Dragon Slayer
Soul Reaper
Received today from Waterstones.
What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!
- Thread starter bakum4tsu
- Start date
NoSurprises
Hunter
Some poor financial planning on my part...
Dai
Combat Butler
Some recent arrivals.
Original 1986 release of the Project A-ko soundtrack via Mandarake. Not in the best condition, but the disc plays fine, which is the most important thing.
Hard Boiled finally gets the release it deserves. Still one of the best action movies of all time. It's a chunky edition with lots of extras. Four audio commentaries!
I had to replace my Thundercats DVD set when I recently found that several of the discs in my old set from 2009 had serious problems that I had mixed success in repairing. It's annoying that the series has never had an HD release. These discs are the exact same transfers that Warner Bros released two decades ago, just in much cheaper-looking packaging.
CommanderZx2
Vampire Ninja
My latest arrivals today:
Spark_Heal
Student Council President
Finally got my Sony Walkman NW-A306 music player, a protective case, screen protector and micro SD card. The charm is a Haro phone charm I got at Animecon this year from Purus’s Counterattack. Thankfully Day of the Gundam’s site it better at listing artists by name than Animecon
Vincentdante
Chuunibyou
My Stackry order arrived.
April Haul #1
First haul of the month arrived on April Fools Day. As far as I'm aware, pretty much all of my pickups is likely to show up at the end of the month heh.
#1: Radiance Films Spring Sale Haul
#2: GOG Sale Haul
First haul of the month arrived on April Fools Day. As far as I'm aware, pretty much all of my pickups is likely to show up at the end of the month heh.
#1: Radiance Films Spring Sale Haul
Radiance Films held a sale on their webstore that included various titles, and these sales tend to sell out the limited edition releases if you're not paying attention. So for my haul I focused on three releases that I was interested in owning the most.
Starting with The Betrayal (大殺陣 雄呂血), Tokuzō Tanaka's 1966 film. This Japanese film was released on Blu-ray last year but had an issue with one of the extras so they held off on stock to get that fixed. The film stars Raizō Ichikawa (An Actor's Revenge, Shinobi film series), Kaoru Yachigusa (Pastoral: To Die in the Country, Samurai Trilogy), Shiho Fujimura (Casting Blossoms to the Sky, The Snow Woman) and Ichirō Nakatani (Harakiri, The Sword of Doom).
Next we have a collection of short animated films in the Essential Polish Animation collection, Radiance's first animated release. This set includes 27 films that were made between 1957 to 1987 from Daniel Szczechura, Jan Lenica, Jerzy Kalina, Jerzy Kucia, Julian Józef Antonisz, Kazimierz Urbański, Mirosław Kijowicz, Piotr Dumała, Ryszard Czekała, Stefan Schabenbeck, Walerian Borowczyk, Witold Giersz, Włodzimierz Haupe, Halina Bielińska, Zbigniew Rybczyński, and Zofia Oraczewska. Zbigniew Rybczyński's Tango, one of the shorts included in this collection, won the Best Animated Short for the 55th Academy Awards in 1983.
Next is Senso, Luchino Visconti's 1954 Italian film, which includes a few versions of the film across two Blu-ray discs. You can watch the film in either 1.33:1 and 1.66:1 aspect ratios and there's an alternate English version available. The film stars Farley Granger (Rope, Strangers on a Train), Alida Valli (Inferno, Suspiria), Massimo Girotti (Last Tango in Paris, Theorem), and Heinz Moog (Karl May, Ludwig).
Starting with The Betrayal (大殺陣 雄呂血), Tokuzō Tanaka's 1966 film. This Japanese film was released on Blu-ray last year but had an issue with one of the extras so they held off on stock to get that fixed. The film stars Raizō Ichikawa (An Actor's Revenge, Shinobi film series), Kaoru Yachigusa (Pastoral: To Die in the Country, Samurai Trilogy), Shiho Fujimura (Casting Blossoms to the Sky, The Snow Woman) and Ichirō Nakatani (Harakiri, The Sword of Doom).
Next we have a collection of short animated films in the Essential Polish Animation collection, Radiance's first animated release. This set includes 27 films that were made between 1957 to 1987 from Daniel Szczechura, Jan Lenica, Jerzy Kalina, Jerzy Kucia, Julian Józef Antonisz, Kazimierz Urbański, Mirosław Kijowicz, Piotr Dumała, Ryszard Czekała, Stefan Schabenbeck, Walerian Borowczyk, Witold Giersz, Włodzimierz Haupe, Halina Bielińska, Zbigniew Rybczyński, and Zofia Oraczewska. Zbigniew Rybczyński's Tango, one of the shorts included in this collection, won the Best Animated Short for the 55th Academy Awards in 1983.
