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Tuesday 1 March 2016

Otaku Collection 2016: January/February Update | Operation Funiplex and Various Special Sets

Welcome to the first 2016 instalment for my Otaku Collection series, where I cover all of the titles I had picked up over the course of each month. However for the next set of quarters I'll only be doing this once every two months instead of each month like I usually do. For this update I have picked up a select number of titles with the budget I had been given.

So here's the items I picked up during January and February 2016.


Before I cover the new items I'll want to make it clear once again that I apologise for the slow updates on the new items. It's rough having to rely on an allowance rather than University finance funds on everyday things. I'll be back to normal starting this September so please bare with me on the shows and games I pickup from now until then.


January 2016 | #1 | Harlock: Space Pirate 3D
The first title of the year was originally slated to arrive in time for Christmas 2015, however it received a delay due to the Blu-ray production. I wasn't fussed about it since delays are often used for good reason. Harlock: Space Pirate (also known as Space Pirate Captain Harlock 3D) is a film I saw at my society a few years ago, while it wasn't perfect it was satisfying enough for me to pick it up on Blu-ray when it's legally available. Manga UK eventually bought the rights but sadly their release wasn't perfect (English dub on Blu-ray, Japanese version on PAL DVD, barebones etc.) despite having a really nice steelbook. It wasn't until the beginning of Q4 when a publisher called Twilight Time picked it up and covered pretty much everything available (both versions on Blu-ray with 2D & 3D options with tons of extras). Overall this US import was worth the value and there's only a certain amount of copies in print so pick it up if you're a fan of the franchise before it's too late, plus it's region free.


January 2016 | #2 | Tales of Graces f
The second title (and the first video game pickup of the year) is an North American PS3 import! I've been meaning to go through the Tales of series for a long time. I bought Tales of Symphonia Chronicles when it got released and I managed to grab Tales of Hearts R before it went OOP so I eventually had to get Graces f at some point. Well it finally happened when I noticed the prices were going up for the UK version and the US version was still around but not import friendly for the UK. Thanks to Play Asia the item was in stock at an excellent price brand new and it arrived without any issues. I haven't started the game yet as I was going through Symphonia, which I've finally finished the story to after many months. I do plan on getting Xillia before it's too late.


January 2016 | #3 | Darker Than Black Season 2 & Last Exile -Fam, the Silver Wing- Part 2
Now at this point you're probably wondering what the hell 'Operation Funiplex' means on the title of this post. Well it's something I named that describes the current situation in which Funimation can't renew their Aniplex titles and as such they're going to go out of print when the deadline hits. So far Baccano! and Darker Than Black Season 1 have been hit with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood & original Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa next on the list. When it was announced that Darker Than Black was going, many of us initially thought that Season 2 would suffer the same problem but it seems that Funimation still have the rights for another 2 years or so. In the end I picked it up regardless so I got it out of the way just in case.

The other title I picked up alongside Darker Than Black Season 2 is a different thing entirely. During the latter half of 2015 I've slowly been picking up the Part 2 sets for a bunch of titles. I got Guilty Crown, Michiko & Hatchin, Shakugan no Shana Season 3 and Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar sorted. After a while the prices for Last Exile -Fam, the Silver Wing- had been quite high but during my scroll through Amazon I noticed it was on for $29.99 so I finally decided to jump in and order it alongside Darker Than Black Season 2. It's a pretty solid deal since it went back up to $37.99 plus I ordered it before the currency rate got worse. All that's left now are the Eureka Seven sets and Robotics;Notes.


February 2016 | #1 | Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
February approaches and then Funimation suddenly announces they are losing the rights to the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood series. I was in complete shock because of this and virtually everyone kept on ordering the series on Amazon as a result. After a week I finally decided to jump in and order the series since the prices was pretty solid. I already own the series on PAL DVD from Manga UK and I've been meaning to upgrade to Blu-ray for quite some time. The Funimation Collection sets were chosen over the Manga UK Collections because of shelving space and the fact that I trust Funimation more than Manga UK nowadays. Nevertheless I now own the series in HD which I'm really happy for since I love the Brotherhood series. I do plan on getting the original Fullmetal Alchemist series later this year.


February 2016 | #2 | Love Live! School Idol Project Season 2
The last pickup of the month went to an emergency pickup. When I bought Season 1 of Love Live! it went OOP in a few days before release and had no plans for a reprints. I was lucky enough to grab a copy as it was available on United Publications. The premium set eventually received another print run due to high demand and eventually a standard edition with an English dub. As a result of that I was expecting the same to happen with Season 2 and I fell for the same mistake. NIS America revealed they had no plans for reprinting the premium set for Season 2 and as a result I panicked because I didn't want to be inconsistent with this series. Once again I was able to pick it up thanks to United Publications. Season 2 premium set also includes the English dub but for consistency sake I'll watch it subbed (I have nothing against dubs by the way).

And that's it for my latest pickups.

It's been a pretty solid two months but due to the EU Referendum the UK pound against the US Dollar is getting tedious so my pickups will be affected quite a bit for the next couple of months. I hope this doesn't get worse when I return to University later in the year.

As for what to expect in March & April I have Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa ordered & dispatched which should arrive at some point this week. There's also the Clannad visual novel kickstarter that will soon dispatch from Sekai Project's HQ at some point between now and next week. I should expect it hopefully before the end of March. Anime Limited's Mai Mai Miracle is still going through production so I should expect that sometime late April at the earliest (if we're lucky). As for anything else I'm aiming to acquire the Senran Kagura: Estival Versus Limited Edition, due to my low funds I may just go for the Vita version and pickup the PS4 version at a later point.

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Member of the Anime UK News forum, and also once part of the Sheffield Hallam Visual Arts society throughout 2013-2017. Been collecting anime since 2012 and supported the anime distributors ever since. Also been hanging around on the Blu-ray forum and Fandom Post forums.

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