The Normanic Vault

Otaku Collection Haul for December 2022

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of December 2022. This update features 22 anime releases, 1 manga box set, 16 manga volumes, 3 physical video games, 13 live-action Asian Cinema releases, and 1 accessory.

This month’s haul wraps up 2022 with one of the biggest batch of items picked up throughout my collecting years. In addition to the Christmas 2022 haul we have a large batch of anime from US distributors plus new releases finally arriving and a batch of Asian films including more Shaw Brothers and a few 4K Ultra HD releases.

Legend of Mana

The first item of the month came from retailer Bazaar Bazaar during their Black Friday sale, which I ordered just as I returned from my holiday break in late November. For the PlayStation 4 collection there were a small number of Asian English releases that I needed and one of those was Square Enix’s Legend of Mana which was fortunately one of the few that was on offer for £19.99 which is a bargain considering importing these sets are not cheap. The case was shaky, but that was because of the sticker sheet that comes with the game.

The Quintessential Quintuplets Box Set 2

Next we have a surprise package of the month – The Quintessential Quintuplets Manga Box Set 2, which I was not expecting to appear until January 2023. Apparently the release date changed without notice so it arrived on a weekend in the first week of the month. Blackwells shipped this one through Evri which arrived pretty quickly so that was unexpected (especially given the holiday season slowing down post).

Anywho, this box set includes Volumes 8 to 14, basically the rest of the series. This is now the rest of the manga, hence the complete artwork laid out on two of the sides. Also included are two reversible posters. In Part 1 we had a poster side for four of the five girls (Itsuki, Ichika, Nino & Miku) and in Part 2 we have Yotsuba on two of the four poster sides which I suspect was Kodansha’s way of making up for her missing out on Part 1’s posters. The other two poster sides feature all five together.

Discotek Media UP1 Haul

The Discotek Media package from United Publications that was supposed to have arrived on the same day as the Rightstuf package back in November arrived three weeks later than expected. I was relieved that it finally turned up because I couldn’t track the package, and the reason for this holdup was due to the postal strikes.

First we have Black Jack the Movie (ブラック･ジャック 劇場版), the 1996 Tezuka Productions film directed by Osamu Dezaki. Discotek’s released this one for years and figured I should grab it sooner than later, especially considering Tezuka’s other film (Jungle Emperor Leo) went out of print. The cover art for the film looks cool too. Actually didn’t realise Dezaki directed this which explains the character design on the Amaray artwork.

Next we have Fist of the North Star (北斗の拳), the classic shonen jump series known for its insane violent action. No need to really explain this one but this collection includes all 109 episodes of the 1984 series and all 43 episodes of the 1987 series by Toei Animation and director Toyoo Ashida. This release from Discotek is also presented in Standard Definition on Blu-ray which is good for shelf-space.

What makes Discotek great is they re-release titles from the Manga UK 18-rated era which was filled with films/OVAs that had lots of violence and sex etc. One of those was Genocyber (ジェノサイバー虚界の魔獣), a five-episode OVA series from 1994 by studios Artmic & Artland and director Koichi Ohata, and it’s basically classic sci-fi body horror so it was a no brainer to get. I did find it amusing that they went for SD-on-BD considering it’s just five episodes but I can’t argue.

Last but not least, we have a niche series which started off as a streaming only title before eventually going onto SD-on-BD. Miss Machiko (まいっちんぐマチコ先生) is a 95 episode series by Studio Pierrot and director Masami Anno that aired in 1981. This cult ecchi series wouldn’t work in today’s standards, but this set has all of Maicchingu and fits the bill for ‘it’s niche so we won’t reprint it if it sells out’.

Relayer

The PlayStation 5 game Relayer arrived from Red Art Games’ Black Friday sale. This is a Japanese tactical RPG that Kadokawa published and it had received mixed reviews (it’s a low budget anime type game so it’s no surprise) but the ideas had my interest ever since it was announced.

In recent months, they released a new version for PC called Relayer Advanced which is also a free update for console owners which is supposed to provide quality of life improvements so with that combined with the Black Friday sale discounting the game’s physical copy by 50% helped. I figured with this patch and the sale offer that now would be a good time to go ahead and pick it up.

