The Normanic Vault

Otaku Collection Haul for October 2021

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of October 2021. This update features 2 anime titles, 7 manga volumes, 3 physical video games, 14 digital video games, and 1 live-action Asian cinema title.

For this month’s haul, I have decided to go for a bit of everything! From books to digital games and even an upgraded TV. Yeah it’s quite random, but the hauls will gradually get larger over time.

#01 | Star Ocean: First Departure R and The Last Hope 4K

I don’t usually bring up digital games for my hauls but I wanted to make a good mention for these two. I enjoyed Star Ocean: Til the End of Time and found Star Ocean: Integrity & Faithlessness to be decent, and I’ve been meaning to check out more of the games in the series for a while.

Recently, there was a Big in Japan sale on the PlayStation Store and that included two of their titles; Star Ocean: First Departure R, a remaster of a PSP remake of the original Super Famicom game, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope 4K & HD Remaster, a remaster of the Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3 game. Both were about £8 each so I figured why not.

#02 | Death Mark and NG

The first physical items of the month are two visual novel games I ordered directly from Aksys Games’ store. Death Mark and NG are part of the Spirit Hunter series and they were pretty expensive across all retailers except the publisher’s own store which was interesting to see, but doing so saves me about £30. Each game costed about £20 each plus postage.

#03 | Anime (Un)Limited Magazine: Scotland Loves Anime 2021

Next we have a free book coming from Anime Limited as part of their Anime (Un)Limited membership. This magazine is focused on the recent Scotland Loves Anime festival in Edinburgh and Glasgow featuring the latest anime films including Mamoru Hosoda’s BELLE, Pompo: The Cinéphile, SHIROBAKO the Movie, and many others. It’s an interesting magazine.

#04 | Digital PS1 & PS2 games on PSN

About six months ago I acquired a whole bunch of classic PlayStation games from the PlayStation 3’s PlayStation Store because at the time Sony planned to close the store completely, which would have meant more inaccessible games and harder to get classic titles. They eventually postponed those plans due to backlash but there’s always a chance they will eventually get back to it in the future.

Because it’s been a while and now that I have proper income, I decided now was a good opportunity to do another batch, once again focused on the NTSC US versions. I’ve acquired the following as a result of this batch:

  • The Adventures of Cookie & Cream (PS2)
  • Arc the Lad II (PS1)
  • Arc the Lad III (PS1)
  • Breath of Fire IV (PS1)
  • Chulip (PS2)
  • Dino Crisis 2 (PS1)
  • Grandia III (PS2)
  • Growlanser: Heritage of War (PS2)
  • The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PS1)
  • Parasite Eve 2 (PS1)
  • Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity (PS2)
  • Tokobot Plus: Mysteries of the Karakuri (PS2)

Some of these PS2 games weren’t actually considered earlier in the year because of limitations, however some of the planned games I had in mind (Chrono Cross & Legend of Mana on PS1, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence & DOA2: Hardcore on PS2 as examples) are no longer happening mainly due to higher chances of them being re-released on modern platforms.

#05 | Fire Force Season 1

In a two-part haul, I finally acquired the Fire Force anime series, more specifically its first season. I have been meaning to pickup the show ever since it was released last year, however it had been delayed due to two reasons; the uncertainty on whether the show’s second season would receive a limited edition and another is due to cost as I would have to import the second half due to the UK not getting the limited edition.

Arriving first was Part 1 which came from Amazon UK which surprisingly still had its slipcase. Admittedly I could have gotten this for a cheaper price earlier in the year but I didn’t want to wait any further. Then came Part 2 which was ordered first but arrived a few days later, also from Amazon UK. It was the price drop for the limited edition that made me decide to get the series finally at this point and while the delivery package wasn’t the best the item itself survived for the most part.

#06 | LG C1

In a surprise move, the first step to upgrading parts of my collection went to the TV. Basically I have owned a 2010 Sony Bravia 32″ LCD TV for as long as I have started getting into anime, which is well over 8 years now. It’s gotten to a point where newer consoles are best played on the modern devices that have features like 4K resolution and High Dynamic Range.

In case there were any potential stock issues in the coming weeks, I made the decision to get the LG C1 48″ OLED 4KTV earlier than initially planned. While I don’t have a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player in my room (it’s in another location), I will be able to access Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Netflix on higher resolutions as well as Dolby Atmos & Vision which is pretty handy. Getting the TV will also prep me for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X later down the line.

