It is kind of sad when the only live action genre movie for the week has a title like Bong Of The Dead, but it did win some awards, including Cannes, and the zombies are the ones being hunted for their brains in this horror comedy. In animated movies we have Puss in Boots, both as a stand alone and bundled with Puss In Boots: The Three Diablos. Staring Antonio Banderas, this Shrek spin off has all the humor associated with that series.
The genre TV series this week is The Fades: Season One, fresh from its run on BBC America. This one is a bit more horror than I prefer, and without the humor, but it is exceedingly well done.
The two main offerings this time are Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and The Secret World of Arrietty, bringing entertainment to two different audience segments. I enjoyed the first Ghost Rider movie enough that I don’t mind a sequel and expect to enjoy it. On the other hand, any animation from Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli is a work of art on a par with Disney at its best, and even Disney thinks so; it is why they are the North American distributors for them. This one is their version of The Borrowers, and as always it is beautifully executed. While they don’t have a theme park, they do have their own museum which you should visit the next time you are in Japan. There are a few other movies this weekend, such as No Sanctuary, but I am going to be lucky to have time to see the first two.
There are several movies this week, of which Anonymous is the most interesting, as speculative historical fiction based on the concept that Shakespeare was a front man rather than a playwright. With the best cast and highest production values, it is hands down the film to beat this week. On the silly side, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas is also out on disc this week. Other options include The Yakuza Weapon and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, neither of which will be joining my collection.
I didn’t find any live action TV shows worth mentioning this week. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any coming out, I just didn’t find them.
Anime fares quite a bit better this week, starting with the second season of the ever wacky Arakawa Under the Bridge × Bridge – Complete Premium Edition and all the craziness the characters each bring to it. This release is a bit pricy, consisting as it does of a Blue Ray disk set, as well as DVD disks, and a full color 32 page hardcover art book. I am going to wait for a more cost effective release to be made available before I add this to my collection, but it will be there as soon as that happens.
Also new this week Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season 1 and Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season 2 are both coming out. They both run 325 minutes, with the first one having 13 episodes and the second 12 episodes and an OVA, but the SRP for the second one is $20 higher ($12 higher if you shop around). As near as I can tell the only physical difference between them is the second season comes with Cardboard “art box” big enough to hold both seasons. I am not sure if I want to pay $12 for 50 cents worth of cardboard even if it is printed with pretty pictures, so I will probably be waiting to catch this one on sale. Another two at once release, Tales of the Abyss – Part 3 and Tales of the Abyss – Part 4 both become available on Tuesday. This is a series of stories on another planet that seem to have one character in common from volume to volume, cementing the world together.
And the last of the new releases for this week is Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 – Complete Season 2, a parallel Earth in which our protagonist is executed and the rebellion is crushed forever… or is it? Even though it isn’t genre, I also wanted to mention that K-ON! Season 1 box set is also coming out.
Xam’d: Lost Memories – Complete Collection brings this excellent anime together in a single box set, at a much better price then you got when you bought the two seasons separately. Akira, the movie that really broke anime out into public awareness for North America, is also being re-released, no doubt because of the American live action movie project.
A re-release I am particularly excited about is Gasaraki – Complete Series Collection, another giant mecha combat story with excellent animation and production values. I first stumbled across this one in a used DVD section of a local brick-and-mortar where they had two of the volumes. Over the years I managed to find 3 more used volumes (it was already out of print when I found the first one), but I have never been able to see the entire program. Now finally I can. And speaking of giant mecha, there are a handful of classic Gundam series being re-released this time around, three different series second seasons.
There isn’t much coming out this week, but a few of them are quite good. In Time is a brutally intense little film about using your lifespan as money, and all the implications of that shift on society. The Thing is done as a prequil to Carpenter’s 1982 cult classic film, which was a remake of the 1951 movie The Thing from Another World, which was based on the John W. Campbell story Who Goes There.
I couldn’t find any live action TV this week, and even the anime is barely genre, although I did find B Gata H Kei: Yamada’s First Time quite amusing. And the Straw Hat Gang is back in One Piece – Collection 4, which brings that series to episode 103.
Topping off the movie list, Real Steel, an excellent movie about a washed up fighter, a kid, and the robot the kid believes in. But there is another movie that excites me this week: Toki o kakeru shôjo, or in English Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. This one is the latest live action variation on the novel/manga/anime/live action/movie/TV show classic from Japan. It has been around since 1965 and they just can’t seem to get enough of it, and neither can I. This one is the 2010 live action movie version based on the novel, the previous US release was of the 2006 anime feature length film. The same actress plays the Leaper, in the anime the niece of the time traveler, in the live action the daughter. The first TV version was the 1972 live action series, which to my knowledge is currently unavailable, even in Japan.
