Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of June 2024. This update features 15 anime releases, 3 manga volumes, 1 book, 11 physical video game, and 6 live-action Asian Cinema releases.
For this haul, the Birthday haul has arrived and another Discotek Media haul makes an appearance. In addition I finally start catching up with the Nintendo Switch collection which included a few rarities.
Persona 4 Golden & The House in Fata Morgana
Starting off the month we have two more Nintendo Switch games for the collection and this covers two separate packages which I have decided to bundle together because these are Limited Run Games releases.
Persona 4 Golden is first, which arrived from VideoGamesPlus and their new listing of the set. They confirmed in advance that stock would be arriving on their store but the way they revealed the appearance of this game was suspicious, like announcing when it will appear with a time frame. This raised alarm bells in my head because it indicated that there was a high chance that it would sell out, therefore I had to order it directly through my phone whilst I was at work.
My assumption turned out to be correct because apparently the stock sold out within 20 minutes. Interesting considering the other Limited Run Games titles never had this issue. But ordering from VideoGamesPlus was decent especially for single item orders so I wasn’t too bothered by it.
Next we have perhaps the biggest surprise pickup I have managed to get in a long time – The House in Fata Morgana. Limited Run Games held their latest annual Blowout sale in late May, which included a whole bunch of titles but I only had enough funds for one game. This game was among the titles listed to make their appearance. The site went offline at first to deter bots and resellers from ruining the event but there was a rocky start as it was reloading the pages constantly. Eventually it went back up but this game was not available to purchase.
I was initially just about to give up until I was notified that it did become available about 15-20 minutes later (it was likely locked from ordering to give people a chance). Staff tweets gave the assumption that it was sold out already but the page details didn’t match that. I got my order through but was worried of cancellations as some folks got theirs cancelled not long after, but mine survived and dispatched.
To provide a bit of a background, The House in Fata Morgana is a visual novel that is considered one of the best in its genre. It had a release on PlayStation Vita followed by an updated version for PS4 and Switch. I did consider PS4 but eventually I decided to move visual novels to Switch but it was by that point that I had missed out on the opportunity. Grateful to be able to own a copy so that I can play it from the cart.
Rental Magica
Next we have Rental Magica from Anime Limited. They released the series in two collector’s edition parts (and yes, they released a complete series standard edition not long after) but these do mirror the Nozomi Entertainment limited edition DVD sets from Rightstuf back in the day so that’s neat.
Fire Emblem Warriors
The Nintendo Switch collecting haul continues. A few years ago I called my PlayStation 3 haul collecting ‘Operation PS3 Haul’ and the Switch is pretty much in the same approach. Going after a lot of titles that I want to own before it is too late. The next Switch successor will be released sometime next year and I want to secure as much as I can. Not going for a massive collection like a lot of people have done but enough that fits with what I feel is a solid line-up.
The first to arrive is from eBay, and considering Nintendo first-party and IPs related to Nintendo often remain at retail price, some do end up being cheaper in the used market. Fire Emblem Warriors was one of the many that I knew was going for a decent price. The musou game from Koei Tecmo originated on the New Nintendo 3DS before it was re-released for the Nintendo Switch’s early years, and yet it’s still around so I wanted to own it sooner than later. I haven’t played many of the games in the franchise outside of Fire Emblem Awakening but it’s neat to see the other characters here. I do intend to get the second game that’s focused on Three Houses.
Advance Wars 1+2, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker & Castle of Shikigami 2
Next we have three Nintendo Switch games I bought from retailer The Game Collection, which was helped by their 10% discount code for filling in their survey in late May. This is a mixture of new and old for the Nintendo first-party line-up plus a very recent release by Red Art Games.
First we have Advance Wars 1+2: Re Boot Camp, a remake of the 2001 & 2003 Game Boy Advance games Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. The remake was developed by US studio WayForward, known for their Shantae games and the remaster of Clock Tower. I surprisingly never played these games but they had been on my radar for years.
Next we have the cheaper first-party title with Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker by Nintendo. This I believe originated from a mini-game included in Super Mario 3D World and expanded to become its own standalone project on the Wii U, which was then re-released on Switch.
