Welcome To The Space Show

Label:

MangaUK

Certificate:

PG

Format:

Blu-Ray & DVD

Discs:

2

Running time:

135 mins approx

Subtitles:

English

Sound:

English, Japanese

Release date:

2nd July 2012

RRP:

DVD £24.99

Actual Price:

£15ish - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

Five young school friends set to spend a week together at summer camp avoiding the hassles of parental supervision unexpectedly find themselves on a truly out-of-this-world adventure when their class rabbit goes missing. Searching for their pet, the kids find and rescue what they believe to be an injured dog. As it turns out, the creature is actually a stranded alien named Pochi, who rewards their kindness with the offer of a trip to the moon! However, this simple sightseeing excursion to view the lunar landscape up close spins out of control and leads to a thrilling chase across the galaxy, with the five friends and their extra-terrestrial companion on the run from evil aliens intent on ruling the universe.

Comments:

We at SFL love Welcome to the space show, in fact we loved it so much that as soon as we could talk the powers that be into lending us a copy we had to put it into to one of last year's anime all-nighters, hop skipping and jumping all the way. And we’re not the only ones that love it as it's been wowing audiences at other festivals all over the country as well. Yes, we're admitting it, there are other festivals out there. We're all big enough boys and girls here at SFL to admit that the are other festivals out there... but they're just not as good as us is all. Anyway, welcome to the space show has a lot about it to be impressed with. The visuals are fantastic ad maybe just a tiny bit mind bending, the characters are adorable the audio experience is, pardon the pun "out of this world" and on the whole it’s just an wonderfully inventive and delightfully charming package from beginning to end for both kids and big kids alike.

Visually it's kind of like a merging of the cyberspace sections of Summer Wars and the most fantastical parts of the likes of Ponyo and Spirited Away. Actually it’s not just the visuals that are somewhat familiar as it looks, sounds and damn near smells quite like something that would comes from ooooh, say, Miyazaki himself. It’s almost like that's exactly what they were aiming for from the start. Just saying'.

 If I had to find a bad point (and I do, it’s in my contract) is that at two and a quarter hours long it could have done with a bit of tightening up at times. A more ruthless Director/Editor combo could easily have to brought the runtime down by at least a half hour and still not have lost anything whilst making it easier for kids - and some adults – to have an easier time digesting it all in a single sitting. Also, there are a few sequences where - even if watching the Dub version - unless you have the subtitles turned on you'll miss what's going on. As such, a second subtitle layer just for the signs and background action would have been a handy addition. Plus, even though the kids are obviously from Japan, the subtitles are localised very much for an American audience.

On the whole though, it’s a fabulous movie, a real visual treat and the very much worth getting on Blu-ray over DVD.

Extras:

Framed storyboard sequence, trailer

Welcome To The Space Show will be available from most high streets and online retailers from 2nd July 2012. There will also be a DVD only version out the same day for a couple of quid cheaper.

 

Bleach The Movie 3 – Fade to Black

Label:

MangaUK

Certificate:

12

Format:

Blu-ray

Discs:

1

Running time:

90 mins approx

Subtitles:

English

Video:

Widescreen

Sound:

English, Japanese

Release date:

28th May 2012

RRP:

$24.99

Actual Price:

£18ish - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

A mysterious entity has attacked Soul Society, enveloping large parts of the city and leaving confusion and destruction in it's wake. Heading from the World of the living to Soul Society to investigate what might be a connected disturbance, Ichigo finds that not only have the denizens of Seireitei have lost all memory of who he is, but they've also lost all memory and trace of fellow Soul Reaper Rukia. So now apart from having to fight his way through former friends and allies who are now hostile to his presence in Soul Society, he also has to discover what's become of his friend and bring her back to before she's lost to them all forever.

Comments:

While the team behind the Bleach movies may have got off to a bit of a rocky start with the first movie, Memories of Nobody, and then recovered admirably with the second, >I>Diamond Dust Rebellion, they're really hitting their stride with this third theatrical outing, Fade to Black. The action and scripting is tight, the animation of good quality (though not quite as good as the second movie) and where it really excels is in the spectacular "wow" moments it pulls from its bag of tricks. It helps also that everyone involved, from the writing team to the animators to the voice actors - Japanese and American - are all now so well practiced that the whole thing comes off with hardly a hitch.

