2024 HAUL - MARCH CHAPTER: BATCH #4
Another batch of releases throughout the past week, including a delayed item from last month's Crunchyroll haul.
The latest Discotek Media haul has arrived from Stackry which consists of 11 Blu-rays from the Crunchyroll Store and separate from the forwarding service is an extra Blu-ray that I found through Rarewaves here in the UK.
Normally I present my Discotek hauls in alphabetical order of sorts but here it made sense to sort them by order of the purchases as they were done in pretty much 3-4 different occasions throughout February to March.
Starting off with the first order which was to rescue one out of print title from December's notice that came back in stock in February alongside various others. I used this opportunity to get my hands on it but also picked two other titles to fit the bill of fan service and horror (lol).
Kiss×sis
Adapted by studio Feel in 2008 and directed by Munenori Nawa. The peak of fanservice may have been monster girls for many, but reality says incest. This is a series that I consider to be a cult hit amongst the anime community and Discotek's release has been selling out constantly throughout the years and it's why I picked it up now to avoid waiting again. This is the OVA series that came before the TV series. This was released by Discotek in January 2021.
Re: Cutie Honey
Adapted by studios GAINAX and Toei Animation in 2004 and directed by Hideaki Anno with Hiroyuki Imaishi, Naoyuki Itō & Masayuki. I enjoyed the recent Cutie Honey adaptation and while I do own the New Cutie Honey series I had yet to pick up the recent Re: Cutie Honey release that is notable for being based on the live-action film (also by Anno). This release also includes an English dub which brings back Cutie's voice actress which is a nice way of keeping consistency for the franchise. This was released by Discotek in August 2023.
Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo
Adapted by studios Brain's Base and Bee Media in 2000 and directed by Jun Kawagoe. Keeping the Go Nagai Getter Robo train going ever since I witnessed the characters insanity through Super Robot Wars. This OVA collection is also one of the very first Discotek Blu-ray releases and it does show with how it was authored. But still it's great to be able to own this finally after all of these years and being one step closer to owning the Getter Robo titles. This was released by Discotek in September 2015.
Next we have our second order which was made in response to the February notice of out of print releases. I was very lucky with this notice as I managed to own a fair few of these from recent hauls (including the January one) but there were still a few that I needed. However I made the decision to go for what I felt was the most important and what I felt was happy to own, and as such I passed on Angel's 3Piece and Caligula but went for two of the ones below instead.
Girly Air Force
Adapted by studio Satelight and directed by Katsumi Ono. This is one of those invasion tropes where moe girls pilot planes and honestly I like the animation studio and felt it was worth a pickup. It's not going out of print just yet but it is a Crunchyroll sub-license so expect this to discontinue in the coming months. This was released by Discotek in December 2021.
The Law of Ueki
Adapted by Studio Deen and directed by Hiroshi Watanabe. Another 00s shonen series that received a year's worth of anime episodes. Honestly the premise alone had my interest and it did well enough to be reprinted with the curved slipcase. Considering it was originally released in North America by Geneon Entertainment it made sense for the series to discontinue alongside Elemental Gelade (though Tokyo Underground dodged the bullet which is odd). This was released by Discotek in July 2018.
Magical Girl Ore
Adapted by studio Pierrot+ and directed by Itsuro Kawasaki. This has perhaps one of the most interesting concepts for a magical girl show that I've read and I'm very surprised it didn't get released in the UK or even dubbed in English. I feel like I watched the first episode before in the past but either way I am happy to own this series on Blu-ray. Like Girly Air Force this is a Crunchyroll sub-license despite not being listed on the packaging (as it's also a co-production). This was released by Discotek in May 2021.
Now we land into the March orders where payday arrived once again.
Kyo Kara Maoh! Seasons 1 & 2 + Kyo Kara Maoh! R + Kyo Kara Maoh! 3
Adapted by Studio Deen and directed by Junji Nishimura. Fun fact - this is an isekai series before isekai became mainstream in the anime world! The first series, split into two seasons, was released by Geneon back in the day but the remainder didn't, which is why it was interesting to see Discotek put out all of it on Blu-ray. Lambadelta was the one who introduced me to the series so it's taken this long to finally pick them up.
