What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!

I received one March pre-order from Crunchyroll US today:

Shangri-La Frontier Season 1 Part 1

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2025 HAUL - MARCH v1.1

Been occupied by weekend work and other stuff but here's what's arrived for the first 8 days of March. There's a lot of items so I've split the posts. This one covers the packages that came from the post on Saturday 1st, Monday 3rd, Tuesday 4th & Thursday 6th of March.


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Naruto Set 2 - 08.jpg

#1: Bleach Part 4 & Naruto Set 2
The first package of the month arrived on the very first day of March, and its more shonen anime from Anime Limited. Keeping the classic shonen series train rolling we have Bleach Part 4, covering episodes 84-111, and Naruto Set 2, covering episodes 56-110. It's a lot of episodes but there's still more to cover.

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Tekkonkinkreet - 08.jpg

#2: Blue Giant & Tekkonkinkreet
Next came the second Anime Limited package. Again like before, this was to make sure I save on the shipping cost. Here we have two films, one newly released in Japan and another that came out two decades ago.

Starting off with Blue Giant, the 2023 film about Jazz which I do own two of the manga omnibus volumes for but have yet to read them. I'm intrigued more for the film because its done by studio NUT but at the same time how they manage to cover 10 volumes into a theatrical experience. Anime Limited's collector's release is also pretty interesting and feels like a classic package of theirs that would have came out a decade ago. The box being larger by width to replicate the vinyl design is annoying but the package in general is solid.

Next we have Tekkonkinkreet, Studio 4°C's 2006 cult classic film that Anime Limited have rescued from Sony Pictures for a new UK release. Interestingly this is also an Aniplex title and I didn't realise that even with the previous UK Blu-ray release as its logo is on there. The extras from the previous release were carried over but you are going to deal with the French authoring antics of Com 'On Screen, but it does offer support for French & German dub/subtitles.

4K Haul - Blackhat Limited Edition 1.jpg
4K Haul - Chronicles of Riddick Limited Edition 1.jpg

#3: Blackhat & The Chronicles of Riddick
After picking up a few Arrow Video releases for the regular 4K collection, I decided to take a look at any that grab my interest and there were two that did for the same reason - they each had exclusive content for the limited edition versions. Now I tend to ignore these since Arrow are notorious with this model and there's a lot of demand for those pricey first print editions regardless, but here these two were reasonably affordable and I figured it was worth owning.

First we have Michael Mann's 2015 film Blackhat starring Chris Hemsworth which I'm not too familiar with but I have known the director's catalogue of titles like Collateral and Ferrari, both of which I also own but have not yet seen. This Arrow Video release has the theatrical cuts, both the US and International versions, on the 4K Ultra HD disc but what makes this limited edition release interesting is that it also includes a Blu-ray of the director's cut.

Next we have David Twohy's 2004 film The Chronicles of Riddick starring Vin Diesel, the second film in the Riddick film series and one that I have seen before but that was just over a decade ago. Arrow Video have released the first film (which was their very first 4K Ultra HD title) but I don't own it yet. This has three 4K Ultra HD discs in the package - the first two discs will be available for the standard edition which are the theatrical cut and director's cut while the third disc, which is exclusive to the limited edition, includes an alternate aspect ratio version of the theatrical cut, the cutscenes from the 2004 video game Escape from Butcher Bay, and a television special extra feature.

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2025 Haul - Kuroneko, Kwaidan & Onibaba Blu-ray 1.jpg

#4: China O’Brien 1 & 2, Kuroneko, Kwaidan & Onibaba
Eureka Entertainment ran a small discount sale that included a recent release that I hadn't picked up yet, which I held off due to wanting to wait for a good deal to come. That was for Robert Clouse's 1990 films China O'Brien 1 & 2 (罪惡判官 & 罪惡判官2) on 4K Ultra HD. Both films star Cynthia Rothrock and while this is a film solely produced in English for the American audiences, it was supported by Golden Harvest. I heard these films are not particularly great but I was intrigued regardless and considering it was available in 4K I figured it was worth picking up especially on sale.

I also ordered three more older titles from Eureka's catalog as they have discontinued the booklets moving forward for older releases (newer print runs will omit them basically). Here I went for Masaki Kobayashi's 1964 film Kwaidan (怪談) and Kaneto Shindō's 1968 film Kuroneko (藪の中の黒猫) & 1964 film Onibaba (鬼婆). These are three classic Japanese films and ones that I had been meaning to own for years. I've already seen one of Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition Trilogy which is excellent but I have yet to check out any of Kaneto Shindō's works so far.
 
