Otaku Collection Haul for December 2023

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of December 2023. This update features 21 anime releases, 2 light novel volumes, 1 novel, 6 manga volumes, 4 physical video games, 5 live-action Asian Cinema releases and 6 live-action European Cinema releases.

To conclude the 2023 hauls we receive a dozen Sentai Filmworks titles from their Black Friday sale, the annual holiday haul, and joining our collection are a couple European films from Radiance Films.

Casino Raiders & The Fall of Ako Castle

The first package arrived on the first day of the month. I was actually expecting this to arrive on the last day of November but it’s Royal Mail’s 48 hour delivery speed so it’s expected to take longer than usual at this point.

Eureka Entertainment’s December pre-order bundle arrived, which includes one Hong Kong film and one Japanese film with the latter joining the Masters of Cinema line-up. Jimmy Heung & Wong Jing’s Casino Raiders (至尊無上) is one that I am looking forward to watching because it’s one of the many gambling themed films that came out back in the day (though God of Gamblers is the most popular). Kinji Fukasaku’s The Fall of Ako Castle (赤穂城断絶) continues the Sonny Chiba & Fukasaku addition to the Eureka catalogue, though my copy has a broken case so I did find one to replace it.

Gundam Build Fighters Part 1

The first anime arrival that appeared was Gundam Build Fighters Part 1 from Anime Limited. I consider this to be a bit of a controversial release because they decided to split the series up which goes against their usual 2-cour per set approach throughout the years, on top of the Nozomi release having a complete series Blu-ray set back in August 2016.

The good news is that we have avoided the worst case scenario and despite being released across two parts and on 4 discs, VDMS are the ones authoring it so we have dodged Com ‘on Screen and the extras from Nozomi’s set as well as the Animax Asia English dub are all here. Nothing is missing, just that we have to pay twice as much now, but it could have been a lot worse.

Blood-C Ultimate Edition

Speaking of controversial choices here we have Blood-C Ultimate Edition Blu-ray which also includes the film Blood-C: The Last Dark. This arrived via FedEx and was part of their Lightning Deal offer during their 12 Days of Christmas sale. I already own the series but it’s via Funimation’s limited edition which is Region A only and I don’t mind double-dipping for a Region B disc, like I have done with Black Lagoon, Code Geass and Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine.

The point of this edition is because of the artbook and to be honest it’s a solid one with tons of artwork and essays, including a segment covering the Blood franchise. The only criticism I have is not only the asking price but they didn’t bother to provide a rigid chipboard box, instead opting for a cardboard slipcase which misses the mark when it comes to the ultimate edition idea. Considering the lightning deal was £36, basically the price of paying early bird for a collector’s set I decided to pick it up. I would have preferred to have paid £9 less but I don’t regret owning the release.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam Part 1 & To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts

Two more Anime Limited packages arrived on the same day, both are pre-orders. First up we have Mobile Fighter G Gundam Part 1 from Anime Limited. This is the last of the big well-known shows of that era, but there’s still a whole bunch of Gundam that they need to chase up, including the UC titles pre-2000s. Much like Gundam Wing, Gundam 00 and Gundam SEED, this release also used the Nozomi discs and artwork.

Next we have To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts, released in the UK by Anime Limited on behalf of Crunchyroll. I was entertained by this series so it was nice to see a home video release. Much like Jujutsu Kaisen, the VDMS discs are also using the Crunchyroll font for the subtitles which is neat to see and there’s a fair amount of extras on-disc.

The Blue Jean Monster & The Inspector Wears Skirts

I received two new Blu-ray releases from distributor 88 Films to continue their 88 Asia range. Ivan Lai’s The Blue Jean Monster (着牛仔裤的钟馗) was considered by some to be a Category III title but in reality its a CAT II rated film. Nevertheless it’s an out of nowhere film and I am curious to check it out.

Wellson Chin’s The Inspector Wears Skirts (霸王花) is the first of many instalments in this action female-led franchise. The distributor did confirm they will be releasing the second & third films but separately because they weren’t allowed to release a box set like a few other franchises did in the past few years.

Sentai Filmworks Black Friday Haul

After a bit of a delay due to the holiday season, I finally received my Sentai Filmworks Black Friday haul, which I ordered from their direct store across two batches. Both batches were sent to Stackry, consolidated and arrived together. It did take longer than usual but that was because of the holiday season.

This batch consists of various anime, whether they were popular or niche and either a complete collection or a re-release. There’s also a few Maiden Japan titles bundled in because all of those titles are going to be discontinued (some may be re-released under the Sentai name).

