What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!

Choujin X Volumes 7 and 8: I’m missing 5 but otherwise caught up with the English release of the series.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Finally bit the bullet and ordered the Limited Edition form Anime-On-Line. Because I wanted the 11-disc set but not that gigantic ultimate edition box. This is a lot less ostentatious and easy to shelf.

From Forbidden Planet; Ghost Pepper Volume One and stand alone books Karmen, Elric: Making of a Sorcerer and Daredevil: End of Days. I also got the last issue of Ultiamte X-Men which raises the immortal question: is it an American comic or a Japanese manga if it’s entirely written and drawn by a Japanese artist but published for an American company?IMG_2380.jpegIMG_2381.jpegIMG_2407.jpeg
 
I ended up cancelling my forbidden planet pre order of Ghost in the Shell Legacy Edition Deluxe Manga Box Set and got it from booksplease for £94.75 plus £1.99 for shipping.

There you go, that's closer to what I paid for my Gits Manga set from Amazon US - mine was $111.99 + $6.72 tax + free shipping, so $118.71 total, or about £88.
 
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Decided to finally get a decent controller for the switch (since I was using a retro-bit legacy 16) along with 2 HDMI cables and 2 network cables, but I found out that the 50cm HDMI cable wasn't long enough so I decided to use it to connect between the HDMI splitter and my capture card, but after the slight movements required to swap over the cable this happened.

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The power port decided it didn't want to remain attached to the board anymore, so I'm going to have to invest in a new splitter that isn't a cheap piece of garbage.
 
February Haul #2

This past week we have another batch of Asian Cinema, mainly brand new releases from this month, plus more anime.



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#5: Dragon Lord & Picture of a Nymph
The latest February titles from the world of Asian Cinema started to show up and the first package came from 88 Films via their online store.

The first is Jackie Chan's 1982 film Dragon Lord (龍少爺) which is the latest re-release to be brought back for the 4K Ultra HD format, and while I admittedly didn't get around to the Blu-ray release released years back, this package has a ton more content with four ways to watch this film; original theatrical Hong Kong cut, English Export cut, an extended version of the film, and a hybrid cut. The 88 Films store includes an o-card slipcase that shows off the English & Japanese theatrical artwork which look cool. The film stars Jackie Chan, Michael Chan Wai-Man (My Heart is that Eternal Rose), Suet Lee (Ghost Nursing), Cheung Wing-Fat (Police Story) and Tien Feng (A Better Tomorrow).

Next we have Wu Ma's 1988 film Picture of a Nymph (畫中仙), a comedy romance fantasy film starring Joey Wong Cho-Yin (A Chinese Ghost Story), Yuen Biao (Dragons Forever), Wu Ma (Peking Opera Blues), Lawrence Ng Kai-Wah (Center Stage) and Elizabeth Lee Mei-Fung (Lady Reporter). This is the latest 88 Films release to be presented in a deluxe collector's edition package that includes an o-card slipcase, rigid box, scanavo case, booklet, and an art card.

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#6: Peking Opera Blues & Save the Green Planet!
Then not long after we receive another batch of new February releases, this time from distributor Arrow Video which arrived from retailer Terracotta Store.

The first is Tsui Hark's 1986 film Peking Opera Blues (刀馬旦) starring Brigitte Lin (Police Story), Sally Yeh (The Killer), Cherie Chung Cho-Hung (An Autumn's Tale), Mark Cheng Ho-Nam (Election 2) and Cheung Kwok-Keung (Eastern Condors). This is the second Golden Princess release for Arrow Video and is presented in a traditional first print limited edition package with an o-card slipcase and booklet.

Next we have Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 film Save the Green Planet! (지구를 지켜라!) starring Shin Ha-kyun (Sympathy from Mr. Vengeance), Baek Yoon-sik (The President's Last Bang), Hwang Jeong-min (Cart) and Lee Jae-yong (Masquerade). This is an interesting release and conveniently timed because the 2025 film Bugonia is based on this South Korean film and the director is an executive producer for the remake. From what I have heard it's similar to Suspiria in which both films are different but work really well in their own way so I'm looking forward to checking it out. This release is 4K Ultra HD only and the limited edition is packaged similarly to The Good, The Bad, The Weird with a rigid slipcase and o-card slipcase, booklet and poster plus an additional Blu-ray disc for extras. This film is also a license rescue as it was previously released in the UK by Tartan Video on DVD.

