This isn’t in the path to the Avengers, but X-Men: First Class looks like a very interesting film.
There really is a competition focusing on America’s Greatest Otaku, and it could be you that brings home the prizes this time. The contest is being held by TokyoPOP, and it runs from Monday, February 7th (yes, that is tomorrow) until Friday, February 11th. Each day of that five day period will see a different contest being presented, each a day long and each giving you a shot at some great prizes. You can get the official rules here, and then log into the America’s Greatest Otaku site each day this week to enter each new contest as it comes up. The documentary series that all of this is in support of launches on Hulu on February 24th.
There are a couple of excellent movies coming out on disk this week, although their genre status is debatable. RED, or Retired, Extremely Dangerous, was my favorite action comedy not based on a comic book for 2010. Nothing deep or surprising, just good silly fun. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest completes the Millennium trilogy by author Stieg Larsson, a rather gritty and brutal tale of government corruption and the brilliant hacker girl who fought for her life against them, and the dogged investigative reporter who helped her. And Nowhere Boy is the story of the young John Lennon. All good movies, but where is the science fiction, you ask? Here it is: Enter the Void is the story of a murdered Tokyo drug dealer who’s ghost watches over his little sister.
TV shows didn’t do as well this week, with no real live action choices available. In western animation, Shaun the Sheep: Spring Shena-a-anigans out of the UK is a good silly choice.
There are a number of new Anime titles this week. Ghost Sweeper Mikami – Collection 2 continues the story of a beautiful but greedy ghost hunter out to get rich off the misfortune of others, and her perverted (therefor easily controllable) sidekick. Pandora Hearts – Premium Edition (Sub.DVD box 2) likewise continues its storyline, about an heir to the throne who is tossed into prison on his 15th birthday for no apparent reason. The series has some resemblance to Alice in Wonderland on several different levels, and is worth following.
The Sacred Blacksmith – Complete Series gives you the entire package with no waiting, unlike the previously mentioned programs. The Sacred Blacksmith has the power to forge powerful swords capable of defeating the demons who threaten his world, and teach people like Knight Guard Cecily Campbell how to use them. If you are not sure if this is for you, you can watch it online before you make your decision. Vampire Knight – Complete Series also has that instant gratification thing going for it, the whole story at once. In this one, Yuki Cross has grown up and become a guardian of the vampire race, in a twisty tale where nothing is what you thought it was, and again you can watch it online before you choose whether to bring it home with you.
Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 5 is not the kind of series you are going to be able to bring home in a single box, no matter how much you want to. There are already a boatload of episodes, with another handful of seasons available in Japan beyond what we have access to here. Disgaea has similar problems…
There are also a few classic anime’s being re-released this week. The reason for the Gantz reissue are obvious; the feature length live action film makes its US debut last Thursday. Not so obvious is the reason for the Armitage: Movie re-release, but I don’t really care; this story is a total classic with world class animation that everyone should see. The robot revolution on Earth didn’t go so well and they were all destroyed. But many survive on Mars, living amongst humans just fine, often undetected. Armitage is one of them, a tough cop who’s partner has been shot up so many times he is now more machine than flesh with computer controlled prostheses. Behind the police procedural, murder mystery, and government conspiracy, this one is a love story; and it works on every level.
This really doesn’t need an explanation, but for the terminally confused the Tokyo Storm Trooper is none other than world famous Otaku Danny Choo. If you want to know what is new and exciting in the way of Japanese Science Fiction, Anime, Manga, Music, and all aspects of Pop Culture, you need to watch his show. If your local cable or satellite provider doesn’t carry it you can watch it online.
The new trailer for Thor finally came out this weekend, and looks quite tasty. This film gets released on May 6th 2011, and is the next movie to hit the big screen from Marvel studios in their continuing build towards The Avengers. Following that will be Captain America: The First Avenger in July of 2011, which to my mind will be the most difficult origin story to transition elegantly to modern times. I really like the way they have been building this franchise since they took the production in-house, a few of the previous works (such as Daredevil and Electra) just didn’t work the way they should have when in the hands of outsiders.
John Carpenter has signed up to take the helm transforming Darkchylde from the graphic novel to the big screen. The premise of the comic book series is a good-hearted young southern belle has monsters inside her nightmares, and sometimes they transform her body to walk the earth for their own purposes. Done right, this one could be interesting.