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Something to Watch: Discs

The best selection this week is the animated Marvel feature Big Hero 6, with a soft robot in an iron suit as one of the 6. The film is a bit of a homage to all things anime, and has a lot more humor than I was expecting. Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer’s Curse is the next direct-to-disc release in the Dragonheart franchise, with Ben Kingsley as the voice of the dragon this time.

In Anime Space Brothers: Collection 1 is literally about two brothers training to be astronauts, and this pack is the first 13 episodes in the series. There are at least 3 more seasons to the story after this first set; Crunchyroll is currently up to episode 99, I believe. Tiger & Bunny: The Rising is a feature film length presentation which has Bunny teamed up with a new partner on Hero TV as they fight to protect the citizens of Stern Build. In Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Yuta has worked hard to get past the belief he has has secret knowledge and hidden powers, but now a neighbor with that same belief system has shown up to drag him back into his delusions… or are they? Diabolik Lovers finds a girl living with six hansom but non-human boys, and she has to work hard to keep them at fangs length.

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies Birdman deserved its Oscar nominations, a sort-of superhero movie that spoke about the art and the actor, rather than the character. Then there is The Theory of Everything, where one of my real life heroes, Steven Hawking, was the character at the core of the story; and yes, this one too took home its share of Academy Award nominations. It won a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild, and another dozen awards, so I look forward to seeing what it wins in the next round. We also get the latest Studio Ghibli feature film, The Tale of Princess Kaguya. It is based on one of the oldest and best known folktales from Japan, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, which would have fit right in with anything from the Brothers Grimm.

In TV we have Doctor Who: Last Christmas, where Nick Frost gets to be a companion while playing Saint Nick… or something very much like him. For a completely different flavor of sci-fantasy there is Game of Thrones: The Complete Fourth Season, continuing George R.R. Martin’s epic mad battle to rule the world. Fortunately, not our world.

Anime gives us Hozuki’s Coolheadedness: Complete Collection, a story about the chief bureaucrat in Hell, and how he deals with the day to day running of the place. Space Dandy: Season 1 also comes out this week, quite the twisted reality!

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies we get Predestination, based upon a 1959 short story by Robert A.Heinlein, All You Zombies. This very convoluted time travel tale is the more-or-less sequel to the earlier Heinlein story, By His Bootstraps. The other film this week is In Your Eyes, an award winning supernatural romance by Joss Whedon, is pretty much the ultimate opposites attract saga. This one was never in theaters, having been made to go direct to streaming, and now it is on disc just in time for Valentines day. If you don’t know about it, have a trailer on me…

In western animation there is LEGO: DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League, for those looking for good silly fun. If you hadn’t heard, Lego is putting out a Doctor Who Lego Edition later this year. TV gets the long awaited Batman: The Second Season, Part 1, the first 30 episodes of season 2, with Adam West and Burt Ward.

In Anime Reideen: Collection 2 has Mechanical Beasts continuing to attack the Earth, who’s major defender is a high school boy piloting an alien-built giant robot. The problem is, no one knows who the robot is actually working for or what its purpose is. This is a remake of the 1975 Super Robot anime Brave Raideen. Engaged to the Unidentified may be a reference to UFOs, as a young woman meets her fiance from an arranged marriage for the first time. Something just isn’t right about her new family, who are very strange. Finally, Sailor Moon: Season 1 Part 2 continues the newest entry into this classic series.

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies, Dracula Untold is a rather interesting variation of the Vampire legend, with Vlad Tepes portrayed as a good man doing whatever it takes to save his people and family from destruction. The twisted comedy Hector and the Search for Happiness stars Simon Pegg as a psychologist who needs to find out if happiness even exists any more. If it does, he will bring it to his patients, family, and friends. In western animation Big Hero 6 is out in Streaming format, the Blu-Ray and SD versions will not be coming out until the 24th; it would have been my favorite movie of 2014 if it hadn’t shared the year with Guardians of the Galaxy. In Documentaries we get Video Games: The Movie, with some of the most famous gamers, geeks, and nerds on the planet talking about how the industry got to this point and where it goes from here. No genre TV series to speak of this week.

In Anime, Genshiken: Second Generation is being released as a complete collection; The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture has new otaku recruits, while the graduated old guard is adjusting to life as productive members of society. While this is listed as the second season, to me it counts as the third and a half. During the first season, there was an ongoing discussion of their favorite Anime show, Kujibiki Unbalance, and they included several bonus episodes of that series on the discs. Then they released the series Kujibiki Unbalance itself, and those discs had bonus episodes of Genshiken, enough of them to make up their own OVA release. So with two full seasons and an OVA under their belts, this should really be called season 3.5.

In Golden Time: Collection 2 Banri Tada lost all his memories, and is haunted by the spirit of his former self. The two of him are fighting it out to see who gets to decide how his life will go. Leviathan: The Last Defense pits three girls and a fairy against alien monsters attacking Earth by riding in on meteors. It is not as doomed as it sounds, because the girls are half dragons.

You’re Being Summoned, Azazel is about a detective who summons demons to do his dirty work. The demons in question are lazy and depraved, and take a lot of oversight to keep them on task. Finally, One Piece – Collection Box 2 is out, compiling episodes 104 through 205 into a single package.

Something to Watch: Discs

The animated romantic comedy The Book of Life is being released this week, with a unique visual style from Guillermo del Toro. Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, also animated, has Aquaman having to choose sides between Atlantis and the Justice League when war with the surface breaks out. The one unanimated selection this time, The Remaining, is closer to horror than fantasy or sci-fi. I didn’t find much in the way of genre western TV this time around.

In Anime we have Log Horizon: Collection 2, continuing the story of 30,000 players trapped in the online game Elder Tales, unable to escape. We also have Lupin the 3rd: Napoleon’s Dictionary, in which the secret of the Lupin family treasure is revealed. Both of these shows are adventurous and funny, if you are not already familiar with them you might want to start at the beginning; click the Oldest button on the Crunchyroll page to start with the first episode of the first season. The first season of Lupin the 3rd is streaming on Hulu, and about half of it was done by the legendary Miyazaki; he also did the feature film sized Castle of Cagliostro, a truely excellent Lupin the 3rd outing.

Something to Watch: Discs

We have a couple of good choices in the Movie category this week. The Zero Theorem is the latest sci-fi film from Terry Gilliam. As usual with his films, you can watch it as a twisted adventure or you can enjoy the more cerebral aspects. Luc Besson’s tale of forced evolution, Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman also hits the shelves. The animated feature film The Boxtrolls is one of the best examples of stop motion I have seen in a while, tells a wonderful story, and is nominated for the Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature category. Finally, Coherence is also coming to disc, and has won some awards on the Film Fest circuit. I didn’t really see anything this week in genre TV.

In Anime, A Certain Scientific Railgun: Season 1 takes place in Academy City, and involves the scientific induction of Psy powers into a percentage of the population. Total Eclipse: Season 1, also known as the Muv Luv Alternative, is about an alternate timeline where the Eurasian continent was invaded by aliens in 1967, and mankind has been in a desperate fight for survival ever since. By the present day the invaders own a third of the land surface on the planet. We also get Naruto Shippūden: DVD Box 21 with episodes 258 through 270.