Next is Senso, Luchino Visconti's 1954 Italian film, which includes a few versions of the film across two Blu-ray discs. You can watch the film in either 1.33:1 and 1.66:1 aspect ratios and there's an alternate English version available. The film stars Farley Granger (Rope, Strangers on a Train), Alida Valli (Inferno, Suspiria), Massimo Girotti (Last Tango in Paris, Theorem), and Heinz Moog (Karl May, Ludwig).
#2: GOG Sale Haul
GOG just wrapped up their Spring Sale and I figured it was time to add a few more games to the PC digital non-DRM collection. It was near the end of the sale but I did take some time to think about my choices.
We'll start with Soldier of Fortune and Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix, both were developed by Raven Software (Heretic/Hexen, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast) and released in 2000 & 2002. They're classic first-person shooters known for being too violent at the time which is why they received BBFC 18 ratings back then. There is a third game that also saw a release on PlayStation 3 but I focused on these two for now.
Next we have Sleeping Dogs, 2012 open-world action game by United Front Games (ModNation Racers) and published by Square Enix. Originally going to be True Crime: Hong Kong but revamped in production, this is a really good game and one of my favourites of the seventh generation era. The Definitive Edition includes the DLC and remastered content and since the PS4 version isn't compatible for PS5 I decided to have access via the GOG release.
Then we have another Hong Kong themed game with Stranglehold, released in 2007 by Midway Studios Chicago (aka NetherRealm Studios of Mortal Kombat fame) and produced by John Woo. It's a sequel to the iconic Hard Boiled with Chow Yun-fat reprising his role as the main character. It's a Max Payne clone but pretty enjoyable and I finished the game on PlayStation 3 but it was pretty rough on the performance so the GOG release is a good way to play it for a better experience.
Then the next day came and the sale concluded, but what we got was a new sale and finally I was able to get my hands on the Resident Evil Classic Trilogy (1996's Resident Evil, 1998's Resident Evil 2 & 1999's Resident Evil 3: Nemesis) on GOG. Sure, the games are now on Steam but I have heard the DRM Capcom uses does interfere with the performance. I never played the originals and whilst they are on PS5, being able to play them on PC means I can ultilise the mods and improve the visuals and even include a randomizer if I wanted to.
We'll start with Soldier of Fortune and Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix, both were developed by Raven Software (Heretic/Hexen, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast) and released in 2000 & 2002. They're classic first-person shooters known for being too violent at the time which is why they received BBFC 18 ratings back then. There is a third game that also saw a release on PlayStation 3 but I focused on these two for now.
Next we have Sleeping Dogs, 2012 open-world action game by United Front Games (ModNation Racers) and published by Square Enix. Originally going to be True Crime: Hong Kong but revamped in production, this is a really good game and one of my favourites of the seventh generation era. The Definitive Edition includes the DLC and remastered content and since the PS4 version isn't compatible for PS5 I decided to have access via the GOG release.
Then we have another Hong Kong themed game with Stranglehold, released in 2007 by Midway Studios Chicago (aka NetherRealm Studios of Mortal Kombat fame) and produced by John Woo. It's a sequel to the iconic Hard Boiled with Chow Yun-fat reprising his role as the main character. It's a Max Payne clone but pretty enjoyable and I finished the game on PlayStation 3 but it was pretty rough on the performance so the GOG release is a good way to play it for a better experience.
Then the next day came and the sale concluded, but what we got was a new sale and finally I was able to get my hands on the Resident Evil Classic Trilogy (1996's Resident Evil, 1998's Resident Evil 2 & 1999's Resident Evil 3: Nemesis) on GOG. Sure, the games are now on Steam but I have heard the DRM Capcom uses does interfere with the performance. I never played the originals and whilst they are on PS5, being able to play them on PC means I can ultilise the mods and improve the visuals and even include a randomizer if I wanted to.
