It is time once more for Comic-Con in San Diego, where advance word will be released on all the good stuff coming out over the next year. Everybody will be covering it, including traditional TV coverage from both G4TV and MTV. They will also be covering them on their websites, of course. A few other websites who have had great coverage of the event in recent years include io9, MSN’s Parallel Universe, the gamer gang from Kotaku, and all the Friends of Ugo, of which there are many. While it would be nice to be there, at least there will be news!
This series looked to be a Sci-Fi Alien Cat Girl boy-grows-up chasing after her kind of story from what I read before it started. I only have the first episode to base my opinion on so far, but in that first episode it completely changed the ground rules 3 times. It opened up as an action/adventure with an exciting combat sequence with a spaceship crash, and hints that the weapons of choice may not be the weapons we need. Then it went through the opening title sequence, and suddenly we were in a Fanboy Fantasy, where our hero wakes up next to a mostly naked Alien Cat Girl, and other girls and women of his acquaintance show up on his doorstep to hang out with him and make obscene comments. Just when you feel comfortable with that analysis, you discover that every woman in the story, with the possible exception of the Cat Girl from Another Planet, has their very own hidden agenda, and the tenor of the series changes again. Asobi ni Ikuyo: Bombshells from the Sky is off to an interesting start.
Even if the writers blew every surprise for the series in the first 23 minutes of the program, there is more. I counted no less than 5 inside jokes for Sci-Fi geeks in this episode alone (keep your ears open, and your eyes should check the background every so often), including the classic that everyone calls their home planet Earth, or Dirt, or some equivalent word that means “standing on land”, followed by references to and a depiction of the Babylon5 Grey Council, just to start.
There were short bursts of Anime tropes as well, like the holographically projected Kawaii Navigation System that leaped full blown from Cat Girls bell dangling from her choke collar. Actually, that alone was two tropes; another was Cat Girl in heaven because they let her eat her fill then snooze in the sun, just like a real cat.
I have more points to talk about, but hey, this is just the first story. If the rest of these are a fraction as good, congrats to the creators.
The top choice for this week is the UK hit Being Human: Season 1, seen on this side of the Atlantic on BBC America. The premise sounds like the set up for a bad joke; A Ghost, A Werewolf, and a Vampire get an apartment together. Do not be fooled, this is not a comedy, but a very well done drama exploring some serious questions. Season 2 starts next Saturday in the US, while the UK is gearing up for season 3.
There aren’t any genre movies of note this week unless something snuck by me, but The Runaways film will do nicely to take up the slack. Put another dime in the jukebox, baby.
There are a couple of new releases in the world of Anime, starting with Kurokami: The Animation Part 2. In the second half of the series the Tara Guardian Kuro and the Human Keita form a pact, and go to Okinawa to discover who murdered his mother. You can also watch this on Crunchyroll where they seem to be up to episode 10. The other new program worth noting is My Bride Is A Mermaid: Season 1 Part 1 in which a beautiful mermaid saves the life of the son of a visiting family. But the Mermaid’s dad is a yakuza who give the boy two choices; marry his daughter or sleep with the fishes, and the boys parents are just as dysfunctional if less homicidal. You can watch episodes on Hulu to get an idea of what this series is like.
I commented previously (in fact gave an entire review) about the new show streaming on Crunchyroll, Occult Academy, which is off to a wonderful start. If you are a premium Crunchyroll member, you get to legally watch new episodes one hour after they air in Tokyo; if a non-paying member, you can see them at slightly lower resolution a week later. Anyone who follows this blog knows I have become addicted to this service, and the annual fee has already paid for itself in terms of knowing which shows I do and don’t want to buy when they come out on DVD.
They have added a few new programs to the Summer Streaming Lineup that look pretty good on initial glance, although you might have to work for one of them. That one would be Tono to Issho, which is kind of the Anime equivalent of one-liners, or the 4 panel comic strip jokes everyone knows from newspapers (at least, those old enough to remember what non-interactive static media forms like newspapers were). You have to know a bit about the culture, history, current events, and popular opinion of Japan in order to get these jokes, but if you do they are delightful. Like all the best satire, it occasionally slips into Sci-Fi or Fantasy memes to make its points.
The third brand new program is Asobi ni Ikuyo: Bombshells from the Sky, an Alien Catgirls Romantic Comedy with a certain amount of Kawaii overdose (cuteness overload). We are still 13 hours out from the start of episode 1’s simulcast stream, but the trailer looks promising.
An old favorite come back for another round is Strike Witches season 2, the parallel timeline story of heavily armed propeller booted WWII flying girls versus alien invaders who seem to be related to cats. Check it out, and if you feel the need to catch up with season 1, it is available on DVD now in the US.
This weekend has three films coming out, two of them pretty much everywhere. They kick off on the 14th, with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a film by the National Treasure franchise team. It takes a stab at reproducing that magic with real magic as part of the premise, and yes, that team includes Nick Cage. This is particularly anticipated because it is not a remake of another film, which seems a bit rare these days.
Two more films roll out on the 16th, with Inception in wide release, telling an original tale of dream theft and the thought police that I have been waiting about a year to see. With an all star cast and deep pockets production money, as well as a concept that has NOT been done to death by Hollywood copycat studios, this makes the second original work in a single weekend. While I am looking forwards to Sorcerer’s Apprentice as a feel-good film, Inception bodes well to becoming a movie with a permanent impact on the genre. I have already started to consider the best films to group it with for a marathon of twisted flicks, with Dark City and Blade Runner leading the pack.
The other film on the 16th is in limited release, The Wild Hunt, originally scheduled for release in May. A man looses his girlfriend to a bunch of guys in a medieval re-enactment game, but it isn’t a game to everyone. In fact, some get downright intense about how they wish to proceed.
There is very little of interest being released on DVD this week, although there is one true masterpiece: Saving Grace: The Final Season. This program has been nominated for many awards although it only won once that I know of, but it is an absolutely amazing drama that goes places you would never expect. The four seasons tell one complete story, and while each episode is a self contained police procedural, the core story arc is something else entirely. With the all-star cast and quality production values, this one gets my vote as the best release for this week.
For Movies, Parasomnia is the only real option, and not much of one in my book.
There are a few new Anime collections being released, including Golgo 13, season 1 of the story of an assassin. But the most important Anime release this week has to be Romeo × Juliet, telling the classic tale of love, class war, and tragedy taking place in the city floating in the sky, Neo Verona.
There are also a few re-releases in a more affordable package, including 009-1 – Complete Collection [S.A.V.E] edition, a tasty Bond-style sexy spy story in a parallel universe, Black Cat, another assassin who learns the error of his ways, and my personal favorite for the week, Magikano, about a magical boy bludgeoned into unawareness by his equally magical sisters.
On the American animation front, the Superhero Squad is a kids-friendly version of The Avengers, and is also released on Tuesday. Not something I will be adding, but worth noting. In a related Marvel project, here is the Shadowland Music Video…
Hopefully, next week will have a lot more choices for us, but a few of this weeks limited selections are quite worth the effort.