Welcome to my turf.

Yesterday the creative department at my office went out of the salt mines to do our last workshop for the year. Every few weeks we do this to sharpen our creative thinking and get out some ads that may win us stuff in award shows. Well, for the final meet the department chose Marikina Riverbanks as the setting. You know the old saying, 'saving the best for last?' Well, that didn't apply here.
Our venue supposedly for the whole day was the Taverna Marquina, a restaurant/karaoke/bar. It is a very odd place; mixing various themes like gaudy western with the modern, utalitarian monobloc-chic. What should have tipped me off to how bad the place is was the fact that when I arrived at 9 AM, guys in tsinelas were still walking around as if they just woke up, and the waiter was dressed in casual attire. Stricly ONE-STAR, regardless of the great 'clean-up' effort our former mayor (and now MMDA chairman) Bayani Fernando was able to accomplish. World-Class this place ain't, and that goes for the WHOLE of Riverbanks. It's good for local folks, and anyone who isn't expecting anything more than a provincial-class venue. I described it as, Boracay without a beach. Or any cool restaurants. Or useful shops aside from countless cellphone accessory kiosks. Or souvenirs worth crap (unless you consider pirate DVDs, which I couldn't find anyway). That's why I don't hang out there.
Anyway, we ended the session some time after five. I went on home to rest after this weary week, too tired to go out and not wanting to take on the bumper to bumper traffic headed west. Hopefully I'll find some stuff at my good ol' Greenhills. Maybe a copy of Outlaw Volleyball. Or some other game. Or maybe some cool anime. We'll see, later today.

The Mariachi returns

Bet you didn't know that the Robert Rodriguez films El Mariachi and Desperado were part of a trilogy, eh? Well, I didn't either. Anyway, the third and perhaps final episode of the saga of the mythical, gun-toting Mexican vigilante is coming. It's entitled Once Upon a Time in Mexico and features returning cast members Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and Cheech Marin (EH? Didn't he DIE in the second film?). Johnny Depp (fresh off the plank from Pirates of the Caribbean) plays a corrupt DEA agent who lures the Mariachi back into the line of fire as a plot to assassinate the president of Mexico is hatched by an evil drug lord (Willem Dafoe). From the trailer, there's going to be enough gunplay, blood, explosions and Salma Hayek hanging off ledges to make the first two films pale in comparison. Look for this in theaters in the months ahead.

Black Wizard

A Harry Potter message forum entitled Diagon Alley has posted the first photo to show a glimpse of Gary Oldman as the character Sirius Black on the set of the next Harry Potter movie, Prisoner of Azkaban. Click here to go to the thread with the pic.
Sirius Black is a new character introduced in the third Harry Potter book, a wizard who is supposedly Big Bad Voldemort's right hand. Escaping from the wizard's prison in Azkaban, Black makes a beeline for Hogwarts and Harry Potter...

Prisoner of Azkaban is shooting right now and is supposed to have a late 2003 or early 2004 release.

Star Wars: The Adventures of Par Schaaz

Haven’t heard of this chapter in the Star Wars saga? Well, there’s a good reason for that. One is because it is set about 4000 years before the time of the movies; the Galactic Empire didn’t even exist then, nobody knew the name Skywalker or Yoda or whatever. Second, it’s a story in the latest videogame in the Star Wars franchise; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (or KOTOR for short). Third, because it hasn’t happened yet. That’s because Par Shaaz is the name I’m going to give my character, and I haven’t even gotten my copy of the game anywhere near my Xbox yet.
Yep, just got it hot off the shelf just after lunch. Actually, I was looking for Outlaw Volleyball, but according to the lady at Datablitz, some doctor beat me to their only copy. DAMN! Oh well, KOTOR is supposed to be the best thing to happen in Star Wars since lightsaber-sliced bread, according to all the rave reviews and utterly FLOODED message forums at GameFAQs. So I decided that it be worth a look-see. Anyway, it’s not just because of the reviews that I am so confident; KOTOR is also a product of Bioware, a game developer that’s synonymous with GREAT RPGs (Baldur’s Gate, anyone?). These guys have apparently fashioned a game and story that the IGN reviewer has placed ABOVE even the Star Wars films in terms of quality immersive entertainment in the SW mythos. That’s saying a lot. Well, we’ll see.

