The Normanic Vault

Otaku Collection Haul for August 2024

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of August 2024. This update features 23 anime releases, 3 manga volumes, 7 physical video games, and 6 live-action Asian Cinema releases.

For this haul, we have a big batch of anime from Anime Limited, Crunchyroll UK and Discotek Media, plus a couple of retro collections for the Switch, and more progress made on our hardcover Viz manga books.

Capcom Fighting Collection

Ever since the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection was announced followed by watching a six hour Capcom PS1 video on YouTube by Sean Seanson, I wanted to get the Capcom Fighting Collection but it’s somewhat hard to come by because VGP don’t have it in stock and Amazon US does have stock but it’ll take a while. So I went with eBay and found a seller had a copy available for regular prices so I went for it.

This collection contains 10 arcade fighting games from their 2D era. Starting with all five Darkstalkers games which are Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (1994), Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (1995), Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire aka Darkstalkers 3 (1997) as well as its updated versions Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (1997) and Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire (1997). These were all released first in the Arcades as well as either or both on the PlayStation and SEGA Saturn.

Then we have two Pocket Fighter games with Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (1996) and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (1997), both also released in the Arcades as well as both PlayStation and SEGA Saturn.

And we round it up with three individual games; Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness (1995) from the Arcades, PlayStation and SEGA Saturn; Red Earth (1996) which was exclusively in the Arcades, and also Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition (2003) from the PlayStation 2 then Arcades and Xbox.

This collection is also on PlayStation 4 but due to the retro aesthetic I felt the Switch was better suited.

The Bride with White Hair

Next we have a last minute pickup which I honestly did not expect to be in this situation but it was one of the small number of older Asian Cinema titles that I had yet to pick up at this point. So for some additional context, Eureka Entertainment revealed another batch of discontinued titles from their back catalogue, a majority I am not interested in but one of those surprisingly is Ronny Yu’s 1993 Wuxia film The Bride with White Hair (白髮魔女傳).

I didn’t bother with the first print edition back when it was first released because of cost and I didn’t start getting into the craze until the Lucky Stars collection onwards. But this film has been on my radar for a while and I know they have no plans to release the second film due to poor masters I recall, but since this is going out of print I decided to get it now before prices go up.

Capcom Belt Action Collection

Alongside the fighting collection was another collection of games that I knew about but didn’t know what was included or the context behind it. So the Capcom Belt Action Collection, also known as the Capcom Beat ’em Up Bundle outside Asia, is a collection of beat ’em up arcade games of various 2D Capcom games.

This collection contains seven individual games; Final Fight (1989), Captain Commando (1991), The King of Dragons (1991) and Knights of the Round (1991) which were all released in the Arcades as well as Super NES plus Warriors of Fate (1992) from the Arcades, SEGA Saturn and PlayStation, Armored Warriors (1994) and Battle Circuit (1997) which were both only released in the Arcades until this collection.

Out of these games the one I recognised the most was Final Fight because it was pretty popular among the SNES scene and was also on Nintendo’s Virtual Console.

Now I picked up this collection from eBay as well and it turns out the version that I picked up, which is the original first release of the game, is harder to find now as the more common release is the Best Price version so I didn’t know that up until I started searching for the physical version. The game was never released physically in either Europe or North America so the only option was the Japanese version, which has English support.

Tokyo Xanadu eX+

About five years ago I picked up the PlayStation 4 version of Tokyo Xanadu, which was remastered as Tokyo Xanadu eX+ and while Falcom games generally were released by XSEED, this particular game was distributed by Aksys Games instead which surprised people and happened around the same time NIS America took over the Falcom games with Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana onwards.

Now admittedly I never bothered to start the game due to other games in the backlog but it seems me holding off was the right choice because the Nintendo Switch version is now here and not only does the game feature all of the benefits of the PlayStation 4 version, but most importantly it has a new English translation.

Similar to the Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana controversy, Tokyo Xanadu eX+ also had translation issues but were nowhere near as bad, so to see Aksys Games go back and amend that is a complete surprise. The Switch release also includes all of the previously released DLC on the cartridge so that’s neat. Basically, similar to The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Zero & Trails to Azure, the Switch version is now the version to get if you want to play the game on consoles.

