Friday, August 5

TV Viewing

These days I find myself 'jacking off' to Jack TV's lineup of raunchy shows and wrestling programs. It's irritating to watch re-runs every so often, but I also find myself pretty fond of Mad TV, but alienated by the more 'American' comedy shows/stand-up comics. I love Drawn Together and Stripperella (though these short series are soon exhausted), and watch an episode of South Park every now and then. I'm still mystified that they're actually showing some of these shows- some of them are pretty raunchy.
ETC provides more 'classy' fare; The Tonight Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien are now my nightly stapes- I only wish that Entertainment Tonight had more stuff about movies and showbiz than tabloid-style bits, but hey... learning about so-and-so star's new cancer makes for gripping TV, I guess.
Animax continues to mix some gems with their schedule. I should really like Samurai 7 but for some reason I find it slow and would rather think about it and feel that it's nice instead of actually watching the show. That's also the exact same way I feel about Lost- I know in my heart it's a great show, but I can't actually bring myself to watch it for some reason. Oh well.
Discovery Channel and National Geographic have had a bit of a tussle recently- on Tuesdays Discovery showed True Horror with Anthony Stuart Head (cool while it lasted) and later NG countered with a series on The Mafia. Hmmm. Monsters vs the Mob... tough call. The Mythbusters are still a favorite when they appear, and the ever-reliable New Detectives and a default watch on weekends.

Ah, the idiot box these days is pretty interesting. Which is just as well since I don't have any big game right now to keep myself off the channels, nor do I find myself going out of my way to get any new DVDs lately. Still, it could all be better... if only Sky Cable got Discover Travel and Leisure back, I'd be happy as a clam again with Globe Trekker and A Chef's Journey. Sigh.

Wednesday, August 3

Samurai Sis


Samuraisis is a lover and a fighter.

Here are the first character designs for my new title, Samurai Sis, which will be coming out in our group's upcoming comic project. It's been awhile since I've drawn stuff, so I hope I still have it... Feh. Whatever. Anyway, Samuraisis, or 'Samurai Sis' as she will be known more, combines the classic 'Isis' look (from the old TV series and the new comic adaptation) with elements of a Japanese ronin, or shugenja (warrior monk). She's not only packing martial arts skills but demi-goddess-ish powers over the elements. That and she packs several magical weapons- her katanankh (shown held) and her longer naginatankh (not shown). She's a tough cookie, but of course deep inside she's just a teen who is struggling to keep it together even with problems like missing parents, high school angst, a bratty kid brother and a noodle-wrapped undead warlord trying to take over the world.


Ramen Hotep. A villain who can really use his noodle.


Part shadow, part ninja, part snake, part paper... all EVIL.

Look for our new heroes and heroines later this year. Heh.

Monday, August 1

Anticipation

It's August, and that means we're a lot nearer to the release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the long-awaited, much-drooled over CG movie that will hopefully fulfill the dreams of countless fans and wipe away the smudge that was the Spirits Within movie. Recently, several new trailers were supposedly premiered at some of Square-Enix's events promoting their upcoming games and products.

Aside from FFVII AC, there's a lot more adventure in Midgar to be had with Dirge of Cerebus, the shooter/action-adventure starring mysterious Vincent Valentine. The latest news on Dirge's front is that there will be many cameos and appearances from other characters in the FFVII world, such as Barret, Cid and Yuffie the ninja. Also appearing is Caet Sith, the mascot-type character who was originally controlled in FFVII by Shinra exec Reeve. Just what Sith's role in DC is remains a mystery, deepened even more so by Reeve's apparent death (or at least, being gunned down) in the latest trailer.
Also figuring prominently is FFVII Crisis Core, which will feature anime cut scenes including some never-before-seen visualizations of some of FFVII's most dramatic scenes- such as the first meeting of arch-villain Sephiroth and his alien mother Jenovah, and the battle between Seph and Zack, Cloud Strife's mentor.

Advent Children has already been confirmed for a September 8 theatrical release in Japan, and even now I can imagine the screams and gasps of countless otaku at seeing this fantasy epic come to life finally in complete form on the BIG screen. I hope that anime shops here will have the Advent Children DVD as soon as they can... if only AC would be shown here in Manila in theaters as well. Fat chance of that happening, but DAMN that would be cool. No, that would be AWESOME.

One more month to go...
Pocket Playstation

An addendum to the earlier post... I finally discovered how to get the sizes of the files down with another freeware app. Now I don't have to compromise space and having my PS fighters along for the ride. My favorite Dead or Alive is now at an itty-bitty 42.1 mb size, making it no longer a bother to put in my card (previously, it was a humongous 422mb, which is almost half of my 1 gig storage space). Also, I was able to rip the original PS Tekken and now the Iron Fist fighters are sitting alongside the DOA girls in my SD card (the Tekken rip came to about 101 mb). Still trying to find copies of PS games to convert, a priority being Time Crisis which should be a riot to play with a stylus. Heh.