Otaku Collection 2015: July Update | Some Luck on Pricing!

August is here, it's boiling hot and it's that time again for me to show off my latest pickups from the month of July 2015. Couple were pre-orders, some were OOP rescues and others were picked up by luck.

Pickup #1 | A Lull in the Sea & Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero

The first pickup of the month is a new arrival and an older Funimation LE. A Lull in the Sea (also known as Nagi no Asukara) got the Premium treatment from NIS America and I wanted to jump in considering it's got an English dub and at the time was cheaper than the UK version (which is getting the same treatment due to a collaboration with the rights). I wanted the NISA version just to get the set early and while I do have a backlog, I did take a listen to the soundtrack and I like it. The other item that came along was Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero, the Funimation LE version. Quite a coincidence actually since Funimation is actually going to re-release the series DVD only for the S.A.V.E. line and the LE itself was actually going out of print, good timing! I hear the show gave people a bad taste so I'm curious.

Pickup #2 | NieR

Thanks to the announcement of a new NieR project for PlayStation 4, I was reminded to check out the first NieR game for the PlayStation 3 (there's an Xbox 360 version but I wanted to get the PS3 version) but to my surprise the PS3 version is out of print in the UK and it's got a high price for the US version. I did go for the US version in the end and I actually don't mind it, in fact I never realised how good the US PS3 covers are in contrast to the UK versions as they often have better art or the spine and back aren't messy with logos etc. (for instance the BBFC logo is all over the UK version). As for the game, people weren't joking. The music is amazing and the Weiss is such an entertaining character. I've played a small amount of the game and I got my money's worth! It's a shame the game isn't available on PSN because people need to get this game.

Pickup #3 | No Game, No Life

It's strange that I have owned almost every single Sentai Filmworks Collector's Edition available (with the only one left to collect being Highschool of the Dead since I already owned the set and it was pretty pricey for rather disappointing content) and this set is once again packed with loads of stuff. Haven't checked out the soundtrack yet but I know it's pretty popular amongst fans. Now at this point you're probably wondering about the subtitle on this blog post referencing the pricing, well that's because I got really lucky on this one. Due to the Rightstuf changeover my set amongst others was delayed and I was supposed to pay $89 with more for customs/tax. Instead I was charged $77.99 (averaging around £50) and the delivery dodged customs, effectively saving me about £20 since I cancelled my UP1 order a month prior due to low funds at the time.

Pickup #4 | Elfen Lied & Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar Part 2

The last pickup for the month went to a strange Amazon price glitch. A friend over at Anime UK News discovered numerous anime sets were priced as low as 1 Euro to 20 Euros, I decided to jump in and since I was pretty low on funds again and the selection didn't meet my priority I only went with Elfen Lied & Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar Part 2 which overall cost me £20 instead of around £60 if I had used either Amazon US or UP1. While they may not be special sets (i.e. Limited Edition) I'm glad I got them as WoG is a fairly old Funimation set so getting the second half now is better than waiting and realising it was too late. As for Elfen Lied I really liked the show, it was one of the first animes I ever watched so I wanted to pick it up especially since I have yet to watch the OVA.

And that's pretty much it for this month. As I've said before I'm still trying to sort out a placement (and effectively earn a salary) so I'm very limited on funds. I am getting some every now and then but that's because I'm actually on a diet (so if I reach a certain target I'll get some cash, it does take time). But any who if something happens I'll let you all know as soon as possible. Thanks for having a look at this update and I'll do my best to get more!