I pre-ordered my copy from The Game Collection so that I have access to the physical version before it gets harder to find.

Crunchyroll UK Summer Sale Haul

Crunchyroll UK ran a Summer sale for the month of August on both the UK & US territories, so before the end of July I ordered a few titles from retailer Rarewaves as their prices were pretty good. Shipping speeds are horrible but they arrived across two packages.

The newest title in this order was Handyman Saitou in Another World, which is one of the newer isekai shows released in recent years but honestly the anime is one of my favourites from the genre. I enjoyed the cast a lot more than expected and would love to see more of the world.

Next we One Punch Man Season 1 which I have indeed double-dipped on. To recap, I bought Viz Media’s US limited edition in May 2017 and now seven years later I decided to get the Region B version. Honestly owning this standard Blu-ray has been on my radar for a long while but it wasn’t until I started playing the video game One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows on PS4 that it got me reinterested in the anime once again. I’m still surprised this still comes with a slipcase at this point.

And of course we have One Punch Man Season 2, the limited edition version that Funimation UK put out in 2021. I’ve also been meaning to get this one for a while, which may surprise folks since I imported the first season’s limited edition and tend to keep things consistent with distributors whenever possible, but due to Viz’s quality issues I decided to not bother with their releases. This limited edition has sold out a while back but there’s some stock left here and there on different retailers.

The second round of Crunchyroll UK releases arrived the next day from Amazon UK. This is the multi-language batch as I may describe it.

I review the UK anime releases on a case by case basis and ever since Crunchyroll UK started there were numerous problems here and there. It’s taken a while but we are finally at a point where the releases are one to one with the North American versions (with some minor bits like BBFC logos etc) even down to the limited editions. From April onwards they revised their multi-language sets and I didn’t know until recently which is a shame as I would have pre-ordered the titles as soon as I could.

So here we are. Starting with The Girl from the Other Side, an OVA that I believe originated from a Kickstarter campaign by WIT Studio (based on a manga of course) but Crunchyroll did pick it up for streaming and home video (though they split the OVA into 3 episodes). I actually ordered this from Rarewaves first but it didn’t come with a slipcase. Amazon’s did, but I do want to make note that the shrink-wrap was above the slipcases whereas Rarewave’s copy is just the Amaray which comes into two scenarios – Rarewaves received a second print of the set, or they actually rewrapped the title to make it look like it was new and sealed when it wasn’t.

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too is a very long anime title but also a rather flawed adaptation and a power fantasy isekai. Being honest here I actually enjoyed watching this series, the animation is very rough but the really nice artwork on the character designs is what kept me going with the anime. I also liked the story and its an interesting Isekai that isn’t focused on the fantasy side but also both the real world and fantasy world which is not common when you think about how most Isekai stories ditch the real world so ridiculously fast.

Also part of the Summer Sale is The Legendary Hero is Dead!, a fantasy series that I first discovered about many years ago when it first serialised and I recall reading the first chapter, liking what the concept is going for. I recall the manga did get licensed but on a platform no one cares for and digital only, but there was an anime adaptation which I missed out on and apparently is not particularly great. Regardless it was on offer so this was a good opportunity to watch it.

Almost made the cut if it was actually on sale would have been KamiKatsu, so if it goes down in price I’ll pick that up. But being serious, these newer multi-languages does mean I can save more money as it wasn’t easy importing them over. In fact every single Crunchyroll title is getting a UK release nowadays which is surreal. I’ll still need to get some titles from last year and whatnot (Aharen-san, Parallel World Pharmacy, Tomodachi Game for example) but hopefully this model of releasing all of the new titles to the UK is kept intact going forward.

Cosmic Fantasy Collection & Toaplan Arcade Garage: Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli

Last January I pre-ordered two Switch games from Limited Run Games’ online store and they had an estimated release window for August 1-31. Surprisingly they actually arrived on time and since I paid VAT upfront there’s no customs which is handy.

Starting with Cosmic Fantasy Collection, the first in a new remastered collection by Edia, consisting of 1990’s Cosmic Fantasy and 1991’s Cosmic Fantasy 2. Both originated from the PC Engine CD and only the second game was previously released in English. This is an RPG that I actually discovered through YouTuber HappyConsoleGamer so I wanted to pick it up since we don’t see many from the genre released for this console readily available these days. A second collection is coming soon that covers the third and fourth games in the franchise.

