Grav’s Complete Otaku Collection – 2022 Edition

Time flies by pretty fast and now we are approaching 2023. Nothing in particular hasn’t happened that much for me because all I’ve been doing is working as I was able to secure my position and will continue to work for the same business going into the new year. It is thanks to this job that I was able to acquire so much items this year alone, and that’s a good thing because as a collector I’ve been behind for years due to lack of consistent and proper funding.

2022 in general is a weird mix. We of course explored more anime but even that medium alone has seen a big change with Discotek Media titles now joining the collection. We also expanded the video games collection with the appearance of the Nintendo Switch and following on from late 2021 PlayStation 5 games were more prominent. We’ve explored more Asian Cinema titles like the Shaw Brothers catalogue, and for manga we go back to a few familiar publishers that I hadn’t explored much over the years.

2023 will also mark the 10th Anniversary of The Normanic Vault as I started the blog in April 2013 through Blogger which eventually shifted to unboxings over the course of that year. While I haven’t brought all of my older items onto this blog, I am happy with how much I’ve evolved with the post designs over the years. As such, welcome to the 10th complete collection update and enjoy the overall haul.

The only major change to the collection is that it’s getting full (to no surprise) and the old bookshelf that covered the books has been relocated to another corner of my room for the video games, while the books now utilise an IKEA Billy Bookcase just like the anime collection. I do have plans to upgrade the old bookshelf and replace it with another Billy Bookcase and if there’s enough room I will try and get an additional bookshelf to replace the glass case which would make it the last remaining slot for any extra space in that room.

Bookcase #1

For our first bookcase we have Anime Limited releases which have taken up almost all 8 rows available. The 8th row is mostly used for the other misc. items but for now I’ll go over what is new in this batch. I should note that I have relocated all of the 4K Ultra HD anime films into a separate row which you’ll see later in this post.

New additions for Anime Limited:

Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon
Big Order
Black Lagoon
Boogiepop Phantom
Cardcaptor Sakura
The Dragon Dentist
El-Hazard: The Alternative World
El-Hazard: The Magnificent World
Emma: A Victorian Romance Season 1
Emma: A Victorian Romance Season 2
HELLO WORLD
In/Spectre Season 1
InuYasha Season 1
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA
Josee, the Tiger & the Fish
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 Part 1
K: Seven Stories
Kaiba
Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler
Love Live! The School Idol Movie
Lupin the Third Part 5
Memories
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
My-HiME
PSYCHO-PASS: Sinners of the System
The Relative Worlds
Ride Your Wave

Like before, the bottom shelf is where I have most of my items that don’t have an exact place for them. The collector’s edition releases from MVM Entertainment cover roughly half of the space, while the remainder are a few thick DVDs, a couple Japanese imports and some books that came from different sets currently placed here due to space.

New additions for MVM Entertainment:

Haibane Renmei
Paranoia Agent

Bookcase #2

Now we are onto the second bookcase. Surprisingly I did not acquire any new Aniplex of America titles for 2022, and the main reason was because I was in a pretty decent position to not worry about them for a while. Granted there was another OOP batch in the past month but other than perhaps Nisekoi I can live without the others.

On the third & fourth rows, we have the UK standard releases from Crunchyroll, which was originally known as Funimation UK and Manga Entertainment UK. There was a bit of a push to get a various number of titles from the UK branch throughout the year, but with Crunchyroll no longer providing slipcovers for their Blu-rays there’s less peer pressure and little reason to buy the titles on Day 1, especially with the pretty poor SRP on select titles.

I also acquired a few Part 1 or 2 releases that are housed inside their limited edition box sets which I’ll mention in the other section later in this post.

New additions for Crunchyroll UK (Non-LE releases):

Azur Lane
Black Clover Season 2
Dragon Ball Z Season 1
Dragon Ball Z Season 2
Dragon Ball Z Season 3
Dragon Ball Z Season 4
Dragon Ball Z Season 5
Dragon Ball Z Season 6
Dragon Ball Z Season 7
Dragon Ball Z Season 8
Dragon Ball Z Season 9
Fire Force Season 2 Part 1 (not pictured, inside LE)
Gleipnir
Goblin Slayer: Goblin’s Crown
Hunter x Hunter (2011) Part 1
Hunter x Hunter (2011) Part 2
Hunter x Hunter (2011) Part 3
Hunter x Hunter (2011) Part 4
Hunter x Hunter (2011) Part 5
Isekai Quartet Season 1
Isekai Quartet Season 2
My Hero Academia Season 3
My Hero Academia Season 4
Plunderer Part 2 (not pictured, inside LE)
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle
Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 Part 1
Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 Part 2
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 1 (not pictured, inside LE)

Because the Crunchyroll UK releases were taking up a lot of space I decided to re-position the MVM Entertainment standard Blu-rays into another row. Due to the shifting of bookshelves I also placed the Universal Pictures UK anime sets and the Viz Media anime sets here for the meantime.