And keeping the bullet hell shoot em up collecting rolling, we have Castle of Shikigami 2 remastered by developer Cosmo Machia, the people behind the re-releases of FANTAVISION 202X and TriggerHeart EXELICA. Red Art Games brought the game over to physical format like they’re doing with the other titles Cosmo Machia worked on. Originally released in the Japanese arcades and brought over to Gamecube and PlayStation 2, the game is infamous for its English dub being terrible. The first game was also advertised as Mobile Light Force 2 in Europe.
Cruis’n Blast
Next day we have another eBay purchase and for a reason. Cruis’n Blast is the latest in the Cruisin racing franchise which has received favorably with its latest release. The game originated from the arcades and brought over exclusively to the Nintendo Switch and it runs surprisingly well. Its one of those classic retro arcade racers that I want to have for the collection.
The reason why I bought the game via eBay is because the European copies available nowadays are primarily ‘Code in a Box’ versions which pretend to be physical versions but don’t come with a cartridge. This is annoying and listings online aren’t clear on that so I didn’t want to take a risk in that approach, especially with CeX. However, I knew that over in North America they had plenty of copies available that does have the cartridge so i was perfectly fine with opting for the US version of the game.
88 Films Store Haul
Next we have two packages from 88 Films! The first package consists of items that were part of the May pre-order line-up but one of them was delayed into early June which also held back the two other releases in the order.
First up we have Stephen Chow’s 2007 film CJ7 (長江七號). It’s interesting to see a Asian film from the 2000s get picked up by the distributor as it does feel odd when you take into account how most from their Asia range are pre-2000s. That said it’s by Stephen Chow and there are a small number of films in his range that he directed which I would like to see all make it over it possible (so far I own From Beijing with Love, Forbidden City Cop and The Mermaid). This first print edition comes with a slipcase and the artwork they have used is honestly terrifying due to the re-usage of the same faces.
Another release for the Jackie Chan martial arts collection is Chan Chuen’s 1983 film Fearless Hyena Part II (龍騰虎躍). At this point, we’re getting closer to covering all of the major Jackie Chan films from back in the day and it feels good to pick them up from time to time (the next one to be released is Magnificent Bodyguards 3D). The first print edition includes a slipcase and a booklet.
Also with the other two in the package is another 4K Ultra HD title for the collection and that’s Gordon Chan’s 1994 film Fist of Legend (精武英雄). This is one of many Jet Li films being released by the distributor for the 4K format and honestly I’m just surprised we have having a whole batch of his films getting releases over here for the past year. I suppose the success of Jackie Chan’s older catalogue meant the other actors who went to Hollywood like Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh should get the spotlight as well.
Another one for the 4K Ultra HD format is Lo Wei’s 1977 film To Kill With Intrigue (劍花煙雨江南). This is the third of four Jackie Chan films re-released with better presentation and unlike the other two that came before (Battle Creek Brawl and Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin), it’s now on the 4K format which is weird but welcoming none-the-less. Dragon Fist is now the remaining one left to be re-released.
Grandia HD Collection
And another eBay purchase but a very interesting one. So for some context I was on a bidding war for a different game but I knew that particular game was still available and is not considered rare (retailer exclusivity is why you can’t find it naturally), so instead I saw copies available for the North American Limited Run Games version of Grandia HD Collection which was still steep but nowhere near as bad as I thought it would go for (especially since you have two games in the collection). With the App purchase discount code and Nectar points discount which I was able to combine, I saved a bit for the order (and then I found another listing which was cheaper, but the one I bought from had photos of every angle).
So this is a remastered collection featuring Grandia from 1997, using the PlayStation version which released two years later, and Grandia II from 2000 released on Dreamcast. Both are considered well-beloved JRPGs that many people grew up with and loved a lot. I never got a chance to play those, though I did download a digital version of the original PS1 version for the former on PS3 which did get carried over onto PS4 & PS5, a few months before the publishers eventually brought the HD Remaster onto PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Now the reason why the Limited Run Games version is the one people wanted more is because the Asian English release by Arc System Works apparently does not have the patches on the cartridge. The thing is that I can’t find any sources that specify what those patches are on the Asian version since they have different patch updates from my understanding. Either way it was about £20 more than ordering that version for this one so I didn’t mind it.