Next we have Toaplan Arcade Garage: Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli, a classic shoot ’em up collection dedicated to the Tiger-Heli games released back in the Arcade by Toaplan with this release worked on by M2 ShotTriggers. This collection includes 1989’s Kyukyoku Tiger (Famicom, PC Engine & 1991’s Mega Drive versions), 1989’s Twin Cobra (NES & 1991’s Genesis versions), 1986’s Tiger-Heli (Famicom & 1987’s NES versions) and 1986’s Get Star (plus the western version Guardian). Surprisingly it also includes 1991’s arcade puzzle game Teki Paki which displays as a separate game when you put the Switch cartridge on the device.

Persona 5 Royal & Persona 5 Tactica

After watching Alien: Romulus, I visited the GAME store that was nearby and wasn’t expecting much given they ditched the pre-owned section and most of the stuff on their stores these days is just pointless trash. But to my surprise, they have some discounts available for a few of the games on offer and these included Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Tactica for £11.99 each.

Now I did pre-order the PS4 Steelbook version for Persona 5 Royal but I never bothered to play it given it is a long game after all, but the PS5 version has some slight performance improvements so I figured given its cheap I’ll pick it up. Meanwhile Persona 5 Tactica is their tactical RPG spin-off and surprisingly no one is talking about it, it just came out and that was it, so the fact that its cheap is an opportunity for me to pick it up in case it goes up in value.

Fist of the North Star, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind & Stone Ocean Manga Vols.

Once again I visited the Travelling Man store in town and they finally had JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind Volume 6 in stock so with that picked up I have now completed the series. But since its a 3 for 2 deal I needed some more books to make it worthwhile so I also picked up both Fist of the North Star Volume 5 (which finally had a condition that didn’t look dented) and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Volume 2.

UNIQLO Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster shirts

For my Birthday last June I received two official anime shirts from clothing retailer UNIQLO which were part of a collaboration with TOHO Animation. I found out not long after they were also running a Final Fantasy promotion to celebrate their anniversary and they were focused on Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, Final Fantasy XIV Online and Final Fantasy XVI. The shirts went on sale for £9.95 each so I selected three shirts that were part of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster group which were a Moogle shirt, a Goblin shirt and a Terra shirt.

Discotek Media Haul

It’s another Discotek Media haul and here I shifted towards mostly newer releases to change things up. For some context, I’ve mainly been going after the older releases because a lot of the discontinued titles came from that timeframe, though annoyingly every time I pick a title from their catalogue, thinking it would be discontinued next, a completely different title goes out of print. How annoying is that?

Anywho enjoy!

Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting – Collections 1, 2 & 3

Adapted by studio Madhouse in 2000-2002 and directed by Satoshi Nishimura. Pretty cool to see Discotek release this classic sports series, granted it’s just the first series but a good start at least. This also includes Hajime no Ippo: Champion Road and Hajime no Ippo: Mashiba vs. Kimura from 2003 by the same team. I recall the series has sold out from time to time so I am hoping it performed well enough for Discotek to get their hands on the second series from 2009. Discotek Media released the three Blu-ray collections in January 2021, March 2021 & October 2021 respectively.

Ghost Stories

Adapted by studio Pierrot in 2000 and directed by Noriyuki Abe. This is a supernatural horror series where young kids deal with paranormal ghosts and the stories were based on children’s novels apparently which is interesting. However, many of you will be more familiar with the English dubbed version that changes it up to a black comedy with a lot of outdated and pretty offensive stuff. I’ve only seen clips so I know what to expect but I don’t think this dub will make it over here due to the jokes. Discotek have released this on DVD in 2014 and if you haven’t been following the Discotek thread, the license window is probably close to expiring if we’re only getting a Blu-ray now. Discotek Media released the complete series on Blu-ray in February 2023.

