A Founder’s Thoughts with D.J. Lewis (07/10/20)!

Hey guys! So, we’re ten days into the month of July, and there’s only five months left of 2020. I’m pretty sure I don’t even have to tell you guys what’s at stake for the country come November; as it’s been broadcasted all over social media. At the end of the day, African-Americans and other people of color everywhere just want to be given the same opportunities as their white counterparts. We’re not here to steal your jobs or take your opportunities, because there will always be opportunities available! Honestly as an African-American anime-lovin’ man, it both saddens and sickens me to my core upon seeing all the asinine racism that comes out of the mouths of our so-called president’s people, as well as him! I’m not the political type (in fact I’m an Independent), but I’m pretty sure the world doesn’t want another four more years of this.

The only reason so many African-Americans and people of color are upset is because we’re TIRED! Tired of the racism, tired of the bigots, tired of the ‘Karens’ and ‘Kens’, we’re TIRED of looking over our shoulder – wondering if we’ll even make it home! Black Lives Matter does NOT mean Black Lives Better, it means that for all of our lives to matter, we as African-Americans want to be put on the same playing field; be it entertainment or in life in general. There are other races in countries that are more united than we are, so instead of fighting over our differences, why not find common ground? How do hateful people live like this?! Like they’ve got nothing else better to do than to make the lives of others (especially people of color and LGBTQ+) a living hell! Look, I’m all for the American flag and everything, but we need to put the ‘UNITED’ back in United States.

COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon, and even when we get a vaccine in 2021, we still have to deal with the remnants of the virus. Unless we want the country we call home to go down in flames, because it will if we LET it, we need to get our act together! As for anime and gaming conventions moving forwards, they will return – just not in the same format we’re used to. (In fact many of the mega cons will have to downsize if they plan on surviving.) So yeah, this post kinda did turn into a small rant, but at this point in the year…I’m just tired!

I’ll probably be in a better mood next post, so until then…stay UNITED!

Anime REvisited: Chivalry of a Failed Knight Season One Episode Two!

What’s good, anime fam? Welcome back to another installment of Anime REvisited with our latest pick; Chivalry of a Failed Knight! As we mentioned in our last review, we think this series needs a bit more love as it’s flown under the radar of some of its more popular titles. With that in mind let’s move on the review!

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Stella and Ikki, of course!

With all of the main character introductions out of the way (as well as the mock battle), Ikki and Stella are seen jogging with one another as it looks like Stella might kinda be out of breath. Near the end of the last episode, we’ve noticed that Stella’s been taking kind of a liking to him, and though she hated him in the beginning…it kinda looks like she’s a bit flustered in a semi-perverted way. Later on both Ikki and Stella are in Ms. Yuri’s class (who looks a bit zombie-looking and might have a blood disorder that causes her to vomit a liter of blood per day), as she talks about how the students will battle against one another in a tournament until they have the Top 6 selected for the Seven Star Sword Art Festival.

Each student will fight ten matches each, and will have a match every three days. After class Ikki and Stella were on their way somewhere until they met a girl who is starting her own Newspaper club named Kagami; who was a bit clingy towards Ikki – more than she should be. This caused Stella to act upset and somewhat jealous, but what happened next threw her into an emotional frenzy. Ikki’s sister Shizuku found him at the school…and kissed him. (Yep, she’s a ‘little sister’ type character. We can smell that troupe a mile away.)

Confused as hell, Stella tried to ease the tension of the area because the scene was drawing a crowd; however Shizuku had a different idea. She believed that Stella was trying to ‘steal’ her brother away from her, thus introducing another common troupe; the ‘Tsnundere’. (Basically the ‘I will end you, thot!’ type character.) Things got heated after a while as Stella and Shizuku readied their weapons and struck one another, causing an explosion to take out half the hallway; covering it in fire and ice. As punishment both girls had to clean all 26 bathrooms in the academy. Welp, they know what they did…

Eventually as the episode went on Shizuku was introduced to her new roommate Alice, as he told her that she can talk to him about anything. Elsewhere Stella was making dinner while Ikki was taking a bath…and somewhere in the process she thought it was a good idea to join him. Needless to say, the night ended off with a bang – but not in the way you’d hoped it would. So that it for the second episode review of the series, and so far the introduction phase has entered level two. What will Ikki’s battles be like? What kind of opponents will Stella face? Guess we’ll have to wait until the next episode!

As always guys n’ gals, stay safe and stay nerdy! 😉

Anime REvisited: Chivalry of a Failed Knight Season One Episode One!

