Welcome to the Otaku Collection haul for the month of January 2026. This update features 1 anime release, 9 manga volumes, 3 physical video games, 6 live-action Asian Cinema releases, 3 live-action European Cinema releases plus 4 other live-action releases.
For this haul, I took a step back from receiving numerous items and allowed a good number of pre-orders to make their appearance during the latter half of the month, whilst acquiring a few more films on 4K and Blu-ray.
Diebuster
The first item of the month was a delayed release from Anime Limited because there was an issue with the booklet that the French community spotted a while back, essentially the French received the English translated booklet and vice versa. The original Diebuster series marks the first pickup of the year and I’ve seen the theatrical version over a decade ago so it’s nice to finally own this version and see how it compares.
I’ve not actually gotten around to watching the OVA series for Gunbuster so I may go through both of them back-to-back when I delve more into my anime backlog. Since Discotek didn’t acquire the Blu-ray rights, Anime Limited used the authoring team VDMS this time for the disc so it got the best case scenario at least.
HMV 3 for £50 4K Ultra HD Haul
I visited York before watching 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple at the cinema and went to the HMV store to further build the 4K Ultra HD collection. It was a tough selection due to the lack of variety but I did find three that had my interest.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film was released on 4K a long while back and it’s honestly been on my radar for a while mainly because I was intrigued to see how it was especially when you have a cast like Gary Oldman (Batman Begins), Keanu Reeves (The Matrix), Winona Ryder (Stranger Things), Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) and Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I).
Inception, Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film is a sci-fi classic and one that I had wanted to upgrade from my DVD copy for ages. After re-watching Tenet a few months ago I had wanted to revisit this film as well. The cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ken Watanabe (Kokuho), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F), Elliot Page (The Umbrella Academy) and many more.
Queer, Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 film that he made at the same time as his more commonly known film Challengers, pretty much went under the radar but I heard it was pretty good so I wanted to check it out. MUBI picked up the license for the UK release and got the 4K treatment. The film stars Daniel Craig (Wake Up Dead Man), Drew Starkey (Outer Banks) and Jason Schwartzman (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse).
Travelling Man Viz Media Haul
I visited the Travelling Man store once again, this time to pick up more Viz Media volumes since they didn’t have any volumes related to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (plus those would get in the way of the 3 for 2 manga offer).
For this haul I focused once again on the Shonen Jump and Shonen Sunday range as they are the cheapest and most accessible of the bunch from the distributor, and also continuing the titles that I bought volumes for years back. So here we have Black Clover volumes 18, 19 and 20, Jujutsu Kaisen volumes 25, 27 and 28, and Komi Can’t Communicate volumes 10, 11 and 12.
They didn’t have specific volumes available for certain series including Blue Exorcist, Chainsaw Man, Frieren, and Jujutsu Kaisen so I decided to get what they had and grab the missing ones via Scifier later down the line.
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Edition
Limited Run Games packages started to appear and one of them arrived on time from its estimated window. I was hoping it would have been shipped early for 2025 but no harm waiting.
The first to arrive was System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Edition, a remaster of the classic 1999 sci-fi horror first-person shooter by Irrational Games & Looking Glass Studios which Nightdive Studios brought to modern platforms. While I have not yet played the first game (due to waiting on a patch to improve the PlayStation 5 version), I did play a bit of the second game on Steam years ago but I was too scared to continue it! Still, I found the franchise really fascinating so I wanted to check out the games sooner than later, though I know the first game was considered pretty difficult.
The remaster done by Nightdive Studios offers various features, with the most notable being online co-op on the entire campaign which is similar to the classic DOOM games and a really cool idea. There’s also quality-of-life improvements, improved framerates, and enhanced animation and graphics. The physical version will also be available in Europe by Clear River Games which wasn’t announced until the US release was dispatched.
Radiance Films Zavvi Haul
More European films were ordered from Zavvi focused on a couple releases that were on the Stock status list by Radiance Films themselves.
Häxan, Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 film is the oldest film I own! This gothic silent film received a limited edition a while back which sold out and later received a special edition (which is the traditional limited edition sets but without the rigid box and a smaller booklet), but the discs carry over which includes five different versions of the film.
