Rising Angel


"Fallen Angel" Lee returns in a big way.

One of my favorite comics in the past couple of years was a DC title known as Fallen Angel. It was an odd title- not quite your regular superhero title, though the protagonist, Lee the Fallen Angel can kick butt with well-nigh invulnerability, super-strength and the ability to psychically EXPLODE anyone who pisses her off. Set in the crime-ridden, corrupt and shadow-cloaked city of Bete Noir, the comic explored Lee's complex relationships with other shady characters, such as her friend/confidante Dolf, hoodlums like the laschivious Asia Minor and the city's untouchable 'magistrate', Juris. Oh, and there's a lot of action too.
Unfortunately, while the comic was a cult hit, it didn't pull in the cash quite like DC's frontrunners like Batman or JLA... so after the 20th issue, Fallen Angel was cast into the dark. However, the creator-owned title has found new life in IDW Publishing, thanks to creator Peter David's hard work as well as the support and encouragement of many, many fans.

Now, the NEW Fallen Angel from IDW Publishing has hit shelves. The character and story are the same- only the title is now set 20 years after the end of the final issue of the DC run. Yep, 20 years. What effect has this on the Fallen Angel and the other members of the cast? Not much- while appearing with a bit of gray in her hair and some wrinkles when in her daytime guise as a PE Teacher, Lee reverts to her young and still damn strong red-haired, red cloaked form at night when Bete Noir comes alive. And business is still booming for the vigilante/mercenary/bounty hunter/ass-kicker known as the Fallen Angel.

The first issue of Fallen Angel features pretty impressive art from new artist J.K. Woodward, whose painted, photo-realistic panels bring to mind the work of Alex Ross. While some action scenes may look a bit stiff, the quality of the art is undeniable and even gives Fallen Angel the look of a TV series- a darker, more visceral Buffy, save with Angels and Devils instead of Slayers and Vampires. Oh, and Peter David reveals a lot in the first ish- past speculations that Lee is none other than a resurrected Supergirl are all but quashed, as the nature of the Fallen Angel's true past is finally shown in a crucial flashback and key dialogue. This pretty much makes issue 1 a superb jumping on point/origin story for new readers, yet still reassuring longtime fans that Lee is still alive and kicking.

I highly recommend this to comic book lovers looking for a more unusual kind of superhero comic, fans of kick-ass female protagonicts, Buffy and Xena fans and cool comics in general. Get your copy now at all branches of Comic Quest.

As of this writing, Fallen Angel #1 has received rave reviews from critics, and the sales of the first issue have pleased IDW Publishing so much that the title is now assured to continue past issue 5. Here's hoping that it's all downhill from here. Go, Lee, GO!

X-babe


Mutie!

Some news from the upcoming X3. A new villain has been added to the cast: The femme fatale Psylocke AKA Betsy Braddock, will join the legions of evil mutants in Magneto's Brotherhood for the third film of the X-men movie franchise. Comic fans of course know that the British-born, purple-haired telepath turned ninja assassin is a good guy (er, girl) in the ongoing Uncanny X-men comics, having re-entered the world of the living recently after being seemingly killed in battle. This may be the first time Psylocke has appeared in any medium aside from the comics and videogames, which is amazing given that she's quite a popular character. What her exact role is in the film is still unknown.
Psylocke will be played by Meiling Melancon (pictured above), a Philippine-born actress whose sole notable prior acting appearance was in the film Rush Hour 2, as the 'girl in car'.

Looking at that pic, I'm certainly looking to see her in action. Hmmm. The X-movies seem to have a penchant for evil Asian girls. I hope she doesn't bite it like Deathstrike did. Wait for X3 by mid 2006.

Sword of Gideon

One of the films I am looking forward to seeing is Steven Spielberg's latest and probably most controversial film. Munich is a thriller based on the events following the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics. In retaliation for this atrocity, the Israeli government sends a squad of assassins to take out the 11 Palestinians said to be responsible for the massacre. Aside from meticulous recreation of the Mossad's assassinations, this also delves into the personal cost and toll this mission takes on the men who carried it out.

I'm very curious about this movie- already shown in the US but still pretty much unknown here (which is odd given that it's from such a well-known director like Steven Spielberg). It's supposed to be 3 hours long and doesn't hold back on the violence- something that may cause it to be censored (though Schindler's List got through without cuts only after some controversy). It's also been lauded for not being partial to either the Israeli or Palestinian side.

