What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!

My order from Archonia:20240923_175457757.JPG

My eBay purchases:
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I really wanted to dig into the Space Brothers series. I finally found a listing on eBay that was somewhat within budget.
The other blu rays were ones that weren't in stock during the Crunchyroll sale and also weren't in stock at Archonia.

The only things I still need:
Urusei Yatsura series part 3
After War Gundam X part 2
 
I received one pre-order title today from Crunchyroll US:

B: The Beginning - Season 2 Succession Limited Edition

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2024 HAUL - SEPTEMBER CHAPTER: BATCH #2.1

This batch covers a few items that I have picked up over the past few weeks. There's a lot to cover so once again I've split the post into two parts.

The Legend of Hei did arrive yesterday as well, but that's not included due to damage but a replacement is incoming.



These three titles all arrived back on Thursday 12th but essentially I wanted to order a few classic Japanese films as it had been a while and I figured these three would be good to order altogether.

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So first up we have Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film Ikiru (生きる) which had been recently re-released on home video by British Film Institute for Blu-ray. It is a 4K scan I believe but they felt it wasn't worth the 4K UHD format which is fair. This is the first print edition so it comes included with a booklet. Admittedly I had missed out on the recent Ozu collection sets but they're not as a priority as Kurosawa in my opinion.

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Next we have three films in this collection released by Eureka Entertainment back in June and that's The Valiant Red Peony aka Red Peony Gambler. This includes Kosaku Yamashita's 1968 film Red Peony Gambler (緋牡丹博徒), Norifumi Suzuki's 1968 film Red Peony Gambler 2: Gambler’s Obligation (緋牡丹博徒 一宿一飯) and Tai Kato's Red Peony Gambler 3: The Flower Cards Game (緋牡丹博徒 花札勝負). The gambling theme has always intrigued me so I'm interested to see how these turn out given they're more historical Japan compared to others.

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And then comes the latest big box release from Radiance Films with World Noir Vol. 2, which contains three more international non-English films set during the early 60s. In this volume we have Helmut Käutner's Black Gravel (Schwarzer Kies) released in 1961 from Germany, Jacques Deray's Symphony for a Massacre (Symphonie pour un massacre) released in 1963 from France, and Takumi Furukawa's Cruel Gun Story (拳銃残酷物語) released in 1964 from Japan.

The first volume I've only watched The Facts of Murder which was excellent so I'm looking forward to more of the European noir genre. Noir was never my thing and that's probably because Hollywood oversaturated it to death so it felt unappealing to me, but considering how it originated from Europe to begin with, seeing their own take on it combined with these newer restorations felt like a fresh change of pace.


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Fast-forward to last Sunday, after finishing the Secret of Mana remake I finally picked up Astro Bot for the PlayStation 5. I have started it and already completed the first two worlds 100%. It's the type of game that brings you back to the classic platforming experience from the early 3D era and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to find those bots throughout each level, a couple very surprising cameo appearances.


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I went to watch The Substance at the cinema which is a really good body horror film and one of the better films of the year if you need a recommendation, but to make sure I arrive on time I go to town first. I visited the HMV first and spent way more time in there than I should have done but I wanted to get something and they had a restock for a whole bunch of Radiance Films titles which included their newer releases like Seijun Suzuki's 1965 film Tattooed Life (刺青一代) which I felt would sell out faster than the rest so I picked that one.


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Also bought in two are two more video games for the collection. In CeX they had a copy for Another Code: Recollection that I've been meaning to pickup for a while and for £35 which was cheaper than Amazon and The Game Collection I decided to grab it now. This is a remaster of two games released years back; the 2005 Nintendo DS game Another Code: Two Memories and 2009 Nintendo Wii game Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories which North America didn't receive the latter so having both of these come back for the Switch is neat.

Then I visited the GAME which to my surprise is actually closing down in York. The staff mentioned the park area is forcing them out and they are expecting the branch to merge inside the Sports Direct like other locations have done. It's a shame to see GAME devolve into this mess but I would rather they survive even if its a smaller game selection than be dead completely. Anyway they were having a 20% off stock sale and they had Like a Dragon: Ishin! which was actually there when I last visited the branch but miraculously they had a sealed copy for £12.99 so I got it for £10, neat. This game is a remake of the 2013 PS4 launch title Ryu ga Gotoku: Ishin! with updated visuals and tweaks to be more in-line with the newer instalments in terms of presentation and such.


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When I got back home, HMV delivered The Boy and the Heron. This is their HMV Exclusive version which featured better artwork than the regular edition, and also comes with art cards. Now despite the Radiance style packaging, they didn't bother to clean up the artwork so it was pretty pointless to include the mini-sleeve in the first place, because the purpose of those is to keep that type of information (BBFC, Ratings info, plot synopsis, extras etc) on there, allowing the main artwork to be look nicer. The texture of the sleeve used does make the spine look pretty good on the shelf but you get the point.

Now I'll be completely honest. I haven't been watching as much anime for the past year and the reason is because my job has had so much going on to which I've spent extra time to make sure I am up to speed on a number of tasks, this results in me being too exhausted or feeling like there's not enough time each evening to watch an anime or two. Now arguably I could manage but I don't want to force myself for the sake of it which is why I stopped taking part in Anime Planet's simulcast challenges. There is light at the end of the tunnel but will take a few more months before it can fix itself unfortunately.

