Quick, set your DVRs: Spike TV to show exclusive Halo Legends preview tomorrow night!

Psst – are you a fan of the wildly popular Halo video game franchise?  Do you get Spike TV on your cable or satellite lineup?  Then you might want to set your DVR to record Spike TV’s “GTTV Presents Halo 3: ODST Countdown to Launch” special.  Which, at least according to my TV schedule, starts at 9PM on Thursday the 17th.  (So for you East Coasters, this is probably Friday morning at midnight.  Definitely check your TV listings to be sure!)

Why would you want to do this?  Besides the obvious Halo goodness, Spike TV will be teasing us with a preview of some scenes from the “The Babysitter” short, part of the Japanese-animated Halo Legends anthology, animated by BONES, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio 4C, and Toei.  This was of course one of Microsoft’s big announcements at San Diego Comic-Con this year.  Shinji Aramaki, who you might know as the creator and director of Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina, serves as the project’s creative director.  Famed director Mamoru Oshii is also involved.

Halo Legends is a collection of 7 short films based on the Halo universe — a la Animatrix style.  The Animatrix parallel is particularly apt for two reasons: Halo Legends expands on the Halo universe, filling in backstory, etc., similar to how The Animatrix expanded on and filled in backstory for the Matrix universe; but also because one of the participants, Studio 4C, was in fact responsible for the Animatrix.  Either way, this should be some pretty good stuff.

“The Babysitter,” the short which Spike TV will be showing parts of, follows the Spartan super-soldiers as well as the ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troops), “when an all-or-nothing opportunity to strike at the heart of Covenant leadership arises.”

Fans can look forward to the DVD and Blu-ray releases of this anime, coming from Warner Bros., sometime in early 2010.

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