The first review of the week was for Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul. Made in Abyss was that series that combined cute and adorable, with dark horror, and made quite the impact; one of the better series releases in that particular year. The first feature film spin-off continues the story, with an arc set up at the end of the series, featuring the cruel, ominous figure of Bondrewd. The children venturing into the eponymous Abyss face their toughest challenge yet. The series was stunning, and the film lives up to that and more.
It got pretty heavy going in the Abyss for a while, so it’s fortunate that Is the Order a Rabbit? Season 1 was my next review. I previously took a look at this sugar-sweet slice of life cuteness on import DVD, but fortunately the series is now getting a UK HD release. It tells the tale of a girl who moves to the city to go to high school, and gets a job in the cafe where she’s living. The granddaughter of the owner runs the cafe with a cute angora rabbit on her head, while her dad runs the bar at night. The two girls, along with three other waitresses from the cafe, and from rival cafes get up to all manner of cute antics. Click on the review to read more.
Back to the dark and ominous next, as I double-dipped the Blade of the Immortal feature film to Blu-ray, and found that you get a lot more than just HD image and audio quality in the upgrade. The Blade of the Immortal manga has engendered two anime series, but this is the live action feature film that Takashi Miike made in between the two anime. A man cursed with immortality becomes the bodyguard to a young girl who looks to avenge her family, slaughtered at the hands of a brutal gang.
This Week I Have Been Mostly Rewatching...
K-On!! Season 2. Naturally inevitable after watching the first season, I now move onto the second season of my favourite ‘cute girls doing cute things’ show (sorry Is the Order a Rabbit?) although the balance is a little askew for the second season. The first season was around 12 episodes plus specials, and covered 2 years of high school life, with a deft mix of feel-good comedy and light music. The second season covers the final year of high school across 26 episodes, so you could say that it’s four times as diluted as the first season. There’s a little less in the way of music, and a lot more in the way of comedy, but by gum, the formula still works. You can’t pick a better series to relax to.
While Manga Entertainment released the show on DVD in the UK, I imported the Madman Entertainment Blu-rays from Australia. Here’s my review of Season 2 Part 1. Funimation recently released the whole of the K-On! franchise on Blu-ray in the UK, but had to issue a recall due to faulty Season 1 discs. They’ve yet to issue a statement on when and how they will resolve the situation, but hopefully an updated release with the corrected discs will come out soon, as that seems to be the only way to get Region B friendly K-On now.
MVM release Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul on Blu-ray today, while they’ll release the Blu-ray of Is the Order a Rabbit? Season 1 next Monday, September 13th. Arrow Video released Blade of the Immortal on DVD and Blu-ray in 2018.
Your Opinions and Comments
Be the first to post a comment!