As bloggers you find yourself trying to figure out what your next post or topic of discussion will be, while also trying to maintain some level of consistency. This month has been met with a mixture of writer’s block, depression, and work overload. In spite of that however, there are a few ideas that we have hidden away in the vault that we hope to execute later on this year. We’ll be sure to continue to keep you updated on any new things that we decide to do, and as always, keep making D&A a part of you…and we’ll make you a part of us! 🙂
Hey guys n’ girls, just a quick heads up! In order to continue our mission to bring you the best in anime, manga, and (light) video game content, we’ll be making the shift towards the Premium Plan. The renovations will take place between next week and April, but don’t worry, we’ll still be doing our usual filler posts in the process. We might also be introducing a new page section in the future for any old school 90’s gamers out there, so should that happen we’ll keep you up to date! Until next post, make D&A a part of you, and we’ll make you a part of us! 🙂
Hey guys n’ girls! Sorry about the unexpected hiatus that we ended up taking due to multiple ‘life’ bombs being thrown at us one after another. On the plus side it has given us something new to talk about, and since its been awhile since we’ve done one of these, we’re gonna review a classic fighting video game from the Game Boy Advance that many of you might know. It features Sonic and company as they duke it out against each other in a no-holds-barred beatdown known as Sonic Battle.
We’re SUPER excited to talk about this game not because it was a part of our childhood (and probably yours), but because next to Sonic the Fighters, this game was actually a lot of fun to play. Sonic Battle is a 2003 fighting game created by SEGA and THQ for the Game Boy Advance and GBA SP. It features 10 playable characters (although only eight of them are playable during Story Mode) that you get to choose from, and head out onto the battlefield and b@#!h-slap your opponent back to Mobius.
The story follows a 4000-year-old ancient robot created by a civilization, who is able to copy the fighting techniques of other people simply by watching them in battle. Eggman wants to use said robot as the ultimate combat weapon against Sonic and friends, but ends up getting rid of the bot after copying its data into his own army of robots to capture the chaos emeralds and become an annoyance to Sonic and his friends. The robot named Emerl (thanks to Sonic) becomes involved with the various exploits of Sonic and Co. while also looking for the seven chaos emeralds.
One of the coolest things about this game is the fact that you don’t have to worry about paying any type of ‘energy’ or something to that effect to use special moves. At the start of the fight you select the move you want to use on the Ground, the Air, and to Defend against. You get free movement while in a 3D arena, as you use combo attacks, heal damage, and spam out special moves to damage your opponent and try to drop their HP to 0. The big orange bar is your Health gauge while the small blue one is your Knockout gauge. When your blue gauge is full, the next special attack you use will grant you an insta-kill against your opponent. (Best fighting gimmick ever!)
Another cool thing about this game is the fact that you get to customize Emerl, and make him into a badass fighting machine using skill cards you’ve picked up during battles. When you start the game with Sonic’s chapter, Emerl won’t seem like much help at first, but after playing each character a few times (while beating the story in the process), you’ll grant those rare skill cards that bring out Emerl’s true power. Out of all of the characters in this game, Emerl is the most OP, seriously!
Despite the fact that the controls were simplified and taxing at times (especially when fighting those three guard robos during Knuckles’ chapter, it was hell – utter hell), this game wasn’t half bad. The plot was decent, the game play was fun, and getting to customize your own fighter (Emerl) and battle it out against three other guys (or gals) was cool! Even though this game was underrated on so many levels, some fans still see the potential of it making a comeback in the current market. Some are even calling for a sequel, but we can do you one better!
Remember this little number from awhile back? Nintendo has been doing a hell of a job staying one step ahead of SEGA, and one of its latest creations is doing a few remakes on some old classics like Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Luigi’s Mansion (The 2001 original). Instead of doing a sequel to Sonic Battle, they should take a page out of Nintendo’s playbook and upgrade the graphics, character roster, and battle arenas.
Don’t make the characters 3D, instead remaster them as High-Resolution 2D sprites and have two separate story modes; Classic Mode which is the original story with all eight playable characters in their separate episodes, and an all new story arc exclusive to the game’s remake that features ten new characters such as Espio, Silver, Blaze, Omega, Mighty, Shade (from Sonic Chronicles), Eggman, Bean, Bark, and Metal Sonic. That will give you a 20-character roster to work with!
Also you should add seven new stages and feature some from previous games like Sonic 2 and Sonic & Knuckles. Keep the use of spamming those specials free, as well as the ability to customize the skills of Emerl. Instead of just the 3-attack-combo followed with either a Heavy Attack or Upper Attack, I would bump it to a 5-attack-combo; the first, second, and third attacks followed by a strong fourth attack that stuns the opponent for a few seconds, and then knock them away with a knockout blow (or upper attack). This game has the potential to be amazing! This game HAS the potential to be LIT!
Brand New Original Sonic Fanfiction
Upon righting the review for this game, we’ve decided to create a Sonic Battle fanfiction with a brand new origin story for Emerl. We don’t have the full plot planned out just yet, but know that we’ll be using 110% of our creative writing powers to make this one of the best Sonic fanfic titles you’ll ever read!
So in conclusion, we give this game a 9.5/10!
We hope that SEGA gets the chance to read this post and realize that it has a chance to turn an underrated classic, into something as epic as Dragon Ball FighterZ! Okay, maybe not as epic as that, but on a level that’s close to it.
