Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of October 2025. This update features 6 anime releases, 6 manga volumes, 10 physical video games, 8 live-action Asian Cinema releases and 4 live-action European Cinema releases, plus 7 other live-action releases.
For this haul, a bunch of pre-orders make their appearance from Anime Limited, Arrow Video, Eureka Entertainment & Radiance Films, and on the way catch up on a whole bunch of games including some imports and older releases.
The 100 Girlfriends & Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight!
We start off the month with a new manga pickups haul from online retailer Scifier which was supposed to have arrived in September but Yodel delayed its shipping. It arrived out of nowhere considering the tracking was stalled for days, but like the previous hauls from the retailer, all of the books here were in really solid condition and have no issues.
We catch up on The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You with manga volumes 13, 14 & 15 which are currently the latest available in English for the time being. The anime adaptation is one of my favourites and I’ll definitely keep going after the rest of the source material, even if its going to take a while.
Then we secure more books for the raunchy fighting series Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight! (also known as Hagure Idol: Jigoku-hen aka Stray Idol’s Picture of Hell) with the manga omnibus volumes 6, 7 & 8 comprising of individual volumes 11-16. This series is also caught up with its English releases but there is enough for Seven Seas to release one more omnibus before we catch up with the Japanese releases. The author, who also worked on the Devilman Grimoire series with Go Nagai) took a break from the manga to focus on his family to my recollection.
Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2
During the September Direct, Nintendo celebrated the latest Mario anniversary with a remastered collection of both Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Nintendo Switch, which also includes a free update for Nintendo Switch 2 users.
This is a remaster for both games previously released on the Nintendo Wii. I own the first game on Wii and also on the 3D All-Stars collection but here it’s another version to play, which I heard is a proper remaster this time around. I also never played the second game that had received fairly well by fans and critics when it first came out on the Wii, but at that time I moved over to Xbox 360, so here it’s a good opportunity to see why its beloved.
Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris
Out of a whim, I decided to explore picking up more PlayStation 4 games for the collection as there weren’t that many left to pick up. The first item arrived at the first Friday of the month and it was from eBay but the packaging was pretty solid, like new condition in fact.
Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris is an Action RPG anime game based on the popular anime/novel series but has its own take on the story, taking place after the events of the likes of Re:Hollow Fragment, Lost Song, Hollow Realization and Fatal Bullet (and I believe the VS Accel World game is not part of the mainline series). The idea is that something happened way back in the first game and from there the story deviates while taking major moments here and there from the books and anime. In this case, Kirito and the bunch are currently in the Alicization story arc though I believe this only covers the first half.
When it comes to the Sword Art Online games, I have enjoyed each one but I have yet to start Fatal Bullet which covers the Gun Gale Online arc, so I’ll need to playthrough that one before jumping right into this one.
The Island
One of the two latest Eureka Entertainment releases that I pre-ordered arrived ahead of its date, and it’s part of the Masters of Cinema series even though many don’t really consider it as much of a classic.
The film is The Island (生死線) by director Leong Po-Chih (Hong Kong 1941) and it’s his second film in this line-up. The cast includes John Shum Kin-Fun (Yes, Madam!), Ronald Wong (God of Gamblers) and Amy Kwok (The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk 2) and its a Hong Kong horror film as you can tell by the artwork. Eureka’s limited edition release includes a slipcase and booklet to go with it.
Amazon 4K Ultra HD Haul
After payday I decided to order three more films on 4K Ultra HD from Amazon’s 3 for £50 deal and went with two films I had seen and one newer film that I did not get the chance to watch at the cinema.
We have Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood starring Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Brad Pitt (F1), Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Timothy Olyphant (Alien: Earth), which I last saw back in 2019 at the cinema so I rewatched it and still enjoyed what it had to offer. More of a slice-of-life with a crazy subplot in the background but still has a wild ending.
Wes Anderson’s 2025 film The Phoenician Scheme starring Benicio Del Toro (One Battle After Another), Mia Threapleton (Scoop) and Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs the World). This was theatrically released last May and I missed out due to watching a lot of films at that timeframe. This is also my first Wes Anderson film for the collection, and I’ve not seen any of his catalog (which Criterion has put out most on 4K as of late). I really enjoyed this one, especially with its style of presentation and humour. It is a shame Criterion’s box set isn’t coming to the UK as I would have loved to get that right away.
