Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of November 2021. This update features 5 anime titles, 4 physical video games, and 5 live-action Asian cinema titles.
For this month’s haul, payday arrived and the chaos begins. Books take a break for the first time in over a year but in return we get a few surprise items out of the way!
#01 | Bullet Girls Phantasia, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone DX and Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Sessions!
The first items of the month came from two import packages! One from Solaris Japan and another from Play-Asia.
From Play-Asia is the Asian English release of Bullet Girls Phantasia which is the price-cut version though it’s basically the exact same package. This is a game that has been on offer from time to time and I ordered it because the Gold Coins that were on my account were expiring so I figured I’ll use them up on this particular game.
From Solaris Japan are the Japanese releases of Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone DX and Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Sessions! which I have finally acquired after being available since late 2017. It’s taken me this long to import both of them due to high costs of the physical releases. I already owned the digital version of Project DIVA Future Tone but this physical release has almost all of the content on the disc which is neat. Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Sessions! is also playable in English as it came out in the west and in Asia around the same timeframe. Much like my PS3 import package, no customs for this order.
#02 | One Cut of the Dead: Hollywood Edition and Pink Films Vol. 5-6
Next we have two Japanese film collections from the Arrow Video Halloween sale. I would have ordered more but I put some funds aside just in case Our Last Crusade dispatched early on. Arrow titles always go on offer so I focused on Third Window Films, and I decided to go for two releases that were limited in stock than the others.
The first is One Cut of the Dead: Hollywood Edition, which is a new release of the film that also includes a spin-off called One Cut of the Dead in Hollywood. The distributor confirmed that spin-off wouldn’t be released on its own but this sale was a good opportunity to get the film for a solid price.
The second is Pink Films Vol. 5-6 which includes Women Hell Song, the fifth and final film in the Pink Films remaster collection, and Underwater Love, which is a more recent film and is one of Third Window’s older titles now on Blu-ray. Worth noting that Underwater Love‘s bonus features did not make it over to this release so it’s worth keeping your DVD copy if you own it.
#03 | BOFURI Season 1
A few months ago my pre-order for BOFURI Season 1 was cancelled because Funimation didn’t provide enough stock for the series. At the same time, the US limited edition also went out of print. This could have been avoided but it is what it is.
Since I now had more income, I decided to acquire the UK version that was available on eBay for over SRP though the seller did lower the price a bit so that roughly reached the range I was willing to spend. Fortunately it arrived in very solid condition considering the glue stickers can cause damage and the price I paid.
#04 | Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World Season 1
Arriving at the same time as BOFURI was Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World which I decided to import from North America because I didn’t want a repeated situation of what had happened with the former.
Considering the lack of news on the UK side and how whenever they finally decide to bring the series over to the UK it’s just a standard Blu-ray, I decided to import the US version of this fantasy series. It’s a rather nice box though it’s large because the fabric poster is inside the set and they reused the same artwork for the back cover and spine of the set which is a bit lazy. Other than that, the booklet is pretty good.
#04 | AKIRA 4K, Bungo Stray Dogs Season 3 & Bungo Stray Dogs: DEAD APPLE
Next we have a Zavvi package as part of their 35% off Funimation UK releases. I may do another order later but we’ll see.
The most notable is the 4K Ultra HD limited edition release of Akira which is now my third copy of the film (I own it on Blu-ray & DVD). This is the second print version that has the HDR disc, since as you may knew already they forgot to include HDR in the first print. Unfortunately, much like some folks had with their recent UK exclusive sets like Wicked City, my Akira copy has glue dot problems so the back cover is damaged but luckily had no ripped artwork from the looks of it.
Also arrived is Bungo Stray Dogs the Movie: DEAD APPLE and Bungo Stray Dogs Season 3 on Blu-ray. Now I own all of the currently available instalments for the franchise since Season 4 is airing next year.
