Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of January 2023. This update features 20 anime releases, 5 physical video games, and 5 live-action Asian Cinema releases.
This month’s haul doesn’t cover any books, but we do have a batch of 2022 orders emerging throughout the weeks, plus another batch of Asian films and more Japanese games for the backlog.
Big Time Gambling Boss
Starting off the 2023 collection haul is the arrival of Kōsaku Yamashita’s Big Time Gambling Boss (博奕打ち 総長賭博) from Radiance Films on Blu-ray. This is the first release by the distributor and is packaged like Criterion but comes with an additional obi that’s kept inside the case so you can place it above or behind the main artwork. I’m expecting the distributor is going with the Indicator route so that the Scanavo cases are used for the limited editions and if they do well enough it’ll be amaray cases for any re-release.
Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside
The first anime for 2023 is the limited edition Blu-ray & DVD release for Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Season 1 from Crunchyroll. As the UK branch won’t be bothering with the limited edition set, I went for the US version which was already in stock on United Publication so that meant that I could receive it much sooner. The original plan was to order the set through Rightstuf but it made sense to get it via UP1 if the stock is already in the UK.
Full Alert & Wild Search
Going back into the older Eureka Entertainment backlog we have Ringo Lam’s Full Alert (高度戒備) and Wild Search (伴我闖天涯) on Blu-ray. With the upcoming release of Burning Paradise as part of Eureka’s 2023 schedule I decided to go back and pick up the two films that came out a few years ago. One of them no longer has their first print stock but retailer Deff (which is where I ordered these two from) had stock of that version so that’s handy.
Golden Kamuy
There’s been a lot of discounts for various UK releases from Crunchyroll, Funimation and Manga Entertainment, and of the bunch I decided to go with one of their last & most delayed releases; Golden Kamuy Season 1 and Golden Kamuy Season 2. They didn’t bother to release Season 3 which is a shame but at least Season 1 is available again considering the US release is OOP. Both of these were picked up through Zavvi as the sale plus the Red Carpet discount provided a good price point to get the sets.
Decision to Leave
Despite the mixed reception on the disc authoring for Drive My Car I wanted to own the latest release by MUBI which was Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave (헤어질 결심) that just came out recently. This film I’ve heard is not his usual style hence its mixed reception but I’m looking forward to checking it out. In the end it turned out that this was authored pretty well so that’s good to hear.
My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission
Amazon had a sale going on for anime and then another batch of discounts emerged so I placed an order for My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission. This film was released last September and I had held off due to price but because it went for £9.99 and released with a slipcase I decided to get it now. The slipcase inclusion was weird considering Crunchyroll UK has stopped doing that for their recent regular sets, but I suspect big IPs like Dragon Ball and Jujutsu Kaisen will have some form of treatment going forward.
Liz and the Blue Bird & Love Me, Love Me Not
Anime Limited received early stock for two films I pre-ordered last year. The first that arrived was the shoujo film Love Me, Love Me Not which was ordered last September. This is their collector’s edition Blu-ray package which looks nice, and while there is no English dub as expected, at least it got an English release in general.
The next day Liz and the Blue Bird, the Sound! Euphonium spin-off film, arrived. There’s no extras on the disc and it used the Shout/Eleven Arts disc released years ago so we do have the theatrical master than the Japanese Blu-ray master, but it does include the English dub and has a nice collector’s set to go with it.
Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin
88 Films released a discount offer half-way through January and since some folks had already received their copy as early as December, I acquired the new deluxe collector’s edition Blu-ray release of Chen Chi Hwa’s Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin (蛇鶴八步) starring Jackie Chan. This film was part of the first batch of Jackie Chan releases from 88 and didn’t get the best authoring, so with the success of their titles over the years they went back and gave it the treatment it deserved – new disc, new content, as well as a very nice collector’s package.
They have confirmed Battle Creek Brawl will be next and the other two films from the first batch; Dragon Fist and To Kill With Intrigue, have been teased so it’s good to see those films get better treatment.
Dragon Ball Super
With a bunch of UK sets going on offer across various sites, one of them that landed as low as £51 (for a big SRP release that’s pretty low) was the complete series box set for Dragon Ball Super. This release contains all 131 episodes from the Battle of Gods saga all the way to the Universe Survival saga. The size of the set is smaller than I had imagined, as it covers about 5 UK Blu-ray cases on the shelf. All 20 discs are the same as the 10 part releases and are housed in stacked digipack sets.
Rightstuf’s 2022 Holiday Sales Haul #2
Next we have the second Rightstuf Holiday sale haul which I made on the sale’s final day (New Years Eve). This continues the Funimation backlog of releases but this time I also went for the initial releases for some of them. This package actually took a week later than usual to arrive due to some weird hold-up by FedEx over in France, but it was trackable so I was able to see if there was any movement. I wasn’t alone in having their package stuck as there were others in the same situation.
