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Something to Watch: DVDs, 30Jul13

I somehow missed G.I. Joe: Retaliation when it was in the theaters, but I suspect I will watch it eventually. After all, it has both Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson, so it has to be a roller coaster of an action film. Something to watch for the mindless violence and special effects, in other words.

There seems to be some conflicting information about Time Trax: The Complete Second Season, which is listed as a new release on the Warner Archive site, and listed as coming out this week on Video ETA, but at the same time is listed as being In Stock at most of the sites where you can buy it. I have the feeling some of the confusion is generated by the fact that this is an On Demand release, meaning they do not actually burn it to DVD or Blue Ray until you order it. I like this approach a lot, since it means a lot of shows that would otherwise never get released because of low audience demand become available. The flip side of that coin is they are generally a bit pricier than they could be because they will never go on sale to clear out the stock. The other release worth noting this week is Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4 on Blue Ray. They have been doing quite a fine job of upgrading this series to 1080p, although I have to wonder how long it will be before they start working up the 3D version, then the 4K version…

In western animation this time we have Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, which brings into existence a very different alternate timeline to the DC universe.

Anime starts off with Another: Complete Collection, a story about a popular girl still hanging out at her school 23 years after her death, and the boy who can see her. He has to solve the mystery of her death before his own demise comes to claim him. Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie is the first two films they have put out, Beginnings and Eternal; the third film in the series, Rebellion, will be on the big screen soon. The problem from my perspective is these animations are being released as imported special editions, which makes them about 6 times more expensive than I consider the programming itself to be worth. So I will be waiting for something more realistic in the way of a release format before they are added to my collection.

I normally don’t mention re-releases, but there is a classic being made available for the first time in a while that is very worth watching. Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine takes you back to the beginning of the franchise, so you can see how it all began, and come to know the woman at the core of the stories. Hard to believe this animation is now 40 years old; while the character design is old school, the animation style is still quite fresh and holds its own to this day.

Something to Watch: DVDs, 23Jul13

The vampires in Kiss of the Damned don’t sparkle, but one of them does have a very dramatic love story which may effect their entire community. It is actually an interesting and intelligent tale that is a bit of a homage to the 60s and 70s vampire films. Starbuck is not being promoted as science fiction or fantasy, but I am pretty sure any movie about a man who has 533 children fits that bill. This comedy also appears to have a lot of heart, and when they do the English remake it looks like they got Vince Vaughn for the part. The English version will be out in the fall, but you can watch the original this week.

This weeks TV option is just silly: Duck Dodgers: Deep Space Duck Season 2. Any show that includes Marvin the Martian as a regular character is all right in my book.

In Anime we have Phi-Brain: Season 2 Collection 1, AKA Puzzle of God: The Orpheus Order. Yes, our protagonist defeated the Puzzle Of God by the end of the first season, but now a new crew has shown up with a grudge to work out, and a whole new series of deadly puzzles faces Kaito and his friends. Fairy Tail: Collection Two continues the story of the 4 person wizard guild that tends to do more damage to innocent bystanders and the surrounding area than they do to their opponents, so running away very, very fast is your best option when they show up to save you.

One Piece is rolling out the first half of season 5 this week, bringing the series up to episodes 264 through 275. That might sound impressive, but that season is from 1999, and Japan is up to episode 604 as of last week.

