With no top tier theatrical DVD releases this week, it’s once again time to shine the light on the “Direct-to-DVD” category where the anime anthology film Halo Legends debuts, and to the “Anime Category” itself where two series bow on Blu-ray and a popular anime feature film levels some heavy social criticism at Japanese society.

 

 

Direct to DVD

 

Unlikely as it may seem the hugely popular first person shooter game Halo has a rather elaborate science fiction backstory that is explicated rather fully in Halo Legends (Warner Home Video, “PG-13,” $19.98, 2-Disc Special Ed. $29.98, BD $34.98), an anthology of Halo-themed animated short films produced by top anime studios including Production I.G., Bones, Studio 4*C, and Toei Animation.  The animation styles differ wildly, but that is one of the joys of this Animatrix-like project.  There are flat-out action segments such as “The Package” that should appeal directly to the “thumb jockeys” who have made the game such a hit, and there are segments like Hiroshi Yamazaki’s “The Duel,” which transposes elements of Japan’s samurai culture to a Covenant planet where the age-old battle between loyalty and integrity is played out in breathtakingly beautiful soft-edge, impressionistic hand-drawn animation that will surprise and delight anyone interested in the art form.  For a more complete review, see “Halo Legends Review.”

 

The Halo video game is ESRB rated “Mature 17+,” while Halo Legends carries the lower PG-13 rating largely because of violence (and some mild language).  Of course plenty of kids under 17 play the Halo game, which doesn’t (at least in the mind of this reviewer) deserve the same rating as Grand Theft Auto, so Halo Legends’ rating is a likely a truer reflection of who is actually playing the game.  With the exception of the lighthearted Dragon Ball Z parody segment “Odd One Out,” the stories in Halo Legends are suffused as much with melancholy and loss as they are with exuberance and victory, so it’s probably a very good thing that players of the Halo video game balance their play with a viewing of something that reminds them in a very entertaining way of the often painful physical and mental costs of combat.

 

Anime

 

This is a major week for anime releases.  Funimation is releasing two series, Claymore and Heroic Age on Blu-ray.  Claymore Complete Series (Rated “TV MA,” 620 min. $79.98) features all 26 episodes of Madhouse’s adaptation of Norihiro Yagi dark fantasy manga (published here by Viz Media).  Set in a world where humans are preyed upon by sentient monsters known as Yoma, Claymore is the story of the eponymous heroes, half-human half-yoma warriors who dispatch the yoma with giant “claymore” swords.  The Claymore anime looks fantastic in Blu-ray and comes with a deluxe 48-page book filled with character style sheets, interviews with creators, and full color art.

 

Xebec’s Heroic Age (Funimation, “TV PG,” 635 min., $79.98) also looks great in the hi-def Blu-ray process.  Set in the far-flung future but inspired by Greek mythology, Heroic Age makes for some interesting comparisons with other contemporary co-options of the Greco-Roman pantheon in works like the Percy Jackson series.  The “Labors of Hercules” provide the primary mythic parallel in the Heroic Age series.  Though the boy known as “Age” bears precious little resemblance to Steve Reeves, he nevertheless manages in his own way to match the heroic feats of powerful demigod Hercules.

 

Also due out from Funimation this week is Case Closed Movie #6: The Phantom of Baker Street (“PG 13,” 110 min. $19.98).  One of the most popular anime series in Japan, Detective Conan has never really caught on here in spite of compelling mysteries and a cast of equally compelling continuing characters.  This full length anime feature finds the diminutive detective trapped in a virtual reality game pod that sends him back to era of his namesake Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and serial killer Jack the Ripper.  Interestingly Japanese society comes in for plenty of criticism.  Japanese education is portrayed as “anti-individualist,” Japanese politicians are lambasted for taking payoffs from big corporations, and the film even posits a “caste” system in which sons of the privileged are groomed to take key positions in society that are closed to those from humbler origins.  It’s hard to imagine American institutions taking such a barrage of criticism in an animated film—and as usually the case with Detective Conan there’s a solid mystery with plenty of clues and more than a few well-animated action sequences. 

 

Also due out this week is the next box set of anime based on Tite Kubo’s Bleach manga, Bleach Box Set 4 Part 2 (Viz Media, 350 min., $49.95).  The Bleach anime series still gets prime exposure on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.  Another multi-disc release out this week is To Love Ru Collection 2 (Sentai Entertainment, 325 min. $39.98), the final 13 episodes of the sci-fi harem comedy based on a manga illustrated by Black Cat’s Kentaro Yabuki.