Shadow Cat
Dragon Knight
My first Tomix (HO) model arrived 
Hokkaido Kiha 40
Been slowly getting into HO over the last few months. Not sure how much I'm going to buy though as its not cheap
Hokkaido Kiha 40Been slowly getting into HO over the last few months. Not sure how much I'm going to buy though as its not cheap
April Haul #2
I've been ill from a cold this whole Easter break (about 75-85% recovered now) but I've been well enough to do stuff in the afternoon each day including taking a look at a package that arrived on Easter Sunday of all days.
#3: Aniplex of America Catch-Up Haul Part 1
I've been ill from a cold this whole Easter break (about 75-85% recovered now) but I've been well enough to do stuff in the afternoon each day including taking a look at a package that arrived on Easter Sunday of all days.
#3: Aniplex of America Catch-Up Haul Part 1
Aniplex of America is a distributor that I've acquired a lot of titles over the past decade but the last time that I had received any of their releases was 2.5 years ago, which was when the Rightstuf store was closing down and ran a farewell sale (which was followed by the package going MIA and arriving a month later than planned).
Since then I hadn't bothered to secure any more of their releases and I'm honestly not sure as to why, but recently I decided it was time to revisit the distributor's catalogue. I made an order for four titles last month which is currently being consolidated at Stackry but around the same time, an opportunity came up thanks to Discord/Forum member SAHO and we agreed on a package deal that consisted of a majority of The Irregular at Magic High School anime franchise (everything prior to Season 3 which only just got released last year).
I have been patiently waiting on owning this franchise for 12 years now, and it's absolutely baffling how none of the UK distributors bothered to pick up the license and release it over here, considering its one of the more popular IPs from Aniplex. The series did eventually receive an English dub later down the line but I was getting fed up of waiting, especially when you take into consideration how the Crunchyroll Store has been slowly one by one removing and hiding listings from every distributor including Aniplex (for example I was going to order Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace note and then it disappeared a few hours later).
While this is technically the second batch, it arrived first so let's go over what we have!
First up, we have the complete first season for The Irregular at Magic High School which aired in 2014 by studio Madhouse, adapting three story arcs from the light novels; Enrollment Arc (episodes 1-7), Nine Schools Competition Arc (episodes 8-18) & Yokohama Disturbance Arc (episodes 19-26). It was first released as three limited edition volumes (one for each arc) and as much as I had wanted to own those they did go out of print, but Aniplex of America by pure chances released a complete series box set mirroring the Japanese release (but using Amaray cases instead of digipacks). You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
A few years after the first season aired, Aniplex decided on an original anime film for the franchise with 2017's The Irregular at Magic High School The Movie: The Girl Who Summons the Stars. The twist here is that instead of studio Madhouse, studio Eight Bit (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) takes over the helm of animating the story. In another weird move, the film also takes place after the events of the second season so anime-only viewers at the time were pretty much out of the loop for quite a while. Aniplex of America did release the film on Blu-ray in their limited edition style packaging similarly to the first season's volume releases. You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
Then another few years after that, Aniplex & Dengeki Bunko finally revealed plans to adapt more of the light novels, which leads us to the complete second season with The Irregular at Magic High School: Visitor Arc which aired in 2020 by studio Eight Bit, returning from animating the original film prior and the same staff as well. This season was notable for two reasons; the first is that UK viewers could now watch the series legally during simulcast from this season onwards (but are still unable to watch the first season), and the second is an English dub was also made for this season from Bang Zoom! Entertainment (and they did go back to dub the first season, but it's stuck on Hulu only for US/CA fans). Since it's one arc and they changed their model around this time of year, Aniplex of America kept the series together into one release. You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
The Mahouka hype train eventually continued with two adaptations being revealed around the same timeframe; an anime adaptation based on the manga spin-off series The Honor Student at Magic High School, which Aniplex of America unfortunately didn't release on home video, and another light novel story arc adapted into anime format with The Irregular at Magic High School: Reminiscence Arc, a television special that aired on New Years Eve 2021. This was written before the Visitor Arc in the novels and is also a prequel to the events of the series. Despite being a TV special, Aniplex of America's release was pretty neat especially for the SRP it's going for. You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
And also an added bonus is a CD+DVD release of LiSA's Rising Hope single for the first season of the anime.
In terms of my Aniplex catch-up haul plans, four titles are nailed down (which are at Stackry) and The Irregular at Magic High School Season 3 is next on my list to get. There are a number of titles that I could choose from but I want to be cautious because they're not cheap releases (meaning even ordering a few in one haul takes up a good portion of my funds for the month) and given the success of MVM being able to acquire a few Aniplex titles, I do wonder if Anime Limited are now able to do the same for series like SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online Season 2 as an example but at the same time I don't really want to wait for MCM London May to find that out.
