The Attack on Titan Exhibition will be running at the Ueno No Mori Museum in Tokyo from now to the end of January, so if you are in that area you had best hurry if you want catch it before it goes away. Thanks to Otaku USA for the heads up on this one.
As anyone who has stood at the bottom of the Earth’s gravity well and pointed their camera up can tell you, the kind of pictures an Astronaut can take from orbit will far surpass that. In this video, Astronaut Don Pettit gives you an idea of what is involved, and what you might be able to achieve. Knowing this, all you have to do now is achieve orbit, making sure to bring your camera with you.
The web site for J-World Tokyo now has a set of pages in English, for those of us who can’t read Kanji. The place is an indoor amusement park for the anime of Weekly Shonen Jump, including such favorites as Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, and Dragon Ball. There was a review of it done by Otaku USA Magazine you should check out if you plan to go to Tokyo soon, because you just might want to pay it a visit.
Obviously, my choice in Movies this week is Guardians of the Galaxy, which still remains my favorite for this year, even as the year itself reaches its end. While not exactly genre, Frank is just strange enough to rate a mention (although it would have gotten one anyways for the music angle). If it came near a theater around me I missed it, now I get another shot at checking it out.
In TV we have Doctor Who: The Complete Eighth Series for Peter Capaldi’s first run as everyone’s favorite Time Lord. I do have to say I can’t wait to see Nick Frost as Santa in the Xmas special, come the day. Under the Dome: Season 2 is also out this week for the King fans. For those looking for nostalgia sci-fi, Mork & Mindy: The Fourth Season is the one where they get married and have a child, played by Jonathan Winters. It is also the final season of the show, so if you picked up the first three, this one will complete your collection.
In Anime, Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl is about a boy who meets his unsuspected cousin, who turns out to be an alien. What started out as a strange encounter turned into something truly surreal in very short order, as he learns that Earth is being targeted. Infinite Stratos II continues the adventures of the only male who can pilot a combat mecha in a training academy full of heavily armed combat ready women. That rounds it up for this go round; everything else in each category being released this week has been released before.
The final Miazaki masterpiece The Wind Rises hits the shelves this week, in a combo BD+DVD pack. Unusually for an anime, it tells the true story of one of Japan’s top aircraft designers, or at least as true as any movie ever gets. It follows his life from that of a young man almost to the end, with all the style and compassion Miazaki is known for. With a totally different attitude we also get Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, another twisted story from Frank Miller told from the pages of his graphic novel, with an excellent cast. Automata goes in still another direction, with Antonio Banderas as the robot hunting enforcer in a world where the machines are more human, and humane, than the people. Even though several versions are already on the shelves, I had to mention that the Frozen Sing Along Edition is being released this week as well; follow the bouncing snowflake!
The only genre TV show I found a reference to being released this week is Wolfblood: Season 2, and for a 13 episode series to go for $10 on its day of release says something about the level of quality you can expect from this one, I suspect. Although it is a BBC (or CBBC, more accurately) show, and airing on Disney in the US, so that says some good things.
In Anime, besides the previously mentioned The Wind Rises, two other Miyazaki animation classics are being released on Blue Ray for the first time; Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke. I am thinking I will have to upgrade my copies from DVD.
New this week is the very amusing I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided To Get a Job, about a man who graduated Hero School, then had to get a job in retail when the war against the Demons ended unexpectedly, also ending his paycheck. But his culture shock is nothing compared to his new co-worker, the daughter of the now-deceased Demon King! We also have One Piece Season 6 Part 2, bringing us up to episodes 349 through 360 on disc, while streaming just showed episode 670 this past week.
A Certain Magical Index: Complete Season 1 brings the entire first season together in a single box set for the first time, which means you can pick it up for a bit under half as much as you would have paid by buying the previously released Season 1 Part 1 and Part 2 individually. This story is a heady mix of science and sorcery in the same universe as the genetically modified parapsychics of A Certain Scientific Railgun. Likewise, Death Note: The Complete Series includes all 37 episodes of the TV show for a decent price, but none of the movies, either live action or animated.
This weekend they held the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards, and as part of that they gave the Lifetime Achievement Oscar to Hayao Miyazaki. I have ranted often enough about what an amazing craftsman, director, animator, writer, and on and on he is. I think this time I will let the presenter and the recipient speak for themselves.