Hand Maid May

Animated by studio TNK in 2000 and directed by Shinichiro Kimura. It’s not often you have an otaku themed anime these days but there have been a fair amount back in the day and the first time I heard about this particular series was from a Discotek Day event, and surprisingly it’s pretty cheap for a 1-cour series. This was previously released on DVD in North America by Geneon Entertainment but Discotek rescued the series for Blu-ray which I have heard the transfer isn’t particularly great. Discotek Media released the complete series on Blu-ray in February 2024.

IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix

Animated by studio Production I.G in 2005, co-produced by Cartoon Network & Toonami, and directed by Mitsuru Hongo. This series I’ve known about for years and it’s pretty neat to see Discotek use the AstroRes tech to produce a Blu-ray release. Bandai Entertainment & Beez Entertainment released it first on DVD, before Discotek rescued the license in 2014 for a DVD release.

Now part of the reason why I bought this series much sooner than usual is because of the fact that similar to Ghost Stories, the licensing window is probably close to expiration and the other reason is the whole worry about Warner Bros getting in the way with how they’re handling their catalog. May as well grab the series now whilst its still readily available. This release, like the DVD version, includes both the Toonami version for English dubbed fans and the Production I.G. version for subtitled only fans. Discotek Media released the complete series on Blu-ray in May 2024.

Mononoke

Animated by studio Toei Animation in 2007 and directed by Kenji Nakamura. This horror series is a spin-off to Toei’s 2006 series Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Stories and has gathered a cult following of sorts since we now have a new anime film trilogy in the works (with Netflix picking up streaming exclusivity). I’ve heard over the years that Mononoke is really good but its treatment for home video wasn’t ideal given it was handed over to Cinedigm for a basic DVD release (granted Cinedigm would eventually make RetroCrush). Discotek picked it up and discovered an English dub existed which was cool. Discotek Media released the complete series on Blu-ray in March 2023.

Overman King Gainer

Animated by studio Sunrise in 2002 and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino. More science fiction mecha goodness and interestingly this is one of the many Sunrise titles that were licensed by Sentai Filmworks back in 2013 after Bandai closed down, though it was never released until Discotek picked it up (Kurokami The Animation and s-CRY-ed are two shows also part of the deal). You probably recognise that the character designs were done by Kenichi Yoshida of Eureka Seven fame which to me adds a fun vibe to the show. Discotek Media released the complete series on Blu-ray in December 2023.

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

Adapted by studio Group TAC in 1994 and directed by Gisaburō Sugii. It’s Capcom’s classic anime film of Street Fighter II now in 4K resolution. Discotek included all versions previously released in their Blu-ray release (which I did pickup but had not yet watched yet) onto the 4K disc as well as the extras so nothing is lost when carried over. Granted there were some people complaining about the overall presentation of the disc but not too bothered. Discotek Media released the film on 4K Ultra HD in November 2023.

Z/X Ignition

Animated by studio Telecom Animation Film in 2014 and directed by Yuji Yamaguchi. A rather out of left field pickup but we have a card battle show that was released a decade ago that has always caught my interest with its visual poster and the fact that it eventually received a spin-off series Z/X: Code Reunion that Sentai Filmworks picked up years later. TMS provided Discotek the license in 2015 and then years later decided to upgrade the show onto Blu-ray. I don’t expect this to be a popular choice for fans to buy so I figured I’ll get it now whilst I’ve thought of it. Discotek Media released the complete series on Blu-ray in November 2021.

Crunchyroll Hime Nendoroid

Since I ordered the Discotek Media titles during a Crunchyroll sale (even though they weren’t part of it), Crunchyroll Store decided to add in a free Crunchyroll Hime Nendoroid figure to the mix which worried me because how was I going to get this through customs? Thankfully the package survived and here we are. This is my second Nendo after receiving a Robotics;Notes one for free when I won the game from Numskull Games a few years back.

Anime Limited Summer Sale Haul

Next we have our Anime Limited Summer Sale haul which was an opportunity for me to pick up a couple collector’s editions that I passed on during their early bird phase throughout last year. All of them thankfully were in the sale. While they’re on the same price range as the Xmas sale, I didn’t want to spend too much during that time of year so I got them now.

First we have the short anime series “Deiji” Meets Girl which I thought would be bundled with one of LIDEN FILMS’ films when GKIDS and Anime Limited did their double bill theatrical releases but that wasn’t the case. But it was surprising to see Anime Limited release this on its own.