The cast is pretty strong: Eric Bana, who has starred in some high profile movies (Hulk, Troy, Blackhawk Down) and always performs admirably in every role, plays the leader of the Mossad squad. Supporting him are Geoffrey Rush (Casanova Frankenstein in Mystery Men, Barbarossa in Pirates of the Carribean), Ciaran Hinds (Caesar in HBO's Rome) and Daniel Craig (the Next James Bond, Tomb Raider). Also appearing is Michael Lonsdale, whom Bond enthusiasts may remember as Hugo Drax in Moonraker.

I'm scouring the DVD shelves for this one. Who knows, it may just pop up before the inevitable (and hopefully not long from now) local theatrical release.

NINJA ATTACK!



Kunoichi Boy #1 is now available at Comic Quest Megamall. This is basically a reprint of the issue that debuted at last year's Komikon, but now with an added foreword and afterword. The 32-page story relates the first meeting between travelling artist/ninja crossdresser Jin Dragu and brawling babe Mikoto in the feudal Japan-esque fantasy land of Tao.
Mixing elements of Ranma 1/2, Inu Yasha and Ninja Scroll, Kunoichi Boy is a fantasy/action/comedy series that I'll be working on producing and releasing throughout 2006. Check it out!

Kunoichi Boy #1 is 32 pages, B/W, Php40.00 at Comic Quest Megamall.

Baking Anime


Kazuma and his passion for bread star in Yakitake! Japan.

Now I've seen everything. Surely, after seeing Yakitake! Japan it's pretty much definite that the Japanese can make an anime out of ANYTHING.

Yakitake! Japan is a series about baking bread. BREAD. How mundane is that? Well, apparently not mundane at all, given how passionate and driven the characters are about kneading, baking and producing the Holy Grail of dough-based products. The series is all about young Kazuma Asuma, who as a young boy growing up in Japan was inspired to love bread while he was a kid by his older sister and a friendly neighborhood Frrench-trained baker. The baker instills in Kazuma the belief that Japan, like many other countries in the world, deserves its own national bread. At that young age, Kazuma also discovers that he has the almost legendary 'Solar Hands'- supernaturally warm and strong hands that can produce the finest and most delicious of breads.
So, ten years after that first meeting, Kazuma goes to Tokyo to start his quest for Japan's national bread. Along the way, he'll have to compete in various baking competitions, meet rivals, make allies and friends and do a lot of kneading before he reaches his goal.

Yakitake is certainly very similar to series like Cooking Master Boy and Grander Musashi, titles which take otherwise boring or unexciting professions and inject into them over-the-top anime flavor to make them more acceptable to wider audiences.
This involves always having a young, good-looking lead with incredible talents, give him cartoony rivals and enemies of varying levels of antagonism (from friendly competition to megalomaniacal psychos) and make the products of the profession (in this case, the bread) be delicious to the point of delirium. As in Cooking Master Boy, eating bread made by Kazuma seems to induce hallucinations and visions of pleasure... you'll wonder what kind of weed he's using in his baking. Brownies, anyone? Along with reactions to bread that border on orgasmic, the series also inserts real facts about baking and breadmaking which are strangely interesting, though probably not very useful unless you find yourself hankering to bake your own pandesal sometime.

Despite the cookie-cutter (heheh) template tendency, it's hard not to enjoy the good-natured and hilarious premise of this series. I have to admit, this is a bit more particular than Cooking Master Boy was (which I really enjoyed), but I certainly find it quite watchable, if not thoroughly entertaining. This is probably not surprising given that I AM a bread lover myself.

I'll probably try and get me some VCDs of Yakitake! Japan if I get the chance, despite the HERO channel dub being quite good (I've really gotten used to tagalog anime, unfortunately), if only because I can't wait to see the episodes. Fortunately, the series has been out for a while, so it's readily available in most anime shops in the Metro.

I recommend watching Yakitake! Japan with a big bag of freshly-baked goodies from Bread Talk and a cold glass of soda. Enjoy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It's yet another year forward! MY GOSH! Where did the time go?!

