The Normanic Vault

Otaku Collection Haul for August 2022

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of August 2022. This update features 21 anime releases, 9 manga volumes, and 7 live-action Asian cinema releases.

This month’s haul includes a bunch of hauls that consist of multiple items, including the return of both Discotek Media and Sentai Filmworks, and finally the inclusion of Shaw Brothers films for the Asian Cinema collection.

Running Out of Time 1 & 2

The first arrival of the month is the Eureka Masters of Cinema Blu-ray release of Johnnie To’s Running Out of Time 1 & 2 (暗戰). As I picked up the director’s previously released works from Eureka (Mad Detective, PTU, Throw Down) earlier in the year, I immediately pre-ordered this collection. Arrow Video did release the films in North America but Eureka still do a solid job with their Hong Kong titles so I’m happy to stick with the UK release.

Rightstuf Birthday Sale Haul

Throughout July, Rightstuf held a big sale to celebrate their anniversary and since I now got a consistent job with good income I decided to use this opportunity to make another order. The order features 1 Funimation title, 2 Maiden Japan titles, and 3 Sentai Filmworks titles.

Starting off with the Funimation limited edition Blu-ray release of Fire Force Season 2 Part 2. It took a while to finally get my hands on this box set as I acquired the first season’s set back in October, but this sale provided a good offer considering the high prices as of late. I watched Season 1 during simulcast but didn’t do the same for Season 2.

Next we have the re-release version of Patlabor: The Mobile Police Collection on Blu-ray. This includes the ‘Movie timeline’ which consists of The Early Days OVA series (7 episodes), Patlabor: The Movie, Patlabor 2: The Movie, and WXIII: Patlabor 3, as well as the ‘Television timelime’ with the TV series (49 episodes) and The New Files OVA series (16 episodes).

Now this is a franchise that would make sense to receive a similar treatment from Anime Limited, but there’s two factors to making the choice to grab this set now – 1) MVM already released the OVAs which flopped in sales, so there’s no consistency, and 2) Maiden Japan branding is discontinuing so I expect Patlabor to eventually go out of print as well, so being able to grab this 15 Blu-ray disc box set was worth the money.

And then we have more Sentai titles. Sunrise’s infamous mecha series Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon had a rough time in the UK due to limited streaming availability and still no UK release so I decided to import, especially after Super Robot Wars V got me interested in the series. Another mecha series picked up is an older show with OLM & AIC’s GODANNAR!! which has some intriguing fanservice and character designs by Takahiro Kimura of Code Geass fame.

Then we shift over to fantasy with the J.C.Staff original anime film Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Arrow of the Orion, and I imported this because I wanted to keep the franchise consistent to one publisher (plus the film going on sale helped with the choice). And last but not least is a very very lucky purchase with TNK’s adaptation of Redo of Healer. As this is labelled 18+ despite not being a hentai series (though it has explicit scenes), it was delisted alongside Interspecies Reviewers and the hentai selection because Crunchyroll acquired Rightstuf & Nozomi (therefore the adult content had to be removed, but they will be made available via Ero Anime Store).

Combatants Will Be Dispatched! & DanMachi III

Two recent airing anime had both of their limited edition sets shipped out early through United Publications.

Starting off with the Crunchyroll limited edition Blu-ray release of Combatants Will Be Dispatched! which was a fun anime show from the creator of Konosuba. It’s a rather nice set with a neat lanyard, plus the booklet has some cool content included.

The main reason I went for the US version is that the UK branch has burnt so many bridges to which I just can’t be bothered with them, especially as I’m now in a position where I can afford the pricier sets (plus it was like a £15 gap between the two versions). It also doesn’t help that the UK branch hasn’t been particularly strong in the past year (especially when they cheapen out with the Amaray artwork in favour of the standard edition).

Then we have the Sentai Filmworks premium limited edition Blu-ray release of Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? III, also known as DanMachi III, which isn’t supposed to be out for a few more weeks. The set keeps consistency with the previous seasons, though I wish they could have added a few more items to make up for the price point. This set is also the reason why the shipping cost was pretty large which wasn’t fun.

Tiger Cage Trilogy

Initially supposed to arrive in July, the latest 88 Films deluxe edition release of Tiger Cage Trilogy (特警屠龍, 洗黑錢, 冷面狙擊手) arrived and looks great. The booklet has some nice information about the series, and we have each film housed in their individual slim black case. Apparently, the set was slowly selling out which is good for the distributor but can be worrisome for those who had not yet picked one up.