The first disc includes the 2006 score by Matti Bye and 1968 ‘Witchcraft through the Ages’ alternate cut featuring narration by William S. Burroughs and Jean-Luc Ponty’s score, and the second disc includes the 2007 scores by Bronnt Industries Kapital and Geoff Smith, the 1990 ‘Witchcraft through the Ages’ French version featuring narration by Jean-Pierre Kalfon, and ‘The Esoteric Cut’ featuring English intertitles and Lawrence Leherissey’s score.
La Terra Trema, Luchino Visconti’s 1948 film is one of the earliest films produced in his catalogue and I knew of him thanks to Death in Venice which I don’t own (Criterion have released it but I’m waiting on a potential 4K UHD given there’s a 4K restoration). Surprisingly this is rated U so I’m curious to see how family friendly it is.
The Story of Adele H. (L’Histoire d’Adèle H.), François Truffaut’s 1975 film is another MGM license that Radiance Film was able to release from the director’s catalogue. The film stars Isabelle Adjani (Possession), Bruce Robinson (Romeo & Juliet) and Sylvia Marriott (101 Dalmatians).
Nobody Wants to Die
Not long after System Shock 2 arrived, another Limited Run Games release appeared which arrived early.
Nobody Wants to Die is a 2024 sci-fi adventure game by Polish developer Critical Hit Games. This caught my eye from the moment it was announced. I immediately went ahead and played the game as the timing was spot-on and I really enjoyed it. The game is fairly short, with around 5-6 hours playtime, but has such a fascinating BioShock style vibe and the concepts it shows off are pretty original, especially the device you can use to rewind time during an investigation. It’s worth playing even if it goes on sale.
One Battle After Another
I took another trip to York as I was visiting the Picturehouse Cinema to watch No Other Choice. Before I watched the film I also checked HMV and realised that Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2025 film One Battle After Another just got released.
This is a pretty intriguing film and one of my top picks for the year. Bizarre was my first reaction but in a good way and I really enjoyed the characters and journey from start to finish. Whilst the 4K Ultra HD release won’t have the IMAX aspect ratios or even any disc extras (those extras are exclusive to the steelbook release later down the line), I wanted to revisit this film.
The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon), Sean Penn (Licorice Pizza), Benicio del Toro (The Phoenician Scheme) and Teyana Taylor (The Book of Clarence).
Terracotta January Pre-Orders Haul
One of many pre-order hauls I’ve done to keep myself up-to-speed with the Asian Cinema collection. This haul focuses on January’s pre-orders from distributors Eureka Entertainment and 88 Films.
From Eureka Entertainment we start off with a very special release which I expect to sell out pretty soon. Cloud/Charisma: Two Films by Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a collection that contains the 1999 film Charisma (カリスマ) and the 2024 film Cloud (クラウド), the latter of which is exclusive to this limited edition release which I found odd considering Criterion is releasing this normally over in North America. I have enjoyed a lot of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s works and to see more released over here is great. This release is part of the Masters of Cinema range and the limited edition also includes a slipcase and booklet.
Next we have Gordon Chan’s 1992 film King of Beggars (武狀元蘇乞兒) starring Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle). I’ve not checked out either the director or actor’s works yet but I know Stephen Chow is a big actor in the Hong Kong scene so I wanted to pick this up sooner than later. This release is part of the Classics range and the limited edition also includes a slipcase and booklet.
Moving over to 88 Films is their latest Shaw Brothers releases which came out of nowhere considering their previous batches were much earlier in 2025. Here we have two films; Chang Cheh & Pao Hsueh-Li’s 1972 film The Delightful Forest (快活林) and Tony Lou Chun-Ku’s 1984 film Secret Service of the Imperial Court (錦衣衛), the latter of which was released during one of the final years that Shaw Brothers were actively producing films until they eventually shifted focus on other things from the late 80s onwards. Both only include a slipcase this time for their first print run but the artwork looks great.
