The Normanic Vault

Otaku Collection Haul for January 2024

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of January 2024. This update features 24 anime releases, 5 physical video games, 5 live-action Asian Cinema releases and 3 live-action European Cinema releases.

We start off the year with the delayed Anime Limited pre-orders and also a new Discotek Media haul. There’s more Asian & World Cinema titles plus a new upgrade for the photo shoots.

Crunchyroll UK Haul

The first arrival of the year is from the Entertainment Store Amazon offer that a lot of people jumped on. I wasn’t bothered at first until I heard people were getting good deals due to an error in the system, so I decided to look around and found at least three titles that I was willing to pick up immediately.

So the first one is Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 1 Part 2 which I had been holding off for ages because I was debating on whether to go for the US version for the slipcase or stick to the UK version given that Part 1 is the UK release. I settled on the UK version and the spine is consistent at least. I have updated my unboxing of the Part 1 limited edition to include photos of Part 2 for those interested.

I also picked up Sing a Bit of Harmony which is a film that I’m not too sure on how I feel but is willing to give it a try considering the director involved. And then there’s ZOMBIE LAND SAGA REVENGE which I have seen and is very good.

Google Pixel 8 Pro

In January 2019 I switched from an iPhone SE to a Huawei P20 Pro. That phone was really solid and did a great job with the photos that I have taken over the years. In the past year I noticed that my protective case was slowly damaged and in recent months it eventually started to fall off. As soon as it had fell off I noticed that it wasn’t the protective case aging but rather the back of the phone randomly hanging out.

Upon research it was common for Huawei devices to do this after some time for either to be aging glue or the battery. Last month my co-worker took a brief look at my phone and his immediate reaction was “your battery has swollen and could blow up at any point”. Granted the latter part was probably a joke but it is foolish to pretend that it won’t be a problem later down the line, and considering this issue has spread throughout the year it’s essentially on a ticking time bomb at this point.

But considering it’s been half a decade there was no harm going for a new phone since EE & BT would allow a free upgrade (i.e. you can start going for a new phone without fees upfront) and with discounts (i.e. you save money on the monthly phone payment and the mobile data cost). Since I like to take photos I noticed the new devices in the past year had a fairly big jump in tech, so I figured it would make more sense to get one of the best available and recent phones around. And after some consideration and research, I settled on the Google Pixel 8 Pro which was available for a deal with my provider.

Google Pixel 8 Pro upon setting up was very fast on getting the job done. As soon as I turned it on, it recognised my Huawei phone and transferred everything over – my contacts, my apps, my photos, literally everything except for the Huawei exclusive stuff. I did have to login again to the apps that I use but the transition was smooth which is a plus. Now the difference between Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro is pretty much the camera, with the latter offering a 50MP option alongside the regular 12MP which does look really good but it comes at a cost of a high resolution and large file size.

After some testing and comparisons, the 12MP camera does the job really well and will be used for most of my square photo shoots. The widescreen shots I’ll use the 50MP to get the best presentation possible. Regardless of both options, I will have to resize and re-optimise both because the forum won’t accept their original resolution while social media won’t accept their file size. Discord is fine at least, but what you see on this post isn’t 100% the original file but is close enough. All widescreen photos will be resized to 4K resolution and the regular photo sizes resized to around the same range as 1440p.

I also bought a protective case in the same style as the previous one which looks good.

Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 2

The first Anime Limited collector’s edition of the year is a series that was supposed to have been released last year, but the holiday season and the recent storms and slow shipment likely got in the way to no one’s surprise.

Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 2 is now here and we are one step closer to catching up on the franchise’s releases. Anime Limited having the rights meant the series didn’t stream legally during simulcast which is the same for Love Live! Superstar Season 2 and Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror because both of those are having the same issues.

Anime Limited Early Bird Christmas Haul

Anime Limited’s 12 Days of Christmas 2023 line-up consisted of seven releases with the goal to release them before the holiday season. This actually backfired because four of them arrived for those who bought them on their own after the holiday season (but before the new year) and the rest didn’t appear until this past week.

