Otaku Collection Haul for October 2023

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of October 2023. This update features 25 anime releases, 5 manga volumes, 1 physical video game, and 4 live-action Asian Cinema releases.

For this month’s batch marks the first half of the final remaining orders coming from Rightstuf, while we also have a few more noteworthy additions including another Discotek haul and even more JoJo manga.

Re:ZERO Season 2 & Discotek Media Haul (Stackry #3)

In September I placed an order on Rightstuf, about a week before the whole news broke out about Crunchyroll Store eating up the retailer, where I decided to trial Stackry with them. The haul consisted of a single Crunchyroll limited edition and another batch of Discotek Media Blu-rays.

We’ll start off with Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 2 which I didn’t pre-order immediately because of what was going on in the UK. For context, Crunchyroll UK announced it first but after revealing it and making it available to pre-order they suddenly cancelled it and there was no word on anyone else sorting it out themselves. Given the state of the UK license I decided there was a risk missing out on the limited edition especially considering how popular this isekai is, so I ordered the US release which is Region AB compared to its first season which is handy.

And next we have another Discotek Media haul! Now it has been a while since I made one of these and the original plan was to sort one out every bi-monthly, but the events of August pushed things around (namely caused by the Limited Run Games VideoGamesPlus surprise restock of OOP titles). This haul was an opportunity to catch up and it’s essentially the August batch but delayed.

Starting off with two very old Blu-ray releases by the distributor which were released back in 2016. And considering they are one of the earliest still available I decided they are likely to be nearing the end of their licensing run.

Getter Robo Armageddon

Animated by Brain’s Base & Studio OX in 1998-1999, directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa & Jun Kawagoe and loosely based on the Getter Robo manga, this is an OVA series that is a loose adaptation of the source material and previous anime with its own approach, which would explain why it was among the first that Discotek Media picked up and released from that franchise. I also believe this was their first slipcase title on Blu-ray which is neat. I enjoyed Devilman and wanted to look into Getter Robo more especially after seeing their appearances in Super Robot Wars V. Discotek released the Blu-ray in August 2016.

Tekkaman Blade II

Animated by Tatsunoko Productions in 1994-1995, and directed by Hideki Tonokatsu, this is an OVA series that is also a sequel to the Tekkaman Blade (Teknoman) series which was also animated by the same studio. Now Discotek Media only has the license to the OVAs but there is a 10 year time jump between the two seasons so I suppose this one was doable for folks to jump right in! What I found interesting with this release is that it’s always been out of stock every time that I had tried to pick it up and it had taken me many months to finally order it as a result. I suppose its on its last remaining stock at this point. Discotek released the Blu-ray in September 2016.

Next we have six more TV Specials for the Lupin the Third franchise. Going to mention them in order of their Japanese release this time around. These are:

Lupin the Third: The Pursuit of Harimao’s Treasure

Animated by TMS Entertainment in 1995 and directed by Osamu Dezaki, this is the 7th Special in the line-up. This had some controversy due to the portrayal and representation for one of the characters, and Discotek provided a disclaimer at the start to let people know about it. There’s also liner notes included that adds more context about the whole ordeal which is neat. Funimation’s English dub is included and Discotek released the Blu-ray in October 2020.

Lupin the Third: The Secret of Twilight Gemini

Animated by TMS Entertainment in 1996 and directed by Gisaburō Sugii, this is the 8th Special. In a rather amusing move, when this was released in the west there was also a PG-13 version that added redrawn bikinis and Discotek were able to include that version as well on the disc. Funimation’s English dub is included and Discotek released the Blu-ray in November 2020.

Lupin the Third: Tokyo Crisis

Animated by TMS Entertainment in 1998 and directed by Toshiya Shinohara, this is the 10th Special. This was also known in Japan as Memories of the Flame: Tokyo Crisis and by its previous US release as Crisis in Tokyo. Funimation’s English dub is included and Discotek released the Blu-ray in December 2020.