The story of KOTOR revolves around a dark time in the galaxy far, far away. This is a Star Wars not seen before in previous games or movies; At this time, the Jedi Order is HUGE, with Jedi Knights numbering in the hundreds, or even thousands. Balancing out the scheme of things is the Sith, the evil counterparts to the Jedi. Despite the death of the Sith’s last great master, a Sith Lord named Darth Malak has somehow mustered a massive and seemingly invincible armade which is pretty much tearing down the Republic star system by star system. The Jedi have been scattered, with innumerable Knights falling in battle or turning to serve the Sith.
In a last ditch effort to stem the advance of evil, a Jedi battle fleet has gathered under the command of a female Jedi named Bastila Shan...

You, the player, start off as a crew member aboard the Jedi flagship. You can either be male or female, and be one of three ‘classes’: Soldier (the Fighter), Scout (Ranger) or Rogue(Thief). As the flagship is boarded and invaded by platoons of Sith Troopers, you hasten to try and survive, your choices and performance deciding where the fate of your hero, and that of the galaxy, will fall. Whoa.
Anyway, the story isn’t totally open-ended, but like other Bioware RPGs, there are tons of places to visit, literally dozens or even hundreds of mini-quests, subquests and sideplots ot tackle. You can recruit up to nine other members in your rag-tag group of rebels (though only three of you at a time can disembark), explore various worlds in a Millennium Falcon-esque starship, learn of the ways of the Force, build your own lightsaber and ultimately, decide through your choices and actions whether you become a Jedi Knight or a Sith Lord. COOL. Heh.

I plan of tackling this game very soon. From what I’ve seen and heard, it’s going to be a ride. I just hope I keep my feet on the ground and my attention on other stuff even while I’m off travelling in some galaxy far, far away…

Metropolis

Recently, AXN's been advertising Osamu Tezuka's anime film Metropolis, which they will be showing in August as part of their anime lineup. It's story is... well... actually, it's pretty hard to say what the story is. It's about a girl android who's made to be the ultimate being by a powerful magnate, the magnate's evil adopted son who wants to kill the android (and every other robot in the city, if he could), a detective and his son who get involved, a renegade scientist and lots of robots (shades of Animatrix). Half the movie seems to be all chase scenes, while the other half is boring, but colorful cityscapes. And of course there's a cataclysmic ending where everything goes to hell... but this time, it's set to Blues music. EH?
Can't really say I like this flick. Pretty pointless, vague and just plain weird. Plus the cartoony Astro Boy characters just don't work with the overly-serious atmosphere and complicated plot. Nothing really comes together until everything falls apart. Sigh.

Watch it once if you haven't before, for the animation. Otherwise... feh.

Yet another raunchy volleyball game...


Players get it on in Outlaw Volleyball.

On the heels of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball comes yet another videogame bursting with T&A, white-trash humor and super spiking action. Unlike Tecmo's offering though, this new game from Hypnotix offers far more straight-up gameplay than just eye candy. Choose from a colorful cast which includes white trash, wannabee rappers, Elvis impersonators, strippers, mafia matrons, biker dudes and dudettes, punkers and more lovely people. Play heated games of volleyball in courts located in scenic locales like a women's prison, a sewer, a graveyard and more. Getting beaten up on the sand? Incite a fight and beat your opponent's brains out! It's all part of the fun in Outlaw Volleyball, for the Xbox game console.

I'm looking out for this one. Yep, I'm all in it for the gameplay. Yessiree! Heh-heh.

Hey, I feel a rant coming.

I wish I could just curl up in bed all day. Don't want to go to work. Don't want to care about deadlines, things that you don't want to do but have to, worrying about where your next paycheck's coming from or having to bother about needing to pay bills.

I wish I had a ton of cash in the bank, enough to be able to live as much as I want on the monthly interest. Just want to draw what I want. To tell the stories in my head. To just go out and chat with company I enjoy, to surf as long as I want, to be able to play any game or read any book or comic to my heart's content. I wish I didn't have to worry about how the hell I am going to find the money to publish my next comic project. I wish I had more of that darn delicious BTS cake in the fridge right now.

I wish, I wish, I wish.

But of course, as the saying goes, wishes won't wash dishes or feed fishes (or something like that). Bah.

Better Than Sex

That's what this INCREDIBLY delicious and addictive cake I tasted recently is called. Better Than Sex looks like chocolate mousse, with a white cream topping that's just at the right sweetness, and a chocolatey interior layer which is chock full of AMAZINGLY delicious cake, chocolates and other heavenly stuff. I kid you NOT. I was going back again and again and again to get pieces of this wonderful dessert. Better than Sex? Damn, I can believe that.
Anyway, you can see for yourself by heading over to the quaint little restaurant named Gayuma, located at Xavierville near Katipunan Avenue and Miriam College. I want more. Gotta get more of that cake. YUM!!!