Next we have the final part of the Digimon Adventure story with Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna. Now I have watched bits of Digimon Adventure and its English edited film, but I have yet to watch the gaps in-between so I will need to get Digimon Adventure Tri to get up to speed. In a sense I did jump the gun early here but it’s a franchise that is more accessible to own on home video now thanks to Discotek’s Blu-ray releases of the main series & films and Manga Entertainment releasing the newer films (and then Anime Limited with this latest film).

Then we have the TV Special film Eternal 831 from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex director Kenji Kamiyama which I hadn’t heard of until Anime Limited announced the license for theatrical and home video. It is a CG film but I do like them when done right.

As a fan of Patema Inverted and Time of Eve the Movie, I was surprised to learn that Yasuhiro Yoshiura directed a short film for the Anime Mirai project called Harmonie. It’s even more surprising that once again Anime Limited took the risk to release it on home video given its short runtime.

Next we have one of the more infamous anime films of recent years with Over the Sky. An original isekai film that has not received well by fans and apparently the interview featurette is interesting so I am intrigued to check this one out.

And then we conclude the haul with a two-part compilation film for the Mawaru Penguindrum‘s 10th anniversary with Re:cycle of the Penguindrum, which summarises the TV series but with some new footage thrown in here and there. I did miss out on this due to poor timing and considering how fast the series sold I’m surprised this set stayed in print.

88 Films Haul

Arriving the next day, we have a few new titles from distributor 88 Films. These are Hong Kong films that were released at the end of July and at the end of August.

Starting off with two films that came out late July and these received some interesting design choices for their home video release – Mabel Cheung’s 1987 film An Autumn’s Tale (秋天的童話) on Blu-ray and Yonfan’s 1986 film Immortal Story (海上花) on Blu-ray. No clue what was going on behind the scenes but we have a clear slipcover and one title is just barebones on physical content, how strange.

Then we have the films which were released late this month. The first is Corey Yuen’s 1994 film The Bodyguard from Beijing (中南海保鑣) on 4K Ultra HD, this is the second Jet Li film to receive the treatment and another one where the English dub is not included presumably due to licensing issues. We also have Kevin Chu’s 1990 film Island of Fire (火燒島) which is presented with a rigid case. The film stars Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and also Andy Lau from Infernal Affairs.

The Skyhawk

Eureka Entertainment ran a mini sale on a select number of films and one of those was for Jeong Chang-Hwa’s 1974 film The Skyhawk (黃飛鴻少林拳). I had been meaning to pick this one up for a while because it was released around the middle of last year and I didn’t pre-order it as there were no special offers prior to its release to my knowledge and considering that I own a few other films that share this packaging template I wanted to secure the first print edition slipcase & booklet to keep it consistent.

Kyousougiga

The final item of the month is from Rarewaves once again because they had in stock a few copies for one of Discotek Media’s earliest Blu-ray releases. Kyousougiga was recently revealed to be officially discontinued in their latest batch and my issue is that as this was one of the earlier Blu-ray releases, the retail price is also pretty high compared to newer titles so when you factor in how ridiculous it can be to buy Discotek Media releases especially when they’re out of print, it’s not worth the hassle of importing them, so to learn that Rarewaves had stock for about £10-11 I figured why not.

Sadly my copy not only did not come with a slipcase, but the case itself was also damaged. Miraculously the artwork and discs were not harmed but I had to swap the case because it was falling apart without a slipcase to protect it. Considering it’s now hard to find and the price was cheap it’s fine for what it is but it does make me second guess using Rarewaves going forward for any slipcase type releases though.

Unboxing Links

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

What’s to Come for the Hauls

September 2024

We have some more packages on order since the previous monthly collection update. A few delays as well as new orders so here’s what you can expect to appear:

  • Akiba Maid War (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Cat’s Eye (Blu-ray)
  • Cat’s Eye 2 (Blu-ray)
  • City Hunter (Blu-ray)
  • City Hunter 2 Set 1 (Blu-ray)
  • City Hunter 2 Set 2 (Blu-ray)
  • City Hunter 3 (Blu-ray)
  • City Hunter: Movies & TV Specials Collection (Blu-ray)
  • City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes (Blu-ray)
  • Legacy of Rage (Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • The Tai Chi Master (First Print Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
  • Triggerheart Exelica (Deluxe Edition Nintendo Switch)

October 2024

Just one new addition to the October slate but expect it to grow in the coming months as per usual.

