Fantasy – Page 9 – Strider’s Web

Something to Watch: Discs

This week we get the award winning White God, a movie about dogs in organized revolution, which shares an attitude with the recent reboot of Planet of the Apes. It is unusual and has a lot of critical acclaim, and while it is in Hungarian it has English subtitles, so you won’t have any problem following the story. The other film is the animated Justice League: Gods & Monsters, from an alternate universe where Zod is Superman’s father, Batman is a Vampire, and Wonder Woman is the daughter of Ares, God of War. For a western animation, this one is rather dark.

TV has Helix: Season 2, a show that may have been vying with Lost for the Serious Weirdness in Television Award. We also get the Disney made-for-TV film Descendants, a comedy/fantasy involving the children of Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen, and Jafar. It doesn’t come out on Tuesday, though, but goes on sale Friday the 31st, the same day it airs on the Disney Channel.

In Anime, Windy Tales is about a teacher who knows how to control the wind, and the students who learn everything from Air to Zephyr from them. While the show came out in 2004, I can find no reference to previous North American releases. No Game, No Life is about a couple of Neets who’s only connection with the world at large is through online gaming. They are good enough at that to end up representing humanity in a game that will determine the fate of the world, even though they can barely function enough to leave their home. Naruto Shippūden: Uncut Set 23 takes place during the 4th Great Ninja War, and finds the allies fighting against reanimated friends and enemies. This set brings episodes 284 through 295 home, while I believe they are up to episode 419 in Japan. Galilei Donna is about three dissimilar sisters who suddenly find themselves with one thing in common; an attempted kidnapping on the same day. It turns out they are descendents of Galileo Galilei, who left behind a treasure that the sky pirates are determined to have.

009 Re: Cyborg reactivates a group of cyborgs to try to save the world from a threat stranger than human. Speaking of strange, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Season 1 is an action adventure comedy series that is downright silly at times, but still has some serious moments. Inari Kon Kon has a girl given the power to shape shift after she saves the life of a familiar to a goddess. Finally, Recently, my sister is unusual finds Mitsuki haunted by a ghost who she must help pass on to the next world.

Something to Watch: Streams: Gate

The summer season has just started, with most shows only having 1 or two episodes streamed so far, but I have already become addicted to one of them: Gate. When I saw the first episode, and a portal between parallel universes opened up, I was certain it had to be based on the Hell’s Gate series by David Weber and Linda Evans. The first book in 2006 saw two Parallel Universe crossing civilizations, one based on magic with dragons, gryphons, spells, and wizards, and one based on advanced steampunk science and technology, stumble across each other. During that first encounter, where neither side understood the others language or customs, a series of mistakes and misunderstandings led to a massacre, with subsequent encounters leading to all out war between the two cultures.

It turns out I was wrong. It was actually based on Takumi Yanai’s Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri, a 2006 Japanese Fantasy Novel series later turned into an assortment of Manga, and finally the Anime. In it, a portal between universes opens up in Ginza, and an invading hoard of dragons, elves, ogres and wizards attack Tokyo. They get beaten back by the JSDF, who go on to secure a foothold on the other side of the gate. Tanks, missals, and other modern weapons give the Self Defense Forces a noticeable edge in the combat theater, although the fighting is anything but one sided. The protagonist is Yōji Itami, a serious Otaku who is promoted because his quick thinking saved a lot of lives during the initial battle. He gets put in charge of a squad sent to do reconnaissance and see if they can find a way to get the other side to the peace talks table. This seems appropriate, since the author is also a serious Otaku (he has to be to write this kind of story) who is a former member of the JSDF.

You can watch the stream on Crunchyroll, the third episode just went live this afternoon for Premium members. If you are a free member (yes, membership is free, but the paid service doesn’t have commercials, comes in HD, and you can watch the shows the same day they air in Japan) you can watch the first two episodes right now, and today’s episode next Friday.

Something to Watch: Discs

This time Movies have Ex Machina, a cybernetic tale of the birth of AI as haunting as it is thought provoking. While not as relentlessly kill crazy as the Terminator series, you do get a glimpse into the birth of that attitude among the biologically challenged, and the kind of events that might provoke it. X-Men: Days of Future Past: the Rogue Cut started with 17 minutes of additional footage we have never seen before. Some of the new footage centers around Paquin’s Rogue, who I don’t feel we saw enough of in the theatrical version. In order to make the story line changes the new scenes bring to the film work they also have modified some of the original footage with either re-edits or alternate takes. The end result is as much of a different movie as some of the Blade Runner remakes, so it will probably have to follow me home. The 1959 French classic Hiroshima, Mon Amour is being re-released on Blue Ray off of a 4K master for the first time ever this week. No, it isn’t genre, but it was one of those films that changed the way people made movies from that point on, the way Indiana Jones did. This is one of those films you need to see at least one time in your life, or you will have missed something amazing and paradigm changing.

I didn’t find any TV entries this week, but there is one contender in a much older episodic story telling tradition. Beowulf is performed in the original Bardic style by Benjamin Bagby, Anglo-Saxon harp in hand and voice in full throat, singing in Old English. He has given this performance at the Smithsonian and at Carnegie Hall, to name a few. This is as close as most of us can ever hope to get to experiencing one of the tales that shaped our last few thousand years on Earth the way it was meant to be heard.

