The Normanic Vault

Otaku Collection Haul for July 2023

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of July 2023. This update features 15 anime releases, 1 light novel volume, 8 manga volumes, 3 physical video games, and 7 live-action Asian Cinema releases.

For this month’s batch we have over a dozen titles from Sentai Filmworks which took up a lot of the budget, but there’s also the arrivals of a number of newly released Asian Cinema titles, plus a few neat books and games included in the mix.

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster

The first item for this month’s haul is a special addition! Earlier in the month I finished the story for Final Fantasy XVI and really enjoyed it, so it gave me the motivation to look into more of the franchise. And so in an impulse purchase of sorts, I decided to finally order the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection that includes Final Fantasy I-VI on a single cartridge.

Now I ideally would buy this for PlayStation 4, but Square Enix decided to only provide a super limited run on their website which included super expensive shipping costs, so it wasn’t worth it. Thankfully Asian regions were releasing an English supported version which sites like Play-Asia and Bazaar Bazaar have available, but only for the Nintendo Switch. My copy was purchased through Bazaar Bazaar and unfortunately it’s not a cheap release as they were offering £89.99, which is roughly the same as importing directly through Play-Asia and even Video Games Plus.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

Next we have The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie for the PlayStation 5. This is the 10th mainline game in the Trails saga for the The Legend of Heroes franchise, and wraps up the storylines shown through both the Crossbell (Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure) and Erebonia (Trails of Cold Steel I-IV) games.

I should note that much like Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, this game is also experiencing some localisation issues thanks to NIS America so I suggest waiting for a short while before playing it (go ahead and buy it sooner either way as these games don’t stay in print for long). Much like the Crossbell games, this is also rated PEGI 18 due to gambling. Admittedly I have yet to play any of the Trails games yet and part of that is that I want to play the Sky trilogy on console but that’s not an option at the moment. I do own 2 of 3 of the games on PC but Trails is a franchise that recommends a guide and my PC setup isn’t optimised for the right experience.

Golgo 13 & Rich and Famous/Tragic Hero

Eureka Entertainment ran a pre-order bundle for their titles released for the month of July and both happened to be Asian Cinema titles that I wanted. In this bundle we have Junya Sato’s GOLGO 13 (ゴルゴ13), the 1973 Japanese live-action film to the manga series, and Taylor Wong’s two-film collection featuring Rich and Famous (江湖情) and Tragic Hero (英雄好漢). Much like Eureka’s previous releases, these first print editions in their Classics range include a slipcase and booklet.

Katsuhito Ishii Collection

The latest Third Window Films release to arrive is the Katsuhito Ishii Collection, presented as a limited edition box set like their previous multi-film collection sets in recent years. This includes pretty much most of the remainder of the director’s works that weren’t released by Third Window prior – Promise of August (8月の約束) from 1995, Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl (鮫肌男と桃尻女) from 1998, PARTY 7 from 2000, Sorasoi (そらそい) from 2008, Hello Junichi (ハロー!純一) from 2014, and Norioka Workshop (ノリオカワークショップ) from 2022. This box set is more like the first Toshiaki Toyoda release as there’s no additional physical items, just a digipak with a slipcase but the main focus is getting all of these films together which is great.

If you’re not familiar with Katsuhito Ishii, chances are you’ve watched one of his works already through SHORT PEACE (Gambo short), Kill Bill Volume 1 (the anime segment) and even REDLINE (wrote the film). He’s also known for the wacky WTF bizarre ‘oh japan’ scenes that you might have witnessed on YouTube randomly thanks to his film Funky Forest.

Sentai Filmworks Haul from Rightstuf #1

Rightstuf have been running their Summer sale throughout the month of July and it’s got a decent selection of titles, even proving to be cheaper than using the GotAnime membership and discount codes that they had been sending out. Now my original plan for this sale was to put more focus on the Funimation catalogue, including the newer releases that are under the Crunchyroll name, but I decided to switch things up and instead go for Sentai Filmworks releases.

I believe this is the first time I had an entire haul dedicated to Sentai Filmworks from Rightstuf when it comes to my import purchases, as I generally included a mix of distributors. Now there were some notable stock issues here and there, but what I did manage to choose for this haul was a total of 8 Blu-rays, which are a mixture of re-releases and newer titles (plus they will work on European PlayStations due to the geolock setup).

Now I will be completely honest on this, this was a very expensive haul like the Discotek ones have been in the past months, because on top of the solid prices there’s also international shipping via FedEx and pre-paid VAT to take into account, which adds $100 more to the overall cost. Despite this setback, surprisingly I had saved £100 by not using United Publications for this haul which is still a good result.

For this haul we have the following!