#05 | PlayStation 5
Probably one of the biggest surprises for the whole year. I somehow managed to get a PlayStation 5 and I only started searching since the 5th of this month. The problem with these stock drops were that a majority occur during working hours so I miss out on them a lot, but sometimes they can often appear very early in the morning at around 7-9am. The original plan was to go for a bundle from GAME because they had a variety but out of nowhere Amazon did a stock drop just before I drove off to work.
Amazon’s website is a challenge because of the 503 error when you try to add the console to your basket, but if you actually go to your Amazon phone app and already have the console in your wishlist, you can immediately get the console added to your basket and checkout like normal. That’s how I was able to secure the console. In other words, if you have Amazon Prime and are trying to get the console, when the stock drop happens just use the phone app and don’t bother with the website.
Now, the console exists which is good, but it’s bloody huge. I had to use the stand design to make sure it fits next to my TV and the other consoles. Currently I have temporarily moved the PS3 away as I needed to move save data from PS4 onto PS5. I don’t own any PS5 games outside of Astro’s Playroom which is pre-installed, but it’s worth getting the PS5 for the better performance. I acquired the PS4 a few months before the PS4 Pro was released so I never had the extra enhancement experiences like 1440p/1800p/2160p resolution or higher framerates for those games.
#06 | Beyond the Two Infinite Minutes, Melancholic & The Taste of Tea
I had enough points to get £10 off the next Terracotta Distribution website order, so I acquired three recent Third Window Films releases. Junta Yamaguchi’s Beyond the Two Infinite Minutes (Droste no hate de bokura / ドロステのはてで僕ら), released only a few days ago in the UK is considered one of Japan’s best films in the past decade and was recommended by the director of One Cut of the Dead.
Then we have two films that came out on Blu-ray last year – Seiji Tanaka’s Melancholic (Merankorikku / メランコリック), a 2018 film that Third Window Films considers to be one of the best released in Japan during that year, and Katsuhito Ishii’s The Taste of Tea (Cha no Aji / 茶の味), a 2003 cult classic that Viz Media did release in North America and is one of those bizarre ‘oh Japan’ films that might intrigue many people.
#07 | Full Metal Panic! Fight! Who Dares Wins
Last item of the month (due to more delays with other titles), is Full Metal Panic! Fight! Who Dares Wins, a strategy RPG based on the events of Full Metal Panic! anime (mainly Invisible Victory I believe).
For some reason, this game had always been quite hard to find for Bandai Namco Asia’s line-up and when available is usually stuck around £55. Play-Asia did manage to receive more copies, but in this instance someone on eBay was selling the game so I went for that route.
I managed to win the game at £35, but upon arrival had the delivery package ripped with Royal Mail doing their ‘sorry this package was fucked’ add-on note. The good news is that the game was new, sealed and not damaged at all.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Akira (LE 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
- BOFURI Season 1 (LE Blu-ray)
- Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone DX (PlayStation 4)
- Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World Season 1 (LE Blu-ray & DVD)
What’s to Come for the Hauls
December 2021
December is going to be a large month for hauls, due to sales and the Christmas batch. Though there may be a few pushbacks so be warned on that. Currently expected to arrive in December are the following:
- Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Armour of God (Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Code Geass: Akito the Exiled (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Death Parade (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Fate/Apocrypha Box Set 1 (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Fate/Apocrypha Box Set 2 (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Fate/EXTRA Last Encore (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Fate/Grand Order -First Order- (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Neon Genesis Evangelion (Ultimate Edition Blu-ray)
- Nichijou: My Ordinary Life (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- ON-GAKU: Our Sound (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray & DVD)
- Penguindrum (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Sword Art Online Alicization -War of Underworld- Part 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Sword Art Online Alicization -War of Underworld- Part 2 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! Season 1 (Limited Edition Blu-ray & DVD)
More titles are planned so keep an eye out for any new additions. Due to work, unboxings will be held on the weekends with some exceptions (as I do have to work once a month on the weekend as well lol). I should mention that delays can happen at the last second, but there will be at least one of these showing up.
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)
February 2022
Also originally planned to arrive in November but has been pushed back into February 2022 is another Anime Limited release. The distributor said this was to add a few more pages to their booklet.
