The Normanic Vault

Otaku Collection Haul for August 2023

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of August 2023. This update features 8 anime releases, 9 manga volumes, 5 physical video games, and 5 live-action Asian Cinema releases.

For this month’s batch we have an expensive month thanks to a batch of Nintendo Switch releases, but we also received more pre-orders making their appearance. Plus, we got another ShawScope box set.

One Piece Film: Red

The first anime arrival is one of the pre-orders that had actually arrived on time, and it’s still surreal to see Toei Animation decided to let Anime Limited release One Piece Film: Red for the UK instead of Crunchyroll. On top of that, they were also allowed to release the film on 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Atmos and Vision HDR support, which is funny considering about a month prior Crunchyroll just released the film only on Blu-ray.

What’s even wilder is that we also have three episodes from the One Piece series included on this set in HD. In case you weren’t aware, Crunchyroll UK are only releasing the series on DVD rather than going for the combo pack approach that the US branch are getting. That said, these three episodes don’t include the English dub which is available on the US release, but you don’t get that Crunchyroll English credit stuff at least. Anyway, despite losing the dub for the episodes, I do think the 4K content makes up for it.

Seven Seas & Ghost Ship Manga Haul

I’ve been wanting to sort out a Seven Seas manga haul for a while, and yesterday I realised that the last time I bought or received any books from this publisher was back in December. That was concerning to me, because in case you weren’t in the know on the manga collecting scene, Seven Seas is quite notorious for having stuff go out of print after a few years when they are released.

So for this haul I went all-out with 9 volumes across four series. Starting with the Seven Seas branded range of titles, which consists of GIGANT Volumes 9-10 and Plus-Sized Elf Volume 8. With these three volumes, both are now complete though the latter has a second series which is coming very soon (publisher situation in Japan is why it’s separate).

Next we have Ghost Ship and here’s Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? Volumes 3-5, which is now up-to-date on the English releases. This erotic thriller, also known as Tamarowa, is written by Mikoto Yamaguchi who co-wrote Tomodachi Game. The final two volumes are scheduled to be released in English between this Autumn and early next year.

And last but not least we have the comfy series Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs Volumes 22-24, which is also complete. Can’t believe I managed to get all of the volumes for this series considering its long (and is also a Weekly Shonen Jump title in case you weren’t aware).

Shawscope Volume Two

Shawscope Volume Two is the one in this haul that I suppose didn’t need to have been bought sooner. Last year I picked up the first volume of the Shaw Brothers collection that Arrow Video put out, and in the past month there had been some stock issues with some suggesting it’s no longer available anymore, so I decided to play it safe and get one ordered through retailer Deff which was on offer for £99.99.

Volume Two contains 14 films from the Shaw Bros line-up:

  • Lau Kar-wing’s 1978 The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (少林三十六房)
  • Lau Kar-wing’s 1980 Return to the 36th Chamber (少林搭棚大師)
  • Lau Kar-wing’s 1985 Disciples of the 36th Chamber (霹靂十傑)
  • Lau Kar-wing’s 1979 Mad Monkey Kung Fu (瘋猴)
  • Lo Mar’s 1979 Five Superfighters (唐山五虎)
  • Chang Cheh’s 1978 Invincible Shaolin (南少林與北少林)
  • Chang Cheh’s 1979 The Kid with the Golden Arm (金臂童)
  • Chang Cheh’s 1979 Magnificent Ruffians (賣命小子)
  • Chang Cheh’s 1980 Ten Tigers of Kwangtung (廣東十虎與後五虎)
  • Lau Kar-wing’s 1981 My Young Auntie (長輩)
  • Wong Jing’s 1982 Mercenaries from Hong Kong (猎魔者)
  • Kuei Chih-hung’s 1983 The Boxer’s Omen (魔)
  • Lau Kar-wing’s 1978 Martial Arts of Shaolin (南北少林)
  • Johnnie To’s 1993 The Bare-Footed Kid (赤脚小子)

There’s a lot of content on these discs and the booklet is neat, going into detail for each film. In fact it was interesting to see Martial Arts of Shaolin is one of Jet Li’s earliest roles, and Johnnie To’s The Bare-Footed Kid is a remake of Chang Cheh’s Disciples of Shaolin which is a neat thing to know.