Broken Blade
This is a movie series by studios Production I.G and Xebec (now known as Sunrise Beyond) and as a fan of the mecha genre I’ve always wanted to check out this series for a long while. Now saying that, this did get a UK release by MVM Entertainment and was even their first Blu-ray title, but it’s an old release and MVM’s packaging isn’t the type that I want on my shelf because it sticks out poorly. Sentai re-released the series after 10 years so it’ll be more up-to-date on the subtitles and is geolocked compared to the original, which is handy.

BTOOOM!
BTOOOM! was one of the first anime that I had watched, as I found it before I joined the legal streaming venture in 2013. It’s a battle royale show but with grenades and I was very entertained by what was on offer, and was sad they didn’t adapt any more of the manga. MVM did release the series but only on DVD but that didn’t bother me given that Sentai had released it on Blu-ray and now re-released which is very handy since the previous set came out a decade ago.

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
I have heard about this series for a long time, and again this was another one of the titles that MVM did release on DVD only, but something about Dusk Maiden of Amnesia has me intrigued. Despite that I had never had the chance to actually go out of my way to watch it so it was nice for Sentai to re-release it in recent years. Now the re-release does lose the original soundtrack CDs but I’m not too bothered by that.

Gugure! Kokkuri-san
Probably the most random inclusion to the haul if you look at the whole batch, but in reality I had heard pretty positive thoughts about this comedy series, especially how the main doll girl is often used in some reaction images and they wouldn’t be doing that unless it’s a good series.

Monster Girl Doctor
If you have been following my hauls over the years, Monster Girl Doctor should sound familiar. I’ve been picking up the light novels for this fantasy series and so I watched the anime adaptation when it aired. I really enjoyed it, and what was surprising to me was that it’s not as ecchi or fanservice focused compared to Monster Musume, and while many had overlooked the series I still enjoyed its premise and cast of characters. Considering this was a sub-license from Crunchyroll I decided to pick up the Blu-ray for this haul. I have the novels so I can read the rest of the story.

Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory
Not much to say about this one other than the fact that it’s this haul’s most fanservice new ecchi show that I was curious to check out. This series has had a few versions if I recall when it first aired, but what Sentai has on the disc is the Japanese home video uncensored version with all of the melons you need. I believe this is pretty much similar to Miss Sunohara in terms of the concept so yeah it’s not going to amaze anyone or even get a UK release.

Punch Line
Punch Line is another series that does have a UK Blu-ray release, but I personally didn’t want to own anything out of the Animatsu label for consistency reasons but this did get a re-release by Sentai so it made sense for me to get the more updated version. I have also watched the series when it first aired and despite its fanservice this is actually a pretty solid show by the creator of AI: The Somnium Files and Zero Escape.

YA BOY KONGMING!
Now this is an interesting one to include because it’s one of the most popular and well received anime shows in recent years. Pretty much came out of nowhere and the opening theme song does slap, so I am looking forward to checking out the series.

Live A Live

Next was another impulse purchase of sorts with Live A Live, the HD-2D remake of the Japan only Super Famicom game. The game was released first for the Nintendo Switch and while it’s now available on other platforms, only the Switch has a physical release and is available in Europe but I noticed the value of the physical has been going up in value. Fortunately I noticed that GAME was running a clearance sale that included the game and was offering new and sealed copies for £24.99 so I decided now was the time to act in case this becomes harder to find.

Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest

Probably the biggest and most important addition to the Asian Cinema collection! Enter the Dragon was the first Asian Cinema title that I bought back in June 2013 and now 10 years later I now own the Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest box set.

This release contains 4K Ultra HD discs for The Big Boss (唐山大兄), Fist of Fury (精武門), The Way of the Dragon (猛龍過江) and Game of Death (死亡遊戲), plus Blu-ray discs for Enter the Dragon (龍爭虎鬥) which re-uses Warner Bros’ 40th anniversary release from 2013, Game of Death‘s Alternate Versions, Final Game of Death, Game of Death II (死亡塔) & Tower of Death, and the documentaries Bruce Lee: The Man & The Legend (李小龍的生與死) and Bruce Lee: The Legend.

It’s an awesome box set and while I have yet to watch any of the films included in this box set, I have checked all of the discs which have hours of content so it’s the most definitive release to date.

Angela Mao: Hapkido & Lady Whirlwind

Next we have another Eureka Entertainment release, however this one in particular was released last year and I didn’t pre-order it at first due to cost. This is the Angela Mao: Hapkido (合氣道) & Lady Whirlwind (鐵掌旋風腿) collection on Blu-ray, which is now going out of print thanks to the distributor sending a warning across social media so it was available at a discounted price on their official webstore. I’ve been meaning to get this for a while so I’m glad I got it sorted in time. The first print edition is packaged like Millionaire Express so it has the poster outside of the case but within the slipcover. A booklet is also included.