Anime Ltd Summer Sale Haul

The Anime Limited Summer sale haul happened and while I was initially not going to bother with the selection, I was going to consider any that were on my list to get for the collection, and what we got were three titles that I didn’t pre-order and now finally picked up. One of which didn’t even go on proper sale until this one (it did show up prior but it was a Mystery Box exclusive).

Released earlier in the year was Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon, which aired a couple of years ago is another Crunchyroll Kadokawa series that Anime Limited picked up for the UK, which is also using the Discotek Media disc. Then we have Studio Khara’s The Dragon Dentist, which is a two-episode special based on their short that was from their Animator Expo series. It is using the Sentai Filmworks discs but the packaging is nice, despite using their older design.

And then we finally picked up InuYasha Season 1, which is currently the only season released by Anime Limited so far as they don’t have the rights to the rest at this point. It is a better release than Viz Media’s which is a plus, so hopefully Anime Limited can get the rest.

Emma: A Victorian Romance Season 2

With the first season arriving last month, Emma: A Victorian Romance Season 2 arrived not long after from Anime Limited. Like before, this set has that really nice texture to the box and the booklet has some good content. Receiving this set does mean I now own the whole anime series which is neat.

HMV Shaw Brothers Haul

I took a trip to York and visited the HMV store for a specific reason – Shaw Brothers. For those who are out of the loop, alongside Golden Harvest (which has films featuring Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung etc.) there was a rival production company in Hong Kong called Shaw Brothers and they produced thousands of martial arts films and a bunch of other genres. They were very popular back in the day and a lot of their titles did receive a western release.

88 Films released a bunch of them but I missed out on their first batch of titles. However, they acquired a new batch which featured KUNG FU BOB’s artwork and had spine designs that didn’t match the previous sets (but were included on the other side of the slipcase for those who wanted consistency). I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get a hold of these titles because of the collection numbering, but I decided to go ahead if the slipcases were available.

So I got very lucky when the local HMV had slipcases for 9 of the 10 in this second batch, they were missing Disciples of Shaolin which was one of the two that did not have their slipcase in print. Regardless I picked up The Chinese Boxer (龍虎鬪), the first one from this second batch and another currently in its second print run (i.e. no slipcase). In addition I also picked up three that were released after Disciples of Shaolin but were among the oldest in this batch; The Flag of Iron (鐵旗門), Legendary Weapons of China (十八般武藝), and Monkey Kung Fu (出籠馬騮).

This basically left me with Shaolin Mantis, Hero, Human Lanterns, Martial Club and Flying Guillotine Part II. I do plan to get three titles from88’s previous batch before their redesigned spine layout (Come Drink With Me, The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, Clan of the White Lotus) though I know Arrow released the former two in North America which has different authoring. I won’t be getting the older releases as most are hard to find at this point and Arrow may include them in future ShawScope box sets like they did with The Mighty Peking Man.

Travelling Man Manga Haul

Also visited the Travelling Man store and picked up another batch of Viz Media manga, though my luck this time wasn’t great as they discounted the cheaper ones in the deal so I ended up spending more than I wanted, but the titles picked were good though.

First up, we have Alice in Borderland Volume 2 and Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai Volumes 2 & 3. Two more to continue the on-going releases Viz have started putting out.

Next we have a very popular series that has kept going out of stock. Goodnight Punpun Volumes 1, 2 & 3 are now in my collection, and they did have all 7 but I couldn’t afford to get all of them at once (and there’s not much space in my bag for them either).

And to round the haul off, we have Mashle: Magic and Muscles Volumes 5, 6 & 7. This series also recently got an anime adaptation so if it gets popular then the volumes will sell out more, thus I want to get the series up-to-date as possible.

Disciples of Shaolin

After making that HMV haul, I had to locate Disciples of Shaolin (洪拳小子) on eBay to secure a slipcase copy, as retailers were losing out on the first print edition and don’t really tell you, so it’s like a gamble. This film was the second release in 88 Film’s latest batch of Shaw Brothers content after The Chinese Boxer so it’s no surprise both of these films were sold out on their first print runs. That now leaves me with five more left in this batch which I plan to sort out later this year.

Discotek Media Haul #2

Been a couple of months since I last made a Discotek Media batch order so here we are with nine more additions to the collection. Due to the distributor’s warning that some stuff may discontinue to make room for other titles, the haul is a mixture of titles that have been released recently to all of the way back in 2017.

£266 ($321) worth of stuff – which is $69 more than what North American fans would have to pay, ranging from the classics all the way to dumb girl with banana show. I ordered these via United Publications because ordering from Rightstuf would cost about £50+ more due to high postage costs.