And to round it off we also have Ryan Coogler’s Sinners starring Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Wunmi Mosaku (Loki), Hailee Steinfeld (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and Jack O’Connell (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple). I watched this in IMAX and was really impressed by the film’s concept and direction. The music was very good and the cast were great. Plan to give this a rewatch due to some assumptions I had ruined the experience a bit.
AI: The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative
The second PlayStation 4 game from eBay arrived a few days after the Sword Art Online game and it’s for the visual novel adventure AI: The Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative. This is the second game in this narrative series by Spike Chunsoft, writer Kotaro Uchikoshi and character designer Yūsuke Kozaki. I’ve not played the first game yet even though I own it, but considering the franchise has received a new instalment on Switch I decided to get the second game sooner than later in case it goes up in value.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Lies of P & Trails in the Sky 1st
It was Amazon Prime Day and I decided to pick two games from the sale as they were pretty cheap.
The first is Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver I & II Remastered, which is a collection of two classic games released back on the original PlayStation remastered by Aspyr who worked on the Tomb Raider remasters. This is also part of the Legacy of Kain franchise which has the other games like Blood Omen 1 & 2 and Defiance available on the PlayStation Store as part of the classics range.
The other game is Lies of P by Korean developer Neowiz. This is a Souls-inspired Action RPG and I did play the demo for this game which I enjoyed, though I didn’t get far due to not figuring out how to upgrade the abilities to get better. Heard the game as a whole was really good so I got the physical release.
Also here because there was a massive delay due to lack of stock on Amazon’s part is the new remake in The Legend of Heroes franchise with Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. I can now finally start the Trails games even though I do own the original, but that is stuck to PC which is not in the best position for me to play (not enough monitors and/or laptop is near the end of its lifespan).
While the originals were distributed by XSEED and the newer instalments distributed by NIS America, it was Clear River Games that managed to get distribution rights for the physical versions. The game is also on Nintendo Switch 1 & 2 but I went with PlayStation 5 because of the visual and performance reasons like the newer Trails games that are in this art style.
Furious Swords and Fantastic Warriors: The Heroic Cinema of Chang Cheh
Next we have another brand new Eureka Entertainment release for their Shaw Brothers collection. Furious Swords and Fantastic Warriors: The Heroic Cinema of Chang Cheh is a limited edition collection featuring 10 films across 5 Blu-ray discs, and surprisingly Eureka Entertainment have no plans to offer a standard edition as far as things stand.
The films included here were all directed by Chang Cheh and they are Men from the Monastery (少林子弟) from 1974, Shaolin Martial Arts (洪拳與詠春) from 1974, King Eagle (鷹王) from 1971, Fantastic Magic Baby (紅孩兒) from 1975, The Weird Man (神通術與小霸王) from 1983, Trail of the Broken Blade (斷腸劍) from 1967, Wandering Swordsman (遊俠兒) from 1970, New Shaolin Boxers (蔡李佛小子) from 1976, Trilogy of Swordsmanship (群英會) from 1972, and Iron Bodyguard (大刀王五) from 1973.
There’s no rigid slipcase this time around compared to the Joseph Kuo box set that was released a few years ago, but it works well blending with the other limited edition slipcase releases on the shelf.
Demon Slayer Seasons 2 & 3 Arcs
With the hype surrounding Demon Slayer I’ve not bothered to pick up any of the arcs that came after the Mugen Train film, and it boiled down to a choice between going for the Aniplex of America releases or the standard edition sets put out by Crunchyroll UK which came out a while after the North American versions.
After some debating and how I’ve been moving forward with my collection, I decided that the Aniplex sets, whilst nice with the artwork and offering, were too padded out and obviously expensive, plus the standard editions essentially re-used their discs minus the inclusion of the on-disc bonus features which doesn’t have much use for me in general. So thanks to the recent Amazon Prime day sales I ordered the TV version of the Mugen Train Arc, the second season Entertainment District Arc and the third season Swordsmith Village Arc. The fourth season Hashira Training Arc is scheduled for release in standard edition form at the end of the year so that’s handy.
