Majestic Prince: Collection 1

In the 22nd century, Japan has bred a team of spunky kids to be ideally adapted for life in space. Their mission turns combative when Earth faces its first interstellar war, against a mysterious alien race—the callous Wulgaru—who see humans as merely prey (spoiler: the ancient Wulgaru genetically seeded humanity in the first place, so they have a sense of entitlement). Piloting a legion of shape-shifting robots modeled after leaked Wulgaru technology, the teens (nicknamed "Majestic Princes" in the media) score Earth's first decisive victories against the bad guys, but team members wonder whether, being pre-programmed GMOs themselves, they are any better than the Wulgaru and their clone drones. But who cares, when there are swimsuits to try on in an orbital shopping mall, or cool new weapons to operate? Derived from manga comics, this marginally entertaining mecha-military saga fails to overcome genre clichés, while the simplified character art looks like something from 30 years ago. Compiling the first 12 episodes from 2013 in separate dual-language DVD and Blu-ray editions, rated TV-14, this is an optional purchase. [Note: Majestic Prince: Collection 2 is also newly available.] (C. Cassady)