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Something to Watch: DVDs, 29Jan13

Getting my vote for strangest movie with the best cast this week is Seven Psychopaths, which I completely enjoyed. All Superheroes Must Die is about four Superheroes stripped of their powers and trapped by their arch-nemesis in a situation where they must fight to avoid total destruction for their entire town. The western animation Hotel Transylvania is out this week as well for those in need of silly fun.

We finally get the US release of Misfits: Season Two, the show about the strangest group of Superheroes ever remanded to public service. Let’s see how many social workers sent to rehabilitate them they manage to kill off this season, while trying ever so hard to stay out of trouble. This is one of the best done shows out of the UK on virtually every front, and the soundtrack includes some of the best tunes I never heard here. I strongly recommend this show to everyone old enough to not get offended, but mentally young enough to not get bent out of shape.

In new Anime releases, Baka and Test: Season Two is coming out. It has a nice silly premise; class standings and personal differences are resolved using battle avatars who’s strength is determined by the students academic standing. Our protagonist Yoshii is a warm-hearted goofball with a solid string of F’s in all his classes, who wants to advance his station. He has nowhere to go but up, and he can’t even spell surrender, which makes for an amusing series.

Viz rolls out Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 13, bringing us up to episode 166 by the end of it. For those in need of a silly time, Shin Chan: Season Three may be the way to go.

Arakawa Under the Bridge Season 1 is the story of a man who falls into the river, to be saved by cutely insane Nino, who lives there. To repay her kindness he sets out to help her, meeting many of her friends in the process, some of whom are not human. This is a bit of a re-release, having been previously come out in a limited premium edition. Likewise, Fate/Stay Night: Collection 1 has seen the light of day before, but this time it is coming out as a Blue Ray Disc.

Something to Watch: DVDs, 22Jan13

There are a number of new movies this week, of which Tai Chi Zero is the top of the list for me, being a Steampunk Kung-Fu action comedy. How could I possibly resist that combination? If you are looking for something a bit more serious, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai from the creator of 13 Assassins should have everything you could want in a story of martial arts revenge under an oppressive government. Both of these films are quite good and worth your time to watch.

noobz is a gamer film that looks like silly fun this time around, and yes, the name is lower case. Jason Mewes is involved with the project, which I appreciate, but the DVD is coming out only a matter of 4 days after the film was released in theaters, which is never a good sign.

There are a couple of direct to DVD choices this time, or maybe they just never played in my part of the world, or were on a TV channel I don’t watch. Night of the Templar might be interesting, it is a bit hard to get an idea of the quality from the trailer. Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft is being released in the hopes that people will confuse it with the new movie coming out this week (at least, that’s my theory), and I have no real idea why they are releasing Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. Or any of that series after the original movie, for that matter. At least with Death Race 3: Inferno, also out this week, I actually like the first two films in the franchise.

There are no actual genre releases in TV this week that I found, but there are a few geeky items. Chris Hardwick: Mandroid is his Comedy Central special, now on DVD and noticeably expanded from what they broadcast, covering a range of Nerdist topics. The other offering is an award winning British sitcom, Spy: Series 1, in which a divorced father in a custody battle for his son goes looking for a new job, and accidentally gets recruited by MI6.

Anime is comprised of OVAs and a feature film this time. Saiyuki Gaiden is a three episode OVA telling of the battles Goku and his allies fought to escape Heaven. The Shakugan no Shana: Movie and Shakugan no Shana S, a five episode OVA telling four new stories, bring us new tales of Shana’s flaming sword as she and her powerful human partner Yuji destroy demons across two worlds. OVA stands for Original Video Animation, and the instances mentioned here are examples of studio projects for existing series that are released direct to DVD, without a movie or TV showing first. They can also be a privately funded short set of episodes that are then used to shop a project around to the studios in the hopes of getting it picked up as a series.

Something to Watch: DVDs 8Jan13

In movies, Dredd is the 2012 version, which went back to the original source material rather than remaking the earlier movie. They played it a bit less campy and closer to the graphic novel’s intentions. The animated Frankenweenie is another of the strange partnership between Disney and Tim Burton that has brought us so many interesting movies. 2012’s Timekeeper centers around a 14 year old accidental time traveler.

Red Dwarf: X is pretty much the US premier of the series, or at least I haven’t found the channel that is carrying the series in North America. I am glad that Dave TV picked up the series and continues to generate new episodes, but I wish that someone would carry it here. Methematica from PBS is a 20 part series that explains some of the basic principles of mathematics in an accessible and easily understandable way. Mathematica is also the name of a very powerful programing environment that runs on Unix and Linux systems and uses Parallel Batch Scripting to run on a number of CPUs at the same time to speed up processing, so don’t be surprised if you get some interesting search results on that one.

In Anime, Bodacious Space Pirates is the first collection in this series, starting us off with a full 13 episodes. A high school girl has just discovered that her dad was captain of a pirate ship, and she has inherited the position. If you want to check it out, you can watch episodes on Crunchyroll to get an idea of the show.