Super Mario Maker 2
I took a trip to town and the goal was to hunt down some more Nintendo Switch games that I was interested in getting, though that ended up being mostly a dud because they weren’t in stock. In CeX they had copies available for Super Mario Maker 2 which was among the list of games that the US retailers removed earlier in the year, causing some panic buying as a result. Since it was cheap I decided to pick it up.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind Vol. 4, 5 & 7
After venturing into CeX I visited the local Travelling Man store and they had more stock available for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, and since they count towards the 3 for 2 Viz Media deal I picked up Volumes 4, 5 & 7. Sadly they didn’t have Volume 6 in stock but I didn’t want to hold off so I’ll get that volume at a later point.
Discotek Media Haul
Next is the latest Discotek Media haul from Stackry. Now this haul was not supposed to have been sorted for the month of June, as my intention was to sort it out in the month of July (and keeping the bi-monthly pace) but unfortunately as soon as my previous order was sorted and shipped to the UK, one notable series went out of print so I had to create the order and pick up some more items to make up for the shipping costs.
Anyway here we are with 9 anime titles across 12 releases to the collection.
Galaxy Express 999 – Collections 1, 2 & 3
Adapted by studio Toei Animation in 1978-1981 and directed by Nobutaka Nishizawa. It feels strange to own an iconic space opera anime series like the one here by Leiji Matsumoto. While I do own a few of his works, the only one I’ve actually seen is the Captain Harlock CG film which I did enjoy. Given this series is now discontinued on Discotek’s catalog, its not the type to make a return any time soon so I wanted to own it. I wonder if the main Captain Harlock series or even the original Space Battleship Yamato series will be released on Blu-ray one day. Discotek Media released the three Blu-ray collections in December 2019, July 2020 & September 2020 respectively.
Galaxy Express 999 the Movie
Adapted by studio Toei Animation in 1979 and directed by Rintaro. This is the theatrical version of the Galaxy Express 999 story and separate to the TV series from my understanding. Rintaro is also the same director behind Ozamu Tezuka’s Metropolis for those who weren’t aware. While the films are not going out of print any time soon, I figured I’ll pick them up as well. There is a 4K restoration in Japan but it’ll be a while before we see that get brought over to the west. Discotek Media released the film on Blu-ray in February 2019.
Adieu Galaxy Express 999
Adapted by studio Toei Animation in 1981 and directed by Rintaro. This is the second film in the Galaxy Express 999 film series and a continuation to the 1979 film. It’s funny looking at this set on the shelf because at a distance it looks like you have a duplicate copy of the first film but in reality the Adieu name is so small you won’t notice it until you’re up close. This film also received a 4K restoration in Japan. Discotek Media released the film on Blu-ray in February 2019.
Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy
Adapted by studio Toei Animation in 1998 and directed by Osamu Dezaki. This is the third film in the Galaxy Express 999 film series and a continuation to the 1981 film despite the big gap in time between the two film productions. Osamu Dezaki, the director behind the Tomorrow’s Joe films, took over the director role for this film. Discotek Media for the Blu-ray release of the film also produced an English dub to keep it consistent with the first two films that received a dub a while back. Discotek Media released the film on Blu-ray in January 2020.
Arion
Adapted by studio Sunrise in 1986 and directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, also known as Neo Heroic Fantasia: Arion, this is another one of the classic Sunrise films from the pre-2000s now getting another chance with the modern audience. Unfortunately I believe Discotek weren’t able to produce a dub because the M&E materials were not available which is a shame given the director is also the character designer for the Mobile Suit Gundam series and the story has that Greek mythology twist to it. Discotek Media released the film on Blu-ray in May 2021.
Reborn! – Collections 1 & 2
Adapted by studio Artland in 2006-2010 and directed by Kenichi Imaizumi, this is another long-running Weekly Shonen Jump series that received a long-running anime series, though unfortunately the entire story was not adapted. It is interesting to see Discotek release all 203 episodes, but I suppose it was easier than expected given Crunchyroll translated and streamed all of the episodes for a while.
