The Normanic Vault

Otaku Collection Haul for June 2025

Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of June 2025. This update features 6 anime releases, 13 manga volumes, 1 book, 10 physical video games, 1 video game console, 17 live-action Asian Cinema releases and 1 live-action European Cinema release, plus 7 other live-action releases.

For this haul, there was a lot of catching up across all mediums including finishing off a few manga titles, picking up older Asian Cinema releases on sale, and building up the Nintendo Switch collection further with the arrival of the new Switch 2. We also have a mini anime haul from the MediaOCD Store and my Birthday haul.

Naruto Set 3

Starting off the month is the third box set for the original Naruto anime series. This covers most of the remaining canon episodes and a whole bunch of non-canon content. I missed out on Anime Limited’s early bird due to a typo on their store listing, but fortunately MVM’s Anime-on-Line store had the set available for a solid price so I went with them. It did mean that my copy would arrive later but at least it arrived in solid condition as they tend to do.

Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart World

The Nintendo Switch 2 was finally released, and it’s a pretty neat device. Basically the same as the previous console in terms of its UI and such, but better in performance. Thanks to The Game Collection I used up the points that I had saved and put it towards the Mario Kart World bundle, effectively meaning that I got the digital version for free pretty much.

As for my thoughts on Mario Kart World, it is a pretty solid game though I don’t consider it a 10/10 at the moment because I feel its deviated a bit too much from the classic map structure. Great for those who want something completely fresh from the previous games but a good chunk of players will probably stick to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe I reckon. Still happy to own the console and will look into other Switch 2 games over the course of the year.

Third Window Films Catch-up Haul

Last month Terracotta held a Third Window Films 20% off sale and that was a good opportunity for me to catch up on a number of their titles, and this trend continues here with another order sorted before the sale concluded.

From the retailer I picked three films. Adrift in Tokyo (転々), the 2007 film by Satoshi Miki, Love and Other Cults (獣道), the 2017 film by Eiji Uchida, and One Percenter (ワンパーセンター), the 2023 film by Yudai Yamaguchi. There was one other title that I wanted but they didn’t have it in stock and I suspect it’s also unofficially out of print so I had to go onto eBay to pick up Suffering of Ninko (仁光の受難), the 2016 film by Norihiro Niwatsukino.

And with that, that just leaves Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle and Your Lovely Smile as well as upcoming releases like The Box Man and Takashi Ishii: Four Tales of Nami as the remaining Blu-ray (non-kickstarter) releases left to get before I own all of their titles on that format. Looking forward to the upcoming box sets.

Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau

So when I ordered Suffering of Ninko it was actually part of a £10 off promotion for using the eBay app and to reach the threshold I also ordered Radiance Films’ limited edition box set for Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau which was pretty convenient as I wanted to own this release.

Getting the obvious out of the way, this is the US version of the release but the discs are still Region AB like the UK one. The difference is that one of the films included in this set is fully uncut as the BBFC requested cuts in order to make it available over here.

The films included in this package, from French director Alain Corneau, is Police Python 357 from 1976, Série noire from 1979, and Choice of Arms from 1981. All share the action thriller theme which is what got me interested in this release. Interestingly Radiance Films decided to simplify the box set even further by having all three films inside a single Scanavo case (one disc per film) so it’s the same size as Planet of the Vampires.

Iwakakeru! -Sport Climbing Girls-

Next we have a sports anime series focusing on climbing and it’s Iwakakeru!, also known as Iwa-Kakeru! depending on where you look. I was planning to watch this series for streaming but stuff got in the way so being able to own it on Blu-ray is handy. The collector’s edition booklet is pretty good with various keyframe artwork. This series is one of the Crunchyroll licensed titles that Anime Limited were able to pick up and is also available for US audiences.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, Zebraman & Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City

As it’s been a while since I had visited town, I decided to go and take a visit to the HMV store to see what they have to offer. I picked up a bunch of stuff so in this portion I’m focusing on the Asian Cinema titles.

Our first pick is a pretty intriguing addition to the collection and that’s Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, a 2023 concert film by Neo Sora dedicated to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final concert before his passing. Considering how important his music has been to the film industry and rather uncommon to have a UK home video release like this, I figured I’ll pick it up. This was distributed by Modern Films, the same folks who also released Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist.

Next we have two films from director Takashi Miike and were recently released in the UK by 88 Films back in May. It’s the tokusatsu films Zebraman (ゼブラーマン) from 2004 and Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (ゼブラーマン -ゼブラシティの逆襲-) from 2010, both starring Show Aikawa (Dead or Alive Trilogy, Yakuza 5) in the leading role. The first time I heard about these films actually came from Funimation releasing the second film years back which Media Blasters then rescued. 88 Films picked it up thanks to Toei and included it as part of their Japanarchy range which fits really well considering the director’s style and genre. The limited editions include an obi-strip and booklet.