Basquash!
Animated by Satelight in 2009, directed by Shōji Kawamori & Hidekazu Satō and an original IP by Shōji Kawamori & Thomas Romain. Heard about this series for a long time as it’s been added to various streaming platforms here and there, and then eventually it was released on home video. Never knew exactly what it was and it turns out to be a sports mecha series co-produced by the Macross creator and Ōban Star-Racers creator. Maiden Japan released the Blu-ray in June 2019.

CANAAN
Animated by P.A. Works in 2009, directed by Masahiro Andō and based on a scenario written by Type-Moon for the visual novel 428: Shibuya Scramble. If you haven’t played 428 you really should and if you did you may recognise a scenario by Type-Moon which was set in the middle east. The anime takes that scenario and gives us an original story to it (wiki mentions it takes place 2 years after 428). I’ve been aware of CANAAN as far as MVM putting it out on DVD but it was nice for Sentai to re-release it as it was one of their earlier Blu-rays which would have been out of print at this point. Sentai Filmworks re-released the Blu-ray in January 2022.

Girls Beyond the Wasteland
Animated by Project No.9 in 2016, directed by Takuya Satō and based on a visual novel that was released at the same time. I didn’t pay much attention to this series and so I decided to take a look at the synopsis and figured it’s worth a shot. MVM did release this series on Blu-ray but Sentai re-released it. Sentai Filmworks re-released the Blu-ray in February 2023.

Initial D Legend Theatrical Collection
Animated by Sanzigen & LIDEN FILMS between 2014-2016, directed by Masamitsu Hidaka & Tomohito Naka and based on a manga. I’ve always been interested in checking out the Initial D anime but legal streaming wise its mostly incomplete as Funimation never licensed the final parts of the original series. Eventually we got a three film remake of sorts and Sentai picked it up. MVM once again did release the films but it was on sale for super cheap. Sentai Filmworks released the Blu-ray collection in September 2019.

K-On! Ultimate Collection
Animated by Kyoto Animation between 2009-2011, directed by Naoko Yamada and based on a manga. The one big KyoAni franchise that blew up a decade ago I never managed to watch so it’s weird to finally own this iconic slice of life series. This ultimate collection consists of K-On!, K-On!! and K-On! the Movie. Now again this does have a Blu-ray release by Funimation UK but they ended up re-using decade old discs than go for Sentai’s newer discs. It has been going in and out of stock (with some suggesting it was going OOP) but I made sure I got it during this recent sale. Sentai Filmworks released the Blu-ray collection in December 2019.

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Animated by Production I.G. in 2007, directed by Kenji Kamiyama and based on a novel. A classic 00s series that I’ve been aware of ever since it had a multi-part Blu-ray release by Media Blasters and was eventually rescued by Viz then Sentai with better results. Feels weird to also own this one but looking forward to it. Again MVM did release this on Blu-ray but it was on sale for super cheap. Sentai Filmworks released the Blu-ray in September 2020.

Natsu no Arashi!
Animated by SHAFT in 2009, directed by Akiyuki Shinbo & Shin Oonuma and based on a manga. This is a complete blind buy though it is a shame Maiden Japan only released the first season than both for home video. I read the synopsis and it looked like a fun series to watch and now I just realised writing this up that SHAFT are involved so it’s probably got head tilts as well. Maiden Japan released the Blu-ray in November 2019.

The Qwazer of Stigmata
Animated by Hoods Entertainment between 2010-2011, directed by Hiraku Kaneko and based on Hiroyuki Yoshino’s manga. This is one of those anime if it had aired in the current season it would have been treated the same way as Interspecies Reviewers and Redo of Healer. Essentially a fanservice heavy series with questionable stuff. This collection includes both seasons of the anime. Despite that I’ve been curious to check this out for years and was hoping for Sentai to re-release it, but it looks like it’s not going to get the treatment at this point. Fortunately it is one of the first to be geolocked. Sentai Filmworks released the Blu-ray in January 2015.

She, the Ultimate Weapon
Animated by GONZO in 2002, directed by Mitsuko Kase and based on a manga. Also known as Saikano, this classic anime series was re-released by Sentai over the years and eventually made available on Blu-ray, though this is one of those ‘not so great’ upscales like Gankutsuou was but better than PAL discs. Manga UK did release this on DVD decades back but the 2005 OVAs did not make it onto Sentai’s license so it’s best to hold onto those old discs if you want a complete franchise. Sentai Filmworks released the Blu-ray in October 2021.

