While it probably will not be showing on a huge number of screens, the one that excites me is Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. I have been enjoying the reimaging of this series, as it gets redone as four feature length films. It pulled in over a billion Yen on its opening weekend in Japan, so I am obviously not the only one who likes it. The trailer for the fourth and final film in the series is apparently embedded at the end of the credits, so walking out while they are scrolling up the screen is not recommended. The other film which may be released this week is The Elegant Clockwork of the Universe, a time travel tale.
Frankly, I am surprised anything new is being released on Christmas day, and not surprised there are only a couple of titles, all some form of animation. Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is a Machinima coming out on the 28th, but it has been out for viewing in Video On Demand for several weeks already. I suspect some regular Anime fans will enjoy this, but it is targeting the Gamers first. Hakuoki: Record Of The Jade Blood is coming out with season two of this story of the ninja/samurai wars of the Edo period. IDOLM@STER: Xenoglossia brings collection 2 with more Mecha action as the war heats up, as well as developing relationships between the giant robots and their pilots.
While a lot of the releases this time around are on the normal Tuesday timeline, there seem to be a number coming out on Friday, the 21st as well. I am sure this breakup is to target the panicking holiday shoppers and make sure they have something fresh to buy for last minute gift giving. I am not going to indicate which disk gets released on what date since the dates listed at different shopping sites sometimes contradict each other, but everything mentioned here is coming out on one of those two dates.
In movies, Total Recall is the 2012 version of the film, which went back to the original Philip K. Dick source material rather than remake the earlier feature presentation. I am still disappointed they dropped the Mars aspects of the story, but this one definitely qualifies in the adrenalin category. Resident Evil: Retribution is no slouch in the action/adventure arena itself, and continues this well known game and film franchise.
For TV the winner has to be Funny or Die Presents: The Complete Second Season, which is not genre but does at least have a certain geek and nerd appeal.
In anime, Steins;Gate: The Complete Series Part Two brings the conclusion of one of the best time travel anime series ever made. The protagonist keeps sending text messages into the past to get people (including himself) to do things differently to improve the state of the present, but things keep getting worse and worse. Taking place in about the same universe as Robotics;Notes and Chaos;Head, and sharing a creative team with them, this group of series is definitely worth watching.
Another excellent sci-fi series, A Certain Magical Index is a new tale in the universe of A Certain Scientific Railgun, where an entire major metropolis is set aside for the training of espers and psychics, and where scientists study and improve those talents. This time a nun named Index has 103,000 volumes of magical knowledge stored in her memory, and scientists and sorcerers alike are out to capture her and steal her knowledge. Luckily a boy named Kamijo with a power of his own befriends her and helps protect her from her enemies. I definitely recommend this program, in both its series. And just so you won’t have to wait to see how it comes out, both parts 1 and 2 of the first season are being released together.
Also this week, Kobato: Complete Collection is about a girl with a magic flask that can help mend broken hearts and shattered dreams, but her nonhuman mentor isn’t certain she is up to the challenge. And Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky puts the whole story into a single box. If you are an American fan of the game and disappointed a US release of parts two and three never happened, you can watch the collected OVAs here to get the storyline and find out what happened.
Kurozuka: The Complete Series is a story about a 12th century Japanese swordsman who falls in love with an immortal vampire. He is betrayed by his servant, and wakes up in a post nuclear apocalyptic Japan under control of the Red Army. Now he must find his immortal love and defeat the invaders. Ultraviolet Code 044: The Complete Series is a 2008 anime series based on the 2006 sci-fi movie Ultraviolet, about a genetically engineered super soldier (the trade off was a much shortened life expectancy) who goes renegade from the government which had her grown. Viper’s Creed – The Complete Series takes place after World War III leads to environmental catastrophe, and many of the worlds cities have drowned. The Vipers are an elite military group trying to rebuild and defend their portion of the planet.