As much as I like Aniplex releases, if an alternative is just as good then I’ll consider it which in this case was a good one. It also helps that 4K versions are apparently in the works for one or two of the arcs in Japan so they’ll likely receive special treatment later to make up for it.
Bleach Part 8 & Komada: A Whisky Family
One of the Anime Limited pre-orders finally shipped out and here we have two new additions.
First up, we have Bleach Part 8, which covers episodes 196–223 of this long-running shonen anime series. The arcs covered here are The Arrancar Part 4 & 5 which aired in 2011. As you can guess by this point, Anime Limited are continuing to use the Viz Media discs so don’t expect any improvements to the video presentation.
More importantly we have a new anime film with Komada: A Whisky Family. This is a P.A. Works film that’s part of their workplace series and it’s not as well known as their previous titles, but what Anime Limited has offered here is pretty decent.
Radiance Films October Bundle
I’ve been a fan of Radiance’s releases and for their October release slate I decided that I wanted to own all of them altogether than just getting them individually, because if you order directly from their store you can get them for 10% off which is handy (and only applies as soon as the slate was revealed).
Starting off with Daiei Gothic: Japanese Ghost Stories Volume 2, which features three more 4K restored Japanese horror films from the Daiei company. The films included here are Tokuzō Tanaka’s 1960 & 1969 films Demon of Mount Oe (大江山酒天童子) starring Kazuo Hasegawa (An Actor’s Revenge), Raizō Ichikawa (Shinobi no Mono series) and Shintarō Katsu (The Tale of Zatoichi), and The Haunted Castle (秘録怪猫伝) starring Kōjirō Hongō (Gamera), Naomi Kobayashi (Island of Horrors) and Mitsuyo Kamei (Sworn Brothers), and Kimiyoshi Yasuda’s 1970 film The Ghost of Kasane Swamp (怪談累が渕), also known as Masseur’s Curse, starring Teruo Ishiyama (Lone Wolf and Cub), Maya Kitajima (Mandara) and Reiko Kasahara (Lone Wolf and Club).
The artwork used in this set is really cool but Radiance Films did forget to make a note that its the second volume on their spine. Included in the limited edition release is a booklet full of essays and ghost stories to provide more context to what the films covered, as well as the Scanavo case packaging and reversible artwork.
Next we have Harry Kümel’s 1971 films Daughters of Darkness starring Delphine Seyrig (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles), John Karlen (Pennies from Heaven) and Danielle Ouimet (Les Filles du Roy) & Malpertuis starring Orson Welles (Citizen Kane), Susan Hampshire (The Three Lives of Thomasina) and Michel Bouquet (The Bride Wore Black) presented in their limited edition packaging.
These are Dutch films, with the former spoken in English and the latter in Dutch. Both were well-known in the film community and their premises intrigued me so I wanted to pick them up, especially the former as it’s about vampires and is also presented in 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision, as they are re-using Blue Underground’s master. Included in the limited edition releases is a booklet full of essays, as well as the Scanavo case packaging and reversible artwork.
Also included here is François Truffaut’s 1976 film Pocket Money (L’Argent de poche), also known as Small Change, starring Jean-François Stévenin (Brotherhood of the Wolf), Virginie Thévenet (Full Moon in Paris) and Chantal Mercier, is a French film focused on young kids. François Truffaut is another well-known European director and a lot of his films were distributed by MGM Studios so it seems Radiance managed to secure more of them for UK release. Included in the limited edition releases is a booklet, as well as the Scanavo case packaging and reversible artwork.
Bazaar Bazaar Import Haul
Been wanting to sort out another import haul and Bazaar Bazaar decided to run a sale which for once offered prices that were cheaper than other retailers.
Getting the obvious out of the way first, Cosmo Dreamer & Like Dreamer Double-D Collection is a collection of two Japanese bullet hell shoot ’em up titles and the artwork looked goofy so I wanted to own it. I’ve also been building a shoot ’em up collection for the Switch so it was a good opportunity. East Asia Soft published the game and whilst this is the standard edition, they are still limited regardless.
