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Something to Watch: DVDs

Top of the list this week is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. There is a related package release covering multiple movies, but to me it makes sense to wait until you can get them all in a single box, if you have not been picking up each one as it comes out.

Ga Rei Zero is the story of the Paranormal Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters, a team used by the Japanese Ministry of Defense to protect the homelands from threats supernatural and paranormal. After a disastrous encounter they find themselves at risk of being absorbed into an equivalent organization reporting to the Ministry of the Environment. Also out this week, Needless Collection 2 takes place in the mutant ghettos after WWIII.

Something to Watch: Online

Episode one of Tiger and Bunny is now streaming online over at Anime News Network, a superhero Anime series including some giant mecha drivers.

One of the things I love watching (and listening to) online is music, from amazing artists from all over the world. Back when I was a DJ for a living I had a fun thing I used to announce with a quote like the third of one in a row, where I would play multiple versions of a single song. This is one of those kind of things, using the classic song “Summer Wine”.

The original, from Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, was an instant classic, along with several other songs that couple recorded. To this day I still believe she never would have gotten into the studio without daddy’s influence, but I find I currently appreciate her limited talents a lot more, because I really do enjoy all her songs.

Noticeably better than the original is this rendition recorded live by the Corrs and Bono;

From France (but still sung in English) comes this version by Emilie Simon and Alain Bashung, recorded live at La Music. Emilie Simon is one of my four favorite French vocalists, a truly amazing talent you would do well to pay attention to.

My vote for best version of this song goes to the Euro-Couple Ville Valo & Natalia Avelon, who had an entire production company promoting their movie behind them. The movie was titled Das Wilde Leben which translated into English is The Wild Love, telling the tale of the “It Girl” from 1968 Germany, Uschi Obermaier. Born Ursula Obermaier in 1946 Munich, she found her way to Commune 1 in Berlin, where she was much more interested in Free Love and partying than supporting The Party. She was one of the forces which eventually brought the Berlin Wall down, through her influence on popular opinion over the next few decades and her refusal to be anyone but who she was. I believe Natalia Avelon was a brilliant choice to play her, and a perfect vocal balance for Ville on this song.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Topping the list this week is Tron: Legacy, the absolute must-add for every collection. This one really did deliver after the 30 year wait for the sequel. Also out this week is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third book in C.S. Lewis’s classic series to be converted to a movie. While it was also the third book published in that series, it is the 5th book in the internal chronology of the series. I am not sure if they intend to convert all of the books, but they are at work on the next one. The Australian film Beauty and the Beast: A Dark Tale didn’t get much time in the theaters in this country when it came out last year, but now those of us in the US finally have a chance to see it with it’s DVD release.

The TV show of note is a full series box set of Babylon 5, one of the best TV shows ever made. Brainchild of J. Michael Straczynski, this 5 year story arc told an amazingly complex tale of a war cycle that flared up every ten thousand years or so, and did it in a way that made you care about each character, loving some and hating others. This has been out for a long time as individual season box sets, but this is the first time it has been compiled into a single package.

I should mention that we do have one entry this week in the wacky conspiracy theory category: Kubrick’s Odyssey: Part 1 Kubrick & Apollo. Trust me when I say even though this one appears at first glance to be a documentary, it is the purest of science fiction of the parallel timelines/alternate history variety. At no time did Stanly Kubrick every run the Apollo Program, or film any moon landings.

On the Anime front, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part 4 brings the next 13 episodes of the series. Edward is still trying to retrieve his missing limbs and Alphonse’s entire body in this Alchemy driven Steampunk story spread out across multiple timelines. This is one of the better Animes made in the last handful of years, and if you are not familiar with it you could always watch it online to get an idea of what it is about.

From some of the same creators, and released in the US through the same distribution house as F.M. Alchemist, Hero Tales: Part 1 and Part 2 are also becoming available this week. This is more of a fantasy, where fate and the Gods have decreed a conflict that legendary heroes leading the tribes of men must resolve. Again, you can watch episodes at the series home page to decide if this is something for your collection.

Finally, Strike Witches – Complete First Season is being re-released as a Viridian Collection box set, so you should be able to find a more affordable price tag if you haven’t already put this one on your shelves.

Big Screen Anime on Saturday

This Saturday, April 2nd, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. will be doing the Ninth Annual National Cherry Blossom Festival Anime Marathon. As usual Otakorp (the folks who bring you Otakon each year) are co-sponsors for the event, and the D.C. Anime Club will be helping to host it, also as usual. This year’s presentation includes a special remembrance of Satoshi Kon and his amazing body of work, which include Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Perfect Blue, and they will be showing his award-winning Paprika on the big screen. If you have only seen this on a TV before, now is your chance to see it the way it was meant to be viewed. The day starts out with the Hayao Miyazaki classic masterpiece Kiki’s Delivery Service for children of all ages. They will also be running a few titles from Makoto Shinkai, his excellent The Place Promised in Our Early Days and a preview of his new work, Hoshi o Ou Kodomo or Children who Chase Lost Voices. The theater is very nice and the price is free, but you want to get there early before the tickets are all gone. I can also recommend the non-film portions, like the Cosplay Competition and the reading and book signing with Roland Kelts, who will also be doing the presentation about Satoshi Kon. Hope to see you there!

Something to Watch: DVDs

The best two releases this week are animated. Disney’s Tangled was an absolute hoot on the big screen, and will be just as funny and fun filled on smaller screens, I feel certain. If you haven’t seen it, now is your chance. Be warned that in this movie the horse pretty much steals every scene he is in, which I found amazing for one simple fact; he does not get a single word of dialog. This one is being released in every format up to and including 3D.

The TV series worth noting this week is not sci-fi, but science: The Cosmos: A Beginner’s Guide. This one was built as part of the BBC 2 Open University project, and is in fact a collage level course for the price of a DVD TV series.

Evangelion: 2.22 You Can [Not] Advance brings us the updated second quarter of the re-imagined series. When completed, the four feature length films will take less total viewing time than the original 26 episodes and two movies although to be fair one of the movies was a retelling of episodes 25 and 26 to arrive at an alternate ending. Even so, they are getting all the key story line, plot twists, and character development of the original into them. To make it all fit, they are skipping a lot of the less important giant mecha vs. alien battles and just showing the critical ones. Whether you consider this an improvement or not depends to some extent on why you liked the original series, but I find that it makes for a denser story moving at a faster pace. While I haven’t heard of any plans to turn the new Manga series into an Anime yet, I should mention that Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse Graphic Novel 3 is being released by Dark Horse Comics this week as well.

The fantasy epic Guin Saga Collection 1 will also be released this week. Their homeland invaded, their parents slain, the prince and princess of Parro flee by means of a strange device hidden in the palace. It deposits them in the Forest of Rood, where a cat headed warrior named Guin saves them from their enemies; and so the story begins.