2025 HAUL - MARCH v1.2

This one covers the packages that I picked up from my trip to town (York) on Saturday 8th of March.


Haul - Breathless, Evil Does Not Exist, Irreversible, Train to Busan 1.jpg

#5: Breathless, Evil Does Not Exist, Irreversible & Train to Busan
Took a trip to York to check out a few things in HMV and I ended up grabbing a few interesting titles for both the Asian Cinema and European Cinema collection.

Let's start off with the Asian Cinema titles. First up is a film that I had only discovered recently that had been released on home video already in the UK and that's Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 2023 film Evil Does Not Exist (悪は存在しない), distributed by Modern Films on Blu-ray. Hamaguchi is the director of the award-winning film Drive My Car and I remember this film as it was distributed in North America by Janus Films so I was expecting that or MUBI but that's not the case here.

Next we have Yeon Sang-ho's 2016 film Train to Busan (부산행) on 4K Ultra HD by Studio Canal. This Korean film I have seen before half a decade ago when it was made available on Amazon Prime and I really enjoyed it. Studio Canal's handling of this release is weird considering its 4K only and uses a slimmer case. The live-action film Peninsula received similar treatment but I haven't picked that up at the time because it wasn't part of the 2 for £30 deal in the store.

Shifting over to the European Cinema titles, we have two well-known French classics. First we have Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film Breathless (À bout de souffle) on 4K Ultra HD by Studio Canal. This release celebrates the film's 60th anniversary and I only discovered this film fairly recently out of morbid curiosity and staff credits even include François Truffaut as the scriptwriter which is neat to see.

And last but not least is Gaspar Noé's 2002 film Irréversible, distributed by Indicator on Blu-ray. This release is the standard edition version since the limited edition box set sold out years ago. This cult classic thriller is known for its reverse narrative and extreme themes which won't fit well with many filmgoers. I watched the original theatrical cut and it's an interesting experience, especially with how it manages the camera work and storytelling. This release also includes the 2020 Straight Cut version which flips the narrative order from beginning to end rather than the original's end to beginning approach.

2025 Manga Haul - 03.1 - Black Clover Vol 15-17.jpg
2025 Manga Haul - 03.2 - Chainsaw Man Vol 16-17 & Frieren Vol 11.jpg
2025 Manga Haul - 03.3 - Jujutsu Kaisen Vol 21-23.jpg

#6: Travelling Man Viz Media Manga Haul
After HMV, I took a trip to the Travelling Man store and picked up more volumes for the Viz Media Shonen Jump titles that I have yet to catch up on.

We have Black Clover Volumes 15-17, Chainsaw Man Volumes 16-17, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Volume 11, and Jujutsu Kaisen Volumes 21-23. Most of these are unfortunately the Italian print versions which is more common in the UK but at least they don't look too thinned out in contrast to the US/Canadian print versions.
 
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Before I went nuts with anime in late 2020, I was always playing and buying (J)RPGs. I've logged more than 100 RPGs over the years (including really unique ones like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Terranigma).

My anime hobby has completely replaced my RPG hobby, but I want to try playing them again. So for the first time in years I've bought a bunch of games:

Suikoden II is my favourite RPG of all time, so getting the remaster was a no brainer.

I'm also a big fan of the Trails series, so I had some catching up to do (I have the entire Sky, Crossbell and Cold Steel series).

Finally Let's Go Eevee. I own one game from every generation and I own 1 game per remake. This was the only one I was still missing.

Still debating if I want to buy even more RPGs. I have a list of 25 more games...
 
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Before I went nuts with anime in late 2020, I was always playing and buying (J)RPGs. I've logged more than 100 RPGs over the years (including really unique ones like Panzer Dragoon Saga and Terranigma).

My anime hobby has completely replaced my RPG hobby, but I want to try playing them again. So for the first time in years I've bought a bunch of games:
This happened to me, except I became burnout of anime in 2023 when I got my PS5 with a bunch of JRPG and high profile games.

Thankfully I mostly recovered from that burn out, but for now I personally favor gaming, although I still watch anime, however I'm much more selective of what show's to watch and buy on home video.
 
This happened to me, except I became burnout of anime in 2023 when I got my PS5 with a bunch of JRPG and high profile games.

Thankfully I mostly recovered from that burn out, but for now I personally favor gaming, although I still watch anime, however I'm much more selective of what show's to watch and buy on home video.
It's the complete reverse for me haha. I used to play whatever RPG crossed my path, but I know if I really want be enjoying RPGs again I should be a lot more selective. With anime I don't care as much, since you can finish most of them in 5-10 hours.
 
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