Phone Cycle

Less than four years ago, I never dreamt that I would own a cellphone, much less have my life be dependent on it. It was ironic that I was working for the ad agency that did advertising for a major telecom company, and I didn't even own a cellphone. By the time I left that agency and headed for another, I still didn't have a phone.
But then, peer pressure got to me in the next workplace. Everyone had a phone, and I could not afford not to have one. Cellphones could let you be reached, or let you reach others, anywhere you were, at anytime. Up until that point in my life, I had thought such a thing was bad or undesirable. Pagers and beepers were still in business at the time, and they were horrid things. But whatever, I had to adapt.

My first phone was a big, clunky and heavy Motorola... I forget the exact model. It looked and felt like a walkie talkie, had a green digital display like a calculator capable of displaying only two or three lines of text, max. Furthermore, while it had caller ID, it did not have Texter ID, which made it a PAIN to figure out who the hell was texting me at any given time (I had to resort to writing down numbers on a piece of paper). Somehow though, I was able to make do with the thing.
I eventually LOST the phone on an FX taxi. The phone came with a leather jacket with a clip that fitted over my belt. Unfortunately, the clip really didn't have a good grip, and one day, as I got off a cab to Megamall, I did so sans my mobile. I was halfway to Comic Quest when I realized it, feeling an empty space where the phone was but minutes before. Oh well.
Of course, after a couple of months using a cellphone, I realized I could not exist without one. So a day after losing my Motorola, I was walking around the fifth floor of Megamall, looking for my next phone. At the time I was flush with cash, and I ventured to get a nice, feature-laded model.

As fate would have it, I saw a flyer for the newly-released Siemens M35i, a sporty little phone that boasted a rubbery exterior grip, a nice green screen (still monochrome), a '3-D'maze game and something arcane called WAP. For 8K I could own this state-of-the-art marvel! So, after just the time it took to withdraw from an ATM, I had my new phone.
I loved my M35i. It fitted me, and it was always on service. Sure, I didn't have any of the pop polytones Nokia phones had (WAAAAHHH...); All I had were the crappy tunes 'mixed by the hottest DJs' loaded into my Siemens. But nevertheless, I turned away from the 3210s of the time and just kept on truckin' with my little German workhorse. And it would serve me well for more than three years, the high point being it being stolen (and subsequently recovered) by a pickpocket on the EDSA MRT.
As time passed though, the weaknesses of the phone soon began to weigh heavily on me and the phone. About a year ago, shortly after I joined my present ad agency, the phone let me down. During a phone call, the battery died even though it was just recently charged. Perhaps it was just the battery. But perhaps as well I just wanted something new. I decided there and then I had to get a new phone.

The weekend after the incident I was in Greenhills, looking for a simple but snazzy new mobile. For all the models on sale, I found myself drawn to the Sony Ericsson T68i (I love 'em i's, don't I?). It was the same phone as my friend Dean, which for some reason made it seem ultra-hip and chic. I got it and I was at once enamoured with its tiny size, the wealth of features and... oh my gosh, the lovely, lovely color screen. It was Noel 'Flim' Lim who told me that once you move to color, you can never go back, and it's true. I stowed away my old M35i for retirement, though I would eventually give it to my Dad to use (he would later give it to our household helper after I gave him a new Samsung C100 for Xmas).
I was dazzled by color. For the next few weeks I preoccupied myself with putting cool images on my T68i's screen. Since it didn't have bluetooth, I had to upload images to a site and then download them to the phone via WAP. It was a pain to have limitations of having only 4000+ colors though- pictures became pale shadows of what they once where once they appeared on the phone, but at the time I was happy with my cool little toy.
For some reason though, I was pretty open with getting a replacement phone a month or two later. One weekend, I found myself again in Greenhills, looking for a phone. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I had traded in my T68i and some cash for a T610.

Another Sony Ericsson (my anti-Nokia spirit still held sway then) and one of the best phones of its class, I was thoroughly into it. I loved having a camera phone, though I used it mostly to grab images for the screen wallpaper. Later, I would use it to phlog. The T610 looked classy and smashing, it worked great and I was happy. Happy, but strangely I kept switching covers. Oh well.

Then, a couple of months ago, I was walking in Greenhills yet again, when a Nokia 6600 appeared in the secondhand phone display of one of the kiosks. It was the only secondhand 6600 in the whole place, so I took notice. I had been lusting for the 6600 ever since I heard about its features- still and video camera, internet, HUGE color screen that was miles better than the T610's, games, memory card expansion... this was my dream phone. A trade-in and cash payment later, and the dream became reality. My FIRST Nokia, and IMO the best Nokia phone, had arrived.
At present, my 6600 isn't so much a phone as it is an entertainment/media center. Installing some cool programs turns it into a portable theater capable of containing whole movies if I wanted to (I make do with shorter clips, trailers and excerpts though). Installing an MP3 player sweetens the pot even more. Who needs a digital cam/ I Pod/Gameboy/MP3 Player/Portable TV when your phone has MP3s, video capability and extensive gaming? I guess it's okay for me to lavish and spend on my 6600 when it pretty much saves me from having to buy any more extra gadgets.

I'd love to say that I am totally happy with my present phone, since I am. But given my history, a new phone swap might not be far away. What with models like the Nokia 7610 and the Sony Ericsson S700 about to break into local markets next month. We'll see.

Tech-head and Phonewhore signing out. We now return you to your regular scheduled blogging.

Sob Advertising

Over the weekend I saw the latest ad of a popular fast food chain here in Manila. It was a well-made ad, but somehow I just find the idea of pairing something as frivolous as fast food with terminal illness... wrong. Perhaps it's just me. It's in the same vein as showing poor people or beggars outside restaurants, or people dying because you didn't get your insurance or mortgage right. But then, for some ad agencies and clients, these things are all just part of the arsenal to catch an audience's hearts... and purses.

Ah, well... back to work then.

Shrek 2


Ogre power times 2.

Yesterday I ventured off to Greenhills to get my phone memory upgraded yet again to its 256 MB limit. It was quite a trick but now I've got enough storage space to fit in a bunch of MP3s and tons of video. As I prepared to leave for Mega, the rains increased and I found myself stranded. Theater Mall beckoned and I eventually decided to watch the sequel to Dreamworks' most popular and successful CG movie.

Shrek 2 reunites the cast of storybook characters from the first one- grumpy but golden-hearted ogre, Shrek (Mike Myers), princess-turned-ogress Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and sidekick Donkey (Eddie Murphy) as their lives continue after happily ever after.
It seems that Fiona was destined, at least by the resident do-gooder Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), to marry Prince Charming (Rupert Everett). But since someone threw an ogre into the mix, all that went to pot. So now, Godmother, Prince Charming's mother actually, hatches a plot to 'correct' the mistake. Her plan starts moving when Shrek and Fiona are invited to the Kingdom of Far, Far Away by the King and Queen, FIona's parents. And of course, hilarity and madness ensues.

This movie is a riot! The laughs, spoofs, pop culture references and sight gags come fast and furious from the first minute, and they hardly let up for the duration of the movie. It's great to revisit the Shrek universe and see the characters in action again. Aside from the original cast (who are in fine form), the new characters blend in perfectly. Stealing the show of course is feline mercenary Puss In Boots, voiced perfectly by Antonio Banderas (who is without a doubt emulating his own Zorro character and having a lot of fun with the role). Also of note are the King and Queen of Far, Far Away (John Cleese and Julie Andrews respectively) and the various members of Shrek's Posse. The CG is much improved this time around, and the whole film is eye candy from beginning to end, and with a couple of cool musical numbers for good measure. GREAT stuff for one and all! Grab your loved one, family or barkada and catch this in theaters now, now, NOW!

Suikoden Manga


Revisiting the world of knights, magic and ducks.

Over the weekend I picked up the first volume of the Suikoden III manga from TokyoPop, the comic translation of the popular PS2 RPG. While I would have loved to see a manga translation of the earlier Suikoden 2 (my favorite of the series), the three-sided tale of war, betrayal, dark magic and the 108 heroes is an excellent epic fantasy to read.
The art is excellent, and the story seems to follow the game's plotline quite faithfully. Also, it seems that the book will take great pains to include most if not all the characters in one way or another.
Suikoden III manga is a MUST for fans of the game, and for manga fans who are aching for an great swords and sorcery adventure to get into. Get your copy at Comic Quest or your favorite comic shop.

Downpours


Beautiful day.

I don't know about you but for me, rainy days are gorgeous. Well, not if you're out in the street, miles from your safe zone, your socks and shoes soaked to the grain, your body shivering in cold. Nope, rainy days are best seen, not felt. Seen from a window, preferably with a nice view. Perhaps overlooking the city, with the skyscrapers little more than ghostly silhouettes. There's a constant pitter-patter of droplets hitting the glass in a futile attempt to strike you. Wind howls like a soothing melody, rattling the panes gently like a caress.

Another great way to enjoy a rainy day would be curled up in bed, under warm covers. The sound of the downpour serves only to massage your eardrums, a lullaby from the sky.

Today was pretty rainy throughout... I am glad to say that I was able to have a couple of hours of restfulness as it poured outside. Here's to a rainy, lazy day as well today.

But DAMN I hope it's all cleared up by Monday.

What Now?!?

My cousin, US-based designer, illustrator, comic book artist and all-around nice guy Jeremy has finally joined Blogger! You can check his new blog, What Now?! at my links section. Or, you can just click here. Blog away, Jeremy!

Pause.


Enjoy the day before you miss it completely.

Ah. Breathe. Count to ten. Enjoy a cup of Joe. Stare out the window and enjoy the view. Or just sit back and stretch.

...

...

...

...

That's better.

Okay. Pause over.

Pocket Theater: The Sequel

It's been about a week since I got Smartmovie, and I am still having fun with it. I've solved a problem about videos having no sound, and have more or less found my comfort level for video clip quality. The thing is, the higher the quality of your video, the poorer the frame rate and movement. So you have to find a balance between how your movies look and how they move.

