Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of June 2022. This update features 6 anime releases, 4 light novel volumes, 23 manga volumes, 9 physical video games, and 4 live-action Asian cinema releases.
This month’s haul includes the annual Birthday haul but also some pre-orders finally getting dispatched from various distributors.
Neptunia ReVerse and Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars
More Idea Factory games join the collection. Starting off with Neptunia ReVerse, a PlayStation 5 remake of a PlayStation 4 remaster of a PlayStation Vita remake of a PlayStation 3 game. This is basically the definitive version of the game with 4K resolution and 60FPS gameplay as well as a new Arrange Mode for those who already finished previous versions and instead of 3 characters in a party its now 4. The trophies are also different but will take as long as the previous one.
Then we have Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars, though in this case I just have the standard edition PlayStation 4 game. There is a Day 1 Edition but Idea’s store didn’t have one and it was at a price-range that was doable to get.
The Killer Meteors
Keeping the Asian Cinema collection going, the latest 88 Films release arrived with The Killer Meteors (風雨雙流星), a 1976 Hong Kong film directed by Lo Wei and the late Jimmy Wang Yu, and also starring Jackie Chan. Just like the other releases, the first print edition has a slipcase, poster and booklet.
Blackwells Manga Haul Part 1
So at the beginning of June I made a pretty sizable Blackwells order consisting of a whole bunch of Viz Media manga, though unfortunately they are being dispatched at different times.
The first two volumes to arrive for this batch were Fire Punch Volume 4 and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Volume 6.
Ni no Kuni and Trials of Mana
Next we have another batch of video games which have been on my radar for a while.
The first to arrive was Trials of Mana, the remake of the previously Japan only Super Famicom game by Square Enix. I still have Secret of Mana to play but I felt it made sense to get the sequel in case prices go up.
Then we have Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered from Bandai Namco. While I do own the original PlayStation 3 version I actually did not get the chance to play that one, so I figured I may as well jump straight to the remaster.
Blackwells Manga Haul Part 2
Next we have the remainder of the manga volumes ordered from Blackwells, as they arrived separately over the course of a few days.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Volumes 4, 5 & 7 appeared, with Volume 5 arriving later than the other two. I remember these volumes going in and out of stock, so I suppose I jumped in at the right timeframe to keep the series going.
Fire Punch Volume 3 also arrived. Surprised this came after Volume 4, but at least I now have half of the series acquired. Hopefully I can eventually get the remainder of the volumes in the next month or two’s hauls.
And last but not least we have Pluto Volumes 7 & 8, with Volume 8 arriving first. This is also noteworthy as these are the final two volumes I needed to complete the Pluto manga series. And it’s interesting that I picked up the first volume back in 2014, so it did take a while to eventually get the rest.
Future Boy Conan Part 1, In/Spectre & Lupin the Third Part 5
Three Anime Limited collector’s sets arrived at the same time, which is nice to see. These were pre-ordered months ago and arrived in time for this month’s haul.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Future Boy Conan makes its UK debut with Part 1 of the series available in 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack and collector’s packaging. For now we just have a box, but as noted Part 2 will have a booklet when that ships out in the coming months. The 4K Ultra HD disc also includes support for French audio and subtitles.
In/Spectre Season 1 is an interesting series. Has pacing issues but overall is a good time, and I look forward to what the second season has to offer. The UK release has a new author and won’t be the same as the Viz discs.
The adventures of Lupin & the gang continues in France with Lupin the Third Part 5. The UK release combines Discotek’s discs with Anime Limited’s packaging, and that is always the best outcome. The booklet is good, has a lot of artwork but the good stuff is on the discs themselves.
Failure Frame
Another Isekai light novel series for the collection, and the first one from Seven Seas’ Airship label and in their current sized format. Failure Frame had my curiosity and so Volumes 1 & 3 arrived. Volume 2 was ordered with them, but unfortunately Amazon lost the package so I never got it, so that’ll have to be ordered elsewhere.
Alice in Borderland
The live-action adaptation was so much fun that I wanted to check out the OVA anime version of Alice in Borderland, and MVM shipped them out ahead of schedule so it’s here finally. Really curious to see how it turns out.
27th Birthday Haul
It’s the annual Birthday haul! I turned 27 and while I am getting older, this is also the first year where I have a stable job to go alongside it and the people at work were also nice with free ice cream, a card and some chocolates. It was unexpected but I really appreciated it considering the hard work I put into the role.
So for this haul it’s just like the previous years where I like to get a bit of everything to have some variety.
For anime, we have Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent on Blu-ray uncut for the first time in the UK. Released last year, I finally own the collector’s edition set MVM released. I did watch a few episodes a few years ago at my University’s anime society but I will likely start from the beginning. The show’s opening song is also great.