Code Vein II
A brand new game for 2026 and the first one I decided to pick up is Bandai Namco’s Action Souls RPG Code Vein II for the PlayStation 5. The first game was a lot of fun and I didn’t check out much of the gameplay for the second game as I knew they would keep what made it special. I’ve played a good number of hours into the game and so far it’s decent. The combat is fine, though the health system is weird as half of your health is dedicated to your partner offering you support which I felt was interfering with the experience.
The boss fights can be pretty tedious due to how they literally don’t get staggered or when you recover they immediately mess you up with multi-hit combos. There is a parry system but it felt way too slow so timing is pretty challenging. I don’t remember struggling this much with the first game but all I can do at this point is further build the character’s stats to make sure I can get past this hurdle. At the moment the game’s a decent 6/10 but that can change as I progress further into the game (there’s no missable trophies so a Platinum trophy is possible).
Eureka Ent. Shaw Brothers Catch-Up Haul
Rounding up the month is another Eureka Entertainment haul and with this one it came from a recent sale they did on their online store which featured one of the Shaw Brothers releases that I was after.
The Magnificent Chang Cheh collection features two of his works; his 1966 film The Magnificent Trio (邊城三俠) and 1967 film Magnificent Wanderers (江湖漢子). I forget which one people really enjoyed and the other they disliked so either way they’re in this collection.
Also picked up from their online store is the Exact Revenge collection which features two films; Teddy Yip Wing-Cho’s 1971 film The Eunuch (鬼太監) and Jang Il-ho’s 1972 film The Deadly Knives (落叶飞刀), also known as Fists of Vengeance. Both collection sets were released as part of the Classics range and the limited edition also includes a slipcase and booklet.
With these two, I’m now caught up on Eureka’s Shaw Brothers releases. Whether they will release any more I have no clue but there’s hundreds that need to be brought over.
Unboxing Links
You can view more photos & specs for the titles below:
- Diebuster (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
What’s to Come for the Hauls
The upcoming hauls are all expected to go as planned, and there’s a few more items added into the mix. One anime, The Dangers in My Heart, was supposed to have been released in January (the standard edition did) but was delayed due to an issue with the disc. Should be released in February though I am tempted to shift over to the Sentai Steelbook edition instead as I have no clue if Season 2 will get the best treatment (as Anime Ltd tend to be impatient and release barebones content).
February 2026
- Blood of Revenge (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- The Dangers in My Heart Season 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Dragon Lord (Deluxe Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
- The Japanese Godfather Trilogy (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Naruto Shippuden Set 1 (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Nioh 3 (PlayStation 5)
- Oldboy (4K Ultra HD)
- Peking Opera Blues (Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD)
- Picture of a Nymph (Deluxe Collector’s Edition Blu-ray)
- Sana Collection (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Save the Green Planet! (Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD)
- Saving Face (Blu-ray)
- Takashi Ishii: The Angel Guts Collection (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Wolf Children (Deluxe Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
- Zen and Sword: The Miyamoto Musashi Saga at Toei (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Zombie for Sale (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
March 2026
- Eiichi Kudo’s Samurai Revolution Trilogy (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Hard Boiled (Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD)
- Macross II: Lovers Again (Premium Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
- Magnificent Bodyguards (Deluxe Collector’s Edition Blu-ray 2D+3D)
- Underworld Chronicles: Three Yakuza Fables by Takashi Miike (Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
April 2026
- Confessions of a Police Captain (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- The Eye (Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD)
- The Killer (Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD)
- Matador (Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray)
- Romancing in Thin Air (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Time to Play: Films by Jacques Rozier (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Returns Special Edition (PlayStation 5)
- Wandering Ginza Butterfly Collection (Limited Edition Blu-ray)
- Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga (PlayStation 5)
Q3 2026
- Earnest Evans Collection (Nintendo Switch)
- Tenshi no Uta: The Angel Verse Collection (Nintendo Switch)
Other Tidbits
So January has been to me, one of the worst months that I had ever encountered since late 2018. Despite having a great time with the hobby side of things, work and life has not been particularly great. The workload was intense at times, with things not going according to plan so there were some folks complaining at me as a result. I had to work virtually every day back to back from Friday 9th to Friday 16th followed by late Sunday 18th to Monday 26th. I also experienced a health scare where there was a small lump on the side of my neck which eventually faded away after about 2 weeks, and blood tests from my local doctor gave me the all clear (but I have a scan appointment in mid-Feb as a pre-caution). This moment I theorised was caused potentially by whiplash as a result of driving on black ice going back from work.