So far, I've been encoding and loading stuff like fight scenes, anime excerpts, movie trailers and game footage into my phone. I always have the Kill Bill fight between The Bride and Go Go Yubari loaded, as well as the striptease swordfight from Final Flight of the Osiris (I could actually load that entire Animatrix episode, but why waste the space?). Another fun but heavy clip is the short film George Lucas in Love, a clever fictional work that never fails to bring a smile to my face. And new, better fight scenes are coming up all the time.

How about that funny zombie-fighting gunfight from Versus?

Or that cool ninja attack from The Last Samurai?

The Rohirrim charge in The Return of the King, and the battle with the Mumakil.

The Hector-Achilles duel in Troy.

The Burly Brawl from Matrix Reloaded. Or perhaps the freeway chase.

The possibilities of what I can put in and bring with me are endless. I'm also thinking of encoding a whole movie... but what? Perhaps the whole Ninja Scroll movie would be nice. I should start building a library of encoded Smartmovie movies. Or perhaps several episodes of my fave animes? We'll see. Perhaps I should get myself a 256 MB MMC Card already. Yes, yes... that's the ticket. Yes...

Hoho. Not just a phonewhore, I'm a videophonewhore! MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Window Shopping the Weekend

Ahhh. It's been a long week. Perhaps it was because I came off an even more exhausting time last week and I spent all this time recovering from it. Yesterday, I spent half the time half-asleep, feeling like there were Yale padlocks attached to my eyelids. At one point Joey caught me snoozing while sitting up. That little catnap had the effect of a teeny bit of expresso though.
Anyway, it's great that the weekend's arriving, and I can finally take a breather. Still, there's stuff to do like artworks and pages and whatnot, but I really have to make it a point to relax.

Shrek 2 is already showing in theaters today. Gotta make it a point to see it this weekend, with the gang if possible.

Maybe I can pass by Greenhills on Saturday. I missed going last week and maybe new stuff has arrived since then. Stuff meaning the latest DVDs, games and anime.

Alternatively, I can just stay home and encode more videos for my phone, to play on Smartmovie. Hey. That's also nice. Heh.

Ah. I like it when the World is at my Oyster. Or something like that.

Reunion


Posing with Cthulhu.

I had a busy day, writing scripts, meeting clients and running here and there. I was half-asleep on the bus, nodding off to mp3s. My right eye felt sore and swollen, and I just felt worn out. Perhaps, I thought, I'd get refreshed with the batch of new comics and magazines at Comic Quest.
And it was to my pleasant surprise to find two friends that I hadn't seen in the longest time right there in the store! The last time I had seen Arnold and Cynthia Arre was on their wedding day. Now here they were, in the flesh! We tried as best as we could to catch up in the short time we had- having dinner with Vin at our new favorite restaurant, Lemon Grass and then later meeting up with Carl (another friend long MIA recently) at Cinnzeo's at Pearl Plaza.
Over cinnamon rolls and strawberry milk, we talked about everything from the advertising business to recent movies like Troy and Milan (Yes, the pinoy film), what Arn's new phone should be and other knicks and knacks.


Cyn shows off her new PDA.

Now that was refreshing. Don't let months pass by again till next time, guys. Later!

Stalled

On the comics front, things have slowed somewhat.

K.I.A. is about 70 percent done. A couple of contributors are still working on their stuff, and aside from my own unfinished pages I have to work on fixing other artists' pages. As I expected, K.I.A. won't be seeing release this June... we'll probably be delayed a month or two, but I have no doubt we'll see Kai's new adventures in due time, soon.
I will probably have to put K.I.A. on hold in any case as I have to start work on my pages for Siglo: Passion. I'll be doing the art for Jason's story, a 12-pager about the country in the 1960s. Have to start thinking up a new art style again.

Disappointingly, Questor is working out some issues, causing it and sister mag Questor Extreme to be put on hold for the time being. So it means we'll have to wait a bit longer for the adventures of Kunoichi Boy. Not altogether bad since I haven't actually worked on the succeeding installments as much as I should. Yikes. Oh well.

Gah. Irritating but this should all work for the best. Once we top the crest of the hill that is 2004, it should be all downhill. Hope, hope.

Rainy Day

Monday seems to be the day for rains. It rained last week, during Election Day, and it's raining now on Makati Day. Which is probably a bit inconvenient for the many hundreds of participants in the Makati Day parade. Traffic, floats, marching bands, confetti... just add rainwater for a heck of a mess. Gah.

In a way though it's also refreshing today... the long haul of a pitch we were slaving on from last week into this morning is finally over. I hope we get it.

Wanna get some shut-eye. Have to keep chugging along on the comic pages. Gotta encode more phone videos. Should pick up my Xbox magazine from Comic Quest. Lotsa things to do. Well, the saying is true- when it rains, it pours.

My Big Fat Greek Invasion



The last time I read anything about Homer’s Iliad was back in high school, reading the tragic tale of war, kings and god-cursed love from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology book. I had already read the much shorter versions/excerpts from encyclopedias when I was much younger- I was already fascinated by the story, the fighting, the Trojan horse myth and so on. And so, when I heard about a big budget Hollywood film on the epic, I was excited.

Well, last night I, Vin, Gig, Dean and Ralph went to Podium and watched the 11 PM showing of Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy.

Everyone knows the story of course- Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) steals away Helen (Diane Kruger), the wife of Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), King of Sparta and the brother of the powerful Greek empire-builder, Agamemnon (Brian Cox). This of course results in the launching of a thousand ships to take back Helen from Troy. Joining the fight solely for glory and the prospect of immortality is Achilles (Brad Pitt at his buffest), a supposedly invincible, masterless warrior.

Going into this, I already knew that it would be worlds away from the myth. There would be no gods joining the fight for either side, the whole Trojan war would be compressed into a matter of days (it lasted more than a decade in the myth) and characters’ parts would change dramatically. What we have here is a period war movie with political maneuverings, family drama, man-to-man combat and lots and lots of killing. Now, while I’m kinda disappointed that this wasn’t going to be another LOTR (despite having Legolas and Boromir in the cast) and there weren’t any Amazons in the film, I actually liked it.

The movie looks gorgeous, for starters. The mammoth armies are impressive to look at, and the first couple of battles were well-staged. The cast generally do their parts well- Brad Pitt is pretty bad-ass as the original bad-ass, Achilles, a masterless warrior who leads his own private army of professional soldiers and fights wars simply for glory. Achilles has mastered combat like no other man, and that shows in some quite exciting fight sequences.
Eric Bana RULES as Hector, the dutiful elder prince, defender of the city of Troy and loving son and brother. Seeing him here is a huge difference from his role as Bruce Banner in the boring Hulk movie, and it was a revelation. While he leads the Trojan defense, I actually seemed to feel the city was safe- he was that convincing as the story’s actual hero. And his duel with Achilles is a sight to see.
Evil Agamemnon is played with hammy glee by Brian Cox, who has moved on from hunting mutants in X2 to killing Trojans. Dignified actor Peter O’Toole plays the sympathetic but far too religious King Priam, who figures with Achilles in one of the most impressive scenes of fatherly love I’ve seen in recent films.

Orlando Bloom plays the somewhat wussy Paris, a far cry from his valiant, perfect elf warrior Legolas in LOTR, and I found his performance quite good, and the slow development of his character quite effective. Fellow LOTR vet Sean Bean finally gets to play a character who doesn’t die, as the crafty but sympathetic Odysseus, the mastermind behind the Trojan Horse.
It has to be said as well that the women of Troy- handmaiden/royal cousin Briseis (Rose Byrne) and Hector’s wife Andromache (Saffron Burrows) are portrayed as solid foundations to their husbands/men, in contrast to the more flighty Helen.

High Points- the first battle, the Trojan counterattack, the Hector-Achilles duel and the climax.
Hand-clapping Moment of the Night- when Agamemnon gets his.
Best reasoning of the night, from Gig- Aeneas is shown being entrusted with the care of the remnants of Troy, and goes to someday build Rome. Since Paris seems to survive as well, does he go on to build… Paris?

As I said, there are many deviations from the original myth, and I unexpectedly found myself rooting for the Trojans, but in the end the story told is clear, rational and in the end, satisfying. So troop down to theaters and join the siege yourself.

Speaking of movies...

Haven't watched Van Helsing, and I want to despite the tons of bad reviews about this film. In fact, it's because of the bad press that I want to see it.

Will try to meet up with the gang tonight to watch the sandals and swords epic, Troy. Somehow.

Pocket Theater


Movies on the go.

Time for a bit of techie phone-whoring.

A couple of years ago, it was pretty standard to see someone come along and bring out their trusty, clunky mobile phone and kill time with a game or two of Snake. Or better yet, ALIEN SCUM.

These days though, I can pass the time instead by bringing out my cellphone and watching the latest hot movie trailer, an excerpt from my favorite anime, a hilarious TV commerical or even (my gosh) a bit of mini-porn. Heh. Video capability is the most exciting treat given to users of the Symbian OS smartphones- which comprises of the Nokia 60 series (3650, 3660, 6600 etc) and the Sony Ericsson P800/P900.
Until recently, I've been pretty happy with the embedded RealOne Player in my 6600. After discovering an easy-to-use PC program from Nokia which lets me convert MPEGs into 3G.PP files (a Quicktime-based format of video for Symbian phones), I've been loading up my 128 MBs of memory with all sorts of eye candy. The only limits were of course space for the vids and the resolution of the screen. The RealOne player only gives you the middle part of the phone's screen to use, so videos are pretty small (almost postage-stamp small) and there is usually a good deal of pixellation and blurring that occurs with videos. Despite this, I was in video bliss. At one time, I was actually carrying around 5 full episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars in my phone.

In the past few days though, I've discovered an amazing new videoplayer called the Smartmovie Player, and I have to say it's probably the BEST videoplayer for a phone you can get. No, it's not from the telecom company- this lovely piece of software is made by a software developer called Lonely Cat Games, and the program is shareware online; you can try out a trial version and if it suits you, the full program can be purchased via secure credit card transaction.

