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Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies the animated Finding Dory from Disney and Pixar is the only film that had a widespread theatrical release. Ron Howard’s The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years was in theaters, but being a documentary it didn’t get the number of screens needed to take it beyond Limited Release. It did get enough that most people who wanted to see it could do so, although some folks had a bit of a drive, and is part of Hulu’s Because The Beatles collection. How Sarah Got Her Wings missed the big screen as it was a TV Holiday Special from Ion the other year.

Anime brings us Charlotte 2, the last 6 episodes of this 13 episode series about those with special powers. Priced at right around $13 per episode, I will be watching it on Crunchyroll for the foreseeable future. Ultimate Otaku Teacher Part 1 is about a smart guy who is only interested in his blog and hobbies of anime and manga. His sisters gets fed up and signs him up for a job as a teacher, which he turns out to be surprisingly good at. Yes, it isn’t genre, I am including it for its Otaku aspects. Chaos Dragon tells of a small country caught between two larger countries war. Its Dragon deity is insane, but the only hope they have is for the surviving member of the ruling family to form a bond with the Dragon, and channel his power to get the country back its freedom. Castle Town Dandelion – Complete Series has nine super powered siblings campaigning to take over their dads job and become the new king. File it under silly fun.

Something to Watch: Discs

TV brings us Daredevil: The Complete First Season, a rather brutal addition to the Marvel TV collection that has a good story to tell. Marvel is doing better than most at creating continuity between their Movie and TV storytelling, with the Netflix branch of the franchise focusing on the superheroes who called Hell’s Kitchen home. Movies have a couple of animations for us, Phantom Boy being a French production about a kid who can astral project and the policeman he works with to bring down a violent criminal being the first. The second is the rather more adult Sausage Party, which is funny as hell but NOT appropriate to share with your children.

In Anime, Sky Wizards Academy: The Complete Series is about an inept combat team and the outcast who was assigned to train them to fight against the armored insects that now control the Earth. 07-ghost tells of the destruction of a nation after a Thousand Years War, and the survivor who is about to turn everything upside down. Omamori Himari: Complete Collection has a cat girl guardian, a bunch of attacking demons, and the last remaining member of a demon killing family that wishes he was anywhere but here. Strike the Blood is all about Vampires who bounce from body to body, and the killer girls sent to snuff them who seem to spend a lot more time protecting them.

In The Heroic Legend of Arslan Season One: Part Two, trust me when I say Arslan is not having a good time, but you might enjoy the story noticeably more than he does. Overlord: Complete Collection the ultimate “trapped in a game” anime, and it certainly seems to be a lot of fun. Finally, Shomin Sample: I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner win’s this weeks award for most off the wall title, but it does look like an interesting animation.

Something to Watch: Discs

This week brings Star Trek Beyond, yet another excellent episode from the rebooted Federation universe. There are all kinds of options on this release including multiple collectors sets with one or more different spaceship models, getting all three rebooted movies in one box set, and various exclusive bonus content add ins combined with cards and artwork, depending on who you decide to pick it up from. It looks like a whole lot of shopping outlets have jumped all over the Star Trek 50th celebration. Nine Lives is a family fantasy with Kevin Spacey as the cat and Christopher Walken as the guy who put him there. The 2016 animation Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders is based on the 60s TV show and features Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar doing the voices for their characters from that series.

In Anime, Snow White with the Red Hair is about an herbalist with unique relationships with the royalty of two countries, and yes this is a medieval fantasy. Psychic School Wars is a 2012 movie about a time traveler awakening psychic abilities in students in the hope of avoiding a future disaster, but he may end up causing one in the present. To Love Ru Darkness 2 is season 4 of that franchise, with devil dolls and alien girls taking over the school.

Something to Watch: Discs

While there doesn’t seem to be any actual genre movies or TV this week, Nerve comes pretty close, and is an edge-of-your-seat kind of adventure. Skiptrace is a Jackie Chan action/comedy worth checking out as well.

In Anime In Search of the Lost Future: Complete Series is the 12 episode story of a time traveler hiding out in the Astronomy Club, sent from the future to save a life that ended too early. Owarimonogatari Part 1 is just as surreal as anything else in Nisio Isin’s Monogatari series of light novels, and they transitioned that to the anime rather well. This package has the first 7 episodes of the 12 episode series. The Perfect Insider: Complete Series has an architecture professor and a math prodigy teamed up to solve a locked room murder of a genius programmer.

Something to Watch: Discs

In Movies the two primary winners, both sequels. Tim Burton’s Alice Through the Looking Glass can be picked up by itself, or in a two-pack with the earlier film Alice In Wonderland. I saw both of them in the theaters, and I highly recommend each of them. Independence Day Resurgence is all about the action visuals, more than the plot or dialog, although a few of the actors were able to make something out of what the writers gave them to work with. There is also the kid-centric Nessie & Me for those looking for something to share with your children.

Anime doesn’t really have any new genre titles this time around, but the classic series The Vision Of Escaflowne is being re-released, both the complete series and the movie in a single boxed set. For those who already own some portion of it they are also coming out with the movie separately, and each 13 episode season in its own box. Finally, a 4 movie set made up of Memories, Paprika, Steamboy, and Tekkonkinkreet is being released, four of the finest anime feature films ever made.

Something to Watch: Discs

The re-imaging of Ghostbusters becomes available this week, starring four very gifted and funny women. Approaching the Unknown is a story about the first mission to Mars, which in this version has a single expedition member. The most recent iteration of The Legend of Tarzan was a solid example of the franchise, but it just didn’t speak to me the way some of the work done in the 40s and 50s did. We also get an animation this time around, Ice Age: Collision Course being every bit as funny as the previous four entries in that series. I loved the visual of the proto-squirrel being carried away in an alien’s flying saucer that was the heart of every trailer I saw.

In Anime, Wish Upon the Pleiades: Complete Collection puts a bunch of magical girls in a spacecraft and sends them into the skies to retrieve pieces of a destroyed alien ship. And Level E: Complete Series is coming out in a S.A.V.E. edition, for those who haven’t picked it up yet.