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This week brings the latest in the long running franchise with Alien: Covenant. By the time this one hit the theaters I had seen everything I needed to see of that universe, so I haven’t seen it yet, and feel no compulsion to do so now. I do love every one of the films that has Sigourney Weaver in it, though. I am going to have to include the TV series Riverdale: Season 1 this time, because it is so different from the comic books I remember reading that it seems like something from another world to me. I did enjoy it quite a bit, and am happy that Season 2 will be on the air in October.

Anime has the continuation of two long-running favorites with Fairy Tail: Collection Nine, and One Piece – Season Nine, Voyage Two. We also get Food Wars! Complete Collection in both a regular and limited box sets.

It didn’t come anywhere near me in its limited theatrical run, so Colossal has to be at the top of my personal list this week. It looks amazing in the trailer, and the premise is not one I have ever heard of, so I have to see it. Also this week The Circle is technology twisted to destroy privacy and bring Big Brother to life in ways that would have scared Orwell back to his farm. Even though it isn’t genre, I also have to mention Going In Style because it is too funny for words. I am not sure how it happened, but if there was any Anime being released this week it slipped right past me.

The Western world has Spark: A Space Tail as its offering, which does at least have an impressive line up of Voice Actors. Of course, we also have Smurfs: The Lost Village, and no, I am not handing out a link to that one. GATE: Complete Collection was my favorite Anime of 2015/2016; I am not going to tell you anything about the events of the two seasons themselves, but I am going to give you the setup/backstory that took place before the first episode started: When a Gate between universes opened up in Tokyo over half a million mounted warriors poured out, ready to conquer the world. They were humans, elves, animal people, and magicians, armed with bows, axes, swords and spells, and they killed several thousand civilians in their initial surge across the city. An Otaku officer in the Japanese Self Defense Force recognized what was going on and rallied a local military response, saving thousands in immediate danger in the process. As more forces were mobilized the attackers found themselves up against assault rifles, armored personnel carriers, tanks, grenade launchers, mortars, and shoulder-launched missiles. Only the few hundred invaders left to guard the Gate managed to get home alive, and most of them were wounded; the JSDF followed them through the gate and took over the town on the other side and the surrounding countryside for kilometers in every direction. What happened after that is the story of this series, and their universe will never be the same.