Family Day

After spending most of the early, early Sunday morning playing some odds and ends of games like PS2's Fighter Maker 2 and Tropico 2: Pirates' Cove for the PC, I was looking forward to resting for half of the day and then getting down to some drawing and comic stuff in the other half. Well, it was not to be. Later in the afternoon, my mom asked me to come along with her and my brother and sister to Megamall. Our agenda was to buy her a new DVD player and vacuum cleaner. Seeing that it was the first time in years (or at least many months) that we had been together on a trip, I agreed. Plus, we'd be eating out. Heh.
Anyway, one thing that I discovered later was that we were going with my sister's 9-year old daughter and my brother's two little girls (who are in their seven or eight years); this pretty much translated to lots of laughing, chirpy chatter in english twang gleaned from Cartoon Network watch time all the way to the mall and beyond.
We headed up into the Megatrade Hall where an appliance fair was in full swing. The 0% interest thing was pretty much what drew my mom to buy, along with the relative inexpensive price of DVD players these days. Well, the fair was pretty bland. Lots of large-screen TVs which we could not afford, lots of new players and models of washing machines, freezers and other home items.
I felt a bit sorry for the kids since they probably went along thinking they could go and get toys from Toy Kingdom. Well, they had to content themselves with watching the featured movies on the various TV demos. I stood there, one eye on them and one eye on Pearl Harbor which was playing on a particularly nice TV. My last eye (wait... hmm...) was pretty much absorbed in sneaking surreptitious glances at the long, fair legs of a lanky young Chinese woman (who was most probably a foreigner or tourist given her 'pambahay' attire). No, she wasn't an Aubrey Miles-caliber beauty (btw, there was a nice life-size standee of the woman in the area promoting her newest movie, Prosti); but she was attractively tall, had a slim figure, long legs and wore pretty hot shorts and peeky sandals. And I pretty much noticed every other red-blooded male also copping a glance with me. Heh. Moving on...

My mom got her vacuum cleaner, and in the meantime my sister almost got herself a mammoth impulse buy of a P70,000 Digicam. WHOA! Unfortunately (or fortunately) she couldn't get it since her credit card was maxxed out. We left after a while and went into a nearby video store to get the DVD player. We bought a Next Base player for below 4K, which is pretty good considering I got my player (with components) a couple of years ago for about 20K. Argh. With the new appliances in our hands we headed off to have a late dinner.
We eventually ended up in Don Henrico's Libis, and had a nice meal of mozzarella sticks, Buffalo Wings and Fisherman's Pizza. The pizza we barely finished half of since the kids got full after the chicken. But the meal was satisfying and we headed home content.

So I had a family day. Not productive in terms of comics or gaming (though I did manage to do a character design for Kunoichi Boy), but you just can't beat a day out with the family. Especially now when these things are getting rarer and rarer (and will probably become non-existent in the next couple of years). Sigh.

Weekend's over. Damn, time's going so fast.

Pooped

Last night I had dinner with my college friends to celebrate our friend Alex's birthday. We had a nice dinner at Superbowl at the Megastrip, enjoying a feast of braised beef with crispy noodles, beef with oyster sauce, stir-fried vegetables, sweet and sour pork (the Guailo fave!), yang chow fried rice, Superbowl special (which was fried rice with spices, peanuts and duck) and bottomless iced tea. The only dubious thing on the table were the Birthday Noodles, which was basically pancit canton with garnishings of quail eggs and veggies. Anyway, after the dinner the others went off to watch Charlie's Angels Full Throttle while I shuffled back to Comic Quest. Happy birthday, Alex!

Well, we met up and eventually converged in KSP near the Meralco Building. The place was nearly empty and playing old tunes, which made the fact that most of us were dead tired in our seats. Dean had a whole week of wheeling and dealing and going to the Department of Trade and Industry to register his promos. Carl was hard at work with work, pleasure and pleasure-work. I was tired from a long week of stress at the office and some wonderful and potentially spectacular developments that may pay off in the near future. Yep, we were pooped but this was an exceptionally eventful and interesting week.

Glad it's over. Heh-heh...