Lupin the Third: The Columbus Files

Animated by TMS Entertainment in 1999 and directed by Shinichi Watanabe, this is the 11th Special. This was also known in Japan as Da Capo of Love: Fujiko’s Unlucky Days. Discotek had to do some tweaking to the masters so that the finale was upscaled because it was originally letterboxed. Funimation’s English dub is included and Discotek released the Blu-ray in February 2021.

Lupin the Third: Missed by a Dollar

Animated by TMS Entertainment in 2000 and directed by Hideki Tonokatsu, this is the 12th Special. This was also known in Japan as $1 Money Wars. Funimation’s English dub is included and Discotek released the Blu-ray in March 2021.

Lupin the Third: The Elusiveness of the Fog

Animated by TMS Entertainment in 2007 and directed by Toshihiko Masuda, this is the 19th Special. This special was not released in the west before however there is no English dub attached. Discotek released the Blu-ray in April 2021.

In terms of disc region compatibility (and the top-menu method for those who know about that), all of them are Region A locked however Lupin the Third: Missed by a Dollar will work via Top-Menu button method. Lupin the Third: The Pursuit of Harimao’s Treasure does play on Region B but it’ll keep you stuck on one of the liner note pages.

So as mentioned, this was ordered to Stackry and was the third and final of my tests to determine if this approach was to be effective going forward. Now considering that I have also used the service for the final Rightstuf hauls I am personally very happy with how they have handled the packages thus far. Now I have yet to explore a proper consolidation method with tons of items altogether but at the same time I haven’t had any major issues thus far, with the only minor ones being caused by the retailers and shipping companies themselves.

Now this package is one of the few that I was able to get to the forwarding service from Rightstuf because the store closed a few weeks later which is absolutely frustrating. But essentially my order went through fine as I used Rightstuf’s free shipping method and paid via Monzo in USD currency. The haul overall was $220.01 (£177.67) followed by $31.99 (£27.25 at PayPal’s own conversion) Global Mail shipping from Stackry with the high shipping price due to 4.2lb weight thanks to Rightstuf packaging. The package cleared UK customs and arrived at Evri. This approach saved me about £60 as a result.

She Shoots Straight

The one Hong Kong film that I don’t pre-order ends up selling out the most. No clue how that happened (either lower print run or its more popular than I had anticipated) but either way I managed to get Corey Yuen’s 1990 film She Shoots Straight (皇家女將) on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment. Like the other Eureka Classics titles, this comes with a slipcase, alternate artwork (the film was also known as Lethal Lady) and a booklet.

Black Clover Seasons 3 & 4

It’s been a while since I picked up the previous seasons but thanks to the Rarewaves sale I finally bought Black Clover Seasons 3 & 4 for pretty good value. These cover episodes 103 to 170 so I now own all of the first series. While I have read the first three volumes I haven’t decided if I want to jump into the anime then read more of the manga afterwards (because reading the source material first then watching the adaptation can mess with your expectations).

Beach of the War Gods & From Beijing With Love

Two brand new Eureka Entertainment releases for the month of October arrived roughly two weeks before it was officially scheduled to be released. The first is Jimmy Wang Yu’s Beach of the War Gods (戰神灘) which is the last of their teaser announcements from the end of last year, and the second is Stephen Chow & Lee Lik-chi’s From Beijing With Love (國產凌凌漆). Both releases are from Hong Kong and are part of Eureka Classics which includes a slipcase and booklet for their first-print offerings.

Visible Secret

Next we have the latest Asian Cinema title from Radiance Films with Ann Hui’s 2001 film Visible Secret (幽靈人間). This is a notable release, because the distributor listed it as a ‘limited pressing’ which basically means once this limited edition release sells out, that’s it – no standard edition planned. To recap, the limited edition covers a scanavo packaging with removable obi-strip for info specs/ratings, and a booklet.