The family spent the eve of the dawning of 2006 together in the homestead, feasting on Mom's Best Spaghetti and embutido on hot, toasted pandesal. Simple but satisfying to the extreme. Afterwards, the kids stormed into The Sanctum for some PS2-powered WWE Wrestling. Whether it's because our time together is now limited or whatever, this was probably the longest time the extended families spent together on a New Year or weekend... it was well past 1 am before everyone called it a night and retired for the New Day of the New Year.

Darn. I'm gonna miss this. Hopefully next year won't be at all lonely. Somehow, someway.

Greetings to all out there who made it into 2006 in one piece! My best wishes to all of you out there: My friends in the Comic Quest gang: Vinnie, Dean, Nikki, Andrew, El, Camy, Dino, Alex, Kate, Charles and Ralph. Also greeting our comic compatriots: Carl, Budjette, Arn and Cyn, Gerry, Wilson, Jennyson, Jeremy, the members of Team K.I.A., Project Hero and Siglo.

Best wishes as well to my fellow slaves at The Salt Mines. Yet another year of hard mining! Woohoo!

Special greetings to the more-or-less regulars here on STARK RAVING MAD... Sheila, Ferres, Ran, Zemzelett and all the rest of ya. Thanks for tagging or commenting in every now and then.

I'm looking forward to another year of cool gadgets, exciting movies, good eating, lots of laughs, comics-making and whatever surprises fate has placed in store for me.

Looking forward to releasing Kunoichi Boy issues every so often. Number 1 is in the can and should be in Comic Quest this week. Issue number two is in progress.

The Last Angel Ace Story is still in development. I want it to matter. I'm sitting on this until it's right. Hopefully it'll be out within 2006. We'll see.

The New Year is upon us. I hope all of you guys came into it with all digits intact. God Bless You all!

ONWARD, EVER FORWARD!

Retrospective

On the verge of making the leap to the New Year, I looked back at 2005 and hey, I guess I didn't do too bad.

At the Salt Mines in the vast mountain known as the business of advertising, us miners worked to turn around the situation at the start of 2005 to reap pretty nice rewards at the end of the year. From zero to hero is a pretty cool way of putting it, modesty aside.

In the field of local comics, I participated in a couple of notable projects which came in at a photo finish near the close of 2005; the much-delayed Siglo: Passion and the soon-to-be continued Project: HERO. Along the way I was able to debut another much-delayed title of my own: Kunoichi Boy, at the quite successful First Philippine KOMIKON.

In the area of gadgets, two nifty toys stood out; my O2 XDA II Mini PDA phone which I got in the middle of the year and look to keep for quite a while... it's turned out to be the perfect phone and media device for me and continues to be my favorite tech toy despite inevitable new models coming (like the XDA Atom and XDA Exec). If there's a new phone coming this year to unseat this from my belt holster, I have not seen it.
The other device I totally dig from 2005 is my spiffy Archos AV700 DVR Recorder/Player. I haven't used it on the road yet, but hours of movies, anime and gaming vids have already passed through it into my phone. Lovely, lovely. I just hope it stays working for a long, long time.

In the field of movies, this was a forgettable year. Big films came late in the year; I was charmed and thrilled by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (IMO, the best Potter film yet), while the last installment of the lackluster Star Wars prequels just capped the trio of monumental mediocrity. I've yet to watch the biggie of 2005, King Kong... I guess it will become the first biggie of 2006 for me then. Funny enough, the last film I watched this year was a local film, Exodus, which is kinda fitting in terms of the title, don't you think?

On the Political Front, the country continues to labor along even with the ridiculously obvious corruption of the government. There were a few bright spots; the seeming stability of the economy and rising of the peso over the dollar towards the end of the year. The second, the Philippines' victory in the recent SEA Games.

At the home front, all is well though we do end 2005 with the melancholy possibility that within the next year the Sanctum's surroundings will be a lot quieter as my siblings and their families migrate to the States and elsewhere. Well, again, thanks to the wonders of modern media, we'll be able to keep in touch even across the miles.

As for the Comic Gang, 2005 saw us having fun as we had years before but eventually mellowing out our 'paint the town red on Saturdays' cycle. Some guys left, maybe never to return. New faces became old faces and thankfully there are still enough of us to bunch up together to do stuff every now and then despite our own individual pursuits.

Once again, not a bad year. Not a great year, but not bad. Not bad at all. And in these times, that's good.

