Here is the brutal reality for collectors. Shoku produced exactly 3,000 copies of the V13 Exclusive worldwide. Of those, 1,500 were sold via lottery in Japan, 1,000 via the Shoku Global store (sold out in 11 minutes), and 500 held for conventions.
As of this writing, the average sale price on eBay and Yahoo Auctions Japan is:
Original MSRP was $59.99. That is a 700%+ return on investment in less than nine months. a record of delias war v13 shoku exclusive
Opening the plain brown shipping box (which was sealed with a wax stamp, a nice touch from the seller), the book immediately felt heavier than expected. The Shoku Exclusive is encased in a protective plastic slip, but once that was off, the details popped.
The Cover: The most striking difference is the foil treatment. Standard V13s have a flat, matte finish. The Shoku edition utilizes a "kinetic foil" on the title text. When you tilt the book under a lamp, the title Record of Delias War seems to ripple, mimicking the chaotic magic spells described in the narrative. The background art—a silhouette of the antagonist, Kael—has a pearlized sheen that gives it a ghostly, ethereal look. Here is the brutal reality for collectors
The Interior: I was worried about gutter loss with a volume this thick, but the binding is stitched, not glued. It lays relatively flat, which is a godsend for reading. But the real value for collectors lies in the Shoku-exclusive frontispiece. It’s a full-color, glossy insert that wasn't in the serialized magazine run. It depicts the final stand at the Spire, rendered in a watercolor style that the artist is famous for but rarely uses anymore.
Shoku (stylized as SHOKU®) is a boutique Japanese publisher known for their "Sensate Edition" releases. Unlike mass-market giants like Kadokawa or Shueisha, Shoku focuses on limited-run, premium physical media. They are famous for using proprietary paper stock, foil stamping, and, most notably, scent-infused covers. Yes, scent. Their tagline is "Literature you can feel." Original MSRP was $59
Shoku produces exclusives for only 2-3 major series per year, and A Record of Delias War was their pick for Q4 of last year.
In the sprawling universe of light novel collecting, few terms send a jolt through the community like the phrase "limited edition." But when you combine a climactic volume with a niche, high-quality publisher like Shoku, you stop talking about simple reading material and start discussing a grail-level artifact. We are, of course, talking about A Record of Delias War V13 Shoku Exclusive.
For the uninitiated, this specific release has become the white whale of the franchise. But what makes this particular volume so special? Why is it trading for five times its original retail price on secondary markets? And more importantly, is it worth the hunt?
Let’s break down everything you need to know about the rarest entry in the Delias saga.