What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!

2023 HAUL VER 12.8
(note: images are hosted via AUKN for the meantime)


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At the start of 2023 the first item that I received was Big Time Gambling Boss, the second release by Radiance Films. There was another title that was released at that same time, and today I now own it, which just so happens to be the final item for the year - Elio Petri's 1971 film The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La classe operaia va in paradiso).

This release is part of the Italian Radiance Collection that I've been building throughout this past month and this one is notable for being one of the most loved in the Italian film scene. I was fortunate to find a copy available, and although it was over SRP it was at least affordable enough for me to consider it, especially as the other releases were at regular prices. A standard edition is available but not only would it stand out against the others in a bad way but its super barebones on the packaging front compared to Arrow Video and 88 Films as I had mentioned before and I felt like I would be missing out had I went for that approach.

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And there we have it. The Radiance Films collection as of the end of 2023, and they are only a year old. Worth noting that for 2024 they will have more Asian films but there's also box sets and single-print releases to keep an eye on. At least they increased the print runs from 2000 to 3000 these days which does help.
 
I received one anime-related item in the mail from Anime-On-Line today...

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I've got some pre orders to come.
The Conan films 4k release by arrow video in the USA so no chance of UK release because Disney owns the rights in Europe out next month. Paprika one of Satoshi Kon films on 4k out in February it a us only release and true lies+aliens 4k they are getting a uk release so I don't need to import them.

the abyss 4k UK release has been cancelled because the bbfc wont pass the rat scene uncut so lightstorm refused to cut the rat scene.the bbfc could just rate it a 15 with a warning.they still won't pass it uncut after all these years.
 
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My second AL order finally arrived along with a mandarake and Amazon order.

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A big Like for the Japanese imports, I collected SBY 2199 as each of those 7 singles were released over 10 years ago, at full price; that series was a Top 5 anime for me. You probaby got a great deal on those through Mandarake. And I see you got the Amazon JP exclusive for Suzume just as I did - they did that exclusive so well!
 
2023 HAUL VER 12.9
(note: images are hosted via AUKN for the meantime)


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This is a rather entertaining pickup. The previous arrival (The Working Class Goes to Heaven) was supposed to have been the final item for 2023, but then I noticed The Game Collection started another deal involving 5x reward points. Neat stuff but what got me to sort out an order immediately was that I noticed they had a copy available for Octopath Traveler, the 2018 JRPG by Square Enix which arrived before the year was over than after.

Regardless I had been wanting to pickup this series for a while because not only were they well-received but it is fairly old and it's not exactly easy to buy as the prices are high and sometimes there's no stock. Having Nintendo publish the physical release is probably a factor here but considering it's one of the first big titles for the Switch, it made sense to look into it sooner than later especially given the rumours of the next Switch console continuing to appear.

And now we finally have the official end to the hauls for 2023. I plan to sort out a complete collection 2023 update very soon so stay tuned for that.
 
A big Like for the Japanese imports, I collected SBY 2199 as each of those 7 singles were released over 10 years ago, at full price; that series was a Top 5 anime for me. You probaby got a great deal on those through Mandarake. And I see you got the Amazon JP exclusive for Suzume just as I did - they did that exclusive so well!
Thanks, yeah they’re going for as little as 5000 yen (mine cost 7200). SBY is a blind buy for me except for some vague memories of star blazers from the eighties. I’m still not sure whether to get the rest on blu ray or dvd cos s3 doesn’t look like it has a blu ray release anyway and neither format has subs after s1. The dvd boxes look really nice though.
 
They're a company that puts out boutique releases in Korea. There are quite a few of these companies, putting out steelbooks, "fullslips", "plain editions", etc, Nova are one of the bigger ones.

Shipping costs depends on what you're buying. For this order, it was $35.85 for k-packet shipping (IIRC, EMS and maybe Fedex were also (more expensive) options). I limited my order to these three (even though there are plenty more I would've liked to grab) because adding anything more shot the shipping cost up by a lot.

Packing is extremely good, as anyone who's ordered stuff like this from Korea will likely be familiar with. Thick cardboard shipping box with an ungodly amount of bubble wrap. I'm talking each set wrapped individually, then stacked together and wrapped together in more bubble wrap, and then wrapped again in even more bubble wrap. The end result is often the thing shipped in a box that's twice as big as needed, and all the empty space is bubble wrap.

Order was placed on the 14th, shipped on the 20th. This is an outlier, likely because of a busy sale period. Previous orders I've done with them (granted, quite a few years ago) shipped out within a day.

Both the boxsets state all region on them, though Nova's site says A for the A Better Tomorrow set. Region codes aren't a concern for me, but I'd double check stuff to be sure before ordering anything. In my limited experience though, similar to Japanese BDs, Korean stuff is often region-free.
 
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