Dark Clouds

I watch too many sci-fi and fantasy films. I read too much comics. I spend too much time with Vinnie. Here's proof.
I had a dream this morning where Vin and I were in the van and driving along (don't know if it was to or from Mega or any other haunt. I remember we were talking about something when I looked up and saw the blue sky with some wonderfully fluffy white clouds. And there, of course, like a black sheep among aryan lambs, was a jet-black cloud. I remember commenting to Vin that I thought these weird black clouds were stealth aircraft developed by the military. As we watched, the black cloud slowly dematerialized or went to stealth mode, or activated a cloaking device. Heh.
The next thing I knew we were in a dark building, dressed in hospital togas and being told by military guys to report to something or someone. I remember an elevator, a hallway and a military sentry. Weird.

Anyway, whether we had discovered 'The Truth' or were just subjected to an anal probe, I never got to find out (Whew!) since a knock on my door in waking life got me out of there faster than you can say, "Operator, I need an Exit!"

Wonder what all that was about?

The Sounds of Nature

The day before yesterday, I was in Astrovision Glorietta, looking for a new game when I saw a rack of bargain CDs entitled The Echoes of Nature. I remembered that there are these CDs with recorded sounds of natural settings, like seashores, forests, mountains, etc. I know it seems pretty weird to play a CD where you hear nothing but water running down a river or birds chirping, but it's actually refreshing to hear it. Couple this with a great stereo system, a nice, cool room and a good book to read or relax with and it doesn't sound so weird at all. In fact... it sounds... natural.

Heh. I bought one CD for Ocean waves (which has about a half hour of waves sloshing against a pebble-rich beach) and one for Mountain Rivers (which has sounds of forest birds singing in the background of a rushing stream). I haven't tried playing it yet to go to sleep since I may NOT wake up the next day on time (I might get used to the noise and not get roused by my TV alarm) for work. But since it's a weekend tomorrow, I may try it tonight.

Ah. Relaxing thought... Heh...

Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah: The Motion Picture!

The megaspectacular local comic Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah by grafictionist Carl Vergara has been picked up by no less than Regal Films for a live-action cinematic release. Yep, Carl met with the legendary Mother Lily herself! Ho ho! It remains to be seen when Zsa Zsa will be sashaying into theaters. Perhaps next year? Let the casting rumours begin!

Congratulations Carl. You're the FIRST comic artist of our generation to have his comic reach the big screen. I think. WOOHOO!!! Let's eat!

The best darned Star Wars adventure yet...

... is NOT a movie. It's a game. And it's on the Xbox.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is making waves and getting rave reviews from gaming sites IGN and Gamespot. From the articles, the reviewers cite a compelling story with open-ended plots and branching dialogue options, the ability to play either as a good or evil character, the presence of classic Star Wars themes (the story though is set several thousand years before the movies), great graphics and compelling gameplay. This does not come as a surprise when you consider that Star Wars KOTOR was developed by Bioware, the same company responsible for the sublime Baldur's Gate PC RPGs.
I have to admit, the recent movies have made me jaded with Star Wars stuff, but this game interests me. We will see if The Force is strong with this one, when we get ourselves a copy.

Dehydrated.

I spent a good hour and a half on a regular-fare unairconditioned bus (Yes, they still exist) going northwards to Megamall from Makati. For some reason, the way was clogged and the bus moved at a snail's pace. It's been a long week, and I hovered between consciousness and light sleep all the way, losing salt and moisture with every moment. By the time I reached Mega, my throat was parched. Softdrink went down like liquid love down my rasping throat. I figure I'm still lacking water. Need to consume more into the night to replace what I lost.

Anyway, I arrived at Mega and found the new comic stocks lacking in interesting material for me. Nope. Nothing. Just the same I went home with copies of the Antarctic Press fantasy action manga comic, Dragon Arms, which attracted me with the solid art and action scenes. Heavy armor, BIG ASS swords, Mammoth power blasts and spells, scantily-clad super babes... this series has it and more. Too bad the storytelling's a bit off and many characters look alike. Still, the designs of the various fighters sold this to me if nothing more than reference material.
Also picked up the Domino mini-series, a spin-off title featuring the black and white female assassin/mercenary from the X-titles. Yet another comic that I got simply for the artwork. Really good anatomy, action and clean lines. The story's kinda interesting too... lots of stealth action and femme fatale acrobatics. I'm sold. Heh.

This week's dragging. Hot. Too hot. And humid.

