Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of February 2022. This update features 7 anime releases, 1 book, 9 manga volumes, 6 physical video games, and 4 live-action Asian cinema releases.
For this month’s haul, more games have been picked up for the Nintendo Switch and more Hong Kong films arrive to continue growing the collection. There’s also some interesting and noteworthy additions in this batch.
#1 | Chainsaw Man Volume 4
The first item of the month is a continuation of the haul I made in January where I acquired a bunch of Chainsaw Man and now we have Volume 4 to fill the missing gap. I actually didn’t expect the volume to arrive this soon considering the stock situation for the entire series. That said, I now own all of the currently available physical English releases of the series, with Volumes 9, 10 & 11 remaining. I have pre-ordered them but there will be delayed in terms of UK arrival compared to the US.
#2 | Interspecies Reviewers
Next we have a random pickup but one that I decided to acquire sooner than later, and that is the limited edition steelbook release of Interspecies Reviewers from Rightstuf & Critical Mass Video. The price was not to my preference, but it had a better offering than Sentai’s approach on the steelbook front. This is not a barebones release at least, as there are a fair few amount of extras on the disc, though overall this is a Region A only set which was expected but disappointing considering the UK & Australia won’t get the series for obvious reasons. The steelbook also came with a book which is really neat, though I do wish they could have included character designs and interviews from the staff if those were available.
#3 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe & Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
We have more Nintendo Switch games thanks to a bundle Amazon UK did which included these two for £71.99 total – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Will be acquiring the DLC packs for both of these at a later point. I was actually concerned these would end up being the European copies but thankfully they’re not so that’s a great price overall, especially considering Smash Bros is usually pretty expensive to get.
#4 | GANTZ & GIGANT Manga Volumes
Next we have another batch of manga. Starting off with Hiroya Oku’s GANTZ Omnibus 3, covering Volumes 7-9. I’ve not yet read the previous Omnibus but considering I really enjoyed the first few volumes I’m probably going to wait until I own most of the series beforehand. Currently Dark Horse has scheduled up to Omnibus 10 this year, and there should be about 12 in total since the series has 37 volumes overall.
Also from Hiroya Oku is GIGANT Volumes 4 & 5. I did consider ordering Volume 6 also but the price was at SRP so I decided to hold off for a cheaper offer. This is also a 10 volume series so I wonder if Seven Seas will try to release all of it before the end of the year.
#5 | World’s End Harem & Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Manga Volumes
Keeping the world of harems going we have LINK’s World’s End Harem Volumes 11 & 12, which concludes the Part 1 of the story! From Volume 13 onwards its Part 2 aka World’s End Harem: After World, which Seven Seas has scheduled for later in the year though I suspect the volume releases will slow down since they pretty much almost caught up at this point.
If that wasn’t enough, we also have Tadahiro Miura’s Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 17. Making sure I’m up-to-date on acquiring the volumes for this series because I have a feeling Seven Seas will lower the print run on the later volumes due to its length. The series is 24 volumes long and Seven Seas are putting this series out quite fast so we could get all of the volumes before the end of the year at this rate.
#6 | Azur Lane
Considering this series had been going down in value numerous times, I finally decided to go ahead and pick up Azur Lane on Blu-ray. The price I acquired the series for was about £15 on Amazon. Despite the 18 rating, the series is uncensored for the UK and yes, the Blu-ray border on the slipcase is one of the few that was not quality controlled properly on the design stage.
#7 | Xenoblade Chronicles & Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Next up we have two well-loved JRPGs that were released exclusively on the Nintendo Switch and one of them is very expensive currently. Starting off with Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, which was readily available as it was released in recent years for about £40 and is a remaster of the original Nintendo Wii and 3DS versions. Then we have Xenoblade Chronicles 2 which was much harder to find at a suitable price range so I had to find a pre-owned copy on eBay to get one, also at the £40 range.
#8 | Dragon Ball Z Seasons 1-3
I have been meaning to watch the Dragon Ball franchise for years ever since I first started getting into anime. Unfortunately the show wasn’t available in the right format that I had wanted which was 4:3 and at the correct speed (since I live in the UK, we had PAL versions of the series on DVD which were sped up).
In recent years, Funimation re-authored Dragon Ball Z for their 30th Anniversary release which has its ups and downs – the positive is that it’s now presented in 4:3 format than the cropped 16:9 which was good, however in return the video quality is the same as their Orange Brick HD releases so the presentation isn’t perfect by all means.
That said, I went with this route as it was the most affordable and suitable enough version to own until an eventual proper HD remaster appears in the next whatever years that may or may not happen. For now I have the first three seasons acquired altogether from United Publications for £69 total. The aim is to order the next the rest in two batches.