This Art Club Has a Problem!
Animated by Feel in 2016, directed by Kei Oikawa and based on a manga. I’ve been told that this series is pretty decent and it was another one of the Maiden Japan titles that would eventually be discontinued. The best part was that it was only $3.99 in the sale so it was a bargain to check out. For a moment I though it was sold out but thankfully it wasn’t the case. Maiden Japan released the Blu-ray in September 2019.

To Love Ru Complete Collection
Animated by XEBEC (Sunrise Beyond) between 2008-2017, directed by Takao Kato & Atsushi Ōtsuki, and based on two manga series. Much like K-On! I have been fully aware and been meaning to check out this iconic fan service Weekly Shonen Jump series for years but the biggest hurdle was lack of legal streaming in the UK. The series is also ecchi which would mean broadcast masters for streaming if it were available. Thankfully Sentai released them on Blu-ray over the years but waiting until now was the best opportunity since the series did get a few re-releases including an English dub. This collection consists of To Love Ru, Motto To Love Ru, To Love Ru Darkness and To Love Ru Darkness 2nd. The sad part is the OVAs that were mainly tied to the manga volumes are not licensed (but can always be picked up later). Sentai Filmworks re-released the Blu-ray in April 2023.

Yuyushiki
Animated by Kinema Citrus in 2013, directed by Kaori and based on a manga. When I first got into anime and started getting used to the idea of simulcast watches this comedy series is one that I did notice but I never bothered to check it out. Now after all of these years I am finally able to own it on Blu-ray. Sentai Filmworks re-released the Blu-ray in February 2022.

Commedia all’italiana & Cosa Nostra

Radiance Films have been releasing a wide range of films throughout this past year. They’re similar to Arrow Academy to which they distribute films that are often overlooked or were once popular but don’t yet have a good home video release. I have been picking up their Asian Cinema range but I decided to look into their Italian films. They have released two big box sets earlier in the year and both were on sale on their official website and from there I finally ordered them.

Cosa Nostra: Franco Nero in three Mafia Tales by Damiano Damiani is a collection of films with the central theme of Italian mafia but all of them featured actor Franco Nero. This box set (which is 80% sold out) includes the films The Day of the Owl (Il giorno della civetta) from 1968, The Case Is Closed, Forget It (L’istruttoria è chiusa: dimentichi) from 1972, and How to Kill a Judge (Perché si uccide un magistrato) from 1974. Also included is a 120 page book and reversible artwork for each film.

Commedia all’italiana: Three Films by Dino Risi is a collection of films focused on the Italian comedy genre which was pretty big back in the day. This box set includes the films Il Vedovo from 1959, Il Mattatore from 1959, and Il Sorpasso from 1962. Also included is an 80 page book and reversible artwork for each film.

I have a habit of trying to get everything whenever I start to venture onto a specific medium, so for this I would like to try and only focus on the limited edition box sets (since there’s only a few here and there) and the single pressings only. The films will still be available in standard edition sets which are regular Amaray cases with no reversible artwork or booklets. Now I can always change my mind but its something I will review later.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam Part 2

Not long after, Mobile Fighter G Gundam Part 2 has finally arrived from Anime Limited. This covers the second half of the series and feels weird to finally own what some consider to be one of the big non-UC Gundam shows out there. Not much to say here as this arrived in the same month as the first part. I plan to watch this at some point.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind Vols 1-3

I went to town to see if there’s anything that I can get, and to be honest it was mostly a dud. Travelling Man was the same issue because the stock was either not there or the condition wasn’t particularly great. So I decided to settle on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind manga volumes 1, 2 & 3 which is basically a month earlier than intended but they did have the series available so why not.

These did look thinner than I was expected but I made sure to check the info and they are indeed the US prints which is good. I also noticed whilst I was at the store that they are reprinting JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders with the current SJ logo.

Gundam Build Fighters Part 2

After arriving home from my town trip, Gundam Build Fighters Part 2 arrived on time before the year was over. This covers the second cour of the series and again it’s a VDMS disc with more extras on the disc so we pretty much have everything from Rightstuf’s release across these two parts and authored well so that is good. I suppose the only negative is that you do lose the style that Rightstuf has with their fonts and subs but at least the translation is the same.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut

A month ago The Game Collection gave me a £5 code because Star Ocean: The Second Story R didn’t arrive on release day, and I wasn’t sure how long the discount was available for and decided to look into finding a game worth picking up as soon as possible. It was tough because some games were not in stock so I settled on Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PlayStation 5 because I knew it was a really well received title.