I ordered six of seven releases as I didn’t yet own them on Blu-ray (the only one that I didn’t order was Kids on the Slope because I just ordered the Sentai Filmworks release a few months prior, but I probably dodged a bullet anyway since that’s missing subtitles on one of the episodes).

The titles that I received are Akame ga Kill!, Flowers of Evil, Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 1, Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, Parasyte -the maxim- and SHIROBAKO. All of the titles used the Sentai authors with the Anime Limited logo added to the intro portion of the discs. In terms of how each of them are, I’ve watched half of the shows here during their simulcast (Akame ga Kill!, Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma Season 1 & Parasyte -the maxim-) while the others I haven’t had the chance to watch just yet.

Some of these have had re-released by Sentai so thankfully they have used the most recent authored versions available, for example Akame ga Kill! used the discs authored for the 2020 Steelbook release and Flowers of Evil used the 2021 re-release discs.

The Game Collection Nintendo Switch Haul

At some point in the month I was made aware of a bunch of Nintendo first-party games going out of print over in North America which is sparking conversation about the prospect of a re-release and also panic buying. Since there’s been no word about the same event happening over in Europe I decided to act as a lot of games on the list I had yet to own. I decided to focus on four Nintendo Switch games for the time being which were on the top priority list.

I ordered through The Game Collection because I also needed to spend some points as they will start to expire in the coming months. Those games were Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Fire Emblem: Engage, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Super Mario Odyssey. Yeah it’s a surprise that I didn’t yet own the big Mario game for the Switch platform. My copy of Fire Emblem: Engage is unfortunately the European version so while it does have English text it’s clearly designed for the Nordic region or so.

FANTAVISION 202X

Next we have a video game pre-order from back in July if I remember right. Red Art Games revealed back then they had acquired the physical media rights to bring FANTAVISION 202X to the disc-based format for PlayStation 5, which also includes PlayStation VR2 support.

For those who are out of the know for what this is, this is a remake of the classic PlayStation 2 game Fantavision that was developed by Japan Studios. Cosmo Machia, the folks behind the re-releases for the Castle of Shikigami 1 & 2 games as well as Triggerheart Exelica, were behind the remake for this game. Because of its retro status and the fact that it has VR, I figured it would be a great addition to my collection.

I will admit the radio silence on the physical release status didn’t help, but at least they revealed during the new year that it was ready for dispatch. The deluxe edition comes with a slipcase, reversible cover that mimics the PlayStation 2 cover and a double-sided poster. Red Art Games are located in France but there’s no customs to worry about.

The End of Civilization & The Horrible Dr. Hichcock

We have another round of Radiance Films catch-up and pretty much the last ones I had left before our upcoming 2024 titles. This is part of the World Cinema collection that I have been building from the distributor, with this lot containing an Italian film and three Polish films.

First up we have The End of Civilization: Three Films by Piotr Szulkin limited edition Blu-ray box set. This consists of three Polish dystopian sci-fi films released during the 1980s, each receiving 2K restorations. The films included are War of the Worlds: Next Century (Wojna światów – następne stulecie) from 1981, O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization (O-Bi, O-Ba. Koniec cywilizacji) from 1984 and Ga-Ga: Glory to the Heroes (Ga, Ga. Chwała bohaterom) from 1985.

Also included are a few short films with Jan Lenica’s Labyrinth, Miroslaw Kijowicz’s Cages and Zofia Oraczewska’s Banquet released in 1963, 1967 & 1977 respectively.

And for the Italian cinema collection we have Riccardo Freda’s 1962 film The Horrible Dr Hichcock (L’orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock) in its limited edition 5000 print two-disc Blu-ray release. The first disc consists of the original Italian version with an English dub under the name Raptus: The Secret of Dr. Hichcock, while the second disc (exclusive to this edition) is the North American version of The Horrible Dr. Hichcock with the English audio for that.

This is an awkward release as well because Vingear Syndrome have released a 4K restoration of all the versions for the film (Radiance’s restoration is 2K). Either way, a brand new UK distributor with a solid reception is better supporting than a commonly known big US distributor.