Farewell to Space Irresponsible Captain Rightstuf Haul Part 1

Welcome to the final batch of items coming from Rightstuf before they were absorbed into Crunchyroll Store. This haul comprises of five different orders arriving either consolidated or separately at different times. There’s been some disruption with how Rightstuf have been shipping them out, and all except one have dispatched at the time of this post. In addition, my pre-order order from late July has also been dispatched which is separate from this haul but I may include it if needed.

Excluding the pre-order, all orders have been sent to Stackry to balance the costs (today’s order cleared customs for additional context). If you’re interested in using Stackry for the first time, I also have a referral link that you can use to get $10 off shipping for your first order. I’ve written up my overall thoughts in my August & September hauls if you want some extra context and info regarding them but overall I have had a solid experience in general. As long as you use Global Mail Shipping (focuses on DHL + Evri) and don’t have way too many items in your overall finalised package it’ll go through fine to the UK.

For this part, all of the titles came from Batch #2 which consists of Discotek Media releases which I shipped out first because it was larger than the rest. Now if you’ve been following my hauls over the months I mentioned that I wanted to pick up the Discotek releases in a bi-monthly format and August’s haul ended up being delayed into late September/early October (which was bundled with Re:ZERO Season 2) so today’s arrival is the official haul for October so we’re back on track.

You may have noticed that this selection is a bit random than the usual and what we have are half the titles from Crunchyroll’s sub-licensing titles and the other half are miscellaneous releases from their early days of Blu-rays to a few that I wanted to get that were released just a few years ago.

Starting off with the miscellaneous titles. All six of these have been tested and confirmed to be Region A locked.

Battery The Animation
Animated by Zero-G in 2016, directed by Tomomi Mochizuki and based on a novel, this is the first of two that Discotek Media released which aired on NoitaminA and was a streaming exclusive to Amazon Prime. This series I’ve heard good things about and makes a worthy addition to the distributor’s catalogue. Discotek released the Blu-ray in May 2020.

The Great Passage
Animated by Zexcs in 2016, directed by Toshimasa Kuroyanagi and based on a novel, this is a pretty popular story given the live-action version was selected as an entry for the Academy Awards at one point. The anime was also well received from what I had read and I’m surprised Anime Limited didn’t pick this one up even if it was subtitled only. Like Battery, this also streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime as part of the NoitaminA deal at the time. Discotek released the Blu-ray in February 2020.

Hells
Animated by Madhouse in 2008, directed by Yoshiki Yamakawa and based on the manga Hells Angel. I remember this being a big deal when Discotek picked it up because it was a cult classic film with an interesting art style. The English dub is among the first that got produced by Discotek if I remember right, with TeamFourStar getting involved. Again this is the type of film that Anime Limited would have licensed years back. Discotek released the Blu-ray in November 2018.

Hi-SCool! Seha Girls
Animated by TMS Entertainment & Genies in 2014, directed by Sōta Sugawara and based on a multimedia project. Now this you may be wondering ‘what on earth did you buy’ but if you have read through my gaming backlog posts on the forum you may have noticed that I recently played a Neptunia game that featured these characters (Superdimension Neptune). Also known as SEGA Hard Girls, it has a similar concept to the Neptunia franchise where each girl represents a console – SEGA Mega Drive, SEGA Saturn and SEGA Dreamcast. TMS Ent did a mini anime series of sorts which Discotek picked up thanks to their good relationship with both SEGA and TMS. Discotek released the Blu-ray & DVD combo pack in May 2017.

Kimagure Orange Road Collection 2
Animated by Pierrot in 1988-1991, directed by Tomomi Mochizuki for the film and Kōichirō Nakamura, Shigeru Morikawa, Takeshi Mori, and Naoyuki Yoshinaga for the OVAs, and based on a manga. This is the second half of the Kimagure Orange Road franchise that Discotek Media was able to rescue. Here we have the first film Kimagure Orange Road: I Want to Return to That Day followed by the OVA series. The second film isn’t included as it’s a different licensing case (and one that many dislike apparently). Discotek released the Blu-ray in August 2019.