The Iron Prefect & The Sunday Woman

After picking up the two Italian box sets earlier in the month, I decided to look into more of the Italian films Radiance Films have released this past year because there were only a small number. Now the challenge was whether I wanted to keep it consistent with the limited editions or stick to the standard editions, especially because The Working Class Goes to Heaven sold out very early on.

But I found an opportunity to pick up the original release for The Working Class Goes to Heaven (which will arrive later) and there were still stock available for two films that just sold out earlier this month – Pasquale Squitieri’s The Iron Prefect (Il prefetto di ferro) from 1977 and Luigi Comencini’s The Sunday Woman (La donna della domenica) from 1975. And so I bought those two whilst they were cheap.

Outside of the earlier film, the only remaining Italian film yet to pick up is The Horrible Dr. Hichcock which is probably going to last a long while because of its 5000 print run and the US releasing a 4K Ultra HD version. Radiance Films will be releasing 4K films next year but whether they’ll revisit this film is not known.

World Noir Vol. 1

In addition to those limited edition sets, I also bought the World Noir Vol. 1 box set. This is a collection of films focused on the Noir genre outside of the English films, namely World Cinema or Asian Cinema from the 50s.

The first box set includes the films Koreyoshi Kurahara’s I Am Waiting (俺は待ってるぜ) from 1957 in Japan, Edouard Molinaro’s Witness in the City (Un témoin dans la ville) from 1959 in France, and Pietro Germi’s The Facts of Murder (Un maledetto imbroglio) from 1959 in Italy. Also included is an 80 page book and reversible artwork for each film.

The second volume in this little series is expected to be released around the second half of next year. I also plan to get The End of Civilization: Three Films by Piotr Szulkin but will wait until next month.

Christmas 2023 Haul

And now we have reached the 2023 holiday haul! Like previous years I do try to include a variety of each medium. What we have is a much better turnout on my part compared to last year. Looking back I wasn’t particularly happy with last year’s haul because it felt like I was picking things just because they were cheap than a quality haul. So here the titles are still fairly cheap in cost but the titles I’ve chosen is much more memorable than before.

Starting off with the anime! Here we have a few regular Blu-rays from Manga UK’s beginnings and when they updated their logo, all the way to their extinction with Crunchyroll UK.

Released in 2011 on Blu-ray is Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai, which is an extremely niche anime film that came out in Japan in 2009 by studio Production I.G. & director Mizuho Nishikubo (Giovanni’s Island). I’ve been meaning to get this film for years and it’s still available so now was a good time thanks to Rarewaves’ discount sale.

I also requested the regular Blu-ray release for Steamboy, a film by studio Sunrise & director Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira). I remember this was first released in the UK by Sony and Manga managed to bring it back in a deal of sorts with a few other Sony titles, but I did hear it was a solid release so may as well get it before it would also eventually go away. Like Musashi this was also from Rarewaves.

And then we have this month’s new Crunchyroll UK release of Konosuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Legend of Crimson, which is a rare case of the UK & Australia releasing a title before North America does. Like Chainsaw Man and the multi-language titles, Crunchyroll UK have taken the lazy approach of re-using other region’s artwork as their reversible cover so in this case we have an Australian front cover.

For the Asian Cinema section we have the latest release from Radiance Films with Yūzō Kawashima’s 1962 Japanese film Elegant Beast (しとやかな獣). This film according to Wiki is also known under a different name The Graceful Brute.

The Radiance Films limited edition release is packaged with a Scanavo case with an obi placed inside the case to cover the info and BBFC logos (which can then be stored inside the case). There’s also reversible artwork and a booklet, both are exclusive to this edition.

For video games we have two Japanese RPGs for PlayStation 5 with Soul Hackers 2 by Atlus and Tales of Arise by Bandai Namco. I never liked the EU/US cover for Tales of Arise so it’s good that Bandai added the Japanese cover for its reverse artwork.

The second half of the haul are all books. First up are the novels and one of them is a really neat addition.

British YouTuber Chris Broad, known for this YouTube channel Abroad in Japan and co-starring as himself in the Trash Taste podcast, recently wrote a book covering his experiences living in Japan with Abroad in Japan: Ten Years in the Land of the Rising Sun. Heard it was really good and Chris is an intriguing individual in general so I figured this hardcover book would be worth picking up.

