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Something to Watch: Discs

This week has radical scientist Victor Frankenstein, who along with his lab assistant sidekick Igor breathes new life into an old classic. And that’s it for western TV and Movies as far as I can tell.

Anime has Psycho-Pass 2, the cutting edge police procedural that brings predictive paranoia to a whole new level. Note that this one is just in time for you to binge watch it and make it to the theaters in a week to see the season finale in the form of Psycho-Pass the Movie. The Chinese historical epic Kingdom: The Complete Second Season is the retelling of a classic series of wars as multiple kings and generals all fought each other to unite over a hundred countries under their own banners. The artwork and style on this is quite nicely done, and the history is as accurate as you usually get when talking about a war that covered an entire continent for 500 years. Season 2 is 39 episodes long on top of season 1’s 38 episodes; considering this portion of the war lasted about 30 years, the last nine of which were the Qin’s wars of unification which founded the Qin Dynasty ruling a unified China in 221 B.C., this portion of the story was every bit as realistic as the gap between now and then would allow it to be. Finally, Wolf Girl & Black Prince didn’t turn out to be a fantasy about royalty employing werewolves in their wars as I had been hoping, but if you are looking for a little lite RomCom you might find it enjoyable.

Something to Do: Movies

The two best choices this weekend are animated: Mamoru Hosoda’s The Boy and the Beast has won awards around the world and is nominated for still more of them. I can not wait to see this one, and would have already declared it the must see film for the weekend were it not for Zootopia. Some reviewers are saying this is the best animation to come out of Disney in decades, and the quality shown in the trailer certainly makes me think they could be right. Let’s face it, I am going to have to see both movies this weekend; decision made!

Something to Watch: Discs

Of the few Western genre offerings this week, Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales definitely looks like the best choice, with Don Verdean coming in both second and last. Sadly, that is all I can find from Western TV and Movies.

Anime fares a little better, but only a little. Wizard Barristers: Complete Collection tells what it is like to defend the magically inclined criminal elements of society, while trying to get the innocent released. I do have to say, the barrister’s familiars set a tone I was not expecting in this one. Death Note is a re-release of a classic, in 2 formats. The Complete Series includes all the TV series. The Omega Edition includes the TV series plus the 2 Re-Light movies. It would be nice if you could get the Live Action TV shows and Movies bundled with the anime ones, but so far that does not seem to be an option.

VR: Special Delivery

Aardman Animations of Wallace and Gromit fame have put together their first VR presentation, Special Delivery. It was made for Google Spotlight Stories, who made this into one of their presentations and translated it into an app for Android and IOS Google Cardboard phones. Much like their Shaun the Sheep TV and Film programs this Pink Panther-like video doesn’t bother with words, but creates its humor from the visuals. This is WAY cooler in the 360 degree VR environment of a Cardboard headset, and even just an Android or Apple phone without the headset allows you to interactively change what you see by turning which way the phone faces. But even the flat version you can see on a desktop or laptop running Firefox or Chrome is fun and gives you an idea about what is going on. The second video gives you a peek behind the curtain with a making-of.

Something to Watch: Discs

There is very little genre coming out this week, with the animated Disney fantasies The Good Dinosaur and The Lion Guard being pretty much the only Western exceptions. Anime does a bit better, with Tokyo ESP: Complete Series taking place in a world where flying fish bestow paranormal powers, and only the penguin can overcome them. Meanwhile, police without powers are rounding up all the gifted they can get their hands on, and are either killing them outright or forcing them into concentration camps where they are worked to death. This is not a good time for Rinka to gain powers, but she does the best she can with them to protect her family and friends. In Ga-Rei-Zero: Complete S.A.V.E. two sisters are teenage exorcists fighting demons using sacred swords each night, until one of them becomes possessed. Now the other sister has to decide whether to kill her, or let her run around slaughtering innocents.