Gunbuster

Gunbuster, the 1988 OVA series, was recently released in the west in HD and Anime Limited were the ones bringing it over for the UK (while Discotek did the work for the US). I watched the theatrical compilation film first nearly a decade ago, but I haven’t watched the original so it’s good to have access to that now and on Blu-ray none-the-less.

In case you didn’t see, I also added an Unboxing Redux post (titles that I unboxed on my previous blog before moving to this one) for the Gunbuster vs Diebuster box set which was how I watched the compilation film years back.

Love Live! Superstar!!

Next we have Love Live! Superstar!! Season 1 which is the fourth Love Live! Series in the franchise that focuses on the idol group Liella!. Anime Limited were still able to release the newer seasons and series as Crunchyroll keeps licensing more of them, though there were streaming issues for the newer ones as the UK doesn’t have access to some which is annoying. Despite these, at least we are able to get them on Blu-ray and what we got is a pretty solid package.

Witch on the Holy Night

Witch on the Holy Night, a visual novel for the Nintendo Switch, is a remake of the 2012 title of the same name by Type-Moon. Now this release was a big deal as it’s now in English and was also released in the west by Aniplex of America, but physical copies are hard to come by so it was rather fortunate the Japanese release included English support.

Also worth noting this is not the first Type-Moon visual novel to be localised into English, for instance many don’t realise that Type-Moon also wrote the CANAAN scenario in 428: Shibuya Scramble, but it’s the start of more with the Tsukihime remake also getting the English treatment in the future.

You may have also noticed it’s on Switch rather than PlayStation 4 for my shelf. After experiencing a burn-in moment with Spirit Hunter: NG because of my TV’s OLED, I decided visual novels would be more suited for the Switch going forward. And yes I do have a Nintendo Switch, but the only game I’ve finished prior to this month was Super Mario 64 (ironically) as I’m currently wanting to focus on my PlayStation backlog more. More Switch games are on the way, especially given the rumours of the next Nintendo console supposedly planned to be released in 2024.

A Moment of Romance

Another Radiance Films release has arrived and it’s the first Hong Kong addition to the label with Benny Chan’s 1990 film A Moment of Romance (天若有情), which has a 4K restoration but is on Blu-ray. Like the previous Radiance Film releases we have a Scanavo case with a mini obi cover to keep the main artwork clean. Reversible cover artwork is what I use for my shelf at the moment but the front cover artwork is really good too.

Kids on the Slope, Negima! & The Pet Girl of Sakurasou

So this is going to be a rather lengthy post, but here we have a haul that had a lot of people curious! For those who have been following my pickups for the past decade, I have never used a US forwarding service and it’s been a tactic that I had been wanting to sort out for a very long time now. There was a few people mentioning that they were using Stackry, which is one of many services available, so I decided to give it a shot and utilise it on Sentai Filmworks’ online store, because they were the only distributor who doesn’t ship internationally compared to others.

This haul is a test. A test on keeping it short but also affordable, and to see how Stackry handles the delivery. The results are as follows!

Ordering from Sentai:

Sentai’s store uses Shopify and ordering was pretty good, you have multiple shipping options but I went with the free shipping which required having an order that was worth $50 in total. Three titles which were on sale added to $53 total. Payment was done through Monzo & PayPal with no issues, which is good given some sites in other regions can reject your card because it’s not local. Despite my order being placed during a weekend, Sentai shipped the package 2 days later, but this timeframe can change for other users.

