The movie is now in theaters in Tokyo, and while it will be a while before they put together an English version and release it in North America, the extended trailer is still fun to watch even in Japanese. Thanks to the folks at Otaku USA for the heads up on this one.
I couldn’t actually find the Level E OP to embed here, but I did manage to find the full song used in that opening sequence, and it is kick ass; Cold Finger Girl as performed by Chiaki Kuriyama. If she looks familiar, it’s probably because she played killer girl Gogo Yubari in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, and real fans should also know her from Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale. The final video of the set is a very rare interview with Hiroya Oku, the creator of Gantz, and Chiaki Kuriyama wearing her Fangirl hat, talking about Anime, Manga, and (not a surprise) Gantz. As far as I know this is the only interview with Hiroya Oku, or at least the only one with English subtitles I have found so far, and until this I didn’t know that Chiaki was an Otaku, either.
I missed Safety Not Guaranteed in the theaters, a quirky little might-be time travel film based on a real add published in a major magazine a few decades ago, so I am quite happy it is making it to DVD this week. I really don’t care if it turns out not to be Sci-Fi, the trailer is strange and enjoyable and I want to see this film. And then there is Ruby Sparks, a romantic fantasy about an author who writes the woman of his dreams into a novel, only to have her come to life a week later, where he finds her sitting on his couch. The first is from the producers of Little Miss Sunshine, the second from the directors, and it is nice to see Indi films continue to flourish outside of film fests.
Copper: Season One also comes out, a very interesting series which is the first one produced by BBC America. It takes place in 1864 New York City, complete with a lot of historical social and political details that I never expected to see. I am expecting this series to pick up some awards, and even though it is not genre it is quite an amazing show which I recommend wholeheartedly.
For western animation, Fractured Fairy Tales: The Complete Collection brings all of those wonderful twisted stories from Rocky and Bullwinkle together in a single box set. You should share these with your kids or grand-kids, they are just as funny for any age group now as they were when first made. Also out, The Penguins of Madagascar, Operation: Antarctica continues that series for the younger crowd.
In Anime, Durarara!! is coming out with a Blue Ray Complete Set with a Lunch Box, but even with the collectable packaging I don’t understand why they would charge $190 list price for a 24 episode series (OK, 26 episodes when you add in the two bonus episodes). It is an amazing story with great animation, but pretty much every incarnation of it available is way overpriced, it seems, with the lunchbox set setting a new record. I will be keeping my eye out for sale prices as we rumble through the holiday buying season, but mostly I am glad I caught it streaming over at Crunchyroll, because it would have been a shame to miss so fine a program.
Also this week, A Certain Magical Index season 1 part 1, takes place in a universe where science was used to create magic, and a student with a strange negating power (he nullifies the magic of others) teams up with a nun named Index who has an entire huge library of magical knowledge stored in her head. This dozen episodes see the two of them meet and team up to survive the teams of scientists and sorcerers who want to capture and use them. The second half of the season will be coming out in December, and yes, this is from Kamachi Kazuma, who also wrote A Certain Scientific Railgun.
Fafner: Heaven and Earth is a feature film presentation which returns us to Tatsumiya Island for what may well be the final battle between the aliens and humans. If you missed the series leading up to the feature film, now would be a great time to go back and catch up on it; you can watch the first chunk of the series streaming for free at its official Funimation site. That should let you know if this program is for you, and if you enjoy watching streaming anime on your various devices (including Roku and most tablets or smartphones), just like Crunchyroll you can get a premium subscription and watch the entire series and a lot of others.
C-Control: The Money and Soul of Possibility takes place in a future where the government was rescued from poverty by a mysterious organization, but the population was not, and we follow a scholarship student who is suddenly offered a large sum of money only to have his life change in ways he didn’t foresee. Think Paprika meets Tron. Un-Go, the complete collection is about detective Shinjurou Yuuki, who always solves the crime but never gets the credit in this rather dark near-future Tokyo. We also get another block of One Piece with season 4 part 2, with the next 11 episodes bringing us up to #229.
There are several fun movies coming out this week, starting with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which was a nicely done interpretation of the graphic novel. If you are looking for something a bit more lighthearted, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World also will be on the shelves this Tuesday.