The Grudge, WWE Style

Lately, an 'angle' or storyline on the WWE Smackdown show has young heel (bad guy) Randy Orton being 'haunted' by The Undertaker, whom he supposedly 'killed' (left the guy on a burning car that exploded). One of the recent shows had Orton being continuously harassed by supernatural encounters- from clocks spinning backwards to his father, 'Cowboy' Bob Orton appearing with blood dripping down his face and apparitions of the Undertaker appearing in mirrors.

The clinker that had me laughing out loud was a segment where a reporter suddenly gets 'possessed' and starts speaking with Taker's voice. Bad spirits? More like bad acting. Hoho...

Darn, when the WWE gets corny, it can get totally corny.

There's even a bit of gross-out Fear Factor stuff with the arrival of the wrestler known as The Bogeyman, who eats live worms and nightcrawlers and SPITS them onto his defeated opponents. GROOOOOSSSSS.

Well, whatever. Still a hoot to watch after all this time.

The Wait Begins

Okay.

Dead or Alive 4 is on the verge of widespread release. It's already apparently available in Asia, at least in Japan and probably elsewhere like in Hong Kong. The US will probably get theirs by tomorrow or later today. Online, forum boards are starting to trickle in with new pics and videos.

Doesn't change the fact that Xbox360s are horribly expensive here locally right now, or presently unavailable. Unless the stocks of the console go up and the prices go down, I won't be playing this next-gen brawler anytime soon. Hopefully in a couple of months... maybe. Darn. For now, I'll have to content myself with the new info and any media I can grab.

Darn. Oh well. Everything comes to he who waits.

BUT DAMN IT I HATE WAITING...

Exodus


Ramon 'Bong' Revilla Jr. takes on the forces of darkness.

Years ago, one of the best RPGs I played on the ol' PC was Ultima III: Exodus, which was pretty simple compared to the big budget fantasy games of today. The graphics were pretty basic, seen from a top down perspective with limited animation. Still, despite the bland visuals, I still found myself lost in the land of digital fantasy, battling terrible hordes of monsters with spells and swords in my quest for virtue in the land of Ultima.
Well, it's at least a decade later and FINALLY, the Exodus movie is now a reality.

Okay, I'm kidding. Exodus: Tales from the Enchanted Kingdom has nothing to do with the old PC game from Origin Systems. It's one of the entries to this year's Metro Manila Film Festival, a yearly event that basically takes over every theater and moviehouse from Christmas Day to New Year's Day here in our parts. I chose Exodus since the posters showed some pretty nifty costumes and I thought, what the hey... it looks a lot better to me than "Ako Legal Wife!' in any case. So, after doing my shopping for a couple of new pairs of shoes and some graphic novels, I bought a ticket and headed in.

Now, let me say for starters that I went in not expecting a lot. I am pretty jaded when it comes to local films, especially local fantasy films. I have to admit that I find that local fantasy just doesn't have the sophistication I am used to. OKAY, I know that expeting something like The Lord of the Rings from local producers is a bit much, but I say, there are things that can give a fantasy movie (or any movie for that matter) sophistication and coolness that don't necessarily require big budgets or gobs and layers of prosthetics, or stiff CG. These things include the following: A Good Script and Imaginative Direction. Sad to say, I have seen few local films in the fantasy genre (be they superhero, sword and sorcery or whatever) that take the effort to have these things. For the most part, these films let the fancy special effects and costumes do the talking.

Exodus: Tales of the Enchanted Kingdom starts off perhaps in the crummiest way possible- by actually showing THE Enchanted Kingdom amusement park. Yeah, shameless plugging there. Apparently, the Exodus movie is a ride as well. We have the logo wizard of the park appear in human/CG form along with a crappy anti-cellphone message (which is STILL ignored by several assholes in the theater, particularly some idiot sitting behind me). FINALLY, after the overlong intro, we finally go into the actual story.

The film is set in a besieged fantasy world where the last few humans are being hunted to extinction by the forces of darkness (Literally... the enemies are 'taong dilim' or night people). Outnumbered, the last remaining human city is called Bantayan, which is relying on the services of a grim, unsmiling mercenary named Exodus (Ramon Revilla Jr.), a man with a 'murky past' (this is from the movie literature). Seeing as they are about to be massacred, the human leaders send Exodus on a quest to defeat the King of Darkness, Haring Bagulbol.