Thus ends our review on this awesome classic. Until next post, stay golden! 😉
Welcome back guys n’ girls to our two-part filler post about the relationship between anime and hip-hop! If you’re an anime fan, then you’re fully aware of where the medium stands in terms of popularity. What was once a close-knit medium has now become a world-wide phenomenon. From Spain to the UK anime is pretty much everywhere; just like hip-hop. The crazy thing is that its not just rappers that have mad love for anime, but a few famous celebrities and professional athletes have revealed their nerdy side as well.
Black Panther’s Michael B. Jordan (aka Killmonger) revealed his love for not just Dragon Ball Z, but Naruto as well, during an interview for his new role in Rooster Teeth’s newest anime-style sci-fi adventure, gen:LOC. Kim K. tweeted her new hairstyle was inspired by Darling in the FRANXX’s Zero Two. Green Bay Packer’s Mike Daniels is not just a threat on the football field, but he too is a lover of anime.
There are so many similarities between the two mediums/platforms, which may be the reason why they’re so intertwined with one another. Both cultures tell a story about themselves that often include fantastical elements and experiences. Because of this connection between them, anime and hip-hop have spawned a number of awesome shows (and manga) which has opened the door to new ways for artists from both Japan and Western culture, to collaborate and come up with something awesome.
In Part 1 we talked about the various artists that helped to merge the two subcultures together, but when it comes to giving credit where credit is due, the rappers that come to mind would have to be RZA, Outcast, and MF DOOM. (Big Boi and Hatsune Miku did a track together, if you don’t believe us check this out!)
Quiet as it’s kept, hip-hop met anime first long before mainstream America discovered it. Both of their cultures and styles seem to have a brother-sister relationship; where one end of the medium can identify with the other. Thanks to the genre as a whole, hip-hop will always find new ways to reinvent itself; such as ‘nerdcore’ which is a subgenre of hip-hop for nerds that talk about anime and video games. Even Samuel L. Jackson is no stranger to the medium, as he’s been in a few anime titles that you might know about.
It’s hard to believe that some of us are just now realizing the connection between anime and hip-hop, but truth be told, this dance has been going on for years. Whenever you watch an anime title or listen to a song that has either a rap verse in it or elements of the genre itself, just remember who found anime first. And on that note, that will conclude our two-part filler post on the relationship between anime and hip-hop. With anime being at the level that it is now, there’s no telling what new creations and collaborations will come about from this match made in heaven.
Sometime in the 80’s in a little place called the South Bronx a new and raw sound was starting to emerge. It was more than just the language of ‘the streets’, it was the language of African-American culture. These days whenever people think of Hip-Hop a few names come to mind; Kanye West, Drake, Travis Scott, you name it. Being from the 90’s ourselves we grew up with people like Sir-Mix-a-Lot, LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, and Ice Cube.
Hip-Hop was more than just about the music, it was the lifestyle and culture that came with it. Anime on the other hand was something different; it was a vast new world of animation filled with vivid colors and complex plots that was different than what you would find in western animation. If these two subcultures are vastly different from one another, how in the world did they come together in the first place? Well guys and girls, we’re about to tell you the the love story between anime and hip-hop…
Japanese Rapper Lotus Juice
Hip-Hop made its first appearance in Japan back in the 80’s thanks to Japanese DJ Hiroshi Fujiwara, after being in the U.S. during that time before bringing back some records with him. From there it spread like wildfire; as hip-hop was now being infused with various other styles such as jazz, EDM, pop, and so many others. This relationship may seem farfetched to some, but with anime being the audio-visual medium that it is, creators and music producers are always looking and trying new ways to reach out to western audiences. It’s almost like mixing different ice cream flavors together, until you come up with a concoction that takes your taste buds on a journey.
A lot of great titles infuse hip-hop into their soundtracks and stories. One title that demonstrates this would be Samurai Champloo. When you listen to the opening title song, you’re introduced to a track that’s a mixed blend of urban rap with the culture of Feudal Japan. Another title that comes to mind when you’re talking about anime and hip-hop’s relationship would be Afro Samurai. Yep, the one with Samuel L. Jackson and Lucy Lu (from Charlie’s Angels) in it.
“Nothing personal, it’s just revenge…”
Various artists like RZA (Wu-Tang Clan), Lotus Juice, the late Nujabes and a few others have contributed to a lot of the tracks from many of our favorite anime titles. (Even the “Never Say Never” opening to Danganronpa: The Animation.) Hip-Hop in anime is more than just the unique blends and styles infused with audio and visual esthetics, its also about the style, the grooming, and the ‘gear’ that is associated with hip-hop. In the 80’s it was about the ‘LL Cool J’ type of look, but as the 90’s and 2000’s rolled around we’ve got gold chains, grills, watches, skinny jeans, Jordans (or Air-Force Ones from back in the day), the whole nine yards! The Tokyo Tribe series created by Santa Inoue is an example of this, as it brings in various elements of hip-hop culture, and even has a live-action hip-hop musical as well.
With all of the new shows that are coming out this year, there’s no doubt that there will be more hip-hop and anime collaborations, and new ways where artists and creators can express themselves while also paying homage to hip-hop culture.
D&A Anime Blog 