I also finally got my hands on OVERLORD volumes 12 & 13. These two volumes cover the Paladin of the Sacred Kingdom story arc. OVERLORD IV skipped this arc because instead it will be adapted into a film later down the line (for context both the film and Season 4 were announced at the same time). I recall the reason for the film choice was due to the story arc’s darker tone which would probably have been censored for broadcast.

For manga I went for a different approach to previous years by focusing on manga volumes for existing titles in my collection as a change of pace. Here we have Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Vol. 9, MASHLE: MAGIC & MUSCLES Vol. 13 and One-Punch Man Vol. 12.

Both of the former two are the latest volumes released in English, while the latter has been out of stock for a while and when it became available I decided it was worth adding it here so that I can continue the volume collecting at some point. These are all US prints as well despite the thin volumes.

In addition to the above items, I also received a whole bunch of snacks, clothes and a set of chop sticks. The latter I needed anyway as my old ones aged badly and were many years old at this point.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven

At the start of 2023 the first Blu-ray that I received was Big Time Gambling Boss, the second release by Radiance Films. There was another film that was released at that same time, and today I now own it, which just so happens to be the final Blu-ray for the year – Elio Petri’s 1971 film The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La classe operaia va in paradiso).

This release is part of the Italian Radiance Collection that I’ve been building throughout this past month and this one is notable for being one of the most loved in the Italian film scene. I was fortunate to find a copy available, and although it was over SRP it was at least affordable enough for me to consider it, especially as the other releases were at regular prices. A standard edition is available but not only would it stand out against the others in a bad way but its super barebones on the packaging front compared to Arrow Video and 88 Films as I had mentioned before and I felt like I would be missing out had I went for that approach.

Octopath Traveler

And here we are with the final item pickup for 2023 and it’s a rather entertaining one. The previous item was supposed to have been the final one for 2023, but then I noticed The Game Collection started another deal involving 5x reward points. Really neat stuff but what got me to sort out an order immediately was that I noticed they had a copy available for Octopath Traveler, the 2018 JRPG by Square Enix which arrived before the year was over than after.

I wasn’t expecting this to arrive until the first week of 2024 and The Game Collection decided to ship it out immediately so it arrived a few days before the year was over. Regardless I had been wanting to pickup this game for a while because not only did it receive really well in the reviews, but also one of the earlier titles for the console, and given it’s not a first-party game the stock levels are all over the place. Sometimes its available but only for £50-55.

I believe Nintendo published the physical release (and presumably did the same for Live A Live as both games have the Nintendo logo on the spine than Square Enix’s own), which may explain the limited stock available but considering it’s one of the first big titles for the Switch, it made sense to look into it sooner than later especially given the rumours of the next Switch console continuing to appear.

Unboxing Links

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

• Blood-C (UE Blu-ray)
• Gundam Build Fighters (CE Blu-ray)
• Mobile Fighter G Gundam (CE Blu-ray)
• To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (CE Blu-ray)

What’s to Come for the Hauls

January 2024

We’re starting off the year with another big batch of releases! There’s been a hold-up on the newer titles that Anime Limited worked on for their Christmas sale and because of their change in rule (which was introduced around July 2023) where they don’t dispatch your orders until all of the items are in stock, that meant my Early Bird orders were delayed. 4 of the 6 items have started shipping to other users so it’s just a matter of patience at this point.

Meanwhile I also started prepping for another Discotek Media haul which was originally planned for December but the holiday season and stock issues prevented that from happening. This haul will consist of more out of print releases which have all been dispatched by Crunchyroll Store and eBay over to Stackry, which has been very handy for situations like this, so that I didn’t need to rush out and pay for any shipping immediately.

Other than that we also have more Asian Cinema releases planned, some have been ordered whilst others I had not yet sorted out so expect January to be a fairly large start to the year.

• 07-Ghost (Blu-ray)
• Akame ga Kill! (CE Blu-ray)
• Brave 10 (Blu-ray)
• EAT-MAN & EAT-MAN ’98 (SD-BD)
• FANTAVISION 202x (PlayStation 5)
• Flowers of Evil (CE Blu-ray)
• Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 1 (CE Blu-ray)
• Honey and Clover (Blu-ray)
• Honey and Clover II (Blu-ray)
• Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor (CE Blu-ray)
• Kung Fu Cult Master (Blu-ray)
• Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 2 (CE Blu-ray)
• Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 1 Part 2 (Blu-ray)
• Parasyte -the maxim- (CE Blu-ray)
• Samurai Wolf I & II (Blu-ray)
• She and Her Cat -Everything Flows- (Blu-ray)
• Shirobako (CE Blu-ray)
• Sing a Bit of Harmony (Blu-ray)
• Tetsujin 28 (2004 series) (SD-BD)
• Tetsujin 28: Morning Moon of Midday (Blu-ray & DVD)
• Tomorrow’s Joe the Movie (Blu-ray & DVD)
• When Taekwondo Strikes (Blu-ray)
• ZOMBIE LAND SAGA REVENGE (Blu-ray)

