Author: D&A Anime Blog

5 Anime Titles With (Arguably) Good Filler Arcs

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Filler Posts, Top 5

When it comes to anime there’s all kinds of things and elements that we as fans either look for, or would like to see more of. One of the most critical things anime consumers search for when doing some title surfing is the plot of the story. (Character development is number two.) Seven Deadly Sins and Soul Eater are good examples of some great plots in anime, but if you happen to stumble upon an anime title when the plot seems a bit ‘uncertain’ (or if the remainder hasn’t been fully animated yet due to deadline issues), then the series will fill up the dead space with a non-canonical batch of episodes known as a Filler Arc. Depending on the series these arcs can either help (or hurt) a show, but at the end of the day its all on how you (the viewer) chooses to intrepid it. On that note, here are five anime titles with (arguably) good filler arcs – or episodes.

5. Pokemon – Go West Young Meowth

We all know Meowth from Team Rocket can talk, but do you wanna know how he’s able to in the first place? This particular episode of the first season of Pokemon tells the story of a crush Meowth had on a female Meowth, and even though he laid his cards on the table to try and win her over, she rejected him in the end. On the bright side he did join forces with Jessie and James and together he became the third member of Team Rocket.

4. My Hero Academia – Everyone’s Internships

There’s a really cool filler that follows the rest of the students at the academy while Deku and a few others are fighting against the villain known as Stain. This episode of My Hero Academia follows the Internship Mission of the other students (including a certain lovable frog) while giving the viewing audience a chance to get to know them.

3. Soul Eater – Any Ecalibur Episode

Yep, there’s no other way around it. Any episode with Excalibur in it is going to be hilarious! Who knew the legendary sword of King Arthur had a sense of humor. XP

2. Dragon Ball Z – Goku and Piccolo Learning To Drive

Remember when you got your Driver’s License? Well somewhere along the line, Goku and Piccolo tried out for theirs and well…you’ll have to watch the video to find out. ๐Ÿ˜‰

1. Naruto – Gotta See, Gotta Know! Kakashi Sensei’s True Face!

One of the great mysteries of the Naruto franchise! Just what is behind Kakashi’s mask?! We’ve been asking that question for the last 10 years or so, and we STILL don’t know the answer – or do we? In this filler episode Naruto and his team do everything they can to figure out what is underneath their teacher’s mask, and what happens next is one of the most hilarious endings to any anime filler ever!

If you have any titles that have some good anime filler, let us know in the comments section down below! Until next post guys n’ gals, stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ™‚

Throwback Thursday: Project A-ko!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Filler Posts, Throwback Thursday Anime

Hey guys! It’s Thursday night, so that means another night of overviewing a classic title from way back in anime’s heyday. Tonight we return to the 80’s with an action-comedy that we’re pretty sure is not for kiddos, but for old school fans. On this Throwback Thursday, we bring you the classic 80’s anime movie known as Project A-ko.

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Pretty sure we’ve seen this before…

We’re going to be keeping the spoilers to a minimum, but here’s the overview…

An alien spacecraft makes a crash landing in Graviton City; taking out the entire population with it. Years later the city gets rebuilt as two students; A-ko Magami and C-ko Kotobuki, are starting their new year of school at Graviton City. A-ko has superhuman speed and strength yet considers herself as an ordinary teenage girl, who is rather keen on making sure she gets to school on time.

Although everything seems normal in the city, the two girls catch the unwanted attention of the school’s richest and snobbiest student, B-ko. During this situation B-ko has a crush on C-ko and tries to win her over, but after her attempts fail, she soon discovers the she had a rivalry against A-ko during kindergarten. Therefore every morning she uses mechas piloted by her all-female army to attack A-ko each morning, in hopes of having C-ko all to herself. The rivalry between them isn’t the only thing that’s happening, as the Trench-coated spy known as “D” has been monitoring the situation, and has reported it to an approaching spaceship on its way to Earth.

There are a lot of references from other anime titles of the 70’s and 80’s such as Gundam and Fist of the North Star. The title itself is also a reference to Jackie Chan’s movie Project A, but bears no resemblance to the actual movie. If you’re a fan of sci-fi and action comedies then this is an anime movie that you’re gonna wanna see!

