By this time, I am already wondering how malls survive. Some stores are still closed, most have physical distancing measures implemented, but overall, there’s less people coming in - except if it’s a supermarket or a bank, which brings in the necessities. Then there’s online shopping, where the numbers mean crowds. The monthly sales of e-commerce giants Alibaba, Lazada and Shopee is our kind of Black Friday sale in the U.S. ...

We have come to this point that even Anime News Network wrote a story about Mano Aloe. This is my second Desk Diary, where I put my heart out and think loud enough to cover some topics which will then be considered taboo, letting these things go and then moving on. I thought I can get out drama by moving my attention away from local idols and seiyuu drama to Virtual YouTubers. I was wrong. ...

On this edition of Going Places where I attend online anime/cosplay events, I went to virtual Japan to enter the first Comic VKet. Japan’s pop culture events industry The year 2020 was supposed to be a big one for Japan. Olympics are scheduled to be held in Tokyo. Even pop culture events have set aside themselves for this big event. The thing is, a pandemic broke out. Everything Japan has prepared for this big moment has to be postponed. ...

University of Sto. Tomas’ Teletigers Esports Club is on a happy mood as they will represent the Philippines in the 2020 PVP Esports Campus Championships. This is after they emerged victorious in the AcadArena National Cup Mobile Legends Bang Bang Tournament held Sunday, August 24. Teletigers bested out Polytechnic University of the Philippines’ ISKO team with a rallying 3-0 in the best-of-5 finals. Watch the full tournament in action. As the winning team, Teletigers receive Php30,000 cash prize plus a Php10,000 campus grant from Esports AcadArena. ...

Team Eurika Ai, then Team XO, during a press conference held at Restaurant 9501 as part of World Cosplay Summit Philippines in 2014. [Deremoe Archive] After all that has been said and done, we can’t deny that ABS-CBN as an institution has been home to some experiences of mine. ...

Just after we launched the first podcast episode syndicated on both Anchor.fm and YouTube, let’s have a recap of all the episodes (posted and upcoming) for the months of July and August. In and Out of Cosplay (July 13) On this episode, we look back at our third Twitch live with cosplayers Ai Natsumi, Mais Semblante and Diane Marie Sabandeja as we talk about their lives on and off their cosplay careers. Gary Montejo co-hosts this discussion from his home base in Cebu. ...

Red Cloud Interactive, co-organizer of the Pinoy Otaku Festival series, will be organizing the Online Pop Culture Convention for a Better Normal on August 22, 2020, Saturday. This is a volunteer-fundraising activity for the benefit of Greenpeace Philippines’ Better Normal campaign and the Aksyon Kalikasan organization. Red Cloud and Naruto Cosplayers Philippines has been applying its corporate social responsibility by creating a fusion of cosplay events which champions social causes, and this online event adds to its roster. ...

I’m having a great time watching Virtual YouTubers do their way in entertaining us especially in the time where we’re expected to always stay home. VTubers have been my refuge - it’s like watching a raw episode of an anime live. I’ve been watching more VTubers than anime episodes nowadays. ...

Hi guys, it’s been a while. If there are three things that I’m thankful this past Sunday, (1) I still have my faith intact, (2) I produced two videos coming soon on YouTube - as I write this, I’m already rendering video #2, and (3) I got to witness THE iDOLM@STER’s 15th Anniversary YouTube stream in full. Let me get my chest off iM@S first, and apologies in advance for raising some critical matters just right after they celebrated their 15th year celebration. I’ll be talking about the matters which were not mentioned in the live stream. ...

For our second part of the Going Places series where I visit online conventions, I had a heck of a ride visiting not one but four events: Funimation Con 2020, Anime Expo Lite, Kurotsuki Convention Online and Aniplex Online Fest. Altogether, they form what I will refer to as the Online Anime Con Weekend, coinciding with the Independence Day in the United States of Dragon America. Kurotsuki Convention Online (KuroCon) 2020 Let’s start with the one I frequented the most during this weekend: KuroCon. ...