Anyway, the Smartmovie player doesn't use the 3G.PP format- instead it plays AVIs, which makes for MUCH much clearer videos. Say goodbye to blurring and pixels!

The program comes in two parts- a 300+k-size player which is installed in your Symbian phone, and a PC-only converter which you use to convert almost any video file into properly-sized AVIs for viewing on your phone. The files are pretty easy to install in both your phone and on your PC. The converter is incredibly user-friendly and powerful for such a small program, at least after you get past configuring the video and audio resolutions and installing the proper codex. You can even edit videos so you can shave off unwanted seconds and save precious space on your phone's memory.

The best part about Smartmovie is that you can orient videos to play full screen on landscape mode on your phone- that pretty much uses the whole screen. And let me tell you, videos are super clear and HUGE (for a phone), which makes it a totally different and vastly more enjoyable experience than watching the dinky little 3GP videos.
While converting the videos, you can configure resolution of video and audio quality. With the right settings, it takes about less than 1 MB for about a minute of video- this means with a 256 MB card or 128 Memory Stick you can probably be walking around carrying an entire Lord of the Rings movie in your phone!
Of course, why waste phone space watching boring hours of Frodo and Sam climb Mount Doom when you can just watch Mumakil-killing at the Siege of Gondor right away? You can get the best, most exciting parts and bring those with you instead! A person on the go really can't afford to take a break for more than a few minutes- so a trailer or snippet is more than enough to pass the time.

So if you're packing a Symbian phone and want to videos to go, load up a large memory card/stick and try out Smartmovie player at Loney Cat Games.

I'm having a grand time, and it's great not only for me to kill time on commutes or when just waiting around- now I can actually show friends that new anime or game I'm obsessing about, that hot movie or this crazy commercial I saw. COOLNESS.

And of course, basking in the aura of peoples' jealousy is cool too. Heheh...

DOA Ultimate Dress-Up



DOAU is going to be the game that tides DOA fanatics over till the next true sequel. With DOA4 at least a year or two away, Ultimate is going to have to live up to its monicker.
Well, if the arcade-perfect translation of the original DOA doesn't make you go 'hmm', the redone DOA2 should. Aside from having all-new moves and techniques, spectacular multi-level stages (with mid-level sloping falls added as a mid point to the ridiculously high falls from DOA2 and DOA3), DOA2U will have tons of costumes to play with. According to gaming site IGN, Tecmo has mentioned that DOAU will actually have more costumes than even the recent DOAX. In fact, it may be a possibility that the swimsuits from that sidegame may be used for DOAU.
In anticipation of thousands of players going online to play and wanting unique looks for their fighters, or for the DOA fans who just want to play dress-up their ninja girl, this is a pretty cool aspect to the game.

DOAU is being prepped release in the next couple of months. We'll be grabbing our copy the moment we see it. Heh.

Tekken 5


The latest chapter of the classic fighting game series continues...

Namco finally revealed the latest Tekken game at E3 2004, so here's the info available so far.

There are three new characters; one female, two male. The lone new girl is Asuka Kazama, who fights more or less in the same style as the late Jun Kazama. She wears aikido-style outfits and has several of Jun's old attacks. Weng Fei is an angry-looking monk who seems to be out for revenge. Finally, the third new character is Raven, who looks all the world like Wesley Snipes' Blade character except with bleached hair. His fighting style seems to be ninjitsu.

The rest of the returning oldies includes almost all the fighters from Tekken 4- Paul Pheonix, Nina Williams, Julia Chang, Yoshimitsu, Lee Chaolan, Steve Fox, Craig Marduk, King, Christie Montiero, Jin Kazama, Lei Wulong, Hwoarang and Ling Xiaoyu. Heihachi seems to be absent since he goes missing after the events in the opening cinematic. Apparently, right after the ending fight between Jin, Kazuya and Heihachi, the Mishima Zaibatsu is attacked by an army of Jack Robots. Kazuya seems to escape, but Heihachi is not so lucky... Is Heihachi DEAD? I'm not putting good money on that, I can tell you.

Anyway, the graphics look similar so far to Tekken 4, though comments from people who have seen the trailer give the assumption that the costumes of the older characters are very similar to their original Tekken outfits- such as Paul's old red gi, Nina's purple outfit, etc... which is great since I HATED the Tekken 4 outfits.
Still not much word on any other new stuff... hopefully we'll be able to see the trailer and get more info as E3 2004 unfolds and wraps up.

Tekken 5 has been given a late 2004 arcade release, with home versions probably expected in early to mid-2005. We'll see where this one goes.

Gamer News

Rise of the Kasai


Tati's grown up to be a beautiful, if nasty, young lady.

The first trailer of Rise of the Kasai aka Mark of Kri 2 has been shown at E3. We've finally seen the new heroine and playable character Tati in action, and she looks to give her late, great elder brother Rau a run for the meanest warrior. Aside from handling twin daggers quite brutally in combat, Tati will wield an arsenal of death-dealing tools, use insidiously effective and deadly close-fighting and stealth techniques, and have the ability to become invisible and see through the eyes of the dead. If Rau was all noble warrior who kills with a stroke, Tati is a cruel torturer who inflicts terror in the dirtiest ways possible.
Apparently, events that happen before and after the story in the first Mark of Kri will shape Tati into the nasty anti-heroine she becomes in the game. Not the least of which will obviously be the death of Rau. Despite this, players will be able to control the original hero in some parts of the game, and Tati in others. At certain points, both characters will interact, though the other character will be controlled by a sophisticated A.I. engine. The trailer also mentions some online interactive element, but this is not yet clear.
Rise of the Kasai looks to be one of the sharper games to come this 2004. We'll be keeping out eyes out on this one...


When a woman slinks up to you like this, it's bound to be trouble...

Bikini Battling in DOAU

The latest trailer of Dead or Alive Ultimate shows off a lot of new stuff for gamers to chew on until the game's release in June. Shown at E3 2004, the video revealed a gaggle of new stages in which to fight in, such as a suspension-bridge hanging high over a raging river, an African stage teeming with wild animals (which fighters can get slammed against), a stage in the Great Wall of China and a beach stage seemingly torn from Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.
And speaking of DOAX, not only a stage but costumes have apparently made the jump from the DOA novelty game to the flagship fighter. Ninja girl Kasumi and wrestling princess Tina are seen brawling it out on the beach stage wearing bikinis from DOAX. It is not known yet if there are a set number of swimsuits in the game, or if players can download them from a DOAX save in the Xbox HD.
Hopefully, more details and options will be revealed soon as the weeks count down to the game's release this summer.

And speaking of bikini fighting, there will be swimsuit-clad combatants battling in Konami's fan servicey-wrestler, WWX Rumble Rose. This all-female wrestling game will not only have detailed body physics and a cast of buxom brawlers, there will be a mud wrestling mode and a Hands-free mode. Oh-kay...

Gaming looks VERY interesting in 2004... Heh

Survivor: All Stars Finale

SPOILERS

In a 2-hour special, the winner of the latest Survivor was finally decided.

The final four had lovey-doveys Boston Rob, Amber, hot momma Jenna and the gravelly-voicedRupert. Amber won the 2nd to the last Immunity, and to ensure her survival she voted out Rupert instead of giving her fate over to chance with a tiebreaker draw. B.R. won the last immunity and predictably brought over Amber into the final two.

The final tribal council meeting was perhaps the most emotionally-charged yet, with heavy accusations of moral degradation being thrown by jury members at the final pair, notably by tattooed Lex, motherly Kathy and farmer Big Tom. Calmer voices were that of Shi Ann, Rupert and Jenna.

The votes for the Survivor All-Stars winnder were read live at Madison Square Garden, with all the survivors present and all dolled-up.

Big Events of the Night...

Rob proposes to Amber, which ensures that they both get the million whatever happens, and sends a vast collective 'Aawww...' throughout the world. Heh.

Jerry Manthey storms out after a commercial break after voicing out her outrage at the show's exploitation of their pains and emotions (and getting boos after).

Richard Hatch, the original Survivor winner, defends the winners against the remarks of several others that they went too far in breaking friendships and their word during the show, saying that all's fair in the game.

Big Tom and Rob, despite their recent conflicts and some heated exchanges, eventually shake hands.

AND THE WINNER IS...


Amber, by ONE vote. She gets the million, and Rob gets a hundred thousand (I think).

Sub-winner: A new car is given away to another survivor, to be chosen by the winner, Amber. Amber gives it to Shi Ann, whom she says was the deciding vote that won her the game.

Final Surprise: Another million dollars will be given away by CBS to one of the 18 competitors (yes, Rob and Amber are also in the running). The winner is to be decided by audience vote, via text and e-mail. We'll all find out who in the later Survivor: More of the All Stars show.


I absolutely LOVED the show. The emotion was heavy but really now... It's a GAME, and everyone was playing everyone else at one point or another. You lost, tough. I really didn't like Boston Rob during his original Survivor show, but he just OWNED All-Stars. This guy played hardest, won pretty much every immunity and challenge and walked off with a car and the girl. Winner!

Oh well. What else is on today..?

V-Day


Giving politics the Finger.

Today, millions of Filipinos went out to get their hands dirty in the world of politics. Yep, it was time to choose leaders for the next several years, the most crucial seat being the Presidential and Vice-Presidential positions.
I've been undecided till recently, and then I was choosing between two candidates. The movie star and the incumbent were not among them.

We'll see what happens soon, hopefully. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.

Mom's Day

She can't fly. She doesn't know martial arts. She doesn't have superpowers of any sort, but she's the strongest woman I know.

I hope she's with me for years and years and years more to come.

Paqc You!