Stackry’s service:

Joining Stackry was surprisingly simple, as they do a good job guiding you through its service. You are immediately given an address and it’s free to signup, with options to pay for more features if needed. As I used a referral link, I also got $10 off shipping which was used automatically on the first shipment. The package arrived at Stackry in 2 days, which was done through USPS. Upon arrival, Stackry provided two photos of the packaging box and made note of its weight. Thanks to the photos I decided it was worth shipping out without any repackaging (which was $5).

There is a VAT form that you sort out, so I noted each one as a DVD product since that’s an easier way of explaining what these are for the customs folks. Despite the VAT stuff, this cleared customs without issue and was not shown on the box.

Journey & Arrival:

For shipping to the UK, I went with the cheapest shipping option called Global Mail Direct (DHL) which included tracking. Once it landed in the UK, Evri (formerly known as Hermes) took over but tracking was also updated on DHL’s side. Because Sentai’s packaging has changed ever since they stopped using Rightstuf’s warehouse, the protection is hit or miss but everything survived for the most part. No invoice was included inside the box for the Sentai order, just like Rightstuf’s.

Overall the Journey progression was like this:

  • 12th Aug: Signed up to Stackry and placed my order on Sentai.
  • 14th Aug: Sentai order had been dispatched, using USPS via free shipping method.
  • 16th Aug: Stackry received the package, provided photos of its arrival and weight details. I also filled in the VAT form and requested it to be shipped out using Global Mail Direct (DHL) for $18.99 ($8.99 due to referral offer).
  • 17th Aug: Stackry order had been dispatched, tracking details provided via email.
  • 19th Aug: DHL processed the package in the US for UK shipment.
  • 21st Aug: Cleared UK customs, Evri now takes over.
  • 22nd Aug: Evri received the package.
  • 23rd Aug: Package has been delivered.

Conclusion/Overall Thoughts:

Considering this was my first time using Stackry, in general they have done the job very well. The only issue was basically down to Sentai’s packaging and that is it. I was perfectly fine with the pacing especially with the fact that tracking was included.

The next steps for this approach will be to increase the number and value of the order, to see how far it can go. In total this haul costed me $53 (£42) + $18.99 (£15) ($8.99 (£7) due to discount) shipping = £57 (£49 thanks to the discount).

If you are reading this and want to give Stackry a try, I do have a referral link that will also give you $10 off your first shipment order.

The Haul:

So long story short, I bought three Sentai Filmworks Blu-rays which were on sale coincidently. Kids on the Slope, Negima! & Negima!? collection, and The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. All three titles have been tested and played on PlayStation 5.

The one that’s worth noting was Negima! which was going out of print, and I was able to get mine secured whilst a bunch of Blu-ray forum users lost out. Kids on the Slope is the re-release version which is very handy, given the previous release was a decade ago and did have a mono issue at one point, while The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is the second release version that includes Sentai’s dub.

Fight Back to School Trilogy, The Postman Fights Back & Taxi Hunter

Next we have more Hong Kong Asian Cinema with five more films joining the collection.

The first is the Fight Back to School Trilogy which features Gordon Chan’s 1991 film Fight Back to School (逃學威龍) and 1992 film Fight Back to School II (逃學威龍2) as well as Wong Jing’s 1993 film Fight Back to School III (逃學威龍3之龍過雞年). This collection all feature actor Stephen Chow plus there’s appearances by Ng Man-tat and Anthony Wong. While 88 Films’ deluxe collector’s edition feature physical items, this release only has a rigid box which I suspect is down to approval and asset issues. Never-the-less it’s good to have more Stephen Chow films.

Also arrived are two more slim-type releases with Ronny Yu’s 1982 film The Postman Fights Back (巡城馬) featuring Bryan Leung and Chow Yun-fat, and Herman Yau’s 1993 film Taxi Hunter (的士判官) featuring Anthony Wong, Yu Rongguang and Ng Man-tat. The latter is often mistaken to be a Category III title but it’s actually a Category IIB since some folks had been asking about that over on the 88 Films BD forum thread.

