The Normanic Vault

Otaku Collection Haul for January 2025

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of January 2025. This update features 3 anime releases, 10 physical video games, and 12 live-action Asian Cinema releases.

For this haul, there’s a few specific themes here – Akira Kurosawa, Koei Tecmo, Limited Run releases and even some Nikkatsu titles. There’s also some pre-orders and delayed arrivals that have made their appearances here as well.

Animal Well & Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster

The first arrival of the month comes from an order that I had with Video Games Plus in early December. I should have known the order would have been held up by the high demand they were experiencing during the holiday season but they did manage to ship it out in the end, just happens to end up in January instead which is fine by me.

Two more Limited Run releases turned up on their site and both were on my radar, though I didn’t pre-order them immediately. Animal Well was one of the biggest indie games released last year and I figured opting for the Nintendo Switch version was the way to go for this type of experience. Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster is my first Star Wars purchase for gaming since LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Xbox 360 via the storefront like 15 years ago or something. This remaster was done by Nightdive and like the others, its style I felt was more suited for the Switch and has solid performance (which I recall had some issues at launch but a patch did fix it).

Seven Samurai

Next we have a title that I should have bought the moment it first came out. Seven Samurai (七人の侍) is a classic that everyone knows already and I watched it for the first time on the Akira Kurosawa Samurai Collection release a few years ago. Here it’s now presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision HDR. It looks great though I know some prefer the Criterion version.

The limited edition has sold out though stock seems to be re-appearing here and there on Amazon UK so I was able to grab a copy before it was too late. This limited edition includes a rigid box, booklet, poster and art cards.

Bleach Part 3

The Bleach anime continues into the third part covering episodes 56-83. There’s still ten more releases to go but at least they’re not rigid box collector’s editions because that would be ridiculous for shelving space. Judging by the space left, it does look like Part 5 might have something to offer to fill in the gap on the box.

Unboxings for Parts 2-3 will be bundled with Parts 4-5 later this year on my blog.

Koei Tecmo Pickups

Every now and then I am often in a random mood for going after a specific title or collection for the shelf and this month just so happens to be Koei Tecmo. Here I picked up three PlayStation 4 games from different locations, all are pre-owned but at a decent deal.

Dead or Alive 6 was the first one to arrive and it’s from CeX, because the pricing for this game is surprisingly high everywhere and I could have sworn that it was super cheap at one point. Prior to owning this I did purchase a few season passes (1, 2 & 4) that were 70% off on PlayStation which was part of the reason why I bought this game. I do own Dead or Alive 5 Last Round and I’m aware this instalment is not as good as the latter but may as well grab them whilst I can, considering Koei Tecmo titles do become rarer than others.

Samurai Warriors 4 has been on my list to pickup for a very long time now, and partly was due to the Special Anime bundle version that came with the Legend of the Sanada OVA. Because Funimation included the OVA with their TV series Blu-ray release, I decided I will opt more for the standard edition release instead, as I didn’t want to pay £30+ for an OVA and a flimsy box that would stick out on the shelf. This will be my first English copy for the Samurai Warriors franchise as I do own Samurai Warriors 3 Z in Japanese on PlayStation 3.

Then we have Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate, which is said to be one of the best musou games ever released from what I have heard. For those not familiar with this IP, Warriors Orochi is a cross-over between Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors and with this instalment we also have collaborations with other Koei Tecmo games including Bladestorm, Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden as well as a special inclusion from SoulCalibur.

Both Samurai Warriors 4 and Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate were releases early into the PlayStation 4’s lifecycle and there are other Koei Tecmo games that I would like to get as well.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins & Tales of Graces f Remastered

With the incoming arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2, finally revealed, I want to build up a number of points with The Game Collection because I find their offering to be of value. Which is very fortunate to discover that two titles in particular that were released this month are part of their £10 reward points offering and I ordered them both.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins is the latest instalment in the long-running musou franchise and has been said to be one of the best in years, which is great to hear. I decided not to go for the demo as I had faith in the IP anyway so I was going to grab this regardless. This does have a PS5 Pro version but I don’t care about that.

