The latest track from The Oral Cigarettes is Black Memory, which was posted on line yesterday and already has 185,000 views. If they sound familiar perhaps you know their song Kyouran Hey Kids!!, which is the opening theme to the first season of the series Noragami Aragoto. Its a story abut a minor god determined to make it big who isn’t having a lot of luck getting a shrine started or finding followers. Or perhaps you are currently watching Sagrada Reset, where they do one of the closing themes. They will also be doing the theme for the upcoming live action version of Ajin – Demi-Human, hitting theaters on the final weekend of September, and that is what Black Memory is.
The heir to Studio Ghibli is Studio Ponoc, and they are about to roll out Mary and The Witch’s Flower, their first feature film. It is good to know this kind of quality animation will continue to be created.
The Western world has Spark: A Space Tail as its offering, which does at least have an impressive line up of Voice Actors. Of course, we also have Smurfs: The Lost Village, and no, I am not handing out a link to that one. GATE: Complete Collection was my favorite Anime of 2015/2016; I am not going to tell you anything about the events of the two seasons themselves, but I am going to give you the setup/backstory that took place before the first episode started: When a Gate between universes opened up in Tokyo over half a million mounted warriors poured out, ready to conquer the world. They were humans, elves, animal people, and magicians, armed with bows, axes, swords and spells, and they killed several thousand civilians in their initial surge across the city. An Otaku officer in the Japanese Self Defense Force recognized what was going on and rallied a local military response, saving thousands in immediate danger in the process. As more forces were mobilized the attackers found themselves up against assault rifles, armored personnel carriers, tanks, grenade launchers, mortars, and shoulder-launched missiles. Only the few hundred invaders left to guard the Gate managed to get home alive, and most of them were wounded; the JSDF followed them through the gate and took over the town on the other side and the surrounding countryside for kilometers in every direction. What happened after that is the story of this series, and their universe will never be the same.
King Arthur: Excalibur Rising looks like our Western option this time around, and HYOUKA: Part One is it for Anime. I think the scarcity is caused by the industry deciding everyone will be eating hot dogs and watching fireworks rather than DVDs.
The interesting western selection this week is Absolutely Anything, a sci-fi comedy with the surviving members of Monty Python plus Simon Pegg, Kate Beckinsale, Eddie Izzard, Joanna Lumley, and Robin Williams (it was his final film). The critics didn’t care for it, with lots of reviews saying it was lacking in laughs, but I am going to have to watch it for myself before I decide if I agree with that. The other option is Power Rangers, which could be campy fun. I missed both films when they were in the theaters, so I have no idea how they are.
Anime brings us Assassination Classroom: Season 2, Part 2, a wonderful animation that keeps going in directions you don’t see coming. That completes the Anime series, but I am excited to let you know they are bringing the live action movie version of this story to the US this Wednesday. I saw it a few years ago while on an overseas flight, it was an amazing film. This isn’t an actual North American release, but rather a Region A Blu Ray Import, so while it will play just fine in North American Blu Ray players and does have English subtitles, it is a bit pricey. Kancolle: Kantai Collection, Complete Series is another 13 episode season in the lives of cute girls who are anthropomorphic battleships. Code Geass: Akito the Exiled is a 5 episode OVA that continues the world wide revolution against the Britannian Empire. Naruto Shippuden Uncut Set 31 is episodes 389 through 402 of that series, with episode 500 being their last one, and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations taking over the franchise from there. Finally Samurai Warriors: Complete Series is more historical epic than fantasy, but enough of the Samurai involved became mythic figures that I can justify including it here. Plus, this isn’t based on the warriors of that era as much as it is based on those same warriors as portrayed in the game of the same name, which puts us right back in the fantasy realm after all.
This time we get the orbital thriller Life, and the award winning comedy fantasy This Beautiful Fantastic. The later film slid right past a lot of folks, if you haven’t seen it you might want to consider checking it out. In Anime Norn9: Complete Collection has a nameless girl join the spaceship Norn in it’s mission to protect the planet from unseen enemies. The Seven Deadly Sins came out with season 1, part 2, while One Piece unleashed season 9, voyage 1, which covers episodes 517 through 528. Sailor Moon S released season 3 part 2, just because they can. While I don’t often mention re-releases, there is a classic this week you should be aware of: The Big O complete collection. A Noir detective with a Giant Mecha, what better combination could there be!