Next we have SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered, which recently came out a few months ago by Square Enix. This is a remaster of the original PlayStation game released in 1999 for Japan and 2000 for North America & European territories. Despite being the second game, it’s like Final Fantasy where it keeps the formula of different playable characters but offers a different story altogether. The remaster offers similar features to the previous game, including new playable characters and quality of life improvements.
And leaving the best for last is Super Robot Wars Y, the latest instalment in the crossover tactical RPG franchise and is also the first to include Macross characters that can be used for English audiences since the previous ones didn’t feature them due to licensing issues (and they were featured in much earlier instalments that didn’t make it to the west). Franchises featured in this game include Godzilla Singular Point, SSSS.DYNAZENON, Code Geass, more Gundam including Witch from Mercury, Majestic Prince, Aura Battler Dunbine, Getter Robo Arc and more.
Martyrs
Next we have another pre-order arriving and it’s a French Extremity classic that won’t be for everyone. Martyrs, Pascal Laugier’s 2008 film has been on my radar to check out for a long time and it caught me by surprise to see Eureka Entertainment of all people bring it over to the UK, not only as part of their Masters of Cinema, but in 4K Ultra HD as well.
Now this limited edition also sold out so fast they had to extend the print run which is how I was able to grab my copy on time. It’s a very nice release with a booklet that goes into more depth about the film, its director and the themes throughout. It’s also a combo pack so the Blu-ray disc is included as well.
Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness
I had been intrigued to check out Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness for a while now and was originally going to order a copy from eBay like what I had done with AI: The Somnium Files nirvanA Initiative and Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris but then out of nowhere the new copies on Amazon randomly dropped to a low price and figured it was best to order it from there.
For those curious what this game is, it’s a dungeon crawling action RPG experience where you need to put in the resources to survive down the abyss. Spike Chunsoft developed this one which is a rare case of a different team working on an anime IP since you would normally expect Bandai Namco to cover this. Heard its got some good stuff whilst also challenging here and there.
More Eureka Ent. Shaw Brothers Releases
Upon browsing the Blu-ray forums I noticed a couple of folks were panicking about a few newer releases surprisingly sold out already on Eureka Entertainment’s online store. So I had a look and one of the titles that I was after was also sold out. Miraculously I was able to secure a copy for the release from Terracotta which I bundled with another release from earlier in the year that I had yet to pick up.
The one that sold out was Martial Law: Lo Wei’s Wuxia World, a three film collection from director Lo Wei that he worked on with the Shaw Brothers company. The films included in this set are 1968’s The Black Butterfly (女俠黑蝴蝶) starring Lisa Chiao Chiao (The One-Armed Swordsman), Elliot Ngok Wah (Come Drink With Me) and Tien Feng (Fist of Fury), 1968’s Death Valley (斷魂谷) starring Elliot Ngok Wah, Angela Yu Chien (Hong Kong 1941), and Chen Hung-Lieh (Come Drink With Me), and 1971’s Vengeance of a Snow Girl (冰天俠女) starring Li Ching (The 14 Amazons), Elliot Ngok Wah, Ku Feng (The One-Armed Swordsman), Tien Feng and Lisa Chiao Chiao.
I should have figured it would sell faster than the previous Shaw Brothers releases because Lo Wei is one of the more popular and well-known directors in the Hong Kong scene.
Also picked up is a double-film collection called The Daredevils and Ode to Gallantry: Two Venom Mob Films from director Chang Cheh. This one includes 1979’s The Daredevils (雜技亡命隊) and 1982’s Ode to Gallantry (俠客行), each starring members of the Venom Mob crew with Phillip Kwok (Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky), Chiang Sheng (Crippled Avengers), Lu Feng (Five Deadly Venoms), Sun Chien (Human Lanterns), and Lo Meng (Kid with the Golden Arm).
Both of these Eureka Entertainment releases were priced really well and are packaged in their first print limited editions with the o-card slipcase, unique artwork from either the film poster or scenes and a booklet to go with it. There are at least two more Shaw Brothers releases left for me to grab that were also released earlier in the year – those being The Magnificent Chang Cheh and Exact revenge: The Eunuch and The Deadly Knives which I am hoping to look into before the year is over.
