On the last Wednesday each month, the JICC has an Anime presentation free and open to the public they refer to as their Animezing Series. This month the presentation is Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, a watershed animation and a perfect tale for Halloween. Reservations are required for tomorrow night’s event, since the theater has limited seating and there will be only one showing. They invite everyone who is so inclined to wear their best Halloween costumes, but do not bring costume weapons, not even plastic toys. Remember that the Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC) is part of the Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C, and like all embassies their security team is trained to err on the side of caution. I can’t wait to find out what they have in store for us in November, and for this and other events in and around DC be sure to check out their Calendar.
There are no real genre movies coming out this week, but Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire) brings part two of the trilogy that began with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo home. This Swedish series about an investigative reporter and a girl genius hacker is very much edge of your seat thriller to the core, so much so that even if you have to read subtitles it won’t slow down the movie. The third film, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, is hitting the theaters on this Friday, October 29th.
For TV, they are finally releasing War of the Worlds: The Final Season, as well as the complete series in one box set, since it only ran two seasons. This was Adrian Paul’s last Sci-Fi TV roll before he became the Highlander. Someone is re-releasing the surviving episodes of Captain Video And His Video Rangers, America’s first Sci-Fi TV show. It ran live on the DuMont Network for half an hour every night from 1949 to 1954. If you don’t remember, Allen B. DuMont invented the cathode ray tube (also called the Picture Tube) in 1932, the Oscillograph (later called the Oscilloscope) in 1933, and Radar in 1934 (the US military asked him not to patent it so they could keep it secret). But he is best known as the inventor of the Television, and his company was selling the TV sets he invented beginning in 1938, with his TV Network going live in 1946.
Bridging the gap between TV and Anime, the American animation series Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season Two also hits the shelves this week. What I find much more exciting is the fact that Lucasfilm Animation is looking into doing a new animated series with direct creative involvement from Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.
In Anime, Birdy is back with all new adventures in Birdy the Mighty: Decode. Birdy is an interstellar agent with one minor flaw; she is more dangerous to innocent bystanders than the bad guys she pursues, and has been known to take out an entire planet while trying to stop one evildoer. This is part one of the new series, with part two coming out around Thanksgiving. You can watch the first episode online to give you an idea of what the series is like.
In the finest tradition of the Girls with Guns sub-genre, Canaan – Complete Collection takes place after biochemical attacks become common usage, and some assassins have synesthesia, giving them a distinct edge. If you liked Noir, you will love this series. Also in combat mode, Queen’s Blade: The Exiled Virgin – Complete Series takes place in a world where the Queen is chosen by being the last woman standing at the end of a series of battles. All contests are magically transmitted to crystal spheres for the entertainment of the populace. I don’t think either one of these places sounds like somewhere I would want to live, but the shows themselves are fun to watch.
Pandora Hearts part 1 seems to be a twisted variation on Alice in Wonderland meets the Count of Monte Cristo. For his birthday present they put him in a dungeon, with no explanations and no obvious way out. And Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete Second Season (Viridian Collection) also becomes available, bringing still more world class timeline jumping steampunk into our hands at a more reasonable price.
Also out this week, Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 4 continues the ninja adventure (although there is some evidence it came out last week, since I already saw it on the shelves), while Hetalia: Season Two continues the rather silly story of WWII nations as schoolchildren. This program could actually be used as a teaching tool for that period of history, not because it is particularly accurate, but because it might catch a child’s attention and make them curious. Every teacher I know considers that the most difficult step in the education process, because once they are interested they seek out new knowledge on their own.
One of my favorite J-Rock groups is Scandal, who started out as four actresses in training. Each was advised to learn a musical instrument to round out their skill set; so they chose 4 different ones and formed a kick-ass band. You mostly only hear them in North America on Anime DVDs, when they come through on tour, or periodically on a J-Melo broadcast. And while over here they are best known for their contributions to K-ON and other anime, they have a ton of top quality non-anime music as well, and more fans than you might suspect (some of whom can sing their entire catalog in Japanese). Did I mention the have won some awards, including the Viewers Choice Awards on J-Melo?
Mamoru Oshii’s latest feature film Assault Girls takes us to a future dystopian China where we return to the virtual realm called Avalon, for more beautifully filmed and soundscaped combat. The environment is very like the one he created for Ghost In The Shell, and could easily occupy that same universe, shifted to the mainland instead of the home islands. This one gets my vote as must-have of the week.
It seems like Predators was just in the movie theaters, but it is already coming out on DVD. In this entry to the franchise, a small selection of Earth’s top killers are exported to a hunting planet as prey. And in absolute last place for this weeks feature films, I am only mentioning Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl because the title gives me a grin. But the people who built both this movie and Tokyo Gore Police look to be the Troma of the orient, except without the humor. And notice I am not even mentioning Zombie Christ.
For live action TV series, a couple of classics are finally out on disk, starting with The Bionic Woman: Season 1, the original version. Personally I thought the recent remake was a much better rendition, with a more realistic story line, better acting and improved FX, if only because we are so much closer to having functional tech these days. The other TV golden oldie is Tales from the Darkside, with both the final season and the complete series being released this week. While it was more horror than Sci-Fi or Fantasy, every story had a little twist that gave it an edge, and figuring that twist out became the fun for watching this series.
Several goodies from the realm of animation this week, with Eden of the East: The Complete Series beating out everything else. I just reviewed it the other day, so my opinions should already be obvious, but let me just restate it for the record: this is the best Anime series I have seen this month, and in the top 10 (maybe the top 3) for this year. Its numerous awards come from many events, including the Tokyo International Anime Fair and Anime Kobe.
Tears To Tiara – The Complete Collection tells the Arthur/Albion legend from a new perspective. I haven’t seen this one yet, but it sounds very interesting and the artwork looks great.
Also out this week, Bamboo Blade: The Complete Series puts the entire girls kendo team storyline into a single box, in their never ending battle for sushi. And Hetalia: Axis Powers – Season 02 continues the personified silliness of WWII. And for western animation, Shaun the Sheep: Season 1 is also available Tuesday. Yes, this last group is just good old silly fun.
Just about to be released on DVD in the US , Eden of the East sucked me in with the initial scene: the protagonist naked with only a gun and a cell phone in front of the White House saves a tourist girl from arrest, then starts running. In eleven episodes, they cover one of the most interesting conspiracy plot lines I have seen, easily on a par with Welcome to the NHK or Speed Grapher, and every bit as riveting. It carved hours out of my precious sleep schedule, because every episode demanded that I watch the next, to find out what happened. Yes, I watched the entire thing in one sitting; I could not help myself. The link to watch the program online still exists at HULU, but the site link for Funimation Video is already past that, moving onto the new seasons programing, Like Birdy the Mighty: Decode. The best news is that it isn’t over; we get to go back to that world in Eden of The East the Movie I and II and see what happens next!
Just a reminder that Sci-Fi London’s Oktoberfest kicks off tomorrow evening with the Life, but as we know it? event at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (home of Greenwich Mean Time). This presentation investigates extraterrestrial life in science, science fiction, and comedy. They will also be unveiling their new planetarium program, Astrobiology on pretty much the same topic. I should mention you better already have your tickets if you wanted to see TRON on the big screen before the new version comes out, because that one is sold out. The Studio Ghibli All Nighter still has half the seats left, but tickets are going fast. They will be running Spirited Away, Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, The Cat Returns, and Howl’s Moving Castle in that theater; I would pay to see any one of them in a movie theater, all four back to back would be a serious treat.