Happy new year everyone! Originally I was going to make a November update but I decided to postpone my plans for certain items in preparation for the Rightstuf Christmas sale. So for once I got a ton of items in the same month (December), though most are not special but they're at least worth noting. In addition I also picked up some novels for the first time in over a month.
Here's the latest pickups from the course of November and December 2015.
So here we go.
November 2015 | #1 | Guilty Crown: Part 2
The first pickup of November and actually the only one for that month was an emergency pickup at that time. Guilty Crown Part 2 was one of the few titles suffering from Funimation's stock issues and the second half was also one of the few shows I needed to get in order to finish off the show for my shelf (I've had Part 1's Limited Edition for nearly 2 years). Ordered it from Robert's Anime Corner Store and I haven't finished the second half yet but I'm aware that the show goes downhill a lot in these last eleven episodes.
December 2015 | #1 - Christmas | Mobile Suit Gundam Part 1
And after many weeks Christmas happened. I wasn't expecting much but I did provide a wishlist of sorts with links to the locations where I wanted them to order (the cheaper the items are, the more I could get). And for anime I actually asked for two specific titles but one of them got postponed to January due to the publisher wanting to improve the quality of the set which is good because the effort added to the sets the better the release. Anywho the one that arrived in time for Christmas is Mobile Suit Gundam Part 1 from Anime Limited.
I had the choice to go with either the Rightstuf release or the Anime Limited version. And in the end I decided to pursue the Anime Limited sets because they're adding an extra touch to their releases. Unlike the US, the UK is getting an artbox for Part 1 & 2 sets presumably for each Gundam title. I do intend on getting Part 2 sooner than later. By the way, the cover for the Part 1 box on the picture above is the reversible cover that resembles the US Blu-ray release.
December 2015 | #2 - Christmas | PlayStation 3 Games
It's been a while since I had asked or bought some PlayStation 3 games. I put those plans on hold because I had a lot of games to sort out that needed completing (whether it's just for the story or I decide to go for the Platinum). For Christmas I asked for 4 games ~ and since my blog is mainly focused on Japanese related stuff the one game I got I'll omit from this list but it's The Darkness 2 if you're curious, a really good game and cheap to buy but very short.
The three games I got for Christmas were the Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection, One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 and Yakuza: Dead Souls. I've been meaning to try every single major Metal Gear Solid game for quite sometime. I've owned the HD Collection on Xbox 360 but I decided it wasn't a good starting point so I never finished them. Then MGSV: The Phantom Pain came out and I bought/finished Metal Gear Solid via PSN, to which I really enjoyed. Back in September I was debating on whether to rebuy the HD Collection for PS3 or just go for the Legacy Collection and I decided to go with the latter. The Legacy Collection contains every major Metal Gear game prior to Ground Zeroes. That means it includes Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid & VR Missions (PS1 downloads), MGS2: Sons of Liberty, MGS3: Snake Eater, MGS4: Guns of the Patriots and MGS: Peace Walker. At the time of this post I've finished Sons of Liberty, to which I really enjoyed.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 is a surprise addition. I mentioned it alongside a couple other titles because I wanted some of the gifts to be a random choice from Amazon. And to be honest I'm glad I have the game now and I'm not fussed that it's the Essentials version either (to which I were generally trying to avoid unless the original copies were using the Spider-font banner i.e. Saints Row: The Third). The game is actually going up in price and soon to go out of print, especially when the US version never had a physical release. Like with the first game I can't complete it (or in this case even start it) until I have reached the New World arc in the manga so that I don't end up spoiling myself.
The last game is Yakuza: Dead Souls, also known in Japan as Like a Dragon of the Dead (Ryu ga Gotoku of the Dead). I've been meaning to pick up this spin-off for a while and I felt now was the right time to do so. From what I've heard the game itself is not that great but it's not that bad either, the main problem is down to the technical issues like framerate. It's a cheap title and I'm surprised my copy wasn't the BBFC version so that was neat.
December 2015 | #3 - Christmas | Light Novels/Manga
For once I got some light novels and manga! This time it's an interesting one, and probably the highlight of this update. At Christmas I received one novel and one manga, as the other novel got delayed due to low stock, it arrived on December 31st so it's effectively my last pickup of 2015.
Another was a surprise anime to me, I marathoned the show and I loved its premise and the tone of the show. I even bought the manga adaptation which was good but fell too short. Now I finally own the original source material - the novel! One of the first Yen On titles and given the hardcover treatment, Another is going to be a fun read. The manga I received was the third and final omnibus volume of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood. Phantom Blood is a simple JoJo story but it's still great to read with its artstyle and having Dio as the main villain. I was going to include Part 2: Battle Tendency Volume 1 also but I decided to wait as Battle Tendency is even more bizarre.
Now what was the final item of 2015 you ask? It's the Kizumonogatari novel! Yep, Vertical managed to pick up the rights to the novel with NisiOisiN helping out with the translation. Kizumonogatari is the third novel in the Monogatari franchise and it's the first chronologically. It's funny how we manage to get this as we have been waiting for the anime to happen for many years (and it's finally going to come out, except it's a trilogy so we have to wait even longer). In case you're wondering, the Japanese cover is included in the first page of the novel.
December 2015 | #4 - Rightstuf Sale | Highschool of the Dead
After Christmas ended I had been impatiently waiting for my Rightstuf parcels. Due to Asendia being slow and Royal Mail going on holiday for certain days I couldn't receive my items until the holidays ended. In fact both set of parcels arrived at the same time.
The first parcel contained the collector's edition of Highschool of the Dead, Sentai's first collector's release. The set was about $44.99 when I ordered it and I felt it was the right time to go ahead and pick it up. It's re-authored and much better than the UK version, heck it's even geo-locked so I can play it on my PS3 without any issues.
December 2015 | #5 - Rightstuf Sale | ef and Fate/stay night
The second parcel contained the original sets for both ef and Fate/stay night. The ef sets were re-released as a complete season 1 & 2 set with the same discs but special reversible cover for a specifc season while Fate/stay night was re-released as a complete set, re-authored in 1080p.
I went with the original sets for ef as I liked the art and the discs were already Region B compatible. They were cheap which made it even better, $9.99 each! As for Fate/stay night, the 1080i sets and 1080p complete set were basically the exact same so I decided to go ahead with the original sets. I also prefer the art used on the original sets than the one used for the complete set.
And that's it for the month!
I have a couple more posts planned so stay tuned for those and I'll have a few more items scheduled during the first few months, most are from Kickstarter so hopefully they arrive on time. I may work on a Otaku Collection like I did last year but I'll think about it first. Thank you everyone for looking at my posts over the year and I'll do my best to keep on continuing for 2016.
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