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Something to Watch: DVDs

I missed Safety Not Guaranteed in the theaters, a quirky little might-be time travel film based on a real add published in a major magazine a few decades ago, so I am quite happy it is making it to DVD this week. I really don’t care if it turns out not to be Sci-Fi, the trailer is strange and enjoyable and I want to see this film. And then there is Ruby Sparks, a romantic fantasy about an author who writes the woman of his dreams into a novel, only to have her come to life a week later, where he finds her sitting on his couch. The first is from the producers of Little Miss Sunshine, the second from the directors, and it is nice to see Indi films continue to flourish outside of film fests.

Copper: Season One also comes out, a very interesting series which is the first one produced by BBC America. It takes place in 1864 New York City, complete with a lot of historical social and political details that I never expected to see. I am expecting this series to pick up some awards, and even though it is not genre it is quite an amazing show which I recommend wholeheartedly.

For western animation, Fractured Fairy Tales: The Complete Collection brings all of those wonderful twisted stories from Rocky and Bullwinkle together in a single box set. You should share these with your kids or grand-kids, they are just as funny for any age group now as they were when first made. Also out, The Penguins of Madagascar, Operation: Antarctica continues that series for the younger crowd.

In Anime, Durarara!! is coming out with a Blue Ray Complete Set with a Lunch Box, but even with the collectable packaging I don’t understand why they would charge $190 list price for a 24 episode series (OK, 26 episodes when you add in the two bonus episodes). It is an amazing story with great animation, but pretty much every incarnation of it available is way overpriced, it seems, with the lunchbox set setting a new record. I will be keeping my eye out for sale prices as we rumble through the holiday buying season, but mostly I am glad I caught it streaming over at Crunchyroll, because it would have been a shame to miss so fine a program.

Also this week, A Certain Magical Index season 1 part 1, takes place in a universe where science was used to create magic, and a student with a strange negating power (he nullifies the magic of others) teams up with a nun named Index who has an entire huge library of magical knowledge stored in her head. This dozen episodes see the two of them meet and team up to survive the teams of scientists and sorcerers who want to capture and use them. The second half of the season will be coming out in December, and yes, this is from Kamachi Kazuma, who also wrote A Certain Scientific Railgun.

Fafner: Heaven and Earth is a feature film presentation which returns us to Tatsumiya Island for what may well be the final battle between the aliens and humans. If you missed the series leading up to the feature film, now would be a great time to go back and catch up on it; you can watch the first chunk of the series streaming for free at its official Funimation site. That should let you know if this program is for you, and if you enjoy watching streaming anime on your various devices (including Roku and most tablets or smartphones), just like Crunchyroll you can get a premium subscription and watch the entire series and a lot of others.

C-Control: The Money and Soul of Possibility takes place in a future where the government was rescued from poverty by a mysterious organization, but the population was not, and we follow a scholarship student who is suddenly offered a large sum of money only to have his life change in ways he didn’t foresee. Think Paprika meets Tron. Un-Go, the complete collection is about detective Shinjurou Yuuki, who always solves the crime but never gets the credit in this rather dark near-future Tokyo. We also get another block of One Piece with season 4 part 2, with the next 11 episodes bringing us up to #229.

Something to Watch: DVDs

There are several fun movies coming out this week, starting with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which was a nicely done interpretation of the graphic novel. If you are looking for something a bit more lighthearted, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World also will be on the shelves this Tuesday.

In TV, Lost Girl: The Complete First Season finally brings the story of this confused succubus trying to find her own way to live home for US fans. For those scratching their head thinking they paid a higher price but already own this and other seasons, it was initially released as an Import from Canada, and only now is being released officially in the US market. That is due to contractual obligations with Syfy, who are a few years behind on running the show for the American market. Sanctuary: The Complete Series is also a Canadian show you may already own, in this case because each of the individual seasons had been previously released. But this is its first release in a single box set. On the other hand, Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: Season 3 is brand new, even if it is speculative science rather than speculative fiction.

For western animation, Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Four continues that saga.

The anime Aria the Scarlet Ammo is coming out as a limited edition release and takes place in a Tokyo reminiscent of the one in Burst Angel, in that the police are overwhelmed and certifying select individuals to take out criminals on their own. The underworld have their own group of strong arm folks to attack folks so certified, or training for it, and our protagonists life changes forever when he is saved from them by Aria. Majikoi: Oh! Samurai Girls complete collection shows what happens when small bands of Samurai form at the local high school in self defense as combat springs from chance encounters. One such band of descendents of famous warriors gains two additional girls to the group and all hell brakes loose.

Naruto Shippūden: The Will of Fire is a feature length film adding to the Naruto epic of ninja adventure, and with it the risk of a fourth Great Ninja War.

