Just about to be released on DVD in the US , Eden of the East sucked me in with the initial scene: the protagonist naked with only a gun and a cell phone in front of the White House saves a tourist girl from arrest, then starts running. In eleven episodes, they cover one of the most interesting conspiracy plot lines I have seen, easily on a par with Welcome to the NHK or Speed Grapher, and every bit as riveting. It carved hours out of my precious sleep schedule, because every episode demanded that I watch the next, to find out what happened. Yes, I watched the entire thing in one sitting; I could not help myself. The link to watch the program online still exists at HULU, but the site link for Funimation Video is already past that, moving onto the new seasons programing, Like Birdy the Mighty: Decode. The best news is that it isn’t over; we get to go back to that world in Eden of The East the Movie I and II and see what happens next!
I like the way my Wednesday posting, Things to Do, has taken on a life of its own and started to build itself as I watch (and type furiously trying to keep up). So I am going to add a Sunday segment as well (you are reading the first instance now) called Things to Watch. As before, I don’t know what format or structure this will end up having, so we will just start, and see what develops.
There are some good DVDs being released this week, and as always some not so good. Whether you choose to buy them, rent them from a brick-and-mortar/mailing service/supermarket kiosk, or stream them from services like Amazon or Netflix is your choice. Just like the Things to Do postings, I am doing this to organize my awareness of the available programming in hopes I don’t miss the better ones. For the moment, I am not going to focus on the ephemeral sources, like the TV show home page that streams the current episode for one week, or the equivalent HULU, FanCast, or CrunchyRoll offerings. Perhaps that will end up being another day of the week entry; for this one, I just want to look at things that will continue to be around once they have been made available for purchase, at least for the foreseeable future.
Of this weeks DVD output, the one that looks most interesting to me is The Hunger: The Complete Second Season, hosted by David Bowie, who starred in the original movie (Terence Stamp hosted the first season). Directed by Tony and Ridley Scott, written by such authors as Brian Lumley and Robert Bloch, and starring too many famous actors for me to list, this one is a must-have for the Halloween season. If you use the season 2 link in the next few days, you can enter to win a copy from eFilmCritic; the contest ends November first, but the DVD’s might only play properly if you live in Australia.
Legend of the Seeker is another episodic TV series released to DVD this week, with Season One. This should set you up to be ready for the new season, beginning on November 7th. The Futurama Complete Collection also becomes available this week, for those who missed the earlier versions. If you missed them, for shame; but also, they are $14 to $20 per season at this point. While I love the Bender Head as the container, I don’t really feel that it increased their value from $56 to $80 for the 4 seasons to the $199.95 they are looking for with this version. If there is an additional 50 hours of programming or some other reason the new price is valid, please let me know.
On the Anime front, the TOKYO MAJIN Complete Series Box Set becomes available this week; while Gantz-like in its violence, it doesn’t quite deliver on the fan-service level. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit concludes the season with volume 6, and the full season is also out this week. A new project to US shores, Kiba – The Complete Collection delivers the entire series at once. Uzumaki (Residents become obsessed with spiral shapes) is also new this week, but with only the first few episodes available.
The movie that stands out this week is Lovecraft: Fear Of The Unknown, which is more of a documentary than anything else. The best fiction bet may be Zombie Self Defense Force from Japan if you are a zombie fan. From the US comes Land of the Lost; I tend to wonder who was advising folks to make this movie. For a Halloween release, the William Castle Film Collection has some classics.