Then we have a game that I did play the PlayStation 3 version of which I did enjoy, and that’s Tales of Graces f Remastered. Originally released on Nintendo Wii in Japan before receiving an expanded version on PlayStation 3, this game being remastered for modern platforms makes perfect sense and I’m glad its not locked behind the previous generations so that newcomers can check this one out.

Triggerheart Exelica

Back in July distributor Red Art Games announced they have picked up the rights to provide a physical version for the vertically scrolling shoot ’em up game Triggerheart Exelica, and it took a long while to finally get released.

For those not familiar with this game, it was released first on SEGA NAOMI for Japanese arcades before being brought over to the SEGA Dreamcast in 2006. This was the second-to-last game to be released officially for the console (as we did get fanmade games ported to the console years later). Publisher COSMO MACHINA, the folks behind the release for Fantavision 202X, brought the game to the Nintendo Switch. As I pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition, it came with a slipcase, poster and a coin.

Lonely Castle in the Mirror

Another anime film joins the collection and one that actually intrigues me quite a bit. Despite owning a few films from Keiichi Hara (Birthday Wonderland, Miss Hokusai, Summer Days with Coo) I’ve not had the time to check out any of them just yet and Lonely Castle in the Mirror stands out to me mainly due to its isekai-esque premise. I have no clue if its as good as his earlier titles but it made sense for Anime Limited to pick up the film for their line-up.

Nikkatsu Roman Porno Japanese films

Next we have a very adult set of films in this collection pickup. Half a decade ago, Third Window Films released three Pink Films collections that introduced me to the world of the Pink genre, which is basically adult films but not treated as pornographic. In other words, sex that just so happens to have a plot, like visual novels in a way.

Despite the concept, some of the films in those collections were pretty interesting and I could see why it appealed to a lot of people. So it was a surprise to learn that 88 Films, in their quest to branch out more into Japanese films for their distribution, have decided to introduce a new line-up of films called the Nikkatsu Roman Porno collection, which are films that were released in Japan by Nikkatsu.

I initially passed on this idea but I later discovered that the films being released were better than expected and what they revealed for their next batch caught my interest more. But then I discovered these titles sold out on 88 Films’ store and it turned out that 88 Films didn’t know how demanding these films were so when they sold out they repressed them with the limited edition contents in-tact, so I was able to order the first four films in this line-up altogether from their online store. Their store also had a discount available for ordering all four films together so I only paid for 3 releases and got one for free in a sense.

We have Shōgorō Nishimura’s 1971 film Apartment Wife: Affair in the Afternoon (団地妻 昼下りの情事), Masanao Sako’s 1972 film Sweden Porno: Blonde Animal (スェーデン・ポルノ 金髪アニマル), Noboru Tanaka’s 1976 film Watcher in the Attic (江戸川乱歩猟奇館 屋根裏の散歩者), and Tatsumi Kumashiro’s 1973 film Woods Are Wet (女地獄 森は濡れた).

Out of these four films, the one that actually interests me the most is Blonde Animal, because it’s a film starring western actors but voiced in Japanese and it’s such a fascinating concept that I had no idea was a thing in Japan. Sweden Porno is also a sub-series of its own so I am curious to know if 88 Films has any more from this or they will focus on other Nikkatsu films instead.

Similarly to the Japanarchy line-up, these limited edition Blu-ray releases are presented in a Scanavo packaging with a obi-strip to cover the BBFC logos and details like Radiance Films does with theirs. In each release there’s also a booklet featuring essays that go in more detail for each film which is cool to have. The covers are not reversible but given how niche these films are I can understand if there’s issues with assets in this instance.

Assault Suits Valken DECLASSIFIED & Glover

Next we have another batch of releases from Limited Run Games, this time pre-orders from their website. I ordered these two in September and they did indeed arrive within the expected release window.

