Crunchyroll was the first streaming video service of any kind that impressed me enough that I got a paid subscription. In part, that was because I didn’t have to hand them money to watch any of the shows or join the online community, which made me feel welcome and included. In part it was because they have a huge library of programming available from a lot of sources, including not only Anime but also live action dramas and even music videos that never get played here, and I wanted to support that so it would continue to be available. In part it was to get the HD video quality, since the free version only comes in standard def. I do have to confess that while I told myself it was also so I could watch my favorite Anime shows an hour after the episode first aired in Tokyo, I only did that with six episodes of a single show just to feel that new-show thrill. I find I enjoy it more if I can watch 3 or so episodes back to back every several weeks, at a time of day that does not involve setting alarm clocks. When you watch enough different shows, this actually works out very nicely. If you are an Anime fan, you owe it to yourself to check out Crunchyroll, and if you like what you see you should at the minimum join the fan based community there.
Daisuki launches this month, a coalition of 6 Anime houses in Japan trying another way of making their product available around the world. Some of the shows they own are not available through existing streaming services, but many of them are, scattered across multiple providers. Part of the logic of launching this new service is they hope to gain subscribers because they will be a one-stop shop for their titles, so you don’t have to go different places to watch the different shows. At the same time, they have made it clear that they have no intention of pulling shows like Puella Magi Madoka Magica, One Piece, or Lupin the 3rd off of the various streaming services now carrying them. This already makes me appreciate their approach, and I look forward to checking them out once they launch. While I have not been able to find an exact launch date listed, sometime in late April is the announced target, so it shouldn’t be long now.
Rooster Teeth, the folks who brought us that masterpiece of combat comedy Red Vs. Blue, have a tasty new animation project: RWBY. The latest trailer is the top one, the Black trailer. After that are the earlier trailers, the White and Red. They haven’t released the Yellow trailer yet, but this will give you an idea of what the new series is up to. I find the style on these very interesting, almost like they recorded Machinima and then rotoscoped them into Anime. Which wouldn’t be a huge surprise, since Red Vs. Blue was some of the finest machinima ever made.
The winner this week is Tatsumi, based on Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s autobiographical manga, A Drifting Life. While Tatsumi idolized Osamu Tezuka, and met him in postwar occupied Japan as a young Manga artist/writer, he decided after a while that he didn’t want to just write stories for children. So in the 1950’s he invented Gekiga (dramatic pictures), a new adult oriented genre of graphic novels. Manga (irresponsible pictures) and Gekiga started influencing each other as time went on, with even Tezuka trying his hand at it by the 1980s. Of course here in the US everyone just calls both genres Manga, even though lots of people prefer Gekiga without knowing that’s what it is. Besides segments of Drifting Life, 5 of Tatsumi’s best stories are also brought to life in this feature length animation.
The classic Futureworld is being re-released on Blue Ray, just as Westworld was a while ago. 1997’s French/Italian film Virtual Weapon isn’t a classic, and it also isn’t getting the blue ray treatment, coming out in DVD format only, but at least it is getting released. The Dinosaur Project looks like a home made cross between Blair Witch and Jurassic Park, and won’t be coming home with me.
In TV Continuum: Season One is out Tuesday, and I find I haven’t quite made my mind up about it yet. I really enjoy watching it, I like the characters and the way they interact with each other, and it is good quality production. They don’t seem to be evolving the characters or advancing the story arc very fast at all, though there has been a lot of background and setup. I am hoping that the pace picks up soon, because they have a lot of potential that I would love to see realized. Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out was a TV special they did to run between episodes IV and V. I like Lego versions of films and movies, they are always fun to watch.
In anime, Phi-Brain: Puzzle of God is releasing season 1 collection 1, the first 13 episodes of the series. Kaito love to solve puzzles, but now he is trapped inside one with his friend and if he doesn’t solve it correctly they both die. If he does solve it, a hidden organization will just set more fiendish puzzle traps for him to resolve. This show is particularly fun if you enjoy solving puzzles, you can play against Kaito and see if you can beat him to the solution as you watch. You can also watch it on Crunchyroll if you want to see what it is like.
Amagami SS+ Complete Collection continues the story of Junichi’s evolving relationship with his girlfriend… in each of seven parallel universes. As with the first season, each girl and universe gets two contiguous episodes to explore how the relationship progresses. This is an interesting exploration of the way life changes as the result of our decisions, and I don’t think I could compare it to anything quite so much as the movie Sliding Doors; if you are a fan of one, you will love the other.
Shakugan no Shana season 3 comes out in two parts, each a box set, and continues the story of the near-dead human boy and the spirit warrior woman. But now they are on opposite sides in a massive spiritual battlefield, with the future of the whole world at stake. If you were wondering, you can also watch this one online over at the Funimation channel.
Finally, InuYasha the Movie: The Complete Collection puts all four of the feature length films from that series in a single Blue Ray box set, at a reasonable price. And yeah, that is another series you can watch online, this time over at Viz Anime.
Глюк’oZa has made some excellent animations to go with their high quality music, and I just thought I would share a few more of them with you today. I appreciate the Machinema 3D modeling they do for a bunch of them, while on others they use western animation styles, and still others are done Anime fashion. The fact I enjoy the hell out of her music doesn’t hurt any either.
OK, this one is just downright silly, but has the same cunning as Bernstein’s Peter And The Wolf. Tricking children into becoming music lovers by explaining to them what is going on, or by making sure they get to attend a presentation by a live orchestra. I don’t care which method is used, I enjoy the fact that Wallice and Gromit’s Musical Marvels is helping more and more young people understand and learn to appreciate music.