Battle Royale & Battle Royale II: Requiem

Next we have Kinji Fukasaku’s 2000 Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル). I already own the film on Blu-ray and DVD, but this time we have the 4K limited edition set from Arrow Video. This version was available on HMV’s online store and I used their Black Friday box set discount to pick it up as they were one of the few retailers that had stock available for this version of the set (the Blu-ray version is still readily available).

The set includes 4K UHD versions for both the theatrical and director’s cut for the film, plus we also have Kenta Fukasaku’s 2003 Battle Royale II: Requiem (バトル・ロワイアルII 鎮魂歌) and its director’s cut Revenge. It’s a really nice package, and it also includes a couple of other items like the first film’s original soundtrack CD, a booklet in the same usual Arrow Video format, a poster, a set of trump cards, and a large hardcover book on Kinji Fukasaku are also included.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2

Originally I was going to be focusing on the US versions for the Crunchyroll limited editions, but for cost reasons and how some of the titles didn’t have unique artwork between slipcase and amaray I decided to go for the UK releases of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2.

The first part was released without a slipcase, which is the current approach for Crunchyroll UK now (and that also means any artwork featured on the slipcase, even if its the main one, isn’t used on the UK sets) but the limited edition did manage to make it over for once considering the UK never received the same for the first season. I did wait for photos of how the set turned out for the UK before making a decision though.

Once I did find photos, I was able to order both Part 1 and the limited edition Part 2 releases from Amazon UK as they were the cheapest (£53.99 for LE). Overall it was handled pretty well and even though the Funimation logo was on Part 1’s release, the reversible cover art was actually consistent so I used that for the sets.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny

After months of production issues and holdbacks, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny finally appeared. Like the box set for the previous season, the UK ultimate edition Blu-ray release from Anime Limited includes all 50 episodes of the HD Remaster, as well as all 50 episodes of the original 2004 release with the director’s cut final episode, the four Special Edition compilation films, and the sequel OVA known as C.E. 73 Stargazer. The new dub was only covered for the HD Remaster and not the OVA surprisingly.

Ju-On: The Grudge Collection

One of my most anticipated released for the Asian Cinema collection and I can now finally check out the Ju-On: The Grudge Collection, presented in a limited edition package from Arrow Video. Considering how Ring sold out fairly quickly I made the decision to pre-order this one to play it safe.

The collection includes six films from the franchise; Takashi Shimizu’s 2000 Ju-On: The Curse (呪怨), Ju-On: The Curse 2 (呪怨2), 2002 Ju-On: The Grudge (呪怨じゅおん), and 2003 Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (呪怨2じゅおん2), plus Ryuta Miyake’s 2009 Ju-On: White Ghost (呪怨: 白い老女) and Mari Asato’s 2009 Ju-On: Black Ghost (呪怨: 黒い少女).

In addition to these six films, we also have a 4K Ultra HD version for Ju-On: The Grudge because a 4K restoration was done for the film in Japan.

Machine Robo: Battle Hackers

Machine Robo: Battle Hackers (マシンロボ ぶっちぎりバトルハッカーズ), the SD-on-BD release from Discotek Media arrived faster than I had expected given the delay for the previous UP1 order. I pre-ordered the series because it was animated by Ashi Productions and their titles have had some out of print notices earlier in the year so I figured it made sense to own it sooner than later.

Dragons Forever & Ebola Syndrome

A while back I pre-ordered two titles from Terracotta Distribution which had some delays in production, but eventually they finally got released. First we have the 4K Ultra HD collector’s deluxe edition release of Sammo Hung & Corey Yuen’s 1988 Dragons Forever (飛龍猛將). This release features pretty much all of the content from the previous Blu-ray but now in 4K! The disc was re-authored but this is still a well-done release by the distributor.

Also arrived is a Category III rated film with Herman Yau’s 1996 Ebola Syndrome (伊波拉病毒). It is unfortunate that the film is released only on Blu-ray in the UK because it did receive a 4K restoration and was also given a 4K UHD release in North America. It is possible that the distributor held off due to the fact the film needed to be rated first (and there are films released in the Category III group that have some content that may cause issues) but the good news is that the film is uncut so perhaps they’re saving the 4K disc and deluxe collector’s packaging for a re-release later down the line.

