MAD Weekend

As the work week draws to a close (with not one but TWO TV commercials presented and approved! YAY!), there's no rest for this MADman.
I've got pages of Siglo: Passion to crank the elbow grease and grey matter on, but then again I'm supposed to work best under pressure so I'll be giving this the good 'ol college try and who knows- maybe it'll look great. Heh.

Gonna watch Spiderman 2 soon... as in, 'in a few hours' soon or 'tomorrow' soon. The sequel's been getting RAVE reviews from a couple of my blogmates, and I'm building up excitement for the movie. I expect to have a review up by... tomorrow? We'll see.

Finally (and not least), I may be part of the Siglo Comics Workshop being held at Powerbooks at Glorietta 4, in the afternoon. I say 'may' because I may just bail out and use the time for actually drawing comics rather than talking about them if there are more than enough Siglo creators to go around. Again, another wait and see.

Lots of stuff to do and not a hell of a lot of time to do it. Story of my life. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHHHHHAAAAA!!!!

Dress-up Tekken


Asuka Kazama and her alter-ego, Mirtle.

A cool new feature in the upcoming Tekken 5 will be a Customization Feature. You can unlock various items, accessories and articles of clothing to dress up your favorite Tekken fighters through gameplay. So now, if you ever wondered what Kazuya would look like as an Elvis impersonator, you can indulge. It's still not known how many options will eventually be available, but you should be able to change character costume colors, hairstyles, add headgear or add props like weapons for wacky combinations. This still isn't the same as having bikinis for the females, but it should be darn fun to see.
Tekken 5 is set for a late 2004 or early 2005 arcade release, with home versions expected soon after.



King looks a lot more kingly with a mane, don't you think?

Advent Rising


The original butt-kicking babe in Final Fantasy, Tifa Lockhart, returns. And she's put on quite a few polygons.

Square has released more tantalizing images of their impending DVD movie/sequel to the classic Playstation One RPG Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The images include stills of heroine Tifa Lockhart, who's looking FINE, party members Red XIII and Cid and former enemies The Turks ("We are Turks!"). Lastly, there's a mysterious scene showing Cloud standing in a field of flowers with none other than Aeris herself. A dream? A flashback? Or a reunion?


Reno and Rude are back, but where's Elena? The Turks will apparently have a significant role in Advent Children. They are shown talking with Cloud, and later locked in combat with the new silver-haired enemies.


You can't keep a good flower girl down...

With pretty much all of the cast members from FFVII now accounted for, FFVII: Advent Children is a must for fans of the most acclaimed chapter of the Final Fantasy series. The movie is scheduled for release on DVD/Video and on the Playstation Portable later this year.

Blow wind, blow

Outside, the storm winds are howling non-stop. The sky is a grey curtain, and the intermittent volleys of rain pelt the windows like little thumbtacks.
I actually ventured outdoors for a while, braving the storm with nothing more than a jacket- an umbrella would be suicide in the strong winds. My steps eventually took me down the streets to Makati Cinema Square and the DVD kiosks (Heh). There I got the first two seasons of Futurama, Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, Battle Royale 2 and Zero Woman. The last disc is a live-action Japanese film about a female assassin, one of a series. That, and the Battle Royale 2 disc, are region 9 dvds from abroad... I hope they work on my player with no problem, and with suitable subtitles. I was tempted to get the Third Season of Alias, but I'll save that for when I am actually raring to watch the show.

I took a cab back to the office, which set me down on the curb near the entrance. Again, a wall of force blew against me as I made my way to the building's interiors, stronger this time than before. My jacket was almost blown off, threatening to escape into the wild grey yonder. With luck, I should finish up whatever work I have for the day shortly so I can make my way home early. Stormy, windy days aren't so bad, but stormy windy nights are best weathered through at home.

Wallcrawler

I'm actually looking forward to watching Spiderman 2, which starts showing today in local theaters. While I don't consider myself a fan of the character and I didn't like the first movie that much (Green Goblin sucked), seeing the trailers and rave reviews have me psyched. I am looking to be entertained when we inevitably watch the film later this week, or this weekend. We'll see.