The time has come guys n’ gals! Anime REvisited is back with a new anime series for us to review; episode by episode! This time we’ve picked a series that honestly needs more love and doesn’t get the credit that it deserves! That series is Chivalry of a Failed Knight! Many fans know this to be an underrated gem with only one season – which is a crying shame compared to other series like it (like Asterisk War…yeaaah…). Hopefully we’ll get another season of this sometime in the future, of course for that to happen you gotta get enough people to talk about it – and even get the attention of the animation studio behind it as well. So, let’s get on with the review!

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The legendary Crimson Princess with Ikki Korugane!

With this being the first episode we’re thrown into an alternate version of Japan, where individuals known as Blazers have the ability to draw weapons (mostly swords) from their own will. Basically they’re known as magical knights who are ranked based on skill, prowess, and magical abilities. One of the most prominent Blazers is a crimson haired princess known as Stella Vermillion (vermillion is an actual color by the way), as she is an A-Rank. At Hagun Academy a student by the name of Ikki Korugane narrates his story at the beginning of the episode about being the underdog and how the gifted are privileged while the ungifted get casts to the side in life. Right away I kinda knew that this was going to be a story about how the underdog protagonist goes against all odds and comes out on top – like a lot of characters we’re all familiar with that have that same mindset!

Ikki makes it back to his room after jogging to find an almost-naked Stella in his room. His response was to get naked himself so she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. (We all know how this story ends! XP) Ikki’s then called into the office of the academy, to which the Headmaster calls in Stella so that he can apologize. Stella accepts but being the ‘spoiled’ princess that she is, demands that Ikki drops dead on his own sword. As the misunderstanding gets worse Stella swears that she’ll incinerate Ikki with her own fire, but to that he responds that he’s never seen a woman so beautiful before. Comedic embarrassment aside Ikki and Stella find out that they’re both living together – which was a shock to them. The Headmaster then suggested that the two of them fight each other in a mock battle to decide on how to handle the co-ed situation with the room.

An hour later Ikki and Stella meet face to face as they agree upon the terms of the battle. Ikki draws his sword from the power of his own will, which is a basic katana that is his primary weapon. Stella then draws her weapon as flames surround her, before a Claymore-type yellow-bladed sword appears. The two then fight each other as their swords clashed while a small audience is watching the action. During the battle Stella notices that Ikki has memorized her attack patterns and is using them against her. Before the battle ends Ikki uses his ultimate blade technique since no one ever taught him how to use it, as he focuses all of his power into one swing of his sword. He struck Stella with a final blow before passing out himself due to using all of his power, thus winning the mock battle.

Afterwards Stella returns to her and Ikki’s room and finds him sleeping; to which her sudden curiosity is sparked at the fact that his back is exposed, and she’s never seen a man’s back before. One can assume she’s never had a real boyfriend due to the restrictions of being a princess, and also the fact that she’s a celebrity in Japan, and her having a boyfriend means so much unwanted media and paparazzi coverage. After Ikki wakes up Stella tells him that she’ll be a little less mean to him after discovering how hard he had it growing up, and realizing that all he can rely on is hard work as opposed to pure talent. Afterwards Ikki jokes with Stella telling her that she still has to abide by the bet she made earlier, and though she gets mad and pouts at him due to what she thinks he might ask her to do, he shocks her and tells her that he just wants her to be his roommate – and wants to be closer to her as friends. Stella responds that she will be Ikki’s roommate, but she doesn’t want him to be close to her. (Although that might change later on down the line as the series progresses…)

So with this being an introductory episode, we’re treated to seeing a battle between the main characters of the series – with Ikki proving to Stella that he more than just an F-Rank knight. Right away on the first episode you don’t even have to wait to see what kind of skill Ikki has with his blade, and though he’s marked as an F-Rank in the academy, he shows Stella that he can go toe to toe with her despite him not having any good magical abilities. It’ll be interesting to see what Ikki’s like down the road, and what kind of relationship he’ll have with the Crimson Princess Stella Vermillion.

That’s all we’ve got for our Anime REvisisted review for now, and until next post, stay safe and continue to stay united! 🙂

D&A Anime Blog: Keep Calm & Wait For It!

If you guys have been on our instagram page as of late, then you might have noticed that we’ve got some BIG news coming your way this weekend! Though we can’t reveal too much due to an NDA that we’ve been given, we can tell you that it has something to do with something that you already know. Until then, feel free to check out many of the pasts posts and reviews that we’ve written about anime titles from last month and even further back. As always, stay safe and sane in this insane world. 🙂

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Paper Mario: The Origami King: What We Know So Far…

It’s finally July, which means 2020 is half over! Life-wise things are still a little shaky at best in more ways than one, but as always we will continue to give you guys some much needed positive news as well as content; cuz’ that’s what we do! Speaking of which there are only 15 days left until the much anticipated Paper Mario: The Origami King game drops on the Switch, and fans are both excited (and scared) as to what this latest installment on the franchise will bring to the table! With that in mind we’ve decided to do a little digging of our own to see what we could be getting from this game, and what we might not wanna hold our breath for in what we think we might be expecting.