Today, Pinoy superboxer Manny Pacquiao faced Mexican champion Marquez for the world championship. I've never really liked boxing. I mean, it's boring. The punches usually don't look anything like in the movies where sweat goes flying off, and men reel from power punches and combos... no, it's more like a battle of attrition, of slow whittling rather than super blows and flashy attacks. Boooooring.
My parents were so irritated by the tons of ads that they just asked me to find the results online. Heh. Anyway, the fight ended in a dead draw, which sucks. Well, here's to a rematch and a more conclusive end next time.

Streetfighter on the Box


Ibuki and the fighters of 3rd Strike are coming to Xbox.

This fall, Street Fighter fans can look forward to playing their favorite beat 'em up on Microsoft's big, black box. Street Fighter Anniversary Edition will be a compilation disc which will have both Hyper Street Fighter Edition and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. This SF compilation will also be Xbox-Live capable, for those that have broadband. Can't wait! WOOHOO!!!

Going Nuts over Donuts



This afternoon, the office troupe zoomed off to have a late lunch at The Fort. Our main quarry after the noon meal was Gonuts Donuts, the insanely popular donut place there that has been making the rounds via word of mouth. For those not in the know, Gonuts Donuts supposedly had their recipe for their holed pleasures taken from the famous Krispy Kreme donuts in the US. The mix though has apparently been toned down in sweetness to suit Pinoys' tastes.
After having a pretty splendid lunch at the Chinese restaurant Vong's, we sniffed our way to the corner of The Fort where Gonuts Donuts was.

As I had heard, you DO have to wait in frickin' line to order your donuts. After which, you wait until your number is called to pick up your order. On the bright side, you can buy as many donuts as you can afford or stuff into your face- and after waiting in line for at least fifteen minutes at least, you'll feel you have a right to. Anyway, I passed the time playing the ten or so newly-installed games in my phone, and by watching the donuts get made in the back room via a large window.
I bought two boxes, which I intend to take home in time for Mother's Day. It remains to be seen if the donuts last that long though... I'll update this post later after I've actually tasted the blasted things...

Cast



No, I haven't gone romantic on you people. The artwork above is from Cast, a teen soap opera comic book by Siglo and Nautilus Comics proponent Jaime Bautista. Art is by Ronin Core, and the book will be edited by Elbert Or. The book won't be out for a while but an 8-page preview is being given away for free at various places, including Comic Quest. Check it out for teen angst, love, heartache and more angst. Heh.

Mark of Kri 2: Rise of the Kasai


"Whaddaya mean I'm gonna DIE in the sequel?"

The original Mark of Kri game for the PS2 was a bloody fun game when it appeared a couple of years ago. The gorgeous art instantly brought to mind Disney animation, but once the fighting started, you could easily see this was no funny Mousefactory-made feature. Main hero Rau could really manhandle his enemies, performing stealth kills that would make Solid Snake and the Tenchu ninja jitter. This guy woud grab an enemy guard, slam him against a wall and impale him with his own weapon, hanging him up like some gory picture frame. VICIOUS!
Well, despite the fact that the game was frustratingly hard at times (okay, often), it was pretty cool and has apparently warranted a sequel. In development by Bottle Rocket (the same company that produced the first game) and expected to appear in the upcoming E3 2004 is Rise of the Kasai AKA Mark of the Kri 2. The original game was originally supposed to be part of a trilogy- MOK2 just may be both prequel and sequel, since the gameplay will be set both before and after the events in the first game. Also, it seems that in the course of the game, Rau will be kicking the bucket and passing on the mantle of main hero and warrior to his younger sister, Tati, whom players first saw as a skinny, snot-nosed kid in the first game. Well, Tati may not be as strong and big as her big bro, but she should be faster and stealthier than Rau. And judging from a screenshot in PSM, she'll also be a lot sexier. Heh.
Anyway, according to PSM, the next Mark of Kri will be 3 times larger than it's predecessor, with more playable characters, a degree of teamwork between characters (though it will still be a one-player game), and larger, more complex stages and levels. And of course, more stealth kills. Mark of Kri 2: Rise of the Kasai should be seeing light by the Fall of 2004. Bloody good action to look forward to.


Tati takes over the hero spot in Rise of the Kasai.

Demon

My officemate told me about this creepy yet funny story.

Some time ago, she knew this person who was a drummer for a rock band. He was a nice guy but it just so happened that he loved to draw demons. Winged, horned, grotesque demons. Fire-wreathed, iron-clawed, glowing-eyed monsters that were the fashion for heavy metal. He drew them everywhere, in his sketchpads, notebooks and plates (they were studying architecture). Predictably, his room was decorated with wall-to-wall demonspawn.
Well, one time, he was working on his computer, drawing an artwork of a demon emerging from a portal. He drew the line art, scanned it into his computer and went home for the night.

The next day, when he opened the file, it was fully-colored with complete rendering, shades and all the FX trimmings. The Demon had apparently come to LIFE!

The sight of the inexplicably completed artwork (no one could have done it since they closed down the room and no one else was there till the morning he came in) panicked the guy. He shut off his PC and couldn't work for the rest of the day.
Later, the guy tore down all his posters and demonic artwork. He quit the band and turned his back on rock music and started listening to the music of Side A (a mellow ballad group).

No matter what explanation or alternative for the sudden appearance of the fully-colored demon in the PC, the guy was adamant- it was a sign for a change in lifestyle.

Well, for all we know he may have just colored it and forgotten that he had done so. Or maybe someone played a trick on him. Well, if I suddenly found my artworks suddenly colored, I'd think of elves in the cupboard. Anyway, I don't think I'd turn to demonic worship overnight and start drawing pacifist monks in any case. Heh.

Moving on...

The Iron Fist returns

Namco of Japan have announced quite a few games in their lineup that will be featured in the upcoming E3 Entertainment Expo 2004. Confirmed to be in development is the latest chapter in the company's flagship fighting game series, Tekken 5. Little has been said of the upcoming fighter, though rumor has it that the game will be more similar to Sega's Virtua Fighter 4.
I haven't been excited by Tekken since Tekken 3- really now, the series just stopped dead in innovation right there. Tekken Tag to Tekken 4 were ho-hum and run of the mill at best. I'm hoping for a revamp of the fighting system, and a fresh new crop of fighter. Though I will be expecting Paul Pheonix to replace Heihachi as the leathery old man of the lineup. We'll see if my excitement gets piqued as the months go by. Tekken 5 looks to be the first of the new generation of fighters, since both Virtua Fighter 5 and Dead or Alive 4 are as yet nowhere to be seen.
Also included in the Namco E3 lineup will be Death By Degree, the action-adventure spinoff game starring Tekken veteran Nina Williams.

Exactly one year ago...

... I blogged about the Unfairness of Life equated to flagging down taxis, Pissing in your Dreams, watching X2: X-Men United and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust with the crew and the joys of having deadly-licious steak. One year ago. Man, I've been blogging for a while. You can see all the gory details by clicking on my archives in the Brain Banks.

Looking Bakshi

Animator/Filmmaker Ralph Bakshi has had a varied portfolio of works. Today, fans of Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy will know him as the guy who made that 'iffy' animated version of Lord of the Rings. Perhaps you've seen it too. The first time I saw Bakshi's LOTR was when I was a kid; the rotoscoped (cartoons/animation done by tracing/coloring over footage of live actors) opus was shown on GMA-7 in its entirety. Bakshi's LOTR had tons of weird stuff- like how Aragorn looked like a Native American Prince Valiant with no pants. Or how Boromir of Gondor was turned into a VIKING. Or how the Balrog seemed to be a man wearing big high-heeled clogs. Or how the Battle of Helm's Deep seemed pretty boring and incredibly confusing. But despite this, it was a thing to see and a valiant effort- overacting rotoscoped actors notwithstanding.
Anyway, Mr. Bakshi has many other works which are worth finding and were a significant part of my upbringing as a fantasy and animation fan. Here are a couple of his best.



Wizards (1977) is set in a post-apocalyptic world where fantasy and science side by side. Long ago, a beautiful fairy queen had two sons- Avatar (the good wizard) and Black Wolf (the not-so-good wizard). After their moather dies, Black Wolf starts his bid for power and conquest. Despite being a peace-loving goody-two shoes, Avatar kicks his brother's evil, cyborg butt and we fast forward years later. Avatar's an old man, looking little of the fiercely powerful wizard in the still-art of the prologue. But when one of Black Wolf's assassins kills the President of the Good Nations right before his eyes, Avatar shows he can still throw a mean spell when he takes down the enemy with his FINGER (COOL moment).

Anyway, seeing as how it's quite clear that BW is up to no good again, Avatar goes on a quest to stop his evil sibling, accompanied by Elinore, a sexy and scantily-clad fairy princess/apprentice, Winghawk the elf warrior and Peace, the formerly evil robot assassin now turned to good.
What happens next is your staple quest- heroes travel, get captured, escape, meet allies, reach Black Wolf's fortress and have a final confrontation. Along the way there are battles aplenty, including some pretty graphic scenes. In particular, there's a battle between elves and demons where Black Wolf uses real film footage of Nazi atrocities to 'paralyze' the good guys. The elves are machine-gunned and I think this was the first time that I saw cartoon characters DIE WITH THEIR EYES OPEN and have pools of blood gathering on the ground. Yep, I wonder now why I am still a nice guy and not a psycho killer. Heh. Anyway, after lots of drama, we finally get to the final and the best part of the movie, where Avatar literally BLOWS AWAY his evil twin with a GUN.

Avatar: "I'm glad you changed your last name, you bastard." BLAM!!! He dead.

Anyway, Wizards is definitely not your usual LOTR-type fantasy. The character designs are quirky and cartoony at times, and the animation isn't the best around (this is Bakshi, after all). But still, this film is great fun, and the loads of action and fan service are surprisingly cool for a US animated film.