In Anime, Familiar of Zero: F is Season 4 of the series; ever since she first accidentally kidnapped him from Earth (yep, she did that by accident; she is just a tad clueless about how to get her magic to work), their relationship has been growing. But so has the list of powerful beings trying to take them out… permanently. In Recently, my sister is unusual Mitsuki is trying to adjust to her new life and brother, when an amnesiac ghost girl needs her help to pass on to the next world.

Is the Order a Rabbit? is a very kawaii show involving a cafe, a mysterious rabbit, one heavily armed girl, and some possible telepaths. One Piece is releasing both Collection 13 with Episodes 300 through 324 and One Piece: Season 7 Voyage 1 with episodes 385 through 396. I find it interesting that the one with 24 episodes is $2 cheaper than the one with 11 episodes, probably because it is about a year older.

Something to Watch: Discs

Movies have Last Knights this week, which comes under the Epic Fantasy category. The film did not do well with the critics, and I don’t believe I will be watching it myself. Much more interesting is the indi film Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, about a Japanese office assistant who mistakes a VHS thriller for a documentary and goes off for the hunt of her life. This is a much more surreal fantasy, but it is actually based on a true story. The only TV show worth mentioning here also seems like a total fantasy to me, although I suspect the show creators intended it to be more like real life: Banshee: The Complete First Season starts with the premise of the Amish Mafia, and gets rapidly less realistic from there.

Finally the actual fantasy film Forbidden Empire looks like it could be a lot of fun, I intend to check it out and see if it lives up to its promise. It is a Russian film based on Nikolai Gogol’s story Viy, and appropriately released there under the name Viy 3D. The story is about an 18th century explorer who sets out on an epic journey to map the forbidden uncharted lands of Transylvania; what he learns scares the holy living crap out of him, and more than likely most of the audience. It has already been signed off for a sequel which is filming in China, starring Jason Flemyng, Rutger Hauer, and Anna Yo, with help from Jackie Chan Stunt Team. I can’t wait to see how it does.

In Anime, Space Brothers – Collection 3 brings episodes 27 through 38 to the shelves, continuing this amazing story about the conquest of space and what it means to one family. In .hack//G.U. Trilogy our protagonist must unlock the mystery behind a computer glitch capable of leaving players comatose, and possibly killing them. Turn A Gundam – Part 1 brings us the first 25 episodes in an epic about the separation thousands of years ago of the two branches of Humanity, one on the Earth, the other on the Moon.

For the bridge between sci-fi and fantasy this week we have A Lull in the Sea: Complete Collection, a variation on the Turn A Gundam story, except with the separation of humanities branches being between below and above the sea. There is also BlazBlue Alter Memory, where it takes a serious combination of technology and magic to defeat the beast out to obliterate the human race.

There are a number of excellent titles out this time around on the pure fantasy level as well, starting with Magical Warfare, which has a Kendo geek suddenly finding out he has to become a magician to survive and protect those he holds dear. The Irregular at Magic High School team also has a new release this week, although limited in scope to 7 episodes. Tokyo Ravens: Season 1 Part 2 is a supernatural fantasy featuring otherworldly battles and forgotten promises, and worth taking a peek at.

My Little Monster: Complete Collection is about an impassive girl who meets a trouble maker in a brand new love story. While not exactly genre, it has enough fantasy elements to satisfy my immediate needs in a story line.

Something to Do: Movies

This week we get a whole new level of dysfunctional fantasy with Ted 2, a comedy going places the first one didn’t dare to. Ted and Tami-Lynn want to have a baby, but to qualify, Ted will have to prove he’s a person in a court of law. It is basically Heinlein’s Jerry Was A Man dressed up with outrageous gobs of raunchy humor. If you prefer your comedy a bit less raunchy you might want to check out the award winning Australian film The Little Death this weekend instead. At least I think it is a bit less raunchy, but I know it isn’t genre; and the trailer had me laughing, so I figured I should mention it here.

AwesomeCon 2015

Awesome Con in Washington D.C. this past weekend certainly lived up to its name, and its rep. They had a huge collection of actors, artists, and authors (and that only covered the first letter of the alphabet) doing their best to make the gathering memorable. Pretty much all of the guest actor/voice talent celebrities manned (personed?) a booth on the bottom level, off to the side of the hucksters area by the primary entrance, most of the time they were not doing a panel or presentation. Between those two groups were the artists, both Comics and Fine, with quite a few other visual disciplines mixed in. That last sentence gives you the idea, but not the scope, unless you expect there to be a hundred or more impressive illustrator/storytellers on the multiple-football-field sized area you are crossing to get to your next scheduled event.

They had some presentations I never expected, like Twisted Toonz, where a group of world class voice actors played out a famous movie as totally different characters than the ones in the original. This year the film was The Wrath of Kahn, and the voice of Wini The Pooh coming from the bridge of the Enterprise was one of the the least disconcerting aspects of that presentation. I can’t wait to see another show organized around the same principle, it was absolutely amazing and entertaining! Although the voice actor tasked with being Bill Cosby for one part of it kept looking out at the audience like he was trying to find an escape route.