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Something to Watch: DVDs, 23Apr13

Fairly thin on the shelves this week, Jurassic Park 3D is the only movie of note, and it is left over from 1993, updated for some new technology. Unlike many movies that have been updated to a 3D format, this one is quite worth the effort, in that the 3D processing actually enhances the film experience. There is also a collection of short experimental pieces called Tunnel Vision: The Underground Films By Raz Mesinai which could have some interesting entries in it. Finally there is the made for TV Pegasus Vs. Chimera, which still seems to have a web page.

I didn’t find any live action TV this week, but Marvel Knights: Inhumans is a dark animated feature just over two hours long that looks very interesting. If you followed the Inhumans through their graphic novel adventures with the Fantastic Four and others, you have an idea of the kind of scope this group has for telling a serious story.

In Anime, Rosario + Vampire are releasing both season one and season two as two boxed sets on the same week. Tsukune’s grades suck, so he only has one school that will accept him, but when he get’s there he discovers it is a school for monsters who consider humans lunch. In fact, before long a beautiful vampire girl is snacking on him, and sharing her lunch with a few close supernatural girlfriends. But when real danger threatens, Tsukune unlocks Moka’s super-monster seal, and all hell breaks loose. Psychic Detective Yakumo contains all 13 episodes of the series where the dead tell the crime fighting team what they know about their murders, and the duo has to work hard and fast to avoid joining the rolls of the deceased. It all started when Haruka tried to help a possessed friend get free from her controlling spirit, and got more dangerous by the moment from there.

Naruto Shippūden Box 14 brings us to episodes 167 through 179, a critical juncture where Naruto has manifested eight of his nine tails during the battle over Leaf Village. Does he now have sufficient power to save his friends? Hakuōki: A Memory of Snow Flowers is an OVA collection of 6 episodes in which a Shinsengumi warrior must disguise herself as a geisha in order to gather the intelligence her side needs to win, as Kyoto teeters on the brink of war. Not all of the dangers in the mission require a warriors heart to overcome them.

Galaxy Express 999: Complete Series 2 continues the old-school anime series with the 1998 sequel to the original 1979 show.

RWBY Animation ID

I first posted the following a few weeks ago, and thanks to the newsletter from Smith Micro I now know this new project is not Machinima, but is being created in Poser Pro. I didn’t know you could get that kind of Anime style from the software, I find myself quite impressed. RWBY won’t be kicking off until July or so, but I like the trailers and am looking forward to the new project. Here is the original posting:

Rooster Teeth, the folks who brought us that masterpiece of combat comedy Red Vs. Blue, have a tasty new animation project: RWBY. The latest trailer is the top one, the Black trailer. After that are the earlier trailers, the White and Red. They haven’t released the Yellow trailer yet, but this will give you an idea of what the new series is up to. I find the style on these very interesting, almost like they recorded Machinima and then rotoscoped them into Anime. Which wouldn’t be a huge surprise, since Red Vs. Blue was some of the finest machinima ever made.

Streaming Anime: Nozomi, Right Stuff

Nozomi Entertainment has a channel full of their own Anime for you to stream and enjoy, as does Right Stuff (even though the latter is all silly). This is yet another streaming source that gives you entire episodes of anime programs, although in this case they save the cost of installing, configuring, and running their own video servers by using the YouTube service as their delivery platform. I like the concept, and appreciate it means they get to supply us with yet more free to watch anime from an amazing range of classic productions. I end up buying the majority of my Anime DVDs from Right Stuf, simply because their prices tend to beat everybody else’s by a noticeable percentage. And as with the other suppliers, being able to watch the shows for free definitely helps me remember why they need to be part of my permanent collection.

New RWBY trailer

Rooster Teeth, the folks who brought us that masterpiece of combat comedy Red Vs. Blue, have a tasty new animation project: RWBY. The latest trailer is the top one, the Black trailer. After that are the earlier trailers, the White and Red. They haven’t released the Yellow trailer yet, but this will give you an idea of what the new series is up to. I find the style on these very interesting, almost like they recorded Machinima and then rotoscoped them into Anime. Which wouldn’t be a huge surprise, since Red Vs. Blue was some of the finest machinima ever made.