Whereas Wizards was more cartoony and whimsical (relatively), 1983's Fire and Ice took great effort to look more realistic and gritty, with designs and characters inspired by the art of fantasy artist Frank Frazetta (in fact, supporting character Dark Wolf is based on Frazetta's popular artwork Death Dealer). This film also makes use of rotoscoping, though with better effect than Bakshi's LOTR film.
Anyway, Fire and Ice is probably the best and only real prehistoric jungle world-loin cloth-action fantasy animated epic around, which makes it a must-see for animation fans. The story can be summed up like this:

In the North there was a queen named Juliana, who wanted to conquer the world. To do this, she gathered an army and bore a son. His name was Nekron. She taught him all the dark arts and soon they pushed southwards with a mighty glacier before them, ruling from their castle called Ice Peak. Far to the South, the oppressed peoples huddled in the warmth of the castle of Fire Keep, ruled by a benevolent king named Jerold. And as Nekron pushed the glacier ever southward, all waited with fear at the inevitable battle between fire... and ice.

That's more or less (actually a lot less) the monologue we hear at the start of the film, accompanied by some lovely still art sketches. After that though we see some meticulously-detailed animation, with realistic, lifelike characters.
Anyway, we follow the lives of various characters in this prehistoric epic, notably that of Larn, (who looks like Marc Singer from the first Beastmaster), a young warrior from a village Nekron's forces destroyed. Larn is able to escape from the sub-human armies and finds himself running through the monster and enemy-infested jungle.


Marc Singer in anime form.

The scene shifts to Fire Keep, where we find the sexy, almost-naked Princess Teegra as she is kidnapped by Juliana's 'men' in order to force Jerold to surrender. Of course, things don't go as planned and Teegra escapes and gets lost in the jungle.


You'd hide too if you were a bikini babe being chased by evil cavemen.

What happens next is a storm of action as Larn meets Teegra, Larn loses Teegra, Larn meets Dark Wolf the bad-ass warrior, Teegra gets captured, Larn faces Nekron the Telekinetic Malnourished Bad Guy, Larn and Dark Wolf go to Fire Keep and of course ultimately go on a Prehistoric version of The Attack on the Death Star but with pterodactyls (Dragonhawks in this movie) instead of X-Wings. Lava flows into the glacier, and the world begins anew as Larn gets Teegra and they have raunchy sex. Well, that probably happens after the movie though, heh.


"Guys, is it just me or is there a draft around here?"

Okay, the film isn't perfect- the animation, while cool, isn't always great and things aren't always realistic- Teegra prances around bikini-clad and barefoot even inside an ice-caked glacier without ever feeling the cold- I like it, of course but there are those who would be bothered by the tons of cheesecake and beefcake. The story's not LOTR; it's more Conan if anything, but come on- nobody makes action-packed prehistoric fantasy movies anymore, much less animated movies. The story's pretty basic, but the art, the designs, Teegra's sexy bod... they have to be seen. This is a gem and if you can find it, grab it.

There. Two of Bakshi's best. Go and get them. Just remember, if you find that Cool World movie though, run- don't walk- for the exit.

Grass Fire

Yesterday after work I hied over to Megamall to have dinner. Vin and I went to the recently-opened Lemon Grass restaurant. As far as I know it seems to serve Asian cuisine- lots of curry stuff and spices. Both of us went for the recommended Butter Chicken with rice and a bowl of Hot and Sour Soup. The food was delicious, if a bit too spicy; my stomach, which wasn't feeling good all day, had to contend with being filled up with roiling pepper heat. The soup was hot and sour heaven, but it lit a flame in my mouth which made eating difficult. As it was, I just finished off the morsels of chicken in my buttery dish, had a few spoonfuls of soup and that was it. Good thing the Lemon Grass Tea was cool and refreshing. Great meal. Tortuous, but great. I'll be back there soon. I guess that makes me a bit of a masochist. Heh.

Journey's End


The story of wolves and humans in a dying world ends in Wolf's Rain OAV.

Wolf's Rain is a 26-episode anime series on Animax, all about a dying world where evil nobles rule and wage war from dying, domed cities and keeps, and where wolves are wise, cunning and powerful beings who can walk among humans using powerful illusion. The whole goal of everyone in this series is finding and reaching Paradise, which may or may not be a real place. Before the end, much blood has to be spilled, and even more miles must be run.
This series was made by Studio Bones, the makers of the also-excellent Rahxephon. The animation, character designs and art are incredibly beautiful for a TV series, and it is more or less constant for the whole 30-episodes.
I am not particularly fond of dark, dreary and depressing stories- and Wolf's Rain must easily qualify as such a story- the whole mood of the series is dark, dreary and depressing, full of sadness, regret, loss, anger and towards the end, grief. The series always seems to have a sword dangling over the protagonists' heads. But somehow, each one of the heroes, from the four wolves of Kiba's pack, to the hapless humans caught up in the race for paradise, always keeps a glimmer of hope, even in the face of death. Perhaps that's why in the end I still like it.

I watched Wolf's Rain OAV last night. It's a 4-episode arc (eps. 27-30) which gives the series closure after the regular 26-episode series ended rather inconclusively. Let me just say that I've seen a lot of emotional endings as an otaku, but the grand pathos that ensues in Wolf's Rain's finale got takes the proverbial cake. There are tragic deaths aplenty that will shock and sadden you, especially if you've seen and lived with these characters for 26 episodes. Particularly affecting is the first death, and a subsequent burial in water that gave me a poignant reminder of a similar scene in Final Fantasy VII. Later, a final, emotional ending for a former hunter and hunted had me with tears welling in my eyes- something that has not happened in a long, long time.

A gloriously sad ending as animes go. But instead of turning me away, it has just made me like this series more. Unlike the much-lamented Rurouni Kenshin 2nd OAV which made me hate that series, Wolf's Rain's ending made me like it even more. Perhaps it's because here, the heroes didn't lay down and die, or despair. They kept fighting, kept to their beliefs and goals, even when all was darkest, even when death was at their throat. That's what makes it the tragedy great, but the victory greater.

I probably going to get this series on VCD for posterity. Great, sad stuff to watch, when you want to feel depressed. But then, afterwards, you can move forward because another day is another life to live.

Dream Photography

Has this ever happened to you?

You have a dream where you have the opportunity to bring something back? But of course, it being a dream, to carry the objects back into the waking world is futile. I remember times when I'd dream of something I really, really want- an upcoming game, for instance. I'd wake up and try to look for it in a daze. Of course, it would be nowhere to be found.

This morning, I had a dream and in that dream, I saw a good friend that I had not seen in a long, long time. Of course, to celebrate the reunion, I whipped out my trusty cameraphone to snap a pic. I took the picture and looked with puzzlement at how I seem to have missed my subject. I repeatedly snapped pics, but again and again as I looked at the screen the subject was out of frame. Oddly, I also remember my camera changing appearance every time I looked.
Eventually, my friend seemed to vanish and I was left with no picture. I eventually woke up.

Weird stuff. Perhaps it's a sign of my latent psychic abilities, groping into the future? Or perhaps just brain fluids, mixing and remixing our thoughts and memories. Remix my mind? Something to ponder.

Slow Daze

I have to confess, I've been neglecting my comics work. For the past several weeks, I've been coming home too tired and sapped to lift a pencil or paper to do my stuff. I haven't drawn a finished, colored artwork in weeks.
That, I promise, will change tomorrow. I'll pencil, ink and render art for all the time I'm home. And with the mammoth mall-wide sale at Megamall over the weekend, staying home is a nice proposition. We'll see though. Bottom line, I should be posting a colored artwork or two of my own making here on the blog soon. Promise.

Scrape with Death

Today, on the way to the office, the cab I rode got into an almost-accident. It was along Santolan Road going to EDSA. The driver, being a bit wreckless, kept going straight even as a big SUV-type vehicle was coming in from a side road. The side of my cab (coincidentally the side where I was pressed against) literally scraped the bumper of the other vehicle. I found myself staring into the other car's grill. In my usual deadpan, all I could do to react was quietly swear.
Luckily, the contact was so slight that the other car just kept on going. My cab driver, slightly panicked, struggled to get us back into a safe lane as irate drivers around shouted obscenities. After a bit though, we were on the road again as if nothing had happened, though the driver kept trying to see how much damage was inflicted on his car (not much, if at all, really).
Looking back, it could have been a lot worse, but as fate (and perhaps the work of my guardian angel) would have it, all I got from it was this blog entry. Lucky bastard.

Live-action Anime


Only the Japanese can get away with a film like this...

Casshern is a new Japanese sci-fi/action-adventure film that just recently started showing in the Nippon. It's a bit hard to explain the premise or plot- it looks pretty complex and features a future tech-driven world, a powerful family, beautiful fiancees, brilliant scientists, girly-man heroes, cyborgs, mutants, ROBOT ARMIES, superhuman swordplay and martial arts, apocalyptic panoramic settings, vast wastelands, tragedy, human emotion... the WORKS!

If all this interests you, check out the website for trailers, wallpapers and stuff. This probably won't make it into theaters here, but once the DVD becomes available, this should be a no-brainer for anime and sci-fi fans. Awesome!

The Village


M. Night Shyamalan dishes out another eerie movie...

M. Night Shyamalan of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs quietly releases yet another eerie film of beautiful images, slowly panning vistas and hidden, unspeakable horror. After tackling ghosts, superheroes and aliens in his previous films, it seems that Mr. Shyamalan is now tackling monsters in the woods.
The Village is set in the late 1800s, centering on a peaceful and seemingly perfect settlement surrounded by impenetrable woodlands. But hovering over these contented villagers' heads is the terrifying knowledge that something evil lives within the woods- something so foreboding and terrible that no one dares step beyond their borders. But when a curious and headstrong young man crosses that line, the 'truce' is broken and the future of The Village is changed forever...

This thriller packs in an impressive cast- John "Danger, Will Robinson!" Hurt, Sigourney "Let go of her, You BITCH!" Weaver and Joaquin "Gimme a hug" Pheonix among others. The trailers are deliberately mysterious and teasing- it seems that we're going to have to wait till the theatrical release in July before The Village reveals its secrets.

