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Something to Watch: DVDs

Movies lead off with Captain America: The Winter Soldier which is the second movie in its franchise, and it is even better than The First Avenger. In fact, Marvel movies as a whole just seem to be getting better and better. Their TV offering is doing nicely too, and we get Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Complete First Season this week. Which is appropriate, since the new season starts on September 23rd.

Also in TV, The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Fifth Season and Supernatural: The Complete Ninth Season are both out from the CW. I generally only mention series, but for those who like to collect their TV one episode at a time, be aware that Doctor Who: Deep Breath is out this week as well. Interestingly enough, they had to cut out the same sex kiss from the episode before it could air in Asia.

Sadly, there is no genre Anime this week,, just the slice-of-life drama/comedies Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father! and Tamako Market: Complete Collection.

Something to Watch: DVDs

In movies we have R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?, which appears to be a direct-to-DVD release. R. L. Stein has written a lot of fun books, so they stated with a quality property to convert into a movie. Although none of the movies are new I also have to mention the Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection with films like Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Wolf Man, The Mummy, Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Phantom of the Opera. They are also breaking them out into sub-collections, so if you just want all of the classic Dracula movies, as an example, you can have them. If your in the mood for some martial arts, 14 Blades stars Donnie Yen as a member of the Ming Dynasty secret police. It has won a number of awards at Asian film festivals, mostly Best Actress for Zhao Wei. If her name sounds familiar, her last pile of awards was for her work in Mulan in 2009.

In TV we get The Originals: Season 1, the spin off from the Vampire Diaries. The CW has definitely been giving Sci-Fi and Fantasy shows a chance, I am particularly a fan of Arrow.

In Anime, Gatchaman Crowds: Complete Collection is about a quite little city that doesn’t notice that it is at war with alien criminals trying to conquer and destroy. They are being protected from the attacks by random citizens wearing super suits that give them amazing powers, and a surprising number of them are high school students. On the other hand, in Blood Lad its no secret that Vampires, Werewolves, zombies, and the Abominable Snowman are all battling for the tittle of Boss. Except for one vampire who watches anime, plays video games, and wants to go to the Human World.

In Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya is a magical girl story about a runaway wand who chooses a new human to wield it. Her previous human is none too happy about it, and is out to get the wand back. Hal – The Movie is about a girl who withdraws from the world when her boyfriend dies. To pull her back into it a scientist makes a robotic copy of him, complete with emotions. This one is different, and a bit emotional itself. I should also mention that Baka and Test seasons 1 and 2 are each being released in a S.A.V.E. edition, so you should be able to pick them up for around $20 a season.

Something to Watch: DVDs

In Movies, the animated Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return has an amazing voice cast, if the animation and story were crafted with as much care it just might be a winner. While not exactly genre, Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlaas is a historical epic, taking place in the 16th century as a man tries to get justice for the illegal acts of a nobleman. Finally, Aftermath is 9 people trapped in a basement as the world is turned into a radioactive wasteland, and it will not be coming home with me.

In TV, Haven: The Complete Fourth Season continues the excellent and strange TV show based on Steven King’s Colorado Kid. Elementary: Season 2 brings more Sherlock Holmes goodness from this side of the Atlantic. From the other side we get the UK interpretation of The Musketeers, in which the new Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi, plays the evil Cardinal Richelieu. Remember the 1999 show Now & Again? In episode one our protagonist is killed by being hit by a train, and wakes up to discover the government has installed his brain in a perfect artificial body. Their goal is to make him a black ops super spy that no-one knows exists; his goal is to return to his wife and daughter, whom he dearly loves. After all this time they are finally releasing its single season to disc. I thought it showed a lot of promise, they should have given it a second season. The Walking Dead releases season 4 this week as well.

In Anime Heaven’s Lost Property Forte was the name they gave season 2, and it is coming out in an Anime Classics edition, meaning you can now pick it up for around $25. I haven’t been able to decide if Watamote is genre because it is fantasy, or just delusional because the protagonist is living in her own little fantasy world. But since she is both a Hikkikomori and an Otaku, I guess that makes her officially part of the genre landscape, and therefore in need of a mention here. It is actually quite an amusing twisted little anime series, in the same way that Welcome To The NHK is, and worth checking out.

Something to Watch: DVDs

In Movies The Amazing Spider-Man 2 continues this franchises high quality reboot, and the aspect they bring from the comic much better than the original set of films did is the humor. They got the wisecracking that Spider-Man used when taunting the villains down right; it was a major part of his fighting style, used to distract his foes and make them careless with anger. The vampire rocker romance drama Only Lovers Left Alive also makes it onto disc, after a sadly limited run in the theaters. This one deserved a lot more attention than it got.

In TV, Once Upon a Time: The Complete 3rd Season continues to explore everything it means to be characters in a fairy tale. In the new season, which starts September 28th, they are going to include Elsa and Kristoff from Frozen, and you get just a teaser of her in season 3. Revolution: The Complete 2nd Season also hits the shelves this week.

In western Animation Toy Story of Terror! seems to have taken a leaf from the Simpsons with a made-for-TV holiday special. By the way, how many people recognized Totoro in the Toy Story 2 film?

In Anime, A Certain Scientific Railgun S – Part Two has the bad guys cloning the level 5 telekinetic Misaka and then killing her off, over and over. Misaka is not happy about this, and is out to bring them down, any way she can.

This Week’s Wil Wheaton/John Barrowman adventure

I enjoy the hell out of the The Wil Wheaton Project, and this week I think he has outdone himself. John Barrowman joins Wil to get dressed up in Steampunk style and go party down the town. Lots of Arrow comments and Dr Who references, but what really makes the show special is the level of comedy Wil and his guests bring to the party, and John brings a lot. Trust me when I say everyone who loves both Sci-Fi and Comedy needs to see this show each and every week.

Science Channel: Man vs. The Universe

Starting this evening the Science Channel is running a 3 part special about an aspect of the new race for space, with topics that include mining the Moon, colonizing Mars, and protecting Earth from low flying rocks like the one that wiped out the Dinosaurs. This isn’t science fiction or wishful thinking; these are engineers and scientists working for companies who have a business plan that they expect is going to make them a lot of money by utilizing resources previously inaccessible.

I contributed to a Kickstarter project called ARKYD who’s goal started with building a flock of orbital cameras to spot incoming meteors and asteroids. They have launched a bunch of them already with more in the pipe, and they are starting to map orbits using the Asteroid Zoo app and site. Step two is to do launches, both manned and robotic, to capture and change the orbits of the ones that come close enough so we can mine them for resources such as metals and volatiles (fuel and food). The ones coming too close and posing a danger to Earth? You just use that same capture and change orbits process to make sure they do us no harm, mining them for whatever they have to offer in the process. I suspect the third special might be about them.