HMV’s 3 for £50 4K Ultra HD Haul

Also picked up in HMV are three more live-action Hollywood films for the 4K Ultra HD collection thanks for the 3 for £50 offer. They didn’t have every single title that I was interested in, but the three that I picked were of my curiosity recently.

The films that I picked were Mike Hodges’ 1998 film Croupier starring Clive Owen (Children of Men) and Alex Kingston (Doctor Who) which was distributed by Arrow Video; Michael Mann’s 1995 film Heat starring Al Pacino (Scarface), Robert de Niro (Goodfellas) and Val Kilmer (Top Gun), distributed by 20th Century Studios; and Paul Michael Glaser’s 1987 film The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator), distributed by Paramount.

CeX Nintendo Switch Haul

Before I visited HMV I first went to the CeX store because I traded in a bunch of anime, most of them will be replaced with different editions/releases later down the line and this was an opportunity to get it out of the way, which meant I received £125 worth of vouchers!

After going into HMV I went back to CeX and took this opportunity to further build the Nintendo Switch collection, especially now with the Nintendo Switch 2 backward compatibility improving the performance for a number of titles. But this haul was mainly focused on first-party Nintendo games because they tend to never go down in price in most cases. So here we have Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (from Koei Tecmo but they’re using a Nintendo IP), Luigi’s Mansion 3, Mario Golf: Super Rush and Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Souless Army

The Game Collection brought back their £10 reward points system which included more games to choose from, and that included Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Souless Army, which is a remaster for Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army originally released on PlayStation 2 in 2006 – which Koei Tecmo published in Europe funny enough.

Unlike the Persona and mainline Shin Megami Tensei games, Raidou is actually an action RPG set in 1931 Japan where Raidou works part-time summoning demons to help investigate various cases. The remaster here is handled better than Nocturne did which includes better performance, presentation and quality of life improvements to make the gameplay even better (which I read were mainly carried over by its second game), plus there’s voice acting. While this is on Nintendo Switch 2, I felt the PlayStation 5 version was the better option especially considering the former is a Game Key Card which makes that pointless to grab as a physical owner.

The Adventurers & Hong Kong 1941

More Hong Kong goodness from Eureka Entertainment which I ordered from the Terracotta store.

We have The Adventurers (大冒險家), the 1995 film by Ringo Lam starring Andy Lau (Infernal Affairs) that Eureka released last April as part of their Eureka Classics range. And released this month is Hong Kong 1941 (等待黎明), the 1984 film by Po-Chih Leong starring Chow Yun-fat (Hard Boiled) as part of Eureka’s Masters of Cinema range. Both feature slipcases and booklets for their first print editions.

Second Sight Films 4K Haul

A few months back I picked up a couple of Second Sight Films titles on 4K Ultra HD and really enjoyed what I have watched thus far. Since it was going to be a while before there would be any form of sale, I decided to make use of the Zavvi Red Carpet that I still have to pick up four more from the distributor. Unlike HMV, Zavvi shipped all of the titles together in a single package which was very handy.

The films that I picked were Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film Drive starring Ryan Gosling (Barbie) and Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby), Shane Black’s 2016 film The Nice Guys starring Russell Crowe (Gladiator), Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049) and Margaret Qualley (The Substance), David Cronenberg’s 1981 film Scanners starring Stephen Lack and Jennifer O’Neill, and Robert Eggers’ 2015 film The Witch starring Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa) and Ralph Ineson (Final Fantasy XVI).

I have actually watched both Drive and The Nice Guys many years ago when I was in University so these are upgrades from Icon’s Blu-ray releases.

Scifier Manga Haul

It’s time for a manga haul and a bigger one than the usual. So in the past I’ve either bought Viz books at the Travelling Man store in town or ordered some Seven Seas books through Scifier and I decided for this occasion to combine the two – order Seven Seas and Viz Media books on Scifier. Travelling Man always never had the stock available for the volumes that I needed and with Scifier you know you’re getting the books in solid condition and with a discount if possible. This haul also completes a few titles.

On the Viz Media side of things we have Alice in Borderland (今際の国のアリス) from author Haro Aso (Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead) with Omnibus 8 & 9 (Volumes 15-18) which now concludes the series – the books here were printed in Canada.

Then we have Mashle: Magic & Muscles (マッシュル-MASHLE-) from author Hajime Kōmoto with Volumes 16, 17 & 18, which also concludes the series – the books here were printed in USA.

