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Something to Watch: Discs

Leading the pack this time is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the next generation series from the Harry Potter universe. I can’t wait to see where J. K. Rowling goes with this one, the first film was exceedingly tasty, probably because she wrote the screenplay herself. The other selection is A Monster Calls, a serious and powerful movie that did poorly at the box office, probably because most folks thought it was about some friendly monster. The target audience wasn’t kids at all, so most of the kids that get sent to see it by parents who had never read the book left it depressed and confused, generating a lot of bad word of mouth for the film.

In Anime, Steins;Gate: The Movie brings home the ending that the original creators always intended, where Deja Vu are only your fragmented memories of alternate time lines. This is their last chance to get it right or to lose their possibilities forever. I found Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? a wonderful series, but it really only covered the events of the first book. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that the flag The Complete Series means the complete first season, and not that they are not going to produce the rest of the story. As the series final works its way toward us, Boruto: Naruto the Movie helps usher in new generation of ninja. Fairy Tail: Collection 7 brings another half-years worth of episodes home, with Lucy kidnapped and merged with a time bomb, and all the other guilds out to get our heroes, I predict an unprecedented amount of collateral damage with this one. The war continues in Heavy Object: Season 1 Part 2, but it is a full dozen episodes despite the title.

Luck & Logic: The Complete Series has the gods rampaging over the Earth, creating all sorts of problems, one of which appears to be wiping out the Funimation and Crunchyroll web servers that stream their episode, hence no link. Diabolik Lovers II: More Blood seems to have the same fate, so I am thinking the servers may just be down for the moment. When I find them back up, I will add the links here. Finally, Inari Kon Kon: The Complete Series + OVA is coming out in a S.A.V.E. edition, for those who do not already own the Fox Goddess driven magical rom/com.

Something to Watch: Discs

Assassin’s Creed was a great game and an excellent premise for a movie; I don’t know if it succeeded or not, because I haven’t seen it yet. The critics seemed to be underwhelmed, with “confusing” and “disorienting” being the two words most often used to describe it. I don’t know if that’s because none of them ever played the game, or the script was that poorly done, but either way I will stream it before I consider buying it. I also haven’t seen Sing, but there is no question that this animation needs to be a part of my permanent collection. In Anime the new title is Attack on Titan: Junior High, probably the silliest series from this franchise, but still very worth watching. We also get a S.A.V.E. edition of BlazBlue: Alter Memory; The Complete Series, for those who haven’t seen it before now.

Something to Watch: Disc’s

The Western winner this week is Passengers, an excellent character driven romantic drama set against the backdrop of deep space during an era of interstellar expansion. Solace has a psychic doctor assisting a detective in tracking down a serial killer. The only problem is the serial killer is a psychic too, and a much better one than the doctor working with the FBI. It has a world class cast and an interesting trailer, the critical reviews indicate the movie has some serious flaws but the chemistry between the cast makes it work despite them.

In Anime, K: Missing Kings is the movie bridge between season 1 and season 2; there are 7 kings in the world, each with their own special power which they can grant in greater or lesser degrees to their followers. And there is war between the secret kings, with the potential to overturn the mundane world entirely. Ben To: The Complete Series is being released in a S.A.V.E. edition, with a totally different kind of war. In grocery stores across Japan, the battle for half-priced Bento boxes has become fierce.

Something to Watch: Discs

This time around we get Moana, a quality animation telling one of the stories of the transpacific culture that spans a range of islands from Tahiti to Hawaii. They have been some of the most successful explorers the world has ever known, and have an artistic and musical tradition unique on the planet. As near as I can remember, this film is the first sympathetic treatment of that culture to receive world wide distribution and major box office success. Also out, Bad Kids of Crestview Academy, what you wold get if they filmed The Breakfast Club in the Nightmare on Elm Street neighborhood, a comedy/horror. About the only thing we get in Anime is the S.A.V.E. edition of Wanna Be the Strongest in the World!, which has both the complete series plus the OVAs. I am not certain that that one is even genre, but being a series about an Idol who becomes a Pro Wrestling Diva I am going to call it Fantasy, if only so I don’t have to skip the Anime entry altogether.

Something to Watch: Discs

The winner this week has to be Marvel’s Doctor Strange, a real powerhouse of a movie, and one of my favorites for 2016. In Anime, every title listed this time is the complete series, so you won’t be missing anything with any of these. Actually, I Am is about a boy who can’t keep a secret, so he confesses his love to a girl… who tells him a secret about herself: she’s a Vampire. If he leaks this secret to anyone, she will be forced to leave school, but it seems everyone at that school has a secret, and he begins to learn them all. In Amagi Brilliant Park there are scantily clad fairies, giant mice and sniper-trained sheep occupying a run down amusement park that really is a magic kingdom in need of rescuing. The Betrayal Knows My Name is a story of love, reincarnation, and constantly mounting danger, with a twist. There are two titles this week that I thought were already both released, but I can’t find evidence to prove it. Red Data Girl is being released in a S.A.V.E. edition, so you can pick up the entire series for under $20. The classic Scrapped Princess is also coming out on disc as a complete series; I thought it had done that a decade ago, but all the references I can find are for single volumes with 4 episodes each, no collection.

Something to Watch: Discs

This week we get Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio, a delightfully twisted look at comic book superheroes that may be my favorite Doctor Who Christmas Special. We also get the 2014 remake of the 1946 French classic La Belle Et La Bete or Beauty And The Beast, which one reviewer tagged as 50 Shades of Fur.

In Anime Noragami Season Two: Aragoto minor god Yato is still broke, still shrineless, and now fighting for his life as major war goddess Bishamon hunts him down. Even more life threatening, Assassination Classroom Season Two: Part One brings the next 13 episodes of this entertaining series. While I really like Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water, the release of Blu Ray 3 puts 5 episodes on a disc and charges the price of a complete series for them, so I will stick to the streaming service version. Ultimate Otaku Teacher: Season One, Part Two brings the next dozen episodes of this humorous and offbeat slice-of-life for the socially inept home. Re-releases in more affordable bundles this week include Freezing Vibration: The Complete Second Season in an Anime Classics edition (generally around or just under $30), and Unbreakable Machine-Doll in a S.A.V.E. edition (generally right around $20). Machine Doll is the complete series plus the 6 OVAs, which make it a very good deal.