#9 | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Similar to Xenoblade 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is also pretty expensive and is semi-hard to acquire because of stock issues. I was fortunate enough to find a copy through 365Games and thankfully it arrived despite the long working day shipping window it initially had. A lot of people have played this one in the series so I’m curious to see how it holds up.
#10 | Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon
Starting off the fourth week of the month is Lau Kar-wing’s 1990 Hong Kong film Skinny Tiger & Fatty Dragon (瘦虎肥龍) featuring Sammo Hung and Karl Maka, which was recently released on Blu-ray by distributor Eureka Entertainment. I’m a fan of Sammo’s films so this was a no-brainer to acquire. Much like the Millionaires’ Express release, the first print edition for this film also includes a second disc for I Am the White Tiger, a documentary by Lee Chiu centred on stuntman and martial artist Mark Houghton.
#11 | Black Cat
Next we have an 88 Films deluxe edition Blu-ray release of Stephen Shin’s 1991 Hong Kong film Black Cat (黑貓) featuring Jade Leung and Simon Yam. Considering I owned all of the special releases from 88 for the Asian Cinema line-up (outside of the Shaw Brothers collection, as I missed the window on those), I figured I would keep the consistency going by acquiring this film. The next Hong Kong film to get the same treatment is The Seventh Curse which is exciting.
#12 | Black Lagoon & Ride Your Wave
Then we have two packages arrive on the same day for the anime collection, both were released by Anime Limited. From Anime Limited’s store we finally receive Black Lagoon which was originally scheduled for late November but got pushed back just to add a few more pages to the booklet. The discs are the same as the first Funimation Blu-ray release but its nice to own the set in Region B format.
Then we have Ride Your Wave arriving from Zavvi after the set was discounted in price to about £15.99. I was hoping to acquire this film during the 12 Days of Christmas 2021 sale but it ended up being included in the Blue Mystery Box so I wasn’t able to get it until recently. My booklet in this set is defective but the goal was to own the collector’s set to match with the others from the director.
#13 | Duel to the Death & One Armed Boxer
After picking up Skinny Tiger & Fatty Dragon I decided to go back and order a few more Eureka Entertainment releases that are still available in their first print editions. Another reason is because the distributor has been using a consistent design for their spines so I figured I may as well collect them all when I can possible.
The two films that started this trope were Ching Siu-tung’s 1983 film Duel to the Death (生死決) and Jimmy Wang Yu’s 1971 film One Armed Boxer (獨臂拳王). The former is a wuxia film while the latter is another martial arts film so I’m looking forward to checking these films out.
#14 | Record of Lodoss War ~Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth~
Arrived almost at the end of the month is the physical PlayStation 5 version of Record of Lodoss War ~Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth~ from publisher REDARTGAMES. As I pre-ordered before 2022, my order also came included with the Japanese pre-order items that were translated into English by the publisher, which is a really nice bonus to have. I was originally going to import the Japanese version until I found out about this. Despite being shipped from France, no customs thankfully.
#15 | Destiny Lovers & Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Manga Volumes
I made another manga order, but this time through Blackwells which I hadn’t used in a while. Blackwells offers great prices but their shipping speed is pretty slow so it’s basically a case of patience but it can pay off pretty well.
Two of the four manga volumes arrived on the last day of the month. Those being Destiny Lovers Volume 8 and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volume 18. The former is the final volume for that series, though there is a sequel but Seven Seas have yet to announce the license for it as of the time of this write-up. The other is the current English release for the series so I’m up-to-date so far.
#16 | Go Straight: Guide to Side-scrolling Beat ’em Ups
The final item of the month is a big book from Bitmap Books, called Go Straight: Guide to Side-scrolling Beat ’em Ups. Much like the JRPG book last year, this one is dedicated to hundreds of video games from the side-scrolling Beat ’em Ups genre which is an area that I haven’t delved that much into but the publisher has provided a lot of great content so I wanted to pick it up and look through the games released from decades ago all the way to a year ago.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Black Lagoon (LE Blu-ray)
- Interspecies Reviewers (LE Blu-ray Steelbook)
- Ride Your Wave (CE Blu-ray & DVD)
What’s to Come for the Hauls
March 2022
March is going to be packed, assuming there’s no last minute delays.
For anime we have Funimation’s releases of Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 1, Isekai Quartet Season 2, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, and Yona of the Dawn. These may dispatch early but again depends on whether there’s no pushbacks. In addition we also have Anime Limited’s release of Cardcaptor Sakura and Josee, the Tiger & the Fish.
