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Something to Watch: Discs

This time Pixels arrives home with the mind numbing premise that Aliens take our inclusion of video games on the Voyager disc as a declaration of war, and return the attack with one of their own. Don’t think that Pixels is strange, though, because also this week an underground classic of a film comes out on disc: Forbidden Zone. It seems back in 1980, Richard and Danny Elfman, along with their Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo theater troupe, decided to assemble the stuff they were doing into a movie. The results were one of the strangest and most offensive films ever made, and someone had the guts to finally release it as a 2 disc set, the film on DVD, the soundtrack on CD. I don’t actually recommend that film to anyone because of the included offensive parts, but it is extremely bizarre sci-fi fantasy, so I have to at least mention it. There are also several live concert DVDs coming out this week for the musically addicted, including the Prismatic World Tour from Katy Perry, Roxy the Movie from Frank Zappa (The videos of the December 1973 concert series that became the album Roxy and Elsewhere), and From the Vault: Live at the Tokyo Dome 1990 from the Rolling Stones.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail Limited Edition Castle Catapult Gift Set is one of the sillier things they are doing in honor of the film’s 40th anniversary this week. It is a re-release, obviously, but I had to at least put that title in print, so you could imagine just how interesting the box set with accompanying catapult looks. In TV the Doctor Who: Christmas Specials Giftset includes all of the so far available David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi Christmas Specials. Plus, they are throwing in a Sonic Screwdriver with every set, but they don’t mention which Doctor’s screwdriver is included. Quite frankly, that takes care of four of my Christmas gifts this year with two of each.

In Anime, Black Bullet: Complete Collection tells of a virus spreading fast and mutating rapidly, giving their hosts unexpected powers and abilities, along with a compulsion to attack others to continue to spread the virus. The entire thing is 13 episodes long, as is Blade & Soul: Complete Collection. In Blade, Alka has been her clan’s assassin her entire life, but now her clan is dead and she lives only to destroy those who killed them.

Continuing favorites include Lupin III vs. Detective Conan The Movie, which is a crossover story between the 2 series created in 2013 that has lots of action and humor. Plus it is a hoot to see a favorite thief go up against a favorite detective, leaving me a bit confused about which one to cheer for. One Piece: Season 7 Part 3 has episodes 410 through 421, but before you get your hopes up you are getting there, the current episode is 714, or maybe 715 by now. Or maybe even 716, I saw 714 listed a week or two back, but I am not sure what day the new episodes come out, so I don’t know how many times it has changed since then. Sailor Moon R: Season 2 Part 2 brings episodes 69 through 89 home, meaning the battle against the time traveling Black Moon royal family story arc, or at least a lot of it.

I left Aldnoah.Zero: Set 2 to the final paragraph because even though it is a new release, it is only half a season’s worth of episodes, 7->12 to be specific. Even that is only a quarter of the series so far, which runs to 24 episodes; and I try my best not to reward marketing teams which release things in tiny pieces so they can sell a lot of them for what other groups make the price of an entire season or better. While I will sometimes mention something with 6 episodes like this series, it will only happen when they are quite good (or 6 or fewer IS the total number of episodes available). The other side of that coin this time around is Dance in the Vampire Bund: Complete Series S.A.V.E. Edition, S.A.V.E. standing for Super Amazing Value Edition. The S.A.V.E. releases are quite inexpensive box sets that give you an entire series but generally run you one side or the other of $20, and you can catch them for $12 or so when sales happen. So even though most of those series are a year or two old, and have usually already been released as a complete series, I find them worth telling folks about, so they can get the most Anime for their buck (which is the way I always try to buy this stuff).

Rip Slyme

I first came across RIP Slyme as the song Super Shooter embedded in the anime Gantz, and liked them for being brave enough to be associated with it. Of course, the song was perfect for the show, so it made sense they wanted to be part of the project. After about the third other song I heard from them I began to like them as a band. Sadly, it looks like they signed with Warner Music about 5 years ago, and Gantz was done 6 years ago. So far I haven’t found an official version of that song I can include here because of that change of contract. Here are a few tunes for you to check out that I am allowed to post, so you can make your own decision. Let’s start with their latest release JUMP featuring Chay, which came out on September 30th as part of their 10th album. The next track is Star.

Kizumonogatari!

There is a new tale in the Monogatari! (or Story! in English) series; Kizumonogatari!. This is where the story of apparitions, or BAKEMONOGATARI, begins, and they present it in three parts: “Tekketsu,” “Nekketsu” and “Reiketsu.” If you have been enjoying the Monogatari series so far, it looks like it only gets better from here.

Something to Do: Movies

There are several interesting choices this week. The Last Witch Hunter is an action fantasy about an immortal witch hunter and his reincarnated most powerful opponent, battling it out in modern times to determine if the human race gets to survive or not. While not genre, Steve Jobs is a look at one of the people who completely changed how the world works (and plays) during and after the computer revolution, and will probably be the best film coming out this week. There is a lot of controversy about the live action Jem and the Holograms since the original Anime was at its core about women’s empowerment, with the heroine owning the record company the band played for and using the super-science of her AI computer Synergy to project holograms from her earrings. Those holograms protected her secret identity, generated illusions that baffled and confused the evil doers she was constantly fighting, and also created special effects for the band. It appears that in the new live action version Jem is not the owner of the company, not the possessor of a secret identity fighting the bad guys, not in possession of proprietary advanced technology that is indistinguishable from magic and makes her powerful. Instead she seems to be a wanna-be rock star who leveraged a YouTube account into a ticket to being exploited by a record company, which is not even close to the original story line. Or is she? The trailer seems to have changed since it first came out, I am wondering if the production company may have realized their mistake when the public outcry started over the changes they introduced. Not hopeful, but wondering.

Something to Stream: MSG Iron Blooded Orphans

In the Anime series Mobile Suit GUNDAM: Iron Blooded Orphans you have the continuation of the war between Earth and Mars in all its depth and complexity. The Martian independence movement has gained an important supporter in the person of Kudelia, daughter of one of the major terrestrial governing families on the red planet. She has chosen the child soldiers to escort her to Earth, and the are abandoned by the adults looking to save themselves when the assassination teams arrive. The consequences could be much different than the ruling houses on both planets would ever wish. If you are not already a fan of the Gundam franchise, this might be the series that opens your eyes and brings you on board.