In continuing series, One Piece – Season 4 Part 3 brings episodes 230 through 241 home for the viewing. Shakugan no Shana Season Two is being broken up into two box sets of about a dozen episodes each. Shana and Yuji continue battling supernatural foes and going through the emotional turmoil of high school while trying to protect both worlds.
If you are in the mood for twisted comedy, Ted has to be top of your list this week. If its action/adventure, The Bourne Legacy is a great choice (yes, it is genre, genetically engineering humans is still science fiction, although barely). If you enjoy quirky foreign sci-fi/horror/comedy, Doomsday Book is a Korean film about the end of the world, and includes a zombie apocalypse and a Robot Buddhist among the three tales that make up the film. No, it is not based on the award winning book of the same name written by Connie Willis, but it has won a number of awards itself, including the top prize at the Fantasia International Film Festival. If cheesy B movies with no understanding of basic science in their science fiction premiss is your favorite, then Collision Earth is the movie for you. Apparently the company that made Collision was too embarrassed to put up a web page for it, as well they should be. If you are looking for sexy spy spoofs then The Girl From B.I.K.I.N.I. may be for you, but be warned the rating on that one is somewhere between a hard R and soft porn.
TV this week seems to consist of Futurama: Volume 7, which is fine by me since it is a favorite show of mine. The other western animation choice is the feature film Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth in the Ice Age franchise.
A while back I posted the Level E OP song by Chiaki Kuriyama in its original live action music video format, and this week you can finally pick up Level E: The Complete Series for your own. Earth is home to a lot of aliens, and one boys life is turned upside down by an alien prince with amnesia and a bad attitude. Also new this week, Letter Bee: Collection 1 takes place on a dark world where a single artificial sun lights a small portion of the planet, and there are monsters waiting in the darkness. The Letter Bees keep the scattered human settlements in communication with each other, at great personal risk.
In returning series, Bleach – Season 15 is coming out in an uncut box set. Also, the classic Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is being re-released, so if you have not already seen it, now is your chance. It is a wonderful little tour through the multiverse, all while staying inside a shopping mall that seems to be located in Tokyo, Texas.
Top of the movie list this week has to be Men In Black 3, one of the few franchises that have actually gotten better with each new movie. In fact, I might even be tempted to get a 4K 3D TV for this one after seeing it in the theater. Also this week, ParaNorman is an animated comedy about a kid who is just a bit different.
I could not find any new releases under TV, except for a mention of the 1993 made for TV version of Frankenstein possibly being released, but even there I could find no verification. Surprising, since we are deep into the Xmas buying frenzy, and I would expect them to be releasing lots of stuff to pry open our wallets.
I only see two new releases in Anime, both of them involving mercenaries wandering through historic epoch war zones. In Berserk: The Golden Age Arc; The Egg of the King the war zone is the Midland Kingdom, which based on the armor and outfits looks a lot like late Roman period England. For Intrigue in the Bakumatsu: Irohanihoheto, Collection 2 it appears to be the Shogunate era of Japan. In both series everything is in continual flux, just like any real war zone, as alliances break and shift, and the battle continues.
21 animated films in different categories have been submitted for Oscar consideration, according to an article in the Hollywood Reporter. The offerings include computer generated, hand drawn, and stop motion productions from a variety of sources, which pretty much covers your choices of how to create animations. The Short Animated Films category alone had 56 works being looked at, which was narrowed down to a short list 10 films long, and will probably be trimmed further to result in 3 to 5 actual nominees in that category. I haven’t seen many of them at all, except for John Kahrs’ Paperman which impressed me no end. It was the short piece just before Wreck-It Ralph in the theaters, which is itself under consideration. Other contenders include Studio Ghibli’s Up on Poppy Hill, Disney’s Brave, and Peter Ramsey’s Rise of the Guardians. The number of quality animation pieces just keeps growing year after year, and there are some wonderful films in the race this time around; I can’t wait to see who gets to take home the statues.