Unboxing - VA-11 HALL-A Vinyl OST

Black Screen Records recently released the VA-11 HALL-A soundtrack on vinyl.

The release is beautiful, comprising two records in pink and blue, along with a poster, a booklet with a fictional interview of the game's *Kira* Miki character, and a download code for the complete soundtrack. The OST was remastered for the vinyl release, resulting in a very impressive sound.

VA-11 HALL-A is a 2016 visual novel by Sukeban Games that tells the story of a bartender's daily life in a cyberpunk world. It took the gaming community by storm, seeing an ongoing swell in popularity. It's highly recommended.

Unboxing - Gundam The Origin I Blu-Ray Collector's Edition

Gundam The Origin is a series of theatrical OVAs based on the manga of the same name and telling the story of a young Char Aznable (Then Casval Rem Deikun) and Sayla Mass (Then Artesia Som Deikun), and detailing the circumstances leading up to the One Year War.

When I saw the first episode back in early 2015, I was blown away. It wasn’t just the opening battle, either. The beautiful thing about Gundam The Origin is how well it details the world of the Universal Century. It’s not just Char’s origin story, but Ramba Ral’s, and Dozle Zabi’s, and Clamp’s. It’s the origin story of all Zeon. The political unrest, the class differences, and all the behind-the-scenes scheming and plotting are all palpable and make the world feel very real. It’s easily up there with 0080 and The 08th MS Team as far as Gundam OVAs go.

The Blu-Ray Collector’s Edition is an official export edition simultaneously released worldwide. It contains not only an English subtitle track (Along with French, Korean, and Chinese subs), but the English dub as well.

I highly recommend checking it out if UC Gundam is your thing. You can watch it (Along with the rest of the Origin series so far) streaming on Daisuki, for a fraction of the price of the Collector’s Edition.