Asides

Anime Legacy: Lupin the Third!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Filler Posts

This post is dedicated to the late Monkey Punch. Rest in Peace…

Once in a Blue Moon a show or a title comes along that grabs our attention with a gripping story and charming characters. Every generation of anime fans have a fan favorite that they rave over every time a new season or new arc gets released. For the 90’s generation it was the Dragon Ball franchise, for Generation Z (as of right now) its My Hero Academia, but for the older and more seasoned anime fans who fall anywhere between their 40’s and 50’s might be familiar with a franchise that’s been around since the 1970’s – and is still going strong even today! Out of all the popular anime franchises out there, this one’s the granddaddy of them all! This is the anime legacy, of Lupin the Third!

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Over 50 and still lookin’ good, Lupin! ๐Ÿ˜‰

For those who have seen any of the six animated television series of this timeless classic, we say kudos and you are awesome for doing so! If you’re just seeing it for the first time, here’s what the premise of the story is about…

Arsene Lupin III, grandson of Arsene Lupin, is known as the greatest thief in the world – by announcing his plans to steal various valuable objects by sending a calling card to their owners. His partner in crime is Daisuke Jigen, who happens to be one of the best marksmen in the world; shooting a target in 0.3 seconds. Sometimes they are often joined by a swordsman named Goemon Ishikawa XIII or even Fujiko Mine, who happens to be a femme fatale and Lupin’s love interest. The master thief and his gang find themselves on the run from Inspector Zenigata, who has made it his life’s work in chasing after him and arresting him – if its the last thing he does.

The series itself was created by the late great Monkey Punch (aka Kazuhiko Kato) as he drew inspiration from fictional French gentleman thief Arsene Lupin, whose character was created by Maurice Leblanc. Punch’s goal was to create an adventure/comedy that reflected the traits of Leblanc’s character. The story telling found in the series combines a mixture of elements found James Bond (007 franchise) through Lupin’s “carefree” personality and Fujiko taking on the “Bond Girl” role, and Tom & Jerry through the ‘cat-and-mouse’ chase antics that happen whenever Inspector Zenigata encounters Lupin.

Somewhere along the line there was a bump in the road, as western releases of Lupin the Third had to either be changed to “Rupan” or “Wolf” due to the copyright of intellectual property that Maurice Leblanc had on the original name of the fictional character. Luckily the copyright expired allowing Monkey Punch to have full access to the Lupin name.

There’s so much more in store for this series as there is an upcoming 3D CG-animated movie coming out in Japan entitled Lupin the Third: The First coming December 2019! If you’re a huge fan of the series then get ready to see your favorite master thief in 3D! Although this is the end of our post, we just want to say thank you to Monkey Punch-san for bringing us such a comedic and adventurous story.

Until next post, stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Get This: Luigi’s Mansion 3 is Coming On Halloween!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Filler Posts, Game Reviews

It’s never too early to talk about Halloween, and it looks like Nintendo’s got the right idea! Why not release the third installment of a certain green ghost catcher, on a certain gaming console, on the scariest night of the year? Not a bad marketing strategy if we may say so ourselves! Luigi’s Mansion 3 is haunting its way into the Nintendo Switch on October 31st, and if your birthday happens to fall on that date then prepare yourself for one hilariously scary good time!

The youngest Mario brother along with Mario, Princess Peach, and Toad find themselves inside a luxurious hotel with all the five-star amenities you could ask for. This paradise turns into an utter nightmare as Luigi’s old nemesis King Boo (yes, he’s back a third time, and is 0-2 against Luigi) reveals it to be all for naught, as he captures his friends and traps them somewhere in the now haunted hotel. E. Gadd is back to help Luigi once again after the events of Dark Moon, though its still unclear how King Boo escaped from the confines of his painting – twice! Armed with the Poltergust G-00 and a gooey version of himself, Luigi is tasked with ridding the hotel of ghost and shutting King Boo down for good…hopefully.

