As you might expect just before Xmas, a bunch of good movies have been released in time for you to grab them to give out as gifts. They include the Fantastic Four reboot and the second story in the literary franchise Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. In addition there is the incredibly silly (and politically incorrect) Ted 2, and the latest entry in another fantasy franchise, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation. With that many new films coming out it is kind of sad that there isn’t a new idea in the collection, only studios trying to cash in on preexisting properties. There is one original new cinematic work, but it isn’t genre; Slow Learners is a romcom about the terminally dorky, and what they go through in the effort to have a real life. TV brings us Extant: The Second Season, which definitely is genre. Just the bit about the astronaut mother looking for her half-alien son to protect him from the government’s killer robots should be enough to put it squarely in the realm of Science Fiction.
In Anime, we have two tales about Earth being under attack by aliens, with Daimadaler: Prince V.S. Penguin Empire, The Complete Series and Majestic Prince: Complete Collection. We also get two butler-centric stories in Hayate the Combat Butler: Heaven is a Place on Earth, and Ladies versus Butlers! Complete Collection. Hayate at least is genre, the other I don’t know about as I haven’t watched it.
There is a new One Piece: Season 7 Voyage 4 which brings us episodes 422 through 433. Finally, Chaika: The Coffin Princess is refreshing, in that it misses a lot of the standard Anime tropes and tells its own unique fantasy story.