Magic Cop & The Untold Story

Next we have our 88 Films package which I bought using the Birthday discount that I received back in June. This package contains Stephen Tung’s Magic Cop (驅魔警察) and Herman Yau’s The Untold Story (八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包) on Blu-ray.

The Untold Story is the one that I was looking forward to owning as it’s considered one of the most popular in the Category III line-up and this is also the first time it’s been released in the UK and is uncut, which many had assumed wasn’t going to happen due to the nature of the film.

Meanwhile we have Magic Cop, which is why this package was held up as 88 doesn’t ship out the sets until everything in the order is in stock. Unfortunately due to animal cruelty, the film had to be cut but you can get access to the uncut version when you play the disc on Region A players.

Inu-Oh

Scheduled to be released in early August but arriving two weeks early is Masaaki Yuasa’s Inu-Oh from Anime Limited. Their collector’s edition Blu-ray & DVD release is very nicely detailed and includes their shop exclusive art cards. Interestingly the discs were done by VDMS, likely because the GKIDS release only has English & Spanish whilst Anime Limited wants French support included in their set.

Sentai Filmworks Haul from Rightstuf #2

This is the second part of my Sentai Filmworks haul through Rightstuf, which was ordered not long after my previous haul had just arrived. This package also made me realise that Rightstuf’s shipping method doesn’t have FedEx deliver on weekends which is good to know.

In this haul we have a total of 6 Blu-ray titles, which once again is a mixture of re-releases and newer titles (and also work on European PlayStations due to the geolock setup). The overall cost was £20 cheaper than the previous haul, thanks to one particular title included which is larger than the usual set.

Hayate the Combat Butler Ultimate Collection
Now I mentioned that there was one title that sparked this second haul – and that was Hayate the Combat Butler Ultimate Collection, because panic buying has started to creep in. Sentai delisted the set (which came out in 2020) and so far Rightstuf and Robert’s Anime Corner Store are the only two who have stock. I wanted to be ahead of the curve so I decided to use my 15% discount code on the set as I predicted it would go for $65 if it did go on sale (and it did as of last Saturday).

This ultimate collection includes all four seasons and the film across 14 Blu-ray discs (first case covers Hayate the Combat Butler Seasons 1 & 2 with 6 & 3 discs respectively, and second case covers Hayate the Combat Butler: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Hayate the Combat Butler: Cuties, and Hayate the Combat Butler: Heaven is a Place on Earth with 2, 2 & 1 disc each respectively).

Demon King Daimao
Like Broken Blade, Demon King Daimao was also one of the oldest releases that Sentai put out on Blu-ray, and that was back in 2011! So I’m very happy to see another one of these get a re-release, though given how long it’s been I do think the licence window could be close to expiring. Has uncensored melons in the menus interestingly.

Infinite Stratos
And then there’s Infinite Stratos and it’s rather fortunate that we only have the first season re-released, because I already own the second season via Sentai’s limited edition release from half a decade ago. Like Demon King Daimao, the original release came out back in 2012 so this re-release is very handy for accessibility. MVM did release this series but only on DVD. Like Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, this re-release doesn’t include the original soundtrack CDs.

Made in Abyss Theatrical Collection
I really enjoyed Made in Abyss and as I was interested in the film series, which consists of two compilation films; Made in Abyss: Journey’s End and Made in Abyss: Wandering Twilight, and a continuation film; Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul, MVM only wanted to focus on the latter so I decided to wait for the Sentai release to go on sale and pick it up.

Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time
Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time is the only one in this haul that I have watched previously, during simulcast and it’s not exactly the most appealing show and is very questionable, never-the-less it’s one of those dumb shows that I felt was worth owning for my shelf. This series also had multiple versions for broadcast and fortunately what we have is the Japanese home video uncensored version (and the one I watched during broadcast was the second version which was partially censored).

Queen’s Blade: Rebel Warriors
Last but not least we have Queen’s Blade: Rebel Warriors which covers the OVA series Queen’s Blade: Beautiful Warriors and the third series Queen’s Blade: Rebellion (for context Media Blasters had the rights to the first two series prior). I always wanted to own something out of this very ecchi fantasy series so this was probably the best opportunity to go for. Sentai released these back in 2013-2014, and the original release for Rebellion even included original soundtrack CDs which this one does not.

Travelling Man Viz Media Haul

The final haul for July was a surprise batch to sort out. Because I was going to see Oppenheimer at the cinema I had noticed that the roads had gotten rather busy and almost made me miss my screening for Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning not long ago, so I played it safe by taking a trip to town first and going to Travelling Man.

