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Something to Watch: Discs

Movies have the live action version of The Jungle Book hits the shelves this week, bringing home the latest incarnation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic story. TV’s Star Wars Rebels: Complete Season Two really ramps up the action in the animated battle for the fate of the galaxy.

Anime did better this week with When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace: Complete Collection getting my vote for best title. A variation on Magical Girls, the one boy in the school club with powers is pretty unimpressive. Doamayger-D is a tip of the hat to old-school Mecha shows from the 70s and 80s, right down to the animation style. The episodes are very short, weighing in at 3 minutes or so each, and the premise is a bit goofy; the giant Mecha fights the monsters by creating elaborate deserts. When the monsters eat the deserts they turn back into human beings. Beelzebub Part 1 is the first 30 episodes of this 2011 series which has not been previously released in the US as far as I can tell. It is about a delinquent who finds a mystical baby who makes his life difficult by doing things like throwing lightning bolts around.

The Animated Adventures of Firefly Teaser

I am going to be seriously disappointed if this one never gets made, if only for the excellent cartoon versions of each of the characters Stephen Byrne managed to create. That can’t be too much of a surprise, since he is one of the artists actually doing the Serenity comic book with Joss Whedon. I don’t seem to be alone in that opinion; as Grasshopper said in the YouTube comments: If this isn’t real so help me I will hunt you down and MAKE YOU MAKE IT!!! Another good clue might be that Nathan Fillion immediately started following him when this video was posted; we might actually get some new stories out of this!

Hillywood Does Sherlock Parody

This awesome little Sherlock parody was done by The Hillywood Show, see how many original episodes you can name from the scenes. You should at least be able to recognize each of them if you are a fan of the series, even if the name escapes you. They also did a great job with the music and lyrics, turning this into an excellent music video. It was only posted three days ago, and already has over 800,000 views. They parody a lot of other shows and movies, and manage to attend a number of cons, so I will be looking for them as I book any events I will be making.

Something to Watch: Discs

Movies bring us The Huntsman: Winter’s War, part two of the story begun in Snow White and the Huntsman. This series is nicely done Fantasy which has already been nominated for a number of awards. Game based Ratchet and Clank has our heroes fighting to save every planet in the Galaxy, with more than a little humor along the way. While not genre, The Man Who Knew Infinity is the true story of mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan’s time at Trinity College. TV has Ash vs. Evil Dead: The Complete First Season and The Walking Dead: The Complete Sixth Season, which seems slightly redundant somehow.

In Anime, Hakuoki: Warrior Spirit of the Blue Sky is finally getting a North American release for those in need of more Samurai vs. Demon/Vampire action. Cross Ange Collection 2 contains the next dozen episodes about the princess who’s throne was stolen, and the fight to get it back puts the fate of two worlds in alternate timelines at risk. The final battle between man, dragons, and machines will decide it all. The Heroic Legend of Arslan also has an heir to the throne fighting to get it back, but don’t think this is a copy cat. This one is crafted by the team who did Full Metal Alchemist, and is full of the same kind of complex politics, situations, and characters as you know from their earlier works. Finally, two of the Ikki Tousen story lines are being released in S.A.V.E editions; Great Guardians and Xtreme Xectuor. If you have been waiting to pick them up when the price came down, now is the time!

Something to Watch: Discs

The few movies being released this week all appear to be low budget direct-to-video offering, like A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits (done as a musical), RZ-9, and Robot World. OK, one exception, I think The Angry Birds Movie may have been played in a theater somewhere. TV has some serious winners though, with Gotham: Season 2 and Once Upon A Time: The Complete Fifth Season being the two I am most excited about. I am sure I would be more excited about The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Seventh Season if I had made it to the fourth season yet. It seems I have way more things I try to watch than there are hours in the day, so I end up getting behind on some of the shows.

In Anime Punch Line is about a Time Traveler who was evicted from his body, a Hero of Justice and her Fembot sidekick, a Ghost Cat Spiritual Master, an unskilled and alcoholic Exorcist, a competition grade Gamer Girl and her alien pet, and an Extinction Level Event on a collision course to wipe out the human race. Which it does, several times; good thing the time traveler refuses to give up, working hard to recover his body and join with his friends to save the planet! Assassination Classroom: Season 1 Part 2 continues the tale of the alien teacher and the students trying their best to kill him; he has promised that if they succeed, he will not destroy the Earth the way he did the Moon. I am sure no one needs any explanation about what Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal: Set 1 is about.

In Trinity Seven: Complete Collection Arata’s town was destroyed, his beloved cousin removed, and he was transported to another world where his new magical powers hold the only key to his return to Earth. Provided, that is, that he can keep the seven deadly girls alive through the trans-dimensional attacks that plague his new world. Blood Blockade Battlefront has denizens of the netherworld teaming up with Superheroes to defend both realms from an evil plot to take over their worlds. Finally, Charlotte Volume 1 contains the first 7 episodes of the 12 part story of adolescents who gain special powers, only to lose them a few years later. While it starts out looking like a high school wish fulfillment fantasy, it doesn’t take many episodes at all before they start revealing the much darker under-story, and the secret war being waged across the world.

Wild Cards on TV!

George R.R. Martin announced his shared superhero universe Wild Cards is coming to TV, and I cheered for a good 30 minutes. Melinda M. Snodgrass has been deeply involved with the project from the beginning as both a writer and an editor, and she will be an executive producer for the new TV show. UPC will be bringing it to the small screen, and since they have produced such shows as Mr. Robot, Killjoys, The Magicians, and 12 Monkeys, I have high hopes they will give Wild Cards the treatment it deserves. There are no guarantees, of course; back in 2011 I reported on their announcements about the Wild Card Movie that never got made. But perhaps if the show does as well as I expect it will we might get to see them on the big screen after all some day.