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Something to Watch: Discs

Obviously, my choice in Movies this week is Guardians of the Galaxy, which still remains my favorite for this year, even as the year itself reaches its end. While not exactly genre, Frank is just strange enough to rate a mention (although it would have gotten one anyways for the music angle). If it came near a theater around me I missed it, now I get another shot at checking it out.

In TV we have Doctor Who: The Complete Eighth Series for Peter Capaldi’s first run as everyone’s favorite Time Lord. I do have to say I can’t wait to see Nick Frost as Santa in the Xmas special, come the day. Under the Dome: Season 2 is also out this week for the King fans. For those looking for nostalgia sci-fi, Mork & Mindy: The Fourth Season is the one where they get married and have a child, played by Jonathan Winters. It is also the final season of the show, so if you picked up the first three, this one will complete your collection.

In Anime, Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl is about a boy who meets his unsuspected cousin, who turns out to be an alien. What started out as a strange encounter turned into something truly surreal in very short order, as he learns that Earth is being targeted. Infinite Stratos II continues the adventures of the only male who can pilot a combat mecha in a training academy full of heavily armed combat ready women. That rounds it up for this go round; everything else in each category being released this week has been released before.

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies we get Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the second film in the recent reboot of the classic series. This set of films is probably the best example of the state of the art in computer generated characters I have seen. Also this week, the live action version of Kite, based on the groundbreaking anime classic.

In TV, The Strain: The Complete First Season is a show about viral vampires, as done by Guillermo Del Toro and a few other award winning writers. Also out, The Simpsons: The Complete Seventeenth Season continues the animated silliness for more years than I even dreamed were possible when the show first hit the airwaves.

In Anime, Diabolik Lovers: Complete Collection finds Yui sharing a home with 6 vampires, and keeping them at fangs length is becoming quite stressful. Note that this is the DVD only; the Blue Ray version will be out at the end of February. In the magical combat comedy we get Fairy Tail: Part 14, bringing episodes 154 through 164 to North America. Finally, Queen’s Blade: Beautiful Warriors is a 6 episode OVA series telling the tales of the most recent contestants as they make their way through the world after their competition.

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies we have The Giver, the story of a boy living in an peaceful, idealistic world; or so he thinks. When he get assigned as the Receiver of Memory for his people he learns things are quite different, and a lot more fragile, then he thought. This is based on the best selling YA novel of the same name by Lois Lowry.

I suppose I will have to put Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Turkey Day Collection in TV, even though it contains 4 movies. And the title is fully accurate, because the films are some real turkeys. While not genre, R.E.M. TV is worth mentioning; another Shout! Factory project, it is pretty much every instance of R.E.M. being on TV, including the out-takes.

In Anime, Log Horizon: Collection 1 is another virtual MMORPG that suddenly traps the players inside what doesn’t seem to be a virtual world any more. While it has a completely different flavor than my favorite of the type (SAO, of course), it is quite fun in a completely different way. We also get Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie out from Viz Media, US home of all things Naruto.

Something to Watch: Discs

The final Miazaki masterpiece The Wind Rises hits the shelves this week, in a combo BD+DVD pack. Unusually for an anime, it tells the true story of one of Japan’s top aircraft designers, or at least as true as any movie ever gets. It follows his life from that of a young man almost to the end, with all the style and compassion Miazaki is known for. With a totally different attitude we also get Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, another twisted story from Frank Miller told from the pages of his graphic novel, with an excellent cast. Automata goes in still another direction, with Antonio Banderas as the robot hunting enforcer in a world where the machines are more human, and humane, than the people. Even though several versions are already on the shelves, I had to mention that the Frozen Sing Along Edition is being released this week as well; follow the bouncing snowflake!

The only genre TV show I found a reference to being released this week is Wolfblood: Season 2, and for a 13 episode series to go for $10 on its day of release says something about the level of quality you can expect from this one, I suspect. Although it is a BBC (or CBBC, more accurately) show, and airing on Disney in the US, so that says some good things.