Actually I am…, a fun harem comedy series which went into a bit of a different direction from the manga but I enjoyed it when it was airing. This show was released by Discotek in 2017 and is one of their oldest releases on the format, so it was a surprise that it’s been reprinted with the new curved slipcase design.

Aho-Girl, from the creator of Girlfriend Girlfriend, a short series that I have been aware of for a while but now it’s gotten my interest thanks to the creator’s recent work. This was released in 2022 with a limited run of 2000 units so I got No. 1519.

Demon City Shinjuku, from legendary director Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Last time I watched a Kawajiri film was Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust years ago so its nice to own another classic of his. The film was released on Blu-ray by Discotek in 2020 and while I know it’s got the new curved slipcase design, sadly I got the original so I won’t match with Wicked City.

Holmes of Kyoto is a series that had me curious with the synopsis, so I decided to pick it up. It’s a different take on the mystery genre that Holmes are known for. Much like Aho-Girl, this series was released in 2022 with a limited run so I have No. 1492 of 1500.

New Getter Robo, part of the classic Getter Robo franchise and directed by Jun Kawagoe. Earlier in the year I played Super Robot Wars V and that featured some of the Getter Robo characters, their attitudes and how they fight actually convinced me to check out this franchise so I picked this one, which is a re-imagining of the original 1970s manga. Discotek released the series on Blu-ray in 2020.

Sorcerer Hunters is a classic 90s Xebec series and directed by Kōichi Mashimo. One of the many retro anime that I wanted to check out and is among the first that I own under the ‘Standard Definition on Blu-ray’ range. Video quality may not be great but at least the rest is better than the DVD experience. Discotek released the show in 2019 and was reprinted with the curved slipcase.

Star Ocean EX is an anime adaptation of Star Ocean: The Second Story from director Hiroshi Watanabe! With Star Ocean: The Divine Force coming soon, I figured I would check out this series from 2001. Much like Sorcerer Hunters, the series was also released on SD Blu-ray and is actually Discotek’s second release in this format after Fist of the North Star back in 2018. The release was also reprinted with the curved slipcase.

Submarine Super 99, from Leiji Matsumoto! A bit of a random pick to start with from the many works Discotek has already put out from the author but it’s a standalone experience which helps. Now there is a reason I picked this one first (despite being released in 2021) because I did some research and learned it’s the same licensor as the recently out-of-print J9 trilogy. Not saying it could discontinue immediately but there is a possibility so I wouldn’t rule it out.

Wicked City, another film directed by Kawajiri. A classic that was released during the Manga Entertainment UK era of violent anime. The UK release did not include the British dub, known for its language, so I opted for Discotek’s instead which came out in 2020. This is a film that I had been meaning to check out for years so I am looking forward to it.

And there we have it. 9 Discotek titles join the collection. There’s still 150+ more to get but I have to start somewhere.

Unboxing Links

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

What’s to Come for the Hauls

September 2022

There have been some release date adjustments, but currently all of the anime I mentioned in the previous haul update is still planned for the month of September. The titles are The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Memories, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, and Violet Evergarden the Movie. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Part 1 may also dispatch early and arrive in time for the September haul.

Also joining the September haul is Eureka Entertainment’s 4K Ultra HD limited edition release of Jackie Chan’s Police Story Trilogy. The set was selling out, so I got my order sorted through Eureka’s website. And 88 Films’ deluxe limited edition release of On the Run is still planned to be released without another delay.

October 2022

In the October haul we have Future Boy Conan Part 2 which was initially planned for July, and also 88 Films’ deluxe edition releases of Dragons Forever (4K Ultra HD) and Righting Wrongs.

Other Tidbits

Anime

Anime Limited’s early birds will return in September, and so far, they have started the batch with The Relative Worlds which I have yet to order. Crunchyroll have scheduled The Dungeon of Black Company and How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Part 2, so I plan to order those at some point, as well as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2.

But the big talking point for this haul update is Discotek Media. Their warehouses are getting full and their subtitled only content will be the ones likely to discontinue due to its nicheness and sale outcomes. I unfortunately missed out on the J9 trilogy, Dancouga, GoShogun, and Space Warrior Baldios so I want to avoid another situation like that again. At least I know that the moment another warning occurs, ordering immediately through Rightstuf is the only option to secure copies.

It doesn’t help that the currency exchange rate is getting worse in the UK which is just frustrating.

That’s it for the month of August 2022. A different approach due to receiving tons of items early on, but the variety of items will still continue into the next month.

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