To celebrate the release of the third installment of Luigi’s Mansion as well as our appreciation to our fans, we’ll be releasing a special spooky-yet-original music track on our YouTube page at 12am midnight on October 31st. That’s all the news we’ve got for now, but there’s more posts on the way! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Supercard Fridays: Dragon Ball Super TCG!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, DBS Card Game, Supercard Fridays

Welcome to our first ever Supercard Fridays segment on our blog! For this segment we choose a Collectible Card Game (CCG) or Trading Card Game (TCG) and do an overview on it and show you how the game is played. This week we’re highlighting a TCG that’s only been out for a couple of years and is gaining new players every day (including ourselves). For our first ever Supercard Fridays segment, we’re highlighting the Dragon Ball Super Trading Card Game!

The Dragon Ball Super Card Game is only the latest incarnation of any DBZ trading card game. Unlike the others that came before it, this version plays in a similar fashion to Magic The Gathering (MTG for short); where you would charge your land and summon battle creatures depending on the type of land you have. The game goes in three different phases; Charge Phase, Main Phase, and End Phase.

Before the battle of course you have to place your Leader Card on the top left corner of your playmat. Normally most players would place their deck on the top right but its up to you where you want to place it (as long as it’s not on the center of the field). Before the battle starts both players have to decide which one of them goes first, so you can either flip a coin or go rock-paper-scissors to see who goes first. Then both players draw six cards, if you got a bad hand send back what you don’t want and keep what you do, then shuffle your deck and draw the amount of cards you’ve placed back into your deck. You can’t do this but once per battle so cross your fingers and hope you get a good hand.

Then you draw eight cards as they will represent your life, once your life reaches 0, the game will end and whoever has the most life left wins the battle! Instead of us explaining how an actual battle goes and all of the effects the cards can do, we’ll have the Supah Playaz show you what happens during an actual Dragon Ball Super Card Game battle! (Be sure to subscribe to their channel for the latest and greatest in all things Dragon Ball Super TCG!)

This pretty much wraps up our first ever Supercard Fridays segment for the blog, and hopefully if things go well for this segment we’ll continue to do it in the future. Not to worry however, as we’ll be testing this segment every Friday up until the last Friday in August. Until next post and next Supercard Fridays, stay nerdy my friends! ๐Ÿ˜‰

 

D&A’s Throwback Thursday: Black Magic M-66!

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

Well guys n’ girls it’s Thursday! That means its time to bring you another one of our Throwback Thursday anime titles from the past that you may (or may not) know. This time around we’re going back to the late 80’s when the mecha/sci-fi and cyberpunk genre was all the rage (and still is in various aspects) with an OVA entitled Black Magic M-66!

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This is the part, where you run away…

Here’s what you’ll be in for if you decide to take a shot at this story:

A freelance journalist named Sybel and her cameraman named Leakey find themselves on the verge of a scoop after receiving an intercepted Military Broadband Transmission, alerting them of a chopper crash that happened in a remote forest near Center City. Events prior to that tell of two men having to evacuate the doomed aircraft after suffering some sort of attack, as two storage pods containing battle androids known as M-66 were thrown around after the crash. Both pods open as the robots begin their mission, and that mission happens to be a bounty hunting one.

After a series of events it is discovered that the M-66 androids are tasked will killing the granddaughter of Professor Matthews, with the reason behind it being that he loaded a ‘dummy’ program into the android’s system. With this information Sybel finds herself on a rescue mission to find Matthews’ granddaughter before the M-66 finds her first. She’s not alone however, as a platoon of military soldiers known as the SpecOps Forces and their ‘Major’ are out to destroy the droids as well.

This is basically a 48 minute movie filled with action, sci-fi, and cyberpunk. So if you’re an anime fan looking for some classic titles, then be sure to check this one out!

This will end it for us, but as always until next post, stay nerdy my friends! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Crunchyroll Spotlight: Demon Slayer!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Crunchyroll, Filler Posts

It’s been awhile since we’ve done this segment, so why not do it with a more recent anime title that’s picking up a bit of a following. Every now and then we like a good demon hunting/demon anti-hero story, so after doing some combing through the web we found something that might be just what you need to get your ani-demon fix on! With that in mind our Crunchyroll Spotlight pick is none other than Demon Slayer!

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I take it she’s a demon, right?