Much as I do love to dig at Memories of Nobody, we really do have a soft spot for the Bleach movies here at SFL, which is why we've been adding them to our Anime All-nighters for as long as we can remember. In-fact, as long as we can keep talking MangaUK into letting us have them then well carry on for as long as we can. Maybe when there's a couple more available we'll even do an entire all-nighter of them if there's enough interest!

Bleach The Movie 3 – Fade to Black is available now from most high streets and online retailers on both Blu-ray and DVD.

 

Bleach: The Movie 2 – The Diamond Dust Rebellion

Label:

MangaUK

Certificate:

12

Format:

Blu-ray

Discs:

1

Running time:

89 mins approx + extras

Subtitles:

English

Video:

16.9 anamorphic

Sound:

English, Japanese

Release date:

28th May 2012

RRP:

£24.99

Actual Price:

£15ish - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

Squad 10 have been tasked with protecting a top secret convoy which is transporting a valuble and powerful artifact known as “The King’s Seal” through the Spirit World, but when it’s stolen from right under their collective noses, Toshiro Hitsugaya, Captain of Squad 10 breaks protocol to pursue the culprit alone. When the head of the 13 Squadrons learns not only of the theft but also how the Captain Hitsugaya has abandoned his post, suspicions arise and the entire 10th squadron is confined whilst every other Shinigami available is sent out to capture the mastermind and to bring the rogue Captain in for questioning about his part in the theft.

The Head of the 13 squadrons suspicions are partially correct as there is a connection between Hitsuguya and the masked and cloaked figure behind the theft, just not in the way that is suspected and it’s now up to Ichigo Kurosaki – along with Rukia and Renji – to uncover the truth and return the King’s Seal before the pursuing Shinigami catch up to Captain Hitsuguya … and execute him.

Comments:

Unlike the first Bleach Movie – Bleach: Memories of Nobody – which to be brutally honest was little more than a glorified filler episode from the TV series dragged out to feature length, this second big screen outing for the franchise has a lot of what it’s predecessor lacked; namely a decent plot, some character development and best of all, some actual time and cash spent on it.

Bleach: Memories of Nobody tried to give almost every single Bleach character – and boy there’s plenty - some screen time and at least one line but ultimately ended up losing focus and spreading itself way too thinly. In this case they’ve chosen a single established character – the ever-popular Captain of the tenth squad - to “co-star” with Ichigo and have actually given him some character development and an decent sized portion of back story for the fans to chew on. And this is a show “for the fans” as there’s no time wasted on setting the scene and introducing characters, instead it hits the ground running and if you’re not up to speed with it then it’ll leave you behind.

The extra time and budget over the first film show through making this arguably the strongest of the three current Bleach movies. While the first Bleach movie felt like an elongated filler episode, the third Bleach movie - Bleach: Fade to Black - went more for showing off both some flashy visuals and well-crafted action sequences. While this movie does spend quite a bit of money on it’s visuals – the backgrounds especially owing more to a Ghibli movie than to the Bleach TV series – it doesn’t let them overtake proceedings and spends a healthy chunk of it’s runtime exploring both Hitsuguya and Ichigo and it’s ultimately the similarities between the two that Ichigo discovers that clues him in on how to help the rogue captain and save the day. Though, let’s face it, there was never any real doubt that he wouldn’t.

Musically this outing’s very impressive with mostly new rock and j-pop compositions. They’ve done their best to make it sounds different from the TV show but it seems the urge to include the occasional piece such as Ichigo’s power up music was just too strong to resist

Many of the voice actors for the Dub version have benefited greatly from their God-only-knows-how-many years of performing these characters and they handle their roles with the grace and ease of a heartfelt reunion with old and much loved friends Others however still sound stiff and stilted even after all these years and give the impression that they’re reading their lines off of cue cards, often phonetically. It’s also painfully obvious that a number of the Dub cast have been pulled in to perform two or more characters, most likely a cost cutting exercises on the part of US Distributors Viz Media, and while this isn’t to say that the same doesn’t happen with the original Japanese cast - as it does - it’s just that they’re much better at hiding it.

And speaking of the two voice casts, while Captain Hitsuguya’s voice actors are excellent in either language, it’s his Japanese Seiyuu Romi Paku that really takes the crown with her performance showing that broody, scrappy, bad tempered teenage lads with height complexes (did I mention she’s also Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist) are really her forte.