Seeing as though we’ve played the original Paper Mario on the N64, the coolest part about the game was not just the plot, but the battles! Since then the battles have become the core of the game’s excitement and success, and that success was amplified with the release of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. Many hardcore fans will tell you that T.T.Y.D. was the BEST installment of the series, and that every entry after that was trash. (Trust us, we’ve seen the burns in the Twitter comments.)

There’s been quite a lot of speculation with this title, as many fans are hoping that they bring back a few elements from T.T.Y.D. (like the ‘audience’ and partners). Just last week or last month to be exact, fans saw the full five minute trailer of the upcoming game; that explained a little more what the story and plot was going to be about, and what new gimmick they were going to try with the battle system. Yes, the battle system was the biggest issue among fans that had them worried that the game was going to end up like Sticker Star or Color Splash.

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Talk about putting a new ‘spin’ on things! XP

After watching the five minute video ourselves, we saw that the battle system is something totally different; as if they’ve put a new ‘spin’ on things! During battle players will have to line up enemies in a row in a ring-based arena before fighting them, and you’re given a short amount of time to make your moves. After you’ve made your moves you’ll be rewarded a power bonus for lining them up correctly, and can even deal more damage as a result. This new battle system has caught the eye of the fanbase as well as the fact that they brought back partners and the audience. So far, so good Nintendo! 🙂

All of the enemies will be origami versions of the usual enemies you face in Paper Mario games, but the biggest surprise from this latest installment is the fact that you have to battle against…tape, a pack of colored pencils, a rubber band man, and (maybe) a stapler. Has there ever been a Paper Mario game where you got to fight against office supplies? Well, this one does! They are a group of bosses called the Legion of Stationary, so yes, you will have to fight them in order to progress through the game. Paper Mario is known for its comedic story lines and moments, so its pretty neat they went all out for this one!

Though we’re not sure what they’ve done about the leveling system in terms of experience points, but we’ve heard that after defeating enemies you gain coins and confetti that you can trade in for powerful items and badges. Perhaps that might be the formula they’re going for this time, although we just hope that its executed properly and makes fans ‘feel’ that they’ve accomplished something. Overall everything we’ve seen and know about this game so far is pretty promising, but it’s not until you play it that you’ll be able to give the game a real evaluation.

That’s what we know so far about the upcoming Paper Mario: The Origami King game, and as always continue to stay safe, and stay united! 😉

D&A in July: Anime REvisited gets Chivalrous, Paper Mario Updates, & More!

So we’re closing in on the final couple of days of the month of June; meaning that the third quarter of what has been a crazy year, has finally arrived. Hopefully everyone is doing well, staying safe as well as sane, in these trying times of which we live in. With July around the corner, here’s a quick blog briefing of what we’ve got going on!

Anime REvisited Gets Chivalrous!

That’s right! Anime REvisited returns with our newest pick; Chivalry of a Failed Knight! Honestly, this series needs more love, so why not do an episode by episode review on the series as a whole – in hopes that somewhere down the line we get a second season! It’s an underrated gem that got swept under the radar, so we will be reviewing it.

Paper Mario: Origami King is Coming!!

With 21 days left until the new game drops, we’ll be filling you in on what we know so far about it. We promise we won’t spoil too much info, but you’ll be happy to know once this game comes out, we’ll be buying a Switch and playing it! We might even stream some gameplay too!

The Return of Throwback Thursday!!

You guys might remember a little segment that we did called D&A’s Throwback Thursday, where we did overviews on anime titles from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s. We’ve decided to bring this segment back as a special request, so if you haven’t gotten the chance to see the titles that we announce, you’ll definitely wanna see em’ after this!

Cons Near U: Online Edition 2020!

With COVID-19 shooting down the entire Summer convention season, many of us are having con withdraw (us included). Now digital conventions are popping up all over the place in hopes of curbing our con appetite. In July we’ll be searching all over for digital anime conventions that you can go to (many of which are free), and nerd out with hundreds of your online otaku friends. Yeah, 2020 sucks, but once conventions come back (and they will), we’ll be back in full force doin’ what we do! 😉

Alright, that’s it for our briefing. As always, until next post, stay safe and united! 🙂

New Music From Avidd Minddset! Primetime Album Drops July 24th!!

Three months ago D&A’s own Donte’ J. Lewis (aka Avidd Minddset) dropped his first EP entitled Minddgames on Spotify and other streaming platforms. Now he’s releasing his very first home studio album Primetime, on July 24, 2020! He’s picked up a few new mixing and mastering techniques since March, so be ready to hear his new electronic sound on this 10-track album featuring genres such as Deep House, 80’s Style Electro Hip-Hop, Trapstep (Trap & Dubstep combined), and of course EDM. Although July 24th is about three-and-a-half weeks away, it’ll be worth the wait once you hear the sound coming out of this album! 😉

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This new 10-track album drops July 24th!!