Keeping our word of making this overview as spoiler-free as possible, here’s what you’ll be in for should you decide to check out this series:

A kindhearted and intelligent boy named Tanjiro Kamado lives with his family while making money selling charcoal. Everything seemed good and fine until his family is attacked and killed by demons (Oni in Japanese) leaving him and his sister alive. If that wasn’t bad enough his own sister Nezuko became a demon (why does that sound familiar?) but still shows signs of human emotion and thought. It was then that Tanjiro became a demon slayer to help his sister turn human again and avenge his fallen family.

If you’re on the lookout for action, dark fantasy, and demon slaying, then you’re gonna want to check out this series on Crunchyroll and also FunimationNow. This Fall you can also check out this series on Toonami on Adult Swim.

That will do it for us on this post. Until next time, stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Top Chef: D&A’s Top 5 Cooking Anime!

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

When it comes to Japan there are so many awesome things that you’ll discover; such as downtown Tokyo, breathtaking views of the mountains, various festivals, and of course the local cuisine. Anime buffs and tourists alike from all around the world travel to the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ to take in everything the country has to offer, especially the food. This post is dedicated to all the foodies and anime fanatics out there, as we introduce to you our Top 5 Cooking Anime titles!

Number 5: Yakitake!! Japan

When it comes to cooking, you got to have the passion and the drive to be the best! This can be said for the characters in this cooking/comedy series known as Yakitake!! Japan. No one is more passionate about making a national bread for Japan than the series’ main character, Kazuma Azuma. If you haven’t seen the series, check it out!

Number 4: Gourmet Girl Graffiti

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to make friendships through food? This show covers the story of a middle school girl named Ryo, who loves to cook and makes friendships through her cooking. If you’re looking for a cooking/slice-of-life title, then this one might be right up your alley.

Number 3: Fighting Foodons

Remember the Fox Kids days back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s with shows like Digimon and Transformers? Well this one’s an old classic that we’re sure many of you might remember; especially the intro. Basically the characters create dishes that turn into anthropomorphic versions of themselves and fight other dishes; giving a whole new meaning to the term “food fight”!

Number 2: Toriko

A Shonen Jump title that many of us have seen in their weekly magazine issues a while back. Being a strong and skilled gourmet hunter does come with a few perks; such as expanding your menu by catching wild beasts and having a creative view on culinary arts. A must see if you’re a Shonen Jump fan!

Number 1: Food Wars

The Master Chef of anime titles! With four seasons under its belt this is the ultimate anime title for fans and foodies alike! Souma is a teenage chef looking to perfect his cooking arts, but does he have what it takes to make an impression at a cutthroat cooking school? You can now watch this title every Saturday night on Toonami, on Adult Swim.

So there you have it! If you haven’t gotten the chance to check out any of the five titles listed above, you can find them on Crunchyroll, FunimationNow, or Toonami! Until next post, stay nerdy my friends! ๐Ÿ˜‰

We’ve been away for awhile…

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Blog Updates

Hey guys! Sorry you haven’t heard from us in awhile. Its been kind of a struggle on our end to keep a consistent pace in posting content, but rest assured we’ll be getting back to our regularly scheduled program soon enough. For this week we’ll be working hard on getting some awesome content up on the main site, as our posting schedule will be changing based on traffic on our site. Right now it appears we get the most traffic on Tuesday between 12-2pm, so expect some awesome posts coming from us on that day.

For the rest of the month starting next week our posting schedule will be Tuesday-Thursday, with Friday July 19th being the debut of a new Trading Card Game segment called Supercard Fridaysย starting with Dragon Ball Super Card Game! (If that segment goes well, we’ll add other TCG’s like Vanguard, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokemon!)

We’re hoping that this little lineup will put a little spice on what we can do, and we hope you’ll like it too! Until next post guys n’ gals, stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Blog Burnout: Not Letting What You Love Turn into Something You Hate!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, Blogging, Filler Posts

As a blogger, you find yourself faced with the many trials and struggles that come along with blogging; setting deadlines, consistency, figuring out what content to write about, or even the fact if its relevant or not. Blogging is a 24-hour job. Even when we’re sleeping the internet is always running – ALWAYS! Whatever topic you find yourself writing about you always have to make sure that you stay up to date with whatever the topic is. For us and maybe a few of you out there, it’s anime. With the level of popularity that anime is at now than it was 20 years ago, there is always something to write about. Despite this being the case on our end, we’ve found ourselves suffering from one of the negative aspects of blogging. We have given it the term ‘Blog Burnout’!