Assault Suits Valken DECLASSIFIED is an updated re-release by developer M2 based on the 1994 Super Famicom game. Nippon Computer Systems (NCS) were the original developers of this game which was localised in the west as Cybernator by Konami. For this re-release, we have a new English translation and artwork from Satoshi Urushihara (Langrisser, Plastic Little) plus extra goodies for those who love designs and behind-the-scenes work.

Glover is not part of the numbered LRG line-up (so in theory it should be more accessible to pick up), but it’s a classic Nintendo 64 platformer that I never had the chance to check out until this port came along. Now despite the game heading to various platforms, I decided that given it originated from Nintendo 64 that it would be a good fit for the Nintendo Switch collection.

Love Live! Superstar!! Season 2

Love Live! Superstar!! Season 2 makes its home video debut in English through Anime Limited and it’s probably the most controversial release in a while. For starters, there is no English dub produced by Crunchyroll as of yet so Anime Limited decided to jump the gun and get it out there, which doesn’t help with the fact that the season is still not legally streaming (the first season was accessible on Crunchyroll, while the rest are not).

Then you have a pretty barebones collector’s release for the price (which went up due to shipping costs so it’s now £40 instead of £36 if you have the membership) and then comes the disc itself which has issues of its own because of Com ‘On Screen. I also heard the English translation used for this release is not the same as the Crunchyroll one but I don’t have comparisons to check myself. Either way, this is currently the only way to own it outside of the Japanese Blu-ray releases which do have English subtitles but I don’t want to commit to spending that much over it.

Basically the long story short of it is if you’re doing to jump the gun, more effort needs to be put into the quality of the disc and package.

Terracotta January Pre-Order Pickups

To avoid having too many individual pickups in the post at various times I decided to focus a bit more on larger batches instead. Which is why I ordered almost all of the January pre-orders for Asian Cinema from Terracotta altogether, the only exception being the 88 Films titles as they were ordered a few months ago which arrived a month earlier than its release date and the Radiance Films titles because they can be tracked on their stock statuses by the distributor themselves.

First up we have a brand new Arrow Video release. This is a 2005 Japanese anthology film called Rampo Noir (乱歩地獄) directed by Akio Jissoji, Atsushi Kaneko, Hisayasu Satō & Suguru Takeuchi. I hadn’t heard of this film prior but the artwork looked awesome. The first print edition includes a slipcase and booklet like previous Arrow releases.

Next we have two brand new British Film Institute releases, both from director Akira Kurosawa. With recent 4K restorations in Japan, BFI have been re-releasing his works onto either the 4K or Blu-ray format. In this batch there’s his 1963 film High and Low (天国と地獄) and his 1949 film Stray Dog (野良犬), both are more of a crime/police drama compared to his more known samurai films. Both of these do have 4K Ultra HD releases in Japan but BFI must have decided it wasn’t worth the upgrade. Each of these are first print editions which includes a booklet.

And to wrap up this batch we also have two brand new Eureka Entertainment releases, both also part of their Masters of Cinema range which in case you missed the recent notice that the booklets will now be part of the first-print run only going forward (and for their older catalog). Starting off with a classic Japanese horror film from 1997 it’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure (キュア), re-released for 4K Ultra HD using the recent 4K restoration. When Eureka released the film years back it was an older transfer while Criterion put one out using the new restoration but only for Blu-ray. I really enjoyed this film and am happy to upgrade the release to this which also has great artwork.

Also arrived is Running On Karma (大隻佬), a 2003 Hong Kong film from directors Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai, starring Andy Lau. I hadn’t heard of this film prior but a lot of people were looking forward to this one and it looks promising so I can see why its placed under the Masters of Cinema banner than the Eureka Classics one.