Haring Bagulbol.

Okay, the first moment we hear the name of the Head Villain, Lord of Darkness and Master of Evil, we do not feel fear or awe. Who cannot help but giggle or guffaw at that fricking name?

Haring Bagulbol.

Snicker-snicker

Let me name some scary fantasy villains. Darkness from Legend. Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. Black Wolf from Wizards. Nekron from Fire and Ice. Thulsa Doom from Conan.

We got Haring Bagulbol.

I don't care what it means... I'm sure there's a meaning behind the word that made the writers choose it, but DARN IT, listen to how it sounds. BAGULBOL. It's FUNNY. NOT a name for the big villain of your fantasy epic.

GAH. Anyway... moving on...

Haring Bagulbol is played by local matinee idol/singer Jar-R who appears early on in a bath scene, and like young Sting in the old Dune movie appears in his bare essentials no doubt to the pleasure of all the girls out there. Well, they should soak it in since after that one scene he spends basically the whole movie afterwards covered head to toe in ornate armor and masks. What's the use of having him in masks all the time, and having a different voice? Anyway, Bagulbol basically spends the time in his castle, looking over torture chambers and being pretty passive, only sending out his minions a couple of times to hinder the oncoming assassination attempt on him from the humans.

Meanwhile, Exodus goes off on his quest, collecting the elemental creatures that are to be his allies. He gets four of them pretty easily- a Tikbalang or horse-beast named Tayho (Benjie Paras), a sexy flying aswang femme fatale named Bangkil (Aubrey Miles), a mischievous fire-child named Silab (BJ Forbes) and a lovely but fickle diwata or wind-fairy named Lin Ay (Iya Villania). Unfortunately, the FIFTH elemental being, an elemental of spirit called a Baylan, is supposedly extinct. The only remaining Baylan in the land is Haring Bagulbol himself (NO!) and of course he won't be joining the quest anytime soon.

So, despite the seeming hopelessness of the quest, Exodus finds a new direction from a cryptic vision and with his elemental allies go off to find 'the key' to all his questions. Meanwhile, the forces of evil are closing in on Bantayan, intent on extermination. Will Exodus and his comrades find the last Baylan in time? Can they defeat Bagulbol (snicker)?

Okay.

For starters, this really is just a dumb fantasy movie to please kids. There are cool costumes and some nifty CG effects, and there are attempts for some wirework sword-fu and stunts. But that's about it- nothing really sophisticated or surprising, notthing really unique to this venture aside from the usual expected fare.

The visuals of the movie are hit-and-miss. A lot of the budget obviously went into the costumes for the main heroes and villains; everyone else is second rate, and it shows. While the art direction and production team tries hard, it's still pretty funny to see people in the fantasy land of Bantayan wearing plaid shirts and polos, or the odd dress which looks picked up from some ukay-ukay flea market. As it is, the look of the film is uneven- some of it looks to be just weird or cool, which sometimes works (Bangkil wears shades, the human 'speakers' of the King of Bantayan wear divers' masks) and sometimes doesn't. Which pretty much sums up everything else in the movie in terms of visuals. Yeah, every one of the extras look like they're extras acting and that probably will never change in local movies. Sigh.

As per the story, again, it's pretty simple and basic- it's a kiddie film, no LOTR or serious fantasy film. There are resultantly few touches of sophistication and lots of leaps in logic. There's glaringly bad pacing as seems to be always the case with 'Quest' films in local cinema- there are FAR too many scenes with the heroes just walking and walking and walking and camping and walking, too few enemy action and encounters. There's little sense of tension or urgency despite the fact that the last remaining humans are supposedly in danger of invasion.
At the start of the movie, Exodus leads a small army of men armed with what appear to be primitive camera flashes to fight an overwhelmingly superior number of dark creatures. Instead of bunching the warriors and the lights together and having good tactics, they basically just do the ol' Filipino way of fighting- Exodus says SUGOOOODDD!!!! (Charge!!!) and everyone runs at breakneck speed into the enemy without any formation or direction except to kill anything that's black. Well, who am I to criticize their war strategy when they apparently win anyway, at least for the time being.