One more video game is also arriving in 2024 but don’t yet have an estimated release window, which is the Akai Ito & Aoi Shiro HD Remaster collection for Nintendo Switch published by Strictly Limited Games. Strictly Limited Games have said they’re still testing the games in preparation for the physical version.

Other than that, there’s currently nothing else planned for February onwards at this moment, but I do want to mention that I have donated to the Macross II: Lovers Again Kickstarter by AnimEigo as I don’t expect a UK release to occur any time soon (especially now that they are working on a 4K Ultra HD release, and if they reach $355,000 all owners will receive the 4K version at no additional cost). This release is estimated to be ready by December 2024 but could push back into 2025 if there’s approval issues so stay tuned for this interesting release.

Other Tidbits

Alright so work-wise, I am not going to lie. This year is going to be tough, because the morale has drastically reduced since the start of 2023. It’s such a whiplash going from the start of 2023 with a solid team to the end of 2023 with a lot of staff either leaving or redundant which includes people in my department, and the workload continues to rise and reactive stuff still on-going (by this I mean tasks are not provided to me until the very last second even outside working hours). I’m doing the best that I can and even if I get a pay rise it won’t be enough to cover the worth and value that I have put into the role.

My plan is to review the next few months to see how I feel and where I think the business will be going towards but at the end of the day I will focus on what is best and make sure I can pull through without causing too much disruption with my hauls etc.

In terms of other plans which are way more positive, take a look at my latest post covering my entire collection up to the end of 2023 with Grav’s Complete Otaku Collection – 2023 Edition in case you missed it! This showcases my current collection with all of the new items that I have received throughout 2023.

Anime

This whole section is going to be a long one.

Let’s start off with Anime Limited because out of nowhere they announced a showcase similar to their 12 Days of Christmas reveals where they covered what titles will be on offer for January & February plus any others planned throughout the year onwards. Long story short these announcements are very similar to the MCM London Comic Con batch but this time focused on Crunchyroll licenses.

So most of the new additions belong to Crunchyroll but were before the merger had been completed i.e. these were released by Sentai Filmworks or Viz Media in North America for home video. Those licenses were The God of High School, Granbelm -The Two Princeps-, Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 1, Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It Season 1, and Somali and the Forest Spirit.

Also licensed but are not related to Crunchyroll were Blue Thermal, Castlevania Season 3, Patlabor the Movie, Patlabor 2 the Movie, Venus Wars and WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3. They also revealed a few vinyl releases with Dorohedoro and Polygon Pictures’ Godzilla Trilogy, and a Blu-ray re-release of Mobile Suit Gundam the Origin as a complete box set like the one France received not long ago.

Other than that we have Great Pretender finally available to pre-order on 4th January which I will definitely be picking up as a fan of the series, then there’s the Patlabor films on 11th January which I will think about since it’ll just re-use the Maiden Japan discs unless something happened that I’m not aware of, Blue Thermal on 1st February which I’ll pick up, Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution on 8th February which I am definitely going to be checking out as its the third & final film in that trilogy, and then there’s Granbelm and Somali and the Forest Spirit both planned to be available to order in the latter half of February.

2024 is also going to be the year we should be expecting releases for Macross Plus as well as 4K Ultra HD releases for both The First Slam Dunk and Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy, all of which I am looking forward to owning.

Meanwhile over in North America Discotek Media has been making progress updating their social media and websites, and along the way they revealed another batch of titles that would be going out of print. This included all of the DVDs that they have released, most of the Blu-ray & DVD combo pack releases and a whole batch of Blu-rays. Now I do want to point out that the ones discontinuing all were released years ago, at least up to February & March 2021 but most were way older. I’ll recap them below in case you missed the news:

