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Something to Watch: Discs

The Martian is out on disc this week, based on Andy Weir’s book and starring Matt Damon. The film has been nominated for a number of awards already, it will be interesting to see which ones it takes home. For animated family silliness we also get Hotel Transylvania 2, with the further antics of Dracula’s daughter. While Mr. Robot: The Complete First Season may not be genre, it is cutting edge TV you should be watching, and it too is up for an assortment of awards. From now to January 21st you can watch all 10 Season 1 enhanced and uncensored episodes on their website, especially if you are voting for any of those awards.

In Anime, Argevollen Collection 2 continues to up the ante in the war, with newer and better combat mechs rolled out to both sides. It is beginning to look like the only winners will be the companies that create the giant robots. The IGPX Immortal Grand Prix: Complete Collection originally came out in 2005 as 2 box sets, this is the first time the entire thing is in a single package. It combines auto racing with combat mechas for a rather unique sport.

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies we have the somewhat silly The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, complete with an attack squad of zombie kitty cats. I suppose I should also mention Deathgasm, another horror/comedy but with a heavy metal beat. I think the non-genre Memories of the Sword, a historic fantasy of Korea’s Goryeo Dynasty (roughly a thousand years ago), is the best movie bet this time around. I did not see anything genre in TV this week, and Anime only has one new release; Dai-Shogun: Great Revolution. That one is from a parallel universe where giant steam-powered robots fought off the foreign ships, so the 1868 Meiji restoration never happened. Japan is left still fragmented, with various warlords running different areas and the Tokugawa Shogunate fighting internally for control of the fragments.

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies Hitman: Agent 47 is the story of a genetically engineered assassin who is not terribly happy about his fate. He teams up with a woman who may be the offspring of one of the earlier iterations in his lineage to try to stop a multinational corporation which is out to unlock the secret of his creation and build an army of unstoppable killers. They are the only thing standing between that group and world domination, and the world could really use their help. Sadly, that seems to be all the new releases we get this week in any genre category, but that isn’t terribly surprising considering the holidays were last week, and the buying gifts season is officially over for this year.

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies, Dragon Blade is an epic historical fantasy about the battle between the Roman Empire and the ethnically diverse people of 36 countries, some of which would combine with still more nations to become China century’s later, for control of the Silk Road. It stars Jackie Chan, John Cusack and Adrien Brody, and was massively successful in its native China earlier this year. A lot of the critics were not kind to it, but it is worth seeing for the huge battle sequences alone. Also this week, Pan is a retelling of the origins of the classic literary hero who refused to grow up, and it also was not kindly received by many of the critics.

TV has Defiance: Season 3, which is the first major network TV show to be an online game, with the events of each environment impacting the story line of the other. Lots of different Aliens scattered all over the Earth add to the drama and action. Also this week, Dominion: Season 2, one of the few stories where Humanity is under direct threat by the Angels. Strangely enough, there doesn’t seem to be any Anime this week.

Something to Watch: Discs

As you might expect just before Xmas, a bunch of good movies have been released in time for you to grab them to give out as gifts. They include the Fantastic Four reboot and the second story in the literary franchise Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. In addition there is the incredibly silly (and politically incorrect) Ted 2, and the latest entry in another fantasy franchise, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation. With that many new films coming out it is kind of sad that there isn’t a new idea in the collection, only studios trying to cash in on preexisting properties. There is one original new cinematic work, but it isn’t genre; Slow Learners is a romcom about the terminally dorky, and what they go through in the effort to have a real life. TV brings us Extant: The Second Season, which definitely is genre. Just the bit about the astronaut mother looking for her half-alien son to protect him from the government’s killer robots should be enough to put it squarely in the realm of Science Fiction.

In Anime, we have two tales about Earth being under attack by aliens, with Daimadaler: Prince V.​S.​ Penguin Empire, The Complete Series and Majestic Prince: Complete Collection. We also get two butler-centric stories in Hayate the Combat Butler: Heaven is a Place on Earth, and Ladies versus Butlers! Complete Collection. Hayate at least is genre, the other I don’t know about as I haven’t watched it.

There is a new One Piece: Season 7 Voyage 4 which brings us episodes 422 through 433. Finally, Chaika: The Coffin Princess is refreshing, in that it misses a lot of the standard Anime tropes and tells its own unique fantasy story.

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies we get 2 great choices; Ant-Man is another Marvel masterpiece, this time bringing founding Avenger Henry Pym to the forefront, although at the point he has to pass the mantle on. The other selection is the Blue Ray version of Minions (the DVD version came out just before Thanksgiving), one of the very best animated comedy’s of 2015, or perhaps the best. TV also brings us 2 quality choices, The Transporter Refueled for a glimpse of the characters younger days, and Under the Dome: Season 3 for he Steven King fans in the audience.

Anime has Rail Wars – Complete Collection, a great series that balances out the Otaku with the MIT Hacker versions of railroad fandom. Riddle Story of Devil: The Complete Series + OVA has twelve female assassins going to a prestigious boarding school for a competition; to be the one to kill fellow student Haru Ichinose, and win their deepest desire. But the one who gets to her first ends up trying to protect her from the others, making life much more complicated for everyone involved. The Irregular at Magic High School – Yokohama Disturbance Arc brings the third and final piece of that series, and while it is quite good, they should just release the complete series with no concern about money.

Let’s not forget Aura: Koga Maryuin’s Last War, a movie which has one formerly delusional student now in charge of another equally delusional person, both of them trying to find their way out into normalcy. Finally this time around we have Haganai: I don’t have many friends, about the misfits who form the Neighbors Club, because they have no choice, on so many levels.