So, why doesn't Bagulbol send his armies against Exodus at the end of the movie? In fact, where are all his warriors then? At the climax, he has four guys (main henchmen who appear far too late and are pretty much clobbered too easily by the equivalent heroes) to defend his turf. Then, there's the inevitable final battle between Exodus and Bagulbol that just boils down to another wire-fu fight to save the world. No tricks, no special obstacle, no riddle to puzzle over- Exodus just kills Jay-R and that's that. Happy Ending. Oh, right, along the way Exodus finds out something, finds the key (LITERALLY... too literally) and the movie's big twist, and that's that.

In terms of acting and performances, it's all par for the course. Bong Revilla basically mugs his way through the film as the stoic, unsmiling Exodus as he does in all of his movies, save with a lot less dialogue. Yeah, he looks cool in his armor and can swing a sword, but that's that. The four elementals could have been given more to say or do at least to show off their characters more, but for the most part are woefully under-used. A lot of potential, wasted. Oh well. At least they all look good posing on the movie posters.

Well, really, Exodus: Tales from the Enchanted Kingdom really is just what I expected it to be... a simple local costume fantasy action movie. Nothing more, nothing less. No surprises here, sad to say. Well, at least it wasn't something I would be ashamed to admit watching, and it was at least a good-natured film (despite the crappy shameless plug at the start). Fun for the kids. Grown-ups and fantasy fans, you'll be thinking of tons of stuff where this could have been made a lot better. Oh well.

There's a few more days left to the Holiday Break. Let's see if I can watch a couple more Festival Films before it's over. Then hopefully I'll be able to watch King Kong finally. Heh.

Fighting Fan Service


So what's Tenjou Tenge about? Read the title post.

With the lovely and languid pace of the holiday break, I was finally able to watch the Tenjou Tenge anime in it's entirety. There are 24 episodes along with a 2-episode OAV follow-up, though the manga on which the title is based is still ongoing or far longer, I think.

Anyway, Tenjou Tenge is a martial arts title, similar to Volcano High and Ikki Tousen. Two brawling high school students, Nagi Souchirou and Bob Makuhara transfer to Todou High and find themselves joining a battle between the Jyuken Club, headed by sisters Maya and Aya Natsume, and the School Enforcement Group/Student Council. There is some romantic complication given that in the course of an early fight Nagi falls into the girls' shower room, seeing Aya naked and thus marking him as her husband-to-be. Along with the breaking bones and bloody splatters, there's some humor and jokes (even fart and armpit humor) sprinkled to lighten the generally serious tone of competing fighters seeking greater power, guilt and satisfaction with their strength.

I really wanted to like Tenjou Tenge a lot, but darn... this series has some of the weirdest pacing ever. For one thing, it has perhaps the LONGEST flashback I've ever seen... as in, HALF the series is a darn flashback. It really throws you off and was part of the reason why I quit watching this a long time ago. Also, the story is pretty complicated- lots of stuff about fighting and martial arts philosophy and the complicated relationships between the various characters prior to Nagi and Bob's arrival in Todou.

Tenjou Tenge isn't that hard to watch- if you tune out from all the plot and soap opera dramatics, you can always wait for the fights- and there are quite a few pretty cool action sequences- throughout the series. PLUS the gratuitous shots of the Natsume sisters and the other babes in the series should keep male viewers awake. Unfortunately, the ending of the series (and the OAV) is pretty open-ended (which is a nice way of saying 'bitin' and unconclusive) with a status quo situation. Animation-wise, Tenjou Tenge has some bursts of pretty cool fighting animations, but for the most part has average quality... never horrible but not that great. The character designs are cool and sexy, based as they are from the art by manga ka Oh! Great.
If you love stuff like Ikki Tousen, Street Fighter, Naruto and other fighting anime, Tenjou Tenge may be a title to see. If you can get past the first six episodes, you'll probably be fine. Check it out at good anime shops in the Metro.

Merry Christmas

Season’s greetings to one and all!

It’s that time of the year again. This year though, there’s a bit of melancholy in the household as we face the reality that this conceivably could be the last Christmas our family will be spending totally together. Both of my brother’s and sister’s families are migrating abroad, so they’ll be spending their next December holidays overseas. Next Christmas will probably be a lot quieter in the house without the kids running around.

