There isn’t much this week, but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is worth checking out. I was hoping they would have stuck with the one book = one movie format they did with the Ring series, but this one book they are dragging out into 3 movies. They are doing this by showing you a number of complete battles they mentioned in one or two sentences in the book, dragging in filler from some of Tolkien’s other works, and so forth. That’s it for movies, and there do not seem to be any live action TV shows this time around.
We do somewhat better in Anime, with One Piece Season 4 DVD Part 4 bringing us episodes 242 through 252; at this rate, we may catch up with real time episodes in another few years. Toriko: Part 3 continues the gastronomic combat series (it doesn’t deserve to be on the menu if it doesn’t have at least as good a chance of having you for diner when the hunt finishes).
Fate/Stay Night: Complete Collection is all 24 episodes of the Stay Night storyline, but remember there is also a movie called Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, which is an alternate retelling, an OVA collection called Fate: Prototype, and another TV series titled Fate: Zero, so I tend to take exception to the Complete Collection part of the designation.
Vampire Princess Miyu TV is an actual complete collection of the TV series, although there was an OVA set for this show as well. The half human vampire girl is doomed to be a teenager forever, fighting the forces of darkness to save mankind. The series aired in 1997 through 1998, but it was a sequel to the original 1988 show, so this is old school style anime. Another classic being re-released this week is Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter, a Giant Mecha battle drama from 2000. It is an OVA of four 30 minute episodes. Finally, the much more recent Corpse Princess: The Complete Series is being released in a S.A.V.E. edition, which means you can add it to your collection for $20 or so if you shop around. She’ll kill anything that’s dead, to protect the living.