Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of April 2022. This update features 14 anime releases, 23 manga volumes, 3 physical video games, and 2 live-action Asian cinema releases.
This month’s haul introduces Discotek Media Blu-rays to the collection, as well as another venture into town to help build up the book and video games collection.
#1 | Chainsaw Man Manga Volume 9
The first item for this month’s haul arrived on the first day. Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man Volume 9 arrived from Amazon and was one that I had pre-ordered because the series is very popular to which there can be stock issues. The series is 11 volumes long in terms of the first part of the story (the second part starts in Japan later this year via Shonen Jump Plus), so I’m almost there!
#2 | Bakuon!!
Another Deal of the Week addition to the collection from MVM with Bakuon!! on Blu-ray. I’ve heard it was a decent series when it first aired so I decided to wait until it was on sale to eventually pick it up.
#3 | Dragon Ball Z Seasons 7, 8 & 9
After acquiring each batch of seasons since February, we finally have the last third of Dragon Ball Z with Seasons 7, 8 & 9 via Manga Entertainment (before they rebranded as Funimation, before they rebranded again as Crunchyroll). Just like the previous sets these are packaged with a slipcase, poster and artcards. Going forward the next shonen series to acquire will likely be Yu Yu Hakusho but I will look into the rest of the Dragon Ball Z films along the way.
#4 | GAME Video Game Haul
In GAME they finally had a new variety of games available in their store and looking at their 3 for 2 pre-owned list I found a few to pick up for the collection. Total price overall for these three games was £28.
The first was Bandai Namco’s Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions, which wasn’t on my radar but for the price I figured why not. It’s a football game based on one of Japan’s classic manga franchises. It is interesting that despite the lack of availability for the anime and manga in the west, the game managed to get brought over.
Then we have Atlus’ Persona 5 Strikers, which is still cheap online but the in-store copy was a bit cheaper. I still have yet to start Persona 5 Royal but I do plan to get these games sorted before the year is over if I have the time that is lol.
Next we have SEGA’s Valkyria Revolution, which is controversial for being different to Valkyria Chronicles but the game had been going up in value so I made the decision to look into acquiring it sooner than later.
#5 | Travelling Man Manga Haul
Before heading off to the cinema I visited Travelling Man for their manga selection. While I spent £88 on 13 Shonen Jump volumes in January’s batch, this time I spent £69 on 13 Shonen Jump volumes. The difference here was that there were more volumes in the 3 for 2 Viz Media deal than before!
Starting this batch we have Tatsuki Fujimoto’s CHAINSAW MAN Volume 10, which I had pre-ordered through Amazon but that wasn’t going to ship out until May so I decided to get it in-person since it just came out.
Next we have Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen Volumes 4, 7, 8 & 9. Similarly to before, they didn’t have Volume 6 in the store so I had to get that elsewhere. They did have Volume 4 so I got that one sorted at least which is handy considering the stock issues online (and the same goes for Volume 9).
For new additions to the collection I acquired two more series! The first is Tomohito Oda’s Komi Can’t Communicate Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4. They didn’t have Volume 5 in stock but I was fine with just the first four volumes in the series. This is a very popular manga series and with the anime airing I figured now was a good time to start buying the volumes considering the stock issues that would appear.
Also joining the collection is Hajime Kōmoto’s Mashle: Magic and Muscles Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4. I’ve been interested in this series for a while, which is part of Weekly Shonen Jump, and it was one of the few in the store that had the first couple of volumes available so I chose them.
Overall another successful haul. Out of the lot, only Chainsaw Man Volume 10 wasn’t part of the deal because it was a brand new title. I am disappointed the store didn’t have any Black Clover volumes other than like two, and both Kaguya-sama & We Never Learn were also missing their earlier volumes so I couldn’t get any of them. Other than that, each volume’s price were £7.99 and the rest were included in the 3 for 2 offer.
#6 | Anime Limited Easter Haul
A couple of days later, Anime Limited’s Easter sale haul had arrived. I had very little expectations with this sale but to my surprise they did include a couple of anime that were released late Summer so I figured now was a good time to grab them. While I mention the prices below, I should also mention they provided a 15% discount for the first order for members of Anime (Un)Limited so I saved a bit more than expected.
First we have the trainwreck series Big Order, which is a Crunchyroll x Kadokawa title with a Discotek authored disc x Anime Limited packaging. Yes, this series got the best treatment for the best experience. Price for the set was £24.99 but with Anime (Un)Limited I got it for £22.50.
