There are some things you can’t cover up with lipstick and powder… and it is my bet the latest incarnation of the Disco Robot Overlord is one of them!!
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The first track is from the band Unlimits, and while I may not be good enough yet to follow the dialog I can sure follow the attitude! The presentation after that is the band Special Thanks doing their song NEVER GIVE UP. And to round it out, we have Blue Sugar Spirits doing their hit モノクロ. Trust me when I say you are going to like this music. And then Special Thanks comes back one last time, to do their song You say GOOD BYE. If you have trouble finding these at your local brick and mortar, check Amazon, iTunes, and iTunes Japan (you can pick up gift cards to use on iTunes Japan from places like JBox, which do take American credit cards).
The two main offerings this time are Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and The Secret World of Arrietty, bringing entertainment to two different audience segments. I enjoyed the first Ghost Rider movie enough that I don’t mind a sequel and expect to enjoy it. On the other hand, any animation from Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli is a work of art on a par with Disney at its best, and even Disney thinks so; it is why they are the North American distributors for them. This one is their version of The Borrowers, and as always it is beautifully executed. While they don’t have a theme park, they do have their own museum which you should visit the next time you are in Japan. There are a few other movies this weekend, such as No Sanctuary, but I am going to be lucky to have time to see the first two.
The only US live action movie selection this time around is good, but isn’t genre: The Rum Diary, where once more Johnny Depp channels Hunter S. Thompson. Sword of Desperation from Japan tells the tale of a Swordsman who tries to raise his niece after the death of his wife and his release from prison while developing his own school of fighting. Also out is the classic film Three Outlaw Samurai, more of an origin story than a pilot for the TV series of the same name. And I am going to mention Nude Nuns With Big Guns because I figure that has to have some kind of a bizarre effect on my search engine results.
The top TV choice this time around is the Dr. Who show The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe which I am sure everyone recognizes as the 2011 Christmas Special. Like all that went before, this one has its own special moments. To counterbalance that, They Came From Outer Space: The Complete Television Series lasted on the air for nearly a season back in 1990, being the story of two alien brothers touring California in a classic corvette while government agents tried to capture them.
There are several western animations offerings this time around, but all spinoffs or direct to disc sequels. From Dreamworks, Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury is a sequel to How To Train Your Dragon. The other two are from a single source, the Penguins of Madagascar TV show, with the titles New to the Zoo and Operation Get Ducky being released separately.
In Anime, Chrome Shelled Regios – The Complete Series brings it out in a single package now, and drops the price from the $60 of the Part 1 and Part 2 release down to $45 or less if you shop around. In addition the Hell Girl: Three Vessels – Complete Collection does pretty much the same thing, but with different price points for each package.
In November of 2013 Doctor Who will be 50 years old, having first aired in November, 1963. Moffat and company have been doing a great job of building up to it, and promise a really exciting series of events throughout the year. In honor of that, a trailer for the last question, and a snippet of an interview with Aldred and McCoy about their interest in joining in on the fun.
SG1’s Michael Shanks, Smallville’s Erica Durance, and The Vampire Diaries’ Daniel Gillies are the stars of the new TV show Saving Hope, where they are all doctors. But Shanks becomes a patient in a coma, walking the halls in spirit form as the others fight to save his life, interacting with the spirits and ghosts of other patients. They have been commissioned for a 12 episode first season, and I like the actors, so I will be checking this out to see how they do with it.