While gaming and comics dominated the last three months for me, I’ve still managed to watch a fair bit.

Anime:
A slower season for me, again because it was dominated by gaming:

– Basquash and NEEDLESS came to their own respectively crazy conclusions, though I wish they’d each gotten another episode or two to do so, greatly enjoyable shows that really shouldn’t have been anywhere near as good as they turned out.
– The only Fall shows that I’ve kept up with are To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, a moe++ side story to last year’s To Aru Majutsu no Index, and The Book of Bantorra, which has all sorts of problems but has a great setting and an Epic grade character or two that make it worthwhile.
– Somewhere in there Summer Wars came out, a new movie from the team behind The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and I’m looking forward to a domestic release of it, as it was very, very fun and prominently featured Hanafuda, a classic Japanese card game I’ve become quite fond of.
– Finally wrapped up You’re Under Arrest! Full Throttle (originally airing in the Spring of ’08!) last night, as the subs for the final episodes just came out. God, what a waste of a season and mental anguish over the time it took to sub. It was making YUA for the sake of making more YUA, and while it did progress the show’s big relationship, finally, it came across as something they just decided they were going to do, rather than try building up to it.

There’s a few shows that are looking decent for the winter season, but as they don’t air until the new year, I really don’t have much to say about them at this point.

Cartoons and Animated Movies:
– Batman: The Brave and the Bold continues to be awesome, just having started their second season. It also saw the amazing Music Meister episode, a musical that saw Batman and Black Canary facing off against the titular villain, who was voiced by Neil Patrick Harris. I immediately bought the soundtrack.
– Adult Swim started up Seasons 3 and 4, respectively of Metalocalypse (which is now a half-hour show, yay!) and Venture Brothers. Fantastic as always, but they’ve split their runs into a Fall half(now done) and a return for the rest in the Spring, which makes me very sad. I also got to go see Dethklok on tour again, this time with a proper fucking metal lineup- co-headline with Mastodon, and opened by Converge and High on Fire. It was fucking metal.
– On top of the excellent Wakfu, I was introduced to another gorgeous piece of French animation in the form of Les Lascars, something of a Dazed and Confused/Friday affair, but very funny and very well animated.
– Was introduced to Producing Parker, a short-lived Canadian cartoon that’s reasonably fun and has a nice Flash-animated style. Also got to see the Gen13 animated movie, which was made up in Canada sometime late-90s.
– Received a nostalgia bomb in the form of TMNT Forever, a big movie send-off to the various Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles incarnations, from the 80s-90s show I grew up with, to the newer series, the original comic versions, and beyond, and on a Saturday morning no less!
– Took myself to see Disney’s new one, Princess and the Frog, as its their first 2D film after deciding to switch to 3D some time ago. It didn’t disappoint in the slightest and is easily recommended.

Movies:
Running back a bit into September here, I’ve been having a pretty good time at the movies:

– Having spent the better part of 2 months dodging all promos, trailers, and talk of Avatar, I went in with no expectations aside from seeing what Cameron had been hyping early on about his filming tech. On that front, it didn’t disappoint, this was by far the best 3D I’ve seen, and I really enjoyed some of the actor’s performances, but boy do I wish the story was as equally good. Now get the fuck on with doing, or altogether drop, Battle Angel Alita, dammit.
– Continuing the sci-fi, District 9 was outstanding all around, with perhaps my only complaint being that they didn’t keep up the documentary facade throughout (I can understand why though). It was beautiful, it was pretty radically different, and hopefully means good things to come for sci-fi.
– Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go see Plan 9 from Outer Space on the big screen, particularly as it was getting a live roasting from the Rifftrax crew, man that was an entertaining evening.
– Inglourious Basterds was brilliant, and probably my favorite Tarantino since Pulp Fiction.
– Zombieland sort of came out of nowhere for me as I’d not been paying the promotional material much attention, but man, that was completely awesome, from the various rules of zombie survival to one of the best cameos ever, it was all fun.
– Still not quite sure what to make of Where the Wild Things Are. Being a Spike Jonze film its more Indie than Children’s, and is rather melancholy in the end.

TV:
As ever, not a whole lot going on on this front:

– Finally went through Spaced and Black Books, two wonderful British comedies, very smart and highly recommended
– Castle continues to be delightful, what’s not to love about more Nathan Fillion
– Many, many tears will be shed next month when the second season of Dollhouse comes to an end and goes away forever. The season started out ambitious but subdued, but now that they know they’re going away? Its a full on crazy train to Armageddon and I’m gladly on board.