The one that looks the most interesting to me this week is The Book of Life, an animated presentation about being torn between fulfilling the expectations of your family and following your heart. I also find the animation style itself to be conductive to telling this particular story, and can’t wait to see how it all fits together. The other film worth checking out is Men, Women & Children, a story about how the internet has totally changed how we all deal with each other, and grow closer (or farther) together/apart.
In movies, X-Men: Days of Future Past was the best film of the franchise so far, and I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it yet. The other feature length offering is the recent Mr. Peabody and Sherman, the heartwarming story of a dog and his boy, and a rather abused time machine that may spell the end of the world.
To take full advantage of the film release, they are also making available The Complete Mr. Peabody & Sherman Collection, 450 minutes comprising all 91 of the original episodes. One of the more interesting shows to come along recently is Penny Dreadful: The Complete First Season, a rather twisted new take on some old stories and characters, including Dorian Grey, Frankenstein, and Dracula, all in a single story. If you need still more Victorian Gothic Fantasy, Dracula: Season One also comes out this week; enjoy it while you can, it didn’t get a season 2. And the final TV release for this round is Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion, bringing us back to the realm of animation.
In Anime, A Certain Magical Index II: Part One will be hitting the shelves, as will Holy Knight, a twisted tale of a Vampire Slayer and the Vampire that wants to have his baby… just before she kills him. There is also Naruto Shippūden: DVD Box20, as well as Naruto Triple Feature, which compiles the movies Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, Legend of the Stone of Gele, and Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom.
In the Strangely Entertaining category we get Kill Me Baby, a story of what may have been the most dangerous childhood ever lived, and Meganebu, a tale of the man who founded the Glasses Club, and got all the guys to join it on the promise of developing working X-Ray spectacles. Finally, there is also a S.A.V.E. version of Princess Jellyfish, making the ultimate nerd-girl a bit more affordable.
The live action version of Black Butler was released in January in Japan, June 14th in Canada, and comes out next week in the UK. Unfortunately it is not scheduled for movie theaters in the US that I could find, but it has been released on all-region DVD here. Originally set in the England of Queen Victoria, the new movie is set in 2020 to give the mingling of the cultures a more realistic environment. When a girl’s parents are killed, she sells her soul to a demon, in return for which he becomes her butler and serves her in all things… including tracking down her parent’s killers. The Manga was excellent, the Anime was quite good as well, I am looking forward to seeing how well they did with the live action version.
Ths weekend we get Dracula Untold, a story about the ruler and hero Vlad Tepes sacrificing much to save his family and his subjects from the invading armies. In some ways this is a lot closer to the historic facts of his life and times than most Dracula movies, and includes his Impaler tendencies, although with those scenes adjusted to retain the PG-13 rating. Except for that whole Vampire thing they could have passed this as a historical epic, but that just helps spice up the story. I will be in the theaters for this one.
Topping movies this time around we get Edge of Tomorrow, the movie based on the excellent book All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. I find it interesting that they changed the title of the movie to the tagline for the disc cover: Live Die Repeat. The other live action film this week is Sharknado 2: The Second One, so even a new rebooting of Howard The Duck would have gotten top billing over that. However, there is one more that is worth your time to check out; the animated Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart. It features a world class voice cast in both its English and French audio versions, and the animation quality is top notch. I don’t find that much of a surprise, since this is from the team that brought us A Monster In Paris, is produced by Luc Besson, and is based on the concept album by the French rock band Dionysos, and the graphic novel La Mécanique du cœur written by their lead singer.
There are several good choices in TV, beginning with Hemlock Grove: The Complete First Season, the made-for-Netflix supernatural series. I found it very interesting, and just spooky enough to make it a good selection for an October release. American Horror Story: Coven – The Complete Third Season is likewise an excellent choice for the month that includes Halloween. Bates Motel: Season Two, Houdini, and The Following: The Complete Second Season round out the selections this time.
In Anime, Rozen Maiden: Zuruckspulen is a twisted tale of time and fate unraveling, as the adult Jun speaks with his younger self. Their goal now is to try to revive Shinku to prevent Kirakisho, the seventh Rozen Maiden, from unleashing destruction on both of their worlds. Also this week Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet is a far future tale of what happens when several members of the space-faring branch of humanity accidentally finds their way back to Earth. This one was the best series in the Spring season of 2013 for me, I watched each episode as it became available before any other show. This release includes the entire 13 episode series, the two OVAs, and the 13 Petite Gargiantia Mini-Episodes as well as the Petite Gargiantia Special. In other words, everything they ever made for the series is in the box set, including a bunch of things not previously seen outside of Japan. I would have posted the Viz Streaming Anime link rather than the Crunchyroll for this one, except it didn’t seem to be working.
Mobile Suit Gundam UC – Part 4 is a slightly misleading title, since the original series consisted of 7 one hour episodes, and this 90 minute long release is the fourth and final part of it. If you are a Gundam fan, you will not want to miss this one. And a couple of non-Terrestrial Pirate shows are being re-released this time around, Bodacious Space Pirates and Space Pirate Mito.
The 42nd crew of the ISS has an official poster that honors Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. The folks at Space Dot Com have a great image they claim is the official Expedition 42 poster, I am linking to them because I couldn’t find a copy at NASA.