Hurrah Redux



Today we presented our mostly-finished TV commercial to client (no less than the President of the company) and our job's pretty much done. We've been working on this particular job ever since I joined the agency, and it's been a long journey to say the least. But it's refreshing to finally see your work pay off in a TV spot that will hopefully be insightful and memorable over most other ads in the category. Of course, it helped that we had a top-notch team with the likes of director Raymond Red on board. Hurray! Here's to more nice TV ads to come in the near future.

Windy City

As I got off the cab and headed for the entrance to our office building, strong gusts of wind blew into me continuously, flapping and pressing my shirt and jeans to my body, buffeting even my heavy bag. I was almost walking with an effort against the cold, relentless force that howled all around me. Turns out there's another Super Typhoon headed our way. Lots of wind, a bit of rain and coldness throughout.

My kind of weather. Heh.

Angel Ace Next NEXT



Tonight I had dinner with Vin and Andrew at Classic Roast, in Megamall. There, as we chowed down on chicken ala kiev, chicken ala king and roast pork, we talked about comics.
It's been a long time since I've raised a pen to page... the past couple of months have been dominated by work, collapsing in fatigue and just vegetating on weekends and... blogging. Andrew asked me some pointers about doing a comic book series, since I'm the one in the group who's been doing one title continuously all this time.
I talked about what I thought I'd do... about having a goal in mind and mapping your characters' stories and progress towards it. Spacing out issues by events such as filler episodes meant to endear your cast to the reader and to reveal more about them, to significant story points such as a betrayal, a death of a character or a moment of truth. And then, you have to move into a sufficient climax which reveals your series' secrets and ends it all in a bang.

I just told it according to how I wanted my own Angel Ace to go. Things have been slow recently, but I am still committed to going through with the series. I ended Angel Ace Next as a good starting point for newer, fresher stories, conveniently giving Kai her own book and independence of a sort from Angel's adventures. I'm not totally committed to the exact storyline, but it will again be a stand-alone story, featuring Angel and her guys on an adventure that will be fun and action-packed and reveal more of their personalities and quirks... perhaps Angel Ace goes to Manila could be a possibility? We'll see.

Of course, all this will have to follow AFTER my other commitments- namely illustrating for Siglo: Passion and finishing up K.I.A.. In good time though, I promise... we'll see Angela Windsor Gale fly again.

War in the Pocket

I've just wasted quite a bit of time (and cellphone battery charge) playing a nice Java game called Ancient Empires on my phone. The game's a fantasy themed turn-based strategy war game, with you commanding knights, archers, mages and supernatural units against the armies of your evil arch-enemy and brother. The graphics and gameplay bring to mind gameboy titles like Advance Wars, with split screen animations showing the armies (well, groups of up to five units) attacking and/or getting eliminated. There's a nice amount of depth in the game, with various terrain having an effect on your units' movement and combat strength, and the ability to manufacture new units with gold you collect from occupied towns being a vital part of winning in prolonged campaigns.
Another fun little game I've downloaded and installed in my phone is DOAX. Yep, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball! Okay, it's the mini-pocket version, 2-D and with itsy-bitsy SD sprites instead of sexy 3-D DOA girls, but what can you expect? At least the volleyball gameplay's actually fun, and there are several DOAX artworks thrown in to give it all a nice mood. The game's supposedly by Tecmo, but that can't be... can it?

It's really amazing to see how far games in mobile phones has come from simple Snake and Alien Scum. Who knows what may be possible in a year or two? Mobile Tekken? Cellphone Final Fantasy? It's exciting to imagine what.

Had a lot of fun, but I'd better take care not to get too addicted... I might end up eating up all my battery power... and time... taking on the portable forces of evil.