Eighteen Years in Prison & Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza

The final haul of the month is a catch-up to two releases from Radiance Films that came out during the summer time of last year. They put out a couple of Tai Kato films and I had only picked up about half of them, and it’s fortunate they’re still available in their limited edition formats. Amazon recently lowered their prices to about £15 each so I figured I’ll get both Eighteen Years in Prison (懲役十八年) and Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza (沓掛時次郎 遊侠一匹) at that moment. These were made back in 1967 & 1966 respectively and each come with their reversible covers, booklets and Scanavo packaging.

Unboxing Links

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

What’s to Come for the Hauls

February 2025

I’ve ordered a couple more items over the past month and as mentioned want to put more orders in the form of bigger batches than scattered throughout. Here’s what’s expected to appear:

  • Bubblegum Crash! (Blu-ray)
  • Bubblegum Crisis (Blu-ray)
  • The Bullet Train (Blu-ray)
  • Bumpkin Soup (Blu-ray)
  • Erotic Ghost Story Trilogy (Blu-ray)
  • Fatal Frame (Blu-ray)
  • Futakoi (Blu-ray)
  • Futakoi Alternative (Blu-ray)
  • Kiss x Sis (TV Series) (Blu-ray)
  • Kurokami: The Animation (Blu-ray)
  • Mermaid Legend (Blu-ray)
  • Recently, My Sister is Unusual (Blu-ray)
  • Saint Tail (Blu-ray)
  • Scent of a Spell (Blu-ray)
  • Sex and Zen (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters (Blu-ray)
  • Tonagura! (Blu-ray)

March 2025

We have some delays and new additions for this month. Here’s what’s expected to appear:

  • Blue Giant (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Castlevania Dominus Collection (Nintendo Switch)
  • C-SMASH VRS (PlayStation 5)
  • Macross Zero (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Penny’s Big Breakaway (Nintendo Switch)
  • Tekkon Kinkreet (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)

Also Arriving in 2025

A few items are currently expected to arrive around the Spring & Summer timeframe. These can shift around but for now here’s what else is also coming:

  • Cosmic Fantasy Collection II (Nintendo Switch)
  • Macross II: Lovers Again (Premium Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
  • Ninja Gaiden II Black (PlayStation 5)
  • Venus Vacation Prism: Dead or Alive Xtreme (PlayStation 5)
  • Victory Heat Rally (Nintendo Switch)

Other Tidbits

January is a busy month for work. A lot happened which threw me off guard. One staff member got let go, another is leaving, we then hired a new member and there’s more incoming to replace the two who are going/gone. It’s all over the place. There’s also been some faults on the work that I’ve passed to another member, and it was clear that they weren’t right for the role. No checks, not experienced enough which for this type of role is tough and I can’t always be around to help and when I do it’s just too slow to sort out. Doesn’t help that they are pretty nosy at parts which puts work to a halt at parts. Anyway, they’re apparently going to move to assist the events team which hopefully will work better for them. The new member I have in my team I’m hoping will get the job done.

Anime Limited

A lot has happened for this UK distributor it seems. They’re trying to fix their image after the pretty disastrous year they have had with numerous problems on their social media, product issues and the usual holiday sale rush. For starters we have some new license announcements, so let’s recap what was known.

In December they revealed the home video license for the excellent anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners which streamed exclusively on Netflix. I believe the English dub is also included as well and it’s a great addition to their catalog. Over in North America, Aniplex of America will distribute the series so I’m curious to see how the disc will turn out.

Leaked by retailers and then revealed by Anime Limited themselves in a newswire were two titles that are not receiving collector’s releases which is good news due to their pretty weak setup so far – Cagaster of an Insect Cage and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 1. The former streamed on Netflix and includes the dub, while the latter is part of the Crunchyroll deal that Sentai Filmworks managed to receive for home video. Lonely Castle in the Mirror, which was known since the Japan Foundation festival and also leaked for months by retailers, was also revealed for home video as well.

