MISC. MANGA, *Captain Harlock: Space Captain-Dimensional Voyage

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the OG anime man's man, Dimensional Voyage is a manga reboot of Space Pirate Captain Harlock. Leiji Matsumoto returns to write the new take, but with artwork being supplied by Koichi Shimahoshi. It is still set in the wonky timeline of the Leijiverse, which also includes titles like Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999.

Set in the very distant future, Earth has been invaded by various aliens, decimated in human wars, and run by dystopian governments. The current Prime Minister of Earth is a self-absorbed oaf more interested in his golf game than how humanity is suffering. The alien empire of Mazon ruled by Queen Raflesia is planning yet another takeover of Earth as they see it as their prophesized holy land. Outlaw pirate Harlock leads the crew of the starship Arcadia plan on confronting the Mazon forces and their double agent Paphio posing as the Prime Minister's assistant. The Mazons assassinate the scientist Dr. Daiba who threatens to expose their invasion, leaving Daiba's son Tadashi to join Harlock in his new crusade.

Dimensional Voyage is a new look at the Captain Harlock franchise, although trying to figure where in the Leijiverse's history is slightly hard to put a pin in. Shimahoshi's artwork does provide the character a fresh boost for new millennial otaku, although the original series does still hold its own separate charm to it despite the updated look.

ANI-MOVIES, *Over The Moon

As the last production written by the late Audrey Wells, Over The Moon is a Chinese represented CGI animated movie centering on family and fairy tales. Former Disney animator Glen Keane directed this direct-to-streaming feature which has been presented with a record setting list of accolades.

In modern day China, young Fei Fei is infatuated with the legend of the moon goddess Chang'e who awaits the return of her deceased mortal lover Hou Yi. When her mother passes away, Fei Fei helps her father, even though four years later she becomes resistant to the inclusion of her possible future stepmother, along with her younger son Chin who is enthusiastic about making Fei Fei his stepsister. Fei Fei happens to be a dreamer, but a profoundly intelligent student, and combines both her passions to create a spaceship to take her to the moon, mostly to get proof that Chang'e is really up there, all in an effort to have her father not to lose faith in her mother's possible return. She happens to make a fully-functioning rocket based on electromagnetic train tracks, but not without Chin tagging along nearly killing them both after launch. Fortunately, they both get beamed up to the moon, and lead to Chang'e thanks to a pair of flying lions. The moon goddess is the only humanoid ruling over a race called Lunarians who appear to be made entirely of gummy candy. Chang'e gives a showstopper of an intro, and promises to give Fei Fei a photo of herself to prove to her father, but only if she brings her the gift she senses which the moon goddess can use to be reunited with Hou Yi. Fei Fei returns to her wrecked ship, but runs across the totally inserted to be annoying exiled Lunarian, a long-tounged rodent named Gobi. The chattering comic relief helps Fei Fei get the prize in question from some greedy "biker chicks"(actual chickens on lunar motorcycles), which is half of an amulet her wouldbe stepmother happened to sneak in. Not to give away the conclusion, but it greatly contends with the acceptence of mortality and how to move on after a cathartic tragedy.

Over The Moon is deep into Chinese folklore and its effects on family traditions. Dreamworks' founded Pearl Studio did an astounding job with the look of the luminescent moonscape is truly breathtaking taking the viewer into a completely different realm, similar to when Dorothy first arrives in technicolor Oz. Aside from some hit-or-miss musical numbers, it is an all-ages animated extravaganza that makes for a great watching experience with the kids.

ANI-MOVIES, *Batman: The Long Halloween-Part 2

Batman: The Long Halloween-Part 2 wraps up the other two-thirds of the 90s comic book, although leaving out whole characters and aspects from the adaptation. One thing is removing Riddler altogether after he played a significant supporting role in the original source material. Despite this though, it does bring the story to a mostly satisfying conclusion, while at the same time adding its own notes to the Batman lore.

Also included with the feature is another DC Showcase short of former Charlton Comics title character, Blue Beetle. This Silver Age version of the original Golden Age hero takes the extra step and has the story take place during the 60s, and the best part is that it's done in the style of cartoons that came out at the time. Acting as an homage to the 60s animated versions of Spider-Man and Batman. It opens up with a snappy full chorus theme song, and Blue Beetle teams up with The Question to stop the colorful Doctor Spectro who has hypnotized the heroes Captain Atom and Nightshade into his latest crazy caper. The brilliant in the short lies in its way of spoofing corny cartoon plots, and the constant animation flubs that were made back then, like Blue Beetle's outfit suddenly changing color schemes in some shots, or the repeat animation of certain movements.

