I'm a fan of slim cases - I really don't know why companies didn't move over to them years ago. American BDs have used them for ages and even the UK Iron Man 2 BD (released in 2013!) came in one.
I don't buy many movies on BD nowadays, but I got a few MCU movies for £7 each in HMV a few weeks ago and they all came in slim boxes. I guess that's the standard now - it's a shame it took so long, both for shelf space and for people who like their collections to be mostly similar.
Yeah I don't mind thin cases and seems to becoming the norm (Disney, Warner, Universal, Paramount all use them as standard now) but as you say they really should've done it a decade ago! I think the first major one I noticed was Aquaman haha
Was kind of hoping Scanovo would become the norm after the death of Amaray, clear case, no blu ray logo at the top and more room for artwork oh well.
2023 HAUL VER 7.3 (note: images are hosted via AUKN for the meantime)
I was expecting a package to arrive today but it turns out that FedEx won't deliver on weekends unless it's in a specific tier, so my Rightstuf haul will appear on Monday alongside INU-OH so look forward to that.
I also want to mention that my Normanic Vault blog is back online after WordPress's automated anti-spam system suspended it for violation of T&S. It's a relief that it's resolved as soon as possible, as that's 5 years worth of work that would have disappeared from the net.
Arrived on Wednesday is another Eureka Entertainment release, however this one in particular was released last year and I didn't pre-order it at first due to cost. This is the Angela Mao: Hapkido (合氣道) & Lady Whirlwind (鐵掌旋風腿) collection on Blu-ray, which is now going out of print thanks to the distributor sending a warning across social media so it was available at a discounted price on their official webstore. I've been meaning to get this for a while so I'm glad I got it sorted in time. The first print edition is packaged like Millionaire Express so it has the poster outside of the case but within the slipcover. A booklet is also included.
Next we have our 88 Films package which I bought using the Birthday discount that I received last month. Here we have The Untold Story (八仙飯店之人肉叉燒包) and Magic Cop (驅魔警察) on Blu-ray. The latter is why this package was held up as 88 doesn't ship out the sets until everything in the order is in stock. The Untold Story is the one I'm looking forward to the most as not only is the film another one of the Category III rated titles, but it's apparently one of the most interesting films in the Hong Kong cinema scene. It is also uncut which is what many had assumed why it didn't get released here in the past due to its content. Magic Cop on the other hand, is cut by the BBFC for animal cruelty but you can get access to the uncut version when you play the disc on Region A players. I will be unboxing The Untold Story at a later date so look forward to that.
Source: Cleopatra Entertainment, LLC Special Thanks to Tim Yasui Tim Yasui, VP/General Manager of Cleopatra Entertainment, has reached out to SciFi Japan t...
I've heard from someone who has the 'corrected' Shin Ultraman blu-ray... turns out it's still sub-par. All they've done is add translations for on-screen text. The only subtitle track still has sound effect descriptions. [SOUND OF GRINDING TEETH INTENSIFIES]
I'm just glad I heard about this before I wasted time trying to get a replacement. I guess I'll have to learn to love that English dub.
I received three Sentai Blu-rays from a blu-ray.com anime forum friend - the first one on 7/15, and the other two titles yesterday:
Revisions
The Executioner and Her Way of Life
Vermiel in Gold
And, since I got my new Lycoris Recoil desk mat for my main PC in the basement theater room, I decided to dress up my 35 year old IBM Model M keyboard that sits on it as well, with some colored keycaps that I found on eBay - I especially like that Escape key...
It's just too bad that the keyboard and mouse have to cover up my favorite Girls with Guns.
I hadn't even noticed they were using the same release for UK/Germany until I saw Greatest Demon Lord on Amazon.de.
Suppose if it means we get slips again it's a price worth paying (metaphorically not monetarily )
So not sure how many of you on here remember the Studio Ghibli shrine I had on the rear window of my white 2012 Scion xB?
Unfortunately, the engine burned up in that car a few months ago, so I have a new(er) Japanese car now - a black 2014 Mazda CX-5. I wanted to do another anime shrine on the back of this car as well, but I decided not to do a similar all-white Studio Ghibli theme, and instead went for a full-color display of anime characters this time. The rear window on this car was a little trickier to work with for displaying decals, due to the slope and curves of the window, and the path of the much larger rear wiper blade, which forced me to keep the decals to the far left and right sides of the window. But, I was still able to get a good selection of anime decals installed, with 5 on each side.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present you with... the Girls with Guns GWG shrine!
On the right side, counterclockwise from bottom left, we have:
Revy from Black Lagoon
Triela from Gunslinger Girl
Chisato and Takina from Lycoris Recoil
Girls Frontline - OTs-14 Crassula
Girls Frontline - AK-15
And on the left side, clockwise from bottom right:
Girls Frontline - Walther PPQ (the handgun that I own) Girls Frontline - G36 Maid
Girls Frontline - JS05 Jade Rain
Girls Frontline - Mosin Nagant on chair
Girls Frontline - M4A1
And of course I can't forget to label the shrine with my anime forum user name and nickname!