True Tears
Animated by P.A. Works in 2008, directed by Junji Nishimura and based on a visual novel, even though it’s nothing like it. P.A. Works has their fair share of VN adaptations with drama, romance, friendship etc and this one Discotek picked up early on in their anime licensing career. The anime adaptation was also written by Mari Okada. Discotek released the Blu-ray in October 2017.

Next we have six Crunchyroll sub-licenses. With the exception of the first title, the remaining five below have been tested and confirmed to work on Region B players via pressing the Top-Menu button.

Isuca
Animated by Arms in 2015, directed by Akira Iwanaga and based on a manga. This is one of the few occasions where Discotek has managed to get their hands on super ecchi uncensored excitement and it even comes with the OVA so why not. I remember this series because my friend from the anime society back in Sheffield Hallam once considered this episode to show off in one of our sessions and he realised it was NSFW for the amateurs. If only Discotek were given Hybrid x Heart in their Crunchyroll batch of titles, would be funny though. Discotek released the Blu-ray in October 2020.

Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles
Animated by Studio Gokumi & AXsiZ in 2018, directed by Kenji Seto and based on a manga. Girl likes eating noodles so it was a keeper. Discotek released the Blu-ray in March 2022.

Ms. Vampire Who Lives In My Neighborhood
Animated by Studio Gokumi & AXsiZ in 2018, directed by Noriyaki Akitaya and based on a manga. Cute vampire girl doing cute things in this slice-of-life series from the same studio behind Koizumi Noodles. Discotek released the Blu-ray in February 2022.

Planet With
Animated by J.C. Staff in 2018 and directed by Youhei Suzuki. This one was a cult modern classic when it first aired, like everyone who watched it said it was really good, plus it’s from Satoshi Mizukami the creator of Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer and Spirit Circle so it’s had some promise. Given how low radar it was it’s no surprise there was no dub provided but it received a chance on home video thanks to Discotek. Discotek released the Blu-ray in August 2022.

Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san
Animated by DLE in 2018, directed by Ouru Todoroki and based on a manga. This one I did manage to watch a few episodes during my time at my anime society in University, it’s a short but simplistic art stylised series and there’s a lot of charm put towards Honda-san’s character. Had it aired nowadays it probably would have gotten an dub. Discotek released the Blu-ray in March 2022.

Yowamushi Pedal: New Generation
Animated by TMS Entertainment & 8PAN in 2017, directed by Osamu Nabeshima and based on a manga. This sports series slaps and I’m happy that it did well enough for Discotek to release more of it on Blu-ray, though unfortunately the third season onwards was picked up by Crunchyroll so we probably won’t see Seasons 4 & 5 (Glory Line & Limit Break) ever get released at this point in time. Discotek released the Blu-ray in June 2022.

Travelling Man Manga Haul

I went to town, though it was mostly a dud as some retailers didn’t have the items I had in mind. That said I picked up some manga from the retailer Travelling Man with Alice in Borderland omnibus volumes 6 & 7 as well as JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable volume 4. I was originally going to get a lot more than this in the store, but the series they had available were either missing volumes or the volumes themselves weren’t in the best condition.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Next we have the only video game pickup for the month and also a pre-order with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for the PlayStation 5. Really enjoyed the previous game and its spin-off, had such a great time with the gameplay and its story and even went back to play through the DLC packs and get the Platinum.

Now this time around I bought the game day one and literally 100% the game two days later, but I spent roughly 26 hours playtime in total so it’s still good value. There’s a lot of interesting bits throughout the new game and I don’t think it’s as big as the first game in terms of side content but what we did get was very good.