Hip Hop Samurai


From the makers of Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy Bebop, the funky series about bouny hunters in outer space, may not be my favorite anime, but I recognize the quality. Director Shinichiro Watanabe is known for many acclaimed series like Bebop, and his latest work, Samurai Champloo hits the right chords with me.
Samurai Champloo is an action anime set in ancient, feudal Japan, yet rendered and often set to modern sensibilities and hip-hop music. It's probably the closest I've seen yet to Blade of the Immortal in anime form.

Two exceptionally deadly ronin- Mugen and Jin clash swords after separate altercations with the corrupt town prefect, and end up being imprisoned and sentenced to die. They eventually escape in a storm of blades and blood with the help of Fuu, a young girl who enlists their aid to find 'a samurai who smells of sunflowers'. And so, the story begins...

Champloo boasts quite fluid and impressive animation during fight scenes, depicting Mugen's quick, fast-on-his-feet fighting style and Jin's more refined techniques. The character designs are also excellent and expressive, and the overall quality is very high. The series so far seems to be very close as well to other Watanabe series- there's an underlying sense of humor and lightness, though the show doesn't hold back when it comes to action and death-dealing. Baddies get cut down quick and hard here, like in real samurai cinema.
I've watched two episodes, and I can say that I am sold on this cool new series. Anyone looking for tough, action-packed, sexy and high quality anime may want to check this out.

Second Honeymoon


The Bride meets Bill FINALLY in Kill Bill Vol. 2.

It's been several months since the first volume and first half of director Quentin Tarantino's fourth film, Kill Bill. The first film was a bloody tableau of revenge, black humor, martial arts and swordplay, an homage to samurai and yakuza cinema, anime and exploitation flicks. The Bride (Uma Thurman) locked swords with two of the DIVAS, or Deadly Vipers Assassination Squad, literally cutting a path through dozens of yakuza swordsmen in the first film's gory finale. It was loud, it was ridiculous, it was incredible and we pretty much ate it up. But of course, it ended at a cliffhanger, with the promise of a final confrontation with the titular quarry still to come.

Kill Bill Volume 2 has come and gone from US theaters, yet it still has to come out locally. Well, I got a pretty clear copy of the film to watch so I took the plunge. I actually knew a lot of what was going to happen- I read the whole script of Kill BIll about a year or two ago, so I actually know the ending. But a script can change from paper to theater and so there was still a degree of mystique to this viewing. Well, I've seen it.

Be prepared for a totally different film with a totally different pulse.

That's all that I can say without spoiling too much. The second part of Kill Bill is almost devoid of big action scenes... in fact, I may venture to say that there aren't any big action scenes. The mega-body count and blood splatter of the first part has given way to a whole lot more dialogue, character moments, more dialogue, exposition and more dialogue- which may not be a minus for some people. But to action fans who loved the slashing action of the first and who are expecting even bigger, more flashy stuff in the climax, you WILL be disappointed. As for me, I wasn't bored watching the MANY long talky moments- there is interesting stuff to listen to- but I probably WILL be on any future viewings.

So, did I like it or not? I liked it for what it is... an ending to the movie, and for closure. I just wished they had added a bit more- more of Bill in particular. David Carradine is quite good in the screen time that he has. Bill is one mix of a character- angel/devil, good yet evil, charismatic but despicable... but always dangerous. I wanted to see more of him, to see him in action. The film would have also benefited from a deleted (and never filmed) scene involving character Go Go Yubari's sister, Yuki, from the original script. A bit more action, fun and another killer schoolgirl may have made me like Vol. 2 a bit more.

In the end though, I find Kill Bill Vol. 2 a forgettable end to a great start. Where the title started out with a bang and a scream, it ends with a whisper. I like it, but I like the first part a LOT better, and that's the Kill Bill I will remember. I guess in this case, it isn't sweeter the second time around.

Moving on, moving on...

Phonewhore Post of the Week



It's been more than a week since I got my Nokia 7610, and so I've gotten to know it better.