That’s all we’ve got, but there’s more next week! ๐Ÿ˜‰

The Top 5 Underestimated Anime Characters!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Filler Posts, Top 5

One of the most common tropes that you’ll see in just about 90% of the anime that you watch is a character (or main character) that is always underestimated. They possess traits and skills that are unique and make it appear to others that they’re meaningless and that they’ll never amount to anything, but when the time comes for them to shine, they end up blowing our minds! The funny thing about it is that a lot of us see ourselves as that character; the one who always got looked down upon because he didn’t possess the same level of talent or skills as his/her peers did, and then BAM! We do something that completely changes their whole perception of us. There are a lot of anime characters out there who feel underestimated, but these five in particular speak to many of us in this day and age…

5. Bell – DanMachi

A top favorite series in our books and hopefully in yours too! In the series DanMachi, Bell is an adventurer in an RPG-ish world who soon becomes a part of the “Hestia Familia” alongside Hestia; his goddess. As a main character of the series you can kind of tell he’s the underestimated protagonist, but he suddenly shows what he’s truly made of when he comes face-to-face with a sword-wielding Minotaur on the 9th floor.

4. Ikki Kurogane – Chivalry of a Failed Knight

Honestly, this series deserves a little more credit than its been getting over the last couple of years. The show follows the story of Ikki Kurogane, who has been labeled as “The Worst One” by the academy of his peers, that is until he fought against some of the most elite knights in the school – especially Stella Vermillion.

3. Deku – My Hero Academia

Well of course HE was going to be among our Top 5 picks! We all remember back in the first episode of season one, where the one called Deku wanted to be a hero, but was born without a quirk. Now two seasons later he is not only a hero, but a rising main character who still finds himself underestimated at times, but knows that there are some battles that he can’t fight on his own.

2. Naruto Uzumaki – Naruto Shippuden

Since the early 2000’s we’ve watched this Hidden Leaf shinobi grow up right before our eyes, and now he’s finally achieved the dream of being Hokage. We’ve all seen the many times he’s been underestimated (which is pretty much every single battle he’s ever been in), and now with all of the skills and jutsu that he’s learned over the years, Naruto has become what it means to be a hero – a ninja hero!

1. Gohan – Dragon Ball Z

The moment Gohan headbutted his evil uncle Raditz during the Saiyan Saga, he became an instant favorite among Dragon Ball Z fans. From there we watched his power grow to incredible heights, and the peak of that was when he faced Cell during the Cell Games. As Super Saiyan 2, Gohan put everything on the line into one final Kamehameha blast with the help of his father from beyond the grave. Even though he fell off after the Cell Saga (and the Bojack Arc via the movie), this is the moment Gohan fans will never forget.

There are so many other characters out there in the anime verse who are viewed as ‘underestimated’ to many of the villains or adversaries that face. Nevertheless it also gives them a chance to show them (and the audience) what they’re truly made of!

That’s it for now, but there’s more to come! ๐Ÿ™‚

 

Anime Conventions 2019: April Edition!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Con Locations, Filler Posts

March may be gone but Spring is in the air! (And so is the heat!) If you’re looking for some fantastic cons to go to for the month of April, we’ve got some great choices in are arsenal. If you live in the Northwest, Southwest, or Westbound regions of North America, these are the cons that you’re gonna wanna check out! You can also check them out on our main page by clicking on one of the buttons for the region you live in. On that note that will do it for this filler post, but there’s more on the way! Stay tuned! ๐Ÿ˜‰

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D&A’s Throwback Thursday: Neo Ranga!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Filler Posts, Throwback Thursday Anime

FYI, this anime title is an 18+ series, so if you’re 17-and-a-half you’re STILL not old enough to watch it! (But you probably will…)

Happy Thursday guys n’ girls! Last week we brought you an old school title from the 80’s, so it’s only appropriate that we bump it up by a decade and head to the 90’s! The 90’s was a classic time filled with cross-colors, Nintendo, SEGA, Fox Kids, and so many other awesome things from your childhood. If you happened to be a teenager in the 90’s and was somewhat familiar with the term ‘Japanimation’, then you probably have seen a few titles that you may (or may not) recognize. This may (or may not) be one of them; a dram-com that has action, adventure, and even some mecha. A show called…Neo Ranga.

