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Something to Watch: Discs

I didn’t find many genre Movies or TV shows this week, although Paddington is a fantasy as well as a children’s tale, so should be included in this list. Certainly it has some of the best CGI effects playing the part of its title character I have seen in a while. There is a live action Japanese movie that fits the genre criteria coming out this week, in the form of 2013’s Arcana. When you watch the trailer see if you can spot the actor who played the primary villein in the Korean sci-fi TV romantic dramedy My Love From Another Star. While not genre, Inherent Vice is based on the Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name, so should be both darkly funny and appropriately twisty.

We do much better in Anime this time around, starting with D-Frag!, where Kazama’s plan to rule the school using violence is tanked when he runs into the pretty psychopaths of the Game Creation Club. Now he will be lucky just to survive the whacked out games these girls play. In Nobunaga the Fool: Collection 1 the giant mechas were built by Leonardo Da Vinci, and Joan d’Arc needs to convince Nobunaga Oda to use them to unite both planets under a banner of peace. Then there is Hayate the Combat Butler: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, another 12 episodes forming season 3, continuing the epic fight for Hayates life, and his charge’s freedom and well-being.

World conquest has been a dream of would-be dictators for centuries, but has never actually happened. At least not until one girl pulled it off in World Conquest Zvezda Plot, possibly the strangest tale of world domination ever told. I should also mention a couple of classics being re-released for another generation this time around: Fushigi Yugi (a book transports 4 friends into a parallel universe, giving them 52 episodes of adventures before they can escape) and Saiyuki (4 reluctant heroes are just as concerned about having a good time as they are about saving the world for 50 episodes). My super-short description of the two tales may sound similar, but they are far different than you might suspect. Plus, they are both absolute classics of their kind, and well worth your time to watch and enjoy.

Something to Watch: Discs

There is one actual disc in the Movie category that I saw, Walter, an Indi film that blends ghosts, religion, and mental illness to create a story in which a ticket taker at the local Cineplex is responsible for determining whether the people he meets go to heaven or hell. This one looks pretty quirky, and if it came to a movie theater near me I missed it. Also, Jupiter Ascending is out on streaming and digital download; if you want the Disc version, that will be available on June 2nd. In TV we have The Musketeers: Season 2, buckling yet another swash as the adventure continues.

There are an assortment of Anime this time around, led by Space Brothers: Collection 2, where things are heating up in the competition to become astronauts. This set brings the count up to episodes 14 through 26, be aware that the series itself is currently up to episode 99 and counting. We also get Freezing: Vibration, in which a new generation of women are going through genetic engineering modifications to enable them to battle the alien invaders. Something is going wrong, and it is up to Satellizer el Bridget and her crew to get to the bottom of it before it is too late. Devil Survivor 2: The Animation, Complete Collection is about a group of people who’s cell phones acquire an app which shows their own death a minute or two before it happens. The deaths are caused by powerful beings from other universes/levels of existence, and to avoid dying they have to defeat the invaders. No one can fight these creatures alone, so they evolve into groups and teams, but even so death takes its toll. Unlimited Psychic Squad is a spin off of Psychic Squad, and is focused on Kyōsuke Hyōbu’s organization P.A.N.D.R.A. as it tries to oversee three of the most powerful psychics in the country.

Continuing a couple of old favorites, Naruto Shippūden DVD box22 contains episodes 271 through 283, while Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Blue-Eyed Casval is only 63 minutes long and is available only as an import. Considering it costs close to $100 for an hour of animation, I will watch it streaming on Daisuki, although it is also available from Amazon Instant Video and the Google Play Store. Speaking of expensive, The Garden of Sinners: recalled out summer has two movies about a precognitive woman who avoids death by seeing what is about to happen, but for $70 for 120 minutes I will pass. Considering the original price was $189, later reduced to $149, they are at least heading in the right direction with this, but I wish I knew of a legal streaming service carrying it so I could watch it there. Finally, Hanamonogatari: Suruga Devil is five episodes for $50, which isn’t as badly priced as the others but still seems steep. It is the Sixth arc to the Monogatari series’ second season, which I will continue to watch on streaming services.