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Something to Watch: Discs

In movies we get The Divergent Series: Insurgent, based on book two of the trilogy written be Veronica Roth. Again, why it is called a trilogy when it is 4 books long escapes me, but that worked just fine for Douglas Adams and it seems to work here as well. Epic fantasy at its finest, Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal is about Zhong Kui, a legendary warrior who is forced to conquer Heaven and Hell to save his people and the woman he loves… Literally. I am including a trailer at the end of the post for those who missed hearing about this when it was in the theaters last February. There is also the first Maori fantasy film I have heard of, The Dead Lands, presented in Maori with English subtitles. There is also one non-genre movie that looks interesting, Black & White: The Dawn of Assault!, a prequel to the popular Taiwan TV show Black & White. A cop and a criminal are forced to work together to save their city from something far worse than themselves.

In TV Orphan Black: Season 3 brings in the boy clones with a vengeance, and quite a bit of violence. I appreciate this shows ability to constantly hand us new twists we didn’t see coming, but I would be perfectly happy if they toned down the gore a bit. Even though it isn’t genre itself, I have to also mention The Casual Vacancy because it is J.K. Rowling’s first book for adults.

In Anime, Space Brothers: Collection 4 brings episodes 39 through 51 of this epic near-future adventure. One brother has barely survived crashing on the Moon with no rescue in sight and limited oxygen, while the other is fighting to make it through accelerated survival training on Earth alive. Meanwhile Turn A Gundam: Part 2 has episodes 26 through 50, and also takes place on both the Earth and Moon; but this time, it is the entire human race who’s survival is at risk. Finally, The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura – Complete Collection is about a girl who has the ability to read minds, and the boy who gets her the help of the ESP Research Society, so she can start leading a less stressful life.

Comet the movie

Recently I have been using my Friday post to talk about something you can watch streaming over the net, but this time I had to shift gears for a moment to mention Comet, an indi film that was released on disc this week. The write up I read sounded like an ordinary romcom, but now that I have seen the trailer I realize it is anything but. Even without the indications of parallel timelines crossing each others paths like Sliding Doors, the visuals are amazing, and the acting looks interesting too. I think I am going to have to check this one out.

Something to Watch: Discs

This week we get the award winning White God, a movie about dogs in organized revolution, which shares an attitude with the recent reboot of Planet of the Apes. It is unusual and has a lot of critical acclaim, and while it is in Hungarian it has English subtitles, so you won’t have any problem following the story. The other film is the animated Justice League: Gods & Monsters, from an alternate universe where Zod is Superman’s father, Batman is a Vampire, and Wonder Woman is the daughter of Ares, God of War. For a western animation, this one is rather dark.

TV has Helix: Season 2, a show that may have been vying with Lost for the Serious Weirdness in Television Award. We also get the Disney made-for-TV film Descendants, a comedy/fantasy involving the children of Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen, and Jafar. It doesn’t come out on Tuesday, though, but goes on sale Friday the 31st, the same day it airs on the Disney Channel.

In Anime, Windy Tales is about a teacher who knows how to control the wind, and the students who learn everything from Air to Zephyr from them. While the show came out in 2004, I can find no reference to previous North American releases. No Game, No Life is about a couple of Neets who’s only connection with the world at large is through online gaming. They are good enough at that to end up representing humanity in a game that will determine the fate of the world, even though they can barely function enough to leave their home. Naruto Shippūden: Uncut Set 23 takes place during the 4th Great Ninja War, and finds the allies fighting against reanimated friends and enemies. This set brings episodes 284 through 295 home, while I believe they are up to episode 419 in Japan. Galilei Donna is about three dissimilar sisters who suddenly find themselves with one thing in common; an attempted kidnapping on the same day. It turns out they are descendents of Galileo Galilei, who left behind a treasure that the sky pirates are determined to have.

009 Re: Cyborg reactivates a group of cyborgs to try to save the world from a threat stranger than human. Speaking of strange, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Season 1 is an action adventure comedy series that is downright silly at times, but still has some serious moments. Inari Kon Kon has a girl given the power to shape shift after she saves the life of a familiar to a goddess. Finally, Recently, my sister is unusual finds Mitsuki haunted by a ghost who she must help pass on to the next world.