NieA_7

Next we have a new release from MVM Entertainment with NieA_7 (NieA Under Seven), which is also one of their collector’s edition sets. This is an interesting one as this is the first one I believe MVM have picked up that uses the Discotek Media artwork and discs. It’s also good timing considering the US license has now expired and will go out of print any moment now.

A third-party seller on Amazon has stock available for a surprisingly low price so I decided to go for it now whilst it was on offer.

Eureka Ent January Early Bird Haul

Next we have our Eureka Entertainment January Bundle which arrived early. This consists of two Hong Kong films, a bonus documentary film and two Japanese films across three releases.

The first film is Wong Jing’s 1993 Hong Kong film Kung Fu Cult Master (倚天屠龍記之魔教教主) which continues the Jet Li line-up that’s had a resurgence over the past year. The second is Hideo Gosha’s 1966-67 films Samurai Wolf I & II (牙狼之介 / 牙狼之介 地獄斬り), a double film pack for the Masters of Cinema range. And the third is Feng Huang’s 1973 Hong Kong film When Taekwondo Strikes (跆拳震九州), the second Eureka release featuring Angela Mao which seems to be in its own spine line-up.

Also included on the When Taekwondo Strikes release is a 1990 documentary film called The Best of the Martial Arts Films by Sandra Weintraub which was included on the North American release for Righting Wrongs.

Discotek Media Haul

The Discotek Media haul returns. This was supposed to have been sorted for December but the timeframe wouldn’t have been possible due to the holiday season getting in the way with postal travel and the Black Friday offerings kept selling out which didn’t help. But that was probably a good thing because a few weeks later a massive batch of discontinued releases was announced after they had updated their official website’s catalog list.

Honestly this was a pretty lucky haul in general, as it was also the first time I made use of Crunchyroll’s Store. My intention for using forwarding services in general was because of situations like this, so not only am I able to order individual releases if needed be at ease, it means I can consolidate and save the shipping for later. This was four different orders combined into one big box; three from Crunchyroll’s Store and the other from The Otaku Market on eBay as the former had sold out on one title.

One notable change when using the Stackry service was the mention of the Harmonised System. I used the GOV UK site to make sure each one was identified correctly (DVD, there’s no record for Blu-ray but they’re one and the same pretty much) and it went through customs and Evri’s service as per normal. The box that Stackry used also had no mention of custom notes either like before.

07-Ghost

Adapted by Studio Deen in 2009 and directed by Yoshihiro Takamoto. When I was originally sorting out my Black Friday haul, this josei series was going to be part of that batch, but discovering that it’s discontinuing meant that I should order it sooner than later. I know the manga has been released in English but I’m surprised there’s no dub for this. I suppose if it had aired nowadays it would have gotten one. Either way, neat to own this series. This was released by Discotek in November 2019.

Brave 10

Adapted by TMS Entertainment in 2012 and directed by Kiyoko Sayama. This is a historical fantasy series that was once released by NIS America and considering TMS were involved it was inevitable that Discotek would end up with it at some point. This is also another series that will be discontinued as well, but much like 07-Ghost this one also had my interest. This was released by Discotek in February 2021.

Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier

Adapted by studios Japan Vistec & Studio OX in 2001 and directed by Jun Kawagoe. One of many adaptations on the Cyborg 009 franchise but this one I’ve only heard about ever since Discotek first mentioned chasing up the masters to get the best release possible. I recall this aired on TV for a lot of fans and while I never watched it back then, I figured now was a good time to pick it up given the length it took for the MediaOCD team to sort it out (by which I mean there’s probably not much time left before it discontinues). With my previous experience on the series being the 009 Re:Cyborg film I’m intrigued to see how this one is. This was released by Discotek in June 2019.

EAT-MAN & EAT-MAN ’98

Adapted by Studio Deen in 1997 & 1998 and directed by Koichi Mashimo (’97 series) and Toshifumi Kawase (’98 series). Two 90s sci-fi shows that I had only heard about thanks to Discotek and it was one of their first SD-BD releases. It sold out pretty much immediately so this was the only one that I had to order via eBay to secure a copy and thankfully it came pretty much like new and sealed. This was released by Discotek in June 2018.