Shawscope Volume One

I received Arrow Video’s Shawscope Volume One limited edition Blu-ray box set. This was a last minute purchase because the box set went on offer over on Amazon for as low as £55 so I figured that was probably the cheapest it’ll ever be before it sells out.

Volume One contains 12 films from the Shaw Bros line-up:

  • Chung Chang-wha’s 1972 King Boxer (天下第一拳)
  • Chang Cheh & Pao Hsueh-li’s 1972 The Boxer from Shantung (馬永貞)
  • Chang Cheh’s 1974 Five Shaolin Masters (少林五祖)
  • Chang Cheh’s 1976 Shaolin Temple (少林寺)
  • Ho Meng-hua’s 1977 The Mighty Peking Man (猩猩王)
  • Lau Kar-leung’s 1976 Challenge of the Masters (陸阿采與黃飛鴻)
  • Lau Kar-leung’s 1977 Executioners from Shaolin (洪熙官)
  • Chang Cheh’s 1977 Chinatown Kid (唐人街功夫小子)
  • Chang Cheh’s 1978 The Five Venoms (五毒)
  • Chang Cheh’s 1978 Crippled Avengers (残缺)
  • Lau Kar-leung’s 1978 Heroes of the East (中華丈夫)
  • Lau Kar-leung’s 1979 Dirty Ho (爛頭何)

Worth mentioning that The Mighty Peking Man was previously released in the UK on Blu-ray by 88 Films prior so it’s good to see some of their titles come back in print. Overall it’s a great selection and the physical box set was better than I had expected in terms of design, so I am looking forward to getting the next volume which is available but I’ll pick it up sometime in 2023.

Travelling Man York Manga Haul

I went to York on my day off work and picked up more manga from the Travelling Man store. I didn’t want to spend too much so I focused mainly on the Shonen Jump range, totalling 9 more Viz Media volumes.

The titles I chose were Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai Volume 5, Mashle: Magic & Muscles Volumes 8 & 9, One Punch Man Volumes 7, 8, 9 & 10, and The Promised Neverland Volumes 9 & 10.

Dragon Quest and Mashle are now up-to-date on the English releases while the latter two still have tons to go before they are done.

Rightstuf Christmas Sale Anime Haul

Ever since I started acquiring anime, I had always wanted to do a proper Rightstuf haul. The reason why I hadn’t had the chance was due to the lack of funds. So now, having a proper income to acquire these sorts of hauls, was finally able to make use of Rightstuf’s Christmas sale. Technically I did get an opportunity last year but that was mainly for Black Friday.

And this is a pretty unusual haul, because there’s no limited edition releases here especially considering the publishers picked. So what this haul was about is that due to Crunchyroll & Funimation merging, the older releases were slowly being discontinued so I decided it was time to handpick the titles I was interested in the most from their Essentials range (which is their newer version of the S.A.V.E. edition). I was originally going to focus on Sentai Filmworks but a majority of their titles weren’t priced in the range I was interested in other than some mentioned below.

So after a ridiculous shipping cost, the package arrived on my day off work (the same day as my trip to York). We have 12 Blu-ray releases; 3 from Sentai Filmworks and 9 from Funimation.

From Sentai Filmworks we have; Aura Battler Dunbine (聖戦士ダンバイン), a classic isekai series from Sunrise & Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino that aired in 1983; the complete collection of The Familiar of Zero (ゼロの使い魔), which includes all four seasons of the isekai show from J.C. Staff that aired between 2006-2012; and The Seven Heavenly Virtues (七つの美徳), a short anime series spin-off to Seven Mortal Sins by studio Bridge in 2018.

From Funimation we have; Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor (ロクでなし魔術講師と禁忌教典), a fantasy series adapted by LIDEN FILMS in 2017 that I enjoyed watching when it first aired; Casshern Sins (キャシャーン Sins), the 2008 sci-fi reimagining from Madhouse & Tatsunoko Productions which did get a UK Blu-ray release but was incomplete and never got the proper treatment it deserved; Cat Planet Cuties (あそびにいくヨ!), a 2010 AIC+ ecchi series better known under the official name Asobi ni Iku Yo! that I had wanted to check out for years.