Reborn, much like BoBoBo and Beelzebub, I was familiar with thanks to the J-Stars Victory Vs video game and to be honest it sounds like this series is a cult classic of sorts given the decently high rating MAL has given the series and not to mention Discotek are even releasing a Fan Disc Blu-ray later in the year that includes the OVA and a few episodes dubbed in English. Discotek Media released the complete series across two Standard Definition on Blu-ray collections in September 2018 & October 2018 respectively.
Space Adventure Cobra
Adapted by studio TMS Entertainment in 1982 and directed by Hideyoshi Oga, Masaharu Okuwaki, Michio Sakano & Shunji Ōga with chief directors Osamu Dezaki & Yoshio Takeuchi. Since I own the theatrical film (also released in 1982 by just a few months prior), it made sense to also pick up the television series which Rightstuf released on DVD years prior before Discotek eventually rescued for a Blu-ray release. Again we have another classic space anime series for the collection which is neat. Discotek Media released the complete series on Blu-ray in September 2020.
Urusei Yatsura: Remember My Love & Urusei Yatsura: Lum the Forever
Adapted by studio Deen in 1985 & 1986 and directed by Kazuo Yamazaki, these are the third & fourth films in the Urusei Yatsura film series and with a different animation studio and director taking the mantle (as the first two were worked on by Mamoru Oshii & Studio Pierrot). I actually don’t know which film outside of Beautiful Dreamer is considered the best one so I’m intrigued to see how it goes when I eventually check them out. Discotek Media released the films on Blu-ray in January 2022 & June 2022 respectively.
Birthday Haul
So for this year’s Birthday haul I decided to change things up by going for a ‘less is more’ approach and what I mean by this is rather than trying to get as many items of different varieties as possible within the budget that I am given, I figured it would be better to have fewer items that are more of quality. Not to say that my previous years haven’t been great but we’re at a point where titles are getting niche, more pricier or there’s a few other factors like stock issues or not exactly safe for work if its a manga.
Anywho, here’s the haul. We start off with the anime which just arrived on time and that’s Konosuba: An Explosion on this Wonderful World!, the spin-off series to the Konosuba franchise. I didn’t watch this series during simulcast because I wanted to watch the Legend of Crimson film first, but I have watched it finally so I can eventually check this one out (for context I like to watch anime in order of release). This is the Crunchyroll UK release that just came out.
Next we have Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2023 film Monster (怪物), distributed in the UK on Blu-ray by Picturehouse Entertainment. Only found out it was released recently. Picturehouse also released his previous film Broker which funny enough I received in my Birthday haul last year.
Then we have a game that I had been meaning to play for years, which was then re-released across other platforms – Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. I have played Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne but never finished it, but I am expecting a challenge with this one like the others. The original on Nintendo Switch I recall ran pretty badly so the moment this re-release was revealed I was going to pick the PlayStation 5 version regardless. The re-release covers two storylines, the original from the Nintendo Switch release and a brand new one that was made to also address issues with the original game’s story. Many have said the newer one is much better so I’ll likely play that route first.
For the book portion of the collection I also received Bitmap Books’ Nintendo 64: A Visual Compendium which goes over the history of the console and covering over 150 titles released for it. This is their latest Visual Compendium range and the first one I picked up from them. I really like how they cover a wide variety of games and I wasn’t expecting extra segments like covering interviews and also talking about cancelled video games for the platform.
And last but not least I also received a few T-Shirts today. One from Star Wars, one from Haikyu!! and one from Kaiju No. 8, the latter two my sister bought for me.
Memories of Murder
A surprise release in recent months is a 4K Ultra HD release for Bong Joon-ho’s 2003 film Memories of Murder (살인의 추억), which is a film I’ve been wanting to watch for years. Curzon released a double film pack on Blu-ray a few years back with Barking Dogs Never Bite but it was bare bones compared to the Criterion release over in North America so I never bothered to pick it up. This 4K release does include the bonus features this time around and price-wise was decent but the packaging could have been better.
Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition
Wrapping up the month of June’s haul is the Asian English physical release for Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, the remaster of the cult classic PlayStation JRPG game, on Nintendo Switch. I’ve played Chrono Trigger but never managed to finish it surprisingly but I have heard how this successor was liked but also divisive in a way, probably because it wasn’t like the predecessor.
Square Enix remastered the game and brought it to modern platforms in 2022, bundling in the 1996 Satellaview exclusive Radical Dreamers visual novel in English for the first time. When the game initially came out, it wasn’t well received in terms of the remastered treatment as there were a number of issues including performance.
About a year later they finally patched the game and it’s a much better experience (though the Nintendo Switch version does still have a 30fps cap on the final portion of the game). Regardless, only the Nintendo Switch version received a physical English release (only in Asia) and despite the issue I mentioned the Switch version was just as good as the other platforms so I decided to go for the Switch release. I have been meaning to pick up the physical version for a while but once again I found a copy through eBay for a really good price and went for it.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Rental Magica Parts 1 & 2 (CE Blu-ray)
What’s to Come for the Hauls
July 2024
July I am expecting to see another big batch of titles because it’s around the time of year where the Summer sales will officially begin. I know Crunchyroll Store held a Discotek one but I passed on it for various reasons but that normally leads into a big sale which should happen in the coming weeks.
In the meantime we should expect some pre-orders to make their appearances for both anime and Asian Cinema titles. Also another Nintendo Switch game was pre-ordered but that was because the limited edition was the only way to secure an English translated physical copy (but it’s a good one).
- Babylon (CE Blu-ray)
- The Double Crossers (Blu-ray)
- Message from Space (Blu-ray)
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The Movie Trilogy (CE 4K Ultra HD)
- Tsukihime -A Piece of Blue Glass Moon- (LE Switch)
September 2024
Sometime in August we should hopefully see some Limited Run Games releases to make their appearance, but they’re likely to arrive in September instead so I’ve shifted the expectation range to this time frame. In the meantime, Red Art Games should also be releasing their latest shoot ’em up title.
- Cosmic Fantasy Collection (Switch)
- Toaplan Arcade Garage: Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli (Switch)
- Triggerheart Exelica (DE Switch)
October 2024
Still early to predict what will arrive but I am expecting Anime Limited’s release of Macross Plus Ultimate Edition to show up at this time frame. The US does have a release date for end of September but delays are a natural thing for the distributor so I’m not expecting my copy to arrive until the month of October.
December 2024
And the same goes for this month as we have two more Limited Run Games releases expected to be released in November but more likely to arrive in December, those two being Clock Tower Rewind and Hatsune Miku: Logic Paint S for the Nintendo Switch. AnimEigo’s kickstarter for Macross II: Lovers Again looks to be on track to arrive before the year is over as well.
Other Tidbits
Oh boy this month has been a bit messy on the work front. So I took a week off which was great and thankfully my virtual assistant was able to manage the tasks pretty well whilst I was away, but then I also got motion sick playing a game and having a rich dinner contributing to that didn’t help so the latter half of my break was mostly wasted. In the meanwhile the workload is still pretty high but I do get the overtime for it at least.
Anime
Anime Limited
Anime Limited have pretty much been on a pretty messy record for the past year and I have no idea what is going on to cause these issues that keep happening. You have their email marketing which has randomly kicked people out despite being part of their newsletter, you have their Unlimited membership program disregarding specific individuals like myself from not receiving the free Magazine last year, you have dozens of delays including items stuck in customs despite being a UK release (because they were made in Europe) and not to mention numerous quality control issues on their discs. It’s not a good look and they have failed to address any of them, not even Venus Wars which was using an older master when they’re marketing the new master elsewhere.
Anywho in terms of new updates on their end, they provided early birds for Macross Plus Ultimate Edition, Babylon, B: The Beginning Succession and a new license reveal with Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 which unfortunately because of Netflix and their high costs the English dub is not included in the home video release. I’m still interested in owning that series but it will have to wait for a sale unfortunately. In the meantime I did pre-order both Babylon and Macross Plus Ultimate Edition sets.
