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Something to Watch: DVDs, 17Sep13

World War Z is the US movie this time around with actual high speed zombies who could really catch you when they chased you. The Hong Kong offering this time around is The Last Tycoon, not genre but pretty good.

In TV we have season 1 of Arrow, which was the best new Broadcast TV show of last year in my book. Season 2 rolls out on the CW on October 9th, and I am looking forward to it. We also get Grimm: Season Two, the best new broadcast TV show from the year before that. And to complete this weeks set, we have The Mentalist: The Complete Fifth Season, kind of a near-genre show what with it’s Not A Psychic screaming through the bullhorn.

In Anime, Sword Art Online: Aincrad Part 2 picks up two years after everyone was trapped in the murderous game, and the challenges get more deadly the further up through the levels they go. The Future Diary, parts 1 and 2 also comes out this week. 12 people now have diaries on their cell phones that can tell them of events in the future, and they are in a race to see which of them can use that foreknowledge to become a god. Only one can win; the rest will die, repeatedly, as their glimpses of the future always include their own deaths. Trust me when I say that even though these two anime’s are not lighthearted, they are both very, very good.

Michiko & Hatchin is also being released with both parts 1 and 2 coming out on the same day. A sexy prison escapee rescues an abused girl, and their lives become entangled as they search for the man in their past they have in common.Naruto Shippūden: The Lost Tower is a feature film length story that has Naruto traveling back in time, visiting ancient civilizations, and getting in trouble while trying to save the day. Finally, Golgo 13: Complete Collection puts all 50 episodes of the TV series starring the assassin’s assassin in a single box set. Mind, there are also two live action movies, an animated feature film, an OVA, a radio play, and six video games all for the same character. Every one of these is based on the Manga Golgo 13, which is the oldest manga still in publication, having started in 1969.

Escape Pod Archives

I love Radio Plays and Audio Books, and wanted to mention these for anyone who does not already know of them. Escape Pod is a podcast that delivers a weekly free Sci-Fi audio story, and has been doing so since 2005. It is so successful at it that it is listed as a qualifying professional sale at the SFWA. In addition it has generated two spinoffs, Pseudopod for Horror fiction, and PodCastle for Fantasy fiction. You can subscribe to their podcasts, download the MP3 files from their sites, or got to the Escape Pod Archives searchable collection at Wikipedia.

Something to Do: Movies 13Sep13

The amusing film this week appears to be The Family, a Luc Besson production about a Witness Protection arrangement that puts a mob couple (Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer) and their kids in a quiet town in France. They don’t quite fit in, to the point that their whereabouts become known to the folks they are supposed to be hiding from, and all hell breaks loose. Not genre, but the best bet for this weekend. There is also one genre movie called Cybornetics: Urban Cyborg, which, as near as I can tell, isn’t actually going to be playing anywhere near me, and based on the trailer I wouldn’t be going to see it if it was.

Something to Watch: DVDs, 10Sep13

Star Trek Into Darkness starts us off this week, continuing the excellent J.J. Abrams reboot of the franchise. I would buy a 4K TV to watch this on, if I didn’t need to eat or pay rent for the next few years, it was just that good. I am going to count Delete as a movie, since it was a miniseries on a cable system channel about movies called Reelz. Seth Green and Matt Frewer have to save the world when the internet wakes up and decides humans are dangerous and unnecessary. The Last Keepers is a family friendly show about a young woman who discovers all the women in her family have mysterious powers; the trailer looks great and the cast is very impressive, but I couldn’t find a home page for it. I won’t bother to mention Frankenstein’s Army.

In TV, Supernatural: The Complete 8th Season looks like the best bet this week, although Castle: The Complete 5th Season is a lot of fun even if it isn’t genre.

In Anime, Blue Exorcist: The Complete 2nd Season continues the battle between demons and humans with episodes 13 through 25. Our protagonist Rin is on trial at the Vatican to determine if he will be imprisoned or inducted into their anti-demon army. Bleach: Season 18 brings us up to episodes 256 through 267 as the Soul Reapers continue their never ending battles with things that would destroy humans.

Last Exile: Fam, The Silver Wing comes out as two box sets, parts 1 and 2, totaling 21 episodes. This is the sequel to The Last Exile, in which the Earth was restored and a long war ended through Steampunk Mad Science. In this series, those who survived remaining behind on the surface of the Earth make war on the returning exiles, attempting to destroy country after country. The final new entry this week is This Boy Caught a Merman, about an unusual relationship that has more to overcome than most.

There is a re-release worth noting this time around: Patlabor: The Mobile Police TV Series collection 2 is episodes 13 through 24 of this classic series. The director (and one of the writers) on this series was Mamoru Oshii, who went on to do all the different Ghost In The Shell Cyberpunk movies and TV series, and first became famous for his work as director of the very surreal Urusei Yatsura.

Hugo Awards, 2013

The Hugo Awards were handed out this weekend at Worldcon as always, which this year was LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio, Texas. For the full list of who won and how the presentations went down, be sure to stop by the Hugo Awards site, but I figured I should mention a few on the ones I found of interest.

Best Novel was grabbed by Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, written by John Scalzi, while Best Novelette was awarded to The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi, by Pat Cadigan. Joss Whedon got Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form for The Avengers, an honor he well deserved. Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form went to George R.R. Martin and collaborators this time around for Game of Thrones: Blackwater, beating out 3 Doctor Who episode nominations and breaking the Doctor Who string of wins in that category over the last several years.

Stanley Schmidt pulled in 2 awards, and Clarkesworld, SF Signal, and SF Squeecast all won in the various Zine categories. I recommend checking out the source article for the full list with all the details and the links, but for the first time in a couple of decades I completely agreed with the winners for those works I was familiar with. Usually I am at around 40%, this one was a nice change.

Star Wars Medley

I don’t believe I have ever heard the Star Wars theme music done in quite this style before, so I had to share it. By Lindsey Stirling & Peter Hollens, this was a YouTube Geek Week flagged item which I somehow missed until now. And then, just because I enjoyed that one so much, I went and checked a few more of Lindsey’s tracks, about Zombies and life after the Apocalypse and other normal stuff. That last one is probably my favorite Imagine Dragons cover ever, or at least so far.