Since then I hadn't bothered to secure any more of their releases and I'm honestly not sure as to why, but recently I decided it was time to revisit the distributor's catalogue. I made an order for four titles last month which is currently being consolidated at Stackry but around the same time, an opportunity came up thanks to Discord/Forum member SAHO and we agreed on a package deal that consisted of a majority of The Irregular at Magic High School anime franchise (everything prior to Season 3 which only just got released last year).
I have been patiently waiting on owning this franchise for 12 years now, and it's absolutely baffling how none of the UK distributors bothered to pick up the license and release it over here, considering its one of the more popular IPs from Aniplex. The series did eventually receive an English dub later down the line but I was getting fed up of waiting, especially when you take into consideration how the Crunchyroll Store has been slowly one by one removing and hiding listings from every distributor including Aniplex (for example I was going to order Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace note and then it disappeared a few hours later).
While this is technically the second batch, it arrived first so let's go over what we have!
First up, we have the complete first season for The Irregular at Magic High School which aired in 2014 by studio Madhouse, adapting three story arcs from the light novels; Enrollment Arc (episodes 1-7), Nine Schools Competition Arc (episodes 8-18) & Yokohama Disturbance Arc (episodes 19-26). It was first released as three limited edition volumes (one for each arc) and as much as I had wanted to own those they did go out of print, but Aniplex of America by pure chances released a complete series box set mirroring the Japanese release (but using Amaray cases instead of digipacks). You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
A few years after the first season aired, Aniplex decided on an original anime film for the franchise with 2017's The Irregular at Magic High School The Movie: The Girl Who Summons the Stars. The twist here is that instead of studio Madhouse, studio Eight Bit (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) takes over the helm of animating the story. In another weird move, the film also takes place after the events of the second season so anime-only viewers at the time were pretty much out of the loop for quite a while. Aniplex of America did release the film on Blu-ray in their limited edition style packaging similarly to the first season's volume releases. You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
Then another few years after that, Aniplex & Dengeki Bunko finally revealed plans to adapt more of the light novels, which leads us to the complete second season with The Irregular at Magic High School: Visitor Arc which aired in 2020 by studio Eight Bit, returning from animating the original film prior and the same staff as well. This season was notable for two reasons; the first is that UK viewers could now watch the series legally during simulcast from this season onwards (but are still unable to watch the first season), and the second is an English dub was also made for this season from Bang Zoom! Entertainment (and they did go back to dub the first season, but it's stuck on Hulu only for US/CA fans). Since it's one arc and they changed their model around this time of year, Aniplex of America kept the series together into one release. You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
The Mahouka hype train eventually continued with two adaptations being revealed around the same timeframe; an anime adaptation based on the manga spin-off series The Honor Student at Magic High School, which Aniplex of America unfortunately didn't release on home video, and another light novel story arc adapted into anime format with The Irregular at Magic High School: Reminiscence Arc, a television special that aired on New Years Eve 2021. This was written before the Visitor Arc in the novels and is also a prequel to the events of the series. Despite being a TV special, Aniplex of America's release was pretty neat especially for the SRP it's going for. You can view more photos & specs on my blog.
And also an added bonus is a CD+DVD release of LiSA's Rising Hope single for the first season of the anime.
In terms of my Aniplex catch-up haul plans, four titles are nailed down (which are at Stackry) and The Irregular at Magic High School Season 3 is next on my list to get. There are a number of titles that I could choose from but I want to be cautious because they're not cheap releases (meaning even ordering a few in one haul takes up a good portion of my funds for the month) and given the success of MVM being able to acquire a few Aniplex titles, I do wonder if Anime Limited are now able to do the same for series like SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online Season 2 as an example but at the same time I don't really want to wait for MCM London May to find that out.
Hunter_Killer
Hunter
Arrived in March, part 1:
Hunter_Killer
Hunter
Arived in March, part 2:
Bryan Admiraal
Hunter
Girls with Guns
Claymore
Today I received the final anime Steelbook out of four from the order I placed at Target back in February. I really like the idea of including refrigerator magnets in these sets rather than sticker sheets - I can decorate my refrigerator with anime and move them all around without being stuck on permanently! 
Farming Life in Another World Season 1 Collector's Edition Steelbook
Farming Life in Another World Season 1 Collector's Edition Steelbook