A Centaur’s Life (セントールの悩み), a monster girl slice-of-life series adapted by Emon which also had a weird bizarre political take at one point; Fafner: Dead Aggressor & Heaven on Earth (蒼穹のファフナー), Xebec’s 2004 sci-fi mecha series also known as Fafner in the Azure and this collection only covers the first series and the film that came out in 2010; Knight’s & Magic (ナイツ&マジック), an isekai adapted by 8bit that went under the radar back in 2017 but since its mech was featured in Super Robot Wars I figured I’ll look into it more.

Shakugan no Shana S (灼眼のシャナS), the four episode OVA series released in 2009 by J.C. Staff that I had been meaning to pickup for years because it’s set in-between Seasons 2 & 3 so owning this means I can now finally finish the anime; Shakugan no Shana the Movie (劇場版 灼眼のシャナ), which is an interesting instalment to the anime franchise as it’s both a recap of the first few episodes of the first season but also a proper adaptation of the first light novel so props to J.C. Staff for doing that in 2007; and Valkyrie Drive -Mermaid- (ヴァルキリードライヴ マーメイド), the yuri ecchi series from studio Arms in 2015 that had a few of the characters cause the BBFC to reject the series for UK release (there’s some misconception that the anime was banned, which is incorrect because when you look at the report it was stated the series was allowed to be released with cuts – but Funimation bailed as it would be expensive and they would lose sales).

One Punch Man Vol. 1

A day later One Punch Man Volume 1 arrived in the post. Back in November I started collecting the manga series but I didn’t acquire the first volume because it was not in stock. In fact it had been hard to find throughout almost all of the retailers, so thanks to Blackwells I was now able to get my hands on it.

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Vol. 19-21

The rest of the Blackwells order arrived a day later and in this package were Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volumes 19, 20 & 21. I was falling behind on this series throughout the year so I picked up almost all of the newer volumes that were released throughout the past couple of months. Therefore there are three volumes remaining to complete this Shonen Jump series.

Logitech MX Master 2S Wireless Mouse

Next we have the Logitech MX Master 2S wireless mouse for my laptop. This was recommended by someone on AUKN discord because it was also available as part of a Deal of the Day offer.

For context, I had a wireless mouse (simple one) since I first acquired a laptop back in 2012 and while the centre wheel was partially broken and the corner material feel off, it still functioned over the years. However, sometime during the Summer it just suddenly stopped working right, so I had to temporarily use an old wired mouse as a backup, and it didn’t bother me until the past couple of weeks due to the wire getting in the way with the limited space that I have.

I had been meaning to get a new mouse for a while but I’ve now got it sorted and out of the way. It’s heavier and larger due to the design resting the thumb but it’s pretty good so far.

88 Films Black Friday Haul

Before the Christmas sales began, 88 Films ran a random discount code offer for their webstore and that also allowed pre-orders to be discounted. I took this opportunity to pickup a selection of old and new releases from the distributor, which got split into two packages.

The first arrival were four films from the Shaw Brothers collection; Hua Shan’s 1978 Flying Guillotine Part II (清宮大刺殺), Corey Yuen’s 1997 Hero (馬永貞), Chung Sun’s 1982 Human Lanterns (人皮燈籠) and Lau Kar-leung’s 1981 Martial Club (武館). These four were also the last remaining ones that I needed to get from their second batch line-up and wraps up my plans for 88’s Shaw Brothers titles in the meantime.

Then a day later the other item arrived which was a new release; Clarence Yiu-leung Fok’s 1989 The Iceman Cometh (急凍奇俠) deluxe collector’s edition Blu-ray set. This is in line with their other deluxe box sets with the booklet, poster and art cards. Like the other films this one has different versions included – the original Hong Kong theatrical in Cantonese and the extended Taiwanese cut in Mandarin.

Christmas 2022 Haul

The Christmas 2022 haul is finally here and while I opened up my gifts later than usual, the haul itself is admittedly weaker than previous years. There’s still some good items included but when you compare them to before it’s not as strong, and one of the biggest reasons why this is the result is down to price and availability which has been a mess since 2020.

Starting off with K: Seven Stories, the 6-film series from the K Project franchise. I requested this anime because it was one of the few catalog titles I needed from Anime Limited’s backlog and was on offer during the 12 Days of Christmas sale.

Also requested from Anime Limited’s 12 Days of Christmas sale were two documentaries; The Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki and 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki. These had regular standard releases and since they were on offer via the Buy One Get One Free deal in the sale (and that each set was £9.99) that’s basically a bargain.