Next we have a double-dip release with Love Live! the School Idol Movie. I own the Japanese Blu-ray limited edition but since the UK collector’s release has the dub and was cheap I figured I may as well get it to complete the Anime Limited Love Live collection released so far. Price for the set was £14.99 but with Anime (Un)Limited I got it for £13.50.
Then we have Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System, a three-film collection which is pretty good and got a very nice UK release. The disc is authored by the same folks who worked on InuYasha and Josee for those curious. Price for the set was £24.99 but with Anime (Un)Limited I got it for £22.50.
#7 | Discotek Media Haul
It took a number of years but I finally made the decision to order a bunch of Discotek Media Blu-rays which arrived today from Rightstuf. It wasn’t cheap as it costed $243 (£186) and $90 of that cost went to shipping, customs and insurance.
This is the first of many that I plan to do throughout 2022, because there are a lot of acquire. As I mentioned before, Anime Limited tend to grab titles that Discotek have released which is why I held off on a lot of their titles, but I figured there’s no point waiting forever. For this haul we have 6 anime titles on Blu-ray, all of them are encoded for Region A of course but they have been tested to ensure there are no dead discs.
Starting off with the 1991 shoujo series Dear Brother. The series has a limited licensing window but I made sure it was among the first titles I would pickup. The first disc is a bit loose due to the Blu-ray case choice though.
Then I acquired a couple of Go Nagai anime. One of them is the cult classic 1987 & 1990 OVAs for Devilman, known for its infamous English dub which is included of course. Then we have the 1998 series Devilman Lady, which was animated by TMS. The series is also known as Devil Lady and I am very interested in checking this one out since I don’t hear much talk about this instalment of the franchise. Alongside these two I also acquired the 1994 OVA series New Cutey Honey, also known as New Cutie Honey. I watched the newer series Cutie Honey Universe when it first streamed, but I heard this one is the best of the bunch.
The 1995 anthology film Memories was also picked up! From Katsuhiro Otomo with Kōji Morimoto and Tensai Okamura also directing one of the stories. The film also includes an English dub (which sounds really damn good from the trailer) and revised subtitles. This is a Sony license and since it was released in the UK under Sony I felt Anime Limited probably won’t be able to get it anytime soon so I decided to opt for the US release while its available.
And last but not least we have the 1987-89 films for Saint Seiya! I did watch Netflix’ CG remake as my entry point for the franchise but I knew it wasn’t accurate. Then recently I played the Soldier’s Soul game and was even more interested in the franchise. Would be cool if Discotek were able to release Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas on Blu-ray before they officially gave up on the franchise for the 3rd-4th time.
Overall I’m pretty pleased with this haul, but there’s still hundreds of Discotek titles left to get.
#8 | Booty Royale & Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? Manga Volumes
Keeping the ecchi manga collection going as well, I also picked up more titles from Seven Seas and their Ghost Ship label. Both of these are new additions to the manga collection so I will have to collect the volumes as they are released like the others.
First up we have Rui Takato’s Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight! (Hagure Idol: Jigoku-hen), which has been released in Omnibus format, so I have Omnibus 1 & 2 which cover Volumes 1-4. Despite the title I have heard the series gets pretty interesting as you go along.
Next we have Mikoto Yamaguchi’s Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? (Tamarowa) Volumes 1 & 2. The artwork is actually what got me interested in this series and apparently there’s only 7 volumes in total, so it does make it easier to acquire for the collection. Interesting the author also wrote Tomodachi Game which has an anime airing currently.
#9 | Dreadnaught & Knockabout
Keeping the Hong Kong film collection growing for Eureka Entertainment, two of their releases just came out during the latter half of April. The two films are Yuen Woo-Ping’s Dreadnaught (勇者無懼) from 1981 and Sammo Hung’s Knockabout (雜家小子) from 1979. Both of these also share consistency with their other recent martial art releases as the spines and slipcases share a similar design.
#10 | Blue Giant, GIGANT & Jujutsu Kaisen Manga Volumes
Picked up a couple more manga volumes. Starting off with Jujutsu Kaisen Volume 6 which is now back in stock in recent weeks so I picked it up while it was available. Basically need Volumes 10+ now which I can save for Travelling Man if I need to.
