Atom:
The Beginning
(2017/Season One Complete
Collection*
Blu-ray)/Batman Ninja
(2018/DC Comics/Warner Blu-ray w/DVD)/Is
It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? * + OST
(2015)/Rin-ne: Season
Three (2017/aka
Kyokai no Rin-ne:
Collection 3/both Sentai
Blu-ray Sets)
Picture:
B+/B+ & C+/A/C+ Sound: C+/B+ & C+/B+/B Extras:
C/C+/A*/C Main Programs: B+/B-/B+/B+
Here's
the latest animation from Japan, including a familiar U.S. name...
After
the great catastrophe, robots became a common sight to see in helping
to rebuild the city. But they were still just robots that followed
and did whatever humans told them to do. Grad students Hiroshi
Ochanomizu and Umataro Tenma believe that the next stage of robots
should be totally autonomous, cable or making it's own decisions and
choices. They create A106, a super powered robot capable of becoming
a hero. Along with their friends they help fight to protect the city
they live in, in Atom: The
Beginning - Season One
Complete Collection
(2017).
Hiroshi
and Umataro are the laughing stock of the robotic science community
who believe that robots should have a 'heart', a heart that allows
robots to understand humans and can go beyond it's programming. Most
of the time Hiroshi and Umataro are working part time jobs to help
fund A106's parts. A106 then to proves to the world that their ideas
aren't silly and their designs are the future of robots and that he
is a unique robot. A106 soon becomes known as heroic robot for
rescuing people from dangers and saving lives, but there are those
who don't believe robots should free (much less independent), and
that robots are a blight on humanity and should be no more than
usable, disposable and smashable.
This
was an early idea of robot anime, a prequel to the age of Astro
Boy series. It is basically 2 genius/crazy scientists (depending
on how you look at them) trying to prove themselves to the world, but
for geniuses they fail to realize the robot they created has already
evolved beyond them and taken the first step to become a sentient
robot. Each episode is about overcoming some danger or challenge to
help the robot learn more about humanity or to become a greater hero
to the public. Extras include clean opening and closing animations
and trailers.
Episodes
include...
Birth
of the Mighty Atom - Hiroshi and Umataro build a robot capable of
stopping dangers before they happen. When robot parade goes wrong,
A106 stops a giant robot before it explodes in public.
Bewusstsein
- Hiroshi and Umataro are up for review to get their Lab's funding.
Meanwhile A106 saves Hiroshi's sister Ran from a mysterious robot.
Pursuing
the Respective Leads - A106 works with a detective to help find a
missing robot dog.
Welcome
to Nerima U Festival - Hiroshi and Umatato program A106 to make
tasty noodles at the school festival.
Step
on it! - Umataro, Hiroshi and A106 get hired by a moving company,
but then must stop a runaway truck when a terrorist hacks the truck's
AI.
Lab
7's Annihilation! - Motoko and Ran must somehow get Hiroshi and
Umataro to make up with each other when they get into a spat with
each other.
Ran
and Princess Teru - Ran creates her own robot to enter in a robot
competition.
Robot
Wrestling - Umataru and Hiroshi enter A106 into a battling robot
contest.
Six
is Unfit to Fight - One of A106's parts breaks, but then help
comes from an unexpected source.
Battle
Royal - Mars, an advance robot created by the genius beauty Dr.
Lolo joins the battle to fight A106, and defeats 3 giant robots
without so much as taking a scratch.
A
Dialogue - As A106 and Mars fight one another, A106 tries to
communicate with Mars to understand why they were made.
Beginning
- A106 manages to win but is a total wreak afterwards, as he waits
for repairs he looks back over his life as a robot and wonder what is
the real him and what is in store for him in the future.
Now
for that different title. We've seen Batman in many different
incarnations over the years but this one is definitely unlike any
that you've seen before. Batman Ninja (2018) is a anime
inspired take on the Dark Knight that's actually pretty fun and
visually pleasing. Mimicking the anime style as closely as it can in
terms of design. The animated feature wastes no time in being
upfront that it's a new reimagining of the material and mixes the old
with the new.
A
bit more over the top than the recent R-rated animated film, Batman:
Gotham Gaslight (reviewed elsewhere on this site) which had a
more traditionally cell animated look, Batman Ninja is a visually
dazzling and fun film and an interesting take on the classic DC
characters which include The Joker, Harley Quinn, Gorilla Grodd,
various Batman villains, and members of the Bat Family as well.
There's some fan service here but the take is inventive enough to
pull it off.
The
voice cast includes Roger Craig Smith, Tony Hale, Tara Strong, Fred
Tatasciore, Koichi Yamadera and Wataru Takagi to name a few. The
film is directed by Junpei Mizusaki.
Batman
and his comrades end up in a weird time jump thanks to a machine
created by Gorilla Grodd and manipulated by The Joker. Stuck in a
time that appears to be ancient Japan, Batman ends up joining
familiar allies Robin, Catwoman, Alfred and others in a epic face off
against The Joker, his army of Samurai, and other fierce (Japanese
influenced) interpretations of other Bat Villains like Two Face,
Deathstroke, Poison Ivy, Bane, and the Penguin.
Special
Features...
