Japan’s number 1 film of 2016 was Your Name from Makoto Shinkai, and it will be in movie theaters in the US beginning on April 7th. Funimation Films is presenting it, with the options of seeing it in the original Japanese with English subtitles, or with an English language soundtrack. If you don’t know Makoto Shinkai, you have probably already seen one of his groundbreaking animations, such as 5 Centimeters Per Second or the Children Who Chase Lost Voices, or the amazing Voices of a Distant Star which he did entirely himself. He is being referred to as the Next Miyazaki by a number of critics and reviewers around the world, and he has also written novels, stories, and Manga, and helped create video games. If this movie is playing anywhere near you, you should absolutely check it out. Did I mention the RADWIMPS had a hand in the soundtrack for this one, and are translating four of their songs into English for the English language version? I added the full length version of Zenzenzense as the last video in this post, the tease in the trailer was not enough.
The top western choice this week is Sherlock: Season Four, an excellent series I can’t watch enough of. The only other release that keeps it from being the only genre option in its category is Guardians of Oz from animator Jorge Gutiérrez who did The Book Of Life.
In Anime, Attack on Titan: The Complete First Season finally comes out in a single box set, for the same money as getting the Part 1 or Part 2 releases by themselves. Garo: Crimson Moon is Season Two, Part 1, for more golden armor vs. demons battle. Triage X: Complete Series has a team of nurses who moonlight as assassins, taking out the bad guys for 23 episodes. Finally, while Infinite Stratos 2 has already been released, they are coming out with a Premium Edition that, for a mere hundred dollars more, will give you an additional $20 worth of booklets and trinkets.
ALL OFF are a Japanese band that formed back in 2004, starting off by playing the festival circuit, becoming an overnight sensation after a decade of killer rock and hard rock. The first track is Refrain Boy, which is the ending theme song for the anime Mob Psycho 100 and was posted last August. If you have your VR headset handy, put it on for the second song, a 360 degree VR version of In Shadows posted about 4 weeks ago. The last one for this week is One More Chance!!, their 2015 major debut track that launched them internationally,
The dialog-free feature animation The Red Turtle was created by teams from France Belgium, and Japan. As the trailer makes obvious, the Japanese partner on the project was Studio Ghibli, nice to know I can see a new film by them this long after the studio closed. Also this week, the Lost in London LIVE experiment, where Woody Harrelson will create a movie live and stream it into theaters in real time. That one is on Thursday the 19th, and I might have to go see it just to find out it he succeeds.
The one western program I am excited about this week is 12 Monkeys: Season Two, the Syfy channel show with a great cast and story line. Roger Cormen is still making workmanlike films on shoestring budgets, and his Death Race 2050 is the latest to be released direct to disc. The animation Long Way North has been winning awards on the Film Festival circuit for the last year or better, but it never got a wide theatrical release, and also comes out direct to disc this week. And then there is Surf’s Up 2: Wave Mania, which I have also found no theatrical release for, but it might have been on TV at some point. This is a joint project between Sony Pictures and the WWE, with a number of their star wrestlers doing the voice actor work for the surfing penguins.
We don’t have much in Anime this week either. Nothing new, and just the latest box set each for two returning favorites. Naruto Shippūden Set 29 has episodes 362 through 374, while Fairy Tail: Collection 6 gives us episodes 121 through 142. Both of these long running shows are well worth following.
I wanted to post a few more tunes from Kishida Cult & The Akibosi Rockets, the first two being the OP themes from my favorite Anime series of 2015/2016, Gate. The song title for the first is GATE: It is like Akatsuki, OP for season 1, the second is GATE II: Beyond the World, from season 2 of course. If you don’t know the show you can go over to Crunchyroll and binge your way through it. The next track is the OP from season one of another excellent military anime, Alderamin on the Sky, with season 2 scheduled to stream some time in 2017. Great music for some great shows