The Syfy show Halcyon will have 5 episodes made for VR about the VR saturated world of 2058, along with the 10 episodes made for standard TV. So far the only VR version announced will be for Oculus Rift, I am hoping they port it to Google Cardboard before the release date so everyone can watch it. No word yet on when the show will air (at least that I found), nor was I able to locate an on-line trailer.
NASA assembled this amazing video of the Sun in Ultra-HD (4K) from footage generated by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, and added some tasty music by Lars Leonhard to it. On top of that, the folks at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center decided to make this video public domain, posting it so it can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12034, along with several others. If they keep doing this, I might have to break down and buy myself a TV suitable for watching these on, and download the entire collection.
Of the few Western genre offerings this week, Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales definitely looks like the best choice, with Don Verdean coming in both second and last. Sadly, that is all I can find from Western TV and Movies.
Anime fares a little better, but only a little. Wizard Barristers: Complete Collection tells what it is like to defend the magically inclined criminal elements of society, while trying to get the innocent released. I do have to say, the barrister’s familiars set a tone I was not expecting in this one. Death Note is a re-release of a classic, in 2 formats. The Complete Series includes all the TV series. The Omega Edition includes the TV series plus the 2 Re-Light movies. It would be nice if you could get the Live Action TV shows and Movies bundled with the anime ones, but so far that does not seem to be an option.
Tessa Violet was known as Meekakitty when she recorded I’ll Be Your Star Trek Girl and her video of the ALL CAPS classic Don’t Unplug Me. Now she has another instant classic with Sorry I’m Not Sorry under her own name, the fist track presented here, and I have to say I love her music. Sadly, her Star Trek Girl video has been removed from the internet except for bootleg copies, so I can’t post it here. It sounds like her Don’t Unplug Me instance has some corrupt audio around the 3rd verse, but otherwise it appears to be both intact and legal, so I do get to include it. The third track of the set (and she has a TON more songs, please check them all out) is her Wizard Love, a Harry Potter Music Video that she recorded with heyhihello which should be in everyone’s collection. The final track is a bit of a tribute to Alice herself, and if you haven’t already been following Tessa Violet for years, now you know why you should be. For more, grab her songs on iTunes or pick up her Maker Shop album.
Funimation is bringing the Psycho-Pass Movie to US theaters on March 15th and 16th. The Sibyl System uses extensive surveillance and biological monitoring to determine who is likely to commit a crime. When they find one the police remove potential criminals from the population before they become a problem. But some are bypassing the system and attacking without warning, and Inspector Akane Tsunemori is tasked with bringing them to justice. Normally a movie like this would be a stand-alone taking place in the same universe as the anime TV series, with the same characters in a separate story, but not in this case. This is actually the culmination of the TV series, bringing the story to its end. If you have been following the series from the beginning, this is your chance to see the conclusion on the big screen. If you haven’t been watching it until now, you have time to see the entire series before the theatrical presentation; you can catch it on Funimation or Hulu.
As previously mentioned, also in March The Boy and the Beast will be brought to American theaters by Funimation. That one will be at the beginning of the month, on March 4th, and I am including the new US trailer for it. This being Monday I would normally be talking about what will be hitting the theaters this week, but sadly the answer is Nothing. If you missed Deadpool last week this would be a good time to see it.
Freaks of Nature has a strange premise: Zombies, Vampires, and Humans all live in harmony, until Aliens invade the Earth. The cast includes Patton Oswalt and Joan Cusack, which is enough to convince me I need to see this Comedy/Horror. I should probably also mention Spectre, Daniel Craig’s last turn as James Bond, which didn’t do that well with the critics, but might still be worth watching. The Horror film Crimson Peak didn’t have a lick of comedy in it that I heard about, so I will be passing on that one. If there was any genre TV this week it snuck right past me with nary a ripple.
In Anime, Shirobako 1 is the rather recursive tale of 5 women who work for an Anime company, and according to the reports it is a fairly accurate depiction of the industry. This is the first half of the series, with the second coming along in May. Likewise Akame ga Kill: Collection 1 is the first half of its series, with a group of renegade assassins out to bring down the corrupt empire which bought and trained them. Finally, Lord Marksman and Vanadis: The Complete Series tells of two enemies who must work together to save a nation from destruction.