For manga, we have the first volumes for three different titles from the VIZ SIGNATURE label. The first is Naoki Urasawa’s Asadora! which is the latest work from the author known for Monster and Pluto. I’m actually going into the series blind but something about the covers has me curious to see how the story progresses. Next we have Satoru Noda’s Golden Kamuy, and I love the anime adaptation a lot so I wanted to get the manga since it’s now wrapped up. There have been stock issues so it may be a while before I can catch up on the volumes. Last but not least there’s also Yuji Kaku’s Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku, which has an anime incoming so I want to check out the series before the stock gets eaten up as the series grows in popularity.
For light novels I decided to focus on continuing a few titles in the collection. These are Natsume Akatsuki’s Combatants Will Be Dispatched! with Volume 2, and Kugane Maruyama’s OVERLORD with Volume 9. OVERLORD is worth noting that this volume wraps up the rest of its third season anime coverage, which is handy if I want more prep to get into the show’s fourth season.
For Asian Cinema, just one film but it’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Creepy (クリーピー 偽りの隣人) from the Eureka Masters of Cinema series on Blu-ray. I could have gone for his other work Cure but I believe there was a new restoration in Japan so I’m expecting a re-release to happen. Regardless I do want to build the Kurosawa collection as Eureka has released a fair few from the director.
And for video games, we have two remastered video games for the PlayStation 4. The first is Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster, and I’ve played a bit of this from the PS2 Classics version released on PlayStation 3. I know the remaster hasn’t had the best treatment but it’s nice to play the game on modern consoles. Next we have the Yakuza Remastered Collection, which has Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5. The games play even better now and it’s also the first time I will own Yakuza 5 in a physical disc format, since the PS3 version was released digitally outside Japan because at the time the franchise did not have the support that it has now.
Overall a fun variety of titles! I also received a whole bunch of chocolates and a few shirts. And a Mario mug.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
A few months ago I played the demo for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin and I surprisingly enjoyed it and it’s also the first portion of the game so that was handy. Eventually Amazon did their mini promos where you get a discount for doing something and in this instance it was listening to a podcast. With the discount and the game slowly going down in price, I decided to pick the game up.
The Shaolin Plot
Another martial art film for the Eureka Entertainment collection with Huang Feng’s The Shaolin Plot (四大門派), which also stars Sammo Hung. It’s always nice to see so many Hong Kong films that you just don’t know about until these Blu-ray sets appear, and happen to feature actors you recognise.
Travelling Man Haul
As I had a few days off work, I went to York for another trip to the Travelling Man store. This time I picked up 9 Viz Media volumes for £66. The order was also split into two payments to get the best deal thanks to the staff who suggested it. While I could have bought more, there were a lot of titles that just didn’t have the right volumes or stock available so I’ve made another online order to fill in the blanks.
First up we have more JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders with Volumes 9 & 10, which are the concluding volumes in the series. That just leaves me with Volume 8, which is one of the books I’ve ordered online to complete the series. I actually wasn’t planning on finishing the series until next month, but there’s no harm wrapping it up sooner.
Next we have more Shonen Jump manga volumes with Black Clover Volumes 9 & 10, and The Promised Neverland Volume 4. The store also didn’t have Volume 8 for the former so I have also ordered it online, while the latter series will have more volumes acquired later in the year.
Next is the VIZ SIGNATURE manga volumes with Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku Volume 2 and Maison Ikkoku Volume 2. Both of these also had stock issues but as they’re relatively new titles I’m in no rush to get them later, though I do want to complete Hell’s Paradise before the anime airs to avoid big stock issues.
Last but not least we have a new manga series for the collection with Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volumes 1 & 2. Yep that’s right, we have (in rimuru tempest voice) ELFU. But this series has become pretty popular in recent years, and I expect there will massive stock problems if an anime adaptation gets greenlit so I’m getting them now to avoid the hype.
Overall, we have a nice haul! Will I go to the store next month? Probably not, unless a friend wants to see me in person. I think the store needs more stock on the Viz front before I visit again. The additional benefit for getting the volumes in-store is that with their member card you can get some discounts which I always manage to get because I buy a lot of volumes at once with them.
Violence Jack
Surprise I have bought a Discotek Media Blu-ray release that just came out (or should I say a month early!) with Violence Jack. Violence Jack is one of those classic anime that I wanted to check out for years, and this is the perfect release to do so since it is now uncut and uncensored. It’s also Go Nagai’s most notorious work so the fact that Discotek was able to find the materials to make a proper HD Blu-ray release is nuts.
When it was brought over to the UK decades ago, it had to have numerous scenes cut by the BBFC (and Manga even cut some out themselves and it still needed cuts lol), so I suggest going for the US Blu-ray release at this point. If a UK release did happen, probably half of the cuts will likely be waived but I still expect some to remain.
Black Clover, Frieren & JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Vols
After the last batch I had done from my York trip I wanted to acquire the missing volumes to that haul. So with a quick online order I received Black Clover Volume 8, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 3, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Volume 8.
Stardust Crusaders is a notable one, as I now own all of the volumes for that series, which I originally had intended to sort out for July’s haul. Now I haven’t yet decided when I’ll start picking up volumes for Diamond is Unbreakable (which is Part 4 of the whole series), but I do intend on completing that before the end of the year and it’s one volume less than Stardust Crusaders so that’s handy.
