Alongside our events coverage and the still-pending reviews and first impressions that we have to lodge here, we have been monitoring the news in the past few weeks. All of these news have been giving us the impression that 2015 might be a wonderful year for the Anime fanbase. If you have been living under a rock not knowing that these things happen, you’re in luck — we are going to summarize most of the news pieces that has been released in recent weeks.
TV5 has aired Sword Art Online, much to the fans’ excitement. I remember one time when I asked TV5’s Ana Perez about the future of the block, and she told me that they “are committed to the Anime genre.”
Singapore’s Sozo said that LiSA will come to the Philippines — actually, in Taguig, which is technically not Manila — for a performance. Following that, we have been informed that the live-action Attack on Titan movie have been secured by Pioneer Films for a nationwide release, and the Arpeggio of Blue Steel compilation film is going to be shown in SM Cinemas in due time. All of these Japanese movie releases in the country started with the Rurouni Kenshin film releases. Pioneer released the first film and people loved it so much that Warner Bros. Philippines secured the release of the second and final film of the trilogy with the additional arrival of the main cast.
Of course, there’s preparations for Ozine Fest 2015 that we really raked ourselves into just to let the people know that there is discipline in action, but then we are tipped that VIVA-PSICOM Publishing has revealed that the Fairy Tail and Attack on Titan Manga series will be sold in the country in Filipino starting June. Previously, they were looking for translators.
Now we’re seeing that TV5 has moved its weekday AniMEGA block in the afternoon timeslot with History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi added into it. Magi has aired on GMA Network. ABS-CBN has aired Haikyuu!! only to be moved to the weekend slot possibly to compete with AniMEGA. To top the cake, ABS-CBN might air Yowamushi Pedal and Free! in the near future. I personally state that Anime on Local TV has been dead, but with these developments at hand, maybe they are alive again — but this time, they are mostly pandering to the fujoshi part, which is not a problem to me since I can get hooked to sports Anime as well.
It’s just the start of the second quarter of 2015, and we are getting giddy about these things and stuff. What Al has said might be true all along — that “Senpai has noticed us,” and the influx of content that are pandering to the Philippine Anime fanbase is now present as of the moment. We all just have to love our senpais with all our heart and all our wallets — who knows, maybe we can have Anime Festival Asia here in the country after all?
After this, we just had Eir Aoi singing at Best of Anime 2015, and Pile singing at Cosplay Mania 2015.