Elemental Gelade

Adapted by studio Xebec in 2005 and directed by Shigeru Ueda. Another 00s series that you may have heard if you started getting into anime and DVDs. In fact this one in particular was released in the UK by MVM Entertainment but as I want to own releases in their correct pace (i.e. NTSC instead of PAL) I would have waited for an upgrade and Discotek went with the SD-BD approach for this series. I wasn’t sure about owning it at first but knowing Xebec is involved helped increase my interest. This must have sold well as it’s now received the curved slipcase treatment! This was released by Discotek in December 2018.

Honey and Clover

Adapted by studio J.C.Staff in 2005 and directed by Ken’ichi Kasai. This series was on my radar after watching March comes in like a Lion which was by the same author. I’m really surprised that Anime Limited never managed to get their hands on the series but I suppose it’s too niche for them. Originally licensed by Viz and then rescued by Discotek, but unfortunately it’s being discontinued so at least I managed to get them when it was revealed. I suppose there’s some stock around given it was reprinted to use the curved slipcase. This was released by Discotek in March 2020.

Honey and Clover II

Adapted by studio J.C.Staff in 2006 and directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai. It made sense for myself to also pick up the second season as well since it’s both seasons getting discontinued. Apparently Viz have released the manga so that’s interesting to know. This was released by Discotek in April 2020.

Marmalade Boy

Adapted by studio Toei Animation in 1992 and directed by Akinori Yabe. This is probably the biggest inclusion of the collection because we have a classic 90s shoujo series which wasn’t cheap! I’m very much happy to own this one as I’ve heard about it for years especially given it was a Tokyopop release first before Discotek picked it up for DVD then SD-BD. Toei titles tend to stick around from what I’ve seen but given it’s also one of the earlier SD-BD releases I have decided to order it sooner than later. This was released by Discotek in September 2018.

She and Her Cat -Everything Flows-

Adapted by studio Liden Films in 2016 and directed by Kazuya Sakamoto. It’s a new take on the classic Makoto Shinkai story but this time featuring Kana Hanazawa voicing the main lead and Xenoblade‘s Shulk VA voicing the cat. A four episode mini series that Crunchyroll also licensed the rights for with Discotek sub-licensing it for the home video side of things. There’s also an English dub included, but regardless it is getting discontinued which was inevitable considering it’s a Crunchyroll series at the end of the day. This was released by Discotek in May 2020.

Tetsujin 28 (2004 series)

Adapted by Palm Studio in 2004 and directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa. This franchise I feel is an oddity because of its visual presentation, but it’s gotten a following over the years and this 2004 adaptation even received a UK release by Manga Entertainment. With the film discontinuing I decided to secure that as well as this series that’s somewhat related to it together. I do plan to get the other instalments at a later point so that I have a complete Tetsujin haul. This SD-BD release also includes the English dub that was made at the time. This was released by Discotek in September 2018.

Tetsujin 28: Morning Moon of Midday

Adapted by Palm Studio in 2007 and directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa. This theatrical film is very similar to how Sunrise handled the Escaflowne film in which you have the same cast as the TV series but with a different storyline and direction altogether. Whether it’s good or bad I don’t know but it’s in HD at least. The film is discontinuing unfortunately but I was able to order it before it sold out. This was released by Discotek in January 2019.

Tokyo Underground

Adapted by Studio Pierrot in 2002 and directed by Hayato Date. Much like Elemental Gelade we have another series that was rescued by Discotek Media and was presented in SD-BD format rather than DVD instead. Manga Entertainment released this in the UK but always neat to get an upgrade even if its not in HD. This was released by Discotek in May 2018.

Tomorrow’s Joe the Movie

Adapted by studio Mushi Productions in 1980 and directed by Yōichirō Fukuda. This is a compilation film of the original Ashita no Joe series that Osamu Dezaki directed in the 1970s and it’s another classic that I am happy to own finally. Like 07-Ghost this film was originally planned to be part of my Black Friday haul with its second film but stock issues occurred. I’m surprised Discotek have no plans to re-release this film on Blu-ray only format but it was time for me to get the film secured before it was too late. This was released by Discotek in March 2018.