Starting with the initial release batch, we have Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki, ENDRO!, MEGALOBOX 2: NOMAD and The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent. Out of these four, the one I’ve seen during simulcast was MEGALOBOX and it’s absolutely criminal that not only did the series not receive a limited edition but also wasn’t brought over to the UK. The other three I’ve acquired for various reasons but looking forward to watching them.
Then the Essentials releases batch, we have Hundred, Interviews with Monster Girls, Maken-Ki! Two, Record of Lodoss War (which also includes Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight on DVD) and Restaurant to Another World Season 1. Out of these five, I’ve watched Interviews with Monster Girls which was really fun to watch and another one of those early Crunchyroll titles that missed the UK window due to the UK licensing period where nothing Funi-related was being brought over. Not watched the others but most looking forward to Record of Lodoss War, another series that should have been given a Blu-ray release in the UK.
The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar
A day after the Rightstuf package finally came, The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar also finally arrived and I can guess this was also stuck with the FedEx situation over on United Publications end. This is the first Discotek Media pickup of the year and the 57th pickup overall. This is also the last set to fit in the same row with the others, so any new arrivals will need to go into a new row going forward.
HUMAN LOST
The discounted UK anime sets continued and I decided to go ahead and acquire HUMAN LOST, the ‘very loose’ film adaptation of the No Longer Human book. I’ve been interested to check this one out even if the film is nothing like the book, since I do like Polygon Pictures work. The film was discounted and has its slipcase so that’s handy.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4
I finally decided to order some more PlayStation 4 games and one of those was One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 from CeX. The game for some reason had been slightly high in price or barely available so I decided to go for a pre-owned copy to play it safe once again. I did receive One Piece World Seeker but CeX sent me a German copy to which I’ll sort out a return as I don’t want those versions for my collection (I know the disc will be fine, but I prefer to have either English or Japanese covers for the collection).
Square Enix’s Autumn 2022 JRPG Haul
Another Amazon order once again and this time there was a price discount on a bunch of Japanese games released for the PlayStation 5. In this instance I ordered four games from Square Enix that were released throughout the Autumn season (September to November). Each were £27-30 so I acquired them all now whilst the price was good.
Starting off with The DioField Chronicle, a brand new IP from Square Enix and it’s a tactical RPG with a different twist to the formula as you can move your team around and provide commands for them to attack specific enemies without using a square grid. I didn’t play the demo but the reviews and reception convinced me to pick it up, and it has a pretty interesting artstyle.
Next we have Star Ocean: The Divine Force, the 6th instalment in the space opera isekai style franchise. I really enjoyed the third game and the fifth game was decent, but I had heard the new one was pretty solid. Now I don’t plan on starting it just yet as I want to checkout the first and fourth games beforehand.
Tactics Ogre Reborn, is a pretty exciting one as it’s a return to the Tactics Ogre franchise that has been untouched for years. This is a remaster of the 2010 PlayStation Portable game Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, which was also a remake of the original 1995 Super Famicom release. Now I have heard the game’s tactical gameplay is quite dated and how many will prefer more modern titles like Triangle Strategy but I do think it’s worth bringing back older and challenging games regardless even if the gameplay is not as easy as current titles.
Last but not least we have Valkyrie Elysium, a spin-off to the Valkyrie Profile franchise which is another IP that had been untouched for years. Now this one is an Action RPG rather than turn-based (but the original PSP remake did get released on PSN using Sony’s PSP emulator so that’s nice). I have played the demo that was available and I liked what the game had to offer.
Each game had a promo sheet for Valkyrie Elysium, while the latter had a promo for Star Ocean. In addition, Valkyrie Elysium also has a reversible cover which is the same artwork used for the Japanese release, a very nice addition.
The Deer King & Summer Ghost
The final anime arrivals of the month were two early shipments from Anime Limited. Both of these were first ordered during the second half of 2022, one of which was originally supposed to have arrived back in November but production issues got in the way.
The first is Production I.G’s recent film The Deer King by director Masashi Ando. This one is packaged like Case of Hana & Alice but is also double the print run which is surprising. I heard it’s a pretty solid film and I’m looking forward to it.
The second is loundraw’s Summer Ghost which is a short film by Flat Studio, the same studio who animated Vivy which aired in 2021. It’s not common for short anime films to get a localised release so I wanted to support it whenever possible.
Bonus: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Haul
Throughout 2022 I put more effort into building my 4K Ultra HD collection, and whenever possible I put some funds into getting a couple more releases. For January I have picked up three more titles across two separate packages throughout the month.
First up from HMV thanks to their 2 for £30 sale online, I acquired David Leitch’s Bullet Train and Jordan Peele’s NOPE. Both of these films were released in the UK cinemas roughly around the same time, but I was only able to watch the latter, which I did so via IMAX. NOPE is one of those films that gets better the more you think about how it handles the commentary about film and the obsession of wanting to see things. It’s also pretty scary when you think about one key aspect that occurs half-way but it’s worth a watch when you can. The 4K release apparently includes the IMAX aspect ratio version which is great. But I am looking forward to checking out Bullet Train especially with its overall reception.