And onto the Dub/Sub scripts, which are, as is often the case with Bleach, two completely different animals. As usual the dub script is more about the machismo and the shouting and the power of friendship and all that and that’s cool. The Sub script on the other hand is more the Bushido and the doing what’s right by Honour and Duty, and that’s cool too. Both work well depending on what you’re looking for but it’s really worth watching both to get the full Bleach picture.

Extras:

Theres an impressive number of extras to be found like several behind the scenes interviews with the crew; A production art gallery; Trailers and the original Japanese promos.

Bleach: The Movie 2 – The Diamond Dust Rebellion is available now on Blu-ray from most high-street and online retailers.

 

Bleach: The Movie – Memories Of Nobody

Label:

MangaUK

Certificate:

12

Format:

Blu-ray

Discs:

1

Running time:

97 mins approx + extras

Subtitles:

English

Video:

16.9 anamorphic

Sound:

English, Japanese

Release date:

28th May 2012

RRP:

£24.99

Actual Price:

£15ish - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

The first ever big screen outing for the phenomenally successful anime series finds Soul Reaper Ichigo and his friends having to contend with a sudden outbreak of unidentifiable spirits called "blanks" while in the skies of the Soul Society, the real world has suddenly been reflected. Meanwhile a mysterious female shinigami named Senna has appeared before Ichigo along with a man named Ganryu, leading a group called the "Dark Ones".

Bleach: The Movie - Memories of Nobody is available now on Blu-ray from most high-street and online retailers.

 

Roujin Z

Label:

MangaUK

Certificate:

15

Format:

Blu-ray

Discs:

1

Running time:

80 mins approx

Subtitles:

English

Video:

1.78:1

Sound:

English 5.1, Japanese 2.0

Release date:

11th June 2012

RRP:

£24.99

Actual Price:

£15ish - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

Japan has a major problem on its hands. Ever increasing life expectancy coupled with a declining birth rate means that the average age of its population is increasing dramatically. Pretty soon the elderly will outnumber the young meaning that there just won't be enough care to go around. But luckily science has the answer. It's called the Z-001, a nuclear powered, microprocessor controlled all-in-one healthcare solution for the elderly and infirm. From nourishment to medication, exercise to entertainment, the Z-001 does it all. Human testing of the prototype model with a single elderly widower is going swimmingly until the Z-001 decides it has other plans for it's patient and absconds with him out onto the city streets leaving the Government, the scientists and his nurse to retrieve him safely before the city goes into nuclear meltdown.

Comments:

Until the review disc for this "classic" 1991 anime movie - brought to us by the dream team of Hiroyuki Blood: The Last Vampire Kitakubo, Katsuhiro Akira, Steamboy Otomo and Satoshi Paprika, Tokyo Godfather" Kon - popped though my door I'd totally forgotten it even existed. Reading the official spiel that came with it I was flabbergasted (I will one day figure out what a "flabber" is and in what manner it can be infused with said "gast") that my, admittedly not as good as it used to be, memory could have temporally overlooked this lost treasure of animated goodness, what with it's glowing accolades from the likes of Wired Magazine and Roger Ebert, "Well" thought I, "if even notorious curmudgeon Ebert liked it then it must be pretty good" so into the Blu-Ray player it went...

Now, there's a popular saying about hype that I think we're all pretty familiar with by now... mainly that you shouldn't always believe it and this film - much as I'd really like to say otherwise - just doesn't live up to it. I'm not saying it’s a bad film and there's nothing inherently wrong with it... it's just not a great film. Unfortunately it suffers badly from being both over-hyped and having to live up to the greatness of it's creator's other - better-known and more accomplished - children and in both instances ends up coming across as somewhat under-whelming because of it. Plus, as an added smack in the chops it really hasn't aged well either with the animation and designs looking very dated, both the voice acting & music sounding even more dated and the pacing slow to the point of glacial even by early 90's standards. Also, there's supposed to be some kind of cutting satire about Japan's real-world problem with an increasingly aged population, but to be honest it's a concept this movie not so much as "explores" but rather tentatively pokes with a stick before abandoning the idea and moving on.

I wanted to like it, I really did, but throughout the whole thing my eyes just kept sliding over to the DVD rack with it's copy of the far superior Memories - a later collaboration between Otomo and Kon - and I just couldn't help give a little sigh much like a tired husband looking from his homely wife to her much hotter younger sister.

Extras:

None, none and...err, none.

Roujin Z available now from most high streets and online retailers. A DVD version is also available.