Most of the best J-Rock I know comes from Anime, and sometimes you get a chance to compare the live action band with the animated representation or the studio take. Here is such a comparison, from Haruhi Suzumiya (the anime character, not the singer), followed by another song or two. If you can name all the anime’s these songs come from, it is too late; you are already an Otaku!
There are a few things this week, but not many. With a rating of 2.5 out of 10 on IMDB, I can’t really recommend War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave, but I felt obliged to mention it at least. Nor do I feel any great desire to endorse Mutant Vampire Zombies from the Hood!, but there is always the chance it has some good comedic chops to deliver.
While not exactly genre, The Spy Next Door is a Jackie Chan film, and those are always fun. Also, When You’re Strange hits the shelves, a film about The Doors, narrated by Johnny Depp and featuring a lot of previously unseen footage.
In Anime, two complete collections that were previously available, but are now out in more cost effective packages. The xxxHOLiC Complete Series Viridian Collection set contains the entire 24 episode run of the series, for about the same price that used to buy you each of the two seasons. Also, the Air TV Series S.A.V.E edition will get you the whole package for $20 if you shop around.
20th Century Boys 3: Redemption makes its US debut in a week or two at Viz Theater. They have enough back-story at the beginning so it works as a stand-alone, but the first two films are always fun to re-watch. In just a week or so, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya will see the big screen in the US, also at Viz Theater; here are the trailers…
Gantz was the least subtle anime I have ever watched, at least in its unedited form. The version that aired on late night TV (midnight Tokyo time) in Japan was so heavily edited for sex and violence that some episodes made no sense at all, with very few complete sentences. But now a group in Japan is gearing up to make two live action films based on the Manga that drove the anime. 26 companies around the world are already negotiating to get distribution rights for the two films, and a company each in the US and UK are inquiring about remake rights. I will keep my fingers crossed that they don’t wimp out, but stay true to the original story.
Get ready for the Steampunk World’s Fair in Piscataway, NJ. This is the largest Steampunk convention in the world to date, with discussions, debates, workshops, demonstrations, readings, parties, contests, games, and parades to satisfy all of your Steampunk needs. The list of performers alone exceeds anything else I have ever seen listed; this one is a monster!
Demi-Con is a generic Sci-Fi con that has strong readercon roots, baseed in Des Moines, IA, and the motto Everything Is Better With Pirates; whats not to love? LepreCon 36 in Mesa, AZ, is a Relaxacon, meaning a readercon that is comfortable enough with itself to be laid back, even for the pros.
The Anime Central con happens May 14th to the 16th in Rosemont, IL, and if you are serious about your Cosplay you know you can not miss this one. If you win the main Cosplay competition at this event, you are guaranteed a spot on the Yume Cosplay Prize competition! That takes place in October, and will have the winners of all the regional contests battling it out to see which luck Cosplay Couple gets the matching set of all expense paid round trip tickets to Tokyo for a week, to include VIP tickets to the Tokyo Anime Fair.
In Media cons, there is a Twilight Creation event in Vancouver, CA, and for Comic-Cons, the Motor City Comic Con is a bit deceptive. That is because it has a lot of media talent as guests, around 40 of them listed including some noticeably famous names.
And yes, there are many more cons remaining unmentioned for this weekend, but this should give you a tasty place to get started…
Top of the list this week has to be William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. While it is not Sci-Fi, I think having conversations with ghosts counts as Fantasy, but there is an even better reason to add this to your collection: This is the version staring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. It also just aired this past week in the US on PBS, and you can watch it online any time you like at PBS or embedded here (at the bottom of this entry).
For comedy films there is Tooth Fairy, starring Dwayne Johnson as a man who bursts the mental bubbles of children by telling them Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny do not exist. As his punishment, he is forced to be a real tooth fairy for a week.
In the TV series category, the Saving Grace Collection becomes available on Tuesday. This is actually a repackaging of seasons one and two, released together where they were previously released separately, gearing everyone up for the release of the final season in June. If you are not familiar with this series you want to be; you can start by watching episodes online (the direct link goes to a “series so far” video, you can watch full episodes there).
While it should have been a series or miniseries, The Fallen were built as a couple of made-for-TV movies and originally aired at ABC Family. Like Samurai Girl from the same network, this involves a high school student having to go to war with the forces of good and evil (on a celestial level, in this instance). If you missed them when they originally aired, now is your chance to see them.
There are a couple of interesting entries in the 17+ category this week. The Ultimate Pleasure Box from Surrender Cinema is a collection of R rated films that pretended to be porn but were actually Sci-Fi and Fantasy films with periodic breaks for some soft core action. As near as I can tell they used the porn aspect to get the funding to make the films, and instead created some modern B movie SF/F classics. In case there was any doubt, there is nothing socially redeeming in any of these movies, but they are good clean dirty fun. The other one is Space Girls in Beverly Hills, which seems to have started out like the other set but never got the funding.
For Anime releases this week, most (like Darker than Black) are re-releases, sometimes because the original release was recalled. The exception is Rozen Maiden + Rozen Maiden Traumend DVD Complete Set, available in a single package for the first time.