And we also have Trillion Game (トリリオンゲーム) from author Riichiro Inagaki (Dr. STONE) and illustrator Ryoichi Ikegami (Crying Freeman) with Volumes 3, 4 & 5. The series is still on-going and this is currently the latest English print for now – the books here were also printed in Canada.

On the Seven Seas side of things we have Ghost Ship titles starting with World’s End Harem (終末のハーレム) from author LINK (World’s End Harem: Fantasia) and illustrator Kotaro Shono (Eunuch of Empire) with Volumes 17 & 18, which now concludes the series. Despite the heavy fanservice and sexual nature, in Japan, the series serialized under Shonen Jump+ next to 2.5 Dimensional Seduction, DANDADAN and SPY x FAMILY.

And we also have World’s End Harem: Fantasia (終末のハーレム ファンタジア) from author LINK and illustrator SAVAN (Hazure Skill Mapping) with Volumes 12, 13 & 14. The series is still on-going and this is currently the latest English print for now. In Japan, the series serialized under Ultra Jump & Shonen Jump+.

Discotek Media Haul from MediaOCD Store

It’s been a few months since I last sorted out a Discotek Media haul and here we have a very different batch. The reason is because Crunchyroll Store’s stock levels for the Discotek titles were pretty messy so I decided to switch things up and pick up a few titles that were available on MediaOCD Store which does ship directly to the UK with pre-paid VAT.

This haul consists of three anime releases and one live-action release from the Nihon Nights label.

Angel Heart

A 2005 television anime series by studio TMS Entertainment and director Toshiki Hirano, based on a manga written by Tsukasa Hojo. This is a spin-off series to City Hunter with a different main lead. Since I own the other City Hunter titles it made sense for me to get this one also. Discotek Media released the series on Blu-ray in May 2025.

Kekko Kamen: The Original Live-Action Movies

A 1991-1993 collection of films based on Go Nagai’s manga series Kekko Kamen. The 1991 live-action Japanese film Kekko Kamen (けっこう仮面) was directed by Hikari Hayakawa (Go Nagai’s Scary Zone films), and the 1992 & 1993 live-action Japanese films Kekko Kamen 2: We’ll be back… (けっこう仮面２) & Kekko Kamen 3 (けっこう仮面３) were directed by Yutaka Akiyama (Kunoichi: Deadly Mirage) starring Chris Aoki.

These films were also distributed by Japan Home Video as part of the V-Cinema series which I found to be pretty interesting to discover. Discotek Media released the three films in Standard Definition on Blu-ray format in May 2025 and isn’t available on Crunchyroll store.

Photon: The Idiot Adventures

A 1997 original OVA anime series by studio AIC and director Koji Masunari. Koji Masunari (Welcome to the Space Show) directed with Masaki Kajishima (Tenchi Muyo!) also worked on this series. For this release Discotek used AstroRes to upscale the master. Discotek Media released the series on Blu-ray in February 2025.

Urotsukidoji Collection 1: Legend of the Overfiend

A 1987 original OVA anime series by studio Phoenix Entertainment (Project Team Muu & West Cape Corporation) and director Hideki Takayama. Yep, this is the peak of hentai now back again and the second one for Discotek to release on Blu-ray.

In addition to the OVA series, which is fully uncut and uncensored with the materials still available in Standard Definition, we also have the 1989 theatrical version from a brand new historic 2K scan and restoration of the last known existing uncut 35mm prints from a private collection. To recap what I’ve mentioned on the Discotek thread, Media Blasters did release this on Blu-ray previously but theirs was cropped and censored, so Discotek found one of the last prints and scanned them. AstroRes was used on a badly damaged print that took 9 months to restore.

As you may have noticed, the packaging does state Collection 1 which leads me to believe they may have plans to release the second OVA series & second theatrical film known as Legend of the Demon Womb but currently nothing has been said. Discotek Media released the collection on Blu-ray in May 2025 and isn’t available on Crunchyroll store.

30th Birthday Haul

It’s that time of year and I was happy with how I handled last year’s haul so I continued the trend here.

For anime we have Psycho-Pass Providence, a film and latest instalment in the franchise by Production I.G. I’ve not watched Season 3 but the limited edition that Crunchyroll put out was decently priced.

For video games we have Suikoden I & II HD Remaster from Konami. I was hopping between PlayStation 5 or the Nintendo Switch, but I settled on the former (Switch 2 would have won had it been an in-cart physical release). Not played the original PlayStation versions even though I have both on PlayStation 3 as part of the PS1 Classics line-up, but looking forward to checking these out later.