You have to love a title like Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl, and this one involves an adolescent boy who lives with his aunt, only to discover she has a secret daughter from outer space. His life is anything but normal after that, as they try to figure out where she was for the year and a half she went missing.

Something to Watch: DVDs 1Jan13

Looper is a movie that reminded me of the better aspects of Bladerunner, and it tops this weeks list of new DVDs; if you can only add a single title to your collection this week it should be this one. Not that there are a lot of new releases at the moment, but Looper would be at the top no matter when it came out; it is just that powerful and important.

In TV, Being Human: The Complete Second Season is the American version of the series, the UK version being several seasons father along. I prefer the British show, but this one is quite similar. I suspect my preference is because I saw that one first, so those are the actors who make up the show to me.

In anime, Mardock Scramble: Second Combustion is finally coming out in the US. Cyborg Rune Balot continues to try to bring her killer to justice while some of her team recovers from the attack that almost wiped them out. Finally, Penguindrum: Collection 1 is the story of Himari, who’s death is reversed by wearing the Penguin Hat. But a full resurrection will only come once she has the Penguin Drum, so the search is on to change her destiny.

Something to Watch: DVD’s 25Dec12

Frankly, I am surprised anything new is being released on Christmas day, and not surprised there are only a couple of titles, all some form of animation. Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is a Machinima coming out on the 28th, but it has been out for viewing in Video On Demand for several weeks already. I suspect some regular Anime fans will enjoy this, but it is targeting the Gamers first. Hakuoki: Record Of The Jade Blood is coming out with season two of this story of the ninja/samurai wars of the Edo period. IDOLM@STER: Xenoglossia brings collection 2 with more Mecha action as the war heats up, as well as developing relationships between the giant robots and their pilots.

Something to Watch: DVDs 18Dec12

While a lot of the releases this time around are on the normal Tuesday timeline, there seem to be a number coming out on Friday, the 21st as well. I am sure this breakup is to target the panicking holiday shoppers and make sure they have something fresh to buy for last minute gift giving. I am not going to indicate which disk gets released on what date since the dates listed at different shopping sites sometimes contradict each other, but everything mentioned here is coming out on one of those two dates.

In movies, Total Recall is the 2012 version of the film, which went back to the original Philip K. Dick source material rather than remake the earlier feature presentation. I am still disappointed they dropped the Mars aspects of the story, but this one definitely qualifies in the adrenalin category. Resident Evil: Retribution is no slouch in the action/adventure arena itself, and continues this well known game and film franchise.

For TV the winner has to be Funny or Die Presents: The Complete Second Season, which is not genre but does at least have a certain geek and nerd appeal.

In anime, Steins;Gate: The Complete Series Part Two brings the conclusion of one of the best time travel anime series ever made. The protagonist keeps sending text messages into the past to get people (including himself) to do things differently to improve the state of the present, but things keep getting worse and worse. Taking place in about the same universe as Robotics;Notes and Chaos;Head, and sharing a creative team with them, this group of series is definitely worth watching.

Another excellent sci-fi series, A Certain Magical Index is a new tale in the universe of A Certain Scientific Railgun, where an entire major metropolis is set aside for the training of espers and psychics, and where scientists study and improve those talents. This time a nun named Index has 103,000 volumes of magical knowledge stored in her memory, and scientists and sorcerers alike are out to capture her and steal her knowledge. Luckily a boy named Kamijo with a power of his own befriends her and helps protect her from her enemies. I definitely recommend this program, in both its series. And just so you won’t have to wait to see how it comes out, both parts 1 and 2 of the first season are being released together.

Also this week, Kobato: Complete Collection is about a girl with a magic flask that can help mend broken hearts and shattered dreams, but her nonhuman mentor isn’t certain she is up to the challenge. And Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky puts the whole story into a single box. If you are an American fan of the game and disappointed a US release of parts two and three never happened, you can watch the collected OVAs here to get the storyline and find out what happened.

Kurozuka: The Complete Series is a story about a 12th century Japanese swordsman who falls in love with an immortal vampire. He is betrayed by his servant, and wakes up in a post nuclear apocalyptic Japan under control of the Red Army. Now he must find his immortal love and defeat the invaders. Ultraviolet Code 044: The Complete Series is a 2008 anime series based on the 2006 sci-fi movie Ultraviolet, about a genetically engineered super soldier (the trade off was a much shortened life expectancy) who goes renegade from the government which had her grown. Viper’s Creed – The Complete Series takes place after World War III leads to environmental catastrophe, and many of the worlds cities have drowned. The Vipers are an elite military group trying to rebuild and defend their portion of the planet.

In continuing series, One Piece – Season 4 Part 3 brings episodes 230 through 241 home for the viewing. Shakugan no Shana Season Two is being broken up into two box sets of about a dozen episodes each. Shana and Yuji continue battling supernatural foes and going through the emotional turmoil of high school while trying to protect both worlds.