Sarah’s Gift Guide For The Devoted Doctor Who Fan
Let's see what this season is bringing us: Torchwood season four is set to start taping next year. The season three finale of Sarah Jane Adventures just premiered. Doctor Who itself is about to switch from Tennant to Smith with the Christmas story "The End of Time". Add in the constant delicious flow of audios from Big Finish, and you can see why Whovians have reason to be excited this holiday season. So here's a guide to the top five toys, books and accessories for either yourself or the Doctor Who fan in your life, the one who sleeps in the same pajamas the Doctor wore in "The Christmas Invasion" and only eats bananas and chips and drives a car that proudly proclaims the driver's other vehicle is a TARDIS: this one is for them.
Manga Review: Slam Dunk Vol. 7: The End of the Basketball Team
Slam Dunk is Takehiko Inoue’s classic basketball manga, finally being re-released in Viz editions. The star of the story is young delinquent teen Hanamichi Sakuraga; he was a huge failure in love, and a member of teen gangs until he fell in love with Haruko Akagi, a first year student at Shohoku high school. He joins the basketball team to impress her (and her brother being the team captain means she’ll be around frequently), but his basketball spirit is starting to kindle…of course, they all still need a lot of work if they’re going to reach the finals! The series is a mix of strong characters, comedy, and a lot of dramatic basketball action.
Manga Review: This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, volume 1
Takeru and Ryou are seventeen year old boys who are best friends and have been for years, but where Ryou is a veritable girl magnet and very at ease with the opposite sex, Takeru is much less so. In fact they find him a bit abrasive, whereas Ryou is universally adored (although his cousin Mari does like him more than she lets on). While making a delivery one night for Takeru's Uncle Icchou, the two boys see and follow a mysterious beam of light into the woods. There Takeru discovers a naked young girl with no memory that he names Hikari (which is Japanese for light), and this point he says is the beginning of the end of his normal life, in Ashita Morimi's This Ugly Yet Beautiful World.
Top 5 Blu-ray Anime 2009
1. Samurai 7, This is a great adaptation of Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai and is so much better on Blu-ray.
2. WitchBlade, For all you WitchBlade comic book fans this is a must for you. See what the Eastern viewpoint of this Iconic series looks like and do it in style.
DVD Review: Something unknown is doing we don’t know what…
“Something unknown is doing we don't know what.”
– Sir Arthur Eddington, English astronomer (1882 – 1944), comment on the Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics, 1927
Dutch filmmaker Renée Scheltema has chosen to use this quote as the tile of her new documentary film on the science behind psychic phenomena. Prompted by three seemingly mystical experiences in her own life within a short period of time, Scheltema decides to search for answers to how these things could have happened and if they could possibly be real or just coincidence. Armed with a camera and a tablespoon from her house that she watched a “Spoon Bender” twist like it was made of warm butter, she sets off to speak with some of the leading experts in the study of psychic phenomena.
DVD Review: Nana Box Set 2
Nana is the story of two women who share the same first name and end up living together in an apartment in Tokyo. One of them, Nana Osaki, is a punk and lead singer of the band Blast who has come to Tokyo to promote the band. The other, Nana Komatsu, is a bubbly girl nicknamed Hachi. The two are polar opposites, and yet are close friends.
Movie Review:20th Century Boys
The masterful manga story by famed Naoki Urasawa, the creator of Monster and the epic Pluto, is being brought to the Big Screen and in Live Action. 20th Century Boys, is a highly acclaimed manga that took over 8 years for Urasawa to produce, is now being made into a trilogy and the first of the three installments will be released on December 10th.
Anime Blu-ray Review: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle: Season One
Princess Sakura is drawn into an ancient ruin where her latent powers are awoken. During this process Syaoran saves her from the overwhelming destruction she was headed for. At that moment, all of her memories are transfered into the wings she had grown and the feathers are scattered throughout the dimensional worlds. The wizard of their world sends them off to find Yuko, the dimensional witch to have her give them the ability to track down Sakura's memories. Two other travelers also appear at Yuko's at that time and join forces. They each pay a high price to be able to go on this quest, but agree nonetheless. The hunt is on to find all of Sakura's feathers and to help her regain her memories.