Arrow Video 4K Ultra HD Haul
As we were approaching Halloween season, Arrow Video once again ran another sale so a bunch of their releases went down in price, especially through HMV. I was eyeing one box set and a few others joined the mix even though I could in theory waited until their standard editions came out.
The box set that I had been meaning to get for a while was the standard edition 4K Ultra HD set for Hellraiser Tetralogy, which includes Clive Barker’s 1987 film Hellraiser starring Clare Higgins (Ready Player One), Ashley Laurence (Lurking Fear), Sean Chapman (Scum) and Doug Bradley (Nightbreed), the latter of which appeared in these four films known as the ‘Pinhead’ by a lot of fans, Tony Randell’s 1988 film Hellbound: Hellraiser II starring Kenneth Cranham (Layer Cake), Imogen Boorman (Alive and Kicking) and William Hope (Aliens), Anthony Hickox’s 1992 film Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth starring Terry Farrell (Back to School), Kevin Bernhardt (Midnight Warrior) and Ken Carpenter (Phantom of the Paradise), and Alan Smithee’s 1996 film Hellraiser: Bloodline starring Bruce Ramsay (Holes), Valentina Vargas (Dirty Games), and Charlotte Chatton (Titanic).
Out of the four films I have currently watched the first three. The first film is not what I had expected but it worked really well and loved the direction that it went. The second film captures the horror vibe with the hell world that it introduces and the practical effects were great too. And the third film was interesting but deviates a lot from the first two even though it does capture some of the horror even if it’s rather silly at times.
Next we have the limited edition 4K Ultra HD release for William Peter Blatty’s 1990 film The Exorcist III, starring George C. Scott (Dr. Strangelove), Ed Flanders (Salem’s Lot) and Brad Dourif (Child’s Play), and this is the seuel to the iconic 1973 horror classic which I have not actually seen despite being familiar with the name. So as you can probably guess I won’t be able to watch this one just yet but I heard it’s a solid film on its own.
The limited edition release includes the o-card slipcase, a booklet and also a second disc that contains the ‘Legion’ director’s cut on Blu-ray which should be available for the standard edition as well like the previous Blu-ray release did when Arrow first put it out.
And then we switch genres from horror all the way to crime with two films that looked pretty intriguing to me. The first is Joe Carnahan’s 2002 film Narc starring Jason Patric (Speed 2: Cruise Control), Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) and Chi McBride (The Terminal), which was released in North America first by Arrow and they managed to bring it over to the UK about a year later, and Bryan Singer’s 1995 film The Usual Suspects starring Stephen Baldwin (Born on the Fourth of July), Gabriel Byrne (Ballerina: From the World of John Wick) and Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another).
Both of these films I could have waited for the standard editions as well but the price was pretty solid and the artwork used for the slipcase looked pretty good. Each come with an o-card slipcase, booklet and a poster plus art cards for the latter.
Carole & Tuesday
Another Anime Limited release arriving on time (well a week’s delay technically) but it’s a pretty interesting one for the collection as we finally have Carole & Tuesday from studio Bones and creator Shinichirō Watanabe. I’ve not watched this series yet because it landed on Netflix at the time due to the programming block deal between Fuji Creative Corporation had with the streaming platform for +ULTRA.
Since it took a long while to make it over to the UK as Sentai Filmworks released it over in the US for a few years, this did work in our favour as we were also able to get the big booklet that was included in Sentai’s premium edition that came years later for this release which is pretty good. This series is also different to Watanabe’s other works as we have more collaborations with international members for the music which is pretty cool to see.
Terracotta October Pre-order Haul
And rounding up this month’s haul are another set of pre-orders that I did through Terracotta to be ahead of the holiday season. We have three releases here and each of them are different for various reasons.
Starting off with Third Window Films’ latest release and a limited edition in fact. This is Kaizô Hayashi’s Maiku Hama Trilogy which centres on the main lead portrayed by Masatoshi Nagase (Electric Dragon 80000V). The films included in this release are 1994’s The Most Terrible Time in My Life (我が人生最悪の時), 1995’s The Stairway to the Distant Past (遙かな時代の階段を) and 1996’s The Trap (罠 THE TRAP). Each of these films also feature actors who have reprised their roles throughout including Joe Shishido (Cruel Gun Story), Haruko Wanibuchi (House) and Shinya Tsukamoto (Shin Godzilla).
