BBC Click put together the first ever TV episode recorded entirely in 360 degrees for VR headsets, although it can also be viewed on the desktop or with a mobile phone. They have a bunch of good content, like a helicopter ride to a glacier, a glimpse of computer game SUPERHOT, and a visit to the world’s largest physics experiment (CERN, of course). But I particularly liked the bit where they told us how they made the show, with some ideas about how the rest of us could get into creating our own 360 videos.
The Anisong World Matsuri takes place July 2nd and 3rd as part of Anime Expo, pretty much North America’s most intense Anime Con. The musical line up is amazing, with 9 artists including:
Eir Aoi (Fate/Zero, Sword Art Online, Kill la Kill, more)
Flow (Naruto, Eureka seveN, more)
JAM Project (MACROSS 7, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh!, over 100 more)
Luna Haruna (Sword Art Online I and II, Monogatari, more)
Minami (Haruka Suzumiya, Infinite Stratos, Mobile Suit Gundam Age, more)
OLDCODEX (GODEATER, Free, more)
Sphere (Demon King Daimao, Class of Heroes 2, more)
T.M.Revolution (Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, more)
Yoko Ishida (Ah! My Goddess, Sailor Moon R, Strike Witches, more)
TV has The X-Files: The Event Series, also called Season 10 coming out this week, the long awaited return to the small screen. Movies bring us London Has Fallen, and while I can’t decide if it belongs in the science fiction or fantasy category I know it has to be in one of them. We also get 10 Cloverfield Lane, which I would have written off as Horror if so many critics hadn’t referred to it as a Sci-Fi Thriller and given it great reviews.
In Anime Sword Art Online: Extra Edition is the four Summer Special episodes that took place between seasons 1 and 2. As with previous disc releases from this title, I feel it is overpriced at $10 per episode when the normal going rate is 1 to 2 dollars per episode. Until someone releases this at a realistic price point I will continue to watch it streaming rather than adding it to my permanent collection.
The genre films this week are animations, with Zootopia being set in an alternate universe filled with anthropomorphic sentient creatures from all animal species. They created some wonderful characters and a great story line, if you missed it when it was in the theaters you should really try to catch it now. The darkly comedic fantasy Anomalisa also hits the shelves, after having been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Film. Not genre but sufficiently strange to merit a mention here, Hail, Caesar! comes to disc this week.
In Anime Mamoru Hosoda’s multiple award winning film The Boy and The Beast is ready to become part of your permanent collection. Yona of the Dawn: Part 1 begins the story when Yona sees her childhood sweetheart murder her father and usurp the throne. Now she is on the run, gathering allies and preparing for the war that will retake the country and make her its rightful new ruler once again. In Gonna be the Twin-Tail!! Complete Collection Soji is a normal high school boy who suddenly has to battle monsters while wearing pigtails. Fairy Tail – Part 20 brings episodes 227 through 239 of the magical combat comedy home, with all the collateral damage its fans could wish for. Medaka Box: Complete Collection puts season 1 and 2 into the same package for the first time. When Medaka became Class President and put out her suggestion box, she was expecting to be faced with simple issues. Instead she finds herself neck deep in a years old mystery and coverup centered on her school. Likewise Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Movie Collection allows you to get all three of the films in the arc in a single boxed set.
There are a few re-releases worth mentioning this time around. This time, when you pick up Mamoru Hosoda’s award winning The Girl Who Leapt Through Time you can get it in both Blue Ray and Ultraviolet HD streaming formats, neither of which were available previously. Also Lupin the 3rd: Alcatraz Connection, After War Gundam X, and Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ all become available again for the first time in years.
My favorite movie title this time is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, because I loved it as a book title when Seth Grahame-Smith released it in 2009. I am not normally a fan of Zombie movies, this one made my tiny handful of exceptions, which also includes Shaun Of The Dead and Warm Bodies. Gods of Egypt is the other fantasy movie this week; I missed it in the theaters, and I will be waiting to see it until it comes to a service I already have. If there was any SF/F TV this week I didn’t manage to find it.
Anime has When They Cry: Kai, the second season finding the survivors of the 1983 Great Hinamizawa Disaster continuing to fight for their survival as the time loops keep bringing the disaster back. Log Horizon: Season 2 Part 1 begins six months after thousands of players were trapped in the game, and there is still no escape in sight. With winter coming on they have some hard decisions to make if they want to live into the spring. Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend: Set 2 brings the second season of that story, and the creative team gathered has most of the skills needed to finally build the game. The only aspect they are missing is the music, but the only person they know who creates there own music has no interest in gaming, and urges them to give up their otaku project. The only anime this time around which is not the second season is One Piece – Season 8 Voyage 1, bringing episodes 457 through 468 home; to put that in perspective, they are currently streaming episode 783.
I couldn’t find a single new genre release in western Movies or TV, but there are a few eastern titles this week. Tokyo Ghoul √A – Season Two continues the war between Ghouls and Humans, cranking up the action and horror as old friends transform and new perils arise. Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign brings the first dozen episodes of the potential extinction of humanity as the vampires grow ever more numerous and hungry. In Shirobako: Collection 2 the five friends once in the animation club are now reunited and ready to create their first professional Anime, if only they can make it work. This was one of the most impressive Anime programs of 2015 for me, both for its recursiveness (an Anime about making an Anime, in the tradition of Golden Boy and Anime Runner Kuromi) and for its fond waves of recognition to some of the most amazing Anime creators in the industry today. I can’t say it anywhere near as well as others already have, so let me pass along links to a few of the better articles about it, from Rocket News 24, from Kotaku, and from Otaku USA. It also indirectly made public some of the sadder details, like the fact that many of the animators and voice actors that work on these projects are only paid a dollar an hour, not exactly a living wage. If you have ever wanted to create your own anime, this is a must-watch!