I’ll be working on getting a broadband connection up along with a webcam so that the grandparents will be able to check on their grandkids every now and then. With modern communication, hopefully we’ll keep together even though we’ll be living far apart.

For now though, it’s a time to enjoy the holiday break, to rest and reflect, and be content.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone.

Traveller's Tales


Join Kino on her strange, melancholy journey.

I first read about the anime series Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World in an issue of Newtype USA. I found the animation style simple and kiddie, but after watching a couple of episodes on Animax, I found out that this unusual series is anything but. Produced by the same creators that brought anime the strange title Serial Experiments Lain, this short but sweet anime is something to see for those fans who think they've seen it all in anime.

Basically, Kino's Journey is about a somewhat mysterious and generally benign young traveller. Kino appears initially as a gender-nonspecific character... the child-like face could either be a pretty girl or boy, and Kino's body is slim and boyish, often covered by bulky travelling coats or jackets. Kino's voice is female, though this certainly isn't a conclusive point since male characters in anime have female seiyuu all the time. Still, Kino's mannerisms and empathy to other characters leads me to think that he's a SHE.
Anyway, Kino travels alone save for her sentient motorbike, Hermes. Early on we do find out that Hermes' voice is heard by anyone in hearing distance, so Kino at least doesn't have a few bats in her belfry. The presence of talking bikes in Kino's world isn't the most unusual thing- there are weird things happening in every place Kino travels to... stuff like wars, weird gladiatorial competitions, questionable morals and the occasional odd mystery. Of course, Kino is quite capable of taking on whatever comes her way- despite looking like a mild-mannered youth, Kino has some mad skills when it comes to defending herself... the times that Kuno shows off her deadly precision with firearms and other weapons provides the sharp bursts of action in this otherwise placid series.

For the most part though, Kino's journey isn't about some trailblazing pioneer or revolutionary- Kino is, as mentioned, a traveller, who comes and goes into a place for no more than 3 days (the reason for the specific deadline is revealed later on). She gets involved in the events with a measure of detachment, and little commitment, and then moves on. Kino is passive and a bit on the quiet side, but there's a lot of dialogue between her and Hermes. Despite not being your usual hero and having some peculiar thinking processes (in episode two she questions the morality of killing rabbits to help some starving travellers), Kino is an instantly likeable character, and you have to admire someone of such obvious competence (and lethality). What the point of the whole thing may be revealed in the long run, or it may be a moot point. Perhaps the old saying is true in this case- it's not the destination but the journey.

This is a pretty interesting series, though it certainly might not appeal to everyone for the lack of immediate gratifications like fan service, big action, mecha, magic and monsters. It's all about stories, some with a bit of danger, some with lots of thinking and often with a bit of sadness. It's a good title to visit, think about and then move on from. Which is pretty cool.

Join Kino on her journey with VCDs and DVDs at your favorite anime shops in the Metro.

Cab Scab

As Christmas gets closer, taxi drivers get a lot greedier, pickier and overall more EVIL. Recently, over 100 taxi drivers were caught violating LTO regulations of conduct by picking customers, contracting, refusing to take commuters and just generally being assholes.

For the past few days I've gotten my fill of bastard stinking taxi cabbies with the arbitrariness of God. Nine out of ten of these miscreants will try to justify their actions because of their economic situation, because it's not profitable for them, etc.

Well, SCREW THEM. I don't fricking care about their stupid reasons. DRIVE because it's your JOB, bastards. If you can't do it, QUIT your job or take a bullet to your worthless brain. Just DIE and give your cab to a better driver.

If a taxi driver gives you flack, REPORT them to the LTO. The hotline number just escapes me right now, but every commuter slighted by a cabbie SHOULD report these bastards so they can be penalized for making life harder than it already is.

In my perfect world, taxi drivers should be lobotomized eunuchs who know no pleasure aside from the joy of travel. Or commuters should be given the right to publicly flog or scourge troublesome cabbies. Yes.

Vanishing Ray. VANISHING RAY.

Closing Time

DONE with work.

Salt Mines shutting down.

Turning off brain.

Need to pay bills.

Got to finish shopping.

Want to vege out.

Later then.

King Kong Lives!

Even though I haven't seen the new Kong movie yet, I won't be going into the theater not knowing how this movie ends... it's pretty much common knowledge that when the big ape climbs the Empire State Building at the end, he's not coming down... alive, that is.