Now a few things to make note - Kyo Kara Maoh! R, the second series which is also an OVA collection, wasn't part of the Stackry haul because Crunchyroll Store actually didn't have it in stock. However, Rarewaves of all places did for £15 so I went for it and arrived last Saturday, two days before the Stackry package came so it was in good timing.
The other note to make is that this series has been around long enough for me to consider the fact that there is a high chance all of the sets will go out of print at some point this year. So if you've been holding off from owning this classic isekai series from the 00s I recommend getting them now to save yourself the hassle because these sets aren't cheap either. These were released by Discotek in April 2019, September 2019, November 2019 and April 2020 respectively.
And also joined by the previous batch were these two releases.
Lady Oscar: The Rose of Versailles Collections 1 & 2
Adapted by studio TMS Entertainment and directed by Tadao Nagahama and Osamu Dezaki. I remember when I first started the Discotek journey I picked up Dezaki's Dear Brother which was a limited release, and here I finally picked up the other classic series that I'm surprised hasn't met the same outcome. Heard great things about the series so I look forward to checking it out when I can. I believe these were also the first in Discotek's curved slipcase design. These were released by Discotek in April 2021 and June 2021 respectively.
The Discotek Media haul is making progress but there's still a number of releases that need to be picked up sooner than later as the notices are approaching titles from the 2019, 2020 and some from 2021 at this point.
Also arrived alongside the Discotek Media haul from Stackry is
Black Summoner, an isekai series that was supposed to have been part of the Crunchyroll February haul but missed the boat because it was shipped separately due to being held in the Texas warehouse rather than the Iowa warehouse where the rest were. I was worried about the size of the package but thankfully the set survived with little issues here so that's a relief.
Canadian retailer Video Games Plus received another batch of Limited Run Games releases and these included a few that were on my radar. Now I did have every opportunity to order these during their pre-order run last year but I had confidence that VGP would eventually pick them up and they did which arrived on their store at the end of February and start of March.
So what we have here are three Nintendo Switch releases. The first is
Castlevania Anniversary Collection which contains the SNES 1995 game
Castlevania: Dracula X (also known as Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss in Europe), GBA 2001 game
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, GBA 2002 game
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and GBA 2003 game
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.
Next we have
Radiant Silvergun, a 1998 shoot em up developed by Treasure and re-released on the Switch by Live Wire, the same folks who also brought over a few of the Cave games.
And then we have the
Telenet Shooting Collection by Edia which contains the Sega Mega Drive 1990 game
Granada, Sega Mega Drive 1990 game
Gaiares, PC Engine 1990 game
Avenger and PC Engine 1992 game
Psychic Storm. Edia are the same folks who brought back the Valis games and recently Cosmic Fantasy so I wanted to grab more of these retro classics.
More Anime Limited releases arrived today, one of which was supposed to have been released back in late February.
First up we have
Golden Time, now returning to the UK for the first time since the Animatsu two-part subtitled only Blu-ray releases. This release is based on the re-release by Sentai Filmworks so it now includes their English dub. You can view more photos/specs
on my blog.
Next we have
Granbelm -The Two Princeps-, an original anime series by the Re:ZERO anime director as well as the Re:ZERO light novel illustrator over at Studio Nexus. One of the many Crunchyroll titles that Anime Limited managed to pick up for a UK release which Sentai also put out in North America. Anime Limited really need to ditch the UK cases if they want to use multiple cases for their sets. You can view more photos/specs
on my blog.
And then we have Bakarina in her Villainess Isekai world in
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Season 1. Anime Limited chose some odd artwork to use for their box and case in parts but the booklet is nice at least. This also includes the Crunchyroll English dub. You can view more photos/specs
on my blog.
Just the OVAs to go.
