Teacher, Teacher!


Ultimate Teacher: Mizuho Kazami from Onegai Sensei

My current desktop wallpapers (both at the office and at The Sanctum) feature this lovely anime lass. Her name is Mizuho Kazami, and she's the main character in the anime series Onegai, Sensei, or Please Teacher. It is about a young man named Kei who is a teenager but looks even younger due to his rare affliction which can put him into an apparent state of suspended animation (!). Well, one day he sees a strange and beautiful sight; an alien woman! The next day, that same lovely alien lass has moved next door, become his homeroom teacher and soon... His WIFE! What the HECK? Well, that's the premise behind this 13-episode series, which takes on the day-to-day activities of a young Japanese guy, his half-human, half-alien wife and the many unusual characters who make their lives even more colorful.
Onegai Sensei stars popular voice actress Kikuko Inoue, who voiced the mega-popular Belldandy character in the Oh! My Goddess anime. Fans of OMG will probably see many parallelisms between Onegai and OMG in story as well, though Onegai makes a niche for itself by being more intimate, realistic and earnest in it's own way.

Haven't seen this yet, actually, but thanks to the beautiful artworks I've seen of it (like the image above), I will be getting it very soon (Tomorrow or this evening).

A whole lotta Angel going on...


Angel got a lot more guys around her this time around...

Despite all the recent loads on work and stuff like Project 100, we've gone on and set the next Angel Ace issue for release this December. The issue (which will be subtitled Angel Ace NEXT) will contain not only my own art and pages, but will feature FOUR guest artists contributing their unique styles to chronicling the exploits and adventures of Angel and company.

First off there's Jon Mallari, who's been contributing art and pages for us since Angel Ace Again!#1. Jon's an up-and-coming manga artist who's working on his own comic, Variable Edge. For now though, he'll be illustrating an action-packed flashback story featuring Angel and Kai during the days when they were both SIVA cadets...
Honoel Ibardolaza is, hands down, the finest local comic book artist I have never met but worked with. Heh. The master of the 'fake manga', Honoel is a winner of several Palanca awards for Children's books/stories, and has what seems like a gazillion uber-cool online comics. You can see his work on his popular site, Homanga. Honoel is, incredibly enough, a longtime Angel Ace reader, and it was with great pleasure that I was able to rope him to illustrate an Angel story for Next. The story he'll be illustrating is a remake of a short story from the original series, Night Flight; in it, Angel 'sleepflies' one night and suddenly finds herself in the middle of nowhere... and later in a stripmall crawling with armed thugs! Angel does DIE HARD! Heh.
Jeremy Arambulo is my cousin who's based in the US. Even years ago when we were kids, I've always known he has talent falling out of his ears. Anyway, he's a comic artist himself, having collaborated with a writer recently to release the comic Styx Taxi. Jeremy's got a cool, expressive American Indie comic style that seems perfect for The Gift, a short and comedic story where Mike and Rip trouble themselves with finding a special gift for their lovely new housemate, Angel.
Finally, Angel Ace Next will also feature a fanga (fan manga?) made by Mike Ching, who's one of our longtime readers. The four-page work is an action-packed Kai story following our favorite martial arts assassin on one of her SIVA missions.


Ready to go solo? Next year, she will.

Mike's favorite character of course is Kai, so he, and a lot of other ninja girl fans out there, will be glad to know that I am planning on releasing a comic starring Miss Mishima sometime next year. It will be titled KAI:K.I.A. and will feature Danger Girl-esque action full of fighting, intrigue, stealth and of course, fan service up the wazoo. HOHO!

WHEW!
That's that. Well, Angel Ace Next is slated for a December release, if everything falls into place. Gotta start cracking myself to get all this stuff ready.

DAMN I'm excited. HAHAHAHA...

Song and Dance

Ah.

I've been busy for the past few days; too busy to update or blog or do anything after getting off work. Today marked the end of a two-day stretch working on stuff. In the afternoon, I went off to client to present radio scripts. Presenting radio scripts is a pretty funny thing. Other writers probably do it differently, but I pretty much try to act out everything as its supposed to sound. This was a new client for me; I had only met them twice before, and here I was making funny voices and facial expressions (I imagine) to try and get them to understand and accept our ideas.
I can't tell you how excruciating it is to finish a 'number' and then hear NOTHING. The clients had poker faces for a while, staring blankly at the scripts and saying NOTHING. Thankfully, after a bit they chuckled and started commenting. There were good comments, some things I had to rein in, some points I conceded, bartered and some I had to ease them back onto track. In the end, the radios were approved and I went off to have my LATE, late lunch at about five o' clock PM; my first meal of the day.
This pretty much consisted of an eighty-five peso meal of a tiny bit of baked macaroni and a few slices of boneless chicken, and a small glass of soft drink. Highway robbery but it tasted good, and I had to order an extra burger to keep from feeling 'bitin' or short with the meal.

After some more quickie bits of work I was finally able to run off and meet Carl, Vin and Jason at the store. Went to the Strip at Residencia and then off home.

Things seem to be settling well into the weekend, but things remain poised. Have to start on Project 100 already; have to get working on the Angel Ace pages. My weekend MUST make room for these things for the big pay-off this Christmas.

Ah. It's good to be busy. And giddy. Giddy and busy, that's me. Hee-hee...

Crazy Days

Last night I came home feeling pooped even though it was Monday and the start of the week. I stared at the TV screen, not even interested in whatever was playing. Wanted to sleep the moment I got home. Take a shower maybe and play some turn-your-brain-off videogame.
Instead, I fizzled some Coke into a glass and started writing. At the end of an hour I had a 12-page script for an Angel Ace backup story for yet another guest artist to do which will appear in the upcoming Angel Ace Next. WOOHOO!

Still tired. Work at the office tends to pile up. There are a scant few of us, but we're managing. I've got scripts to write and have approved, copy to fiddle with, suits to barter with, and lots of stuff to move around as we fix the office seating plan.
I haven't felt this good in months.

Somehow, someway I am gonna do what I have to do.

Finish Project 100. Finish Angel Ace Next. Finish my work. On time and with the best effort I can on all of them.

I'm doing stuff that matters, and that make all the difference. Heh.

Back to work then.

Pirate Savvy

Last night I was finally able to watch Pirates of the Carribbean, starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush. I have to admit that I had my reservations with a film based on an amusement park ride, but after a while into the film I was laughing and getting into this action-packed pirate yarn. Depp steals the show as the foppish, constantly half-drunk and totally hilarious Captain Jack Sparrow, easily one of the coolest pirate characters yet put to screen. Orlando Bloom plays solid support and matinee idol material, while newcomer Keira Knightley is simply a vision to behold. My only real complaints is that the story's pacing is a bit off, but otherwise it's entertaining and worth watching.
Egads, then there's that Haunted Mansion movie. I wonder if Disney goes all the way and makes a Space Mountain movie? Heh.