#07 | Toshiaki Toyoda: 2005-2021

It’s been a while since I had acquired any Third Window Films titles and recently their next big release was another box set dedicated to Japanese director Toshiaki Toyoda. I own the Early Years box set which was really good as well as the director’s most known film Blue Spring which was different but also interesting.

Now we have Toshiaki Toyoda: 2005-2021 which comprises of six Japanese films from his career, from 2005’s Hanging Garden, 2011’s Monster Club and 2012’s I’m Flash all the way to the Resurrection Trilogy from 2019, 2020 & 2021 with Wolf’s Calling, Day of Destruction, and Go Seppuku Yourselves. The trilogy films are all under an hour in length as well.

I’m very happy to own this box set because it offers another batch of interesting films that help bring more people to checking out his work and considering how its been said that the Early Years didn’t sell as fast as they had hoped, the fact that a second box set happened is a miracle in itself. It’s 2000 units only but I hope it does well enough for the distributor to tackle similar projects like the upcoming Nobuhiko Ōbayashi Anti-War Trilogy box set.

#08 | Yusibu

Next in the anime batch is another MVM Entertainment release with Yusibu, also known as I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job. It’s a series that I have been meaning to check out for a long while and recently MVM made it available as part of their Deal of the Week for £14.99, and considering their recent offers generally don’t show up during the Christmas sales I decided to get it now just in case.

#09 | How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? Vol. 1-4

Considering I really enjoyed the anime, it’s no real surprise that I would pick up the manga source material for How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? with Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4 now finally acquired. It took well over a year to actually try and pick up the volumes for this series, because ever since Amazon delisted the first few volumes the stock in the UK was very low so it became harder to acquire. Eventually Blackwells had all of the volumes in stock so I ordered the ones that were released in English before 2021, and price-wise each one was about £7.99.

#10 | Monster Musume Vol. 15

Also ordered alongside Dumbbells was Monster Musume Volume 15 which arrived at the same time as one of the volumes for the former. I’ve been meaning to get the series up-to-date and I decided it was time to order the remaining volumes as soon as possible to save myself a lot of time and hassle, especially considering the prices are pretty good at the moment.

#11 | Sisters Royale

A while back I discovered a shoot em up game that was released in the west with a limited physical release for £25.99 standard and £42.99 limited editions. Both sold out many months ago, but this is a Japanese game and it was also available to own from Japan. That’s right, I imported Sisters Royale (シスターズロワイヤル 5姉妹に嫌がらせを受けて困っています) from Japan and it costed me about ¥4,671 (~£30) with shipping and VAT included.

Now I ordered it expecting to receive the game, and not only did it arrive in a pretty big box but the game’s artbook and original soundtrack CD was also included. So I got a pretty good deal out of this. Also to make the order even better, the game also has full English support so the story and menus are translated. A DLC code also came with the physical copy and worked also.

Also this game is developed by Alfa Systems, who have worked on a variety of genres including Castle Shikigami 2 (shoot em ups), Elemental Gearbolt (light gun), and Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines (RPG).

#12 | Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers Vol. 1 & Monster Musume Vol. 16

The final batch of the month is the remainder of my Blackwells order which arrived on the last Saturday of the month, just before the month was over. The two items were Hitomi-chan is Shy with Strangers Volume 1 and Monster Musume Volume 16. The former just recently got released in English this year while the latter is the latest volume available in print (Volume 17 was pushed back into 2022 for its English release). In other words, Monster Musume is now finally up-to-date and it’s quite surprising that I managed to get Volumes 7-16 in a single year looking back at it.

Unboxing Links

You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:

What’s to Come for the Hauls

November 2021

November, the month where the hauls will actually start to increase. We have a lot of anime arriving in this month due to constant delays affecting them. A few new additions have also been added:

  • Black Lagoon (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Bullet Girls Phantasia (Asian English PlayStation 4 game)
  • Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Arcade Future Tone DX (Japanese PlayStation 4 game)
  • ON-GAKU: Our Sound (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray & DVD)
  • One Cut of the Dead: Hollywood Edition (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World (Limited Edition Blu-ray & DVD)
  • Penguindrum (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Pink Films Vol. 5-6 (Blu-ray)
  • Sword Art Online Alicization -War of Underworld- Part 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Taiko no Tatsujin Session de Dodon ga Don! (Japanese PlayStation 4 game)

I should mention that delays can happen at the last second, but there will be at least one of these showing up. The video games were supposed to arrive during the October haul, but were shipped pretty late than expected however they are all expected to arrive during the first week of the month.

