Flip Flappers is the most visually interesting anime of the new season, as well as being more than a little surreal. It compares favorably with Gurren-Lagann, FLCL (pronounced Fooly Cooly), and Paprika, at least so far. We will have to see if the story can grow as amazing as the visuals, like the other three I mentioned did. There are only three episodes posted so far, so if you like the first one you can binge your way through it in just over an hour.
Goro Miyazaki created an Anime version of Astrid Lindgren’s fantasy novel Ronja the Robber’s Daughter, and Amazon has picked it up for their Amazon Prime streaming service. Gillian Anderson will be narrating the story for them, and as a fan of all things Studio Ghibli I am looking forward to watching it. My only question now is when it will be available; they only finished dubbing the English audio in the last week or two, and searching the US and UK Amazon sites reveals no information.
In Movies the two primary winners, both sequels. Tim Burton’s Alice Through the Looking Glass can be picked up by itself, or in a two-pack with the earlier film Alice In Wonderland. I saw both of them in the theaters, and I highly recommend each of them. Independence Day Resurgence is all about the action visuals, more than the plot or dialog, although a few of the actors were able to make something out of what the writers gave them to work with. There is also the kid-centric Nessie & Me for those looking for something to share with your children.
Anime doesn’t really have any new genre titles this time around, but the classic series The Vision Of Escaflowne is being re-released, both the complete series and the movie in a single boxed set. For those who already own some portion of it they are also coming out with the movie separately, and each 13 episode season in its own box. Finally, a 4 movie set made up of Memories, Paprika, Steamboy, and Tekkonkinkreet is being released, four of the finest anime feature films ever made.
Two weeks into the new Anime season, and I already have a few favorites, with Izetta: The Last Witch topping the list. It is the early days of WWII Europe in a parallel timeline, with Germany blitzing over the surrounding countries one after another, and the Austrian princess trying desperately to make it to England to sign a mutual defense treaty. The twist is, this universe had a race of magic users, and the lone survivor is a childhood friend of the Princess, and not a fan of the government of those who inflicted that genocide. The first episode grabbed me within the first 5 minutes, the second was better than the first, and while that is no promise that it will keep delivering at that level I like what they have done so far. The Simulcast is on Saturdays at 11:45am EDT, I will be checking it out each weekend. Sadly, the legitimate trailer I found for it is way too short to give you a feel for what they are doing, so you should just go watch the first episode.
The re-imaging of Ghostbusters becomes available this week, starring four very gifted and funny women. Approaching the Unknown is a story about the first mission to Mars, which in this version has a single expedition member. The most recent iteration of The Legend of Tarzan was a solid example of the franchise, but it just didn’t speak to me the way some of the work done in the 40s and 50s did. We also get an animation this time around, Ice Age: Collision Course being every bit as funny as the previous four entries in that series. I loved the visual of the proto-squirrel being carried away in an alien’s flying saucer that was the heart of every trailer I saw.
In Anime, Wish Upon the Pleiades: Complete Collection puts a bunch of magical girls in a spacecraft and sends them into the skies to retrieve pieces of a destroyed alien ship. And Level E: Complete Series is coming out in a S.A.V.E. edition, for those who haven’t picked it up yet.
The announcement is even more exciting than the trailer; the theatrical release of Sword Art Online The Movie -Ordinal Scale- on February 18, 2017, is no longer exclusive to Japan. It will simultaneously be released in a thousand theaters world wide, including here in the US. Based on a brand new story by Reki Kawahara, the creator of this series, I am ready to see this one on the big screen!