While I didn’t find any Fantasy or Sci-Fi movies this week, The Expendables 2 is almost genre when you consider both its close approach to fantasy and the amazing cast.
Just in time for the gift giving season, Dr. Who: Limited Edition Collection contains the new series seasons 1 through 6, and all the specials of that time frame from both the BBC and BBC America, crammed onto 41 disks. They also threw in some other goodies, like an 11th Doctor sonic screwdriver, some art cards, and a comic book. There are over 70 hours just in the actual episodes themselves, and more hours still for the extras. If you know someone who loves the Doctor but doesn’t own anything more recent than Sylvester McCoy, this is the perfect gift for them. I have seen it priced from $150 to $240, so you do want to shop around to find the best deal on it. Somehow I don’t believe Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series is going to draw the same kind of loyal fan interest or numbers, but it is also becoming available this week.
In western animation we have Dragons: Riders of Berk, a TV series based on the award winning How To Train Your Dragon from Dreamworks. At least, I think it is western animation. With most major animation houses having studios in both California and China it is getting harder to tell these days.
In Anime, there are two special edition boxed sets that seem way overpriced to me for the contents included. Bakemonogatari has as its protagonist a boy who is saved from being turned into a vampire, only to consequently discover all his female friends are suffering from apparition induced afflictions. The central character in Garden of Sinners spent two years in a coma, to awake and discover she can see the lines of mortality tying together the living and the dead. One is a set of 7 feature length film, the other a series of fifteen 25 minute episodes, but with an SRP of just over $180 each that comes to between 34 to 55 cents PER MINUTE. Even the best sale price I could find only reduced them to $150 before taxes and shipping, and even with the extra booklets and art cards I don’t really see enough additional value to justify that kind of price.
The much more realistically priced Cluster Edge: Collection 2 continues the story of transfer student Agate and his friends at the elite school Cluster E.A., as the artificial soldiers and the tapestry of history threaten to come crashing down on everyone. The long running classic InuYasha may finally be coming to a conclusion with InuYasha: The Final Act Set 1. The powerful jewel is almost reassembled but in the hands of the enemy, and the race is on to gather the final fragments. The release of Soul Eater: The Complete Series puts the whole thing in a single box set for the first time. This gives a much better price point than when your only option was to buy it as four separate box sets, so if you have been waiting to pick it up, now might be the time. And finally, Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo: Part 2 continues the silliness begun in part one.