East/West
Batman Featurette
Batman:
Made in Japan Featurette
New
York Comic Con Presents Batman Ninja
If
you're a hardcore core there is also a Best Buy exclusive steel book
of the film out there.
While
the story is a little weird and it's very over the top, I found
Batman Ninja to be an interesting new spin on the material
with inspired animation. If nothing else, it's pretty to look at and
easy to get sucked into.
As
our bold heroes continue to explore the dungeon, Bell, Hestia, Lilly
and company soon fall into a secret hot springs. And it just so
happens they need a break from adventuring and monster killing.
Never mind that Hermes also just so happens to have bathing suits for
all the girls. Is it finally a chance for Hestia to confess her
feelings to Bell? But is that all to the hot spring ...or are there
more dangers to be aware of? Find out in Is
It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?:
Complete Collection
(2015).
Bell
Cranel is a novice adventurer (recently he's been promoted as the
Rookie Adventurer) he finds himself with the Goddess Hestia (a.k.a.
the loli big breasted goddess) who also happens to have a major crush
on him. As Bell has now become a stronger adventurer they have more
friends and people in their party and now they just so happens to
find a hot springs in the middle of the dungeon they are exploring,
but little do they know it is a trap ...at trap where the water
eventually melt their clothes (mainly the girls' swimsuits) and then
monsters attack.
This
was an extra episode to the series, it is the hot springs/fan service
episode. It usually doesn't add anything to the series, but is more
a comic one shot episode and about 25 minutes long. (One wonders why
they didn't just add it to the end of the series). But on the extras
here, it DOES include 2 CD soundtracks, with clean opening and
closing animations and trailers. A Premium Edition even has more in
a big, fancy box set that adds three DVDs, an Inner print, Figure,
props and other goodies serious fans will want to own.
Last
but not least is Rin-ne:
Season Three
(2017).
Rinne and Sakura are back. Ever since Sakura was a little girl she
has been able to seek ghosts and spirits, but since meeting up with
Rinne Rokudo she has been helping him out with his job as a
Shinigami. Rinne Rokudo is a Shinigami, a 'god of death' who helps
ghost and spirits move on to the afterlife along with his Black Cat
spirit Rokumon. Sakura entering his life, things have gotten a lot
more interesting for Rinne, now they are surround by other various
friends, rivals, enemies and spirits which constantly need a little
help from them to find the afterlife.
Rinne
is a Shinigami and his job is to help 'purify' spirits so they can
move on to the afterlife. Along with Rokumon, his Black Cat spirit
familiar they try to solve various problems caused by spirits. He is
joined by Sakura who also has spiritual powers with Jumonji the
Exorcist (who is Rinne's rival in love for Sakura and his answers to
problems are always sacred ashes). Later, they are joined by Ageha a
spoiled rich Shinigami. The source of Rinne's problems however comes
from his father, a Damashigami who is a no good, lazy con artist. In
this season, Rinne and company are joined Renge, a Damshigami
pretending to be a Shinigami (and she has a crush on Rinne's employer
Kain) and Ane a fortune teller with a crystal ball (from the spirit
world) to tell the future. Most of the jokes however revolves on how
Rinne works so hard to send the spirits to heaven and find lost item
from the spirit world ...and yet he is constantly broke and poor. He
has feelings toward Sakura ....but will he ever admit them?
From
the creator of Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha comes Rumiko
Takahashi's latest series, Rin-ne or Kyoka no Rin-ne. It
combines and makes fun of high school drama with
supernatural/spiritual adventures with comedy and romance, there are
many to Japanese cultural/spiritual/ghost references. As the series
progresses some episodes become three 10-minute stories rolled into
one. At first the series tries to keep the 'spirit world' a secret
from the human world, but in later episodes it is more like why do
they bother? Extras include clean opening and closing animations and
trailers. We'll skip episode summaries this time as not to offer any
spoilers.
Now
for playback performance starting
with Batman,
presented
in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with a 1.78:1 widescreen
aspect ratio and a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless (48kHz,
24-bit) mix, the animated film looks and sounds up to standards in
HD. Unlike previous DC animated features, Warner decided to not go
with the 4K UHD on this one possibly because many critics haven't
seen too much difference in quality. I for one disagree and was a
little bummed this wasn't in 2160p. Still, the animation is high end
and the film isn't just some slapped together direct to video
thing... you can tell some heart and talent went into making it.
One
complaint many will have with Batman is, the original 5.1
Japanese dialogue (available in subtitles here) and mix are here ONLY
in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and NOT with Any lossless 5.1
option. That's a big mistake and hopefully, it would be corrected
if/when this gets a 4K edition release.
Also
included is a standard definition, anamorphically enhanced DVD with
similar (yet compressed) specs and a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital mix,
plus we also get digital copy.
All
three Sentai releases are in 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition
and look as god as they could in the format, but Rin-ne is a
bit weaker as was the case with the previous sets.
All
three are also in Japanese DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo
lossless mixes, while Atom
and Dungeon
also have lesser English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless
mixes with Atom
sonically disappointing. However, they all have Pro Logic-like
surrounds and the other two titles are well mixed and recorded.
-
Ricky Chiang and James
Lockhart (Batman)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