Goblet of Paper

A couple of days ago I learned that the fourth Harry Potter book, Goblet of Fire, is now available at local bookstores in paperback form. I've recently read Prisoner of Azkaban and so I'm pretty ready to get into the next chapter. Or so I thought. The sucker's THICK! That's a sizeable chunk of my life that I am not ready to commit yet. Oh well. Maybe another time. I know a certain fanatical Potterhead hasn't even gotten to unloading his copy of Order of the Pheonix from his van... heh...

Living in Sim

Against all logic and judgement, I went into a computer shop yesterday and bought The Sims, that best-selling, mega-popular people simulator by game god Will Wright. If you’re not one of the millions already smitten by the little people, The Sims is a videogame (not only on PC anymore; console versions for PS2 and Xbox are already available) where you create electronic people and manipulate their daily lives either to ruin or success. The one thing which differentiates this game from any other RPG is that The Sims is all about the mundane, day-to-day grind of life. Yep. Waking up from bed, cooking your meals, taking a crap, finding work… it’s all here. Sound boring? Yep, I thought so too. But somehow, this game just gets under your skin… it’s so DAMN addicting. It’s maddeningly compelling to try and satisfy your little avatars’ every wishes… to get their blasted needs and moods as high as you can (impossible, I think) and as long as you can. Will a nicer bed make them happy? Or that big-screen TV. Or a new bathtub. Should I take that job as a mailroom clerk? Or be a political advisor? Or cat burglar? AAAAARRRGHHHH!!!

And it doesn’t end there. I also got most of the expansion sets: Livin’ Large, House Party, Hot Date and Vacation. All of them adding ever more items, jobs, quirks and more MADDENING elements into this obnoxiously fun game. DAAAAMMMMNNN!!!
Yes… YES! Who needs to save some stupid kingdom when I can get a job as a security guard? Who CARES about some frickin’ Holy Sword +5 when there are greater things to find… like that cool VR Goggle set that will make my Sim go mad with fun. Or that new food processor that will take care of all their kitchen needs, guaranteed! HOHO!!!

Feh…

Gotta control myself. Still have REAL work to do. A REAL life to live. Comics to write and draw. Places to go. Real food to eat… Haha… or do I?

MAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Third time's the charm.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines review (Spoilers Ahead)

After staying at the office for a while longer than I intended, I decided to invest the night in the latest Terminator movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger returns in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which pretty much finishes this man vs. machine epic in suitably heavy metal fashion.
T3 sees 'future hope of mankind' John Connor(Nick Stahl) in his twenties; a young adult living alone (Sarah passed on already) on the fringes of modern society. His experiences in the previous film have made him paranoid, forcing him to live without an address, e-mail, identification... anything that connects him with anyone. The deadline for 'Judgement Day' came and went, and the world still existed. Despite this, Connor still lives with a nagging fear that something is wrong.
Of course, as expected, the traditional time travel effects (spiffier this time) appear, disgorging the latest terminator. This time around, the latest model (heh) is a female (well, the default form is female) killing machine called the T-X (Kristanna Loken), or Terminatrix.
This new robot seems to be a hybrid between the first two terminator variants; it has a relatively destructible mechanical interior structure covered by a layer of liquid metal skin/armor. This is kinda odd since you'd think that a fully-metal terminator would be more preferrable... anyway, aside from the ability to ALWAYS look drop-dead gorgeous no matter what you throw at her, the T-X has a built-in superweapon in it's right arm (a handy plasma cannon/flamethrower). Finally, this minx has the ability to take control of other machines, including other terminators.
Some time after the T-X makes her nubile entrance, Ah-nuld the T-101 also arrives (literally, for the ladies!) to fulfill his countermission for humanity. Then, it's a running battle with the evil Terminatrix, with a LOOOOONNNNGGGG car chase which makes the freeway battle of Matrix Reloaded look like a Sunday drive, and a finale that ends the saga where it all began.

WHEW!

Anyway, I have to say that... I liked it. It's not totally awesome, to say the least... there are some slow spots, and the T-X's design is kinda underwhelming. Aside from that though, I have to say I enjoyed watching this one. I have to admit, Arnold looks incredible here; I've written before that I've thought he was getting too old for this role, but he looked just as formidable here as ever before (CG? Makeup? Wow!). This is a great 'return to form' for him, honestly. Aside from that, the Terminator has some funny moments which both poke fun and pay homage to the earlier films. This movie's Terminator isn't as cuddly as T-2's model ('I know now why you cry...') but he's a bit more likeable. Nick Stahl is a world away from Edward Furlong, but his character gets some nicely-written lines which links him well with the previous chapter. He kinda reminds me a little of the guy who played Paul Atreides from the Dune TV series. Eh. As for Clair Danes... well, she's just there. Kinda looks a bit old. Hmm. Oh well.
As for the T-X, I have to say Kristanna Loken is dynamite. DAMN she looks great. Yep, and she gets the blank, malevolent shark predator glare down pat. Too bad she didn't spend more time in her time-travelling suit. Sigh.

