ANI-MOVIES, *Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash

Set in the same universe as the Batman Lego video game trilogy, the Lego DC Comics are set in their own continuity not connected to The Lego Movie or The Lego Batman Movie. This was even established in the Lego Dimensions game where the Batman Lego beats the Lego Batman, and you play the rest of the game as that version of Batman. So, with the success of The Flash show set in the "Arrowverse", and the possibility of a Flash spinoff of the Justice League movie, they though giving the scarlet speedster his own Lego animated flick might click with youngsters.

The Justice League introduces The Atom to the team, when Joker takes a vacation in Metropolis, and the citizens with his Joker gas. The League leaps into action(including Plastic Man turning into a helicopter with functioning exploding missles!), but Joker is finally stopped by a tardy Flash. But then a yellow blurry speedster shows up, and forces Flash to keep reliving the same day over and over in a timeloop. Flash finally catches up to him, and winds up several days later. The bad guy is really Reverse-Flash, a speedster from the future who came back in time to ruin Flash's image so people will remember him instead, and he also manages to sever Flash's connection to the Speed Force, the energy that gives speedsters their power. So Flash seeks out Dr. Fate and his dancing student Zatanna to help him go to the Speed Force Zone, and get his powers back.

This was a mostly enjoyable feature, certainly better than the previous Lego Justice League film. It's good for a watch on Cartoon Network, or renting through Redbox or Netflix DVD.

Dear Avengers movie conspiracy theorists...

MISC. MANGA, *Mai The Psychic Girl

Mai The Psychic Girl was essentially the very first manga to be printed in English for American readers. It was first published by Eclipse Comics, which then lead into the formation of Viz Manga, the first North American mainstream publisher of English-translated manga. Eclipse also went on to print manga like Area 88, Appleseed, and Legend Of Kamui, but their actions also lead into the formation of Studio Proteus who provided titles like Oh My Goddessto Dark Horse Comics. So, it's entry into the American culture pretty much paved the way for the booming anime fandom of the late 80s. Written by Golgo 13's Kazuya Kudo, and drawn by Ryoichi Ikegami who also drew the 70s Spider-Man manga, Mai The Psychic Girl achieved a modest success in Japan, but became a massive underground hit among American readers, and was even considered several times for an American live-action movie project.

Mai is a teenager that lives with her widowed father, and appears to be a normal Japanese schoolgirl. However, a secret group known as the Wisdom Alliance has been keeping track of children with the potential to become powerful psychics. Mai happens to be the descendant of a long line of mystic women, and her father is skilled in an ancient form of martial arts. This comes in handy as they are being chased by the Japanese branch of the Wisdom Alliance who send out a giant beast-like assassin to track them down since they both went into hiding. Mai's psychokinesis proves to be nearly on the level of Akira as her flared tempers can result in disaster if not controlled properly.

The manga was first released in America as a 28-issue comic series through Eclipse, then by Viz as incomplete 3-volume graphic novels, but then reprinted as the signature "Perfect Collection" of books, the term for which was used by various manga and OVA series in the 90s. It's still very popular among many old school otaku, but hasn't had much exposure since the turn of the millennium. It's worth tracking down the Perfect Collection editions of this, or at least some of the earlier single issues if you can scrounge them up in a dollar bin.

Lord Humungus wants to sing the song of his people

ANI-MOVIES, *The Incredibles

As its first set into doing an action/adventure film, Pixar created this superhero comedy prior to their complete acquisition by Disney. Director Brad Bird took his Silver Age of Comics style that he used in The Iron Giant, and brought them into this "super hero-meets-super spies" story slightly inspired by the family dynamic used in Fantastic Four.

Set in a world where superheroes are referred to as Supers, super-strong Mr. Incredible marries the stretchy Elastigirl(no relation to the Doom Patrol character!)just as the public opinion toward heroes starts to turn forcing them all to retire into their secret identities. Fast forward 15 years, and the Incredible family has 3 kids, only two of which apparently have powers, super-fast Dash and Violet with invisibility. After loosing his job, Bob(Mr.)gets an offer from a mysterious organization to use his powers to help test their robots, but its revealed that the company is run by Bob's old scorned fan-turned-villain, Syndrome, who spent the last few years killing off most of the worlds Supers to build the ultimate weapon to finish Mr. Incredible. Helen(Elasti)visits her old eccentric supersuit designer, Edna Mode, to discover she made him a new uniform, plus a tracking beacon which leads her to Syndrome's island headquarters. But Dash and Violet tag along, and the family reunites to stop Syndrome from terrorizing their hometown with a giant robot attack.