The phone's really a fashion phone, which means it really looks great. I remember when I got my T610 and 6600, my immediate reaction was to replace the original covers with more colorful shells. Not so with my 7610... the sleek, black cover is just oh, so cool. The only problem is, it's prone to fingerprints, so I'm always wiping it on my shirt. Heh.
The keys, while odd and artistic, are easy to get used to and very snappy, without any rattling or shaking. The only gripe I have is with the joypad- it's a bit stiff, especially with side motions. It's especially hard to play games like Sky Control and Space Impact with the pad. Sigh.
Overall the phone feels very solid, firm and snug in your hand. It's thinner and narrower than the 6600 and a bit lighter, but far tighter- quality!

The Megapixel camera is really cool and it's better than anything else available on cameraphones right now. There are three settings- High, Normal and Basic. The High pics are several hundred kilobytes in size, and fit about 20 or so in the phone's onboard memory. It's good that you can transfer photos to a PC or some other large archive via an included USB cable or through Bluetooth. Despite still not having a flash, taking pics in low light is better with the 7610 since the lens allows for more light exposure, and a single button push activates an excellent Night Mode. Video recording, of which you can now take up to 10 minutes per session, is incorporated with the digital still camera. As far as I can tell, the videos taken with the 7610 are clearer and sound a bit better than with the 6600.

In general, the 7610 has the best sounds of recent Nokia smartphones- far better than the 6600 and the 3650.

The Symbian OS of the 7610 runs a lot smoother and a lot faster than in the 6600, which will become quite apparent after you run programs, arrange files, compose MMS messages and stuff. Videos play smoother on the embedded Real One Player and even the third-party Smartmovie player.

Themes and apps that will work with the 6600 will usually work with the 7610, except for any apps that require the use of the IR port (Infra Red), since the 7610 doesn't have IR!

Memory is a bit of a problem at present since regular MMC memory cards won't fit in the phone. The 7610 uses Reduced-Size MMC cards, which is a new format that will soon become standard in upcoming phones from Nokia and other companies. I've already found a 128 MB card in a shop, but I'm holding out till larger-size RSMMC's are available.
Battery consumption is fair- about three hours to fully charge the battery, and then it will last for about 2 days. Using Bluetooth, the camera and media apps will of course shorten this faster.

The phone is presently priced at 30K in most shops all around the Metro, while The Hub will be selling the phone starting this weekend at about 28K with their subscriptions (get it free with the higher plans).
The 7610 package includes the 7610, manual, promo brochiures, a USB cable, PC suite CD, RS MMC card (64mb) and adaptor and a wrist strap. The wrist strap is not recommended since it has a metal component which may scratch your lovely mobile.

Well, that's that. I am fully satisfied with the 7610, and it's really cool to have be one of the first to have this great model. I am sure it will be as popular as the now 'In' 6600, though the present high price will be a deterrent to all save the most devoted (and in the money) gadget freaks.

And now, let's see about learning how to work the in-phone editing programs so I can start putting together my first 7610 short film...

Progress

Things have been great at work lately, and now we end the work week it at a high note. We presented a TV commercial to client and got high marks. It's really great to see your idea, once presented as a concept, finally made reality by excellent directors and production houses. It's even better when you show your work to your client and see smiles of approval on their faces.
We've been labouring on this particular TV commercial series since last year, and to finally reach the closing stages is truly refreshing. Soon, it will be onto showing the final, final spot and then releasing it into the media for the world at large to see.
Great way to end the week. WOOHOO!!!

Suikoden III Part 2


The war between knights, tribes and mysterious sorcerers continues in Suikoden III manga, volume 2.

The second part of the game-to-manga translation of the PS2 RPG Suikoden III is available now.
As before, the quality of the translation is still excellent, despite having to balance attention between at least three major groups of heroes- from a troop of noble knights, to tribes of fierce barbarians, to a somewhat shady troop of mercenaries. There are tons of touches to please fans of the game, including not only the showing of major events from the game story, but also tons of little cameos of even minor cast members (remember, the Suikoden game has a cast of over 108 different heroes and villains).