I just wish there would have been other decals available for well-known GWG anime series. I did get decals for Henrietta, Claes, and Rico from Gunslinger Girl as well, but all three of those turned out to be really large decals with a lot of background to them, and just didn't look right on the back window, so I ended up using more of the Girls Frontline stickers. Oh well, at least those are quite a bit sexier than the Gunslinger Girls, lol....
2023 HAUL VER 7.4 (note: images are hosted via AUKN for the meantime)
Two more packages today, one arriving later than expected and another earlier than expected lol.
Scheduled to be released in early August but arriving two weeks early is Masaaki Yuasa's Inu-Oh from Anime Limited. Their collector's edition Blu-ray & DVD release is very nicely detailed and includes their shop exclusive art cards. Interestingly the discs were done by VDMS, likely because the GKIDS release only has English & Spanish whilst Anime Limited wants French support included in their set. You can view more photos and specs on my blog.
A bit of an overkill but I decided to order another batch of Sentai Filmworks titles through Rightstuf since the sale is still on-going.
Ideally this package would have arrived on Saturday given the timing but it seems they don't deliver on weekends for Rightstuf's shipping method of choice so it's good to know for future hauls. In this haul we have a total of 6 titles and you could argue this is a fanservice or mature rated themed line-up. Overall cost was £20 cheaper than the last haul but that's because of one particular title included which is larger than the usual set.
The haul consists of mostly re-releases, both in terms of standard editions and general re-release treatment. All 6 titles below will work on European PlayStation 5 players as part of the whole geolock stuff.
Here we have Demon King Daimao, Hayate the Combat Butler Ultimate Collection, and Infinite Stratos Season 1.
Demon King Daimao is one of the first titles to be released on Blu-ray by Sentai back in 2011 so to see it get a re-release caught my attention, though given how long its been I do think the license window could be close to expiring. Has uncensored melons in the menus interestingly.
But it's Hayate the Combat Butler Ultimate Collection that started this second haul, because panic buying started to creep in. Sentai delisted the set (which came out in 2020) and so far Rightstuf and Robert's Anime Corner Store are the only two who have stock. I wanted to be ahead of the curve so I decided to use my 15% discount code on the set as I predicted it would go for $65 if it did go on sale (and it did as of last Saturday). This ultimate collection includes all four seasons and the film across 14 Blu-ray discs (first case covers Seasons 1 & 2 with 6 & 3 discs respectively, and second case covers the rest with 2, 2 & 1 disc each respectively).
And then there's Infinite Stratos Season 1 and it's rather fortunate that we only have the first season because I already own the second season via Sentai's limited edition release from half a decade ago. Like Demon King Daimao, the original release came out back in 2012 so this re-release is very handy for accessibility. MVM did release this series but only on DVD.
Then we have Made in Abyss Theatrical Collection, Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time & Queen's Blade: Rebel Warriors.
I really enjoyed Made in Abyss and as I was interested in the film series, which consists of two compilation films and a continuation film, MVM only wanted to focus on the latter so I decided to wait for the Sentai release to go on sale and pick it up.
Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time is the only one in this haul that I have watched previously, during simulcast and it's not exactly the most appealing show and is very questionable, never-the-less it's one of those dumb shows that I felt was worth owning for my shelf.
Last but not least we have Queen's Blade: Rebel Warriors which covers the OVA series Queen's Blade: Beautiful Warriors and the third series Queen's Blade: Rebellion (for context Media Blasters had the rights to the first two series prior). I always wanted to own something out of this very ecchi fantasy series so this was probably the best opportunity to go for. Sentai released these back in 2013-2014.
Anime
First Blu-ray release
Re-released
Demon King Daimao
June 2011
February 2023
Hayate the Combat Butler Ultimate Collection
S1: August 2015
S2: October 2015
S3: April 2015
S4: June 2015
Film: December 2015
November 2020
Infinite Stratos Season 1
April 2012
May 2022
Queen's Blade: Rebel Warriors
S3: September 2013
OVA: December 2014
June 2021
So here's how the Sentai Filmworks standard collection is looking thus far. I'm honestly pretty surprised with my picks for this month but there's many more to go for. Almost making the list were The Flowers of Evil, Majestic Prince Collection, To Love Ru Collection, Waiting in the Summer and Yuyushiki but there's still time to get those later. Getting Sentai titles is a challenge due to the chances of a re-release which would be the more ideal version to go for, but the ones released since 2019 onwards should be fine to get either way.
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oh well.
www.scifijapan.com
)
Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present you with... the Girls with Guns GWG shrine! 