In January they stepped it up with more releases. Tekkonkinkreet was revealed at one of their panels last year and now has a release date for its home video release. This is one of the first anime titles I bought on Blu-ray, as Sony themselves released it over 15 years ago (which I also didn’t realise had Aniplex’s logo on the packaging). I have ordered the new version since it could do with an upgrade. Also finally receiving a release date is Blue Giant which GKIDS have released on home video ages ago, and is packaged in a different style to the rest and hopefully doesn’t look too weird on the shelf. Both films are expected to be out for the month of February.

Later into January they also revealed their February early bird slate. Bleach Part 4 continues the 13-part limited edition releases alongside the second part for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, both are scheduled for March. Also making an appearance after delays caused by authoring issues is the original Naruto series, with Set 2 & Parts 3-4 now planned for the month of February. I’ll be going after the Set versions as it’s pretty much the same value as the standard editions but with a box and booklets.

Another surprise license rescue from the Sentai Filmworks catalogue is GATE which will return to the UK in a limited and standard edition release. As I already own Sentai’s limited edition I won’t be bothering with this set, which is presented as a simple package which in the context makes sense due to the previous UK & US releases. If you’re after this series, it’s planned to be released for the month of February.

Also making an appearance which was revealed at one of their panels previously is Karakuri Circus which has both a collector’s and standard edition release planned for the month of March. As much as I like the artwork I’m struggling to see why the collector’s edition is worth owning as its just more padding and few physical items which makes it hard to justify its price.

After months of waiting, The First Slam Dunk is finally scheduled for home video and more importantly, coming to 4K Ultra HD which is great considering this is one of Toei Animation’s titles. I suspect this is also going to be using GKIDS’ discs which I recall had some issues with the previous releases for their other 4K titles. Hopefully it’s all good. This is scheduled for March and I’ll definitely be ordering this. A steelbook version is also coming to Zavvi if you prefer that option.

The distributor also re-confirmed they have the home video rights for SPY x FAMILY Code: WHITE which was theatrically released by Anime Limited, though no one was sure if they had home video considering the main series is with Crunchyroll. But given this is one of TOHO’s titles, it’s possible Anime Limited managed to get the license because of them, especially when you think about how TOHO now own GKIDS and My Hero Academia: You’re Next was distributed by TOHO than Crunchyroll in North America.

Last thing worth mentioning is that they have also revealed the license for another Crunchyroll title Armor Shop for Ladies and Gentlemen, a short anime series that aired in 2018, a Crunchyroll Originals animated series Onyx Equinox which was also released by Sentai Filmworks in North America a while back, and re-confirmed that Pet is coming soon. The Mamoru Hosoda films that they picked up last year are also coming to 4K Ultra HD, with two of them (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) recently scheduled by GKIDS in North America in Steelbook formats.

Not publicly known outside of a random message but Undead Unluck is also expected to be released by Anime Limited so that’ll probably be on the next release slate post pretty soon since Viz Media have scheduled their release in North America.

While I do want Anime Limited to succeed, they do need to get their shit together on their releases. If all they could provide is a few art cards and a poster then I think they should re-consider the collector’s model for those titles. Hopefully the releases for this year is much better.

Discotek Media

Another Discotek Day panel recently appeared and it’s an interesting one because it adds context to what their current direction is heading. Long story short, it seems they want to diversify their slate with more live-action and animated properties as much as possible due to the challenges of getting anime here and there. It doesn’t help that they already have a massive backlog as it is, and I suspect they want to get that sorted first before licensing more because otherwise the window of availability would be shorter.

During their panel they have revealed a couple more anime releases, some of them are also upgrades which is good:

  • Cyborg 009 vs Devilman on Blu-ray – Crossover OVA series between the Cyborg 009 series and Devilman series. This previously streamed exclusively on Netflix with an English dub, which Discotek was able to include with this release.
  • Angel Heart on Blu-ray – An unofficial TV series spin-off to the City Hunter franchise. All 50 episodes are going to be released altogether in one release and is one of the early shows to be in HD.
  • Osomatsu-kun on SD-BD – One of the instalments in the classic Mr. Osomatsu franchise that aired back in 1988. This one is notable as Discotek Media picked up the rights years ago and made it available first for streaming alongside Miss Machiko so expect the availability window to be pretty short here.
  • Flame of Recca on SD-BD – The classic 90s Shonen Sunday series was previously released on DVD by Viz Media then Discotek Media, so it’s now back in the SD-BD format (not in HD due to the same problem that GTO the Animation had where the studio was experimenting with different digital animation and CG animation).
  • Space Adventure Cobra: Special Yello Dubbed Version on Blu-ray – The classic TMS Entertainment film is getting another re-release. This is the second instalment in Discotek’s Fan Disc project which in this instance focuses on the UK English dub that had a different music score by Yello.
  • Vivid Strike on Blu-ray – A spin-off series to Nanoha and the last one Discotek can secure as the remaining ones left in the franchise (Nanoha the Movie 1st & 2nd A’s, Nanoha ViVid) belong to Aniplex in Japan which is considered a complicated mess to which they don’t want to license it out for whatever reason.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry on Blu-ray – The classic horror adaptation by studio Deen has been licensed rescued again. The series’ journey has gone from Geneon Entertainment to Funimation (briefly) to Sentai Filmworks and now finally with Discotek Media, this time with revised subtitles. The Geneon English dub is still included like before.
  • DearS on Blu-ray – The 2004 harem series that Geneon Entertainment originally had and then Discotek Media rescued & released on DVD is coming back with an AstroRes Blu-ray release. The Geneon English dub is included here like before.
  • Urotsukidōji on Blu-ray – The wild card of Discotek’s catalogue. The iconic hentai series has been picked up and starts with the first collection covering a new 2K scan of the theatrical version Legend of the Overfiend (which they said they had spent 9 months sorting out) as well as the SD version of the three original OVAs. All of it is uncut and uncensored and much like Kite, it’ll be restricted to specific retailers only due to its adult content. Media Blasters did release the film on Blu-ray but was cropped to 16:9 and had some issues apparently.

Also picked up for the live-action range are some interesting pickups. They have been going after adaptations compared to other distributors but that adds to the charm of their catalog:

  • Lupin the 3rd (ルパン三世) – 2014 film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura
  • Kamen Rider X (仮面ライダーＸ) – 1974 television series directed by Shotaro Ishinomori
  • Kikaider: The Ultimate Human Machine (キカイダー REBOOT) – 2014 film directed by Ten Shimoyama
  • Special Investigation Robo Janperson (特捜ロボ ジャンパーソン) – 1993 television series directed by Michio Konishi
  • Terrifying Girls’ High School: Women’s Violent Classroom (恐怖女子高校 女暴力教室) – 1972 film directed by Norifumi Suzuki
  • Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom (恐怖女子高校 暴行リンチ教室) – 1973 film directed by Norifumi Suzuki
  • Terrifying Girls’ High School: Delinquent Convulsion Group (恐怖女子高校 不良悶絶グループ) – 1973 film directed by Masahiro Shimura
  • Tomorrow’s Joe the Movie (铁拳浪子) – 2011 film directed by Fumihiko Sori
  • Nana (ナナ) – 2005 film directed by Kentarō Ōtani
  • Nana 2 (ナナ2) – 2006 film directed by Kentarō Ōtani
  • Hana Yori Dango Final (花より男子 ファイナル) – 2008 film directed by Yasuharu Ishii
  • Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (鮫肌男と桃尻女) – 1999 film directed by Katsuhito Ishii
  • The Happiness of the Katakuris (カタクリ家の幸福) – 2001 film directed by Takashi Miike

Overall the panel was perfectly fine by all means and while there wasn’t much anime to offer, it does make it easier for me to catch up on their anime catalog especially with their bi-monthly format. AnimEigo is around anyway so if Discotek does decide to move away from anime, the MediaOCD will still be around to cover that even if its smaller but polished picks.

That wraps up the January haul for the time being. I may go back and expand on the Other Tidbits section but I’ve been pretty exhausted with work and other things so we’ll see.

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