For Asian Cinema we have Brother, the 2000 Japanese film by Takeshi Kitano, released in the UK on Blu-ray by British Film Institute (BFI). This film intrigued me due to its premise so I’m curious to see how it holds. The BFI first print release also includes a booklet.

For European Cinema we also have Va Savoir, the 2001 French film by Jacques Rivette, released in the UK on Blu-ray by Radiance Films. I didn’t bother with L’Amour fou but this film interested me more. Radiance’s release includes both the theatrical and director’s cut across 2 discs.

For books, we have Hurt Me Plenty: The Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters 2003–2010, the second volume covering the First-Person Shooter genre by Bitmap Books. This released last May so it was good timing. The book covers various well-known games like Halo, F.E.A.R., Star Wars: Republic Commando and more.

And I also received a Mobile Suit Gundam shirt from UNIQLO. Most of the shirts sold out in its size by the time I found out about them but I am happy with what I was able to receive considering the timing.

Armour of God II: Operation Condor & Crime Story 4K Ultra HD

Also arriving on my Birthday but is completely separate is another Terracotta package featuring two brand new 88 Films releases for the 4K Ultra HD format collection. Both of these are also double-dips as I own their Blu-ray versions when they came out in 2019/2020.

That’s right we have the deluxe limited edition release for Armour of God II: Operation Condor (飛鷹計劃), the 1991 Hong Kong film by Jackie Chan, and Crime Story (重案組), the 1993 Hong Kong film by Kirk Wong with Jackie Chan also directing the action stunts. These were one of the first 88 Films releases that I had picked up back in 2020 and I was fortunately to get the first print editions before they sold out, especially with the latter as I think I had one of the very last copies available on Amazon.

Both films pretty much include everything from the Blu-ray release and more, with the 4K Ultra HD discs using 4K restorations and Dolby Vision HDR.

Cyber Citizen Shockman Collection & Magical Drop VI

Limited Run Games shipped out another batch of pre-orders and here we have one retro collection and a new instalment to a retro franchise now brought over to the Nintendo Switch.

Cyber Citizen Shockman Collection is a collection of action platformers with three of them previously released on the PC Engine; 1989’s Cyber Citizen Shockman from developer Winds, 1991’s Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: A New Menace from developer Winds, and 1992’s Cyber Citizen Shockman 3: The Princess from Another World from developer Masaya Games which outside of the second game was only available in Japan. Also included in this collection is 1997’s Cyber Citizen Shockman Zero which was released in Japan for the Satellaview & Super Famicom from developer Masaya Games.

Also arrived is Magical Drop VI from French developer Highball Games and Poland developer Storm Trident that was released in 2023 first for the Nintendo Switch and then other platforms a year later. This is another case of a Japanese IP being worked on by a western developer and from what I’ve seen they’ve put a lot of effort paying homage to the second & third games in this franchise. And I’ve always been interested in the retro puzzle games and since this is the newest from a classic IP I wanted to pick it up. Forever Entertainment published this game who also worked on a few remakes like House of the Dead and Panzer Dragoon.

Junji Ito Uzumaki T-Shirt

After receiving the Gundam shirt from UNIQLO I had a look at what else was being offered because these are limited editions and can sell out pretty fast if you don’t time it right. Looking around the store was also offering a Dark Fantasy Manga range which was dedicated to Berserk, Parasyte and Uzumaki and I went with the Junji Ito Uzumaki shirt which looks great.

Sunset Warriors & The Witch from Nepal

88 Films’ June slate had a whole bunch of Asian Cinema titles being released and because they have the habit of being delayed for various circumstances, I didn’t pre-order all of them at once, which is why the Jackie Chan titles came first. I heard that the rest did eventually hit their release dates on time I ordered the two other Hong Kong films that 88 Films were releasing.

First up we have Sunset Warriors (九死一生), the original 1984 cut for John Woo’s 1986 film Heroes Shed No Tears (英雄無淚). 88 Films released the more known version of this film back in 2020 and five years later we have a new release with new artwork, more content and if you missed out on the original first print edition, this new limited edition release makes up for it as there’s a second disc that covers the Heroes Shed No Tears version.

Next we have Witch from Nepal (奇緣), the 1986 Hong Kong film by Tony Ching Siu-Tung starring Chow Yun-fat. This is the director’s second film after Duel to the Death which Eureka already released. This supernatural film looks like great fun and 88 Films went with a deluxe limited edition package which includes a booklet, box, slipcase and nice artwork throughout.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Before the pandemic, I played Death Stranding on the PlayStation 4 and was really surprised by how much I enjoyed the game’s mechanics and story. It’s a very different game to the other modern titles and is an acquired taste, but Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions definitely had a vision that worked.

