Weekly New Releases – November 12, 2013

The number of titles has dropped this week, but there’s some great quality here. This week is also pretty heavy on the “complete series” boxes.

Akira: 25th Anniversary Edition
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray/DVD: US, CAN
  • DVD: US, CAN
Rightstuf
  • Blu-Ray/DVD: US
  • DVD: US
Comments Alex: Funimation rescued this movie from the ashes of Geneon USA’s demise, and now it has a new master. I have to admit, I’ve already pre-ordered this. I’ve also previously reviewed this, and this was in the Greatest Science Fiction Film Tournament. The list of bonus features on this edition can be found here.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season Six
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Comments Blaine: This Amazon-exclusive title is Manufactured on Demand, and was “released” on Friday, November 8. (Translation: it’s been available for preorder since September 27, but they wait to surpass a minimum threshold of orders before shipping. That threshold has been met or surpassed.) This is a great series, possible subject of a future podcast, and the second last season in the series. I hate having all but one season of a series in my DVD collection, so please, please support this title.
Best of Sesame Street Collection
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Comments Blaine: For some obscure meaning of “best,” anyway. There’s a lot of Elmo here.
Blackfish
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray: US, CAN
  • DVD: US, CAN
Body Bags
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray: US, CAN
Cagney and Lacey: The Complete Collection
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
City Lights (Criterion Collection)
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray/DVD: US, CAN
Comments Blaine: Charlie Chaplin was good, but I always preferred Buster Keaton. If you’re interested in this but haven’t seen Buster Keaton’s work, find it ASAP.
Combat!: The Complete Series
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Dexter: The Complete Final Season
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray: US, CAN
  • DVD: US, CAN
Dexter: The Complete Series
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray: US, CAN
  • DVD: US, CAN
  • Exclusive Gift Set Blu-Ray: US, CAN
Diagnosis: Murder: The Complete Collection
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Comments Blaine: My “collector” instinct is tearing me apart on this one. On one hand, I never watched the series due to general lack of interest. On the other hand, I’ve since learned it was a spinoff of Matlock, and it has the only appearances of the character I don’t actually own…
Family Ties: The Complete Series
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Frances Ha (Criterion Collection)
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray/DVD: US, CAN
Grizzly Adams: The Capture of Grizzly Adams
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Ip Man: The Final Fight
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
MADtv: Season Four
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Maken-Ki: Complete Series
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray/DVD Limited Edition: US, CAN
  • Blu-Ray/DVD: US, CAN
Rightstuf
  • Blu-Ray/DVD Limited Edition: US
  • Blu-Ray/DVD: US
Comments Blaine: Harem comedy. The limited edition comes with an artbox.
Man of Steel
Amazon
  • 3D Blu-Ray/Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Collector’s Edition with S symbol and acrylic stand: US, CAN
  • 3D Blu-Ray/Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital: US, CAN
  • Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital/Figurines: US, CAN
  • Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital: US, CAN
  • DVD/Digital: US, CAN
  • Digital with bonus features: US
  • Digital: US
Comments Blaine: I’ll be podcasting about this one on December 14.
The Mod Squad: The Complete Collection
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
My Mother The Car: The Complete Series
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Nakaimo – Complete Collection
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray: US, CAN
  • DVD: US, CAN
Rightstuf
  • Blu-Ray: US
  • DVD: US
Comments Blaine: Harem romantic comedy with squicky overtones.
Nosferatu: Deluxe Remastered Edition
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray: US, CAN
  • DVD: US, CAN
Comments Blaine: Kino excels at this type of release.
Power Rangers: Seasons 8-12
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Red 2
Amazon
  • Digital: US
iTunes
  • Digital: US, CAN
Comments Available in physical media on November 26.
Shoot the Sun Down: Director’s Cut
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray: US, CAN
  • DVD: US, CAN
Comments Another Kino release.
Stan Lee’s Superhumans: Season Two
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Thirteen Days
Amazon
  • Blu-Ray: US, CAN
Turbo
Amazon
  • 3D Blu-Ray/Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital: US, CAN
  • Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital/Pullback Racer: US, CAN
  • Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital: US, CAN
  • DVD/Pullback Racer: US, CAN
  • DVD: US, CAN
World’s Greatest Super Friends! Season 4
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Comments Blaine: Super Friends lasted 11 seasons, and this is the only one not previously released. I will never understand why they were released in the order they were.
Yumeria – Complete Collection
Amazon
  • DVD: US, CAN
Rightstuf
  • DVD: US
Comments Alex: Re-release of another harem romantic comedy. I suspect this is all counter-programming against Akira’s re-release.

Finally, the picks of the week. Alex says, “I’m going with the 25th Anniversary Edition of Akira.” Blaine says, “even though I haven’t completely made up my mind as to how I feel about the uneven Man of Steel, that’s still my pick.”

6 replies on “Weekly New Releases – November 12, 2013”

  1. Akira is my example of me just not getting Anime. When people say “Oh you never gave it a chance!” and “You need to watch GOOD Anime!” I trot out the Akira Story.

    Growing up, I hung out with a group of fellow-nerds. You know. We’d all play D&D and watch Monty Python movies and so forth. One day one of the guys brings out an Akira video casette and claims it’s the best thing ever made. So we watched it. None of us (except him) liked it and he goes “Well that’s cause we watched the English-dubbed version, here let me put the Japanese version on” so we sad through it AGAIN and, well… there, I watched the Best Anime Ever, twice, and I’m still not into it!

    • I give Akira a lot of credit for the technical side of the animation, but I didn’t care for it either. The story felt far too choppy. I later learned that it was choppy because it was compressing an immense source material into its runtime. This explains the problem, but doesn’t excuse it: the plot is still haphazard and poorly structured, because it was created more as a highlight real of the source material than as a complete story in and of itself. It should have been a series, not a film.

        • I’ve enjoyed every Miyazaki film I’ve seen, but the rest all left me unsatisfied for the most part. A couple of the Robotech and Macross movies were enjoyable, but they were meant as epilogues, not standalone products, so they skipped all of the character introduction stuff and spent the time on story. For someone like me who has already watched the series, that worked well.

        • Yeah. Most anime movies are based off of or related to shows or manga that are running in Japan, usually when the film comes out. Consequently, they’re assuming that the audience has access to the source material, which doesn’t always work. It kind of worked for the Cowboy Bebop movie, because that was written as a “Bounty of the week” story. It doesn’t work as well for “compilation movies”, which try to take 6 volumes of manga and turn them into a 2 hour movie (like what was done with Akira & X).

          Probably the only time I’d say the compilation thing actually worked was with the Gundam movies, because they turned the show into 3 movies instead of one, so the writers didn’t have to cut as much lean from the films. However, if I go into this further, I’ll probably end up undercutting the Akira podcast, so I’ll save my further thoughts for that. ;-)

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