Noragami means something like Stray God in English, and the slacker stray god at the heart of this story doesn’t have a clue how to grow his worshiper base. Yato is a minor god without a single shrine and with no divine weapon, but he wants to make it big. Then he meets a girl named Hiyori who changes everything in and about his world. I like the music and the animation style in this one, and look forward to seeing many more episodes; hope those episodes get created!
The band METAFIVE reminds me of David Byrne and Talking Heads more than anyone else ever has. That seems kind of appropriate, since the band was formed around Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Takahashi Yukihiro early in 2014, as those of you who saw his interview earlier this year on J-Melo already know. Don’t think he is carrying the younger members of the band, though; it is a bit of a super-group, with 2 heavy hitter veteran musicians, a singer/songwriter who already had a long list of chart climbers under his belt, and one each famous producer and equally famous DJ. This track is the studio live version of their song Don’t Move, and it is quite impressive. It is also very different than the studio version that will be released on their new album Meta coming out this January 13th. My only regret about the album is I still haven’t heard any of the other 11 songs, unless the few tracks Takahashi played on that J-Melo episode were from it; even if they were, he played by himself, so I have no idea how they would sound with the whole band playing together. Guess I will have to wait until January 13th along with everyone else to find out.
The revolutionary 1953 Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood’s End will be hitting the small screen as a 3 episode miniseries. The first episode airs beginning on December 14th on Syfy, just before the premier of The Expanse, or you can stream it now from their web site. The peaceful alien invasion of Earth is followed by decades of apparent utopia under their rule, but most people fail to notice their goal is to change humanity forever.
Movies have Cooties this week, about grade school zombies and the teachers who are trying to escape them. This comedy/horror film had mixed critical reviews and low box office, but a lot of that was due to the fact that it only showed up on a handful of screens in the US. TV has The Flash: The Complete First Season w/Figurine for collectors, but the figurine isn’t wearing the red suit, it is wearing the yellow one. AMC is releasing Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1 and The Walking Dead: Season 5 Limited Edition this week as well.
Anime has Space Brothers: Collection 6, bringing home episodes 65 through 75, and bringing Mutta to his final tests; if he passes them, he will officially be an Astronaut. Fairy Tail: Part 18 brings still more magical collateral damage in episodes 200 through 212. I should also mention Mobile Suit Gundam: Collection 02, because even though it is a re-release of the original series, it is the first time it will be available in HD to North America.
At the Syfy channel web site you can stream The Expanse pilot episode right now, without having to wait for the series premier on the channel itself. Earth, Mars, and the Belt are on the ragged edge of war, with the prize up for grabs the vast resources of the Asteroid Belt. This one looks like it is going to be quite tasty, I am looking forward to the new series. It will begin its run on Syfy on December 14th.
When I watched the Mocking Jay Part 2 parody trailer the other day it cracked me up, so I dug around the site some more. In the process I found this fun Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron music video parody. I like this groups attitude and style, and hope they will keep creating these. The group I am referring to is Studio C, and hopefully they will keep cranking out these silly parodies.