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Go Go Maniac, Listen, Vocaloid

These two songs, Go Go Maniac and Listen are from the anime K-On!, all about a high school music club going for girl-band rock and roll fame. But there were these guys who liked the series and made their own instruments out of whatever came to hand… test tubes, rulers, plumbing supplies, pots and cans, you name it. And they are actually pretty amazing, as you can hear. Sadly, I don’t yet read squiggly, so I can’t tell you anything about the band except I like them and the horse they… something. Thanks to Japanator for the heads up on that one.

I don’t know if the video was taken down, or if it is just temporarily unavailable as I write this. So I will post a blip on Vocaloid, which is a software application that allows you to build your own singing idol, and hope the other video magically reappears.

Something to Watch: DVD’s

In the too silly to be avoided department, this weeks winner is Ninjas versus Zombies. While I personally won’t be adding this one to my collection, I will watch it when it comes to late night cable. You know with that title someone will be picking it up. It is kind of sad when this is the only movie worth mentioning for the week (unless something sneaked past me).

Live action TV series did much better, with Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season finally being available. Which also means that Lost: The Complete Collection will be on the shelves as well, for anyone who hasn’t been collecting the seasons one by one.

I am happy to be able to report that Red vs. Blue: Recreation, Season 7 is also being released this week. That only leaves one more season before all of them are available as well, and this series is my favorite Machinima program.

In Anime, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Part 2 completes season two of this excellent paratemporal Steampunk story. A series I have not run into before, Persona -trinity soul-2 is also being released. I missed the release of the first half of the series in July as well somehow. This one is Subbed, not Dubbed, and features a series of mysteries to be solved in a futuristic city. If you prefer your action on galactic scale battlegrounds, then Tytania: 1 may be just what you’re looking for. This box set is the first 13 episodes of the series, with the second half to release separately later.

Time of Eve

One of the most interesting and surprising Anime’s I have seen in a while is Time of Eve (Eve no Jikan) from Studio Rikka. The visual quality is amazing, and uses 3D environments with traditional 2D character animation to very good effect. But it is the stories themselves which make this series special; each episode focuses on a character (human, robot, or android) and explores their relationship with a member of the opposite phylum. This wonderful little series started life as webisodes in 2008, and was migrated to TV in 2009. They have made a theatrical version which hit the big screen in Tokyo and Osaka this spring, and you can watch the TV version streaming online at Crunchyroll. I really hope they do a second season of this one, and release the movie to the US soon.

Something to Watch: DVD’s

I have been waiting for a decade or two to be able to add Max Headroom: The Complete Series to my collection. Depending which web site you believe, this will either be available the 3rd or the 10th of August, but that is a small detail compared to the 1984 to 1987 initial programming dates. As near as I can tell, this box set is only the 14 episode US TV series, which was much wimpier than the original BBC4 TV Movie, and completely different than the BBC TV series. But it is more Max Headroom than has ever been previously available, so it is a great start! Set your TVs for 23 minutes into the future.

On the Movie front, Clone Hunter looks to be an easily forgotten film presentation, but our only option at the moment. I suspect I will pass on this one.

Master of Martial Hearts, the complete series is almost more of an OVA, weighing in at 5 episodes. The 11 women protagonists battle it out for a shot at The Platonic Heart, which is a jewel that can grant wishes. With the tag line The Gloves Aren’t The Only Things Coming Off this series is not designed for younger viewers. Also out this week, Project Blue Earth SOS the complete series is a tale of alien invasion, now in a low cost S.A.V.E. version.

If you are a fan of stop motion animation in general or Robot Chicken in particular, you might want to check out another Adult Swim title, Titan Maximum season 1. This one is a Giant Mecha parody.