  • Broken Oath (First Print Edition Blu-ray)
  • Future Cops (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Macross Plus (Ultimate Edition Blu-ray)
  • The Project A Collection (Deluxe Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)

November 2024

The existing list has been updated to include newly placed orders but also a delayed title.

  • Bleach Set 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Clock Tower Rewind (Nintendo Switch)
  • Hatsune Miku: Logic Paint S (Nintendo Switch)
  • Megazone 23 Trilogy (Blu-ray)
  • Naruto Set 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Otaku no Video (Blu-ray)
  • Riding Bean (Blu-ray)
  • TONIKAWA: Over the Moon for You Season 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)

December 2024

I’m confident these remaining few will just show up in December at this point. The holiday season could delay the packages into January but who knows until we get to that point.

  • Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition (PlayStation 5)
  • HUMANITY (PlayStation 5)
  • Macross II: Lovers Again (Premium Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)

Other Tidbits

The workplace have hired new staff which includes a second person to have cover for my role. It will take a while but hopefully by October I can finally reduce my overtime and put more into the backlog of things. By the end of September it will mark three years since I started working for them which is fine but also need to decide if I wish to continue working for the same business or pursue new opportunities.

Anime Limited

So Anime Limited have continued their bizarre exposure to the public on what they have to offer. Retail listings revealed they have the UK rights for Chaika: The Coffin Princess (both seasons), The Legend of Hei (Chinese anime film) and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun and then publicly they revealed they have the rights for the upcoming anime series DAN DA DAN which is a great pick considering its anticipation. They also revealed they will be releasing Godzilla Minus One for home video on behalf of TOHO International which is great so we’ll have the 4K release at some point.

They also revealed more Crunchyroll titles for UK & USA with the infamous badly received series Gibiate which was labelled as a Crunchyroll Original show, but leaked listings also revealed Mr. Love: Queen’s Choice which again is an odd pick but that latter show is more likely to do well than the former. TONIKAWA: Over the Moon for You Season 1 was recently made available to order which is neat.

Devil Survivor 2 the Animation was listed by retailers a few months ago but the collector’s edition was revealed on the official site weeks after the standard Blu-ray was out in the wild. The delay was likely because Anime Limited probably couldn’t release the collector’s edition until they got rid of the previous release by MVM. As much as I am interested in owning this, I don’t want to own Hanabee authored releases because I found them to be pretty bad unless someone can tell me this title was authored better in Australia than it did by Sentai given the age of the discs. Sentai’s license may have expired or be potentially receiving a re-release later so who knows.

Discotek Media

The Discotek collection continues to grow and so does their catalogue because they revealed a whole bunch of stuff during their Otakon panel and extended livestream.

The anime licenses revealed include September’s release slate featuring Captain Harlock: Space Pirate (an HD Blu-ray upgrade), Dallos (an HD Blu-ray upgrade), GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka the Animation (an SD-BD upgrade), Kiss x Sis TV series, Kite: Integral Version (which features all existing versions including the original hentai in the same package), Lupin the Third: The Italian Game, Reborn! Special Fan Disc, and Tona-Gura! plus the live-action series Space Sheriff Shaider for the Toku Time label.

Estimated for the end of 2024 they revealed Chie the Brat Season 2, Giant Gorg (an HD Blu-ray upgrade), Humanoid Monster Bem, and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, plus the live-action films Electric Dragon 80,000V, Kekko Kamen: The Trilogy, Ouran High School Host Club, and RoboGeisha alongside the series MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) Volume 1 for the Nihon Nights label as well as live-action shows Android Kikaider and Kamen Rider V3 for the Toku Time label.

Then later in the timeline (unless approvals and production finish sooner) they also have Groizer X, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva and Space Musketeer Bismark alongside the already revealed Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Movie Collection 1 and Sgt. Frog Seasons 5-7 collection. Plus live-action films Dororo and PARTY 7 alongside the series MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) Volume 2 for the Nihon Nights label as well as live-action show Special Rescue Police Winspector for the Toku Time label.