Something to Watch: DVDs

In movies the best bet looks to be Legendary Amazons, based on the historical Yang family of the Song Dynasty. There have been a number of previous movies made about this group of 11th century women generals, of which the most well known is probably 1972’s 14 Amazons from The Shaw Brothers. Like the Shaw Brothers, the action in this latest incarnation is a bit over the top, relying heavily on wire work and springboards, but it looks to be quite a fun movie. On the other hand, the less said about Alien Dawn the better; it is every bit as campy, but this one they were trying to be serious.

I still can’t believe Fox cancelled it, but because they did we have Alcatraz: The Complete Series coming out this week, instead of just season 1. In fact, while Fox still maintains the Alcatraz home page, when you go there all you get are New Girl videos with a paragraph at the bottom of the page about the show. Hence the alternate link to a fan site. Touch got renewed though, so for that one we do get Touch: The Complete First Season as well as an actual web site. A documentary series worth noting that comes out this week is Stephen Hawking: Brave New World, a UK science series that is really good.

For western animation, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted hits the shelves, with quite a good voice cast. And lets face it, Dreamworks animation projects are usually some of the best.

In anime, Someday’s Dreamers II Sora returns to a Japan where you need both training and an official license to practice magic. The next generation of Suzuki magic users, Sora, has no problem with the spells but is completely confused by some of her fellow students, because the people in Tokyo are nothing like the folks in the small village she grew up in. Ga-Rei-Zero: The Complete Collection is also from 2008, and also about magic users, but this time it is two sisters who battle evil as part of an elite anti-demon task force. This one was made by the people who did Full Metal Panic, and considering how much I loved that series (3 series in total, actually), I am really looking forward to this one.

In IDOLM@STER: Xenoglossia season 1, the moon was shattered into thousands of large rocks a hundred years ago, but they don’t fall onto the Earth so most folks don’t think about it. When a young aspiring singer gets taken on by an IDOL company with visions of advancing her career she has no idea that in this case I.D.O.L. is an acronym for the giant robot she will be piloting to defend Earth from those rocks.

The rest of the Anime titles coming out this week are re-releases of some classic works of earlier years. My favorite of these selection has to be Tenchi Universe, the entire 26 episodes in a single box set. This series was not season two or three of the original, they retold the entire Tenchi story in an alternate universe. What didn’t change? The names, the back stories (the space pirate girl is still a space pirate) and appearances of the characters, and the fact that Tenchi has only bad luck whatever the situation. Other re-releases this time around include Casshan: Robot Hunter Casshern about the guy trying to stop his dad’s killer robots, Hellsing Ultimate: Volumes 1-4, yes, any time you see the name Hellsing with or without the Von you can expect Vampires, and Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Starting the movies list this week is The Raven, starring John Cusack as Edgar Alan Poe. I loved it when I saw it on the big screen, but a lot of people did not. My best guess for why is that Cusack was going in a totally different direction with his performance than he has ever previously gone, and most folk were expecting the kind of movie they were used to seeing him in. I enjoy seeing an actor go outside his comfort zone and growing with the effort, plus it was as twisty as one could have wished for, so I liked this movie a lot. Also out this week, Prometheus was an interesting little Aliens prequel. While an oldie but goodie rather than a new release, Steven Chow’s A Chinese Odyssey from 1994 may be the best pair of films out this week. Classic Wuxia Romantic Comedy/Slapstick as only Steven can do it.

I did not find any live action TV worth noting this week, which probably means it managed to escape my notice more than there wasn’t any. The same goes for western animation.

Live action movie from an Anime TV show based on the manga’s… you get the idea. Boogiepop and Others is almost at Miniseries length and a bit sillier than the thriller/horror of the anime, but still packs plenty of punch. Did you know that Jackie Chan did a live action movie from an anime? If you get the chance, check out his 1993 City Hunter, it is funny as hell. The 2011 City Hunter live action film is based on a different story from the manga, and is not a comedy.

There are several good Anime titles coming out this week. Deadman Wonderland: The Complete Series, starts with a classroom full of teens being murdered, and the only survivor gets framed for the crime. The prison they put him in hosts a gladiator style combat event for TV, where prisoners fight each other to the death while the warden rakes in some major profit. Our protagonist would have died in the first round, but he has teamed up with a mysterious female prisoner and discovered he has a rather amazing power to help him. His goal now is to stay alive long enough to prove his innocence and gain his release… and maybe his revenge. This was one of my favorite shows from 2011, one of the few I made sure to log in to watch the day a new episode became available (thank you, Crunchyroll).

