hoping Red herself turns out every bit as Buffy-like as I imagine her while watching the trailer, and reaks havoc on the innocent monsters.

In Suing the Devil, Luke O’Brien sues the devil for $8 trillion and the devil shows up in court to defend himself. The situation is just a bit unfair, since all of the best lawyers end up in hell when their life is over, and Malcolm McDowell as the Devil brings them with him. Again, a compelling movie with an amazing cast, and a lot to think about before the ending credits roll.

The fourth and possibly final choice for this weekend is the animated Mars Needs Moms! This Disney flic is the silliest of the weekend, but not necessarily the one with the fewest important points to bring to the table. The animation quality is what you would expect from that house: first rate!

Somthing to Watch: DVD’s

The best live action film this time around is not genre, but I will be looking for it: The Man from Nowhere, a Korean crime thriller. The one movie collection that looks like fun this week is Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: XX. The original movies may suck, but when the MST3K team is done with them they are a joy to watch. There are a few live action movie choices which I have never heard of and have no ideas about. Matty Hanson and the Invisibility Ray looks to be a family oriented direct to DVD selection, while The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff is a 1973 Spanish movie apparently of a more adult nature.

The clear winner for TV shows this week is The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season. Most people had a hard time believing this was a TV show, which is kind of silly. It isn’t on broadcast TV after all, so its creators had the full range of non-regulated choices available to any film maker or premium cable channel producer. I missed it when it originally aired, so I look forward to catching up with it now.

There are a few quality documentary TV shows this week, with the must-have option being Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. This is another one of those true science programs that explores the limits of scientific knowledge, and speculates its way past the borders those limits put up. Since that definition is at the heart of science fiction, you can understand why I love this program. The fact that it is done better than most documentaries, and explains the science it is extrapolating from in an easily understandable way is just bonus points in my book; I already loved this show! Some of the lesser known documentaries coming out now include Moon Race: Volumes 1 & 2 and Space Race: Volumes 1 & 2, I suspect from the same production company.

Tales from Earthsea is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, it is from Studio Ghibli, put together in 2006 from the wonderful story written by Ursula K LeGuin. But this one was the first venture by the son, Goro Miyazaki, and not the father, Hayao Miyazaki, and the lack of experience shows. Still, while not up to the masterworks dad cranks out, this version shows some promise, and I enjoyed it. I think that the review that spoke to the heart of the problem came from J-Film Powwow if you want to look into it deeper before making your decision. There are a few other projects by Ursula coming to the big screen soon, including Field of Vision, which looks absolutely amazing. And for true Ghibli fans, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is being released on Blue Ray on the same day.

There are a few re-releases worth noting this week, including the El Cazador de la Bruja – Complete Series, previously only available by season. Another Girls with Guns buddy series in the tradition of Noir (complete with the younger girl with a hole in her memory), this one takes place in the wild west. If you are not sure if this program is for you, you can watch it online before making your decision. Also, one of my favorite Anime’s of 2005, Speed Grapher, is coming out as a complete series SAVE edition, which means you can pick up the entire thing for $20 or so. The various home pages for the series seem to be gone, but if you are over 17 you can still watch it online. The story line is twisty and brutal, with many wealthy people paying for the chance to mutate into monsters with super powers, under the control of an evil mastermind. the animation is world class, the music bed and voice work is quite well done, and there are only two normal people in the entire cast (the protagonist and the victimized young girl he attempts to save). This one is a keeper.