 

There are a couple of good bargain-priced releases due out this week.  Viz Media is releasing Naruto Uncut Season 2 Box Set #1 (“PG 13,” 650 min., $39.98), a 6-disc collection of the original Naruto series at roughly half the per-episode cost of the original 3-disc uncut sets.  Another good deal is the Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box 2 (Funimation, 1000 min., $59.98).  The Dragon Box version of DBZ is a quality re-mastering of the original 1990s anime series and is superior in quality to the previously released DBZ Season Sets.   Though some fans may miss the score that Funimation added to the original English dub (the Dragon Box features the original Japanese score), this is the definitive version of the Toei classic.

 

Theatrical Films

 

There’s not a lot shaking in this category this week.  Coco Before Chanel ( Sony, PG-13, $28.96, BD $34.95) features a scintillating performance by the always radiant Audrey Tautou, in a stately film, while writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez’s Women in Trouble (Screen Media, Rated “R,” $24.98, BD $29.98) takes more chances with a genre-bending, multi-layered film, which has a fine cast, but can’t quite overcome its subpar indie production values.

 

TV on DVD

 

It’s not a huge week for TV on DVD release but there are some interesting offerings including Barnaby Jones: The Complete First Season (Paramount, 662 min. $39.98), which collects the first 13 episodes of the detective series that debuted on CBS in 1973 and featured the homespun charm of Buddy Ebsen as a retired private eye who returns to the business after his son is murdered.  With his fully equipped crime lab Jones was unique among the TV detectives of his era and foreshadowed the current TV obsession with forensics.

 

Branded (Time Life, 1144 min., $69.98) is an even more obscure series, though fans of the half-hour western might want to give it a chance.  Starring Chuck (The Rifleman) Connors, Branded ran for just one TV season (1965-1966) with the ex L.A. Dodgers first baseman playing a disgraced cavalry officer who was falsely branded as a traitor after he was the only survivor of an Apache massacre.

 

Lark Rise to Candleford: The Complete Season 2 (BBC/Warner Home Video, 529 min. $59.98) leads this week’s U.K. contingent.  Those who enjoyed the BBC’s superlative Cranford series should also relish these heartwarming tales based on the novels of Flora Thompson.  Set in the late 19th Century in the small Oxfordshire village of Lark Rise and in the neighboring market town of Candleford, this charming series began airing on some PBS stations last spring.  Also not to be missed is Kingdom: Series 3 (BFS, 281 min., $39.98), the third and final season of the ITV series that featured Stephen Fry as a warm-hearted solicitor who represents a variety of eccentric characters in the small Norfolk town of Market Shipborough.

 

A couple of interesting series are making their TV on DVD debuts, the ABC Family back-to-the-hood saga Lincoln Heights and the 1980s syndicated science fiction comedy Small Wonder.  Russell Hornsby plays a dedicated L.A. Cop who moves his family into a tough inner-city neighborhood in Lincoln Heights: Season One (Shout Factory, 570 min. $34.97).  Also from Shout Factory is Small Wonder: Season 1 (540 min., $34.97), which includes the first 24 episodes of the syndicated series about a research scientist who developed a robot that looked exactly like a cute, 10-year-old girl.

 

Three single-disc TV animation releases are due this week including The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour: Bugs Bunny’s Easter Funnies (Warner Home Video, 50 min. $14.98), Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5-Season 1, Volume 1 (WHV, 132 min, $14.98), and an excellent stop-motion animated offering produced by Aardman Productions (Wallace & Gromit), Shaun the Sheep-Vol.5: Wooly Good Time (Hit Entertainment, 39 min., $14.98).

 

Also out this week are The Dog Whisperer: The Complete 4th Season (Gaiam, $39.98), the vintage Best of the Loretta Young Show: Seasons 3&4 (Timeless, 775 min. $29.98) and Cannon: Season 2, Volume 2 (Paramount, 606 min. $36.98) featuring William Conrad as the chunky 1970s private eye, who occasionally crossed over with fellow CBS shamus Barnaby Jones (see above).

 

Documentaries

 

Chris Rock’s Good Hair (Lionsgate, PG-13, $27.98) is a funny, informative, and sometimes sad documentary about the lengths to which some African Americans will go to straighten their hair and the industry that has grown up to serve the demand for “straight” hair.