The Incredibles was a groundbreaking hit, with excellent performances by Jason Lee, Samuel Jackson, and oddly Brad Bird as Edna. The film brought a more lighthearted approach to superhero flicks, which inspired the production of an actual Fantastic Four movie franchise(ugh!). It did take several years for them to finally make a definitive sequel, even though there was a video game and comic book follow-up that are probably considered "expanded universe"(or "Legends")by now. This works as both a family adventure, and a serious homage to comic book lore.

God of Hammers...UP IN THIS MOTHERFUCKER!

MISC. MANGA, *Unmagical Girl

Unmagical Girl is an interesting premise in the vein of the old Justice Friends segment from Dexter's Laboratory featuring superheroes living in the "real world" and what they have to do if there are no supervillains to fight. This is one of the first manga by writer Ryouichi Yokoyama and artist Manmaru Uetsuki, and a fresh acquisition by Seven Seas Entertainment.

Mayuri is a student in college whose late father was the creator of a popular anime series titled Pretty Angel Nirvana. Going over her father's old desktop, Mayuri somehow releases the main but forgotten anime character, Pretty Angel NirBrave, who might be a small keychain brought to life. NirBrave has all the same powers that she had in the show, but her "secret identity" form looks almost exactly like Mayuri herself. The now live-action anime character now lives with Mayuri in her apartment, but has problems landing a job with her unwillingness to alter her appearance from a pink-haired girl in flashy bright getup. She also tends to alter her appearance if she ends up doing something that she wasn't originally scripted to do, like getting drunk. It turns out that other characters from the anime start materializing in the real world too, including NirBrave's sexier and more popular teammate Nirwind, and an old enemy now living with Mayuri's classmate.

Unmagical Girl is a funny take on the division between the material and ethereal realms. The manga works as a funny sitcom slice-of-life, while at the same time catering to many otaku tropes that anime fans will find endearing.

ANI-MOVIES, *Harlock: Space Pirate

Remaking the saga of Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock, Appleseed's Shinji Aramaki pulled all his talent to do this fully-CGI movie. Toei Animation pulled together this which mostly rewrites the ongoing space pirate saga.

Way off in the future, mankind has set up colonies on other worlds, but has left the Earth behind mostly because of it being ravaged by centuries of abuse. But now, overpopulation throughout the galaxy has lead humans to want to return to their planet of origin. This lead to a new government called the Gaia Sanction being formed allowing only the elite to be allowed access to Earth. Harlock, a former space fleet captain broke away from the government and has spent the last century leading a crew of rebels on raids against the Gaia Sanction. Harlock himself has become seemingly immortal due to being exposed by the dark matter that powers his ship, the Arcadia, that and alliance he's formed with Miime, the last of a race of space elves who wish to see peace return to the galaxy. A government spy named Yama joins the Aracdia and plans to sabotage Harlock's efforts to use a special weapon to set back the clock. Whether this means to go back in time or to completely rewrite the timeline completely(like in Star Trek 11), is unknown, as its revealed that the Earth itself has been a wasteland for centuries, but Yama has proof that life is returning to it. So the Arcadia's crew plans to fight the Gaia Sanction to preserve the Earth and expose their conspiracy to the rest of the galaxy.

Shinji Aramaki's work on other popular titles like Starship Troopers and Halo shows in this for adapting an existing canon, although they rewrite it enough to make this film its own story, so its not necessary to have seen any of the previous Matsumoto anime like Harlock Saga or Arcada Of My Youth. Harlock: Space Pirates stands good enough on its own as an epic space opera, and worthy of the brand of "space opera", more so than most sci-fi anime production from the last decade outside of Gundam. Its slightly disappointing that their isn't an English version of this currently available on Blu Ray, only on DVD at this time. Certainly worth a viewing if the last few Star Wars incarnations have left you unfulfilled.