• 2015-17 titles expired: Lupin the Third: Voyage to Danger, Sea Prince and the Fire Child, Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo, Tekkaman Blade II, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (English version).
• 2018 titles expired: Babel II, Dinosaur King Season 1, Dinosaur King Season 2, EAT-MAN & EAT-MAN ’98, Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret, Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret Purezza, Library War, Lupin the Third: The Legend of the Gold Babylon, NieA_7, Sister Princess, Sister Princess Re Pure, and Tomorrow’s Joe The Movie.
• 2019 titles expired: 07-Ghost, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!, Nutcracker Fantasy, Tetsujin 28: Morning Moon of Midday, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Japanese version), and Yowamushi Pedal Re:RIDE & Re:ROAD.
• 2020 titles expired: Big Order, The Great Passage, Honey and Clover, Honey and Clover II, Kamen No Maid Guy, and She and Her Cat -Everything Flows-.
• 2021 titles expired: Brave 10, Konosuba Season 2, The Legend of Black Heaven, Miss Machiko, and Submarine Super 99.

Do note that the list above doesn’t even include the DVD only titles. Some of the 2020 & 2021 titles were sub-licensed by Crunchyroll so you will see more of those shows discontinuing in the coming months. So if you have yet to purchase any of these I strongly recommend you do it as soon as possible:

• Crunchyroll sub-licensed titles not yet OOP: Aho-Girl, Angel’s 3Piece!, Anti-Magic Academy the 35th Test Platoon, As Miss Beelzebub Likes It, Caligula, Girly Air Force, Holmes of Kyoto, Isuca, Kemono Friends, Magical Girl Ore, Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, Ms. Vampire Who Lives In My Neighborhood, Planet With, Poco’s Udon World, Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san, To Be Hero & To Be Heroine, and Yowamushi Pedal: New Generation.

I have been keeping an eye on the stock statuses for these titles and most of the Blu-ray releases in that list have sold out already. It is unfortunate that the moment it is publicly known that its out of print, all of the stock gets eaten in seconds. It’s not fair but I suppose these were titles that were out of print throughout the year but nobody knew about it until the website had been updated.

On a positive note, Discotek Media has another livestream planned for Monday 8th January (Tuesday 9th January 2am for UK viewers) which will have more anime announcements and such as per usual. They did reveal the February line-up which covered Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, Hand Maid May, Puss ‘N Boots Around the World and RAINBOW as well as the animated series Extreme Dinosaurs and the live-action titles Kamikaze Girls and Space Sheriff Sharivan. I plan to get the anime titles, but when I’ll get them has yet to be decided due to the backlog of titles that I still need to pickup to ensure they don’t go out of print on me.

Asian Cinema & World Cinema

I was initially going to say there wasn’t much that has changed since the previous discussion that I have had when it came to the Asian films that are arriving to the UK in 2024, but writing this up we have had a few big updates. Arrow Video has one Japanese title coming soon which is another 4K Ultra HD upgrade with Hideo Nakata’s 2002 film Dark Water (仄暗い水の底から) which is a film that I do own on Blu-ray but it’s very good and the UK Blu-ray release’s film transfer wasn’t particularly great so a 4K version is welcoming.

Third Window Films has two more Director’s Company films rated by the BBFC with Gakuryū Ishii’s 1984 film Crazy Family (逆噴射家族) and Shinji Sōmai’s 1985 film Love Hotel (ラブホテル), so I will assume they’re planned for Spring 2024 at this point. Joining these two which was also rated but currently part of a few film festivals is Shinya Tsukamoto’s 2023 film Shadow of Fire (ほかげ). I do wonder if we’re now at a point where his older film Vital will finally be available for the UK given the license had been in limbo due to Tartan Video occupying the rights for a long period.

Eureka Entertainment revealed their March 2024 line-up which includes two releases. The first is Ryuichi Takamori’s 1973 films Bodyguard Kiba 1 and 2 (ボディガード牙 & ボディガード牙 必殺三角飛び), which continues the Sonny Chiba UK releases and is once again two films in one set. The other is Joseph Kuo’s 1968 film The Swordsman Of All Swordsmen (一代劍王) which will be released first as a limited edition because it will also include his 1979 film The Mystery Of Chess Boxing (雙馬連環) due to the masters not in its best state.

Radiance Films also revealed their March 2024 line-up with another batch of Asian films. They have a big limited edition release focused on The Bounty Hunter Trilogy which includes Shigehiro Ozawa’s 1969 film Killer’s Mission (賞金稼ぎ), Eiichi Kudo’s 1969 film The Fort of Death (五人の賞金稼ぎ) and Shigehiro Ozawa’s 1972 film Eight Men to Kill (賞金首 一瞬八人斬り), all packaged in a rigid box with two Scanavo cases and a booklet. Also scheduled is Kiju Yoshida’s 1965 Japanese film A Story Written With Water (水で書かれた物語) which will be a single-print release only due to licensing, Lou Ye’s 2000 Mandarin film Suzhou River (苏州河) and Duccio Tessari’s 1973 Italian film Tony Arzenta.

