Japan’s number 1 film of 2016 was Your Name from Makoto Shinkai, and it will be in movie theaters in the US beginning on April 7th. Funimation Films is presenting it, with the options of seeing it in the original Japanese with English subtitles, or with an English language soundtrack. If you don’t know Makoto Shinkai, you have probably already seen one of his groundbreaking animations, such as 5 Centimeters Per Second or the Children Who Chase Lost Voices, or the amazing Voices of a Distant Star which he did entirely himself. He is being referred to as the Next Miyazaki by a number of critics and reviewers around the world, and he has also written novels, stories, and Manga, and helped create video games. If this movie is playing anywhere near you, you should absolutely check it out. Did I mention the RADWIMPS had a hand in the soundtrack for this one, and are translating four of their songs into English for the English language version? I added the full length version of Zenzenzense as the last video in this post, the tease in the trailer was not enough.
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The winner this week has to be Kung-Fu Yoga, Jackie Chan in a comedic adventure that is a joint venture between Bollywood and Chinese film production companies. And yes, that does mean he gets to sing and dance in this one, as shown in the trailer I just recently posted. It should be playing in large multiplexes in major cities, particularly AMCs. If you are not lucky enough to have it playing near you, in wide release Resident Evil: The Final Chapter may finally close out that story arc. There is also the family fantasy A Dog’s Purpose, about a reincarnating K9.
The top western choice this week is Sherlock: Season Four, an excellent series I can’t watch enough of. The only other release that keeps it from being the only genre option in its category is Guardians of Oz from animator Jorge Gutiérrez who did The Book Of Life.
In Anime, Attack on Titan: The Complete First Season finally comes out in a single box set, for the same money as getting the Part 1 or Part 2 releases by themselves. Garo: Crimson Moon is Season Two, Part 1, for more golden armor vs. demons battle. Triage X: Complete Series has a team of nurses who moonlight as assassins, taking out the bad guys for 23 episodes. Finally, while Infinite Stratos 2 has already been released, they are coming out with a Premium Edition that, for a mere hundred dollars more, will give you an additional $20 worth of booklets and trinkets.
ALL OFF are a Japanese band that formed back in 2004, starting off by playing the festival circuit, becoming an overnight sensation after a decade of killer rock and hard rock. The first track is Refrain Boy, which is the ending theme song for the anime Mob Psycho 100 and was posted last August. If you have your VR headset handy, put it on for the second song, a 360 degree VR version of In Shadows posted about 4 weeks ago. The last one for this week is One More Chance!!, their 2015 major debut track that launched them internationally,
Amazon streaming video is releasing Ronja, The Robber’s Daughter next Friday, the 27th. Based on the Astrid Lindgren fantasy novel and put together by Goro Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli, with Gillian Anderson narrating the story. On that same day, Netflix will launch iBoy, a movie about a teen with cell phone superpowers running around London. I plan to check them both out, as they both look interesting in completely different ways. The Ronja trailer is here, see my previous post for the iBoy trailer.
I found this video amazing; it is an explanation of how they used a real person to create a game character, and in the process invented the combination of technology needed to allow that person to act in real time in the game. Which means that anyone with deep enough pockets (which would have to be very deep, at this point) could schedule time to get themselves scanned and processed, buy the gear including the head mounted camera system, and do the same thing. It allows you to be fully immersed in the 360 VR game environment as yourself, with everyone able to see and hear you, right down to your current facial expression. Of course, it will be a decade or so before the price comes down enough that the rest of us get to try this out, but its good to know it is on the way.