Screen (DVD) Nausica� of the Valley of the Wind Legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 feature has finally made it to DVD. The film, based on his manga, has been restored to its original length and can be viewed in Japanese or with English voice-over from Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, and others. The story is set 1,000 years after an apocalyptic war, when humans must guard against an encroaching toxic jungle protected by huge insects. The best of the two-disc set's extras is a tour of Miyazaki's production company in Koganei-shi, Japan. – Kenneth M. Chanko
Screen (DVD) The American Astronaut Cory McAbee's love-it-or-hate-it exercise in comic surrealism is a cross between Flash Gordon and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The future cult classic follows an intergalactic trader who delivers a 16-year-old boy to an all-female planet to provide stud service. The narrative is a bit muddy, and some of the gags fall flat, but the movie scores big with its handmade props, low tech effects, and hilariously off-color soundtrack. – Eric Steuer
Screen (TV) Point Pleasant In this new Fox series from Buffy producer Marti Noxon, raindrops patter on a deep blue ocean and beach cottages glow like Thomas Kinkade prints. But don't be lulled by the sugary production values; this prime-time soap gets spooky when a mysterious teenager, a devil-human spawn, washes ashore. Soon, Carrie-esque events beset the seaside village, where long-held secrets and repressed desires bubble up. It's The O.C. with an X-Files twist. – Mary McNamara
Screen (DVD) Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut After quickly disappearing from theaters in 2001, Richard Kelly's trippy teen movie attracted a devout following. This deluxe DVD set is designed for those Darko-philes. New elements include 20 minutes of restored scenes that flesh out the sci-fi themes and two hours of entertaining commentary with Kelly and Dogma's Kevin Smith. Even the uninitiated will appreciate how this film blends Catcher in the Rye-style angst with time travel and a vengeful, 6-foot-tall bunny named Frank. – Jason Silverman
Music … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead Worlds Apart Out of Austin, Texas, rides an indie rock posse armed with biting lyrics and a fuck-all attitude. Singer Conrad Keely venomously mocks the "cars and cribs" obsessions of his contemporaries. Dual drummers punctuate the beatscape with crashes, sizzles, and thunder. Churning prog-punk guitars fade into sublime dreaminess. And sullen reminders that "things couldn't be better" percolate through the fractured remains of classic rock. – Jon J. Eilenberg
Music The Chemical Brothers Push the Button Big Beat masters Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons succeed most when they work with vocalists who can distill their music's vibe. Here, a collaboration with A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip results in the superb dance anthem "Galvanize." Meanwhile, the talents of newcomers like Kele Okereke and Anwar Superstar help lift the Chems' familiar sound into a fresh realm. Best of all is "Close Your Eyes," a slice of modern psychedelia featuring sunshine pop band the Magic Numbers. – Stacy Osbaum
Music Sage Francis A Healthy Distrust Fear, self-loathing, antiestablishment rage, punk values, hypermasculine ennui – and that's just the first song. Like fellow self-analyzing rappers Atmosphere and Anticon, Sage Francis has a lot on his mind. Backed by bruising beats, the battle-tested, college-educated MC delivers a solid album that spans an exhausting array of topics. The bottom line? Question everything (especially God, love, and prescription drugs), trust no one (except Johnny Cash), and don't be afraid to feel. – Hua Hsu
Music M83 Before the Dawn Heals Us Producer Anthony Gonzalez made his name blending ambient electronica and space rock into a droning sonic swirl. Before the Dawn finds him expanding this cinematic style, layering fuzzed-out guitars and synthesizers on choral vocals and sweeping percussion. The final product sounds like a lost Sonic Youth jam session – noisy, spontaneous, and beautiful. This bittersweet mood music expertly exploits the tension between organic and digital sounds. – Piotr Orlov
Games (PC) Guild Wars Most massively multiplayer games force you to buy the software for $50 then shell out $12 a month for the privilege of competing online with no-life losers who can spend 30 hours a week building up their characters. Guild Wars is a casual gamer's dream come true – no monthly fees, easy to pick up and play, full of amazing fantasy graphics. The catch: NCSoft is hoping you'll like the visceral sword and sorcery combat enough to buy new installments about every six months. – Darren Gladstone
Games (PS2) Shadow of Rome In this grisly period piece, you play the gladiator Agrippa as he faces off against opponents in the colosseum. Wield assorted weapons – everything from daggers to huge maces – to decapitate, bisect, and amputate your foes. Bonus: You can grab their severed limbs and use them to bludgeon others. The game also lets you control Agrippa's wimpy pal Octavianus, who sneaks around the senate like some stealthy toga-clad superspy to uncover secrets. – Chris M. Baker
Games (Xbox) Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath The latest title in the bizarre Oddworld franchise casts you as a bounty hunter in an alien Wild West. Your weapon is a double-barreled crossbow that fires living creatures. Each species of ammo has its own skill – for example, Bolomites spin webs that immobilize foes, while the verbally abusive Chippunks taunt enemies to lure them out of hiding. Wrath's focus on action may surprise Oddworld fans, but the free-form gameplay still challenges your wits as much as your reflexes. – Ryan Sommer
Games (PS2) Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und B�se The German subtitle means "beyond good and evil," and this sprawling sci-fi epic freely mixes Nietzschean philosophizing with standard RPG features. The plot – something about a quest for a mysterious artifact that will save humankind from evil extraterrestrials – is so dense that it includes a bonus DVD for the backstory. But the occasional impenetrability is offset by innovative combat techniques in the awesome mech-on-mech mayhem. – Scott Steinberg
Print Safe Martha Baer, Katrina Heron, Oliver Morton, and Evan Ratliff This hair-raising tour, written by Wired vets, takes readers through the soft spots in the US infrastructure – airports, shipyards, utilities networks, and data and transit systems. The bad news: As the complexity of these systems increases, so do the variety and effectiveness of potential attacks. The good news: Some of our sharpest thinkers are heading off terrorists with innovations in cryptanalysis, system modeling, and, best of all, "blobology." – Josh McHugh
Print Al Jazeera Hugh Miles Often dismissed as Jihad-TV, the world's most infamous satellite station revolutionized Arab media with its hard-charging talk shows and live call-in exchanges. While this well-researched account documents how Al-Jazeera won some new press freedom for Arabs, the quest for balance means giving a lot of airtime to extremists. Miles is right that the network has annoyed plenty of governments for all the right reasons, but Iraqis aren't wrong to be angry that terrorists have a forum. – Lee Smith
Print Bizarro World Dozens of the biggest names in the indie comix scene (including Harvey Pekar, Dave Cooper, Craig Thompson, and Tony Millionaire) take on DC Comics' beloved superheroes. The result is a wild divergence of artistic styles and stories that range from savage deconstruction to loving parody. Highlights include Aquaman's unsuccessful stint as a folksinger, Bring Your Kids to Work Day at the Justice League of America, and an attempt to explain the events that led to that "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg" ditty. – Chris Baker
Print Wrong About Japan Peter Carey On a two-week visit to Tokyo with his son, Carey tries to square the ancient land of Shinto temples with the futuristic world of manga and anime that so captivates his teenager. Carey presses his theories upon auteurs like Yoshiyuki Tomino only to find he is off the mark; Mobile Suit Gundam's robot vehicles are not bomb shelters, Tomino says, but "wombs" in which children can "interact with the world." Through koans like this, Carey peers inside a culture that is largely inaccessible to outsiders. – Ted Greenwald
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