In TV, Lost Girl: The Complete First Season finally brings the story of this confused succubus trying to find her own way to live home for US fans. For those scratching their head thinking they paid a higher price but already own this and other seasons, it was initially released as an Import from Canada, and only now is being released officially in the US market. That is due to contractual obligations with Syfy, who are a few years behind on running the show for the American market. Sanctuary: The Complete Series is also a Canadian show you may already own, in this case because each of the individual seasons had been previously released. But this is its first release in a single box set. On the other hand, Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: Season 3 is brand new, even if it is speculative science rather than speculative fiction.
For western animation, Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Four continues that saga.
The anime Aria the Scarlet Ammo is coming out as a limited edition release and takes place in a Tokyo reminiscent of the one in Burst Angel, in that the police are overwhelmed and certifying select individuals to take out criminals on their own. The underworld have their own group of strong arm folks to attack folks so certified, or training for it, and our protagonists life changes forever when he is saved from them by Aria. Majikoi: Oh! Samurai Girls complete collection shows what happens when small bands of Samurai form at the local high school in self defense as combat springs from chance encounters. One such band of descendents of famous warriors gains two additional girls to the group and all hell brakes loose.
Naruto Shippūden: The Will of Fire is a feature length film adding to the Naruto epic of ninja adventure, and with it the risk of a fourth Great Ninja War.
In movies the best bet looks to be Legendary Amazons, based on the historical Yang family of the Song Dynasty. There have been a number of previous movies made about this group of 11th century women generals, of which the most well known is probably 1972’s 14 Amazons from The Shaw Brothers. Like the Shaw Brothers, the action in this latest incarnation is a bit over the top, relying heavily on wire work and springboards, but it looks to be quite a fun movie. On the other hand, the less said about Alien Dawn the better; it is every bit as campy, but this one they were trying to be serious.
I still can’t believe Fox cancelled it, but because they did we have Alcatraz: The Complete Series coming out this week, instead of just season 1. In fact, while Fox still maintains the Alcatraz home page, when you go there all you get are New Girl videos with a paragraph at the bottom of the page about the show. Hence the alternate link to a fan site. Touch got renewed though, so for that one we do get Touch: The Complete First Season as well as an actual web site. A documentary series worth noting that comes out this week is Stephen Hawking: Brave New World, a UK science series that is really good.
For western animation, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted hits the shelves, with quite a good voice cast. And lets face it, Dreamworks animation projects are usually some of the best.
In anime, Someday’s Dreamers II Sora returns to a Japan where you need both training and an official license to practice magic. The next generation of Suzuki magic users, Sora, has no problem with the spells but is completely confused by some of her fellow students, because the people in Tokyo are nothing like the folks in the small village she grew up in. Ga-Rei-Zero: The Complete Collection is also from 2008, and also about magic users, but this time it is two sisters who battle evil as part of an elite anti-demon task force. This one was made by the people who did Full Metal Panic, and considering how much I loved that series (3 series in total, actually), I am really looking forward to this one.
In IDOLM@STER: Xenoglossia season 1, the moon was shattered into thousands of large rocks a hundred years ago, but they don’t fall onto the Earth so most folks don’t think about it. When a young aspiring singer gets taken on by an IDOL company with visions of advancing her career she has no idea that in this case I.D.O.L. is an acronym for the giant robot she will be piloting to defend Earth from those rocks.
The rest of the Anime titles coming out this week are re-releases of some classic works of earlier years. My favorite of these selection has to be Tenchi Universe, the entire 26 episodes in a single box set. This series was not season two or three of the original, they retold the entire Tenchi story in an alternate universe. What didn’t change? The names, the back stories (the space pirate girl is still a space pirate) and appearances of the characters, and the fact that Tenchi has only bad luck whatever the situation. Other re-releases this time around include Casshan: Robot Hunter Casshern about the guy trying to stop his dad’s killer robots, Hellsing Ultimate: Volumes 1-4, yes, any time you see the name Hellsing with or without the Von you can expect Vampires, and Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy.
The folks at Noitamina TV (Midnight TV, a branch of Fuji TV), has a new show coming out called Robotics: Notes. It begins airing on October 11th or 12th depending on which time zone you live in, and is the 3rd in a series of scientific anime’s from Production IG. It takes place in the same world as Chaos; Head and Steins; Gate, two excellent sci-fi anime series. I am hoping Crunchyroll carries it so I can watch it here. Thanks to Danny Choo for the heads up on this one.