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We’ve all suffered from this at some point…

Blog Burnout is one of those moments where you find yourself scrambling for content to write about and post; so much so that mental stress kicks in, and you decide to procrastinate more often than you should. Add in the factor that life happens at the drop of a dime and before you know it, it’s been a week since your last post (then small doses of depression kick in). Blog burnout is at its worst when combined with writer’s block, because now your mind is stuck at a dead end and you feel like there’s no way out.

That’s what happened to us in the month of May.

When you find something that you’re passionate about, you do it because it’s something that you love to do. Even if you don’t make a dime off of it you do it because it makes you happy, and quiet as it’s kept it’ll even make some of the people you’re sharing it with happy. That’s one of the reasons why we love blogging about anime; because we find so many cool people who love the same things as we do, and they’re as passionate about what they do and like as we are. So what if people make fun of you for it, its the things you love that makes you, you! As for how to curb blog burnout, here’s some tips:

1. Plan out your posts in advance!

Making a rough draft of what you’re going to write about will save you some time in the long run. Make a spreadsheet on what type of content and topics you’re going to write about, and mark down the days that the posts are going to go out. You can even schedule when the posts are going to hit and even set a time, that way you can take care of whatever ‘adult’ responsibilities you have, and still run your blog.

2. Get plenty of sleep!

This one may be a challenge for many bloggers, as we may find ourselves up past midnight blogging about our topic(s) of choice because that’s the only time where all is quiet with no responsibilities in sight. If you’re a millennial (and most of us who blog are) then you’re probably in your 30’s or probably close to them. You haven’t hit your MLC (Mid-Life Crisis) yet but at the same time you don’t have the same sleep pattern as you did in your teens and 20’s. To make sure you’re at 100% when blogging, it’s a good idea to get plenty of sleep.

3. Collab with somebody on a few posts!

Sometimes its a good idea to find ways to expand your topic of interest to write about, and even though we can do it on our own most of the time, collaborating on a post with a fellow blogger may open up the door to bigger projects and ideas down the road.

Hopefully this post will help any of you who have come up against this at some point and time in your lives. Until our next one, keep your passion alive, and stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ™‚

Anime Cons: June/July 2019 Edition!

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

Summer is officially here! This is a season filled with cookouts, beaches, parties, the 4th of July, and of course anime conventions. For this segment we’ve decided to do something a little bit different, and make it easy to find cons that we bring to you. For this post we’ll be giving you the links to the cons themselves, so that you and hopefully your friends will get the chance to check out everything that these awesome cons have to offer. As always until next post, stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ˜‰

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D&A Friday’s A.O.T.W. Title: The Rising of the Shield Hero!

Aside D&A Anime Blog Anime, D&A Friday's Anime & Manga, Filler Posts

Welcome to the first day of Summer! Spring is gone, school is out, and anime convention season will be at an all-time high. With all that in mind we’ve decided to resurrect an old favorite segment of ours from way back; D&A Friday’s Anime of the Week! To celebrate the return of this awesome segment as well as kick off the first day of Summer, we’ve got a new and recent anime title for you guys n’ gals to check out, and it’s known as The Rising of the Shield Hero!

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The main cast!

Here’s the overview:

Naofumi Iwatani is an easy-going Japanese youth who happens to find himself summoned to a parallel world along with three others from parallel universes. They soon become heroes and each of them are given legendary equipment when summoned. While the three men got weapons (such as spears and swords) Naofumi got a legendary shield used as a defensive weapon – of course. Due to the betrayal of his only friend who happened to be Princess Myne, Naofumi had no choice but to become a hero on his own, but not without the help of a tanuki demi-human girl named Raphtalia as well as an egg that hatches into a bird creature girl named “Filo”. Together they work to restore the trust between the people and him, as Naofumi and his new companions become heroes of this new world, while uncovering its deepest and darkest secrets.

You can find this anime series on Crunchyroll or FunimationNow!

Until next post, stay nerdy! ๐Ÿ™‚