Next we have GIGANT Volume 6 which had finally gone down in price that wasn’t SRP level. I had a look at the release schedule and it seems the remaining four volumes will all be out this year so that’s neat.
In addition to the on-going manga, I also picked up Blue Giant Omnibus 1. This is a well-received jazz manga series and Seven Seas recently wrapped up the releases as there were only 10 volumes across 5 omnibuses overall. There is an anime film in the works but I wanted to own it first.
#11 | WONDER EGG PRIORITY
Arriving just before the month was over, Wonder Egg Priority came and its a pretty decent limited edition package. Just like previous Funi limited edition sets, I also pre-ordered the set from United Publications for £35.74 plus postage (though I know a lot of users got it for even less via Amazon due to a price-glitch). I did notice they re-used the standard edition artwork once again. The show overall is good, but does have a pretty bad conclusion due to rushing and strange plot choices at the last second, so while I do recommend it to people I wouldn’t prioritise it from other shows in your backlog.
#12 | GANTZ Manga Volumes
The last batch of the month is GANTZ Omnibus 6 & 7, which cover Volumes 16-21 of the sci-fi seinen manga series from Hiroya Oku. Surprising that I’ve almost caught up with the Omnibus releases but I figured I’ll get it sorted sooner than later. Omnibus 8 is available while Omnibus 9 is not yet released but I’ll see if I can get both together later this quarter.
#Bonus | Evangelion Replacement Disc
And like a few folks here, the replacement disc for Neon Genesis Evangelion arrived today. This has the subtitles that were missing in the live-action deleted scene for End of Evangelion that was featured on that bonus disc. I will say though, the fact that Anime Limited haven’t been public on this disc replacement scheme is rather baffling and quite insulting to the UK community who spent £180-200 on this release. If you are someone who owns the UK release and wants a replacement, you’ll need to contact Anime Limited directly on their website (like the Contact Us form) which is what I did.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Big Order (CE Blu-ray)
- Love Live! The School Idol Movie (CE Blu-ray)
- Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System (CE Blu-ray)
- Wonder Egg Priority (LE Blu-ray & DVD)
What’s to Come for the Hauls
May 2022
May so far will provide a mixture of items to the collection.
For the anime collection we have Funimation’s Full Dive and HINAMATSURI limited edition releases, as well as Anime Limited’s Cardcaptor Sakura, Future Boy Conan Part 1 and Jujutsu Kaisen Part 1 collector’s edition releases if they do ship out on time.
From 88 Films we have Jackie Chan’s Half a Loaf of Kung Fu for the Asian Cinema collection.
For video games I have Super Neptunia RPG on its way for the PlayStation 4.
June 2022
For June we have a couple more additions to the mix.
Joining the anime collection are Mamoru Hosoda’s BELLE, In/Spectre Season 1 and Lupin the Third Part 5; all from Anime Limited and in collector’s/deluxe packaging.
Two more Hong Kong films will join the collection in June with 88 Films’ The Killer Meteors starring Jackie Chan and Eureka Entertainment’s The Shaolin Plot.
Also scheduled to arrive but later into 2022 are 88 Film’s newly announced releases of On the Run and Righting Wrongs. There are others but I am waiting to see if the price could go down first.
Other Tidbits
I am working too hard. Yep, April has been a long month for work and I should seriously book some holiday off at some point. I did receive a reward for the work I’ve been doing so far so I appreciated that.
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 Limited
Honestly at this point I have no idea what they have in store in terms of their schedule. Their previous monthly updates has had very few anime compared to before as they mostly re-used previous titles for early bird again. So far in 2022 I’ve gotten BELLE, Future Boy Conan Part 1, In/Spectre Season 1, Jujutsu Kaisen Part 1 and Lupin the Third Part 5 pre-ordered which sounds like a lot, but when you look at Anime Limited’s previous months you would expect at least 5-8 more new additions to the pre-order list haha.
Granted Anime Limited did license Heroic Legend of Arslan and re-issued Seraph of the End but I already own those as they’ll be re-using the Universal discs. There was also a Miyazaki documentary released on Blu-ray which is just a standard edition so I’ll be waiting for a good sale. Plus they had a whole month dedicated to Vinyl releases and another whole month dedicated to early birds of sets they revealed back in December.
Would be nice if they could release a whole month of early birds dedicated to Gundam though since it has been a while since they mentioned any, and we know Gundam SEED Destiny is on its way.