But THAT can change! Apparently, Peter Jackson and the producers of the King Kong videogame have placed an alternate ending in the game which lets Kong escape his tragic fate. To unlock the alternate ending, players must complete the entire game and then go back and play through various maps and earn a total of 250,000 points – which is within reason and definitely worth the effort.
Other un-lockable features include several Weta Digital concept art galleries, interviews with both Peter Jackson and Academy Award® winner and co-writer Phillipa Boyens, an “old movie” filter, a King Kong theatrical trailer and more.

Maybe I'll give this a try. Perhaps after seeing the movie. We'll see. Heh.

Salty Christmas

Today was The Salt Mines' Christmas Party. The whole crowd converged at a posh venue in Ortigas where we partied the night away with good food, giveaway prizes and lots of laughs. Every year we have this costume thing where we have a theme- this year was 'Philippine Icons', so everyone came as some popular person, character or whatever in Philippine pop culture, history or current events. There were cool ensembles like co-creatives Derrick and 3sha who went as 'Barrel Man' and 'Barrel Woman' (popular souvenirs with barrels that reveal big springy phallic parts) to simple stuff like my outfit, 'Mang Kepweng' (a cartoon/comic character). Thankfully this year I didn't qualify for the Worst Costume Awards. Heh.

Anyway, after the prizes were awarded, a musical band came on and the party danced into the night. I went off after a dance or two... there's still work tomorrow. Sigh. Anyway, at least I'll have time to do my last bits of Christmas Shopping into the long holiday break. Yay!

Game Over

It happened again, incredibly enough.

ANOTHER gamer in Korea apparently collapsed and died in an Internet Cafe after playing some game for TEN DAYS STRAIGHT. What the game the hapless game addict was playing is not yet known, but is sure to be an MMORPG (Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game).
All I can say is... WHAT DA FOCK? How can you play a game for ten days straight? What stoopid cafe stays on for ten days without noticing some guy is no longer eating or drinking normally? And what kind of guy can just play like that to death?

Anyway, in related news, apparently there IS a law in China banning continuous play on videogames for more than 3 hours- how crappy is that? Well, if it prevents these brainless game drones from dropping like flies in their turf, I guess it's called for. No such law in Korea though... perhaps they should work on that.

I can see it now... Chinese SWAT teams breaking into some house to keep a guy from playing the final stretch of Suikoden III since he went over 3 hours, ratted out by his mom.

Crazy stuff.

Holiday Break

It's a couple of days till the end of 2005, at least as far as The Salt Mines are concerned. That's more than a week of rest from the hustle and bustle of the ad business for me, and I can't be happier for it. I'll hopefully have time to enjoy and savour stuff, get started on new comic projects and pretty much just CHILL. Simple pleasures, but they're all I need. Oh, and I guess I should work on seeing that Kong flick somehow. Heh. T-minus two days and counting...

Christmas Quest

Last night, the Quest Gang and friends came together as many times before in a cozy hotel room with a ton of food and drinks to enjoy each others' company for a Christmas celebration.
Present were, of course, Dean and Nikki, newlyweds Kate and Alex and the rest- Elbert, Camy, Jamie, Charles, Dino, Ralph, Andrew myself and of course, Vin.
Aside from the food and drinks, the main focus on the night was just having fun with games- well, more or less ONE game... a roaringly fun party game called Werewolf introduced to us by Kate. A cross between murder-mystery Clue and stuff like Hive Mind, the game requires a moderator to precede over the play. Everyone else plays as villagers, of which two are disguised lycanthropes, and one a Seer with limited vision. The challenge is for the townsfolk to find the monsters before they murder too many people for a lynch mob to form and defeat them.

It's a fun game, with accusations being tossed, tension getting high (not just for the villagers but for the wolves) and laughter almost unstoppable. I think everyone should try it... all you need are cool friends, a deck of playing cards and a place where you can scream and shout without a real mob forming to run you out of time. Heh.

Anyway, it was well into the early hours of Sunday that the party finally concluded, after we all exchanged gifts and got over the bliss of unwrapping. Once again, the Quest Christmas is done for the year. People have left, people have stayed, people have joined. But as long as friends in fiction and fun remain, December will always be a time for coming together. Till next year!