Hot Agency

No, it's not because my ad agency's particularly award-winning... our airconditioning system in the office is on the fritz. GAH! It's really irritating to have to put up with the significant warmness in the air... especially when the computers and other office equipment we're all using shed heat like dogs shed fur. Outside, the summer heat is positively broiling. I hope the building administration fixes up the climate control soon... I want a frigid office environment to work in. Brain need cold.

Vinterview


"So, sir, these comics... they have pictures on ALL the pages? Amazing!"

Last night, Vin was interviewed by a reporter from The Cory Quirino Show. The segment was about Siglo: Freedom, our group anthology book published by Mango Books. Siglo proponent Jamie Bautista was also there earlier but had to leave before the talk started. Vin answered five questions, all about the why's and why not's of the project. I even got to extra in the segment. Heh.
If you wanna catch this, the show's on Channel 23 I think (it's an ABS-CBN show), during late nights. Just refer to TV Guides for exact scheds.

K.I.A. in the flesh?


Agent K in the flesh?

She plays 'Rommie' on the sci-fi series Andromeda, and last night I even caught actress Lexa Doig's performance on the latest Friday the 13th flick, Jason X. She's no stranger to strong female roles, and as anyone can plainly see, she's a fox. While she's probably more hispanic than oriental, her chiselled features do bring to mind Agent K's look; perhaps a haircut and bangs would complete the picture. Still, I think Zhang Ziyi is still the first choice...
Addendum: Miss Doig is 30 years old this year, which means she isn't young enough to play our 20-ish super assassin, as pointed out by Evil Dex. She's also half-Filipina (which I could pretty much tell). And, she's married. Ow. Oh well.

Lust List

I think I'm a fairly content and happy person, in terms of little doohikies, kits and kaboodles and other gizmos that a modern/newly-discovered techie/gamer dude would like to have. In terms of anime, I pretty much have access to almost every anime I could want. DVD movies and VCDs have made sure of that. The gamer in me has a Playstation 2, an XBox, a Dreamcast and even a classic Sega Saturn to play games on. In terms of mobile phones, I've got a Nokia 6600, which I strongly feel is, pound for pound, the best phone there is right now. And of course, I've got an Apple Powerbook G4, which is basically the wet dream of many a techie. Happy as a clam, I am, I am.
But then again, nothing is ever static and life is always in a state of flux. And I am a firm believer in the principle that desire and a goal is something all humans must always have to keep from becoming stagnant and old.

So, my Top Ten List of Wanna-Have Lustable Stuff...

1. A Playstation Portable- while probably not the platform the next Dead or Alive game will be coming out on, the PSP will boast amazing graphics and gameplay for something you can carry around. I've held out on getting a Gameboy Advance SP since the PS1 quality graphics never really caught me... the PSP just might move me to become a mobile gamer.

2. Dead or Alive Ultimate- the next chapter in the most graphically beautiful fighting game series ever. DOAU is set to come out on the Xbox this June, and gives gamers a redone DOA2 with even more awesome graphics, and an arcade-perfect version of the original DOA. Players can take their game online via Xbox-Live, and beat up opponents from across the world (optimally). Of course, fans will be waiting for the supposed tons of new costumes to dress up the characters in.

3. Nokia 7610- Yes, I was kidding when I said I was giving up comics for this upcoming mobile from Finland. But I wasn't lying when I said I was interested in it. What's not to love? The 7610 has pretty much all the features I love in my 6600, along with a Megapixel-camera to take pictures that put all current cameraphones to shame, the ability to take 10-minute videos and editing programs. That, plus a smaller and more compact size and stylish good looks make this my probable next phone.

4. A Big-screen, Flat TV. These things cost a bundle- more than I would comfortably part with. Well, I can dream, can't I?

5. Sony Ericsson S700- while I don't normally like phones with moveable parts, this switchblade-type phone from SE has gotten myu attention. It looks good, with a HUGE 2.3 inch screen, a 1.3 megapixel camera, expandable memory via Sony's Memory Stick Duo, video recording and playback, connectivity and all the works. The features and looks of this phone just rock, and it'll be a tug of war between this and the 7610 come later this year.

6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Version DVD Set- nuff said.

7. A nice, airconditioned, brand-new car with a driver-bodyguard trained by MOSSAD to kill with one hand and leg tied behind his back. If he were a she and as sexy and cute as Agent K, all the better.

8. An Airport card for my Apple Powerbook so I can surf wireless at the mall.

9. A bunch of new jeans and more Spoof! shirts.

10. A cold cup of Watermelon Ice from Ice Monster right NOW.

Giga-Mail

Hey, fellow bloggers! If you're like me and you pretty much zoom through the Blogger homepage to your 'Create New Post' page, you may be missing a great offer from Blogger and Google. It's called G-Mail and it's a radical offer that gives you a Free e-mail addy from the no. 1 Search Engine on the Web. What makes it radical? Only the fact that it gives you a Gigabyte of storage space! Yep! You'll never have to erase your inbox again (or in the forseeable future) since you can basically keep every mail you have for years and years! It'll also come in handy in storing large files and other stuff online. And even better, since it's still early, you may be able to get the address of your choice!
Anyway, this service isn't totally available to all... but it IS initially available to us bloggers! So, go on over to the Blogger Homepage and get your own G-Mail account now!

Action Anime


Martial arts, sexy babes and romance abound in Tenjou Tenge.

In the wake of Ikki Tousen comes another sexy martial arts anime. Tenjou Tenge is adapted from the long-running manga of the same name. The story revolves around Todou High School, a place that specializes in martial arts. Enter Nagi Souchirou and Bob Makuhara, two transferees and veteran fighters who live to fight stronger and stronger opponents. Upon entering though, they soon discover that Todou's reputation for having the strongest and most powerful fighters is very, very true. Soon after arriving, Nagi finds himself getting a fiancee' in the sexy and somewhat air-headed Aya Natsumi, a kendo warrior and heir to a centuries-old fighting family, meeting Aya's older sister Maya, who normally appears as a grade-school kid but can transform into a voluptious babe for battle, and getting beat up by Mitsuomi Takayanagi, Maya's student and also an awesome fighter. Soon, Nagi and Bob's antics attract the attention of other forces in Todou...
The manga version of Tenjou Tenge had tons of raunchy sex, and this seems to be toned down a lot in the animated series. However, the fighting action seems intact, with hard-hitting action that is far superior to Ikki Tousen and other similar anime. The series has martial arts in spades, fan service and humor that should appeal to fans of these kinds of shows. I'm hooked from the first two episodes. Now, if only I was sure how to correctly pronounce the title...

Close Call

Last night, after getting dropped off at my usual bound-for-home point, I may have had a brush with the dark side of men. Maybe.
It was a little before 2 AM, and there I was, waiting for a cab. At that late/early hour, there was almost no one about... except for several men walking my way from down the road.

They were dressed as the usual layabouts on the street, and looked either they had a bit too much to drink, or sniff. Aside from their raggedy appearance, there were some telltale signs that made me wince. As they approached, a dog started barking. Animals are usually good detectors of danger, and I think at this point it was dead on.
One of the men seemed to move a bit faster than the others, while the rest hung back. I watched from the side of my eyes as the first ruffian slowly moved past me, without a doubt casing me as well. The others were fast approaching. I was, in effect, being surrounded.

Now the last thing I wanted was to be in the midst of unsavoury, dark and silent strangers who looked like they were either drunk or high. Even less, these guys were too quiet. You could feel their malevolence in their approach. So, without another second to lose, I walked across the street to a nearby 24-hour convenience store. I walked in, made a half-hearted pass through the aisles and then looked to the door. I think one of the men- the one who passed me- followed me into the store. A seedy-looking guy entered the store, and immediately you could see that the convenience store people were on alert, watching him. I left the store and crossed the street. The other men where standing nearby, but seemed to be out of range. Finally, an empty taxi came and I flagged it down.

The cab was one of those CB-networked cabs- it made me feel safe enough to talk to the driver about the men, and my almost-maybe-mugging encounter. He agreed that I had done the right thing- in any case times were dangerous and no one can be too careful. I got home and paid the man extra for taking part in getting me out of peril's way, went into the Sanctum and contemplated the evil that men do.

And then I watched Animax.

Hellboy


Ron Perlman stars as the devilish hero with the Hand of Doom.

I needed a break. After feeling a headache and feeling dizzy at the office the whole day, I went out at quitting time and found myself making a beeline for Glorietta 4's cinemas. I had dinner at World Chicken and had myself the delicious grilled chicken with tuna pasta, mashed potatoes and garlic rice- an old favorite several years ago when I was in another agency. Sated and refreshed, I entered the theater for my first movie in many, many weeks.

Spoiler Warning!

Hellboy is based on the comic by Mike Mignola, a comic that I have known about for years but have never really read. The movie stars Ron Perlman (Vincent in the Beauty and the Beast TV series) as Hellboy, a young demon adopted by the brilliant and kind Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm (John Hurt) during World War II and now serving as a protector of mankind against supernatural dangers.
The movie shows (in a somewhat overlong sequence) Hellboy's origin and the beginning of the main threat- the plot of mystic Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden) to free some tentacled, Lovecraftian demon gods from another dimension.

Fast forward to present day; Rasputin returns thanks to the efforts of his cronies: cold, immortal Aryan beauty Ilsa (Bridget Hodson) and the deadly clockwork blade-swinging zombie assassin Kroenen (Ladislav Beran). Naturally, they start setting their delayed plan into motion once again.

Meanwhile, Hellboy's a bit older now- 60 years older in human years but only a teenager in demon time. He's the primary agent of the B.P.R.D., the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, an MIB-like agency that battles things that "go bump in the night." Along with H.B. are Abe Sapien(voiced by David Hyde-Pierce), a telepathic amphibian creature, and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), a young woman with pyrokinetic abilities. Joined by John Myers (Rupert Evans), a recently-transferred FBI agent, the freaks for freedom battle tentacled monsters from destroying the world.

Hellboy has a lot of good things going for it; perfect casting for the titular character (Ron Perlman IS Hellboy!), cool SFX and CG all around, lots of opportunities for body-slamming, wall-smashing action, creepy monsters and dastardly villains, and in the middle of it all, a hero with filed-off horns, a big stone hand and the heart and angst of a teenager.