The Eminence in Shadow & OVERLORD IV

Next we have another Rightstuf package, and this one is not part of the final haul because it was ordered during its Birthday sale back in late July where they offered discount codes for each package you receive. I used one of the last of those codes on the Crunchyroll limited edition release for OVERLORD IV but needed another title to bundle with it to balance the shipping costs through FedEx and so The Eminence in Shadow Season 1 from Sentai Filmworks fit the bill.

So yeah, we have two dark fantasy isekai shows, one with a harem and another with a… harem of non-humans! Jokes aside, I like OVERLORD and am happy to see the fourth season receive the limited edition treatment even if they downgraded on the artwork. As for the other series I have yet to actually watch it because it was a HIDIVE exclusive for streaming. That said I am looking forward to watching it especially considering its 20 episodes.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable Vol. 5-6

This package arrived rather late unexpectedly (like 7pm late which is unheard of) but I decided to order online JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable volumes 5 & 6. While Travelling Man did have volume 5, they didn’t have volume 6 or 7 so I couldn’t make much use out of their 3 for 2 deal. By ordering these now I am back on track for the three volumes per month approach for this series. I probably won’t be getting Golden Wind until next year but that’s fine by me.

Unboxing Links

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

• OVERLORD IV (LE Blu-ray & DVD)
• Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 2 (LE Blu-ray)

What’s to Come for the Hauls

November 2023

The October haul, which I mentioned previously would be a massive one, didn’t exactly go to plan. The main reason is because Rightstuf ended up with so many orders due to their farewell coupon sale that it had resulted in massive delays for everyone, the closer to the deadline the longer it was going to take. In addition, Rightstuf not only consolidated my 3rd & 4th orders but that package went in limbo by USPS (the infamous ‘In Transit, Arriving Late’ status) but miraculously it’s now safe in Stackry. My 1st order was kept at Stackry for a while and the original plan was to consolidate the 1st & 3rd orders together but thanks to Rightstuf that plan has since changed. On a positive note, they did manage to ship out the 5th & final order which was able to arrive at Stackry at a better pace (literally on the same day as the delayed package).

In other words, the delays meant that the remainder of the Rightstuf haul has been moved into November’s haul which is fine, but it does mean that any unboxings for some of these will be pushed into the weekend or on one of my days off work so stay tuned on those.

Meanwhile both 88 Films and Anime Limited also had delays of their own so there’s a few titles moved as a result. Hopefully they arrive and don’t get delayed into 2024.

Rightstuf Final Hauls line-up:

• Arte (Blu-ray)
• The Duke of Death and His Maid Season 1 (Blu-ray)
• Fate/Grand Carnival (Blu-ray)
• Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia Box Set 1 (LE Blu-ray)
• Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia Box Set 2 (LE Blu-ray)
• Fate/Grand Order Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot Part 1 – Wandering;Agateram (LE Blu-ray)
• Fate/Grand Order Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot Part 2 – Paladin;Agateram (LE Blu-ray)
• Fate/Grand Order: Final Singularity – Grand Temple of Time: Solomon (LE Blu-ray)
• The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Blu-ray)
• The Heike Story (Blu-ray)
• Love After World Domination (Blu-ray)
• Sabikui Bisco (Blu-ray)
• Skeleton Knight in Another World (Blu-ray)
• Trapped in a Dating Sim The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs Season 1 (Blu-ray)
• Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- (Blu-ray)
• Wave, Listen to Me! (Blu-ray)

Also arriving in November:

• Ascendance of a Bookworm Seasons 1 & 2 (CE Blu-ray)
• Battle Creek Brawl (DCE Blu-ray)
• Burn the Witch (CE Blu-ray)
• DOOR & DOOR 2 (Blu-ray)
• Evangelion: 3.0+1.11 Thrice Upon a Time (DE 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
• From Ants to Zombies: Six Decades of Video Game Horror (Book)
• The Guard from Underground (Blu-ray)
• Gundam Build Fighters Part 1 (CE Blu-ray)
• Heroes & Villains: Three Films Starring Jet Li (Blu-ray)
• Hula Fulla Dance (CE Blu-ray)
• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R (PS5)
• Magic Crystal (Blu-ray)
• The Medallion (Blu-ray)
• Mobile Fighter G Gundam Part 1 (CE Blu-ray)
• Pac-Man World Re-Pac (PS5)
• Royal Tramp Collection (Blu-ray)
• Star Ocean: The Second Story R (PS5)
• To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (CE Blu-ray)
• Typhoon Club (Blu-ray)

