Another ho-hum week (from where I sit).

Hope it's not so ho-hum for you!

Safe shopping!

Nothing for me this week but thanks for the prices anyway, Mike!

As always, thank you for your work, Mike!

Mike Frezon said:

Hope it's not so ho-hum for you!

Click to expand...

This is one of those rare weeks where I am actually picking up something you didn't list in the Roundup [edit: not in the grid, anyway] so I get to add some information here.

Funimation is re-releasing Your Name in a new steelbook edition. It seems that the content of the Blu-ray disc itself will be identical to their previous keepcase release from November 2017. However, buyers will in essence be trading a DVD for the steelbook, because the previous release was a Blu-ray+DVD combo pack. The steelbook is apparently going to include a digital code, which wasn't included in the previous edition. I think there have been steelbook variants for Your Name in other countries, but this is the first United States release of this title in steelbook format.



I think it's a little strange to charge more for less, but I've never used the DVD in my previous edition anyway. So I have pre-ordered the new one and will pass off my previous edition to a friend. I wish they had just done the steelbook back in 2017 when it was released the first time. But this beautiful movie is without question one of my favorite films of the last few years, and the steelbook looks so gorgeous. I just really want to have it.

A note about availability: This steelbook is not a Best Buy exclusive in the traditional sense of how they normally have steelbook exclusivity, in that it is not a Best Buy-specific version. It does not appear that it will be produced in limited stock and other stores will eventually carry it as well. However, Best Buy does have exclusive rights to it for a couple of months. Other sites, such as Funimation's own store and Amazon, are taking pre-orders for release on October 20. Best Buy will have it exclusively beginning on August 18 until the general release in October. I've gone ahead and ordered mine from Best Buy for delivery by next Tuesday. Best Buy is currently charging $27.99.

My goodness, you're an early bird once again, Mike. Thanks for the RoundUp!

Again, nothing for me, and nothing on the review line-up for this week. Four for the following week, however.

Jake: I think someone didn't read the "Specials" section of the WRU! But while Your Name might be obscure to me, I appreciate that you added such detailed information about this release.

(And congrats on flipping the odometer to 11k posts!)

Matt Hough said:

My goodness, you're an early bird once again, Mike. Thanks for the RoundUp!

Click to expand...

Just trying to stay ahead of the law, Matt!

Mike Frezon said:

Jake: I think someone didn't read the "Specials" section of the WRU!

Click to expand...

Nope, I must have looked right past that for some reason. In saying you didn't list it, I was looking at the actual Blu-ray grid. My bad.

Mike Frezon said:

But while Your Name might be obscure to me, I appreciate that you added such detailed information about this release.

Click to expand...

Back when it was originally released in Japan in 2016, it dethroned Spirited Away as the highest-grossing local animated title of all time. Worldwide, its total gross was $357 million,. So, it's not that obscure on the world stage. But its U.S. box office gross was just a shade over $5 million, so, here, it would qualify as obscure. That's too bad because it's a really great film.

I remember when I saw it in theaters for the first time, it was a packed house and nobody, nobody, expected one of the twists, and I could just feel how electric the response was when it happened. Then, at the end, everybody just went nuts with rapturous applause.

Remember movie theaters and packed houses full of people enjoying movies together? Man, I miss those.

Just Flash for me this week.

I think the second (SE) listing in the 4k grid is for the BD only. There is another 4k SE which is currently $19.99 (and has been for a while):

See on Amazon

I'm going to be extremely disappointed with my fellow HTF'ers if I'm the only with "FLASH!!! AHHHH-AHHHH!" going on in my head right now...

Thanks, Mike. I have the Arrow 4K release of Flash Gordon on order. That's it for me this week.

I received Best Buy's shipping notice for my copy of the Your Name steelbook at 4:56 this afternoon local time. It is coming via UPS.

Officially, it's supposed to get here tomorrow, although given the late shipment, I'm wondering if that will stick. It's certainly not something that I must have immediately, so iit gets here late, nothing bad will happen. But I'm curious to see what happens on this.

On occasion that I pre-order steelbooks from Best Buy, I like to do that for store pickup when possible because it gives me a chance to inspect the steelbook to make sure there are no dents or anything before accepting it. This one was only available for shipping, though, so I didn't have a choice.

A week or two ago, Best Buy sent the Whiplash steelbook with shipping (that one wasn't available in-store either) and it got here just fine without any dents or other imperfections. Hopefully they can do that again. Because the whole point of the steelbook is how it looks, it would sort of defeat the purpose of displaying it if there are dents or spine slashes or something to that effect. So, fingers crossed it's good.

Edit: I just got more precise tracking information, and the item was handed off to UPS two hours from here, so Best Buy must have a fulfillment center locally. That means I probably will get it tomorrow (today, since I'm editing this after midnight local time) despite how late the package was sent, which is nice. Also, Best Buy's website now indicates that the steelbook is available for store pickup, which it wasn't when I did my pre-order. But there's only one copy at my local store. So, if anyone wants to go pick it up rather than have Best Buy ship it, I'd hurry and reserve it, because they don't seem to have gotten many copies. Like I said in my original post, the steelbook will become a general release, not Best Buy exclusive on October 20, so you could always pre-order from Amazon, Funimation or some other store for delivery then if you don't mind waiting 63 days. I'm happy to get this one now, though. Back to the Future comes out on October 20 and that will be expensive enough to be all I should buy on that date.

Edit #2: UPS delivered the package this evening and it is, fortunately, free of dents or other noticeable imperfections. So that's that. Weirdly, though, the digital copy included is only redeemable at Funimation's website and therefore not compatible with Vudu or any of the other normal digital retailers. I haven't seen that before. Considering that the film is available on Vudu, I'm not sure why they couldn't have made the digital copy compatible with it. It appears that the actual Blu-ray disc is identical to the United States release from 2017, but this release lacks the DVD from the original set.