The live action version of Black Butler was released in January in Japan, June 14th in Canada, and comes out next week in the UK. Unfortunately it is not scheduled for movie theaters in the US that I could find, but it has been released on all-region DVD here. Originally set in the England of Queen Victoria, the new movie is set in 2020 to give the mingling of the cultures a more realistic environment. When a girl’s parents are killed, she sells her soul to a demon, in return for which he becomes her butler and serves her in all things… including tracking down her parent’s killers. The Manga was excellent, the Anime was quite good as well, I am looking forward to seeing how well they did with the live action version.
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Ths weekend we get Dracula Untold, a story about the ruler and hero Vlad Tepes sacrificing much to save his family and his subjects from the invading armies. In some ways this is a lot closer to the historic facts of his life and times than most Dracula movies, and includes his Impaler tendencies, although with those scenes adjusted to retain the PG-13 rating. Except for that whole Vampire thing they could have passed this as a historical epic, but that just helps spice up the story. I will be in the theaters for this one.
Topping movies this time around we get Edge of Tomorrow, the movie based on the excellent book All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. I find it interesting that they changed the title of the movie to the tagline for the disc cover: Live Die Repeat. The other live action film this week is Sharknado 2: The Second One, so even a new rebooting of Howard The Duck would have gotten top billing over that. However, there is one more that is worth your time to check out; the animated Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart. It features a world class voice cast in both its English and French audio versions, and the animation quality is top notch. I don’t find that much of a surprise, since this is from the team that brought us A Monster In Paris, is produced by Luc Besson, and is based on the concept album by the French rock band Dionysos, and the graphic novel La Mécanique du cœur written by their lead singer.
There are several good choices in TV, beginning with Hemlock Grove: The Complete First Season, the made-for-Netflix supernatural series. I found it very interesting, and just spooky enough to make it a good selection for an October release. American Horror Story: Coven – The Complete Third Season is likewise an excellent choice for the month that includes Halloween. Bates Motel: Season Two, Houdini, and The Following: The Complete Second Season round out the selections this time.
In Anime, Rozen Maiden: Zuruckspulen is a twisted tale of time and fate unraveling, as the adult Jun speaks with his younger self. Their goal now is to try to revive Shinku to prevent Kirakisho, the seventh Rozen Maiden, from unleashing destruction on both of their worlds. Also this week Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet is a far future tale of what happens when several members of the space-faring branch of humanity accidentally finds their way back to Earth. This one was the best series in the Spring season of 2013 for me, I watched each episode as it became available before any other show. This release includes the entire 13 episode series, the two OVAs, and the 13 Petite Gargiantia Mini-Episodes as well as the Petite Gargiantia Special. In other words, everything they ever made for the series is in the box set, including a bunch of things not previously seen outside of Japan. I would have posted the Viz Streaming Anime link rather than the Crunchyroll for this one, except it didn’t seem to be working.
Mobile Suit Gundam UC – Part 4 is a slightly misleading title, since the original series consisted of 7 one hour episodes, and this 90 minute long release is the fourth and final part of it. If you are a Gundam fan, you will not want to miss this one. And a couple of non-Terrestrial Pirate shows are being re-released this time around, Bodacious Space Pirates and Space Pirate Mito.
One of the best, and therefor longest lasting, Ska bands from Japan is Tokyo Ska Paradise. The first track is Diamond In Your Heart released in July, the second is SUIKINKUTSU featuring the Piano goodness of Hiromi Uehara. The third song is Sky without Canary with Chibayuusuke of Thee Michelle Gun Elephant fame on vocals from 2009, and the final track of tonight’s collection is Chuosame Yoshie singing Cat Playing in the Twilight. If you like jazz, or ska, or big band, this is a group you want to pay attention to when they come your way.
Syfy has a pitiful track record at made for TV movies, but both their original TV series and their miniseries have been excellent, and Ascension looks like it could be a winner. The premise is simple; what if the space race Kennedy started in 1962 didn’t collapse once humanity made it to the moon, but kept going. If that progress had been steady, by now we would be launching our first expeditions to the nearer stars… and what a different universe that would have been! Of course, to keep up that constant development, you would have needed someone to race against, who also didn’t falter or pause.
Kingsman: The Secret Service is another great Marvel comic book transformed into a movie. Written by Mark Miller (Kick-Ass) and illustrated by Dave Gibbons (Watchmen artist), the graphic novel was a lot of fun. From the look of this trailer the movie should be just as entertaining. It will be hitting the big screen on 13Feb2015.