Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of October 2020. This update features 1 anime title from September (which I’ll recap) to alongside the 4 anime titles, 6 manga volumes, 2 video games and 1 live-action Asian cinema title from October.
Previously I discussed how September 2020’s haul did not properly occur due to funding delays beyond my control. The student finance stuff took an entire month to finally sort itself out so future monthly hauls should continue at a steady pace for a little longer.
With October 2020’s haul we have titles that were ordered back in September as a tentative status which eventually made it through as well as trying to catch up on manga and video games.
#00 | Mysteria Friends
So this one is numbered as #00, because it arrived at the last day of September. I actually was not expecting this title. Basically I won Mysteria Friends in an MVM competition without notice, and it came. I was happy of course because it was one of the CEs released by the distributor that I wanted to own.
#01 | KonoSuba: God’s Blessing in this Wonderful World! Season 1
The first item of the month of October is everyone’s favourite Isekai trash crew with KonoSuba Season 1. I pre-ordered this series the moment it became available because I knew it would be a popular seller and I really liked the series. Surprisingly I still haven’t seen the OVA that is included so I should get to that at some point. This is a pretty solid collector’s edition overall and Anime Limited does have Season 2 planned which will probably arrive in January or February depending on how fast Discotek is with their release.
#02 | World’s End Harem volumes 4-7
A while back I mentioned that I wanted to catch up on manga and I have kept this promise by going after select titles first. Basically of all of the distributors that release physical manga, Seven Seas and their ecchi label Ghost Ship don’t reprint their titles unless they are big sellers (Bloom Into You, Monster Musume etc). Therefore I focused on some recent titles that have been releasing volumes pretty quickly and one of them is World’s End Harem which I know has technically finished in Japan (Part 1 of the story has concluded with 12 volumes total).
Because Amazon has decided to remove select titles including the earlier volumes of World’s End Harem, I ordered some of the volumes through Blackwells and they arrived in two different days; volumes 5 & 7 came first followed by volumes 4 & 6. Volume 4 was the one that technically was out of stock so I got pretty lucky on that part. Overall I am almost up-to-date with the series in terms of the English releases, but there’s still many more titles to catch up with.
#03 | Revolutionary Girl Utena Artbook & Rings
A few months ago I acquired Revolutionary Girl Utena from Anime Limited and went with the 80 unit bundle. This bundle was basically the UK collector’s edition as well as leftover stock of the Artbook and Rings from Nozomi Entertainment’s Ultra Edition set. My copy actually was sent to the wrong address and thankfully the old flat accommodation was kind enough to send it back and with Anime Limited’s assistance I was able to get the items in the end. It did take a few weeks but it’s safe and sound.
#04 | Birthday Wonderland
Birthday Wonderland is a film that I had been curious about for a while and even though it turned up on Screen Anime, I liked the visuals and presentation enough to consider picking up the collector’s edition when the early bird was available. I have heard good things about it so I would say it was worth it in the end.
#05 | Spiritual Kung Fu
88 Films next batch of Jackie Chan releases are slowly rolling out and one of them arrived in October with Spiritual Kung Fu. It’s a really nice release just like the previous films. I do have one more coming up in early November while the other two that are planned are due for later in the year.
#06 | Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen
Now here’s a fun one to talk about. A few years ago, many fans had to struggle with finding copies for Danganronpa V3 and Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana and I did as well. Eventually those two received standard editions many many months later. Now that scenario has happened once again but much sooner than anticipated with Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen.
This game never went down in price and has been out of print for about a month now. NIS America are not very good at keeping games in print and considering we’re entering the next video game generation I don’t think they will even bother to release a standard edition at this rate (especially as Utawarerumono Zan is still in print).
I managed to acquire a copy of the game through CeX of all things pre-owned and to my surprise it was like buying it brand new unsealed at a GAME store. Like the condition was really good for what I paid for so I am happy about that, especially as eBay did have copies but those were European cover art versions.
#07 | Sword Art Online: Alicization Part 1 & Tamako Market/Love Story
We have a double bill of items arriving at the same time for this part, thanks to a very lucky moment that occurred at the beginning of September. To fully explain what happened, basically Anime Limited revealed their October line-up and added the titles onto Amazon not long after. However, the prices were incorrect.
Sword Art Online: Alicization Part 1 and Tamako Market & Love Story titles both were using prices that should have gone for the standard edition Blu-ray & DVD sets, while others like those standard edition sets had the collector’s edition prices. It was basically Freaky Friday but with pricing.
To everyone’s surprise, especially as a similar thing occurred for the Takagi-san Essentials release in Amazon US which got cancelled, these orders were honoured and did not get cancelled in the end. So I got SAO for £14 instead of £31.50 (or more) and Tamako for £16 instead of £47 (or more). It’s very lucky and I don’t expect this to happen again for at least a long while.
I did order Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection and Turn-A Gundam Part 1 through the same price mishap, but I cancelled the latter in favour of Anime Limited’s early bird as the difference was below £3.
#08 | Date A Live: Rio-Reincarnation
Next we have another video game but this time it’s actually on offer. I decided to pickup the Date A Live: Rio-Reincarnation visual novel collection through Idea Factory Europe because there was a weekend offer on the game for £13.99 plus postage so I figured why not.
I can technically start the game but I do need knowledge of the anime’s second season if I want to fully finish the visual novel games though.
