Wishing a happy 81st birthday today to Tom Baker, the 4th Doctor.
We have a couple of good choices in the Movie category this week. The Zero Theorem is the latest sci-fi film from Terry Gilliam. As usual with his films, you can watch it as a twisted adventure or you can enjoy the more cerebral aspects. Luc Besson’s tale of forced evolution, Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman also hits the shelves. The animated feature film The Boxtrolls is one of the best examples of stop motion I have seen in a while, tells a wonderful story, and is nominated for the Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature category. Finally, Coherence is also coming to disc, and has won some awards on the Film Fest circuit. I didn’t really see anything this week in genre TV.
In Anime, A Certain Scientific Railgun: Season 1 takes place in Academy City, and involves the scientific induction of Psy powers into a percentage of the population. Total Eclipse: Season 1, also known as the Muv Luv Alternative, is about an alternate timeline where the Eurasian continent was invaded by aliens in 1967, and mankind has been in a desperate fight for survival ever since. By the present day the invaders own a third of the land surface on the planet. We also get Naruto Shippūden: DVD Box 21 with episodes 258 through 270.
The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power is pretty much it this week for live action films, while DuckTales, The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp does it for western animation films. The first is direct to disc, while the second hasn’t been in theaters since 1990. I could also mention John Wick, which isn’t genre but could be fun.
In Anime we get One Piece: Collection 11, because you just can’t have too many episodes about friendly pirates. A Certain Magical Index: The Movie; The Miracle of Endymion has a space elevator under construction as the setting for a battle between science and magic, with a miraculous singer as the prize. Kamijo and Index have the fight of their lives on their hands in this one. Chaos Head: The Complete Series is coming out in a S.A.V.E. edition, so you can pick up this twisted expedition into paranoia for a very small price. Finally, the parallel universe romantic fantasy Amagami SS Plus brings a continuation of the original seven stories.
The TV series My Love From Another Star was released on Blue Ray yesterday, January 7th, at least in Asia. It was previously released in Standard Definition, which hasn’t been the standard for a while now (tech advances way faster than marketing scams). In honor of that, NBCUniversal Entertainment has posted an embeddable version of the first episode on their YouTube channel, which I almost posted here. But, since it is in Korean with Japanese subtitles, I decided that didn’t make a lot of sense for a blog hosted in North America. If you want to watch that version, it is at the second link. The first link will take you to the Hulu page where you can watch it with English subtitles. The story is he crashed his flying saucer on Earth in 1609, had to dodge being killed by Earthlings and therefore missed the rescue craft, and has been waiting for 400 years for his chance to catch a ride on a comet and go home. But now, with just 3 months to go, he has made the mistake of interacting with someone and getting to know them; his terminally annoying new neighbor, the airhead actress. I rather enjoyed this sci-fi rom-com, and thought this was a good excuse to mention it here.
In Movies we get Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who is John Galt, the final film which completes the trilogy adapted from Ayn Rand’s novel. We also get Horns, a fantasy based on Joe Hill’s novel. Left Behind is another fantasy about how the world fell apart after a lot of people evaporated off the planet suddenly. They are also releasing the 1967 classic The Sword of Doom on Blue Ray for the first time. I didn’t find anything interesting in the way of genre TV shows this week.
In Anime, Fairy Tail: Collection 3 brings episodes 49 through 72 to the shelves in one box, complete with all the collateral damage those wizards are famous for. The collection editions are a lot more cost effective than the individual seasons, which run at the same price for half the number of episodes; you just have to be willing to wait a bit longer for them to be released. Likewise, One Piece – Collection Box 1 puts the first 4 seasons into a single box set, for a total of 103 episodes. The second one of those will be along in February.
Qwaser of Stigmata: Complete Collection contains all episodes from season 1, season 2, and the OVAs. Super powered combat with a battle for the fate of mankind puts the sisters Mafuyu and Tomo in danger, but it also gives them the power to help determine the outcome. Fantastic Detective Labyrinth: Complete Collection is about a boy detective in a Shinto filled with supernatural crime, 30 years after Tokyo was destroyed. Also, Dog & Scissors is being released on Blue Ray (previously only available as a DVD), a fantasy about a boy who is reincarnated as a dog owned by his favorite author… only he can not read as a dog.
There isn’t much this week, no real surprise since the shopping season is pretty much over. In movies I only mention Stephen King’s A Good Marriage because of the author. Likewise, I only mention the TV show Banshee: The Complete Second Season because its from Alan Ball, who turned True Blood into a small screen roller coaster of a show. Without those mentions, I don’t think I would have anything to put there.
In Anime, Onimonogatari: Shinobu Time is the Fourth arc to the Monogatari series’ second season. Time traveling is involved, and The Darkness is coming to take everyone over. In case you were wondering, Monogatari is how you say Story in Japanese, and Oni is the word for Demon, so the second season is called Demon’s Story, where the first season Bakemonogatari means Ghost or Monster Story. The light novels these are based on are quite good; if you are a fan of them, this DVD/Story Arc is the 11th book in the series.