In TV, a show I cringed at even when it was new can now be taken home for your personal collection: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Season One. While there is some camp appeal in this program, mostly in the form of its undersized robot with a speech impediment, it was pure Disco Buck. You won’t be getting any links to it from me, as I considered Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century much more intellectually stimulating. In fact, Vixens of Virtue, Vixens of Vice: Season 2, also being released this week, beats it as well, hands down.
In Anime, Our Home’s Fox Deity, parts one and two, give you the complete series with a single release, all about some rather ticked off gods and the family they have been protecting. Likewise, Pandora Hearts Sets 1 and 2 gives you the entire storyline at once, this time about a teenager who is thrown into a secret otherworldly prison at his coming of age party to pay for sins he never committed.
Also this week, The World God Only Knows complete series tells the story of a game player who is the best at Dating Sims, those games involving making all the right moves to get a virtual girl to fall in love with you. That is just fine, until he gets visited by a demon hunting angel who wants to put his gaming skill set together and point it at real live girls! It seems that the demons she is hunting hide in human hearts, and if those hearts fall in love they have no room left to harbor a demon.
There are two new series this week from Funimation. Fairy Tail – Part 3 brings us up to date on the Magic Guild warriors who continue the venerable tradition of inflicting as much or more damage onto your surroundings and the local population as the menace you have been hired to protect them from begun in shows like Dirty Pair. Their other program this week is Requiem for the Phantom – The Complete Series, which might be considered a cross between Kite and Noir, with a bit of Gunslinger Girls thrown in. Zwei has no clue who he is, and kills on command for his masters. When he meets Ein, a girl in the same situation who is as beautiful and brutal as she is lost, he decides it is time to make a change. If only it was that easy.
Viz has Naruto Shippuden (DVD box 9), and this show and Bleach both surprise me. Western TV shows always go for open-ended structures that they want to run forever, but most Asian TV is constructed with actual story arcs, which come with a beginning, a middle, and an end, usually concluded within a year or two of their beginning. I have no clue where these programs think they are going.
Finally, this week we only have a single cost effective re-release: Tenchi Muyo! GXP – The Complete Series [S.A.V.E.], 8 DVDs worth of absolute insanity for under 20 bucks. If you don’t already know Tenchi, this series is a great introduction; a bumbler who causes harm to himself and those near him (yes, sort of like Fairy Tale, or Dirty Pair, or so many more) suddenly has a number of girls from outer space descend on him. Each wants to keep him for herself, and each has powers to make her wishes known. This time around, those girls are galactic cops, and they both want to take him home. The evil galactic girls show up in other series, but trust me when I say only the labels change.
Gantz II: The Perfect Answer tops the movie list this time, bringing the second feature length episode of the live action version of the story. They have eased back considerably on the sex and violence of the Manga and Anime series to avoid an X rating, but it is sill quite an interesting and exciting tale. Also out this week, Parallel Life involves a murder mystery revolving around a South Korean mathematics professor who appears to be the reincarnation of Kurt Gödel. In addition there are rumors of a Russian sci-fi time travel/space combat movie called The Interceptor based on the book by Vasiliy Golovachev, but I can’t seem to find a proper site for that one. Finally, Age of Heroes is the true story of the formation of Ian Fleming’s 30 person commando unit which became the basis for the SAS.
There are two TV titles this week; Sliders: The Fifth and Final Season (I couldn’t find an official site for the 1995 series any more, so that link is a fan site) concludes that series, in what I feel is the weakest season ever for the show, with only the actor playing Rembrandt Brown remaining of the original cast. The other show is Merlin: The Complete Third Season, and it is finally starting to get a bit dark for the storyline.
Two Anime movies this time around, with the award winning First Squad: The Moment of Truth definitely leading the field. It is WWII, and a group of super powered Russian teenagers goes up against an SS officer who is attempting to raise the dead to fight for the Nazi’s. The other feature length film is Redline, the biggest car race in the universe.
In new TV series we have Princess Resurrection – The Complete Collection, a kinky little story about a boy who saves the life of a girl in a creepy mansion, only to loose his own in the process. Imagine his surprise when she grants him a second life, but only for so long as he shall be her servant. Meanwhile, Star Driver Part 2 brings us the second half of the tale of the battle of the Shrine Maidens trying to keep the evil organization Vanishing Age from bringing the giant killer Mecha’s into the world. And the last new title is Hetalia World Series – Season 03, which I will not be bringing home myself.
There are also a couple of re-releases in more cost effective packaging, for those of you who have been waiting. Kaze no Stigma – The Complete Series is being released in a [S.A.V.E.] edition, as is Nabari no Ou complete series; if you shop around, you can pick them each up for well under $20.