Each of these films were restored in 4K as part of a 30th anniversary project and much like previous Third Window releases we also have a couple of good extras included with audio commentary, interviews and more. This set also includes a small essay booklet going over the director’s filmography which is great for those unfamiliar with his works.
Next we have two brand new releases from Arrow Video which are horror focused but from different parts of Asia.
Starting off with Rob Jabbaz’s 2021 film The Sadness (哭悲) starring Berant Zhu (Bad Education), Regina Lei (Twelve), Tzu-Chiang Wang (My Missing Valentine) and Ying-Ru Chen (Wrath of Desite). This film is unique as it’s another scenario of a foreign director producing a film in Asia with an Asian cast and their language, as Rob Jabbaz is from Canada. A good example of a previous film produced like this was Welsh director Gareth Evans producing The Raid in Indonesia. US distributor Shudder had the rights which Arrow Video was able to license for the UK & Ireland. I was honestly expecting this film to be too gruesome for the UK but thankfully its uncut. It’s also on the 4K Ultra HD format as well which is very nice.
Next we have a very special release that I had been waiting a very long time to see return to the UK. The Three/Three Extremes collection are two anthology films from various directors across Asia. This includes 2002’s Three (三更/쓰리) by Korean director Kim Jee-woon on the segment ‘Memories’, Thai director Nonzee Nimibutr on the segment ‘The Wheel’, and Hong Kong director Peter Chan on the segment ‘Going Home’, and 2004’s Three… Extremes (三更2/쓰리, 몬스터) by Hong Kong director Fruit Chan on the segment ‘Dumplings’, Korean director Park Chan-wook on the segment ‘Cut’ and Japanese director Takashi Miike on the segment ‘Box’. Tartan Video previously released these films in the UK and I believe they were released in reverse order (the second film came first). Also worth noting that one of the segments ‘Dumplings’ did receive a full theatrical version but that’s not included in this release unfortunately. Arrow Video’s Blu-ray release is a limited edition that includes an o-card slipcase, booklet and poster.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Carole & Tuesday (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Kaizo Hayashi’s Maiku Hama Trilogy (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Komada: A Whisky Family (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
What’s to Come for the Hauls
November 2025
There’s been some last minute delays which meant a few upcoming UK anime releases won’t be arriving until next year which is very disappointing – the cause of this is bundling orders where one of them ends up being delayed. I do plan to sort out more orders but they may end up in December as the shipping delays will start to occur from this point. There’s also the Black Friday sales to take into account so I might try another import haul in advance. Here’s what you can expect to see arrive in the month of November:
- Bleach Part 9 (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- DAN DA DAN Season 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Fear Effect (PlayStation 5)
- Gex Trilogy (PlayStation 5)
- Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Tales of Xillia Remastered (PlayStation 5)
December 2025
A few more ordered for this month but some bits may shift around. The AnimEigo kickstarter title will probably shift into early 2026 but it’s here for now in case there’s any surprise updates in the coming weeks. Here’s what you can expect to see arrive in the month of December:
- Devilman Crybaby (Deluxe Edition Blu-ray)
- Macross II: Lovers Again (Premium Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
- Perfect Blue (Deluxe Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
- Shawscope Volume Four (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Vanity Fair: The Pursuit (PlayStation 5)
January 2026
The delayed Anime Limited releases are now set for this month. Here’s what you can expect to see arrive in the month of January:
- Bleach Part 5 (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Call of the Night Season 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- I’m Standing on a Million-Lives (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Edition (PlayStation 5)
Other Tidbits
Work has been hectic due to a lot of virtual events on the schedule which I had to work through but it should slowly start to ease up (before it ramps up again in January). I also plan to take more annual leave as I do need to use up the 12 working days I still have left before the year is over since it resets every start of each year.
My exercise routine has hit some rocky paths due to the virtual event work but I have been losing some weight which is good. I recently pulled a muscle of some sort so I couldn’t do much these past few days but I am hoping to get back into the rhythm so that I can keep it going. I may talk more about my weight-loss journey in a separate blog post.