A lot of interesting stuff revealed but unfortunately the out of print line-up grows as well. In the latest batch they have added Case Closed Episode “One”, Case Closed: The Crimson Love Letter, Case Closed: Zero the Enforcer, Dino Mech Gaiking, and Kyousougiga to the list which means once the stock is gone it will be very hard to find any copies around which is an absolute pain for Discotek releases. I was able to secure Kyousougiga but the others are up to debate.

Speaking of discontinued titles, I have officially decided to take the insane approach of going after the City Hunter franchise from Discotek Media’s catalogue because Anime Limited, despite owning the rights for the latest film City Hunter: Angel Dust, had every opportunity to pick up and reveal UK rights for the franchise but didn’t so I don’t want to wait any longer considering how long the franchise is and rather niche it would be to sell over here. Discotek only has to my knowledge the license for US, Canada, Austalia, New Zealand and South Africa for the franchise which is why they were able to make the discs Region B compatible.

Now City Hunter 2 was the one that had sold out first which is what I prioritised the most because there’s no point buying the other sets without the two-part collections. Discotek discontinued these due to poor sales which was mostly impacted by their complete season collection of the first series, which led to people holding off on those sets in the hopes for another complete season collection which didn’t happen. At least they tried but the timing must have been way off.

As of the time of this write-up, I have City Hunter 2 Set 2 currently at Stackry with Set 1 on its way as well as most of the franchise plus the Cat’s Eye spin-off series sets recently shipped from Crunchyroll Store due to a 20% discount offer for a single day. The only set that I wasn’t able to pick up as it was currently out of stock was for City Hunter ’91, the fourth and final season in the franchise. I don’t expect that to discontinue just yet as it was released much later than the first two seasons but once it re-appears I’ll definitely add it to my next hauls.

Now to avoid any confusion, I want to make it clear that I have no intention of picking up every single Discotek Media release there is because that would be insane and it’s already challenging enough due to how limited their reach is across the various stores. They just happen to have more quality titles compared to other distributors similarly to Anime Limited.

So with that said, let’s have a look at what’s left for me to pick up. I have been mainly going after the older release to avoid numerous out of print scenarios which did work for the most part earlier in the year but there’s still tons to pick up and the warnings are mostly random. I did notice newer titles that discontinue are mostly caused by the distributor having released the DVDs way back which suggests the license wasn’t extended which is a good tip for you to be aware of when you pick and choose what titles to get.

Between the start up to end of 2020, we have Blue Submarine No. 6, Fist of the North Star the Movie, Giant Robo, GinRei, Love Hina Again, Lupin the Third Part IV: The Italian Adventure (Japanese version to get the better subtitle track given Anime Limited’s wasn’t polished), Night on the Galactic Railroad, Osamu Tezuka’s A Thousand and One Nights, Osamu Tezuka’s Cleopatra, Symphogear Season 1, Thermae Romae and Toriko the Movie: Secret Recipe of Gourmet God! There’s also a few Mazinger titles (Great Mazinger and God Mazinger) but I don’t know if I’ll pursue those just yet. That’s about 12 titles, which consists of 3 TV series, 4 OVA series and 5 films.

In 2021 I have managed to reduce the number a bit thanks to the latest Discotek haul for this month so we’re now down to Black Rock Shooter, Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple Season 1, Kodocha Season 1, Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers, Lupin the Third Part III, Lupin the Third vs Detective Conan: The Movie, Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~, Project A-ko, Saiyuki ReLoad, Sgt. Frog Season 1 and Symphogear G. Once again 12 titles, but consists of 10 TV series, an OVA and a film.

There’s many more to secure but with the bimonthly approach that Discotek is currently working on, I should hopefully be in a good position to tone down the hauls sometime next year (basically means that I don’t need to feel like I can catch up, I can focus on other things and not worry too much about discontinued titles here and there).

And that concludes my monthly post for August. Another interesting anime selection and stay tuned for the next update. (note I may update this post to include more Other Tidbits at a later stage)

Tags for this post:

,

Comments

Leave a comment