#09 | Plus-Sized Elf volumes 4-5
The final batch of items arriving for the month of October is another manga pickup. I decided to get up-to-date with the English physical releases for Plus-Sized Elf and they arrived just before the end of the month which is a relief. Like World’s End Harem, I used Blackwells to receive the manga volumes and they took a bit longer than usual on the delivery.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Birthday Wonderland (CE Blu-ray & DVD)
- KonoSuba: God’s Blessing in this Wonderful World! Season 1 (CE Blu-ray)
- Mysteria Friends (CE Blu-ray)
- Spiritual Kung Fu (Blu-ray)
- Sword Art Online: Alicization Part 1 (CE Blu-ray)
- Tamako Market & Love Story (CE Blu-ray)
Additional Notes
Meanwhile in the Real World
And that concludes the month of October 2020. The Uncertainty zone I mentioned in the August 2020 update still continues as the situation with the UK is getting worse. I am going to do my best to find a job but chances are that it may not happen until 2021. The support that I have gotten from many users through my Amazon affiliate links has been very appreciated also.
What’s to Come for the Hauls
November Arrivals
November is going to be another packed month thanks to a combination of delays and sales. MVM is currently running a Halloween 20% off sale across all of the items on their Anime-on-Line retail store so I have acquired a few titles already; Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious limited edition, My Hero Academia Season 2 collection and My Hero Academia the Movie: Heroes Rising. I may get more but it depends on how much spare funds I have available for this quarter.
Also from Manga Entertainment for November is ARIFURETA: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest limited edition which will maintain the order through United Publications as it’s almost available.
From Anime Limited’s pre-orders we have Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering With You deluxe edition which was just recently delayed from 2nd November to 30th November due to QC issues with the packaging that was spotted by the distributor. Violet Evergarden collector’s edition is also making an appearance on 30th November which is getting a pretty nice release and content not included in the US & Australian releases.
Also arriving in November potentially is Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection collector’s edition and Turn-A Gundam Part 1 collector’s edition. The former is with Amazon thanks to their pricing being incorrect and it’s surprising that both SAO and Tamako were both honoured in the end. That being said I played it safe with Turn-A Gundam by switching to Anime Limited’s store in the end, and just like WWY the set has also been delayed from 9th November to 7th December, but the distributor may dispatch it in time for the November haul.
From the Asian Cinema catalogue I have pre-ordered Shaolin Wooden Men from 88 Films’ webstore which is scheduled for 9th November but may ship early just like the previous film did. 88 Films also has New Fist of Fury scheduled for the end of November so I plan to order that when it is available.
December Arrivals
In December which is far away but worth mentioning are a couple more Anime Limited releases with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Part 1 collector’s edition, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED HD Remaster ultimate edition, The Promised Neverland Season 1 collector’s edition, and Turn-A Gundam Part 2 collector’s edition. With these new titles combined with what is in store for the Christmas sales and Christmas itself is pretty much going to end the year with a massive haul incidentally.
Other Tidbits
And that’s practically it for the current upcoming items. Now to recap what I had mentioned last time, I am prioritising mainly on the big titles that are more likely to sell out and it looks like (at the time of this write-up) that I was able to get a majority of them sorted. But there’s still many to go.
For Asian Cinema I am still interested in supporting the 88 Films first print editions for their Hong Kong titles, because the amount of effort is done really well and they are aiming to acquire more titles that are much harder to get. Remaining for my collection is John Woo’s Heroes Shed No Tears, Jet Li’s The Master, Jackie Chan’s New Fist of Fury and The Young Master. The Young Master could get delayed but recent updates suggest it may keep its December window. From Third Window I am interested in getting their recent films as I mentioned previously but I am in no rush to get them compared to earlier in the year. That being said, I’ll probably add Shinya Tsukamoto’s Gemini to the Christmas list if the opportunity is there.
In terms of anime, Anime Limited will reveal their December home video slate in the next couple of days and my wallet is screaming. Fortunately I was able to predict some of the bigger titles early on (Demon Slayer, The Promised Neverland, Sword Art Online Alicization and Violet Evergarden) but there’s still many more to get. At the moment I don’t think there’ll be too many big titles scheduled for the end of the year due to production delays and the Christmas rush so if anything the remaining December titles might just be standard re-releases or complete series collections for the Christmas sales.
Manga Entertainment is a challenging one as they have been receiving non-stop delays due to Funimation and production issues. I was able to sort out ARIFURETA and Cautious Hero, but Dr. STONE is stuck in the middle between holding off or getting it day one. I will probably make a decision soon for that show. Meanwhile there’s the recently released titles that I have yet to get but with Amazon price-matching Zavvi on some titles I might be able to get a few but that’s tentative plans at the moment.
Video games is an area I haven’t spoken about for a while and the main reason comes down to the fact that I have hit a point where I am not too concerned about them at the moment. That being said there was the issue with Utawarerumono but it was a rare case. I will probably get a few more titles before the end of the year but no clue on which ones though.
Books is a challenge in itself but I am making some progress in terms of the Ghost Ship & Seven Seas catalogue. Plus-Sized Elf is now up-to-date until its next volume in December, World’s End Harem is roughly up-to-date with one volume recently released not too long ago and the next due before the end of the year. I am still behind on other titles like Monster Musume and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs but it’s all about timing and pricing. There are other titles that I would like to start collecting but it’s quite stressful when the distributor loves offering low print runs and they won’t bother reprinting them unless they’re big sellers.
That concludes the latest haul in this update. The November 2020 haul will happen as well so stay tuned for then.
The Normanic Vault 