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Holy crap!! That looks COOL!

For those who have no idea what this series is about, we’re gonna give you the brief overview while keeping the spoilers to a minimum.

The Shimabara sisters; Manami, Ushio, and Yuuhi, are three siblings that live on their own, with the oldest of the three being the breadwinner of the family. Suddenly a young man from the Island of Barou comes with news of the sisters’ long-lost brother, who has since died after marrying into the Barou royalty, thus leaving the sisters the current rulers of the island. Because of this they are now protected by the island’s god named Neo Ranga; a Godzilla-like monster who is now the sisters’ personal god. Although it follows them back to Japan, Neo Ranga soon becomes the target of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

Each of the sisters use the powers of Neo Ranga for their own personal goals and ambitions; Ushio uses it to help Neo’s interactions with people, Minami uses Neo for financial gain due to being the breadwinner of the family, while Yuuhi simply uses Neo to deal with any unsavory elements in her neighborhood – which includes the Yakuza.

The series is 48 episodes long and (of course) it’s for mature audiences, so that means partial nudity, maybe a few swears, the usual. So if you haven’t seen the series yet be sure to check it out! Also, we’re happy to announce that we’ve reached 200 followers on our blog! We are so happy that you’re a part of our aniblogging lives, and we thank you for all of the love and support that you give to us, and the community!

Until next post, stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ˜‰

D&A Anime Blog: Updates & Changes!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Blog Updates, Blogging

Welcome back! Earlier in March we mentioned that we’ll be doing some updates and renovations for the blog, as we’ve been looking into more ways that we can expand our platform as well as our features. With that comes the closing down of a few features on the blog that were great in theory, but didn’t exactly give us the results that we were hoping for. So if you want to know what in store for D&A for the rest of the year (and even down the road), here’s what’s happening:

We’re Closing Down Our Fanfiction Feature

For this feature its not that we’ve lost interest in doing fanfiction, its just that we don’t have as much time to make it as often as we used to. With so many things on our plate both on and offline, we’ve decided that it would be best to shut down this feature of the blog to focus on creating more original content and posts.

Our Music Section Will Be On Our Sidebar

One of the coolest ideas we had for the blog is to implement a feature that will allow our fans to check out some originally produced Hip-Hop/Electronic music. For our blog renovation project we’ve decided that this upcoming feature will be on our sidebar instead of on its own page. It will be in playlist format so fans can pick what tracks they want to hear.

We’re Upgrading Our Plan To Premium

This will be the final phase of our blog renovation project, as this will allow us to give our fans an ‘out-of-the-box’ anime blog experience. We’re hoping to one day have a Shop/Merch page where fans can buy official D&A Anime Blog T-shirts and other merch, and with this upgrade we’ll be one step closer to making that happen.

So far that’s all we’ve got planned for the second quarter of 2019, but rest assured we’re only just getting started! There’s more new features we hope to execute on the blog (some even include a future Twitch channel), as we continue to strive to become one of the best two-man operated anime blogs out there. As always we wanna thank our fans for all of the love and support that we’ve received on the blog, social media, as well as at many of the cons we’ve gone to. Stay nerdy, my friends! ๐Ÿ™‚

The Top 5 Funniest Anime Moments!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Filler Posts, Top 5

Hey guys n’ girls! Did you miss us, cuz’ we sure did! So after coming back from Zenkaikon we ended up taking an unexpected two week hiatus due to another gut-punch from life. However as always we found a way to bounce back to the blog and do what we do best; make awesome posts for you guys to check out! You might have noticed that we’ve upgraded a few things while we were away (mainly on our main page), but our total anime blog revamp project is far from over.

In the meantime however, we’ve combed the web and found some funny moments from anime history! Don’t worry, we’ll do the best we can to keep any spoilers to a minimum.

#5 School Rumble – The Art Exhibit

Hey, did you hear the one about the two dudes and the high school art exhibit? Well, they say that the human body is a true work of art, but when it comes to the guys in this anime clip, their work of art involves the student body.

