The only genre offering this week is a zombie movie called Daylight’s End, so I would rather go with Mechanic: Resurrection with Jason Statham and Jessica Alba. I enjoyed the original movie, and when Jason did the remake it was even better, so I can’t wait to see what they do with this one.
Movies bring us The Huntsman: Winter’s War, part two of the story begun in Snow White and the Huntsman. This series is nicely done Fantasy which has already been nominated for a number of awards. Game based Ratchet and Clank has our heroes fighting to save every planet in the Galaxy, with more than a little humor along the way. While not genre, The Man Who Knew Infinity is the true story of mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan’s time at Trinity College. TV has Ash vs. Evil Dead: The Complete First Season and The Walking Dead: The Complete Sixth Season, which seems slightly redundant somehow.
In Anime, Hakuoki: Warrior Spirit of the Blue Sky is finally getting a North American release for those in need of more Samurai vs. Demon/Vampire action. Cross Ange Collection 2 contains the next dozen episodes about the princess who’s throne was stolen, and the fight to get it back puts the fate of two worlds in alternate timelines at risk. The final battle between man, dragons, and machines will decide it all. The Heroic Legend of Arslan also has an heir to the throne fighting to get it back, but don’t think this is a copy cat. This one is crafted by the team who did Full Metal Alchemist, and is full of the same kind of complex politics, situations, and characters as you know from their earlier works. Finally, two of the Ikki Tousen story lines are being released in S.A.V.E editions; Great Guardians and Xtreme Xectuor. If you have been waiting to pick them up when the price came down, now is the time!
High school combat using special powers against alien invaders is a favorite theme in Japan, and Qualidea Code is solidly in that category. They have a small group of core characters, about 10 at this point (I am only on the second episode of the 6 so far aired; I should be all caught up by next weekend), and they have the usual pairing off. What is different about them is the fact that only one couple actually gets along with each other, and about no couples gets along with any of the others. The aliens in this case seem to be transdimensional rather than extraplanetary, and the powers the kids developed are all caused by spending several dream filled decades in cold sleep. I am enjoying it, and I look forward to seeing if it is even better by the time I get to the last episode.
I haven’t noticed many trailers on TV (possibly because I don’t actually watch commercial TV as a general rule), so I thought I would post one here.
Kubo And The Two Strings looks like the winner this time around, with some excellent animation and a great vocal cast. Kubo needs to find a magic suit of armor to defeat a vengeful spirit. Some towns and theaters also get Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is more about empires at war than the personal battles of the first film. But it is also animated, although in the Machinema style rather than Kubo’s stop-motion style. Finally, there is a documentary that looks pretty interesting: Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, with Werner Herzog’s exploration of the Internet. I like all the choices, I will definitely be at a minimum of one of them this weekend.
The few movies being released this week all appear to be low budget direct-to-video offering, like A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits (done as a musical), RZ-9, and Robot World. OK, one exception, I think The Angry Birds Movie may have been played in a theater somewhere. TV has some serious winners though, with Gotham: Season 2 and Once Upon A Time: The Complete Fifth Season being the two I am most excited about. I am sure I would be more excited about The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Seventh Season if I had made it to the fourth season yet. It seems I have way more things I try to watch than there are hours in the day, so I end up getting behind on some of the shows.
In Anime Punch Line is about a Time Traveler who was evicted from his body, a Hero of Justice and her Fembot sidekick, a Ghost Cat Spiritual Master, an unskilled and alcoholic Exorcist, a competition grade Gamer Girl and her alien pet, and an Extinction Level Event on a collision course to wipe out the human race. Which it does, several times; good thing the time traveler refuses to give up, working hard to recover his body and join with his friends to save the planet! Assassination Classroom: Season 1 Part 2 continues the tale of the alien teacher and the students trying their best to kill him; he has promised that if they succeed, he will not destroy the Earth the way he did the Moon. I am sure no one needs any explanation about what Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal: Set 1 is about.
In Trinity Seven: Complete Collection Arata’s town was destroyed, his beloved cousin removed, and he was transported to another world where his new magical powers hold the only key to his return to Earth. Provided, that is, that he can keep the seven deadly girls alive through the trans-dimensional attacks that plague his new world. Blood Blockade Battlefront has denizens of the netherworld teaming up with Superheroes to defend both realms from an evil plot to take over their worlds. Finally, Charlotte Volume 1 contains the first 7 episodes of the 12 part story of adolescents who gain special powers, only to lose them a few years later. While it starts out looking like a high school wish fulfillment fantasy, it doesn’t take many episodes at all before they start revealing the much darker under-story, and the secret war being waged across the world.