In terms of world cinema, I will be continuing to pick up more of these from Radiance Films which includes The End of Civilization box set by Polish director Piotr Szulkin, and three Italian films scheduled for January, February & March which are Damiano Damiani’s 1978 film Goodbye & Amen, Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani’s 1974 film Allonsanfan which is a single-print release, and also Duccio Tessari’s 1973 Italian film Tony Arzenta.

Light Novel & Manga

I want to briefly touch upon this section as I generally don’t talk about it that much and I think that’s because the urgency has been toned down a fair amount ever since the lockdown era has eased. For context a lot of people were buying light novels and manga so the demand was too high and print production couldn’t keep up, which led to some titles being considered as out of print in the meantime.

Seven Seas is still the most annoying of the bunch but as I haven’t been buying any titles from them that much over the past year, my plan for 2024 is to put the focus back on them. That way I can make sure some titles are completed and others are close to being up-to-speed. In terms of new additions the two that I want to own the most are The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You and 2.5 Dimensional Seduction because the two are growing in popularity bit by bit due to the anime adaptations. The Seven Seas titles that I do want to finish off if I can are Blue Giant, Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? and World’s End Harem.

One publisher that I would like to make progress on is Kodansha Comics. I’ve never bothered to put any effort to buying any of their volumes but for 2024 I want to amend that. I have Go! Go! Loser Ranger and I’m Standing on a Million Lives that I want to continue and start buying Grand Blue Dreaming, Shangri-La Frontier and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun whenever possible. VINLAND SAGA is getting new versions which I’ll likely go for instead as they’ll be 3-in-1s than the current 2-in-1s that are available, while I’m undecided on Attack on Titan at this point.

Yen Press is in a weird position for manga but I would like to get Kakegurui and Uncle from Another World but it comes down to stock availability and timing. The light novel side is another story as there’s a lot to sort out, with OVERLORD being the only one making progress due to the hardcover format. Not going to make any promises but stay tuned on this lot.

As for Viz Media. I’ve made very good progress throughout the past few years on their titles. Out of the lot, Blue Exorcist, Golden Kamuy, Master Keaton and Terra Formars are the only four that’s being stalled due to stock issues in the UK, but if any availability appears I’ll look into them. Alice in Borderland is expected to wrap up this year as well. I’ll also aim to complete both JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind and The Promised Neverland this year.

Video Games

I have a small number of PlayStation 4 games left to chase up, which are mainly Bandai Namco anime games as well as AI: The Somnium Files nirvanA Initiative, Blue Reflection: Second Light, Made in Abyss, NieR Replicant and maybe Ys: Memories of Celceta (I say maybe in case it gets a Switch version).

The PlayStation 5 has grown to a point where there’s tons of games incoming that are worth picking up. In the coming months we have Dragon’s Dogma II, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak, Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Unicorn Overlord to name a few. That’s on top of the already released games that I have yet to pick up including Dead Space, Fate/Samurai Remnant, No More Heroes 3, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order & Survivor, and so much more.

Then we have Nintendo which is in a very interesting position for 2024 because of the highly rumoured next console. Supposedly it’s to be revealed in March for a late 2024 release window. I do expect the Switch games will be playable on the next device, so I’ll continue to build my Switch collection in the meantime. I am behind on the Nintendo titles so to give an idea on what I still need to get we have Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Fire Emblem Engage, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Luigi’s Mansion 3, the Pikmin series, Super Mario Odyssey, Triangle Strategy, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Last thing I want to touch on is Limited Run Games. In 2023 I managed to get most of the Switch physical games that I had wanted to own, with the ones that I missed out on being The House in Fata Morgana, Turok and Turok 2. With the deal they have with Video Games Plus, they mentioned on social media they are expected to receive stock for a few that I didn’t pre-order on the LRG store like Castlevania Advance Collection, Jurassic Park Classics Collection, Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Quake II. They mentioned it won’t be as cheap as LRG’s store which is fair game but that’s where I’ll try and get those titles. Going forward I may keep it easy and focus on LRG’s store for titles like Toaplan Arcade Garage: Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli.

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And that concludes the December 2023 haul, and also the final haul for 2023 as a whole. It was a pretty solid year of items so I am eager to see how 2024 fares.