December 2023

Surprisingly I don’t have much scheduled for the final month of the year, other than the usual Christmas haul. All there is currently are the Eureka Entertainment pre-orders but do expect more to show up later.

• Casino Raiders (Blu-ray)
• The Fall of Ako Castle (Blu-ray)

Other Tidbits

In September I had to put a lot of hours into overtime due to the workload being unstable and that had unfortunately continued into October. The good news is that those additional 23 hours I did in October will be paid and that will help with my funds, especially given the recent Rightstuf sale hauls and I want to put more back into the saving to balance everything out.

But something else also occurred at work. A lot of changes happened, from one department being moved to a different company all the way to the folks in my team wanting to move on. It all went so fast that it’s like everything had crumbled all at once. My role itself is fine and what’s happening going forward is decent and optimistic for now, but if it doesn’t go the way that I want then I can always look into other opportunities given that I have done two years already. But for now things will be as per usual for the next few months.

And yes we have finally reached the darkness – i.e. the days are getting shorter especially in the UK as the daylight saving time has ended. This does mean that any items that I would unbox will now be sorted during the weekends, however saying that I do have some annual leave slotted in here and there so that will help with the workload.

Anime

The Crunchyroll Store & Rightstuf transition has taken effect and all of my orders with Rightstuf have been shipped out. I have yet to place an order with Crunchyroll’s Store though I am aware of the whole international shipping restrictions but that’s what Stackry is for. I’ll want to move them to Stackry anyway because Crunchyroll’s Store doesn’t have the same level of packaging protection. Crunchyroll does intend to keep the holiday sale trend with their store so we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out. In the meantime My Dress Up Darling will likely be the first order I place with the store unless another store has a better price.

Speaking of Crunchyroll they did reveal their January slate which includes The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie, Ningen Fushin and also Bocchi the Rock. No limited editions here which is a surprise but again more older titles are being kept away from home video. Sentai on the other hand are slowly going through their newer titles but not much progress with the re-releases. They do have a new release of RahXephon planned which is cool but that just got one a few months back.

Anime Limited held a panel at MCM London Comic Con and surprisingly they revealed over 10 titles for their catalogue with half of them being licence rescues from the Animatsu era like Akame ga Kill!, Food Wars! Season 1 and Parasyte -the maxim- as well as older MVM titles Flowers of Evil and Kids on the Slope. These are all great picks for the distributor so they make sense.

Anime Limited also managed to get their hands on Naruto and Naruto Shippuden so they now own 2 of the 3 big shonen classics from the past few decades (as Crunchyroll still owns the One Piece series). They have said the pacing won’t be as dragged out as InuYasha so expect 2024 to be filled with a lot of shonen releases. They also picked up Re:ZERO Season 2 which was poorly timed but they understood the frustrations of those who imported the US release given the lack of updates on the UK side.

Another distributor that revealed new titles was Discotek Media who held a Halloween livestream on YouTube. They revealed their December line-up which included the likes of Blue Comet SPT Layzner, Lupin the Third: Seven Days Rhapsody and Overman King Gainer as well as a few others. But during their stream they announced a great variety of titles like a 4K Ultra HD with HDR for Belladonna of Sadness, a few more live-action films including the Fatal Frame film and Kamikaze Girls, and of course more anime with Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, Futakoi, Hand Maid May, IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix, Kurokami: The Animation and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ones that I was most interested in.

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And that concludes this month’s haul. It’s a solid month for the anime titles and expect a similar turnout for November and potentially December if things go smoothly.