In addition to all that I wasn’t able to exercise daily because of things going on, like relatives staying over or I was working late and of course that whole health scare. And then at the final week of the month I catch a cold for the first time since August 2024 which is just ridiculous. And then to wrap it all up, the boss at work announced that overtime will no longer be paid because we now have a full team which is fucking dumb as hell. I don’t see a big impact on the hauls now that I have a credit card (so any big payments I can divide them up across a few months instead) but it will impact my work load and honestly if they ain’t going to pay me for the extra hours then I’ll just leave it unfinished. I do expect this to cause probably a few resignations in the coming weeks or months anyway. Who knows it may turn around and we wouldn’t need to put in extra hours, but the management needs to do a better job.
Anyway, with that out of the way, on the more positive side of things I did manage to finish five video games in one month which is amazing. All of them were fairly short (about 5-20 hours each on average) and right now I’m playing Code Vein II which is a bigger game but I reckon I can get it done in February. I’ve not watched any anime because the current season has a lot of interesting continuations and other new shows that I want to save them until they’re closer to being finished.
Anime Updates
In the anime home video industry there’s been a good number of updates.
Anime Limited have revealed they plan to bring lots of films to UK cinemas including Lupin the Third: Immortal Bloodline which wasn’t announced prior, though they have yet to get their hands on the Koike Trilogy (Jigen’s Gravestone, Goemon’s Blood Spray & Fujiko’s Lie) which are required before viewing this particular film. I haven’t bought the three films because they made comments about wanting to get their hands on it and it’s been many years since. Discotek’s license will probably run out in the next year or two given its been a while so hopefully the UK news gets clearer.
Also revealed was home video details for Spy x Family Code: White, a film that Crunchyroll released ages ago and Anime Limited got their hands on thanks to TOHO. The collector’s edition looks good so I’ll be picking it up when it goes on offer. Pre-orders for Wolf Children 4K, Lupin Zero (which was also newly announced) and Love Live! Superstar Season 3 were also revealed from the January early bird update. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM is expected to be released in the coming months on 4K Ultra HD and isn’t related to Crunchyroll’s release so the discs could be different.
Crunchyroll haven’t revealed too much from their home video slate, though the UK is getting Haikyu!! Seasons 1 & 2 on home video, with the second season receiving a UK home video release for the first time. If things go to plan, we should hopefully see Seasons 3 & 4 follow suit. Meanwhile the UK slate also includes Solo Leveling Season 2, though Dragon Ball Daima is not mentioned whatsoever. Sailor Moon Season 1 was noted to receive a steelbook release but there’s no release date information yet for UK fans.
Discotek Media revealed a whole bunch of out of print/discontinued releases which is massive. The out of print titles include the remaining Crunchyroll sub-licenses like Aho-Girl! and Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, as well as Blue Seed, Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, Flying Phantom Ship, Hanasakeru Seishonen, Lady Georgie, 10 Lupin the Third TV Specials (due to the new collections), Machine Robo Battle Hackers & Revenge of Cronos, Reborn! (both volumes), Saint Tail, the Sgt. Frog series (all 4 sets), Tales of Phantasia the Animation & Tales of Symphonia the Animation, Tomorrow’s Joe 2: The Movie and many more that are primarily classic robo shows and SD-BD type releases. For me I primarily lose out on a few but I got a majority from prior hauls.
There was also good news. Because Crunchyroll Store had been randomly delisting releases, many of which are still in print, MediaOCD Store will now beginning stocking the Discotek Media catalogue which is great news. They’re going to release them in batches per month, so if you were after Crusher Joe, Dallos, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Kimagure Orange Road, Lupin the Third Part I or S-CRY-ED, they’re available right now. The benefit of MediaOCD Store is they also use the points system like The Game Collection where you can redeem to save on future hauls.