Watching The Boy and the Heron at the cinema in IMAX during this ordeal felt like I was back in that excitement again for watching anime and I'm glad to own it on home video, especially in 4K Ultra HD which does include Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision on top of Elysium using GKIDS's assets so at least the disc is in good shape. I watched the film in Japanese but I have heard the English dub is very solid.
 
2024 HAUL - SEPTEMBER CHAPTER: BATCH #2.2



It's that time again, another Discotek Media haul! Well this is an out of left field one.

Back in August, stock came back briefly for City Hunter 2 Sets 1 & 2 which went out of print earlier in the year alongside the Galaxy Express 999 sets. I prioritised the latter because I was convinced that Anime Limited would license and release the City Hunter franchise because after all Discotek only have the rights to US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and Anime Limited have the rights to the new film Angel Dust which adapts the final arc of the manga. But it was clear that as time goes by, as months and year pass, the likelihood of the distributor ever releasing them over here was becoming more and more unlikely.

Waiting patiently for a UK release also has its consequences, and I decided enough was enough and put in the effort to look into owning the Discotek releases as soon as possible. The good news is that I was able to secure all of them, though there were a few mini-challenges.

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City Hunter & City Hunter 2 Sets 1 & 2
Adapted by studio Sunrise in 1987-1988 for the first season and 1988-1989 for the second season, both directed by Kenji Kodama. City Hunter is an adaptation of the Weekly Shonen Jump manga series featuring JUMP FORCE star Ryo Saeba. It's considered a classic series and it's one that I've always wanted to check out ever since I first saw the chunky DVD sets that were released by ADV back in the day (I think the first time I saw them was via BlaizeV's videos on his YouTube channel). The first season was initially released in two parts before Discotek Media then re-releasing the series as a complete season set which was an experiment that failed due to poor sales and also impacting the sales for the second season. Discotek Media released the Blu-rays for City Hunter Season 1 collection in October 2021, and City Hunter 2 Sets 1 & 2 in July & September 2021 respectively.

The first season I ordered perfectly fine through the Crunchyroll Store however for the second season the only option was eBay (or Robert's Anime Corner Store for scalper prices). Admittedly this result was not as bad as I had expected. Set 1 was used but in pretty solid condition and priced reasonably to be on par with Crunchyroll Store's prices so I was very happy with that, while Set 2 was £30 more. The plan for Set 2 was to order it through Crunchyroll Store because it was available at the time, but I wanted to make sure that Set 1 dispatched first before proceeding, but unfortunately stock sold out before I had to chance, hence why I had to pay scalper prices but it was new and sealed and both shipped to Stackry without issue.

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City Hunter 3 & City Hunter '91
Adapted by studio Sunrise in 1989-1990 for the third season directed by Kenji Kodama and in 1991 for the fourth season directed by Kiyoshi Egami. These continue the adventures of Ryo Saeba and Kaori Makimura across more seasons, though compared to before, these two only contain a single cour's worth of episodes but cover the manga's story up until a specific point near the end of the material. City Hunter '91 I had to order from Amazon US because Crunchyroll Store didn't have stock. Discotek Media released the Blu-rays in March & April 2022 respectively.

City Hunter: Movie & TV Specials Collection
Adapted by studio Sunrise, the Movie & TV Specials collection features the films City Hunter: .357 Magnum from 1989, City Hunter: Bay City Wars and City Hunter: Million Dollar Conspiracy released together in 1990; all three directed by Kenji Kodama. We also have the television specials City Hunter: Secret Service from 1996 by director Kenji Kodama, City Hunter: Goodbye My Sweetheart (also known as The Motion Picture) in 1997 by director Kazuo Yamazaki, and City Hunter: Death of the Vicious Criminal Ryo Saeba from 1999 by director Masaharu Okuwaki. The latter of which wasn't released in English before so it's presented subtitled only whilst the ADV dubs are included with the other films/specials. Discotek Media released the Blu-ray collection in January 2023.

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Cat's Eye
Adapted by studio TMS Entertainment in 1983-1985 and directed by Yoshio Takeuchi for Season 1 & Kenji Kodama for Season 2. Cat's Eye is Tsukasa Hojo's earlier work which I actually didn't realise came before City Hunter until very recently, and it was also serialised in Weekly Shonen Jump which is cool. The series has received a release in the west partially by ImaginAsian Entertainment (i.e. just the first season) and then Nozomi Entertainment released the whole series across two DVD sets, before Discotek Media eventually rescued the license for a Blu-ray release. Discotek Media released the Blu-ray seasons in April & November 2022 respectively.

City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes
Adapted by studio Sunrise in 2019 and directed by Kenji Kodama, this is a newer film in the City Hunter franchise that pretty much takes the cast in present day Shinjuku but I heard was pretty solid. The Japanese cast reprise their roles and Discotek provided an English dub to keep it consistent with the previous films receiving one. This was also Discotek's first release for the franchise before eventually releasing the rest. Discotek Media released the Blu-ray in May 2020.
 
PACKAGE ARRIVAL
Stackry Order

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PACKAGE ARRIVAL
(Lost count of how many times I've bought Elfen Lied 😅)​

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PACKAGE ARRIVAL
(Lost count of how many times I've bought Elfen Lied 😅)​

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Its so good those!!!
 
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