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#7: Crunchyroll UK Haul
As it's been a while since I had picked up any Crunchyroll UK releases a recent sale showed up and I took advantage of that to pickup a couple more titles. I would get more but I didn't want to grab so many in a short timeframe.

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Here we have Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Season 2 from Studio Flad (The Strongest Job is Apparently Not a Hero or a Sage, but an Appraiser (Provisional)!) which aired in January 2024. I watched the first season but not gotten around to the second so this was a good opportunity.

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Then we have Spy x Family Season 1 collection and Spy x Family Season 2, both from studios Wit Studio (Love Through a Prism) & CloverWorks (The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity) which aired in April 2022 & October 2023 respectively. Surprisingly I only watched the first season and not the rest. Owning the series on Blu-ray also took a while as I wasn't sure whether to pursue the limited editions or the standard but when they revealed a Season 1 collection not long ago, that helped with my decision to opt for that approach.
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And last but not least we have That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 Part 1 from studio 8bit (Blue Lock) which aired in April 2024. I've seen the first two seasons but not the third season and there's also the first film that I had yet to watch also. Now in case you're curious, I didn't buy Part 2 here because I have the Crunchyroll Limited Edition from North America on its way as I have the first two in their limited edition releases.

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#8: Wolf Children
Next we have a brand new Anime Limited release and an upgrade of sorts with Mamoru Hosoda's 2012 film Wolf Children on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray and DVD in a deluxe edition set. This is definitely by no doubt one of the most disappointing releases the distributor has ever done. I'll repeat what I said on my blog below.

As someone who’s picked up a lot of special editions from Anime Limited, this deluxe edition is a mixed bag. Acrylic standees are one of my favourite additions in limited edition anime releases so I’m happy to have one here, but it does mess up the spacing in the box so they should have placed it separately. Crunchyroll & Funimation’s releases always had them held in a cardboard box that can be separated for a Part 2 Blu-ray release if needed so it doesn’t ruin the flow of the box set or sometimes the box is separate from the rigid case.

Then we have the stacked digipack which is a bizarre choice because all that’s just going to do is damage the circle at the centre of the discs over time. The inclusion of the DVD disc is also baffling since the 4K Ultra HD disc is the main feature (Blu-ray being included is understandable and perfectly fine, but DVD is unnecessary). And there’s no booklet here which is very unusual especially for what is considered a 'deluxe' release.

For me what I would have done is remove the DVD from this release, replace the digipack with a 4K Amaray case, relocate the acrylic standee so it’s separate from the set, at least include a booklet of some sort, and that would have made the box half the size and more shelf-friendly. Oh and I haven't even mentioned how so far every Mamoru Hosoda Anime Limited release has had the on-disc extras held exclusively to the deluxe edition when other regions have them available on the standard edition.

So my stance is this - if you like the film and don't care too much about extras, then go with the steelbook edition. If you like the on-disc extras (and have access to multi-region Blu-ray discs), then import GKIDS's release. This deluxe is very expensive for what's on offer and hopefully the deluxe editions for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars will be much better.



Coming soon to my future hauls are another batch of newly released Asian Cinema from Eureka, Radiance & Third Window Films, as well as the ones I previously mentioned in the last haul update plus a real-time strategy Koei Tecmo game which is a first.
 
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Without any email confirming its dispatch I received this today to replace the faulty discs for the Limited Edition release. Appreciate the BBC going the extra mile here and I rather like the Standard Edition packaging too.
 
Just one arriving for me today - I ordered this Blu-ray after I recently found out it existed alongside the TV series, which I had purchased from Discotek a while back. I figured I should probably pick it up while I can at a regular price of $42 (seems to be getting hard to find), since I have the TV series Blu-ray.


Kiss X Sis Complete OAD Series

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