#4 Naruto Shippuden – Kakashi and Guy’s Footrace

For over ten years we’ve watched our favorite orange ninja grow up in the Land of the Leaf, and now he’s finally Hokage and got the girl of his dreams (who is now his wife). During the course of his adventures Naruto has gone through some tough battles and risked his life multiple times, but since we’re all well versed on that, let’s peek into something that’s been sitting on the sidelines; Kakashi and Might Guy’s rivalry.

#3 One-Punch Man – The “Nutcracker”

Yeah, you can make you’re own joke on this one…

#2 Dragon Ball Super – Vegeta Cooks For Whis

Once a ruthless saiyan prince with no remorse towards anyone and anything, Vegeta has now become a family man as well as one of the strongest Z Fighters protecting the Earth. He may be an ace at fighting, but when it comes to the culinary arts…not so much. XP

#1 Ghost Stories – The Whole Series

It’s impossible to pick out just once funny scene from this series, cuz’ the whole freakin’ show is chuck-full of them! Bar none this is one of the BEST dubs in all of anime history; frankly because it bombed so badly in Japan, that the creators wanted to break even on the show’s dub. So what did FUNimation do? They (professionally) abridged the entire series deeming it ‘The Equal Opportunity Offender’. We can’t talk about this show enough, so we highly recommend watching it (if you’re over 18 of course).

That will do it for us and this list of funny moments in anime history. There’s more to come this week so stay tuned! ๐Ÿ˜‰

 

D.J. Lewis: Chronicles of an Anime Fan

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Filler Posts

Sometime between last Summer and now I talked about what shows I watched back in the 90’s that drew me to the current anime that I watch now. Long before A. Goldman and I created this blog I was a bit of a loner as a child, as during the time that I was growing up in the early 90’s I was never really exposed to any anime, nor did I have any friends that liked a lot of the same shows that I did. Back in 1993 at the tender age of four I was a huge Super Mario Bros. fan; I owned a Nintendo Entertainment System (that my mother bought for me), and logged in at least 30+ hours a week beating each level – especially the ‘most-hated’ water levels! At the time I was seven years old my mother bought cable (comcast to be exact), and every day after school I would come home and watch Cartoon Network. Back then there were shows like Scooby-Doo (the early 70’s version), Swat Katz, Tom & Jerry, and many others.

In 1997 I came home and turned on the TV to get ready to watch my favorite shows, and that’s when it happened. What happened on my screen would change my life forever. What happened on my screen is the reason why I am who I am today. That was the day that Toonami came to play! What I was watching didn’t look anything like the shows that I watched when I was four or five (which was Barney and Sesame Street at the time). The style looked different, as there were so many vivid colors and unusual hair styles on the characters. No one ever told me that what I was watching was anime, as the first show I found myself watching was in fact Tenchi Muyo. Up until my 10th birthday I found myself watching more and more shows on this action-packed cartoon block called Toonami, but by Fall of 2000 my mother found a brand new job located in the northwest district of Baltimore, Maryland.

We moved out of the Heldrey Square neighborhood right after the Baltimore Ravens won Super Bowl XXXV in 2001, as I found my new home in Reisterstown, Maryland. From there I went to school at Franklin Middle from 2001-2004, and during this time I was still in Dragon Ball Z mode before this new show came around called Naruto. Honestly I wasn’t a huge fan from the get-go because, well, I was still heavily into DBZ. It wasn’t easy making friends in middle school due to the fact that I had now found this thing called ‘anime’ and have fallen in love with it.

When it comes to middle and high school you’re automatically ‘placed’ in a social circle that fits everything that you like, dislike, and otherwise. I’ve seen all the movies and TV shows where the social status of both middle and high school students was stereotypically portrayed through four different groups; Jocks, Cheerleaders, Outcasts, and the Nerds. You can guess what clique I fell in.

During my 7th grade year I was still into anime, but I was also into shows like Dexter’s Lab, Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy (which is basically ‘The Three Stooges‘ for Millennials), and Samurai Jack! Due to my girth as a heavy-set Afro-American with High-Functioning Autism (HFA), I was picked on a lot to the point where I would have nervous breakdowns and threatened to hurt people because they wouldn’t leave me alone. Trying to fit in was a nightmare, as making/finding friends who liked anime as much as I did was very hard, and I feared that they would make fun of me if I was that one kid who like something that everyone else was unfamiliar with. That is…until my met my friend of 16 years who is my partner on this blog today!