Alongside that new license reveal they also announced they had rescued the UK rights for Mamoru Hosoda’s earlier films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars and Wolf Children which were initially released by Manga Entertainment UK. The three films are all great and I own each of them on Blu-ray but I am intrigued to see how they handle the first film, because the previous UK release used a co-authored disc with Spanish distributor Selecta Vision which wasn’t great, so if they re-author the disc with VDMS or just re-use the Funimation one I would be interested in double-dipping.
Crunchyroll
So Crunchyroll UK has pretty much addressed almost all of the issues that I’ve had with the distributor. They’re pushing more of their newer titles to the UK, the limited editions are being brought over without any tweaks to the artwork (the BBFC logo is still on the cases but it’s not a massive deal) and the artwork for the most part has been kept without any removals.
The only issue that I have are their multi-language releases because whilst I have no problem with additional dubs on the disc, the artwork for the UK releases has been modified to cover other markets and as a result of that the costs are also higher than it should. Chances are they’ll just lower the price and that’s it, but I don’t want to support this kind of model which is why I’ve been importing the North American versions instead. The multi-language titles that just cover the French dubs seem to be fine but I want more photos of those sets just in case. I do acknowledge that I am a minority on this whole thing so it’s not going to make any difference if I go for them or not because they’ll just keep doing it anyway, but I will say that the shows that I really enjoyed I’ll be importing whilst others is on a case by case basis.
Now there are some titles that have Australian covers as reversible but those aren’t a problem because they are not being released in North America under their distribution so its basically bonus releases for the UK & Australian markets in a way. Which is why I have no problem with getting their release of 86 EIGHTY-SIX when that gets released later this year.
Speaking of which, what’s getting released by Crunchyroll as of late? So there’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, both of which Anime Limited didn’t manage to secure the UK rights for but it’s not a big deal since these things can happen. Crunchyroll UK also have Rent-A-Girlfriend Seasons 2 & 3 since they took over from Season 2 onwards in both regions (again this was expected and I don’t mind). Not confirmed yet for the UK region but they are also expected to bring over Mushoku Tensei II, Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The Movie – Scarlet Bond and TRIGUN STAMPEDE.
The UK also has Am I Actually the Strongest?, The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition, BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense Season 2 (including the limited edition), Buddy Daddies, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, In Another World With My Smartphone Season 2, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear! Seasons 1 & 2, Summoned to Another World for a Second Time, Tomo-chan is a Girl! (including the limited edition), VINLAND SAGA Season 2, and One Piece‘s next collections on Blu-ray which is a surprise. All of these are their regular release formats which I will be picking up at some point.
The multi-language titles they are offering are The Aristocrat’s Otherworldly Adventure: Serving Gods Who Go Too Far, Bungo Stray Dogs Seasons 4 & 5, I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too, My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1, Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon Season 1, The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World, and Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion.
The biggest title missing from the list is Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku so I wonder what’s happened here, whether Crunchyroll only ever had Region A home video rights or there’s an Amazon UK exclusive release planned later down the line.
Discotek Media
Another mini discussion on Discotek Media. Just want to say that I am so happy they went for a bi-monthly schedule this past few months, because it’s allowed me to catch up on a number of their older releases. Now I know they are putting out more notices on out of print releases, but that’s to be expected when you release so many within a small time frame. Currently as it stands there hasn’t been any new out of print notices outside of the steelbook releases and the English broadcast versions of the Beyblade anime shows.
Since the last monthly haul update, there’s now around 15-17 anime left to pickup that were released up to the end of 2020, followed by around 14-16 released in 2021. Because of how sudden the previous haul was, I’m personally considering holding off on any more Discotek purchases of this scale for a little while since these hauls are not cheap. I might get a title here and there but I would like to focus on other titles.
Sentai Filmworks
It’s been a while since I mentioned Sentai Filmworks but for the month of July if they plan to hold another big sale I would like to use this opportunity to grab some more titles. There’s tons to get from their line-up, especially with the re-releases.