Also joining my Asian Cinema collection is another brand new release; Corey Yuen’s 1985 Yes Madam! (皇家师姐) from Eureka Entertainment. The film is also part of the ‘In the Line of Duty‘ series which has three more films getting a UK release in early 2023 (and 88 Films is distributing a box set for the US audience). Normally I would pre-order the film but I decided to save it for Christmas to change things up.

For video games I normally try to get as many as possible for low prices, but the holiday sales weren’t doing a very good job. As such I decided to focus on quality over quantity and requested Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion for PlayStation 5. As I never picked up a PSP I didn’t play the original before, so it’s good to see Square Enix remastered the game for modern platforms.

For manga we have 3 Kodansha titles across two book publishers. From Kodansha Comics we have Go! Go! Loser Ranger! (Sentai Daishikkaku) Volume 1 by Negi Haruba and I’m Standing on a Million Lives Volume 1 by Naoki Yamakawa. And while they handle the digital version, Seven Seas published the print releases for Tokyo Revengers Omnibus 1 (covers Volumes 1-2) by Ken Wakui. I didn’t choose any light novels due to pricing and availability.

The rets of the haul were a bunch of miscellaneous items like a custom Gundam shirt, gaming socks, and a lot of snacks and drinks.

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVAs

After a delay caused by the postal strikes and the Christmas holiday season, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVAs (無責任艦長タイラー OVA) arrived not long after the bank holidays had concluded. Like the TV series, Anime Limited did their best to provide a solid package but it’s clear that a vast majority of the assets were kept exclusive to the Nozomi Ultra Edition North American release, so things like extra artwork or on-disc bonus features are not included in the UK sets for the franchise. This is disappointing and hopefully we can avoid these issues for other titles in the future.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 1 Part 1

The first half of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 1 (無職転生 ～異世界行ったら本気だす～) marks the final item of 2022. I made the decision to get the UK version because not only was the set pretty much identical but I also had a discount for Amazon so I was able to spend about £27 for the set overall. It’s good value and the release is great, but I realised that consistency wise the UK Part 2 release will not only lose the slipcase but the DVDs are omitted that feature differing artwork on them (as the formats are split for the standard sets).

Bonus: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Haul

Another bonus 4K Ultra HD haul and here we have some interesting additions to the collection. First up we have my first non-Asian Arrow Video release with Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 Robocop, and this standard edition release focuses on the director’s cut. Also arrived were two films that I gifted to my Mum for Christmas; John Landis’ 1981 An American Werewolf in London, also released by Arrow Video, and Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick that just came out recently. Interestingly the latter is not a combo pack which is pretty uncommon for Hollywood films.

When I visited York after watching Avatar: The Way of Water in IMAX 3D HFR, I went to HMV and bought some more 4K Ultra HD releases. Two were included in their 2 for £30 deal and another was on a special offer. The titles I picked up were the Studio Canal releases of Michael Cimino’s 1978 The Deer Hunter and Luc Besson’s 1997 The Fifth Element as well as Rian Johnson’s 2019 Knives Out.

Unboxing Links

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

What’s to Come for the Hauls

January 2023

As we enter the new year, we have a couple items already on their way. Some of these were originally due to arrive in 2022 but got pushed back once again. I also made a second Rightstuf Holiday sale haul at the last second so we have more Funimation titles joining the collection.

Big Time Gambling Boss will be the first arrival for 2023, which is a Japanese film distributed by Radiance who are a new distributor in a similar fashion to Arrow Video and Eureka Entertainment, so they’ll release some Asian films from time to time. Discotek’s The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar is shipping out already for Rightstuf owners so I expect United Publications will do the same within the next 10 days.

Currently what should be released in this month are the following:

  • Big Time Gambling Boss (Blu-ray)
  • Goodbye, Don Glees! (CE Blu-ray & DVD)
  • The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar (Blu-ray)
  • Liz and the Blue Bird (CE Blu-ray)
  • Love Me, Love Me Not (CE Blu-ray)
  • Rightstuf Holiday Sale Haul #2:
    • Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki (Blu-ray)
    • ENDRO! (Blu-ray)
    • Hundred (Essentials Blu-ray)
    • Interviews with Monster Girls (Essentials Blu-ray)
    • Maken-Ki! Two (Essentials Blu-ray)
    • MEGALOBOX 2: NOMAD (Blu-ray)
    • Record of Lodoss War (Essentials Blu-ray & DVD)
    • Restaurant to Another World Season 1 (Essentials Blu-ray)
    • The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent Season 1 (Blu-ray)

February 2023

February also has a few items initially due for 2022. These are all from Anime Limited for the meantime.