Middle school was indeed tough, but watching anime and Toonami got me through some tough times – even throughout high school. Naruto taught me to never give up on my dreams, and DBZ showed me that with enough hard work, even the ones they consider ‘weak’ can surpass the ones they call ‘strong’. I never though that I would learn so much from anime, as many of the characters have gone through similar trials that I’ve gone through while growing up; such as being bullied in school, finding it hard to make friends who like the same things you do, and being excepted for who you are.

Anime was something different. It wasn’t like anything that I’ve seen before I found it, and they way that it told a story was far deeper than anything I could’ve ever imagined at the time of watching it. Now staring at the beginning of my 30’s I’m proud to call myself an anime fan, and because of that, I find myself seeing life from a whole different lens than I did when I was younger. (I’m not THAT old, guys! XP)

The best advice I could give you if you’re a younger fan going through the trials of middle and high school is to never give up! There may be people who will make fun of you for liking anime, but they can go suck rocks for all I care! Believe me when I say that it may be hard now, but it’s gonna get better! Anime to me was more than just a medium, it helped me find out where I belong, and that’s with awesome people like you!

This one is dedicated to all the awesome fans out there! Stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Our Return To Zenkaikon!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Con Appearances, Filler Posts

2017 was the most active year for us going to cons and promoting our blog, and one of the cons that we’ve gone to during our tour (as well as had the most fun at) was Zenkaikon. This convention is a 3-day sci-fi/anime convention held at the Lancaster Marriott in Lancaster, PA. It was also during that year that this was our first anime convention out of state, and our first impression of the convention was indeed nothing short of awesome! We had the chance to meet some rather awesome people as well as meet some of our twitter and facebook fans, plus we even got the chance to meet the one and only Toonami T.O.M. himself, Steve Blum (as well as Mary Elizabeth McGlynn)!

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Bang! ๐Ÿ˜‰

There’s a lot for fans of both sci-fi and anime to do at this convention, and for some of us who are nerdy party animals there’s also raves that happen on Friday and Saturday nights! One cool thing about this con is the fact that everyone we’ve met while we were there, was incredibly nice. This time around we hope to have the same amount of fun as we did two years ago, and for those who happen to be going, we’ll see you there March 22-24! And on that note that will do it for this post. Until next time, stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Throwback Thursday Returns To The 80’s with Mobile Police Patlabor!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Filler Posts, Throwback Thursday Anime

After an 18-month hiatus one of our main segments is back by popular demand! Tonight we go back in time to the 80’s of the anime world; where the mecha genre (especially Gundam and Transformers) was all the rage. While America had MTV, arcade shops, and a movie where nerds finally got revenge on their bullies, a select few of us old school otaku were engaged in Japanimation – or at least knew about it. For the first time since its hiatus we welcome back Throwback Thursday to the blog, with its first 80’s anime title being Mobile Police Patlabor!

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Japanimation in the 80’s!

Mobile Police Patlabor is a classic late 80’s shonen anime title created by the group known as Headgear; with members Masami Yuki, Mamoru Oshii, Kazukori Ito, Yutaka Izubuchi, and Akemi Takada. The franchise itself has its own anime and manga, as well as three movies and a few OVAs. Although its a shonen title this series is known for using mecha in its policing works and military, as well as industrial jobs such as construction.

Here’s the Non-Spoiler’s Overview: The story takes place between 1998-2002, where robots called Labors are employed in construction work. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police also have their own Labors that they use in order to combat crime, as well as rescue any Labors that happen to find themselves in any dire need of rescue. Noa Izumi is the main character of the series as he works in the second division of the Tokyo Police Special Vehicle Section, however the story arcs focus on the entire second division as a whole. The TV series has a different plot however; as division two combats a Schaft Enterprises Labor called the Type J9 Griffon.

The OVA has only seven episodes while the series has 47 in total. It’s even noted that this series was the inspiration behind the Hollywood blockbuster Pacific Rim, which is something that even we did know. (How about that? XP)

On that note that will do it for our first Throwback Thursday title of 2019, and it won’t be our last! Until next post guys and girls, stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ˜‰