DVD Review: Nabari, The Complete Series: Part Two
With Miharu having made the decision to use his power to help erase his friend's existence, the battle lines have been drawn. He joins the Iga Clan to be close to Yoite, who is desperate to have his existence erased before his inevitable death. Yoite has the "Kira" or power to inject his ki or energy into his opponents body and control them. Although, every time he uses this power, the price is that his life is shortened. The Iga clan wants Miharu's ultimate power and is working to extract it from him. There is also the small group of Miharu's friends that would like to save Miharu from his own folly.
DVD Review: Justice League The Complete Animated Series
When the world needs help, humanity turns to the Justice League! The combined might of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter stop the evil of the DC Universe in 91 thrilling adventures, now available in one complete series set.
"Secret Origins": Watch as Earth's Heroes come together to stop an impending invasion from Mars!
"The Enemy Below": Aquaman is in trouble and only the Justice League can help him! Gone is the short haired, classic rendition of our aquatic hero, only to be replaced with the long haired, grizzly version from the 90's. This episode features a new version of the story of how Aquaman loses his hand!
DVD Review: Superman The Complete Animated Series
The Man of Steel has made his way to DVD in a new Complete Animated Series collection! Now all of adventures from Batman: The Animated Series creator Bruce Timm are available for you to own in a sleek 7 disc set! Now you can relieve Superman's battles with Lex Luthor, Parasite, Metallo, Livewire, Toyman, Lobo, Brainiac, and Darkseid!
Episode Highlights:
"The Last Son of Krypton": Spoiler Alert: Krypton explodes!!! Ok you probably knew that already…but this three part episode features the origin of Superman and his journey to become the hero that we all know and love. This episode introduces us to Metropolis, Smallville, Lois, Jimmy, Perry White, Lex Luthor, John Corbin and more!
DVD Review: Wolverine and the X-Men Volume 3: Beginning of the End
Wolverine and The X-Men must face their biggest battles yet in the action packed Volume 3: Beginning of the End! Following the adventures in Volumes 1 and 2, Wolverine and his team are desperately trying to stop the coming war between humans and mutants from erupting!
This volume contains 5 episodes from the hit animated series:
DVD Review: The Spectacular Spider-Man Volume 5
New adventures of our favorite wall-crawler are now on DVD as Volume Five of The Spectacular Spider-Man comes home for your collection. Following the events of Season One, Peter has been searching for his lost friend, Eddie Brock, who was last seen sporting a very evil symbiotic costume. Pete feels that Eddie's situation is his fault and he wants to desperately save his friend…but it might be too late. This first volume, featuring the Master Planner story arc, introduces us to new incarnations of classic Spider-Man villains like Mysterio, Kraven The Hunter, The Master Planner and more!
Over the last year we have had the opportunity to speak with the team responsible for this new batch of episodes, now you can see what they have to say:
Movie Review: Twilight Saga: New Moon
After standing in a line that would rival a theme park ride, I was one of the first kids on my block to witness the new Twilight movie: New Moon. I found myself surrounded by thousands of screaming teenagers eager to watch the translation of Stephanie Meyer’s second book in the series. What I found in the movie was a large improvement over the first movie but not offering anything compared to the quality we’ve seen in other fantasy genre flicks like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or Underworld.
Warning: Spoilers are ahead…
Supernatural: The Road So Far…
The Road So Far…
People who LARP are silly. I know it, you know it, the writers of Supernatural know it, and hopefully the LARPers know it as well. For the uninitiated LARP stands for Live Action Role Play, which basically amounts to a bunch of guys in poorly tailored robes throwing tennis balls at each other while screaming, "Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!" That's not to say there is anything wrong with LARPing, so long as those participating as well as those observing understand it for what it is; innocent fun.