Blog News - What's going to happen over Q2 & Q3 [UPDATE]

Hello everyone, it's Normanic here and I wanted to make a blog post just to let you all know what's going to happen over the course of this month and throughout the summer season. Now first of all, thanks to everyone who takes a look at the posts I've done over the past year or so. It's not a perfect explanation but we all know that all you really need are the photos of what the sets look like anyway, haha. But anyway I am doing this because I feel it's quite necessary to explain what's going to happen or in some cases might happen. So let's begin.

Work Placement and Money

By the end of the month (or after 2 weeks to be specific) I'll finish my second year of university. The good news is that I'll have time to do whatever everyday while the other hand I have to search for a work placement. Work placement is the biggest problematic part for me so far, as it's vital for my course and I need it to earn cash properly to continue getting the rest of the anime I want. The good part of the salary is that I'll earn a fair amount every month, however about a third of it will have to be dedicated to food and bills. That reason alone is pretty much why I wanted to get the Aniplex sets now before then since they will take up a lot of my money. The only 'really expensive' Aniplex sets left to grab are Blue Exorcist and Sword Art Online II, as I just recently ordered the second half of Fate/Zero so that I wouldn't worry about how to pick it up. Besides those, I should be able to get the rest of the sets I wanted to own since they generally cost between £20-40 which is reasonable enough. As for the video games, they go on sale every now and then and you could own quite a lot of them by only spending £10-15 each. Now what about manga, light novels and visual novels? They aren't dropped, but on-hold until further notice (I'll instead try and get some at MCM Comic Con).

With that said I'm hoping to get the rest of the limited edition sets that I want by the end of the year, most notably Aniplex and Funimation.

What's arriving to the collection then? [UPDATE]

Well there is certainly good news as far as I can tell you right now. Just like last year when I finished my first year I'll have a lot of cash left over from the course, and I decided to use pretty much half of it on pre-orders. The reason I did this is because they feel like they could close out in an instant (chances are they won't but you can never know until they get released). It's a good thing to pre-order because it means you'll be able to get the set without having to worry about the set selling out, however the problem that many will encounter is whether you have the money for it once it's out. In my case I do have the money but it's going to take up a lot.

This month (aka May) will see Fate/Zero Box Set 2 from Aniplex of America arriving sometime next week, various items from what I encounter at MCM Comic Con London, and Darker Than Black Season 1 from Funimation at the end of the month. I also have a Japanese import in the form of K-On! Houkago Live!! HD estimated to arrive this week hopefully.

June is where a lot of the money has been spent towards pre-orders. Starting the month I'll expect Expelled from Paradise from Aniplex of America and Knights of Sidonia Season 1 from Sentai Filmworks. Not long after Hyperdimension Neptunia from Funimation will appear. And of course I forgot to mention this (didn't realise until now) my Birthday will appear so there's a chance I'll earn a small amount of cash (not a lot due to my age) to support the future pickups this summer. Finally at the end of the month we'll expect A Lull in the Sea (Nagi no Asukara) from NIS America to popup. This particular title is also receiving the same treatment in the UK by MVM however I'm keeping it safe and sticking with my order on the US set, since I'm also picky when it comes to the BBFC logos etc. The way that the Garden of Sinners DVD set was handled did put me off from the UK set.

In July I only have a small bit ordered due to the amount shoved into June. The only anime pre-ordered for this month is No Game No Life from Sentai Filmworks. Now there may be an occasion where I have to cancel one or two of my pre-orders due to financial issues so if I had to pick they will probably be the Sentai sets or even Nagi no Asukara (because NISA keep reprinting Love Live! and Toradora! even though they should have sold out).

There are some bonus sets arriving including the Clannad kickstarter. Clannad's main game has been paid, but I noticed the BackerKit doesn't end until the end of August so I also added the Clannad Side Stories to the mix. Clannad is estimated to appear late this year. Outside of gaming the Anime Limited kickstarter for Mai Mai Miracle is still on route for release sometime this summer, the English dub is still in process as far as I'm aware so it's taking a while.

Due to cost issues and MCM Comic Con, I decided to remove my pledge on the Grisaia games. To be honest I much rather have a physical copy of the original version and not the All Ages edition.

You mentioned MCM Comic Con, what would we expect to see?

The thing about MCM is that anything could appear. When I first went to MCM London in October I bought a lot of stuff and as a result nearly ended up on overdraft which wasn't a pleasant thing to witness. Then again the main reason I overdid it was because the visual novels were way overpriced (always check the item value on websites before going shopping at MCM people!). This time there will be some changes to this.

I won't be getting any wall-scrolls unless I saw something that really caught my interest (like Monogatari for example), and video games will vary on whatever is available. Manga-wise I'll probably get some but as I said it depends on the price they're asking. Anime-wise I initially planned to get some Anime Limited sets there but I got half of them early as I found them for a good price while the other half has been delayed. So who knows what might appear at the place. I do hope that I find some more US imports at Otaku but last time they only had a small amount (in which I bought Martian Successor Nadesico for £25). United Publications will also be there but were forced to discontinue selling imports at MCM London due to a complaint, they are able to sell them at other conventions including other MCM locations.

Anything else?

That's pretty much it for me to talk about. At the moment I have revision to sort out and continue my playthrough of Tales of Symphonia. But thank you everyone for at least having a look at one of my posts. I know I'm not the best guy around but I wanted to at least show everyone what these sets look like (since all you see is the front and back and that's pretty much it, unless you're on Anime UK News or Rightstuf forums for example).

Oh, I'm sort off trying to learn Japanese. The odd way.

Sayonara everyone.