As for my shelf, the collection is growing but I am looking at ways to see if I can get some more storage to shift it around and keep it going for a lot longer. A half-book shelf should work next to the door but I want mini-shelves for parts of my room to shift other things around if I can. My laptop is also on its way out so I may also need to put funds aside to get a new one.
Anime Limited
In a surprise move, there were no MCM announcements which I think is the first time this has happened since they first formed the business back in 2012 or so. They mentioned focusing on their Christmas sale and the current titles on their release schedule which makes sense since we know they have some big titles in the works like the Blood+ Blu-ray releases, the Mamoru Hosoda 4K releases, and also shonen shows like InuYasha and Naruto Shippuden to deal with.
They have yet to reveal their latest newswire but I suspect they may tone down the early birds as they often do for November ahead of the sales. Since the last update I’ve ordered Call of the Night Season 1, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Diebuster and Perfect Blue 4K. The Dangers in My Heart Season 1 is currently available to pre-order for early bird but I have yet to sort it out.
AnimEigo & Discotek Media
AnimEigo have slowly been putting out their new titles month by month. In October they released the 60s series Sasuke, this month they have the second volume for Looking for the Full Moon which includes the remainder of the English dub that had been unreleased for so long, then in December Black Jack OVAs will be released and then in January we have the TV Special Prime Rose. They all have my interest but I have yet to decide if I want to stick to the slipcase versions or go for the standard edition to avoid having to go for everything in uniformity.
For Discotek they have done some small release slate updates which includes re-releases for the first time in years with Galaxy Express 999 and Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! re-released as complete series sets this month, followed by City Hunter 2 re-released as a complete set in December. The latter annoyed me personally as they did state it wouldn’t happen and now it has, though I didn’t spend too much outside of one set so I suppose it’s not too bad.
Also scheduled is the Takashi Miike film The Happiness of the Katakuris and live-action Android Kikaider 01 TV series for November, and Digimon the Movies Collection 2, Project ARMS and the live-action Special Rescue Exceedraft TV series for December. There’s still a good chunk to release but we do know their next expected Discotek Day event isn’t until January time.
In terms of out of print updates, Groizer X and Gunbuster were the two most recent releases to be listed under the discontinued banner. I also want to note that both Fighting General Daimos and Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos were also slated to be discontinued despite not being listed on the website which is likely because you can still get them at conventions I believe. Another few that I want to flag because Crunchyroll Store delisted them for whatever reason are Battle Athletes, Lupin the Third: Swallowtail Tattoo, Tomorrow’s Joe 2 the Movie and The Twelve Kingdoms which hasn’t returned for ages but each of them are also not listed as discontinued either. I own most of these but I do hope the Lupin the Third title comes back because it had only just been released in the past two years whereas the other specials are still in stock.
PlayStation 4 Collecting
Wanted to go over what’s currently left on my radar for a few of the platforms that I’ve been building my collection for.
Starting off with the PlayStation 4. This is near the point where I have all of the ones that I would like to own. As you can see from above, I did grab a few that were on my list and there’s not particularly that many left outside of a few imports (especially two in particular with Limited Run Games because they have Onimusha 2 and Star Ocean: The First Departure R).
So what’s left for the platform? On my list we have Devil May Cry HD Collection, DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition and The Last Guardian from the pre-2020 era of physical releases. All three are readily available and can be cheap to pick up so I’ve not been in any particular rush for them. Then we have three that were released in 2020 with two of them may move over to Nintendo Switch, but on the list we have Azur Lane: Crosswave, Bayonetta & Vanquish and Ys: Memories of Celceta. Then in 2021 all that remains are AKIBA’S TRIP: Hellbound & Debriefed, Blue Reflection: Second Light and NieR Replicant. The latter is readily available so that’s not a problem, and as you can probably guess the most expensive of the lot will be the Koei Tecmo title because its not a massive print run.
There are more games considered for the collection like Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the Quantic Dream games (both the Beyond: Two Souls & Heavy Rain double pack and Detroit: Become Human), and any remaining Bandai Namco anime games that I have passed on but at that point we’re just randomly picking titles which isn’t the ideal way to build a collection (remember you don’t need everything just the ones you want the most!).