Within this mess, they also revealed new titles and updates. As mentioned, Lupin the Third TV Specials will now be released in collections which includes Specials 2-4 on Blu-ray for the first time, which alienates everyone who bought the individual sets annoyingly. Other new updates include Voltes V now upgraded to Blu-ray in HD, so its previous SD-BD release will eventually discontinue, and acquiring Lupin the Third vs Cat’s Eye. The March 2026 slate includes these plus Zone of the Enders on Blu-ray which I’m going to pickup.
In terms of other quick notes, AnimEigo have scheduled Alien Nine for May and Hotori: Simply Wishing for Hope for June, the latter of which will also be dubbed into English.
Asian Cinema Updates
88 Films haven’t yet revealed their new titles for Q2 2026 outside of three releases for North America this May with Huang Feng’s The Angry River, Lo Wei’s The Invincible Eight and Huang Feng’s The Himalayan. So far Magnificent Bodyguards 3D is still making good progress but may sell out due to how long its been in production and also for licensing reasons. I have Dragon Lord and Picture of a Nymph pre-ordered but not yet sorted the March titles that include The Protector and the two Japanarchy films Helter Skelter and Sakugan.
Arrow Video have continued their big batch of new releases for 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray, and yes I have them all pre-ordered as I reckon they will sell out at a good pace. This month we have Takashi Shimizu’s Sana Collection (featuring the films Sana & Sana: Let Me Hear), Jang Joon-hwan’s Save the Green Planet! (which is the South Korean film that inspired the 2025 film Bugonia) in a 4K limited edition box set, and Tsui Hark’s Peking Opera Blues, the next instalment in the Golden Princess line-up. Not native (but features a Japanese cast), but there’s also American Yakuza that Toei had the license for which is also coming to Blu-ray.
In March we have Eiichi Kudo’s Samurai Revolution Trilogy (featuring the films 13 Assassins, The Great Killing & Eleven Samurai) and John Woo’s Hard Boiled in a 4K limited edition box set. And in April newly announced there’s Pang Brothers’ The Eye on 4K Ultra HD (they aren’t releasing the sequels so I wonder if Tartan’s license is still getting in the way), John Woo’s The Killer in a 4K limited edition box set, and Kazuhiko Yamaguchi’s Wandering Ginza Butterfly Collection (featuring the films Wandering Ginza Butterfly & Wandering Ginza Butterfly 2: She-Cat Gambler). Arrow have been improving the Golden Princess titles and their release order will be different to Shout! Factory’s due to various challenges with the authoring and materials process which is why A Better Tomorrow Trilogy isn’t arriving for a while.
Discotek Media have also discontinued a couple of live-action films from their latest big update. These are Bohachi Bushido: The Villain, The Bullet Train, Golgo 13, Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds, Recently, My Sister is Unusual and Shoguns Samurai: The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy. I have some of these but the ones I missed out have a pretty strong chance of making a UK appearance given how successful Asian Cinema has been in the UK. On the plus side they added Asai Takeshi’s Cutie Honey: Tears to their catalogue as well as scheduling Pang Brothers’ Bangkok Dangerous and Taweewat Wantha’s SARS Wars for March 2026.
Eureka Entertainment have a few new releases planned for February & March. This month it’s the big box set Zen and Sword: The Miyamoto Musashi Saga at Toei featuring five films by Tomu Uchida, followed by Tadashi Imai’s Cruel Tale of Bushido and Lo Wei’s The Invincible Eight (the same film that 88 Films will be releasing in the US, so it’s best to assume Eureka will also distribute the two Huang Feng films also).
Radiance Films have a couple of releases that I’m very much looking forward to owning. The Japanese Godfather Trilogy is arriving this month, followed by Underworld Chronicles: Three Yakuza Fables by Takashi Miike (featuring the films Fudoh: The New Generation (in 4K Ultra HD as well), Agitator & Deadly Outlaw: Rekka) in March, and Johnnie To’s Romancing in Thin Air in April. There’s more Asian films incoming throughout this year that have been teased including a second Radical Japan box set that’s focused on a different director.
And that concludes the first monthly collection update for 2026. A small but solid batch of titles. February is going to be massive due to the pre-orders and big haul of films. I do plan to sort out more anime orders but I don’t think they’ll appear for February’s haul update.
The Normanic Vault 
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