Black Knight: Anime, Games, & More!

Black Knight: Anime, Games, & More! is an anime shop at 4 Kellogg Rd in Essex Junction, Vermont, with a trading card section built around anime-based games. It has been in business since May 1995 and is Vermont's only anime store. Card players come for One Piece, Digimon, Dragon Ball Super, Weiss Schwarz and Pokémon, and the rest of the shop covers figures, manga and merchandise for fans who browse as much as they play.

What's on the shelves

Cards are one department in a much larger anime store. The card games carried are the One Piece Card Game, the Digimon Card Game, the Dragon Ball Super Card Game (including DBS Masters), Weiss Schwarz and Pokémon. Cardfight Vanguard, Union Arena, Gundam TCG and Kingdom Hearts product also turn up, and Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy product has been taken on preorder.

Sealed product is the core of the card stock. One Piece boxes include Kingdoms of Intrigue, Carrying on His Will and Pillars of Strength, plus starter decks. Pokémon boxes include the Scarlet & Violet base set and Temporal Forces. Weiss Schwarz is the deepest of the lines: the catalog runs to more than a dozen pages of English and Japanese booster boxes, trial decks and premium boxes, spanning titles from Chainsaw Man and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure to Madoka Magica Rebellion and Goddess of Victory Nikke. Weiss Schwarz singles and the Blau line are also stocked.

Card supplies fill out the gaming shelves, with playmats, deck sleeves, toploaders and imported sleeves. One Piece TCG sleeves are carried, along with value packs of clear sleeves.

Beyond cards, the store sells:

• Figures in many formats, including Nendoroids, Figma, Pop Up Parade, scale and prize figures, blind boxes and acrylic standees
• New and used manga, light novels and art books
• Plush, pins, bags, clothing, model kits and cosplay items
• Board games and gift cards

Merchandise is imported from Japan or made for the North American market, and the store sells only legitimate product, with no bootlegs. It sells at conventions and online as well as from the retail store.

Store policies

Many items can be preordered with a deposit only, which is common for Nendoroids and imported figures. Special orders and appointments are also available, and the store carries an 18+ section for adult product.

Hours and getting there

The store is at 4 Kellogg Rd in Essex Junction, Vermont.

History

Black Knight opened in May 1995, which makes it one of the longer-running specialty shops in the area. In that time it has stayed focused on anime and Japanese imports rather than general gaming, and the card stock follows the same lines.

The local scene

Essex Junction has several other card and gaming shops close by. Green Mountain Sports Cards & Gaming is the nearest, 0.8 miles away, followed by Gamer's Edge at 1.7 miles. Main Street Sports Cards in Winooski is 2.6 miles away, Hobby Supply Store in Williston is 3.4 miles, and Killer Rabbit Comics in South Burlington is 3.8 miles.