Something to Watch: Discs

Movies brings us What We Do in the Shadows, a horror comedy that has been winning awards all over the film festival circuit. A documentary crew follows around four vampire roommates as they make their nightly rounds of harassing werewolves, cruising clubs, and fighting about household chores. Kung Fu Killer starts Donnie Yen as an imprisoned martial arts master who is released by the police so he can stop someone who is going around beating martial arts masters to death. That counts as fantasy in my book so I’m posting it here. I didn’t see much in the way of genre TV shows this time, except in Anime.

In Anime, Blazblue: Alter Memory – Season One has the game characters come to life, with Ragna using a combination of magic and technology to battle it out with the Librarium to decide the future of mankind. Guardian Ninja Mamoru is about a family of Ninjas that has been protecting another family for the last 400 years. The current generation of both families are now in high school together, and things are getting exciting. Soul Eater Not! continues the story of the living weapons and their wielders with the new generation getting trained for supernatural combat. The gang from the previous series is around as well, and it is just as filled with outrageous comedy as the original.

TO – Elliptical Orbit & Symbiotic Planet is coming out in a S.A.V.E. edition, so you can pick up both award winning short features for a really good price. There are also a few re-releases worth grabbing if you missed them the first time around, including Mamoru Oshii’s classic Patlabor 2: The Movie and Persona 4 the Golden Animation.

Something to Watch: Discs

This time Movies have Ex Machina, a cybernetic tale of the birth of AI as haunting as it is thought provoking. While not as relentlessly kill crazy as the Terminator series, you do get a glimpse into the birth of that attitude among the biologically challenged, and the kind of events that might provoke it. X-Men: Days of Future Past: the Rogue Cut started with 17 minutes of additional footage we have never seen before. Some of the new footage centers around Paquin’s Rogue, who I don’t feel we saw enough of in the theatrical version. In order to make the story line changes the new scenes bring to the film work they also have modified some of the original footage with either re-edits or alternate takes. The end result is as much of a different movie as some of the Blade Runner remakes, so it will probably have to follow me home. The 1959 French classic Hiroshima, Mon Amour is being re-released on Blue Ray off of a 4K master for the first time ever this week. No, it isn’t genre, but it was one of those films that changed the way people made movies from that point on, the way Indiana Jones did. This is one of those films you need to see at least one time in your life, or you will have missed something amazing and paradigm changing.

I didn’t find any TV entries this week, but there is one contender in a much older episodic story telling tradition. Beowulf is performed in the original Bardic style by Benjamin Bagby, Anglo-Saxon harp in hand and voice in full throat, singing in Old English. He has given this performance at the Smithsonian and at Carnegie Hall, to name a few. This is as close as most of us can ever hope to get to experiencing one of the tales that shaped our last few thousand years on Earth the way it was meant to be heard.

In Anime, Familiar of Zero: F is Season 4 of the series; ever since she first accidentally kidnapped him from Earth (yep, she did that by accident; she is just a tad clueless about how to get her magic to work), their relationship has been growing. But so has the list of powerful beings trying to take them out… permanently. In Recently, my sister is unusual Mitsuki is trying to adjust to her new life and brother, when an amnesiac ghost girl needs her help to pass on to the next world.

Is the Order a Rabbit? is a very kawaii show involving a cafe, a mysterious rabbit, one heavily armed girl, and some possible telepaths. One Piece is releasing both Collection 13 with Episodes 300 through 324 and One Piece: Season 7 Voyage 1 with episodes 385 through 396. I find it interesting that the one with 24 episodes is $2 cheaper than the one with 11 episodes, probably because it is about a year older.

Something to Watch: Discs

Movies have Alien Outpost, while TV brings Bitten: Complete Second Season and the Witches Of East End: The Complete Season 2. None of those did particularly well with the critics or the ratings.

In Anime Atelier, Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky contains all 12 episodes of the mismatched alchemists working together to save their world. Noragami: The Complete First Season has a slacker god with no shrine or worshipers trying to help a girl who’s soul keeps slipping out of her body.