There are two releases in a Mecha franchise this week, 2005’s OVA Super Robot Wars Original Generation, and 2006’s DVD TV series Super Robot Wars OG: Divine Wars. They were loose sequels of the 1999 anime Masō Kishin Cybuster, which was itself a loose interpretation of a huge series of games that can trace its lineage all the way back to 1991’s Super Robot Wars for the Nintendo Gameboy. They very rapidly expanded the game to run on pretty much every current platform available, and then kept releasing updates and new versions across an ever expanding set of platforms incorporating more and newer Mechas, battlegrounds, and scenarios. One of the really smart twists to the game was the fact that they had a huge range of character Mechas because they weren’t too fussy about where a bot came from and signed licensing agreements with a bunch of different franchises. This crossover universe arraignment meant that you could fight a battle with a Mazinger Z, a Getter Robo and a Mobile Suit Gundam on one side, and a Evangelion or Rah Xephon Mecha on the other, pretty exciting stuff. It also meant that the legal agreements ran into so many issues once you tried to cross national borders and keep them in compliance with all of a given companies other licensing agreements that only 3 of the games were ever released outside of Japan, and then only on a limited number of platforms. So this anime series is a rare glimpse into that whole shared universe of battling Giant Robots that those of us here in the west never really got to experience.

On a related note, the Robotech: 2-Movie Collection includes the titles The Shadow Chronicles and Love Live Alive, one of which they claim has never been released. I have also seen reviews saying they took some footage out of an exiting Robotech property and added 15 minutes of new footage to it; since I have not seen it yet, I have no clue which claim is real and so can’t speak to whether this one is worth adding. Finally, I should mention that the first 5 seasons of Case Closed are being released as [S.A.V.E], or Super Amazing Value Editions, which allow you to pick up entire seasons for around $20. In fact you should just check out the whole list, there are a bunch of series you can pick up that way.

Comic Con Is Real!

And going on now; check The Schedule to get a glimpse of what all is going on, check Comic Con‘s very own web site for all the amazing details, and check any one of the hundred’s of sites webcasting from there for all kinds of coverage. Sadly, that no longer includes G4TV, because it no longer exists; it is in the process of being converted to a soft porn channel owned by a soft porn magazine.

Something to Watch: DVD’s, 16Jul13

Not a great week for movies, with the remake of Evil Dead being about the only new film out there. And without Bruce, I just don’t see the point. We do better in TV, with Alphas: Season Two continuing the story for our team of special powered investigators. Unfortunately Syfy cancelled it, so it didn’t get a season 3, which means this is it for this series. Also this week the excellent BBC America original series Orphan Black: Season One hits the shelves. If you haven’t seen this one yet put it on your must-watch list and join the Clone Club.

In anime, Naruto Shippūden rolls out box set 15, bringing us up to episodes 180 through 192. The latest episode to stream out of Japan is 320, so we have a ways to go to catch up yet, but you can watch them on either the Viz or Hulu web sites. There is a re-release I am excited about this week, in the form of Patlabor (The Mobile Police) TV Series; Collection 1. Giant Robots, sociopaths, madmen waving guns – these aren’t just the problems the Mobile Police have to deal with every day, these ARE the Mobile Police! is a truly apt description, even if it is part of the current ad copy. This wonderful series is directed by Mamoru Oshii, who later went on to do Ghost In The Shell and many other excellent cyberpunk anime stories.

More strange commercials

Japanese commercials look strange to western eyes mostly because we do not have the cultural context to appreciate them. While some of these look very like what you might find on TV over here, some are just bizarre looking. Enjoy.

Something to Watch: DVDs 9Jul13

The movie The Host was a surprisingly enjoyable story of alien invasion, sort of Heinlein’s Puppet Masters redone as a fem-centric YA story with an ending based on collaboration rather than conquest. Which makes sense, since it is also a romance, but much better done than the authors other movie series with all the sparkly vampires.

In TV we have season 4 of Warehouse 13, a fun little series full of artifacts with strange powers. Too bad Eureka isn’t still around to go with it, I loved the crossover episodes they did.

In Anime, Blue Exorcist: Complete 1st Season is the ultimate in inter-generational infighting; Th son is becoming a world-class exorcist going after demons. The father is Satan, infiltrating his minions into the world of humans. Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack! is more scientific, with mechanically augmented sea creatures attacking the land dwellers. Our protagonist leaves Okinawa and heads to Tokyo to see if her boyfriend is OK, only to discover the city overrun by the mechanized monsters.