American Transformers fans get their first chance to check out the 1988-1989 Transformers anime series produced by Toei on Tuesday, one of relatively few bright spots in a lackluster week of releases, that does however also include a second season of Covert Affairs, bargain-priced seasons of J.J. Abrams’ Felicity, and the return of some classic Dirty Pair anime movies from the 1980s.

 

 

The top animated release this week is Transformers: Chojin Master Force—The Japanese Collection (Shout Factory, 930 min, $29.93), and like last week’s Marvel Anime releases, this set could go in either the TV on DVD or Anime categories.  This 42-episode series was produced by Toei in 1988 for the Japanese market and never available (legally at least) in the U.S. until the release of this set, which is a definite “must have” for Transformers fans.

 

Also available this week is the single-disc collection, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show—Happiness Is Peanuts: Team Snoopy (Warner Bros., 90 min., $14.97), a baseball themed collection of four episodes.

 

The top live-action release is Covert Affairs: Season 2 (Universal, $39.98), which includes all 16 episodes from the second season of the USA Network espionage drama series starring Piper Perabo and Christopher Gorham.  Also due this week is Suits: Season 1 (Universal, $44.98), which collects another USA series, a legal show that features Gabriel Macht and Patrick Adams.

 

J.J. Abrams’ fans will be interested in the low-priced release of Felicity: Season 1 (Lionsgate, 901 min., $19.98) and Felicity: Season 2 (Lionsgate, 986 min., $19.98), while others might be looking forward to the release of the improvised comedy series 10 Items or Less: The Complete Third Season (Sony, 174 min., $30.99), and some might even be intrigued by a series that was cancelled after just one episode in 2006, Emily’s Reasons Why Not (Sony, 124 min., $30.99).

 

Vintage series due this week include the 1970s cop series Kojak: Season 4 (Shout Factory, 1,200 min., $44.99), The Dick Van Dyke Show: Carl Reiner’s Favorites (Image Entertainment, 480 min., $24.98), which includes 20 of the series’ very best installments, The Virginian: The Complete Sixth Season (Timeless Media, 1950 min., $79.98), and Wagon Train: The Complete Fifth Season (Timeless Media, 1,850 min., $79.98).

 

Mention should also be made of Who Do You Think You Are?: Season 2 (Acorn Media, 335 min., $39.99), a U.K. series in which celebrities trace their genealogic records. Season 2 focuses on the genealogical past of Vanessa Williams, Tim McGraw, Kim Cattrall, Lionel Richie, Steve Buchemi, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd.

 

Also due this week is the classic U.K. miniseries based on Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of Substance Trilogy (Acorn Media, 300 min., $39.99), which collects the classic 1984 mini-series starring Deborah Kerr, Liam Neeson, Miranda Richardson, and Barry Bostwick.

 

 

There is a very light slate of anime releases this week led by Psychic Squad Collection I (Sentai Filmworks, "14+," 325 min. $49.98), which includes the first 13 episodes of the 51-episode action-packed harem comedy series based on Takashi Shiina’s Zettai Karen Children manga.  The Zettai Karen Children TV anime was produced by SynergySP and aired in Japan from 2008-2009.

 

Fans of classic old school anime could hardly do better than the Dirty Pair: Features Collection (Right Stuf, "16+," 190 min., $29.99), which contains a triple feature of 1980s anime sci-fi fun featuring the comely space cops Kei and Yuri including Project Eden, Affair of Nolandia, and Flight 005 Conspiracy.  The disc includes two English audio options, the ADV Films dub, and the original Streamline Pictures dub.

 

 

No big releases this week, though Gary Marshall’s by-the-numbers, multi-star, event day extravaganza New Year’s Eve (Warner Bros, "PG-13," $28.98, BD $35.99) could do all right on disc, though the public appears to be tiring of these multi-story, multi-character films. But whatever its faults, New Year’s Eve is less pretentious and more entertaining than Madonna’s W.E. (Weinstein Company, "R," $29.98, BD/Combo $39.98), an arty dual focus movie about a lonely New Yorker who is obsessed with Edward VII and Wallace Simpson.

 

Genre fans can choose between Haywire (Relativity, "R," $29.95, BD $39.99), a action-packed revenge saga that stars mixed-martial-arts fighter Gina Carano and the ubiquitous Michael Fassbender in a short-on-narrative, long on fight scenes saga directed by Steven Soderbergh, and The Innkeepers (Dark Sky Films, "R," $27.98, BD $34.98), a delightfully retro 1970s-style haunted house movie.

--Tom Flinn

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff of ICv2.