Discotek Media
Finally I had bought some proper Discotek releases. Feels weird considering I’ve been following the distributor for what seems like seven years at this point. Now I only have 6 of their sets when everyone else would have a lot more so it will take time to grow this publisher’s collection.
The issue with buying Discotek titles is that a lot of them could get released by Anime Limited so I’m going to try and be selective on what titles I think would be worth importing and has a lower chance of a UK license. For instance the Leijiverse titles (Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock: Arcadia of My Youth) are too niche while SD-BD titles like Fist of the North Star would be too expensive to bring over due to the UK ratings board, so there are a couple of good ones to import at anytime.
Speaking of which, Discotek has confirmed they will be introducing smaller print run releases on a couple of titles starting with Heart and Yummie and Holmes of Kyoto so I’ll need to decide sooner or later if I do want to own these or not.
Aniplex of America
So Aniplex is still around and have actually scheduled a few titles for once. Currently they have scheduled the rest of the Fate/Grand Order anime films that were released in recent years with Fate/Grand Order Divine Realm of the Round Table Camelot: Paladin;Agateram and Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity Grand Temple of Time: Solomon. There’s also The Promised Neverland Season 2 which I won’t be getting and SK8 the Infinity is a maybe depending on how it’s acquired in the UK.
The PlayStation 3 Games
So with Sony’s new PlayStation Plus service arriving in the UK in June, I noticed there was a bit of a resurgence in the interest of picking up physical PS3 games, and I figured there are still a fair amount left for me to acquire. Last year I acquired a good bunch like the Ratchet & Clank Future Saga games, both inFamous games, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Prince of Persia Trilogy, and a couple imports, but there are a still a few others that I didn’t yet order.
I have two Japanese imports ordered from eBay with Everybody’s Golf 6 and Samurai Warriors 3 Z, and due to factors beyond our control Solaris Japan can’t safely ship to the UK for the meantime so I’ll have to rule out other PS3 games to import in the meantime. That does leave me with local PS3 releases that I could look into like Bleach: Soul Resurrección, Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and if I’m lucky the Best of PlayStation Network Vol. 1 collection.
Now what about the digital library? Well classic PlayStation games are coming to the service and there are rumours that the option to buy them individually is possible but would depend on the licensor. So my plan is to hold out and see what’s happening on both the UK, US & Japanese line-ups as they get revealed in May to June as it would probably be ideal for me to play them on current hardware if the option to own them is there.
The PlayStation 4 Games
There’s still more PlayStation 4 games to get as per usual, but as I mentioned before if I haven’t already – there will be more games being developed or made available on PlayStation 5 so there would be less games to get on the previous console.
Games like Disaster Report 4, Fairy Tail, Neptunia x Senran Kagura Ninja Wars, Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne, Trials of Mana and Yakuza Remastered Collection are just a sample of games I still need to acquire.
The only issue is that my backlog just gets larger and larger but I suppose I still stand by my stance that owning them and playing them later is better than holding off and missing out on the release.
Manga
Manga is still a challenge to this date as apparently the demand for the physical volumes has risen in recent years which is why numerous titles keep selling out in stock.
The Seven Seas titles are the ones I have been acquiring because they are available, but Viz is like half available, half not which is a pain. Heck the box sets like Kodansha’s Quintessential Quintuplets and Viz’s One Piece Box 4 are both still out of stock and were barely available in the UK which isn’t fair.
On the plus side, I have been able to acquire most of the GANTZ omnibus volumes and are pretty much almost caught up with what Dark Horse have released so far, as there are at least 5 left overall and the 9th book is out pretty soon if out available already.
Speaking of Kodansha, I am interested in switching from the single volumes to the bigger colossal editions for Attack on Titan since they have 5 volumes in each edition and there’s only 7 overall so price-wise seems doable. There is the problem of shelf space but I reckon I can manage.
For Viz, Travelling Man in York has helped with the titles but to me it sounds like stock depends on the series and its popularity, so it may be worth me having to order volumes of Black Clover online while Komi-can Can’t Communicate is better in-store as an example. To recap, the reason I was able to get Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen books was because I went to the store in-person to get them and their 3 for 2 on Viz books had helped a lot on cost.
That’s it for the month of April 2022. Another good month of titles acquired and I am curious to see what May has to offer.
The Normanic Vault 