Limited Run Games Haul

Next we shift over to video games and here we have our first batch of Limited Run Games titles from their numbered list. Over the years I had mainly avoided the physical games publisher because of their approach on how they make the games available, which started off with a short window that caused issues to eventually over time they were releasing too many titles at once despite the open pre-order approach, though that in itself also had issues of its own like people waiting years for their copies to arrive.

Now I actually do own a few Limited Run Games titles. The first was their PC release of Suda 51’s The Silver Case and then just before I got a Nintendo Switch OLED I was lucky enough to get my hands on Senran Kagura Reflexions because it was included in their bonfire sale. But it wasn’t until VideoGamesPlus made a deal with the publisher and received a whole bunch of stock that I had decided to revisit the publisher’s catalogue.

Now I am not going to go after every single release but my focus going forward will be any that are on either Switch or PlayStation 5 depending on the title and what platform works best for it. So for this batch of games I decided that Nintendo Switch was the best go-to console for retro video games and niche genre types like shoot em ups. Not every item arrived on time for this month, but most of them did.

So the first two that arrived first were two bullet hell shoot em ups developed by Cave. Known in Japan as DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu, DoDonPachi Resurrection is one of the most well-known and was even released on Xbox 360 in the west. It was brought over to the Nintendo Switch by Live Wire and is one of three to have this treatment from the Cave catalog.

The other was Espgaluda II which was also released on Xbox 360 but only for Japan and Switch marks its western console debut. I managed to play both of these when they arrived and I really enjoyed them for various different reasons and I even tried out each of the modes including Black Label which adds more bullets to the screen.

The third Live Wire game to get the Switch treatment that I don’t yet own is Mushihimesama, but I do have the game ordered however I won’t know when exactly it will arrive just yet, as VGP had sold out before I started these orders.

The second package then arrived a day later, and that comes with the physical versions for Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection I & II, which are a series of action platformer games originated from the MSX but the versions that were more popular are on the PC Engine.

The first collection covers Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (PC Engine, 1992), Valis II (PC Engine, 1989) and Valis III (PC Engine, 1990) while the second collection covers Valis IV (PC Engine, 1991), Syd of Valis/SD Valis (Mega Drive, 1992) as well as two versions of Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (Mega Drive, 1991 & MSX, 1986). While physical versions are available in Japan, I felt the Valis titles’ story was worth playing in English so this was the only option available.

That concludes the Limited Run Games titles that arrived for this month’s haul, but I do have two more from VideoGamesPlus that are on their way, and I plan to order some more sooner than later so stay tuned for them which should all appear in the September haul.

Ranking of Kings

Ranking of Kings is a series that I have heard a lot about ever since it started airing a few years ago, and I missed out on the simulcast stuff for various factors. The Blu-ray is finally out in its entirely so I have ordered both parts, with Part 2 being the limited edition.

While the UK did receive the series, I don’t want to support the current distributor’s model at this time and so most of the titles I’ll be picking up via the US release. Sure it’s one less sale for the UK stuff but this distributor’s been inconsistent for the past decade and it’s gotten to a point where it’s burned me out on promises etc so I can’t be bothered anymore.

Unboxing Links

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

What’s to Come for the Hauls

September 2023

For September the haul has been expanded upon with a mixture of pre-orders that are both on-time and also delayed from previous months. More Switch games are on their way as well.

  • Ascendance of a Bookworm Seasons 1 & 2 (CE Blu-ray)
  • Burn the Witch (CE Blu-ray)
  • Castlevania Anniversary Collection (Switch)
  • Contra Anniversary Collection (Switch)
  • Enter the Dragon (50th Anniversary LE HMV Cine Ver. 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
  • Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (CE Blu-ray)
  • JUNK HEAD (CE Blu-ray)
  • Mushihimesama (Switch)
  • The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 (LE Blu-ray & DVD)

October 2023

For this October there’s more pre-orders made and delays can occur given we’re close to the holiday season.