However, the film lets down a bit with a somewhat dragging pace that had me just wishing that the movie would just hurry to the good parts I knew were there even though it was my first time to see it. Most of the action and fight scenes, while showing off cool effects, don't have the oomph I was expecting- this was especially apparent in scenes showing off the ultra-cool Kroenen. Hellboy's answer to Darth Maul dazzles with the expected martial-artsy swordplay, but the climactic fight with H.B. just seemed to lack impact. In fact, the whole endgame was kinda... blah. Not boring. Hell, no. Just... not as great as I thought it would be.

This is pretty much how it is with the whole movie; the support characters are interesting but don't register as much as Hellboy himself- support characters like Abe and Liz don't see too much action, and neither do lead villains Grigori or Ilsa- they just seem to drift in and out with little depth and purpose. The BPRD isn't too formidable as an agency- all the agents seem to be as perishable as your garden variety Star Trek 'red shirts'. So the movie seems to be really heavy with Hellboy versus tentacled demon action, and little else of much consequence. H.B. may have a Big Frickin' Gun and the Hand of Doom, but a better-paced script would have caused more impact.

In the end, I liked Hellboy, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would- perhaps I should have lowered my expectations. There's certainly a lot of room for improvement in a sequel, which is almost certain given the film's success at the box office. Anyway, maybe this latest comics-to-movie will grow on me; I'll most probably catch it again with the gang this weekend.

New Art

The variety of art styles used in the upcoming K.I.A special is truly a sight to see. The latest submissions show off this range excellently

Karen 'Katch' Cheung hasn't had as much exposure as others in the lineup, but her potential and talent are obvious to see with her unique, distinct style and strong lines. I wrote 'Freedom' to be a pivotal story in the anthology, and I think it's done great justice with the finished pages. I can't wait to see this in the final book.


'Freedom', written by yours truly, art by Karen 'Katch' Cheung.


'Under the Influence', written by Nikki Alfar, art by Andrew Drilon.

Andrew Drilon is one of the most promising young writers and artists in the gang today, showing off his depth and talent in indie publications and the recently-released Siglo: Freedom. Now, we get to see him do sexy action! Nikki Alfar wanted her story to have a unique look this time around and that's exactly what she's getting. I'm pretty happy with the first batch of pages Andrew's given, and can't wait for the rest.

More as this develops. This is fun. Heh.

Ghosts Revisited

This morning, I came to the seminar early in anticipation of the day's work. I met up with my office's administrator and chatted with her about the supernatural occurences at our present digs. As I've posted before, there have been some eerie stuff going on at our office. There have been some rumors of sightings of spirits, something not unexpected since the building is the site of several terrible fatal accidents.
Our administrator lady told me the first eerie encounter with the scariest apparition; The Bloody Man. It happened some months ago, when she was doing an ocular inspection of the floor. As she was standing near the hallway leading to an empty office space opposite our own area, she saw a man dressed in the customary garb of carpenters/laborers. She then sensed something unnatural, and (as would always happen, as she says) she couldn't look away. She described that the man was turning around in place, though his legs and feet weren't visibly moving- it was as if he was sliding around in an eerie, sliding motion.

EEEK...

Anyway, she described the man as being bloodied, with torn skin and a gory appearance. After seeing this terrifying sight, she immediately left the area.

Now, weeks and weeks later, we're occupying half of the floor. The area where the Bloody Man was sighted is a stone's throw away from our area, and along the way to the Comfort Rooms. During late night overtime sessions, my officemates have often taken to going in groups or pairs to the CRs. The Men's Room is continually breaking down, with leaking pipes that constantly flood the floors with urine and worse, stinky shit. Faulty plumbing, low-quality materials or a curse from beyond, asking to be seen and heard?

These days, a new office is being built into one of the areas opposite our office, though the place nearest to the Men's CR, the haunt of the Bloody Man and other spirits, is still unoccupied.

The saga continues...

Workshop

I've spent the last couple of days in a hotel boardroom, learning how to do a better presentation and improve my speaking skills from international lecturer Wayne Lotherington, whom I dubbed 'Lord of the Ringtones'. Heh. He was a pretty cool speaker with lots of great insights, a killer memory and an eye for detail and an eerie resemblance to Hollywood actor Leland Orser (a guy who usually plays deranged or unbalanced characters). Despite my reservations initially, it actually turned out to be fun and I even got into making our final presentation as best as I could, and I was able to use my trusty 6600 and laptop combo to great effect. Bluetooth and Mac CD burners RULE! Heh.
Anyway, I wish these sort of things don't come too often- I love the scrumptious buffet lunches, but having to do these special projects and exerting extra effort on top of regular work can just wear a guy out so fast.

Stratos 4

Just saw a couple of episodes of Stratos 4 on Animax. This 13-episode anime is about a quartet of girls who are training to become Comet Blasters, an elite squadron of space pilots whose duty it is to defend the earth from the threat of asteroids and other dangers from space. Along the way they bond together as anime girls do- with some girl-on-girl risque moments and the predictable hot springs scene- and eventually reach the enviable position to save the earth from impending cosmic doom.
I pretty much ignored this series every time it was shown on Animax; it's just too clean and generic and didn't seem to appeal to me. However, it DOES have quite a lot of fan service, so that's a plus. It's still just your run of the mill, standard anime though- really clean and decent animation, but little uniqueness in character or personality to make it anything more than a passing diversion.
Well, at the very least Vandread fans can have fun in seeing Meia Gisborn and Dita Liebely in a cameo. Heh.


Hey, I've seen these two somewhere else before...

Before Anime was King: Masters of the Universe

The 80s were a GREAT time to be a kid. Back then, there wasn't any Animax channel giving you 24 hours of anime. Heck, Anime itself was almost unknown except for Japanimation enthusiasts. But despite the lack of big-eyed cartoons, kids could look forward to the TONS and TONS of American cartoons that came out on TV. A fair number of the several hundred animated shows from the US made it to Philippine TV screens, giving kids reasons to hurry on home in the late afternoons, or wake up early on weekends. The best time was that glorious era known as the Saturday Fun Machine slot on Channel 9- great cartoons from 7:30 AM all the way to noon. Yep, there were crappy cartoons like Schmoo and Turbo Teen, but there was great stuff on offer as well. Too bad McDonald's eventually watered down the cartoons to nothing eventuallly.
Anyway, last night's dinner at Chili's with Vin, Jason and Ralph got us talking about those great 80s cartoons, and I thought it would be great to blog about them for a change...



"By the Power of Grayskull" was one of the most recognized lines of dialogue ever in a cartoon back then. Almost every kid knew it. It was all due to the original He-Man cartoon series by Filmation (which gave rise to a LOT of the best and worst cartoons then).

This fantasy-action series of course centered on the battles between archetype strongman-hero He-Man, who incredibly enough keeps a secret identity (Prince Adam) who looks EXACTLY like him, except for a tan, change of wardrobe and perhaps a bit of buffness. Unlike the recently-released revival, Masters of the Universe then was pretty tame; In true A-Team fashion, battles ended with no one ever dying or even getting injured. The rotoscoped animation gave rise to repetitive actions for everyone- they were realistic, yeah, but REPETITIVE. He-man walked the same way, entered the screen the same way, laughed the same way. It was also funny how Skeletor would always charge at He-man, get countered with a TEXTBOOK judo throw, and then land with the textbook safe roll... very cultured, these fierce warriors.
Episodes were, as was the fashion then, usually self-contained. The villains of Snake Mountain (Skeletor et al) would come up with an evil scheme, accompanied by the main baddie doing his familiar rotoscoped evil laugh with fists in the air. Of course, evil scheme would be eventually countered by He Man and his amazing friends (which ranged from the veteran Man-at-Arms to the really lame Mekanek and the moronic Ram Man). Battles would consist of a spell thown here, a judo throw and roll there. Everyone goes home and Orko the mascot magician gives us the lesson for the day.
Anyway, despite this, MOTU was pretty fun; plus the girls were sexy. DAMN, the Sorceresss was hot. Hoho...

These days, Masters of the Universe has been recharged and revitalized for today's kids. The animation is no longer rotoscoped Filmation, and the action is more akin to the hard-hitting Batman Adventures and anime. Battles are battles, spells blow things up and things can get nasty. Which is great, but where's the judo rolls? Ah, those were the days.

K.I.A.: Dreamkiller


Agent K takes on an empire in HAI's K.I.A. story.

Honoel Ibardolaza is one of the best local artists and comic creators I've had the pleasure to know and work with, and he doesn't disappoint with his latest pages. Dreamkiller is the title of HAI's contribution to K.I.A., a story he both drew and wrote. I actually don't know too much about it except that Kai is sent in to infiltrate a hostile country to kill a king. Sounds like something epic. Anyway, he's sent us the first page, and by the looks of it, Dreamkiller's gonna be... well, KILLER! Heh.
I say it again... K.I.A. is gonna ROCK! WOOHOO!!!

Hitched

Yesterday I and my old college crew The BLT attended the wedding of one of our batchmates. The ceremony was held in a lovely place known as Fernwood, which is a sort of special venue/mini-zoo/park. Since it was the middle of the week, me and my friend/fellow ad person Butch had to come from work in Makati. We took a cab ride through heavy traffic, the long trip allayed fortunately by fun conversations about the advertising biz, coming films and, most significantly, wrestling. Both of us were fans of professional sports entertainment even from our years in high school, remembering stuff like Hulk Hogan's lame finishing moves, how the Ultimate Warrior looked horrible without his trademark makeup, how cool the silent Japanese tattooed wrestler Hakushi was, and which of the popular wrestlers we knew then are dead now (such as Owen Hart, Mr. Perfect, Andre the Giant and Ravishing Rick Rude). Even the cabbie (who was apparently a wrestling enthusiast himself) was able to contribute to the conversation.