PlayStation 5 Collecting
We are now reaching the moment where it’s been at least four years since I purchased the PlayStation 5 and while the generation had taken its time getting to the new releases for the console, it’s been a great addition for playing games that can run better especially with backwards compatibility. The collection has almost reached 100 games which is cool, and there’s plenty to choose from to reach that and even go as high as 200 in all honesty.
I’ve been taking a look at my list that I want to own and there’s a good mix of Japanese and Western titles, but a fair amount of them are readily available without too much issue and the ones I have been picking up are primarily limited-print releases or part of The Game Collection’s £10 reward scheme which is handy for future purchases (and also how I was able to save money on the Nintendo Switch 2 console).
Next year’s pre-orders I plan to sort are Code Vein II and The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon since they’re both released in the first month of the year. There’s also Nioh 3 but I can always hold off if needed given how lengthy of a game that will be. I am hoping Dynasty Warriors 3 Remaster will receive a physical but there’s no details at the moment other than its March release window.
In the past year we have seen a good number of new physical releases. Ones that I would like to own include the Atelier Ryza DX Trilogy, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, Once Upon a Katamari, Silent Hill f, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, Turok Remastered Trilogy Bundle, and Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. Most of these will be readily available if I decide to hold off until next year.
As for the ones that have been out in prior years, there’s a good bunch of them. Examples include Alone in the Dark, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, Black Myth Wukong, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged, No More Heroes 3, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Scarlet Nexus, Silent Hill 2, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and many more.
I don’t expect to be going after the PlayStation 6 when that gets released in a few years time until it has enough value to justify it. Going from PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5 was convenient for me because I didn’t go for the PS4 Pro version so when I picked it up four years ago it pretty much had the features the PS4 Pro had plus more which worked out well.
Nintendo Switch 1 & 2 Collecting
Nintendo collecting is a pretty mixed bag in general. The original Switch has a lot of value for pursuing the format for the retro classics and indie games that don’t exactly need the power specs of the PlayStation but at the same time the Switch does have its limits which is why I often go for the PlayStation 5 version for specific games. The Switch 2 was supposed to resolve that issue but then they introduced the Game Key Card concept which a good majority of publishers are using which people do purchase but there’s also a good amount of backlash as well.
Now we are starting to see more proper physical releases on the way. Atari are releasing Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection and System Shock on actual carts which is amazing, and publishers Nicalis and PM Studios are also doing the same with their indie releases which is dedication. There’s also Nintendo Switch 2 Edition releases for a few here and there including Hades II which is handy. As for everyone else, they’re still sticking to GKCs for the time being and it’s for that why I’ll be going for either the original Switch release or the PlayStation 5 version for a lot of the games.
Outside of that mess, there are still a good bunch of games for the original Switch that I want to own. I had to review my list again to make sure that I didn’t miss anything out. Whilst I won’t name them all, I will mention a couple of examples. Clear River Games have a whole bunch of shoot ’em ups for Europe including Mamorukun ReCurse! which was one of the rarest and most expensive games for PlayStation 3, as well as Batsugun Saturn Tribute Boosted, Toaplan Arcade Collection Vol. 1 & 2, and Under Defeat. Red Art Games have a few Japanese games that I had yet to get including Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer and Macross Shooting Insight. There’s visual novels including Iwakura Aria, Konosuba: Love for these Clothes of Desire! and My Next Life as a Villainess -Pirates of the Disturbance- from different publishers.
And there’s of course Nintendo’s own IPs with Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, Mario vs Donkey Kong, Super Mario RPG and much more. If a Nintendo game moves over to Nintendo Switch 2 then I’ll get the Switch 2 Edition instead (like with Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Super Mario Bros Wonder as both I was planning to get for Switch).
One last thing to mention are the dozens amount of imports for the Switch. I haven’t even mentioned the Neo Geo Collections that have been put out as well as the other visual novels and RPGs available in Asia. But that would be too long to write down. They won’t be cheap though so I’ll have to be tactical on what and when I can get each of them. Limited Run Games are also bringing Cho Aniki Collection to physical so I can get that unless Clear River Games steps in before the pre-order window closes.
That’s all for the month of October for the latest collection update. As the holiday season approaches, I am expecting some good deals hopefully.
The Normanic Vault 
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