So there we have it. Our first 13 Discotek titles for the start of the year. I do want to be more motivated and get a lot of these older releases picked up sooner than later because I hate the feeling of missing out before I left it too late. For the next batch I would like to get my hands on the entirety of the Kyo Kara Maoh franchise if I can as well as Reborn! especially now that Discotek have no plans to re-release this or anything when they revealed that Special Disc set.

While I went for a bi-monthly approach last year I think I may tweak it this time so that one month is a big batch and another month is a smaller batch to keep the Discotek haul going because if I stick to the usual approach it’s not going to get myself in the best position, especially as Discotek is adding more titles each month.

The Man on the Roof

Keeping the Radiance Films collection going here we have The Man of the Roof (Mannen på taket), a 1976 Swedish film by director Bo Widerberg. This joins my World Cinema collection that I have been building with the Radiance label and this particular version is actually out of print. So to provide some context, during my time off work I spotted an email from Radiance Films revealing they had found some stock left for a few discontinued releases and would be available on their store later that day, but stock was very low. I was lucky enough to be able to secure a copy. This film wasn’t on my radar initially until I watched some reviews and checked out the trailer.

I did attempt to add other items on the basket but the system wouldn’t let me at the time, but I suppose it was for the best as scalpers likely ate the other stock – which disappointed a lot of fans who were looking for Welcome to the Dollhouse or Messiah of Evil. Even though this wasn’t the plan, I have decided to go for a complete World Cinema collection with Radiance on their limited edition slate as I own a majority of their titles already which for these non-English releases are still currently in print.

To recap, the World Cinema collection plan consists of their Italian, French, German, Swedish, Polish, and Spanish films. I won’t be applying this approach for other distributors because it would be overkill but I do think Radiance is very good at being selective on what they release which is why I’m all for supporting them on that.

Mad Cats & Tokyo Decadence

Final item for the month arrived before I could take a nice photo of it, but what we have is a Terracotta pre-order haul consisting of two newly released Japanese films for the UK.

The first one is Reiki Tsuno’s 2023 film Mad Cats which I first heard about from Third Window Films themselves when they were promoting it for their festivals. It looked like an interesting film to watch and considering its not part of their first print slipcase editions I decided to support them because they have said their non-LEs don’t perform as well, which makes sense considering there’s less of a rush on doing so.

The second one is an interesting addition for various reasons. Tokyo Decadence (トパーズ) is a 1992 film by director Ryū Murakami, who was also notable for writing a lot of novels including Audition which was adapted into a film by Takashi Miike. This is an erotic one, similar to the Pink genre, but what makes this release fascinating is that it’s actually distributed by 88 Films as part of their new Japanarchy line-up. This is the first time that I can recall 88 Films actually releasing a Japanese film, because they have mainly released Hong Kong films with some South Korean films at one point. This is also mirroring Radiance Film’s design which I am not against but I don’t know if they got permission from them to do that (so hopefully both are on good terms since I do think this obi-cover idea should be used more because it’s a good solution for the UK releases). The limited edition is very much like Radiance Films in general with the reversible cover having alternate artwork and information while the obi has the rating, plus the booklet inside the Scanavo case.

Unboxing Links

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

What’s to Come for the Hauls

February 2024

For February we have some orders placed and because of how work has done, I will have some funds prepped but will also need to put some aside to help pay off the car’s MOT. That being said I do plan to sort out another import haul since there’s a Sentai package currently sitting in Stackry that will need to be shipped out sooner than later.

As mentioned earlier I am continuing the Radiance Films World Cinema line-up with three French films also arriving in the coming days and will eventually get to ordering the newer releases.

Other than that I don’t really have much on offer currently as there are a few others planned for later down the line.