For manga we have Seven Seas releases of Hitomi-chan is Shy with Strangers Volume 3 and World’s End Harem: Fantasia Volume 6.
For video games there’s Gran Turismo 7 for the PlayStation 5 and also The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays, and Super Robot Wars 30 for the PlayStation 4.
For the Asian Cinema collection we have a bunch of Third Window Films titles due to an out of print notice so I have ordered Dolls, Getting Any?, Kids Return, Kikujiro, and A Scene at the Sea. Also arriving is their latest release which is Funky Forest & The Warped Forest. Also ordered are Mad Detective, Midnight and Odd Couple from Eureka Entertainment.
April 2022
April so far has a few items on order.
For anime we have Anime Limited’s In/Spectre release and Funimation’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train. I am expecting more to appear here due to incoming early birds but that will depend on what is being offered.
For the Asian Cinema collection the next batch of Eureka Entertainment films have also been ordered with Dreadnaught and Knockabout.
May 2022
Looking ahead there’s another batch that are on order.
For anime we have Funimation’s releases of HINAMATSURI and WONDER EGG PRIORITY, both of these are presented in their limited edition sets.
For Asian Cinema there is currently one title from 88 Films with Half a Loaf of Kung Fu for the Jackie Chan collection.
Other Tidbits
It has been five months since I first started working at this new job, and so far the feedback has been great. I am almost at a point where I can officially move on from how I felt about my first job back in 2018-2019, but again I just need to make sure I’m getting the work done as per usual.
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
In the coming days, Anime Limited will be revealing their next batch of early birds for the month of March. I expect a similar pattern to last year where there’ll be a surprise license to go alongside the expected titles. February was dedicated exclusively to Vinyl records so March should be back to the Blu-ray titles. Current predictions are either Future Boy Conan Part 1, Kakegurui XX, Lupin the Third Part 5 and 1 Gundam title.
BELLE and Violet Evergarden the Movie will likely show up at some point, but I’m expecting a holdback for the inclusion of the 4K Ultra HD format. In terms of my hauls, nothing major planned in terms of catalog pickups but I will grab any that go on a super discount if it does happen.
Anime | Funimation
Funimation’s latest limited edition releases that are currently US only (i.e. not getting brought over to the UK) are By the Grace of the Gods, Dr. STONE: Stone Wars and Full Dive so I’ll be pre-ordering/ordering them sooner than later. I am also expecting That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 2 to get the limited edition treatment as well but currently it has yet to be dated in the US.
Light Novel & Manga
The Seven Seas manga collection is doing pretty well, with one series completed and most are up-to-date. There is room to acquire other titles but pricing is a factor as their books are more expensive than other publishers (£12.99 SRP per manga is not cheap).
The light novel section for Seven Seas is behind though, as How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom has stock issues for the next two volumes I am after. Saying that Grimgar is back in print as I mentioned before, while ARIFURETA is still available last I checked (and only has 13 volumes in total, so that’s just 6 left to go!).
Yen Press’ light novel selection is super behind. I know I mentioned plans to get the books in batches last year but it looks like I have a better chance of doing that this year. Saying that it will depend on whether I want to start putting focus on that this soon again given there’s other things to acquire first.
Viz has stock issues as per usual, but if I do manage to take a trip to town I can make use of the Travelling Man to acquire more volumes from their 3 for 2 Viz selection, as seen with Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen in the January 2022 haul. JoJo is also included in that offer so that is handy for later use.
Video Games
I’m doing my best to get through my video game backlog but going forward the PS4 line-up will eventually slow down as more are being released onto the PS5 platform. There’s a few major PS4 games I ideally would want to order sooner than later, but you never know I could just order a bunch at once like I did in January with those Bandai Namco games.
As for the Nintendo Switch, this is a combination of stock issues and pricing because Nintendo doesn’t discount their physical games these days. I did get most of the bigger ones already but I will likely order a few more in the month of March.
Asian Cinema
So this is an interesting one as I have been delving more into the Asian Cinema line-up in recent months, Eureka specifically. The distributor still has a bunch of Hong Kong and Japanese films I want to own but it’s a case of timing and prices. That said, I do have their upcoming Asian films pre-ordered.
Third Window Films confirmed there are no other out of print notices for 2022 outside of the Kitano films so that’s good, but I will likely take the opportunity to grab more of their backlog in the meantime as there are still 10-15 films remaining before the collection is up-to-date.
That’s it for the month of February 2022. A great variety of items for this batch overall, and March 2022 is once again going to be a huge haul due to pre-orders.
The Normanic Vault 