Later in the month there was a £12 price offer available for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy box set, and I decided to pick it up sooner than later. I was aware that some folks received the item without any packaging during shipment but during my checkout I had the tick box option to have the item shipped with packaging and it arrived without issue. Like the Matrix, I own these films on DVD but not on Blu-ray so it’s a good upgrade.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside (LE Blu-ray & DVD)
- The Deer King (CE Blu-ray & DVD)
- Liz and the Blue Bird (CE Blu-ray)
- Love Me, Love Me Not (CE Blu-ray)
- Summer Ghost (CE Blu-ray & DVD)
What’s to Come for the Hauls
February 2023
February was going to be packed with pre-orders, but a lot of them arrived already. Plus one of them has been pushed back into March, so what we have left is currently very small but I have plans to sort out another big variety of items like the previous months. So expect more manga and potentially another Discotek haul if things go well.
Currently what should be released in this month are the following:
- How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Part 2 (Blu-ray & DVD)
- Yu Yu Hakusho 30th Anniversary (LE Blu-ray)
March 2023
March has a couple more additions, with more Asian Cinema films pre-ordered and two anime titles pushed back from their previous dates.
Currently what should be released in this month are the following:
- Ascendance of a Bookworm Seasons 1 & 2 (CE Blu-ray)
- Electric Dragon 80000V (Blu-ray)
- Goodbye, Don Glees! (CE Blu-ray)
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Azure (Nintendo Switch)
- Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 1 (CE Blu-ray)
- Punk Samurai (Blu-ray)
Other Tidbits
A mini-update for the collecting hauls, I have now re-subscribed to Rightstuf’s GotAnime membership ($18 a year). I bought this membership a decade ago when I first got into buying anime releases but back then there were hurdles that meant I wasn’t able to fully utilise the service so I cancelled it.
This time I have the income to keep imports going and with the exchange rate going up and down alongside some titles potentially going out of print, I decided Rightstuf would be more valuable than United Publications at this point. For instance ordering two Crunchyroll limited editions together from Rightstuf with the discount is just cheaper than UP1 and will arrive much faster, and that’s based on the $1 = 80p rate, so if the rate improves then the price difference would be more noticeable.
In terms of work, my new pay increase will start to take into effect though there may be some turbulence due to tax adjustments. There’s also a temporary manager going to take over our department but I am confident things will turn out well (and not like my first job). I still plan to work with the company as long as I am of use.
Anime
Anime Limited is taking a bit of a break on new titles from the looks of it, as they have been offering early birds for the Christmas pre-order titles already. 2023 will also mark their 10th anniversary so there’s going to be news on that. There are some titles that could be scheduled at this point, like Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, Gunbuster, Inu-Oh, Jujutsu Kaisen Part 2, Love Live! Superstar!! Season 1, Lupin the Third Part 6 and Pompo the Cinephile, as all of them already have US releases (or soon to be) at this point.
Discotek recently held another livestream and announced some more titles that have my interests. Notable examples include Blu-ray upgrades for Iria: Zeiram the Animation and A Wind Named Amnesia, The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar Final and Re:Cutie Honey. Urusei Yatsura Collection 1 is also coming soon, which I don’t expect a UK release of due to the length of the series and lack of English dub.
Crunchyroll’s slate for April was pretty barebones which was bizarre but I suspect they’re sorting something out so that they can go all-in for the latter part of the second quarter. I still plan to sort out a haul at some point. Meanwhile Sentai titles are pretty much in a situation where sales are the best option to get their titles, and while they haven’t released brand new titles that often, the fact that they’re re-releasing older shows with updated discs is better than nothing.
Asian Cinema
88 Films is slowly revealing new titles and they have pretty much confirmed re-releases for the other Jackie Chan films that came out before Crime Story. Those being Battle Creek Crawl, Dragon Fist and To Kill with Intrigue, with the former having box art revealed already.
Eureka Entertainment have confirmed The Bullet Train will be coming to the UK (while Discotek is doing the same for US), and I plan to get more of their titles throughout February as I have yet to get Royal Warriors which came out in January.
Third Window Films does have more planned for 2023 but so far they have yet to schedule any more other than the two Sogo Ishii films Electric Dragon 80000V and Punk Samurai that I’ve pre-ordered already that are scheduled for March. Apparently an older Kiyoshi Kurosawa film is amongst their plans which is exciting. On that note, due to the allegations against Sion Sono in Japan and the high costs involved in providing the release (according to the podcast), Suicide Club is unfortunately postponed effectively and for the time being have recommended folks import the Discotek release which is scheduled for this April.
And that’s a wrap for the first Otaku Collection update for 2023. Expect the manga hauls to return in February as I do plan to take another trip to town, and we’ll see how the month turns out as most of my haul decisions tend to be in the moment.
The Normanic Vault 
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