Currently what should be released in this month are the following:

  • The Deer King (CE Blu-ray & DVD)
  • Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 1 (CE Blu-ray)
  • Summer Ghost (CE Blu-ray & DVD)

March 2023

And March has a few more! This time one new addition and another that has been pre-ordered for a while.

Currently what should be released in this month are the following:

  • Ascendance of a Bookworm Seasons 1 & 2 (CE Blu-ray)
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Azure (Nintendo Switch)

Other Tidbits

2022 is done. To be honest I haven’t done much throughout the year other than making sure I still have a job, and while there’s some adjustments going on in my department I’ll still be around going through my role as per usual, but with a pay raise which is great. That won’t be in effect for a short while though.

I really should balance my hobbies properly as I didn’t watch enough anime or play enough games due to paralysis on choice. One of my 2022 aims is to fix this issue so that I can get through my backlog properly.

Anime

The anime collection has been going pretty well throughout 2022, but for 2023 I will need to step it up more as the industry keeps changing in its direction. With Sony merging Funimation & Crunchyroll together, it’s clear they’ll be focusing on specific new titles going forward so whatever’s left I will have to import from North America which is annoying as the exchange is still not at a great level to what it was years ago. Crunchyroll could step it up and do a new rebranding of their re-releases (as many of the Blu-ray re-releases came with a Funimation digital code which won’t be much of a thing these days), but there are those within the industry suggesting that they will ditch re-releases so they can focus on their streaming platform. We won’t know what exactly will happen, and I don’t think causing FOMO is doing any good at this point.

FOMO made more sense with Discotek due to their obscure and niche line-up, while Sentai has proven to re-release titles even if they came out a decade ago. Regardless I do intend to look into getting more Funimation releases throughout 2023. The Rightstuf holiday sale hauls were part of that goal, and I will see how I can get my hands on titles like The Duke of Death and His Maid, If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die, Smile Down the Runway, Sonny Boy and more.

Aniplex is also another distributor that I hadn’t acquired titles for a while, and they recently had a few last chance warnings as well. One of those was Nisekoi and the reason why I never went for it is because I own a majority of it already (the OVAs are the only ones left which were exclusive to the set) and I have a feeling the franchise will return in some form later, whether it’s a new dub by Crunchyroll or someone like Anime Limited rescuing the license from KAZE UK. We do know that Anime Limited hasn’t given up on March comes in like a Lion Season 2 and there’s been no sign of Demon Slayer‘s second season getting released on home video yet in the UK so something is definitely going on over at Aniplex. Regardless my aim to focus on the Fate franchise is still in effect for the meantime.

Last bit I want to mention has been the Discotek Media hauls. I acquired 56 titles from them and that’s a lot when you consider the costs involved. I do plan to continue this trend but ideally I want to tone it down because they are not cheap to get and can eat up the haul budget a fair bit. It would help if the exchange rate had improved but there’s no way of knowing whether it’ll get cheaper or not. That said, I do intend to check out their Nihon Nights label which has a few titles I’m interested in.

Light Novel & Manga

The light novel section has taken a bit of a turbulence because of interest. There’s a lot of volumes to collect and stock issues are prevalent throughout. So far last I checked none of the titles I have been collecting have discontinued, and that includes Grimgar which got restocked throughout 2022 though some volumes are out of stock again. That said, ARIFURETA and Monster Girl Doctor have wrapped up in Japan so I expect those will be completed in 2023.

However, on the manga side of things, 2022 was one heck of an update. There were tons of volumes acquired and that came down to Travelling Man and their 3 for 2 deal on Viz Media releases. Through them I was able to acquire all of Chainsaw Man, most of Jujutsu Kaisen, and big batch of volumes for Mashle: Magic & Muscles, One-Punch Man and The Promised Neverland. I also acquired more volumes from other sites so that also meant Fire Punch, Goodnight Punpun, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, and Pluto were also completed which is great.