There were plans to acquire more MVM releases but my timing was off and some of them did get a re-release from Sentai so those UK sets eventually became redundant.

New additions for MVM Entertainment (Non-LE releases):

Alice in Borderland
Bakuon!!
Kandagawa Jet Girls
Killing Bites

On the sixth row a brand new distributor joins the collection, and it’s one that I should have added many years ago. Discotek Media releases are very interesting because they prioritise the on-disc experience over collector’s packaging and when available they also provide Standard Definition on Blu-ray releases for shows that don’t have a HD remaster. The journey with Discotek began in April 2022 and while I briefly stopped due to other things getting in the way, the sudden shock announcement of a few titles going out of print caused a panic for a lot of people and as much more titles began to discontinue.

I was extremely lucky for some of those discontinued releases, but ideally what Discotek has recommended is simply pre-order the titles that you want the most and acquire whichever is likely to discontinue next. The suggestions so far have been a niche series/film, subtitled only, or the title in question has been in print for so long (from DVD to Blu-ray) that their license window has come to a close.

Part of the reason why I held off on Discotek for so long is because Anime Limited licensed some of the titles that they’ve distributed which saves costs, but at the same time the window between the two can be as long as multiple years as seen with Kaiba and Magic Knight Rayearth. In the end, Discotek releases are not cheap to pick up but ideally once I am able to catch up it would get easier to acquire.

New additions for Discotek Media:

Actually, I am…
Aho-Girl
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku
Babel II
Black Jack the Movie
Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan
Blue Seed
Captain Harlock: Arcadia of My Youth
Crusher Joe
Crusher Joe the Movie
Darkstalkers: The OVA Collection
Dear Brother
Demon City Shinjuku
Devilman (1987/1990)
Devilman Lady
Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture
Fatal Fury: The OVA Collection
Fist of the North Star
Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!
Genocyber
Goshogun
Goshogun: The Time Etranger
Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret
Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret Purezza
Holmes of Kyoto
Machine Robo: Battle Hackers
Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos
Memories
Miss Machiko
New Cutie Honey
New Getter Robo
NG Knight Lamune & 40
Ninja Robots Tobikage
Nutcracker Fantasy
The Princess and the Pilot
Saint Seiya Movie Collection
Sister Princess
Sister Princess Re Pure
Sorcerer Hunters
Space Warrior Baldios
Space Warrior Baldios the Movie
Star Ocean EX
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
Submarine Super 99
Super Dimension Century Orguss
Tenjo Tenge
To Be Hero & To Be Heroine
Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer
Urusei Yatsura: Only You
Violence Jack
VS Knight Lamune & 40 Fire
Wicked City
Yowamushi Pedal
Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road
Yowamushi Pedal Re:RIDE & Re:ROAD
Yowamushi Pedal the Movie

Next we move to the seventh row which is where I have positioned all of the anime and limited edition Asian Cinema releases that are presented in 4K. Yep, this is the 4K Ultra HD collection for this part of the medium.

Also picked up but not featured in the photos are the regular 4K Ultra HD releases of Parasite and Ran from Curzon and Studio Canal respectively; which are in another area with Shadow.

New additions for 88 Films (4K UHD):

Dragons Forever (飛龍猛將)

New additions for Anime Limited (4K UHD):

BELLE
Future Boy Conan Part 1
Future Boy Conan Part 2
Violet Evergarden the Movie

New additions for Arrow Video (4K UHD):

Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル)
Ju-On: The Grudge (呪怨じゅおん)

New additions for Crunchyroll UK (4K UHD):

Ghost in the Shell

New additions for Curzon Artificial Eye (4K UHD) [not pictured]:

Parasite (기생충)

New additions for Eureka Entertainment (4K UHD):

Police Story Trilogy (警察故事 / 警察故事續集 / 警察故事3超級警察)

New additions for Studio Canal (4K UHD) [not pictured]:

Ran (乱)

Because my glass shelf was running low on space, I decided to relocate all of the Asian Cinema Limited Edition titles into its own row and so they are now positioned at the bottom of the shelf. These titles are distributed by 88 Films, Arrow Video, and Eureka Entertainment.