We got to Fernwood at about 7 PM, which was well after the wedding ceremony and into the photography sessions. Luckily, we arrived in time to wear our barongs, spruce up, meet the rest of the BLT gang and get our photos taken. After that, the reception gave us dinner, a performance by the singer Kaila, more food, and a hilarious garter and bouquet portion. We also marvelled at the various exotic fauna- swans, tons of carp in the pond, parrots and peacocks and brown-feathered ducks (their exact breed eludes me now). I would have taken tons of pics with my phone, but unfortunately I had forgotten to recharge it and the battery died soon after I took a few shots. Oh well.
Since there was still work the next day, after the final events on the itinerary, we had to say goodbye to the newlyweds. We capped the night with frappucinos at Starbuck's and that was that.

That leaves four of us in the BLT group left unhitched, with one seemingly on the brink. I can safely say I won't be tying the knot anytime soon, but who knows? We'll see. Hoho!

Yay!

Stuff we worked on at the office got approved! It's a funny campaign that should be something to see when it happens soon. Knowing that the clients not only liked the work but were actually laughing their heads off seeing our scripts and ideas makes all that hard work worth it. Kind of.
Of course it would be great if it just meant more billings and profit for the company, more fame and quality into our portfolios and more feathers into our caps, but it of course also means more work, more work and more work.

Yay.

The Saga Continues...

I've just finished writing the script for Kunoichi Boy part three. It's a fun one-shot story that has quite a bit of everything- a battle between swords and muskets reminiscent of The Last Samurai, a handsome young nobleman, an opportunity to show off the opposite characters of series leads Jin Dragu and Mikoto, a night attack on a castle, a harem scene, a look at one of the series' main villains, more action and a nice comedic twist to the ending that should pay off nicely. I'll start work on it as soon as I finish the inks and renders of both the preceding chapter and my K.I.A. stories.
Anyway, it seems that Questor Extreme and it's parent/sister mag Questor are currently on hold, but it shouldn't be long before we see new issues on shelves. We'll keep you posted as we go along.

Local Comic News

The mega-popular Culture Crash comics magazine is now online! Well, it has been for some time but now finally the official site is up with story synopsis, galleries and even submission instructions for aspiring komikeros. Visit the site at Culture Crash.com.

There's a new comic headed into stores very soon. It's called Ignition Comix and it's being produced by GMA 7 and The Daily Inquirer. The talent behind the book includes the guys of Atomic Underground, now renamed Atomic Monkey. This group includes Marvin del Mundo and Michael Seludo, who have also conbtributed art for our upcoming K.I.A.
I was able to see an advance issue thanks to Vin. I haven't read through the whole thing, but there are 4 stories, one each for sci-fi, fantasy, contemporary and folkloric themes. The art and feel is decidedly more alternative rather than straight manga, so it should be something fresh to see. Congrats, guys! Can't wait to see your stuff!

Tikbalang Nation is the latest comic project from Baylans' Jason Banico and artist Ner Pedrina. According to Jayce, TN is a political satire hidden beneath a fantasy story starring a maned, horse-headed cast of heroes and villains. Check it out! Copies are available at Comic Quest.

Support Local Comics! YAY!

A brief pause.

Me looking around at the carnage-filled battleground which is my work week so far.

Me feeling myself for any fatal bulletholes or stab wounds.

Me finding none.

Me laughing maniacally, head thrown back, face reared to the heavens.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! ALIVE!!! I AM ALIVE!!!! MAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!! ALLLLIIIIIIVEEE!!!"

Ah. End of Pause.

Trailing the Bride

The full trailer to Kill Bill 2 is now up at apple.com's movie page, so check it out. This second half of the 4th film by Quentin Tarantino looks to be quite different from it's predecessor. The Bride is still packing her god-cutting Hanzo Hattori sword, but it looks like she's going to be in far more danger than she ever was in the first one as she takes on the remaining members of the Deadly Vipers Assassination Squad, Budd and Elle Driver (played by Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah respectively). Of interest will be a flashback to The Bride's training in kung fu, complete with a haughty, white-haired 'Old Master' kung fu teacher (played by Gordon Liu, who played Crazy 88 General Johnny Moe in Part One).
Early reviews of KB2 have remarked generally that the second chapter makes up for the trademark Tarantino dialogue that was missed in KB1. There will be a lot less kills, but count on the violence and action being a lot deeper and more visceral as The Bride meets The Man, Bill (David Carradine).
Kill Bill Volume 2 is slated for showing in the US on April 16. Here in Manila? Hopefully, soon.

Kunoichi Boy 2

The Holy Week vacation's over, and so is the pencilling stage for the second installment of Kunoichi Boy! Quite a lot of things happened to me over the course of the holiday (the Internet is such a great thing), and some of it bore fruit at least almost overnight. At the very least now it's onto inking and rendering for Jin Dragu's adventures.

The funny thing is, the pages have deviated a bit from the script- Yikes- but I think the overall pace and flow of the story is better and keeps the mystery of the character intact for a while longer. I hope it all turns out well when I submit the pages in.
As far as I know, the latest issue of Questor Extreme should be out by next week or so, and as I reported earlier it should have a preview of KB inside. I'll let you all know once I grab a copy myself.

Hackfest


The MMORPG-based saga .Hack has it all- amnesiac heroes, pure-hearted heroines, weird monsters, mystery, intrigue and Player Killing.

I've just seen 28 episodes of the anime .Hack//Sign. I've known about this series for quite some time, though I've never had the chance beforehand to watch the whole thing.
.Hack is a series of anime TV series and OAVs set in The World, a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer RPG) where a mysterious phenomenom is causing players to be affected by the game even in the real world. In the 26-episode .Hack//Sign series (the first TV series), the focus is on Tsukasa, an amnesiac wavemaster (mage) who is apparently able to teleport from server to server and do things that he normally shouldn't be able to do. This marks him as a 'cheat' character and gains him the ire of the resident 'law enforcers', the Crimson Knights (also players). But soon, greater mysteries come to the surface, including the appearance of unkillable monsters, unexplained comas among players and the fact that Tsukasa can't log out of the game, and seems to be trapped within The World.
In the course of the series, the normally anti-social Tsukasa eventually makes friends like the energetic swordswoman Mimiru, the wise barbarian Bear, the crafty mage BT and the pure-hearted Subaru, the leader of the Crimson Knights.


The character designs for .Hack//Sign are by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto of Evangelion, so you can tell there's a bit of Shinji Ikari in main hero Tsukasa.


If Tsukasa is the series' hero, Subaru is the heroine. The leader of the Crimson Knights, Subaru stands for law and order in the virtual playing field of 'The World'.

I have to note that Animax messed up a bit, showing episode 26 before episode 25. Also shown were episodes 27 anbd 28- two filler episodes that happen after the events in the actual 26-episode series. Episode 27, entitled Intermezzo, is a flashback showing Mimiru's mentor from her earlier days in The World. Episode 28, entitled Unison, is the epilogue to both .Hack//Sign and the .Hack RPG games released on PS2, and shows the heroes from both the anime and the games finally meeting after the crisis and giving the whole .Hack series an upbeat ending, complete with warm reunions and even dancing in the streets!


Swordswoman Mimiru can't seem to keep away from Tsukasa even though they never get along until the end of the series...


The fatherly Bear is the wisest of the heroes of .Hack//Sign, despite his barbaric appearance.

.Hack//Sign is a very complex series, the story spread out between two TV series, several OAVs, and a series of PS2 games. And, as I've heard, it's more concerned with character relationship and plot rather than action or fantasy elements. The characters spend a LOT of time just conversing and talking, which may turn off anyone expecting to see a slash-or-spellfest. But even so, the series pulls you in with and pays off as the characters grow and mysteries are little by little solved (or not solved). For those with patience and an adequate attention span, .Hack//Sign is an excellent series that is rewarding in the long term. Highly recommended!


Battle scenes like this are rare in the whole .Hack//Sign series.

The next .Hack series on Animax, .Hack//Legend of Twilight, occurs several years after the end of the .Hack//Sign series and games, and is a lot more humorous and cute as opposed to the darker, more serious predecessors. If you missed the .Hack marathon today, get yourself the DVDs or VCDs and enjoy this series for some good, deep anime fun.

New Anime: Mezzo


Mikura's back with more action but less sex.

Anime enthusiasts will probably think of deadly schoolgirl assassins, pastel-colored handguns and kinky sex when they hear the title Mezzo Forte. Which is pretty fair since that was indeed what the anime OAV was all about. Starring a pretty, petite killing machine named Mikura, the original 2-part OAV by Yasuomi Uematsu was a sex-and-violence filled pseudo-sequel/successor to the more popular and darker Kite.
Basically, it was about gun-for-hire Mikura and her pals shooting it out with baddies in gunfights and martial arts fights and having schoolgirl sex in between- pretty nasty stuff. Anyway, the TV version, simply named Mezzo, is now out.
The series is about the colorful adventures of the D.S.A., or Danger Service Agency. The Agency's members are deadly sprite Mikura, tech guy Harada and senior dude Kurokowa. As in the OAVs, the trio live in a makeshift headquarters on top of a building and get jobs which often involve them taking on thugs and other baddies in blood-spurting, wall-smashing battles.

While Mezzo predictably has no kinky sex, the series revs it up with explosive action. The fight scenes are excellently animated and choreographed, with exaggerated effects like fighters being smashed through brick walls or thrown great distances by solid blows. It's also routine for high explosives and gravity-defying stunts every now and then. In short, it's a BLAST. Never mind that its never explained why a schoolgirl-type like Mikura has kung fu powers that would put Neo to shame- it's damn fun.
Stories are also pretty wild, and not always on the side of reason- in the first two episodes the DSA are hired by a ghost and have to fight an ALIEN. EH? Wild. Anyway, the action is fun, the animation is pretty slick and cool, and the bright colors are an eye-catcher. Mikura's a bit young for my tastes, but she's a hottie and the series looks promising. Check it out if you get the chance.