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Something to Watch: Discs

Of the few Western genre offerings this week, Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales definitely looks like the best choice, with Don Verdean coming in both second and last. Sadly, that is all I can find from Western TV and Movies.

Anime fares a little better, but only a little. Wizard Barristers: Complete Collection tells what it is like to defend the magically inclined criminal elements of society, while trying to get the innocent released. I do have to say, the barrister’s familiars set a tone I was not expecting in this one. Death Note is a re-release of a classic, in 2 formats. The Complete Series includes all the TV series. The Omega Edition includes the TV series plus the 2 Re-Light movies. It would be nice if you could get the Live Action TV shows and Movies bundled with the anime ones, but so far that does not seem to be an option.

Something to Watch: Discs

There is very little genre coming out this week, with the animated Disney fantasies The Good Dinosaur and The Lion Guard being pretty much the only Western exceptions. Anime does a bit better, with Tokyo ESP: Complete Series taking place in a world where flying fish bestow paranormal powers, and only the penguin can overcome them. Meanwhile, police without powers are rounding up all the gifted they can get their hands on, and are either killing them outright or forcing them into concentration camps where they are worked to death. This is not a good time for Rinka to gain powers, but she does the best she can with them to protect her family and friends. In Ga-Rei-Zero: Complete S.A.V.E. two sisters are teenage exorcists fighting demons using sacred swords each night, until one of them becomes possessed. Now the other sister has to decide whether to kill her, or let her run around slaughtering innocents.

Something to Watch: Discs

There isn’t much out this week. In Movies Steve Jobs hits the shelves, and will hopefully recover some of the money it lost in the theaters. It was a bit too cerebral for audiences raised on a diet of explosions, car chases, and sex scenes, and it didn’t have a mega-star playing the title role, so it never got the traction it deserved on the big screen. I didn’t see anything for western TV, which makes me think I may be missing something.

Anime has Space Brothers 7 with episodes 76 through 87; there should just be one more collection to finish the tale of the sibling astronauts. Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2Wei! has Illya going head to head against her evil magical clone in a 10 episode series that follows up the previous season. Finally, Bleach Movies: The Unforgiven Double Feature are the 3rd and 4th Bleach movies, packaged together and released at a discount.

Something to Watch: Discs

Freaks of Nature has a strange premise: Zombies, Vampires, and Humans all live in harmony, until Aliens invade the Earth. The cast includes Patton Oswalt and Joan Cusack, which is enough to convince me I need to see this Comedy/Horror. I should probably also mention Spectre, Daniel Craig’s last turn as James Bond, which didn’t do that well with the critics, but might still be worth watching. The Horror film Crimson Peak didn’t have a lick of comedy in it that I heard about, so I will be passing on that one. If there was any genre TV this week it snuck right past me with nary a ripple.

In Anime, Shirobako 1 is the rather recursive tale of 5 women who work for an Anime company, and according to the reports it is a fairly accurate depiction of the industry. This is the first half of the series, with the second coming along in May. Likewise Akame ga Kill: Collection 1 is the first half of its series, with a group of renegade assassins out to bring down the corrupt empire which bought and trained them. Finally, Lord Marksman and Vanadis: The Complete Series tells of two enemies who must work together to save a nation from destruction.

Something to Watch: Discs

The movies this week include The Last Witch Hunter with Vin Diesel. I missed this one in the theaters, I will catch it when it gets on one of the premium services I already have. There are also two animated feature films, Batman: Bad Blood is a direct to video story that may have The Dark Knight on the dark side. And the 1937 animation classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be released on Blu Ray/Digital HD for the first time, completely remastered and restored. Finally I have to mention Simon Pegg’s Man Up, which isn’t genre but is a whole lot of fun. Supposedly. Sadly it didn’t play at a theater close enough to me so I could see it on the big screen, but I will get to see it now.

TV has Falling Skies: The Complete Fifth Season and the continuing battle of alien invaders vs. human defenders. Since that was the final season, you will also be able to pick up Falling Skies: The Complete Series in Blu Ray or DVD. We also get From Dusk Till Dawn: Season Two this week, one of a number of spin-offs generated by the original film.

Anime finally gives us the next episode of a true classic after entirely too long a wait! Evangelion 3.33: You Can (Not) Redo is hitting the shelves, and as a person who was trying to watch it 3 years ago, I am thrilled to finally see it make it into the light of day. It is a reboot of one of the iconic Anime series of all time, and now we just have to wait for the fourth and final part to be released. The other release this week is worth everyone’s attention is From the New World, where the lines between Time and Space may blur, but the lines between people are razor sharp.

Night on the Galactic Railroad is a classic from the 80s telling the story of a young kitten who faces problems well beyond his age. The Festival of Stars becomes his escape, and he and his childhood friend are thrilled as the Galactic Railroad whisks the two away for parts unknown! Then there was Blade Dance of the Elementalers: Complete Collection, where maidens try to control spirits, before the Demon King gets their contracts before them.

Something to Watch: Discs

Movies bring us Goosebumps, a wonderful little film based on the books of R.L. Stine, and starring Jack Black. Thats pretty much it this week for Western TV and Movies.

Anime has Corpse Party: Tortured Souls – Complete Collection, where Heavenly Host School was burned to the ground and replaced by another school in the hopes that everyone would forget the gruesome things that happened there. THAT didn’t work out the way people were hoping, and now the students of the new school are battling the undead in the hallways of the old. In Momokyun Sword, Momoko must band together with some Heavenly-sent Celestial Goddesses to rid feudal Japan from a rampaging hoard of Evil Oni. Re:␣Hamatora – Complete Collection has a detective agency made up of the supernaturally powerful up against the returning dead who came back specifically to steal their powers.

Kingdom: Season 1 has all 38 episodes of the Waring States Period story about two war orphans who vowed to prove themselves, one of whom looks just like the young man who was the King of Qin, and would become the Emperor Shi Huangdi. There are a few returning favorites with new volumes this time around, One Piece – Season 7 Voyage 5 and Naruto Shippuden Uncut Set 25.