In Anime, besides the previously mentioned The Wind Rises, two other Miyazaki animation classics are being released on Blue Ray for the first time; Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke. I am thinking I will have to upgrade my copies from DVD.

New this week is the very amusing I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided To Get a Job, about a man who graduated Hero School, then had to get a job in retail when the war against the Demons ended unexpectedly, also ending his paycheck. But his culture shock is nothing compared to his new co-worker, the daughter of the now-deceased Demon King! We also have One Piece Season 6 Part 2, bringing us up to episodes 349 through 360 on disc, while streaming just showed episode 670 this past week.

A Certain Magical Index: Complete Season 1 brings the entire first season together in a single box set for the first time, which means you can pick it up for a bit under half as much as you would have paid by buying the previously released Season 1 Part 1 and Part 2 individually. This story is a heady mix of science and sorcery in the same universe as the genetically modified parapsychics of A Certain Scientific Railgun. Likewise, Death Note: The Complete Series includes all 37 episodes of the TV show for a decent price, but none of the movies, either live action or animated.

Something to Watch: Discs

This is a good week, with several offerings in each category. Iceman has Donnie Yen as a Ming Dynasty palace guard, wrongly accused of a murder. When he and the three guards chasing him end up frozen, they get defrosted 400 years later, continuing their fight across modern China. The animation How to Train Your Dragon 2 is the second film of three in this series. I quite liked the first one, and am looking forward to this one since I missed it in the theater. The Movie category is rounded out with a documentary, James Cameron’s Deep Sea Challenge. This is the project he used to refine the development of his 3D camera system, just before he used it to make Avatar.

In TV we get True Blood: The Complete Seventh Season, which brings this series to a close. The camp classic Batman: The Complete Television Series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, are serious when they say complete. All 120 episodes and 3 hours of extras are included. Finally Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions continues to detail the conflict between the Republic and the Separatists as the Jedi war grows closer.

In Anime, Patema Inverted appears to be an animated remake of Upside Down, and could be quite interesting. Sailor Moon: Season 1 Part 1 is being re-released in North America with a brand new English translation, making it almost like a whole different series. Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 is a typical story about the school club the protagonist joins. But in this case, the school club is a serious survivalist team out drilling in the woods, and friendly fire may be their most dangerous enemy; this is the complete series.

My mental choices are completely interfering with my school romantic comedy takes place in the kind of universe where a game premise suddenly takes over our hero’s life, and seems to be designed as a curse more than anything else. Finally, High School DxD: New Season 2 is filled with still more zombie stomping action as the Archangel Michael joins the Occult Research Club in the battle to protect the living.

More and more of what I watch is streaming video, and less and less is based on some kind of physical media. I guess the reason these weekly entries focus on the discs is there is too much streaming Sci-Fi and Fantasy, especially out of Japan, that no single person could possibly cover it all. I think a team of three people, all doing it full time, could do it the way it should be done. But one person, doing one entry a week? No chance. I will probably start mentioning my favorites again, though, in case anyone missed hearing about them.

Something to Watch: Discs

The best movie coming out this week is definitely Maleficent, which includes the best performance I have ever seen Angelina Jolie deliver. The special effects were also quite good, and it really put Sleeping Beauty into perspective as quite a different story than the one Disney told in 1959. Also this week is Hercules as played by Dwayne Johnson, and the family-friendly Planes: Fire and Rescue.

I didn’t see any genre TV coming out this week, but we do have White Collar: The Complete Fifth Season, which is always a fun show. Season 6 begins Thursday, and will be their final season.

Anime gets a couple of choices. Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!: Season 2 continues the rather strange and amusing tale of the guy being protected by three of the Old Ones of C’Thulhu, who shape shift into cute girls to blend in. Yes, it is a romantic comedy. Ben-To is also a comedy, about the food fights that take place when Bento boxes are marked down to half price.