D&A Anime Blog: Third Consecutive Month of Record-Shattering Views!!

Yeah, we can’t believe it either! For the third month in a row, we’ve topped over 1,000 monthly views as well as over 800 monthly visitors! Honestly, we can’t thank our fans enough for all of the love and support that you’ve given us throughout this pandemic. We know that it’s not been easy with conventions being shut down left and right, but we just wanna say that we appreciate our fans and the anime community so much – especially in our fight for equality for black lives and other people of color! As always we will continue to bring you some nerdy and positive content to the site as well as on all of our social media pages. Until next post, stay safe and stay unified! 🙂

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A Founder’s Thoughts with D.J. Lewis! (June 22, 2020!)

Hey guys. Honestly the last three weeks have been mentally and psychologically exhausting. Before I continue I want to say this; I love America…but not like this. About three weeks ago we all witnessed the death of George Floyd after the white police officer that I’m pretty sure we all know of, kept his knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Right now we’re in a state of emergency – a state of racial emergency. I know many of us are either too afraid or too uncomfortable to talk about race, but I’m here to let you guys know; that although it’s uncomfortable (and it can be), it is needed in this time – especially now! Whenever you see a Black Lives Matter protest, look at it this way; we are not (repeat NOT) say that ONLY Black Lives Matter, we want to be given the same fairness, the same equality, and the same opportunities in life just like our white counterparts. Black lives count for ALL lives, so we can’t say that All Lives Matter until Black Lives (and others of color) Matter!

Right now its more critical that we pay more attention to our surroundings, and ask those questions that would otherwise make most of us feel uncomfortable. I can promise you this; by talking about race and what we can do to end racism, we will become better people who are open-minded and loving to one another. When we started this blog, the number one thing is UNITY! We’ve met anime fans from all walks of life with various different morals and beliefs, and when it comes to the anime community, we’ve seen a whole lot of unity! Granted we’ve also seen a few snags as well, but that’s why we must fight for equality! I know a lot of you guys have friends who are people of color and you may feel a little confused about what you can do to help the cause, so I’d say this; have these conversations with your Afro-American friends, support Black-owned businesses including manga artists, vendors, and cosplayers. Read books and articles!

November is coming, and we know what we have to do. The “Other Side” is fighting back hard, but there’s more of us than there are of them! It’s time for a NEW United States of America; where we put the “United” in United States! This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint, but I know that we’re ready for it!

That’s all for now, so until next post…stay united! 🙂

D&A Update: New Fanfiction, Digital Cons, and Our Five-Year Anniversary!

Hey guys. Well, we’re half way through this trial-filled year, as our state is in a transition of racial proportions that are hopefully for the betterment of humanity. When we first started this blog back in 2016, our number one motto was UNITY! Unity as fans no matter your race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender. No matter what others may say or what you might have heard, black and brown lives COUNT for all lives! This also includes nerd lives, trans lives, and LGBTQ+ lives! Yeah, things may be a little rocky and it can be a little uncomfortable to talk about racism in America, but having these conversations and understanding this 400-year-old demon, will help us defeat it and bring us into a world were we are ALL united!

With all that in mind, let’s bring this thing back to a more positive level, shall we? With Summer officially here, this is usually the time where there would be a lot of anime conventions happening, but sadly with COVID-19 still lurking about many of our nerdy party plans have been shut down. However, there have been a lot of digital alternatives that have been coming about; the newest one comes from the leading anime distributor in the U.S. that we all know and love. That’s right, FUNimation has their own digital anime convention happening July 3-4, 2020. It’s a who’s-who of anime VA’s that you all know and love from many of your favorite shows. There are other digital cons happening as well, so we’ll keep you up to date if we find any more.

Now for our second thing; awhile back we kinda retired from fan fiction, but THIS time we’ll be making a special acceptation. After wrapping up our Anime REvisited pick this past Monday which featured Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, we’re proud to announce that we’ll be working on a PSG original story entitled Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: Godmode’s Game. More info about this latest development will be coming in the later months!

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A PSG original fanfic!

Finally, next year on January 11th will mark our five-year anniversary! We don’t know what we’ve got planned, but we can tell you that it’ll be awesome! It’s hard to believe that two guys who love anime wondered what it would be like if they had a blog of their own, now it kinda feels like we’re the unofficial ambassadors of the anime community; and for that we thank you! That’s the 411 we’ve got for now, but there’s more content coming so stay tuned! As always stay safe, stay united, and stay nerdy! 😉