New additions for 88 Films:

Black Cat (黑貓)
The Iceman Cometh (急凍奇俠)
On the Run (亡命鸳鸯)
Righting Wrongs (執法先鋒)
The Seventh Curse (原振俠與衛斯理)
Tiger Cage Trilogy (特警屠龍 / 洗黑錢 / 冷面狙擊手)

New additions for Arrow Video:

The Daimajin Trilogy (大魔神 / 大魔神逆襲 / 大魔神怒る)
Shawscope Volume One
Yokai Monsters Collection (妖怪百物語 / 妖怪大戦争 / 東海道お化け道中 / 妖怪大戦争)

New additions for Eureka Entertainment:

Cinematic Vengeance! 8 Kung Fu Classics from Joseph Kuo

Bookcase #3

The third shelf has a similar layout to the previous update, but this time I decided to change the layout in regards to the Funimation releases. For starters, the older Funimation limited editions are now positioned behind the modern limited editions (with some exceptions due to their uniqueness). The differences between the old and modern editions is that Funimation’s limited edition design used to be just two Amaray cases with some extra artwork, while the current model (which Crunchyroll eventually adopted) is a single case but with more physical items such as books, fabric posters & more.

In addition, we also have more limited editions from Crunchyroll as well so expect more of them throughout 2023. We also see more standard non-LE Crunchyroll and Funimation releases from North America for the first time since January 2019 with GITS Arise (though if you count Arise as a LE style release then the previous title was back in July 2017 with a few Anime Classic sets like Steins;Gate).

On the fourth row I’ve also placed the Funimation UK branded releases that Anime Limited distributed on their behalf. There won’t be any more of this style so it’s basically done and dusted.

New additions for Crunchyroll UK (Limited Editions):

Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 1
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train
HINAMATSURI
Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 1 Part 1
Plunderer Part 1
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 2
WONDER EGG PRIORITY
Yona of the Dawn

New additions for Crunchyroll (Limited Editions):

By the Grace of the Gods Season 1
Combatants Will Be Dispatched!
Dr. STONE: Stone Wars
The Dungeon of Black Company
Fire Force Season 2 Part 2
Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life!
How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Part 1
Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! Season 1

New additions for Crunchyroll (Non-LE releases):

Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor (Essentials)
Casshern Sins (Essentials)
Cat Planet Cuties (Essentials)
A Centaur’s Life (Essentials)
Fafner: Dead Aggressor & Heaven and Earth (Essentials)
Knight’s & Magic (Essentials)
The Quintessential Quintuplets II
Shakugan no Shana S (Essentials)
Shakugan no Shana the Movie (Essentials)
Valkyrie Drive -Mermaid- (Essentials)

We have some more Maiden Japan and Sentai Filmworks releases on the fifth row and seventh row. The size of the sets meant that some of them had to be placed on row further down than expected. A majority of the new additions are standard/regular sets as I wanted to expand this area more often, but the only good opportunity had been during the Rightstuf sale (as Sentai’s store is not available for international shipping).

Other Blu-rays are also located around here include a new release from Rightstuf & Critical Mass Video, two new standard releases from Anime Limited, and the rest are existing sets from prior years like Anime Limited’s Ultimate Editions, the one release from Twilight Time and other miscellaneous releases.

New additions for Anime Limited (Non-LE releases):

10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki
The Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki

New additions for Rightstuf & Critical Mass Video:

Interspecies Reviewers

New additions for Maiden Japan (Non-LE releases):

Patlabor: The Mobile Police Collection
Redo of Healer

New additions for Sentai Filmworks (Limited Edition):

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? III

New additions for Sentai Filmworks (Non-LE releases):

Aura Battler Dunbine
Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon
The Familiar of Zero Collection
GODANNAR!!
Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Arrow of the Orion
The Seven Heavenly Virtues
Why The Hell Are You Here Teacher!?

Glass Shelf

The glass shelf is where all of my Asian Cinema Blu-rays are currently located. As I had to relocate the rigid box sets there was more space for the regular releases by 88 Films, Arrow Video, Eureka Entertainment, Third Window Films and more.

The first row covers 88 Films releases, the second row covers Arrow Video, the third row covers Eureka Entertainment, the fourth & fifth rows cover Third Window Films and then from there we have a mixture of titles from other distributors including one from MUBI and one from Terracotta; both of which are new.