Also currently planned is an expansion to my bookshelves. Last year I got a new shelf which is great but because my collection is growing faster than expected, I will need to acquire add-on rows for the existing shelves. In addition, I plan to replace my old bookshelf with another Billy bookcase with add-on rows to keep the book collection going.

December 2021

The Christmas season is going to be as large as the previous year I reckon. But for now here’s what’s currently arriving in this month:

  • Code Geass: Akito the Exiled (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Death Parade (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion (Ultimate Edition Blu-ray)
  • Nichijou: My Ordinary Life (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Sword Art Online Alicization -War of Underworld- Part 2 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)

January 2022

Originally planned to arrive in November, the distributor confirmed the Christmas season pretty much got booked up so production has been delayed:

  • Josee, the Tiger & the Fish (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)

Other Tidbits

So October’s haul was affected by a bit of turbulence with the funds. I did get paid but only for the last two days of September as I started late in the month. That said, I will get the full October pay in early November, so that’s why the next haul will be better. UC money concluded as a result of finally finding employment but it’s not the full amount due to the job start mid-way through the period.

Moving on to the discussion of hauls as I always do with each of these monthly round-ups, there’s been some progress at least.

Anime

Anime Limited

Anime Limited offered a few interesting titles for pre-order throughout October, but November is going to be a smaller batch due to the incoming 12 Days of Christmas season! This is weird because I actually own most of their titles so I’m not expecting to buy much outside of the early bird pre-orders. That said, the fact they’re releasing Josee, the Tiger & the Fish before the Funimation release is actually quite surprising, though it did get delayed to January 2022 due to the Christmas season taking up the slots of the production.

I know Cardcaptor Sakura is being worked on, and it would not surprise me if they decide to make the show available for pre-order either in November’s early bird or as one of the early bird slots in the Christmas sale. The same also goes for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny HD Remaster.

On another note, apparently they announced acquisitions of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna and Lupin the Third Part 6 at MCM Comic Con though barely anyone attended the convention these days and thus had little to zero news coverage (which is why I didn’t make an Anime UK News article on it because there’s not enough info).

Funimation (UK & US)

Funimation continue to monopolise the industry, but they are offering some interesting releases here and there. The UK branch is focusing more on UK produced special editions with titles like Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, Death Parade, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, and Nichijou: My Ordinary Life on their way. I do have three of these pre-ordered as I am actually interested in owning them in this way, though I am curious to see if they do manage to reach their December release window.

Plunderer‘s limited edition got pushed back once again, and considering the distributor is killing the stock on these delayed editions I will be importing the US version because I can’t be bothered to take the same risk that I did with BOFURI at this point. Interestingly Part 2 of the series is rated 18 in the UK.

The US branch haven’t announced any special editions for January 2022, so I reckon the rest of Q1 to early Q2 is going to have some big hitters. The only big candidates I can think of at this point are Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Black Clover Season 4, Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki, By the Grace of the Gods, Dr. STONE: STONE WARS, Fruits Basket: The Final, Higurashi: When They Cry GOU Part 2, Horimiya, Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table, Moriarty the Patriot Part 2, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Part 1, My Hero Academia Season 5 Part 1, The Quintessential Quintuplets 2, and Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies moved to a starter town?. Yeah that’s a lot, so if you’re a fan of any of these then it’s best to start saving up right now.

Aniplex

Aniplex is still around and they announced more box sets for once. They have scheduled Fate/Grand Order: Camelot Wandering; Agateram, which is the first of two films adapting the mobile game’s Camelot arc, for December alongside Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train. There’s also The Irregular at Magic High School: Visitor Arc in late November with the English dub so it’s bizarre that the first season has yet to be dubbed.

Now that I have proper income, I can now get straight into getting Aniplex up-to-speed for once. My plan is to acquire Fate/Apocrypha first because the original sets may get discontinued to make way for a complete series box set which Japan has now just released. After that it’ll probably be Anohana and Fate/Grand Order -First Order- since those are pretty old at this point.