  • Beach of the War Gods (Blu-ray)
  • The Eminence in Shadow Season 1 (Blu-ray)
  • Evangelion: 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon a Time (DE 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
  • From Beijing With Love (Blu-ray)
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam Part 1 (CE Blu-ray)
  • OVERLORD IV (LE Blu-ray & DVD)
  • Visible Secret (Blu-ray)

November 2023

This November we have some titles incoming but more is to be expected.

  • DOOR & DOOR 2 (Blu-ray)
  • The Guard from Underground (Blu-ray)
  • Gundam Build Fighters Part 1 (CE Blu-ray)
  • Typhoon Club (Blu-ray)

Other Tidbits

My laptop’s battery has apparently hit a fuse so it’s slowly draining but it can be fixed. It’s annoying but if I do manage to get this sorted expect some potential delays if there’s new titles arriving whilst the laptop is being repaired.

Anime

So since the last update there had been a few more bigger titles now on the release schedule for the last few months of this year. Anime Limited revealed Burn the Witch, Evangelion: 3.0+1.11, Mobile Fighter G Gundam and Re:Cycle of the Penguindrum for home video with the former three already paid and ordered so they’re covered. The latter will be available to pre-order at the end of September so it’ll be a while before I can get that covered. Also it looks like they lost the rights to the Konosuba film as Crunchyroll submitted the home video release over to the BBFC which implies it’ll be out by the end of the year like Australia are doing.

Crunchyroll UK haven’t said anything but we already know they’ll be bringing over the multi-language titles like Beast Tamer, More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers and Shinobi no Ittoki but OVERLORD IV was also rated, though for the latter I have already ordered the US limited edition. Given the success of the US forwarding method I will probably be using that approach for a fair amount of these standard Crunchyroll releases going forward. Speaking of the US branch they also have BLUELOCK and My Dress-Up Darling available to pre-order which I want to look into.

Meanwhile Discotek did a massive batch for the end of November which is a surprise, given that they normally focus on four to five titles a month. Since August they have made available for pre-order Aim for the Ace: Another Match!, Crying Freeman, Fist of the North Star: Legend of the True Savior OVAs, Midnight Eye Goku, and even Street Fighter II in 4K Ultra HD. I haven’t done a batch in a while and that may still be delayed due to focus on other areas.

Asian Cinema

The Asian Cinema scene in the UK got some more interesting updates that I plan to order. 88 Films finalised some release dates which includes Battle Creek Brawl, Hard Boiled II: The Last Blood, Magic Crystal, The Medallion, and Twin Dragons. There’s also The Blue Jean Monster, The Inspector Wears Skirts, and The Long Arm of the Law Parts I & II also scheduled for this last quarter. Personally I am hoping for more Category III titles as they did mention a few more titles have yet to be revealed in this slate.

Eureka has some more Hong Kong films on the release schedule with three Jet Li films and two Stephen Chow films; Heroes & Villains collection with My Father is a Hero, Dr Wai in “The Scripture with No Words”, and Hitman, and the Royal Tramp collection. The special offer closes not long after payday so I plan to get it sorted around that time frame.

And while nothing has been listed yet, Criterion UK has shifted distribution and they’re now finally releasing 4K Ultra HD titles so hopefully they’ll go back and bring some of the Japanese, Chinese and Korean films on that format in the near future.

Video Games

I want to highlight Limited Run Games for this part as I have officially started to look into their catalogue of games for the Nintendo Switch. As I have already received four with another three incoming, I plan to get a few more that are still around even if they are slightly priced (because they’re not available for regular retailers). Due to how sensitive this particular market is, I’m not going to mention what else I plan to get next unless I have already ordered it but don’t worry there’s not many remaining since I’m only after specific titles, not all of them.

And that concludes the month of August haul. It feels smaller but many of these are fairly pricey and while it sounds like much, it was a worthwhile spend given how the market is. I expect September will be a similar issue so hopefully I can fix this turbulence before the holiday season properly begins.

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