Resident Evil Origins & Resident Evil 4 HD
With the news that Resident Evil 4 Remake is happening and is out in 2023, my interest in the franchise came back and since then I’ve been watching playthroughs on YouTube of various people using randomisers which has been a lot of fun. That said, other than Resident Evil 4 digitally and Resident Evil 5 physically on Xbox 360, and Biohazard Chronicles HD Selection physically on PS3, I actually don’t own the re-releases that came out on PlayStation 4.
Therefore I decided to get Resident Evil 4 once again but in physical form. I really enjoyed the game when I played it years ago but now was a good time to own a physical copy. Resident Evil 4 was my first proper venture into the franchise, though I did watch the live-action films around the same time. I was well aware of the franchise growing up but this game was where I was able to experience the game without worrying too much of the horror aspects.
So with time passed and the remakes doing well, I figured I should revisit that horror aspect by also acquiring the Resident Evil Origins Collection for the first time. This collection contains the remasters for Resident Evil 0 and the remake of Resident Evil, both that originally debut on Nintendo Gamecube back in the early 00s.
As I have not played the original games, this is going to be an interesting experience because they are different to the current games in the series. The mainline games prior to Resident Evil 4 had a proper emphasis on horror and survival mechanics like limited saves and situations where you have to choose between using up your ammo on an enemy or save it for a much tougher situation afterwards – choices that determine how you survive the game. That said, I am concerned about the limited save part as you could technically screw yourself over if you don’t know how long the game will be, so I may play both of these classic games on an easier difficulty.
The Seventh Curse
While I have pre-ordered a lot of 88 Films titles through Amazon, since my Birthday was close to the release of Nam Nai Choi’s 1986 film The Seventh Curse (原振俠與衛斯理) I decided to order through 88 Films’ store once again. Now I used to order through their store, but they changed the setup which meant you had to pay for shipping and their orders don’t start until much closer to release, so it made the other retailers more appealing to acquire.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Future Boy Conan Part 1 (CE 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
- In/Spectre Season 1 (CE Blu-ray)
- Lupin the Third Part 5 (CE Blu-ray)
- Paranoia Agent (CE Blu-ray)
What’s to Come for the Hauls
July 2022
This month will have a large batch of anime if they end up arriving on schedule. These include Cardcaptor Sakura, Emma: A Victorian Romance Season 1, Future Boy Conan Part 2, HELLO WORLD and The Quintessential Quintuplets Season 2.
For other items, the final volume of Chainsaw Man Part 1 is expected to arrive in the early weeks of the month, and Trapped in a Dating Sim light novel volume 1 is planned for the middle part of the month.
August 2022
In August we have a few anime currently planned from the UK & US sides, with Anime Limited’s Emma: A Victorian Romance Season 2, Crunchyroll US’s Combatants Will Be Dispatched! and Sentai’s Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? III.
Also planned are two films recently delayed by a week or two, therefore slipping into August with Running Out of Time 1 & 2 and the Tiger Cage Trilogy. These will join the 4K Ultra HD release of Dragons Forever.
September 2022
For September, we have another batch of anime limited editions with How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Part 1 from Crunchyroll US, as well as El-Hazard: The Alternative World, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor and Violet Evergarden the Movie from Anime Limited.
Also arriving are 88 Films’ deluxe limited edition releases for On the Run and Righting Wrongs.
Other Tidbits
I now have two more rows for my bookshelf that’s dedicated to the light novel and manga volumes. The shelf is getting packed as expected but I have tweaked the positioning so that there’s room for the larger-sized books.
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
I don’t have much to say about the anime side of things that I haven’t said already in previous discussions.
Anime Limited will be revealing their July line-up in a couple of days, but it looks like Gundam and Jujutsu Kaisen Part 2 will likely show up to the batch. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see some of the recent film theatrical titles like Pompo the Cinephile receive a home video release in the coming months, since North America has that sorted.
Discotek Media is going to keep on rolling with their titles as per usual, and it looks like Crunchyroll titles are indeed taking part in their limited run as seen with Holmes of Kyoto and Aho Girl. There was a recent sale on Rightstuf but I turned it down because it was still cheap to grab them via United Publications at the current exchange rate.
MVM has interesting catalog Blu-ray titles planned for later in the year (GONZO titles like Samurai 7 and Witchblade) but we won’t know much more for a while.
Books
In June alone we have finished acquiring JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders and Pluto, which was unexpected but nice to sort out. Chainsaw Man is wrapping up in July, and Fire Punch is expected to be the next one likely to be sorted as there’s four more volumes remaining to acquire.
If stock issues don’t get in the way, I plan to do another batch of manga volumes as usual and ideally I would like to get a lot of the catalog titles that I started buying years ago to be completed or almost up-to-date by the end of the year. Titles like Master Keaton, Monster and Terra Formars as examples.
That’s it for the month of June 2022. I’m just going to have to get used to the fact that these hauls are getting larger to the point that it’s just normal for me now. Ironically I apparently spent less in June than I did in previous months.
The Normanic Vault 
Leave a comment