Big Windup!

There are a lot of TV shows out there that get a ton of attention, and they are really good. For example, Seinfeld had a lot of attention, mainly when it reached the middle of the series. There are also really good shows that don’t get a lot of attention, one of those that I discovered this past year is Big Windup!, it is an anime TV series that was released in Japan back in 2007 in a season of 26 episodes. It is about a High School Baseball team, mainly about one character, Ren Mihashi, who is one pitcher with a lot of bad luck in the past, he was the ace pitcher back in Junior High because his grandfather was the owner of the school, so he was made the ace pitcher, and his teammates didn’t like that so they wouldn’t help him or encourage him, he doesn’t have a lot of self-confidence, so he leaves the school and wants to quit baseball altogether, but he ends up meeting the new formed team at Nishiura High, and the catcher Takaya Abe who is willing to work with Mihashi and give him the confidence boost he needs to win. Mihashi actually is a really good pitcher, he can control his pitches and has a variety of different pitches, and Abe is able to know what he needs to throw to strike out the other team. It is a really great show, great characters, and I honestly have learned a lot about Baseball. Funimation picked it up back in 2008, and they started releasing it last year, they started off by putting episodes of the show on Hulu and their own website, and YouTube, at least the first 7 episodes. Then they released the series in two DVD sets, one in August and then the next in September. They are releasing a second season of the show in Japan this Spring, unfortunately, Funimation won’t be picking that one up because it wasn’t very successful here in DVD sales, which is too bad. Who knows, maybe people will find the series, and it will get licensed over here one day. However, you can watch the first four episodes of the series for free online here.

Seinfeld

In continuing about some of the shows I watch, one of them is Seinfeld. I am sure many of you have heard of it. I would say the show has become more popular since it entered repeats. I myself have become a fan after the show ended in 1998. It is a very funny show. So what is it about, well, in one word, "Nothing". That's right, it's about nothing. Seinfeld and a group of his friends going out in New York City, and usually end up causing havoc. They try to start relationships that in the end of the episode, they usually come to a brutal end. You know that once you start the episode, that you know that everything they try to accomplish doesn't go through. Why watch this show, because it's HILARIOUS. So many of the comments and so much of what happens is great. Seriously, if I am having a bad day, or I am not in the best mood, I will put this on and I will usually feel better. If you haven't seen it, I guarantee you don't have to look hard to watch one episode. Plus, all of the seasons are out on DVD, and they are starting to get cheaper every day. So check it out if you haven't seen it.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

I keep talking about all the different movies out there, and there were times when I talk about DVD releases that I mention a couple of TV shows. I decided to go through a few TV shows this week that are favorites of mine. Keep in mind that a lot of the TV shows that I will talk about aren’t ones I usually watch off TV itself, I usually find them on DVD or on the internet.

The first one I want to talk about is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Figured this would be a good one to bring up because they are doing a film adaptation of this show, and it will be hitting theaters July 2. The show was found on Nickelodeon, and I believe it is still on Nicktoons, if you have trouble finding it on TV, you can easily find the season sets on DVD, there are three seasons. This show is about Aang, who is known as the Avatar, who is suppose to bring balance to a world that is in darkness. This world is divided into four different tribes, water, earth, fire, and air. Each tribe can control one of these elements, for example, people of the water tribe can control water. The Avatar, however, can control all of the elements. The show starts off with a couple of kids in the water tribe that discover a boy in a big iceberg, they free him and he turns out to be the Avatar who had disappeared 100 years before, and they follow Aang on a journey to help him learn all of the different elements so he can face the Firelord, the leader of the Fire Nation who is taking over the whole world, and bring balance back into the world. What I really like about the show, besides a lot of the cool animation, is that it has a great story to it, and each episode has a great moral to it. Definitely something that I believe is worth checking out.

By the way, you can find the trailer for The Last Airbender movie by following this link. Looks promising, but I will have to wait till the movie arrives. The trailer can also be seen before Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I haven't seen any of the new offerings yet, but this weekend Valentine's Day was number one making a total of $66 million throughout the long weekend. Of course, Avatar is still running strong, it is now standing at $661 million, impressive. Shutter Island arrives in theaters this weekend, and not much of anything else this week. Next weekend, Cop Out comes out in theaters as well, and then the following week we will see the release of Alice in Wonderland.

Valentine's Day Weekend

First off, Avatar is now the champion at the box office, in the United States, and around the world. It has sunk Titanic. Congratulations to Avatar. If you still haven't seen it, you should. As well, the Oscars have been announced, you can follow this link to see the complete list of what was nominated. They have some pretty good choices. Of course there are still plenty of good movies that didn't make it in the nominations.

Now moving on to this weekend, what else is there to do on Valentine's Day besides eating chocolate, you can go see a movie, as there are a few different choices this weekend, besides all of the previous movies that have come out. We have Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which is based on a series of books of the same name, then we have Valentine's Day which has a pile of well known actors, (remember He Is Just Not That Into You) but should be decent, and then we have The Wolfman, which was suppose to come out last year, but didn't. Seems like the movie that should come out during Halloween and not Valentine's Day, well it does give us a different choice. Plus there are a lot of other good movies that are out as well, When In Rome is actually a really funny movie, pretty cheesy but it really made me laugh in many areas.

As for DVD and Blu-Ray, one movie that I recommend is Zombieland, (it's rated R, but I saw it using a device called a ClearPlay DVD player, you can go to www.clearplay.com to learn more about it, but it's a DVD player that can skip through graphic violence and sexual content, and mute bad language, so I can enjoy a movie without all that stuff) Zombieland was hilarious, and it had a decent story. There are some more movies arriving on Blu-Ray and DVD this month, but nothing I would consider excited. In March will have plenty of good releases to choose from. Where the Wild Things Are arrives March 2, along with Ponyo (also three of Miyazaki's films will be rereleased on DVD, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service) and also 2012, March 9 will see the release of Old Dogs, Planet 51, and Evangelion 1.0 You Are Not Alone will be released on Blu-Ray (which I really enjoyed). On March 16 we will see Princess and the Frog on the shelves, along with Did You Hear About the Morgans?, The Fourth Kind, Astro Boy, Armored, and that week Twilight: New Moon will arrive (for all the Twilight fans). March 23, look for Blind Side and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Toy Story will arrive on Blu-Ray. Then March 30, look for Sherlock Holmes. And I will throw in one more title to find, on April 6, Lord of the Rings trilogy will arrive on Blu-Ray (but in theatrical edition only, fans of the extended versions will have to wait a little longer), so there is much to look forward to.