Light Novel & Manga

Seven Seas

Looking at the manga side of the collection, there’s still a whole bunch of 2021 volumes to acquire but everything before that has been picked up that I was interested in, with the exception of To Love Ru and To Love Ru Darkness which was on the backburner because it was a risky pickup due to potential stock problems as there were a lot of volumes for both series.

How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? joins the collection with Hitomi-chan is Shy with Strangers coming soon also! And there’s more to come if I can get more space for the book collection.

Looking at the light novel side of the collection, apparently Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash‘s second light novel volume may be back in print, so I might be able to continue the series after all. Other than that there’s still a fair amount of volumes to get, which is taking its time due to pricing and stock issues.

Yen Press & Viz Media

I still plan to grab more light novel volumes but it’s taken a bit of a backseat for now. I might do another batch of backlog volumes in November but I won’t promise much at this point, especially as we are approaching the sales season for other media.

Viz is an interesting one because there are a lot of titles I want to acquire, but its their titles that are always often going out of stock. The SIGNATURE titles seems to stay in print more but we’ll see how it goes. If there was a title I would prioritise next, it’ll be the current titles I have in my collection like the Urasawa works Master Keaton, Monster and Pluto as well as TERRA FORMARS. JoJo will eventually happen lol.

Video Games

I still plan to get a Nintendo Switch OLED but because there are a few bigger items I am after, I am going to delay plan to acquire the new console until either Black Friday or in December. Originally I was going to order it in October, but I realised my payday for the early days of work was actually smaller than initially expected. In addition I would like to prioritise the PlayStation 5 due to stock issues but it’s a matter of how I can acquire the console is the question, since a lot of these surprise availability stocks tend to be during working hours.

Looking back at the older generations, the PlayStation 3 has a select number of games left to acquire, both physically and digitally. On the digital side, we have the PlayStation & PlayStation 2 Classics which is now one step closer thanks to the batch I did earlier in the month. The remaining games include the likes of Disney Pixar’s Toy Story 2 & Toy Story Racer, Intelligent Qube, Kula World, Wild Arms, and a vast variety of Japanese PS1 imports which would be too long to cover. Some of the games I mentioned are only available on the PAL store so I’ll grab them through there.

For physical PlayStation 3 releases, I got a bunch acquired earlier in the year after Sony attempted to close the PSN stores, but there are a select number of Japanese imports I would like to own. I ordered Dungeons & Dragons back in Spring because it was one of the most expensive imports on my list and wanted to get it out of the way sooner than later. The rest from what I have checked are doable but it’s all about timing in the end. The games I want to acquire include Everybody’s Golf 6 (for a physical PS3 copy), Sakigake!! Otoko Juku, Samurai Warriors 2 HD Collection and a few titles from the old branded label with Boku no Natsuyasumi 3, The Last Guy, Miyasato Miyoshi Kyoudai Naizou: Sega Golf Club, and Mobile Suit Gundam Senki Record U.C. 0081.

The PlayStation 4 still has tons of games to pickup, and it’s fortunate that the PlayStation 5 is backwards compatible with them as well as adding additional enhancements like better frame-rate and resolution when available. Honestly I can go for any of the games on my list but I might focus more on the imports just to get them out of the way. Full Metal Panic! Fight! Who Dare Wins for instance is technically out of print, in contrast to the likes of Gundam or Japanese releases of Ace Attorney and CLANNAD which are still available despite being released years ago.

Asian Cinema

Arrow recently ran a Halloween sale which meant most of their titles were on offer. However, it’s somewhat of a bad timing because I didn’t have enough funds to go for many of the films on offer. I did however go for One Cut of the Dead: Hollywood Edition and Pink Films Vol. 5-6 because they were more limited than the other titles from Third Window Films’ range. Like technically I do have the funds, but there’s a slight chance that one of my anime pre-orders could dispatch next week which would require most of my funds essentially.

That said, I did manage to get the Toshiaki Toyoda: 2005-2021 box set beforehand thanks to a pretty solid offer from Terracotta’s store. I do plan to pre-order the Nobuhiko Obayashi Anti-War Trilogy so that we could hopefully get more of his works into the UK, which is due for December. Also there’s the film Beyond the Two Infinite Minutes which I have heard is really good.

And that’s basically it for the October 2021 haul. I did mention before that this would be a weird batch of titles, which is why I mentioned the digital pickups along the way. November is expected to be much larger, and hopefully I can keep that level of pickups going for the coming months.

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