Weekly Digital Disc Picks – March 10, 2009

Springtime release weeks tend to be pretty mixed, with the real gems coming from library titles or foreign films with recently changed distribution rights.

First, AceCaseOR’s picks:

  • Batman Anthology (Blu-Ray): The four live action Batman movies just before Nolan’s. That’s Tim Burton’s Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.
  • Berserk Complete: A re-release. Presumably the first pressing sold out – which is not surprising as the previous licensor was Central Part Manga/U.S. Manga Corps, which hasn’t released anything since 2007, not new releases and not re-releases. (Which is, in case you were wondering, why Record of Lodoss War is out of print.) The current release is being done by Anime Works. My prior review should still be applicable though, in terms of making a decision to buy it or not.
  • Darker Then Black Volume 3
  • Fullmetal Alchemist Season 2 Complete: Brick of the second season of the show.
  • Ip Man: Martial Arts bio-pic about Yip Man, the first person to teach the martial art of Wing Chun.
  • Kiba: Collection 2
  • Mazinkaizer & Shuten Doji: Double pack of two Go Nagai super-robot anime, titled Mazinkaizer and Shuten Doji respectively. This is a re-release of a show that’s in out of print for some time.
  • Megaman Collection 2: The rest of the US animated Megaman series.
  • Paniponi Dash: Comedy series about a Japanese high school class being taught by a 11 year old MIT graduate. Haven’t seen this, but the premise almost sounds like “Chiyo-chan graduates from college with an education degree because she wants to be just like Nyamo… but she’s still literally younger than every student in the classroom.” only less grounded in reality.
  • Romeo et Juliet: A Blu-Ray release of a performance of Charles Gounod’s opera version of “Romeo & Juliet” in Salzberg last year.
  • Rush: Snakes & Arrows Live (Blu-Ray): I managed to see them on this concert tour at the Clark County Ampitheater (this would be just outside Portland, OR) – awesome show… it helped that it was my first rock concert, but anyway.. this is my High-Def pick of the week. If you’ve got Blu-Ray get this. If you don’t, get Story of India. Fiziko’s comments: I saw this in the Edmonton, Alberta concert. It wasn’t my first rock concert by any means, and I also really enjoyed it. This is a rerelease; the first release came out in late November, 2008.
  • Speed Grapher Complete: Series about a guy whose camera blows things up. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the basics.
  • Stevie Wonder: Live at Last (Blu-Ray)
  • Story of India: Documentary by Michael Wood (In The Footsteps of Alexander the Great, In Search Of The Trojan War, The Conquestadors, etc.) on the history of India.
  • World’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi Season 1 Part 1: Shonen series in the vein of Hajime No Ippo about a kid who is bullied in school who learns martial arts to protect himself and build self confidence. Oh, and hopefully impress his instructor’s daughter.
  • WWE Presents Summerslam: The Complete Anthology, Volume 1 – 1988-1992 and Volume 2 – 1993-1997: Does what it says on the tin.

Then, Fiziko’s DVD picks:

Now, Fiziko’s Blu-Ray releases:

Finally, the picks of the week. AceCaseOR says, “The Story of India is my pick of the week. It’d be nice if they had it on Blu-Ray though, particularly since they shot it in high-def.” Fiziko says, “your best bet this week is to go for childhood nostalgia, be that Pinocchio, Gulliver’s Travels, or the Witch Mountain movies.”