Now we’re in 2025 and they have released the next game in the series with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach for the PlayStation 5. I did think about playing through the first game’s director’s cut but I decided to jump straight into this one.

The H-Man / Battle in Outer Space & Mothra

Eureka Entertainment ran a sale on their website dedicated to Japanese films and they had two older releases that I had yet to pick up for the collection, both happen to be from Japanese director Ishiro Honda and are part of the Masters of Cinema range.

We have the Ishiro Honda Double Feature collection that includes the 1958 film The H-Man (美女と液体人間) and the 1959 film Battle in Outer Space (宇宙大戦争), both are science fiction stories that I hadn’t heard of prior to Eureka’s release, and this is the second print edition that doesn’t include the slipcase but kept the booklet (which will go away in the next print run).

And there’s also Mothra (モスラ), the 1961 Japanese film and debut of the iconic Kaiju monster. This is the standard edition version which loses the rigid slipcase but still comes included with a booklet (which will also go away in the next print run).

Unboxing Links

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

What’s to Come for the Hauls

July 2025

We have new items added to the order list and more to come, which may slip into August.

  • AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline (Blu-ray)
  • Bandits of Orgosolo + The Lost World (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • I vampiri (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Japan Organised Crime Boss (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Misunderstood (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Seven Mortal Sins (Essentials Blu-ray)
  • Tomodachi Game (Blu-ray)
  • Underworld Beauty (Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Also Arriving in 2025

The following will arrive a few months later but should be here around the late Summer timeframe. These can shift around but for now here’s what else is also coming:

  • Bleach Part 5 (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
  • Bleach Set 2 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Gradius Origins Collection (Nintendo Switch)
  • I’m Standing on a Million-Lives (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
  • Macross II: Lovers Again (Premium Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)

Other Tidbits

It is bloody humid here in the UK and it has been for a past few weeks. UK don’t have air conditioners in the houses so it can be pretty hot in the buildings. The office has aircons though so its decent over there. I also managed to travel to Birmingham for work via driving through motorways for the first time which was a neat experience. Work in general is still hectic but taking a week off hasn’t caused too much of a hassle at least.

Anime Haul Updates

No major updates to share in general other than wanting to go into a bit more detail on the titles that I sold to CeX earlier in the month. Like last year I discontinued the standard Blu-ray releases for Alice in Borderland, Kandagawa Jet Girls, Killing Bites and Seven Mortal Sins as well as R.O.D the TV DVD box set and Serial Experiments Lain collector’s edition Blu-ray & DVD box set plus the Nintendo Switch version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (which is going to be replaced with the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition later).

Starting off with the standard Blu-rays, these are all going to be replaced by the US versions to save shelf-space with one of them already ordered thanks to a sale on Crunchyroll’s Store. R.O.D. the TV was a buyer’s remorse purchase from back in 2014 so I never considered it as a proper addition to the collection so it was time to get rid of it sooner than later. As for Serial Experiments Lain, I really enjoyed the anime but the box set was out of place with the rest of the collection so I intend to replace it with the recently revealed steelbook release that MVM is putting out later this year in stead.

For the record the discs for these releases aren’t an issue (outside of the DVD being PAL), but I’m a elitist when it comes to what version and presentation I would like for my shelf and I felt that MVM’s packaging doesn’t meet the mark when you place their releases next to Anime Limited, Crunchyroll, Discotek and many others. Anime Limited isn’t perfect either but they do have a uniform style inspired by Criterion so it does work on the shelf.

I probably mentioned it before but I’ll recap it again. I do intend to tone down how many Anime Limited collector’s editions that I would like to own moving forward because the value of the sets isn’t as great as they used to be. Nowadays you are pretty much spending almost double the standard edition for a rigid case with a couple of art cards and a poster, and to me its just padding for the shelf at this point. It’s why I won’t be going after Karakuri Circus or Helck for instance. Films aren’t too bad though but that can change.

Video Game Haul Updates

Video game collecting will still continue as intended, and thanks to the Nintendo Switch 2 improving performance for a number of Switch 1 releases, it does mean that I can look into more of the physical releases for that platform. Switch 2 is in an annoying state for physical media due to the Game Key Card concept so I am hoping that a lot of titles that I would have considered for the new console can get proper in-cart releases later down the line (for example Konami is offering GKC for Suikoden I & II but may allow Limited Run Games to handle the in-cart release like what Bethesda did with Wolfenstein II).

That concludes the month of June for the collection update. A lot of packages this time around and I am expecting a similar amount for July because we’re now entering the Summer sales for anime. There is a chance it might slip into August but we’ll see.

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