Occult Academy: The Complete Series has a school full of students of the supernatural, a principle who died suddenly under mysterious circumstances, his daughter who does not believe in the paranormal, and a time traveler who has been sent back to the academy to try to prevent the alien invasion that destroyed the world. While there is quite a bit of humor in this series at its heart it is a serious tale, and I was rather surprised at the way one of the characters grew and changed between the beginning and the end of the series. This one also sucked me right in back in 2010, I even set my alarm to watch each new episode as soon as it became available.

Heaven’s Memo Pad: The Complete Collection has a NEET (Not Employed, being Educated or in Training) hacker girl/private detective who has gathered a team of strange folks with unique skills, including high school student Narumi who never expected to have his life change like this. Natsume’s Book of Friends is about a boy who can see Yokai (Ghosts/Monsters/Evil Spirits), and inherited a book from his grandmother about all the Yokai she defeated and imprisoned. It came complete with instructions about how to control the enslaved spirits, and now every monster for miles around is out to make Natsume into The Late Natsume.

Naruto Shippūden has box set 12 coming out this time, bringing us episodes 141 through 153.

Something to Watch: DVDs

There are a number of good movies this time around, with Iron Sky telling the story of Nazi’s on the moon coming back to take over the Earth decades after they fled. I can’t quite decide if this one is more action/adventure or comedy, and I was fairly surprised when it had its world premier in Berlin. Definitely in the comedy category, Dark Shadows is Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, and a bunch of their friends having silly fun. Flying Swords of Dragon Gate is the historical epic adventure entry for the week, being a remake of the Dragon’s Inn series of movies starring Jet Li. If you are a fan of Asian martial arts films you will find you recognize a good percentage of the excellent cast, but that is the only name the average American moviegoer would recognize. Winner of the Silliest Name title this time goes to Atomic Brain Invasion.

New in TV we have season two of the series Nikita, just in time to catch up with it before the next season starts on the 19th. I am guessing they dropped La Fem off the front end of the name so you wouldn’t confuse it with the last time somebody did it as a TV series. Old in TV we have The Six Million Dollar Man: Season Two, a new release for all you Steve Austin fans.

In Anime, Strike Witches: Season Two continues the aerial combat antics of the girls with the propeller boots, in an alternate history where the enemy during WWII was aliens from outer space. Rental Magica: Collection 2 brings the second dozen stories in this magical competition series, with the Astral team hard pressed to resolve their issues, including the protagonists vision problems. I can include Mayo Chiki in today’s listing because the plot line includes both martial artist ghosts and cat girls, but it is really just a high school level romantic farce leaning towards the raunchy.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Topping the list this week is The Avengers, one of the best films I have seen in quite a while. Everything else would pale against this film anyways, but when the only other live action feature film has a title like Strippers vs. Werewolves, one wonders why they bothered.

However, there is a movie series release worth noting: Bond 50: Celebrating Five Decades of Bond. Supposedly this box set has every James Bond movie ever made, 22 movies in Blue Ray format, but that’s not really true. Obviously it doesn’t have Skyfall, but the Woodie Allen version of Casino Royale is also conspicuous by its absence. Each movie lives on its own disk and includes hours of extras, so this does end up being quite the collection.

In TV, American Horror Story: The Complete First Season also comes out. I am not a horror fan, but this series has its moments and so is worth mentioning.

For western animation, the TV version of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Volume 5 will be released in support of the primary film.

For animated feature films, Resident Evil: Damnation will also be released, but while this isn’t western animation it also isn’t Anime. It is more of a Machinima filmed in the 3D gamespace that the franchise grew from.

In Anime, Steins;Gate: The Complete Series Part 1 is one of the more convoluted and interesting time travel stories I have ever seen. Our primary mad scientist keeps sending text messages to the past through the microwave, at first to try to correct what he sees as a few interpersonal relationship hiccups with girls he wanted to be with. As each message changes the past, and therefore the present he lives in, things go from bad to worse on so many levels, and every effort to get back to the timeline he started in just digs it deeper. This package has the first dozen episodes, which gets you half way through the story. It is a special edition in both blue ray and DVD formats, so it is a bit pricey. The only extras I see are commentary on 2 episodes and a map of Akihabara, so I plan to wait for either a good sale on this package or a more cost effective release, but it absolutely will become part of the permanent collection.

The other two new anime series are historical epics. In Hakuoki: Season 1 a young woman disguises herself as a boy to seek out her father and his magical elixir of speed and strength, but ends up with the Shinsengumi as they battle the vampires of Kyoto. Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth: Complete Collection is about revolution; the industrial revolution in Europe at the same time as the cultural revolution in Japan which opened the country to the western world. Our protagonist may be just the one to bridge the gap and help both sides grow into their new forms.

One Piece: Complete Collection 8 is the returning anime this time around, bringing more fun adventures from the Straw Hat Gang.