In the coming months they are planning to release The Eminence in Shadow Season 2, Helck and Spy Classroom plus re-release UN-GO which is great but my plan is to focus more on the older titles that are expected to go for a decent deal during the sale.
Sales wise my goal is to focus on titles that I definitely want to own the most and are in really good offers, for example if there’s a good offer on Bibliophile Princess, Farming Life in Another World, Getter Robo Arc, Majestic Prince, Medaka Box, Vermeil in Gold and Waiting in the Summer then I’ll pick them up. I’m also considering any others that are available for super cheap prices, since they may be going out of print. I do want to avoid super old releases as they weren’t authored as well as the newer ones.
Asian Cinema
88 Films
Soon I’ll be sorting out my order to cover Tony Lou Chun-Ku’s The Holy Virgin Versus The Evil Dead, as well as both Mabel Cheung’s An Autumn’s Tale and Yonfan’s Immortal Story as all three are available to order through 88’s store.
With the recently released films picked up, they also revealed their September line-up. Yuen Woo-ping’s Tai Chi Master is the latest 4K release starring Jet Li which is great, and there’s three new Shaw Brothers titles incoming – Li Han-Hsiang’s The Golden Lotus & The Shadow Boxing and Sun Chung’s To Kill a Mastermind. Also incoming for Jackie Chan fans are Lo Wei’s Magnificent Bodyguards which includes the 3D version on a Blu-ray 3D disc.
In the Category III slate, Michael Mak’s Sex and Zen got delayed to October but in return there’s the Erotic Ghost Story I-III collection which re-releases the first film but also adds the second and third films. And in Japanarchy’s slate they added Kazuo Komizu’s Gaira’s Guts Trilogy which is reported to be fully uncut.
Eureka Entertainment
Still got a number of first print releases to get that have been out for a fair while. To my recollection they were Jeong Chang-Hwa’s The Skyhawk, Ryuichi Takamori & Buichi Saitô’s Yakuza Wolf 1 & 2 collection, Ryuichi Takamori’s Bodyguard Kiba 1 & 2 collection, Robert Clouse’s China O’Brien 1 & 2 collection in 4K Ultra HD, Ting Shan-hsi’s A Queen’s Ransom, Kosaku Yamashita, Norifumi Suzuki & Tai Kato’s The Valiant Red Peony I-III collection and Yuen Woo-ping’s The Miracle Fighters. I haven’t had the room to order any of these as of late but I’m hoping to at least sort out the older ones in this batch sooner than later.
A few days ago Eureka did announce their September slate, which includes Brandy Yuen’s The Champions and Yuen Cheung-yan & Chen Chi-hwa’s Two Taoist Tales collection. No special offer was made available so I’ll grab them at a later stage.
World Cinema
Let’s have a brief talk about Radiance. They have been putting out a lot of classics and I find their selections to be really good compared to other distributors. However it had occurred to me that eventually they will grow bigger to which so many releases will come out and when you factor in anime, manga, games, and other Asian films each month it’s becoming unsustainable for me to look into every single title on their collection.
So going forward I have decided to be more selective of what they will release, which means I don’t plan on getting their first print (limited edition) releases for L’amour fou, Trenque Lauquen and Viva la muerte as it currently stands. At the end of the day, collecting is a blessing and a curse because while its fun to pick them up it can be dangerous if there’s no end in sight which is why I’m taking this decision seriously.
Out of the existing Radiance titles that I have picked up, with this current mindset I probably wouldn’t have gone for A Woman Kills and Red Sun, but I’ll still watch both to make up my mind on that.
Asian Cinema portion of the distributor’s line-up including their World Noir box set are very safe pickups as they’re all interesting for various reasons, and the Italian cinema is also strong enough for me to keep picking up their releases (so expect Bandits of Orgosolo and Misunderstood to be acquired at some point). My focus is going to be more on the type of films that fit in line with what I like about cinema in general, and besides a vast majority of Radiance’s catalogue will still be available in standard editions so its not like I’m going to miss out on them. It’s for this reason why I also won’t be considering the first print editions of Raro Video titles.
And that concludes the June haul. Expect another semi-large batch for July given the potential sales incoming this Summer.
The Normanic Vault 
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