There are some little hiccups but overall the second volume of Suikoden III still has me hooked and waiting for the next one. Check your favorite comic store and get your own copy for some high fantasy manga.

VICTORY!!!

We won the pitch we were working on all week!!! A new account won! A mountain climbed and conquered!!! WE DID IT!!! GO, TEAM, GO!!!!

YAAAHHOOOOO!!!! YEEEHHHHAAAAA!!! WAAHOOOOIIEEEE!!!!

That means..!

More work for us..!

...

...


Hurray.

Transit



The Metro Rail Transit (MRT) is a good thing. I still believe that, even though these days I prefer spending on a cab rather than squeezing myself in with the MRT crowds.

I remember the first time I entered the Katipunan station of the East-West MRT, I marvelled at the cavernous interior, the cool feel of being underground and the relative quiet of the place compared to the more populous EDSA workhorse.
As the train moved through the tunnel and into daylight, I moved to a window and watched the buildings pass by. I've been commuting more than 15 years, going past these same buildings over and over countless times by jeepney, taxi or bus. But at that time, I looked at the buildings again and saw them completely new from the elevated perspective of the MRT.

WOW! THEY ACTUALLY HAVE ROOFS!

If only for the ability to see old things in a new light, new ways of going about things, new ways of doing things, should always be sought out. So the routine becomes something exciting again, until the next new train comes along.

Closet Dungeoneer

Dungeons and Dragons, the original tabletop RPG, turns 30 this year. Wow. I have to say that it brings back memories and feelings in me that I thought I had long lost to anime, manga and videogames.

Yes, it's true. I admit it. I was a Dungeons and Dragons fan.

I was always fascinated by the idea of roleplaying games, back since when I was a little kid. I read about tabletop gaming in my older brother's gaming mags, watched that tragic, tragic Tom Hanks film Mazes and Monsters, and begged my relatives overseas to send me the books so I could play.

I remember being sent the green set- the Dungeons and Dragons Companion Set Rules first. Which was unfortunate since the set was for advanced, expert players. I remember reading through it and loving all the illustrations and definitions of spells... but failing to make heads or tails of ANYTHING. I remember my sister coming in and asking me to try out the game with her- Which I DID, despite not at all having ANY idea of how to play, nor did I have ANY of the required dice (the Companion Set didn't come with any). I remember that was probably my first and only attempt at 'winging' D&D- I made up everything, from rules to monsters to combat results, arbritrarily using a bunch of six-sided die (the only dice I could find) and feeling like a quack doctor selling fake cures the whole time. I think my sister knew it as well, but for her credit she played quite seriously for that one and only session.

It was some time later when I finally got the Red Box of Basic Rules, and I marvelled at the included dice. I loved the little in-box solo adventure, mourned the death of Aleena the Cleric at the hands of the evil magician Bargle, and had shivers at the thought of gibbering, flesh-hungry ghouls.
I loved reading the literature, writing down stats, thinking up adventures and even doing a little mini-comic based on D&D. In fact, into my high school years I'd work on a D&D-based comic known as Swords of Valour; I never finished it, and it vanished into the mists of antiquity soon after I graduated, but it was fun while it lasted.
But it's actually funny for me to realize that I never really played D&D as much as I would have wanted. For a few months in high school I was able to actually run with a bunch of guys who loved RPGs, but we could never pin down our Dungeonmaster for any good length of time- he was a fickle upper year guy who was hard to get along with, but to his credit he could spin a good story and acted out the parts with gusto. After we lost touch with him, the role of referee hopped from one guy to another, but we never really played seriously after.

Since then, I dabbled into other games of the TSR lineup- Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Gangbusters and Top Secret and Marvel Super Heroes, but I never really liked them as much as I did the good ol' D&D games. Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms... these were the places I really enjoyed.

