This isn’t the first Live Action Attack On Titan trailer, but it is the first one that includes visuals on the 3D Maneuver Gear which is the core of the defense groups arsenal, and has helped make the animation such a success. Then they did it not once, but twice. I am so ready for this production set, which will be released as a theatrical presentation (i.e. Movie) on August 1st, a short series of weekly shown TV shows covering the space between, and then the concluding Movie on September 19th. The release dates I am quoting are all for Japan, but with the world-wide excitement the original Manga and Anime have generated, I have very high hopes one of the streaming services will pick up on the TV series, and someone like American Multi-Cinema (AMC) (founded in 1920 Kansas City, Missouri, now owned by China) will carry the films. Keeping my fingers crossed, at least.
This week we get a whole new level of dysfunctional fantasy with Ted 2, a comedy going places the first one didn’t dare to. Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but to qualify, Ted will have to prove he’s a person in a court of law. It is basically Heinlein’s Jerry Was A Man dressed up with outrageous gobs of raunchy humor. If you prefer your comedy a bit less raunchy you might want to check out the award winning Australian film The Little Death this weekend instead. At least I think it is a bit less raunchy, but I know it isn’t genre; and the trailer had me laughing, so I figured I should mention it here.
I couldn’t find any genre movies or TV shows this week other than re-releases, but there is a TV show that comes close. Ripper Street: Season 3 is close to being a Steampunk police procedural, and so becomes worth mentioning. An actual Steampunk police procedural, and my favorite of the type, is Murdoch Mysteries, complete with guest stars Nikola Tesla, H.G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, and many more. Sadly, that show is not having a new release this week. Another non-genre release worth mentioning is the Rolling Stones From the Vault: The Marquee Club Live in 1971 if you are looking for a taste of classic rock.
In Anime we do noticeably better, starting with Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!: Season 1 in a limited release. By limited I mean only one US store seems to be stocking it for its initial release, in this case RightStuf. The story of the Soul Reapers continues this week with the Bleach: Season 25 Uncut Box Set, bringing episodes 343 through 354 to the shelves. The currently streaming episode is 366, so this release finally puts us right up to date on the disc production.
Hayate the Combat Butler: Season 4 AKA Cuties is also out this week. This fantasy series (how can a Combat Butler be anything but a fantasy?) has a goodly balance of action and comedy, and if you haven’t been following it you can start from the beginning at Crunchyroll and stream your way up to the current season. Finally Origin: Spirits of the Past is coming out in a S.A.V.E. edition, allowing you to pick it up for around $12.
The short film Harlequin is quite nicely done, and worth the time it takes to watch it. Pretty much a Batman variation, so it fits right in with the Comic Book Movies theme I enjoy sharing so often. It was created by Tara Alexis, who has some other interesting shorts to her credit, including some music videos (see the second one listed here, Haunted).
This is a fan made trailer put together to help us imagine what an animated version of BLADERUNNER would be like.
It will be hard to top this past weekend’s monster film Jurassic World after it blew the doors off of the previous opening weekend record holder, The Avengers. But if you are in need of a mental pick-me-up I recommend Inside Out, the latest animated fun fest from Pixar. I am thinking I will have to be in the theater for this one… although I might follow it up with another round of Dinosaurs.