T3 revs up the action up a notch with more advanced SFX, lots of BIG explosions, crashes, glass breaking, walls crumbling and then some. The best stuff comes in the third act, though there are some good bits throughout the almost two-hour film.

The ending is open for another sequel, but I think it can pretty much just end here. Anything else would just be an extra, but given what this chapter has revealed, extras would be welcome. Action fans, watch this in theaters for the great surround sound. Or wait for it on a good dvd with a BIG TV. Arnold's BACK.

One funny thing though... Aside from Arnold, the ONLY other character to appear in all three Terminator films is a minor character (guess who) who ironically gets one over on Linda Hamilton. Oh well.

Final Fantasy

Last Saturday, over coffee at Country Waffles, the gang had a RARE talk about anime. Yep, even Dean who usually avoids anime and manga like the plague was in for the ride. I guess it was precipitated by his current reading fave, the Battle Royale manga, the printed comic version of the controversial Japanese film. From talking about high school kids fragging each other on an island we moved to the topic of 'What is the definitive fantasy anime?'

I have to admit I was kinda stumped. When you mean high fantasy you usually have thoughts of castles, dragons, knights, wizards, elves and epic quests. Was there something along the lines of LOTR in Japanese animation? An easy answer would be the old classic Record of Lodoss War, which was of course an actual RPG made into big-eyed anime form. However, I am loathe to make this mediocre series into the end-all, be-all of fantasy in anime. There are, of course other titles but of varying degrees of quality and with a multitude of assorted aspects added to the mix.

Along with Lodoss there are the more traditional D&D-themed series; Fire Emblem is a short-lived fantasy which was apparently culled from a videogame. There's The Heroic Legend of Arslan, which is an epic fantasy about a young prince and his followers battling evil and injustice; this series though is more of a war drama and concentrates more on politics and army battles rather than dragonslaying.

There are several Final Fantasy anime, based on the obscure chapters of the popular videogame RPG series. Legend of the Crystals was a short OAV, while Final Fantasy Unlimited is a longer TV series. Both have the quirkiness of the FF franchise, mixing technology and cute characters with a darker plot and evil to overcome.

There are loads of fantasy-comedies, such as my favorite long-running Slayers series, concentrating on the adventures of fireball-hurling Lina Inverse. Despite the wacky laughs, sight gags, absurd situations and over-the-top spells, Slayers usually has a serious plot in every season and ends with suitably dark and exciting endgames that will thrill action and fantasy fans. Recent additions to the comedy-fantasy genre include the recent Louie the Rune Soldier and Scrapped Princess (thought the latter is more drama).
Several fantasy anime have mecha elements, such as the popular Escaflowne series (and movie). El Hazard has tech and adds in the tried-and-tested 'schoolkids sent to another dimension' formula for good measure. The same goes with the very Japanese-flavored Inu Yasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale.
Ironically, D&D trappings are prevalent in many anime titles of the risque flavor, such as the ecchi all-female Megami Paradise and the fantasies of the hentai genre, which I won't talk about here. Heh.

I am sure I've missed a lot of worthy high fantasy anime series, and much more haven't yet seen the light of day outside of Japan. Maybe someday Gonzo or Studio Bones will come out with a new, updated and excellent D&D anime. Till then, I've got a ton of stuff (and other genres) to watch and take my time with anyway.

And if anyone knows where to get VCDs or DVDs of that old anime Paul in Fantasy Land, please let me know.

Zsa Zsa gets Knowledge Power!


Carl talked about what Zsa Zsa stands for.


The segment also featured some nice animated bits.

Yesterday, the afternoon 'science' magazine show Knowledge Power featured a 4-minute feature on Carl Vergara's comic book, Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah. The segment started off with background information on the original Darna komiks by Mars Ravelo and the classic Darna movies of the 70s and 80s. Carl talked about what inspired Zsa Zsa and what she represented; the Filipinos' uncanny ability to just laugh at our troubles despite how strange things can get sometimes. It also represents of course Carl's own contribution to keeping the comic art form alive in the country. Congratulations, Carl!