I didn’t want to spend too much so I focused solely on Viz Media’s cheaper range of books which are their Shonen Jump and Shonen Sunday titles. Therefore we have 9 in total as part of the 3 for 2 deal on Viz Media. It has been a while since I picked up any manga at their store because the volumes were not stocked enough at the time, but now they have some more to offer, but some like Black Clover, Blue Exorcist, and The Promised Neverland were out of the running as they didn’t have the volumes that I had wanted.

To begin with, we have some books from author Tatsuki Fujimoto. Chainsaw Man: Buddy Stories is a single volume light novel that has four stories included. The other two are Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man: 17-21 & 22-25 which contain manga stories from before he became known for his work on Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man.

Next we have more Komi Can’t Communicate with Volumes 5, 6 & 7. Finally they had more volumes for the earlier stuff but I paused on doing a larger batch so that I had enough funds for other hauls in the coming week or two. And then we have a new volume for each with Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 8, Mashle: Magic & Muscles Volume 12 and One Punch Man Volume 11.

Which reminds me, I did almost pick up Helck but one of the volumes they had available was damaged on the spine so it didn’t make the cut.

Unboxing Links

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

What’s to Come for the Hauls

August 2023

The August haul has a couple of titles planned to arrive, assuming there’s no delays. I also have plans to make an order from 88 Films but that’s not going to be sorted until later into the month. For the time being here’s what’s planned to arrive:

  • Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (CE Blu-ray)
  • Gunbuster (CE Blu-ray)
  • INU-OH (CE Blu-ray & DVD)
  • JUNK HEAD (CE Blu-ray)
  • Love Live! Superstar!! Season 1 (CE Blu-ray)
  • A Moment of Romance (LE Blu-ray)
  • One Piece Film: Red (CE 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
  • Ranking of Kings Part 1 (Blu-ray & DVD)
  • Ranking of Kings Part 2 (LE Blu-ray & DVD)
  • Taxi Hunter (FP Blu-ray)

September 2023

The September haul has had more items added since the previous monthly update, but they are tentative as delays may happen.

  • Ascendance of a Bookworm Seasons 1 & 2 (CE Blu-ray)
  • Enter the Dragon (50th Anniversary LE HMV Cine Ver. 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
  • Gundam Build Fighters Part 1 (CE Blu-ray)
  • The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 (LE Blu-ray & DVD)

October 2023

A bit early to know what’s 100% planned for October but we do have a few items incoming to make the horror month interesting!

  • The Eminence in Shadow Season 1 (Blu-ray)
  • OVERLORD IV (LE Blu-ray & DVD)
  • Visible Secret (LE Blu-ray)

Other Tidbits

So in case you missed it, my blog was suspended at one point due to WordPress’s automation which concerned me a lot. Thankfully the blog is back but I have been backing up my write-ups bit by bit (and so far every unboxing related to my current location is now saved). The older posts I want to polish up along the way so that they are backed up in the same style as the current ones.

Anime

Anime Limited has had to increase the prices of their series sets by about £5 more which isn’t too bad, but the first two in this batch were Gundam Build Fighters and Love Live! Superstar!! Season 1. Now the latter wasn’t an issue and either would the former, except the former they had decided to split up the release rather than release it as a complete set like previous Gundams were. The decision here is very stupid and I doubt licensing would be a factor otherwise Nozomi in North America would have been forced to do the same. While I have ordered both, I am hoping that VDMS was used for Gundam otherwise it’s going to lose sales as there’s a lot of people that don’t like the Com ‘om Screen’s authoring work.

On a positive note the August pre-orders were revealed and it’s an interesting one with Evangelion: 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon a Time 4K Ultra HD, Burn the Witch and Mobile Fighter G Gundam so I’ll be getting all three of those.

Crunchyroll decided to only announce two titles for their October line-up and I have no idea why, but at least OVERLORD IV is now out of the way. Sentai has been continuing their pace with their mixture of re-releases and newer releases, but it was interesting to see that The Eminence in Shadow is only getting a regular release which is surprising but then again their limited editions are just overpriced.

Discotek has revealed more information about their upcoming line-up and there’s some interesting stuff, especially Blu-ray upgrades for Crying Freeman and Midnight Eye Goku. The former is a notable one, as Discotek had actually lost the rights for the series half a decade ago on DVD so it’s good to see it’s returned. There’s also another license rescue from the Sentai Sunrise Otakon deal with Overman King Gainer, which follows the S-CRY-ed release. Looking forward to owning that one. And then we have a 4K Ultra HD version for Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, which I did pick up earlier in the year but I’m happy to double-dip.

And that’s going to be it for this brief discussion. There’s not much to discuss on the other mediums currently so expect me to go over whatever new is on the horizon in the next update or so. I do want to get more Seven Seas manga but that comes down to timing.

And that’s a wrap for the Otaku Collection update for July 2023. A bit of an overkill haul on the anime spending side but hopefully things improve going forward.

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