Into college, I forgot about RPGs save for the occasional fantasy novel or gamebook. It's too bad I really never got into serious RPG playing- perhaps that would have changed my life, I think. Maybe today I'd be an RPG fanatic instead of an Anime/Manga Otaku. Maybe I'd be both. Who knows? I wonder how it would have been if I had been friends with my present barkada- many of whom are RPG veterans. Oh well.

All I know now is that I still love the ol' D&D games. If I had spare cash on me, I'd zip down right now to Nova Fontana in Greenhills and pick up what TSR relics they still have over there, just for kicks. I'd probably take a look at the upcoming re-released D&D Basic Set coming later this year. Probably not because I want to play, but just because I want to read and visit these fantasy worlds once again. Who knows... Maybe it just might be enough to get me to dust off the dusty black cloak and robes, polish the ironwood staff, take up my spellbook and sally forth once more.

Maybe. If the magic is still there.

Grudgingly Translated

The trailer for the upcoming remake of Ju On: The Grudge is now online, at Yahoo Movies.

The remake, produced by horror icon Sam Raimi and directed by Takashi Shimizu (the director of the original creeper) stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as the hapless young woman who gets sucked into a world of supernatural revenge, murder and eerie feelings on the back of your neck. The remake looks to follow the original Japanese film quite religiously, down to the look of the ghost, the scary little kid and the chilling scene of ghostly fingers stroking the back of the heroine's head...

Look for The Grudge later this year.

The Latest Catch

I've gotten a crop of new dvds to watch when I have the time: Van Helsing is the recently-shown action-fantasy starring Hugh 'RRRAAAAAAAAUUUGGGGHHHH!!!" Jackman as the titular monster hunter hot on the trail of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman. The Day After Tomorrow is the world-disaster flick starring Dennis "Dragonheart" Quaid. FInally, I found a VERY CLEAR dvd of Kill Bill 2, the second part of Quentin "Cameo" Tarantino's bloody 4th film. Haven't watched ANY of them yet- hope I can squeeze in the time to do so despite having quite a lot of stuff to do into next week.
On my hit list for must-get dvds: the period Japanese ninja flick Azumi by Ryuhei Kitamura and Director Zhang Yhimou's latest opus House of Flying Daggers, starring Zhang Ziyi.

A Hero by Chance

Over the weekend, me, Vin, Gig, Jason and Carl talked about a superhero or a comic book character who didn't just have a power that did one particular thing; he could actually cause anything to happen, from changing the weather to making someone's shirt shrink. His/her power would seemingly be totally random and wild, though usually beneficial. The challenge, we thought, was thinking up exactly what could happen at any given time, and how our hero would use that effect to his advantage.
This line of thinking was precipitated when, while we were on route to dinner at Behrouz, I started talking about the movie Firestarter. In this movie, the father of the titular pyrokinetic kid, Drew Barrymore, was played by actor David Keith. He himself had powers of mental domination; he could make anyone do whatever he asked, or feel whatever he commanded. Whenever he used his power, the guy would look like he had a HELL of a migraine and bleed from the nose, but he could do a lot more stuff than just burn things.
"YOU ARE... BLIND!!!" He'd say, and a bad guy was blind.
"Here's a hundred." He'd say, giving over a dollar bill to a cabbie.

That was cool! You could make people do anything you want. I think that's a LOT better than just burning things up.

Well, our hero would go through all that head-stroking migraine stuff, and then SOMETHING would happen. It would affect the area, and it would not be directly harmful to him. It could be anything from changing the weather to altering matter in the immediate vicinity. Maybe if he really, really, really tried, his power would actually do as he intended. But usually, he'd be out of focus and just cause something totally random and weird to happen.

We threw around titles like Murphy's Law, Chance, Weird Luck and even V-Factor (V for Variable). Or maybe even the title for this post would be a good title for the story. We still haven't pinned down just what the story would be about, who his enemies would be, if HE would actually be a SHE, or whatever. But with so much pending and current comic projects we have, I don't think I'll be taking this storline further anytime soon. It's just something we just talked about and had fun with at that moment.

Something totally random.