For 2023 I plan to complete Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku, Maison Ikkoku, Master Keaton, Monster, The Promised Neverland, and if possible get Terra Formars up-to-date since that series has been on hiatus for now. Blue Exorcist is also a series that I would love to get up-to-date but most of the volumes had been out of stock for a long while, but with the third anime season announced recently hopefully Viz will reprint those as soon as possible.

Kodansha Comics I’ve started exploring more and those box sets definitely helped despite the stock issues. I enjoyed the anime despite its adaptation flaws so I plan to get I’m Standing on a Million Lives up-to-date while the prices are decent. Vinland Saga is getting a new release and I want to review that first before continuing with the current approach, and Attack on Titan is in a weird limbo as I haven’t decided on going for the regular volumes (since I own 6) or jump to a omnibus/colossal edition.

Then we have Seven Seas which is in a bit of controversy as of late, because apparently they are claiming that Amazon Europe (which I presume also includes the UK store) is no longer stocking Seven Seas titles. This is a weird decision but many are assuming this is related to a EU regulation (and if so then Amazon UK probably won’t be impacted since the UK left the EU a few years ago). That said, there’s still a bunch of manga to acquire from them.

From my current list the ones expected to be completed in 2023 are Blue Giant, GIGANT, Plus-Sized Elf (as the author switched publishers so it’s technically a new series for the newer volumes in Japan), maybe Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? if the final volume makes it before 2024, and Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs. The rest will continue as per usual as they won’t have an end point just yet (World’s End Harem is close, but the final English volume won’t be here until at least 2024).

Last but not least we have Yen Press and Dark Horse. GANTZ will also be completed in 2023 with at least five more omnibus left to go, and for Yen Press I will try and get Yotsuba&! up-to-date and see if I can finally get my hands on Kakegurui.

Asian Cinema

To be honest I don’t believe I have much to say about the Asian Cinema scene because this is probably the closest to being up-to-date than any other medium in my collection. 88 Films is spot on outside of Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin re-release and the upcoming God of Gamblers and Jackie Chan’s Gorgeous releases. Arrow Video does have a lot but in terms of special editions it’s fine for the meantime, with Shawscope Volume Two planned for a later date.

Eureka Entertainment has another batch of Asian films arriving in 2023, including the In the Line of Duty sequels and various others. Third Window Films also has a pretty interesting selection planned for 2023 which includes films featuring Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano (Electric Dragon 80.000V, Party 7, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, Survive Style 5+) and a couple more.

But yeah overall, I would say these will progress at a good pace as per usual. Third Window’s previous releases will still be picked up as I have about 16 Blu-ray releases (including their 2022 titles that I had yet to acquire) remaining to have a complete TWF Blu-ray collection.

Oh, and forgot to mention we also have Radiance Films joining the UK & US scene and I’ll be picking up their releases since price-wise it’s on par with the other distributors. Their first Asian release is Big Time Gambling Boss as I’ve mentioned and their next one is Yakuza Graveyard. There’s hints they have more Japanese films so I look forward to their work.

Video Games

So far for the PlayStation collection, the PS4 selection is slowly getting closer to completion. There’s been some holdback due to bad pricing on the remaining titles I want, like One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4. I am hoping to wrap this console’s collection up by the end of 2023 which includes the imports. Then I can put more focus on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5.

Speaking of PS5, there’s too many and it doesn’t help the SRP went up to £69.99 for the first-party titles. There’s a vast variety that I am looking into, like Square Enix’s selection of JRPGs like The DioField Chronicle, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Tactics Ogre Reborn and Valkyrie Elysium, and Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R, One Piece: Odyssey, and Pac-Man World. But I won’t rush in and get them all unless they were available for a decent price point that fits with the current console model (because you never know when they may go out of stock or print).

The Nintendo Switch I’ll still get a selection of games here and there as I’m in no real rush to pick any of them up just yet since Nintendo tend to keep their first-party games in print at least until the console cycle has wrapped up.

And that’s a wrap for the final Otaku Collection update for 2022. Each month has been insane with the variety of items and this December batch is probably the largest of them all. January will likely be a smaller batch to make up for the spending but I hope 2023 continues the hauls without disruption.

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