- Black Lagoon (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
Other Tidbits
November haul was large due to a few things; a PlayStation 5, a few high priced Funimation LEs, and also additional add-ons for my shelves. Payday will arrive a bit early in December due to the weekends but expect more large items to arrive in the coming weeks.
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
The 12 Days of Christmas 2021 sale was revealed and so have the 11 Early Bird titles. Of those 11, 9 are ones I am interested in acquiring (three are in fact double-dips): Belladonna of Sadness (4K Ultra HD version), Blood-C, Boogiepop Phantom, Cardcaptor Sakura, El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, Kaiba, Kakegurui, My-HiME, and Seraph of the End -Vampire Reign-.
I already own Belladonna of Sadness but this time it’s a UHD upgrade which makes sense as the film was restored in 4K. Blood-C I own the Region A Funimation release which I liked enough to upgrade but hopefully the packaging and price is good enough to be worth grabbing their 500 unit only Ultimate Edition. Then we have Seraph of the End which I own the Universal release, but knowing Anime Limited they may end up using the Funi masters though this set will come with the Sawano Soundtrack OST CD.
As for the rest of the items that could go on offer. I’m not expecting much but there will be a few that I am after, those being Bartender, Children of the Sea, The Dragon Dentist, K Season 1, MEGALOBOX, Ride Your Wave, and Summer Days with Coo.
Funimation (UK & US)
Plunderer‘s UK limited edition got pushed back once again, now due for January 2022. Big oof. I am pretty much now leaning to the US version as I mentioned in the previous month haul update, though I’ll sort it out in January.
The US branch did announce a limited edition for Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 1 as well as By the Grace of the Gods Season 1 which isn’t surprising (the latter is co-produced by Funimation). The UK branch haven’t said anything yet.
Aniplex
I have acquired more Aniplex titles that are expected to arrive in December, so pretty much what’s left are the more recent stuff that came out from late 2020 onwards.
The big exception is Mahouka, aka The Irregular at Magic High School, which is apparently going to be getting an English dub so I’m curious to see if Aniplex will re-release it or not. They have yet to do the same for Kaguya-sama so far.
The main ones left to acquire are Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia Box Sets 1 & 2, Fate/Grand Order Divine Realm of the Round Table Camelot: Wandering;Agateram, and Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace note. Once these are sorted, I might acquire their other titles (Magia Record: Madoka Magica as an example) but it depends on who’s going to take over on the UK release since that’s a big deal on whether I opt for the expensive releases or not.
Light Novel & Manga
Books took a bit of a break for November, but for December I aim to do another batch, both for the regular haul as well as the Christmas haul.
Video Games
So. PlayStation 5 has been acquired, in a surprise move that I did not plan at all. I basically got lucky thanks to Amazon. This does mean that I can now acquire PS5 games from here on. One PS5 game will be joining the Christmas batch so far, but prices will be a factor on whether they can get picked up sooner as they’re more expensive than previous generations.
I do still plan to get a Nintendo Switch OLED but I’m probably going to save it for 2022 at this rate due to needing to focus on other things.
Looking at how many is left to acquire, PS3 has a few left which are mostly Japanese imports. The digital side will have another focus potentially in December but chances are I’ll save it for January instead.
The PS4 still has around 50-55 games left to acquire for the collection in terms of Japanese titles (localised & imports). Of that number, 5 are from Asia and 10 are from Japan. I do plan to get Western developed games as I know some have asked about that, but the Japanese games took priority due to their limited print runs and (for most games) their niche appeal.
For PS5 there’s already 14 Japanese games released (1 of which is from Japan), but I’ll be focusing on the older generation more. I would like to get a few Sony developed games like Demon’s Souls, Ghosts of Tsushima, Returnal and Spider-Man: Miles Morales but price is again a factor.
And that’s basically it for the November 2021 haul. A lot of bigger items in this haul, but December will have probably as many as last year so stay tuned on that.
The Normanic Vault 