  • The Bride Wore Black (LE Blu-ray)
  • Fill ‘Er Up with Super (LE Blu-ray)
  • Rail Wars (Blu-ray)
  • Triage X (Blu-ray)
  • Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle (Blu-ray)
  • A Woman Kills (LE Blu-ray)

March 2024

March is also a similar case as there’s only one item on order at the moment which is from Anime Limited.

  • Great Pretender (DE Blu-ray)

Summer 2024

Moving into the Summer timeframe are a few estimates on a couple of video game pre-orders. They may arrive early, they may arrive later than anticipated but I am expecting them to appear in this timeframe.

  • Akai Ito & Aoi Shiro HD Remaster (Switch)
  • Cosmic Fantasy Collection (Switch)
  • Toaplan Arcade Garage: Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli (Switch)

Outside of that, we do have the Macross II: Lovers Again release which is now been paid and it’s also a 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack which is neat, but we won’t be seeing this until the very end of the year so I won’t bring it up for a long while.

Other Tidbits

Work has been pretty rough throughout January. I think the new team is going well as it feels more lively than before, and I have no problems with that. My issue is my workload and it’s been an absolute mess at best. I have gone over this on the forum and on Discord but long story short, too much was going on at a short timeframe with no one else to manage it on my behalf. As a result I had to spend an additional 36 hours, plus not being able to take a day off from the weekend work to make sure that everything was going smoothly. It has been recognised, but it’s had a somewhat mixed reception.

I asked for a salary review but it was rejected due to two factors – workload being the motivation, and how a lot of what I’m currently doing as daily tasks isn’t enough to be paid more for. Now that said, my boss intends on having those specific tasks passed on so that I can do other things that would then allow for a salary increase. I do understand where he’s coming from, but I do think that I should have been rewarded in some way to make up for the progress that I have done for the past year, for instance a bonus. It is entirely possible this could happen around April time where they generally review this stuff but it’s not guaranteed.

At least they responded to my issues before the month was over, because I was very close to giving up the role immediately which would have caused a lot of problems for the business since they had no backup plan. I still plan to look for other opportunities this year but I do want to give them a chance and see if things improve so that I can gain new skills before its too late.

Anime

In the world of anime we have Crunchyroll taking it slow due to their transition stuff with Sony and warehouse whatnot, but I still plan to pick up their new release of The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie and a few others. The UK branch is going to be releasing the film in May but as I own the main seasons from the US I am keeping it consistent.

Anime Limited held a showcase a while back and I did order Great Pretender, but I turned down the Patlabor films because I saw no value in double-dipping when I already own the Maiden Japan collection plus it’s the same discs so there’s no improvements here. A missed opportunity to say. At least Blue Thermal is now available to order which I’ll sort out at some point. They have a second showcase planned soon so we’ll see what’s in store.

Speaking of showcases, Discotek Media ran one for January to cover what they have planned for 2024 and beyond and it’s a very solid one. They managed to rescue the 1997 Berserk series which is pretty much on the same pace as the Madman release (which the UK re-used) so there’s no major differences outside of subtitle presentations from what was said.

Other titles revealed were Urusei Yatsura OVA series from 1987-1991, the Mazinkaizer OVA series from 2001-2002, the Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: The Attack of Darkness OVA series from 2012-2014, two more Lupin the Third TV Specials, a Blu-ray upgrade for Toei Animation’s The Little Mermaid film adaptation, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s, Futakoi Alternative, Tona-Gura!, updates on Sgt Frog Seasons 5-7 and Medabots Spirits, and a pretty cool Fan Disc for Reborn! fans which includes an OVA and a few episodes dubbed into English (they are not dubbing the entire series).

The Discotek collecting still continues throughout the year, and I definitely need to be focusing more on their older catalogue due to the out of print notices slowly creeping into the recent years. I have done a solid job with the hauls so far but will need to push more into the older sets so that I can avoid those fear of missing out scenarios. Examples of releases I want to own sooner are Galaxy Express 999, Kyo Kara Maoh!, Reborn! and a few Crunchyroll sub-licensed titles.

And that concludes the first haul for 2024. I didn’t pickup any manga due to focusing on other items but hopefully that changes in the coming weeks.

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