Yes, it is true; Scarlett Johansson has signed up to be Major Motoko Kusanagi, the kick-ass cyborg at the heart of Masamune Shirow’s classic Manga and Anime Ghost In The Shell for the live action version of the story. I think she is the perfect choice to play the part, and only wish I had a Tardis handy so I could jump forward in time and watch it now. Sadly, there is no live action footage available for the film yet, but here is the original Anime trailer for those few who forgot what the story is about. Thank’s to Nerdist for the heads up on this one.
In Movies we get Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who is John Galt, the final film which completes the trilogy adapted from Ayn Rand’s novel. We also get Horns, a fantasy based on Joe Hill’s novel. Left Behind is another fantasy about how the world fell apart after a lot of people evaporated off the planet suddenly. They are also releasing the 1967 classic The Sword of Doom on Blue Ray for the first time. I didn’t find anything interesting in the way of genre TV shows this week.
In Anime, Fairy Tail: Collection 3 brings episodes 49 through 72 to the shelves in one box, complete with all the collateral damage those wizards are famous for. The collection editions are a lot more cost effective than the individual seasons, which run at the same price for half the number of episodes; you just have to be willing to wait a bit longer for them to be released. Likewise, One Piece – Collection Box 1 puts the first 4 seasons into a single box set, for a total of 103 episodes. The second one of those will be along in February.
Qwaser of Stigmata: Complete Collection contains all episodes from season 1, season 2, and the OVAs. Super powered combat with a battle for the fate of mankind puts the sisters Mafuyu and Tomo in danger, but it also gives them the power to help determine the outcome. Fantastic Detective Labyrinth: Complete Collection is about a boy detective in a Shinto filled with supernatural crime, 30 years after Tokyo was destroyed. Also, Dog & Scissors is being released on Blue Ray (previously only available as a DVD), a fantasy about a boy who is reincarnated as a dog owned by his favorite author… only he can not read as a dog.
They may be inspired by One OK Rock or they may just share a similar style, but My First Story is quite a good band in their own right. The first track is Irreversible Replacement, which you will no doubt recognize as the theme song for the Anime series Nobunaga Concerto, which just came out a few months ago. The second track is the song Second Limit from their first full album, a self-titled disc released in 2012. The third one is The Story Is My Life, from their second full album released in 2013. As usual you can pick up their music on iTunes and from Amazon Japan.
There isn’t much this week, no real surprise since the shopping season is pretty much over. In movies I only mention Stephen King’s A Good Marriage because of the author. Likewise, I only mention the TV show Banshee: The Complete Second Season because its from Alan Ball, who turned True Blood into a small screen roller coaster of a show. Without those mentions, I don’t think I would have anything to put there.
In Anime, Onimonogatari: Shinobu Time is the Fourth arc to the Monogatari series’ second season. Time traveling is involved, and The Darkness is coming to take everyone over. In case you were wondering, Monogatari is how you say Story in Japanese, and Oni is the word for Demon, so the second season is called Demon’s Story, where the first season Bakemonogatari means Ghost or Monster Story. The light novels these are based on are quite good; if you are a fan of them, this DVD/Story Arc is the 11th book in the series.
7 Assassins is the movie this week, about a group of assassins who have banded together to rid the government of corruption. This movie is quite good, even if it does have a death toll that could rival a Shakespearean tragedy adapted by George R.R. Martin, as the reviewer linked here said.
TV has Continuum: Season Three, with another roll of the time-travel dice pushing Kiera still farther from her original timeline. If you live in Canada you can get the Enhanced Video experience by watching it online, with original bonus webisodes, extended scenes, and behind-the-scenes content in each Continuum Season 3 episode. You can get a lot of that from Continuum on Syfy, but not all of it, and not as nicely integrated. US viewers should go for the discs to get the full effect. We also get Dominion: Season One this time around, about the war between the angels and humanity. I am sure you won’t be too surprised to learn Humanity is in trouble.
The Anime stand out this week is Sword Art Online: Extra Edition, the bit that came between the first and second season, an OVA that comes in at just 100 minutes. It sets the stage nicely for what comes next, and brings its own context and development. There is also One Piece; Season 6 Part 3, which may not sound like much but is 11 full episodes. What Japan calls a TV season is everything produced in a year, and since they go around the calendar with this series, each actual season ends up being 10 to 12 episodes long.
I have been waiting for years for Cowboy Bebop to come out in Blue Ray, and it finally happened today. I am going to try not to watch them in one non-stop marathon. I am going to try to savor them, maybe one episode a day. OK, maybe two, and four per weekend day. And I will be listening to the soundtrack a lot, possibly the most amazing Anime soundtrack ever recorded (go Yoko Kanno!).