The main feature continues several months later with Bruce Wayne being enthralled by Poison Ivy signing over heaps of cash into Falcone's pocket. Catwoman had previously figured out Batman's identity and frees him from Ivy's control. Scarecrow then breaks out thanks to Falcone to help the mobster spread fear over Gotham, while he along with Mad Hatter carry out the boss' heists as well. Rival mobster Sal Maroni has his father murdered by the Holiday killer, which leads him to get in Harvey Dent's good gracious by testifying against Falcone. The whole thing was a ruse though as Maroni throws acid on Dent in court, leaving the D.A. with a scarred face. The now Two-Faced Harvey meets up with the hulking Solomon Grundy in the sewers, all while Batman's trail seems to point to Dent being Holiday since the beginning. On Halloween, Two-Face and Grundy bust most of the other crazies out of Arkham Asylum to takeover Gotham by rubbing Falcone with his remaining gangsters. Batman arrives to stop the villains, with Falcone dying realizing that Catwoman was his daughter. Two-Face surrenders to Batman claiming he did all the Holiday murders. Batman however puts the pieces together and realized that the original killings were in fact done by Harvey's wife Gilda who wanted revengs on Falcone from her first being wed to his son Alberto with their aborted child. The movie concludes with Flash and Green Arrow at Wayne Manor to see about Batman joining their upcoming Justice League.

Part 2 does add its own mark to the DC Universe by altering the ending, to which the original comic was recently retconned with its own new conclusion. There is still much left out from the source material and considering that fact that this project was broken up into two full-length features that they could have covered it all. The dub is agreeable though with Jansen Ackles as Batman from formerly playing the titles character in Under The Red Hood, Alastair Duncan returning as Alfred who previously played him in The Batman 2000s animated series, Troy Baker is back as Joker, plus the late Naya Rivera doing a great job in her final role as Catwoman. No word yet if Warner Bros. is planning on combining both films into a single feature like they did with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, but both films are great separately on their own.

ANI-MOVIES, *Batman: The Long Halloween-Part 1

Taking place in the what has been labeled as the "Tomorrowverse", DC's new line of animated movies hase the Dark Knight's premiere in it as a two-part story based on the hit 90s maxi-series, Batman: The Long Halloween. Part 1 comes with a DC Showcase bonus of The Losers based on the original 60s comics and not the Vertigo remake. Both features are done in the same style recently done in Superman: Man Of Tomorrow.

The Losers short is set during World War II with an elite U.S. military team given the nickname of "The Losers" due to all their deadly missions, making them a protoype to DC's original Suicide Squad. The team gets sent to a hidden island to shut down an operation run by the Red Chinese forces who are using a time portal to harness energy from the past, but also allowing herds of dinosaurs to run loose all over the place. The opening looks like something out of a Tarentino flick, and the rest mixes in elements of Predator and Jurassic Park into an orgy of bullets and blood sure to thrill any Dino Crisis fan. Like the Sgt. Rock Showcase short, The Losers takes a standard soldier story and cranks it up to a weird war epic.

The first half of The Long Halloween takes place in modern day, but at the early part of Batman's career. Gotham City is still largely in the pocket of mafia don Carmine Falcone. On Halloween night, his nephew Johnny is mysteriously killed before he was going to testify against Falcone for D.A. Harvey Dent. Batman, Commissioner Gordon, along with Dent form a secret trinity bent on bringing down Falcone, and revealing the identity of the killer referred to as Holiday as the murderer carries on their personal quest by terminating a gang of Falcone's associates on Thanksgiving. Catwoman shows great interest in this caper too as she leads Batman to a warehouse full of the mob's hard cash. The serial killings ruffles the feathers of a certain homicidal clown as the Joker busts out of Arkham to show Gotham who is the real top dog of maniacs in town. On Christmas Eve, after Joker invades Falcone's home, Holiday arrives to assassinate one of the mob boss' bodyguards. A week later on New Year's Eve, Joker is still loose and planning on dropping off some deadly gas amongst Gotham's festivities. Batman manages to stop his nemesis, but then believes he has finally uncovered Holiday's identity. The caped crusader confronts Falcone's son Alberto as the likely suspect, but Holiday arrives to debunk that theory by shooting Alberto and escaping. The movie concludes during Alberto's funeral where Falcone' introduces Bruce Wayne to Poison Ivy.

The movie takes a hard turn from the original source material as it was actually Alberto who did the majority of killings as Holiday, leaving new viewers guessing as to where Part 2 is going to lead. It is refreshing to see Batman having to become more of a detective at the dawn of his crimefighting campaign, an element that was a major plotpoint in the recent live-action, The Batman, which was largely influenced by The Long Halloween. It was a better idea to split this story into two installments to be able to give a full narration of the rich intriguing mystery.