Posts

Left: The Façade of the Senate of the Philippines [Wikimedia Commons]; Right: Animator drawing animation frames. [animaster.com] Today, I am going to discuss a piece of history that should have been relevant to the Philippines’ creative industry but nevertheless is disregarded. Before that, what is the “creative industry” that I am speaking of, for the benefit of those who do not know? Scope and Definition “Creative Industry.” Two words that define an industry where creative minds gather their skills and do something. This includes arts, the media, culture, etc. In 2001, John Howkins referred to this as the “creative economy,” and as defined as follows: ...

Team XO, composed of Sarah Jane de Ocampo and Jennifer Ong, is hailed as the country’s first competing delegate for the World Cosplay Championship in Nagoya after winning the Philippine selection for the World Cosplay Summit last June 6. [Photo by Al Barcenas] If I were to write like I was a newspaper journalist, I could write something like this: “Six teams from Metro Manila, Southern Luzon and Mindanao have battled it out in an outdoor venue amid scorching heat to see who will be the country’s first representative for the 2015 World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya, Japan this August.” The thing is, I’ll be writing on a personal perspective rather than the style that I did just now. ...

This Winter 2015 Anime season, which was the company with the most number of major TV productions? Diomedéa. They produced Seiken Tsukai no World Break, Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE!, Unlimited Fafnir and Kantai Collection. All of these five titles are titles that have been aired for one whole season. Previously, Diomedéa’s works include Gingitsune, Akuma no Riddle, Kodomo no Jikan, Shinryaku! Ika Musume and Noucome. They also did numerous in-between animations for various series. I constantly need to do corrections on that post because I keep getting the list wrong. ...

If you can watch an episode of Nisekoi that is cached in your phone even without a working data connection all the time, that is a blissful thing in itself. [Nisekoi © 古味直志／集英社・アニプレックス・シャフト・ＭＢＳ. Deremoe Composite] Just in time for the iflix event that I’ve attended for Deremoe, here’s a narrative on why “Offline Viewing” is a win-win situation for content providers and distributors. You will know more of what I think of Offline Viewing as you read further. ...

During the last days of Deremoe, we were given a chance to be a media partner for the Asia Pop Comicon Manila 2015. They held a press conference at Salon de Ning inside The Peninsula Manila last September 15th, and I was able to attend it. We are given the opportunity to talk with Linda Le (aka Vampy Bit Me) during the Asia Pop Comic Con Manila 2015’s press conference at The Peninsula’s Salon de Ning, and the conversation that we had along with other fellow media is interesting. ...

Whether in PC Gaming or in other communities, there’s no such thing as a “master race” event and is only a subjective stance. [Photo: The Escapist / Deremoe composite] It’s been a week or two since I rallied for offline viewing and why internet TV providers are making a good decision to do so. Now, let me write about something different. I have a friend named Jon. It’s been three months or so since I saw his posts on Facebook supporting a big event with big-shot guests and the biggest prize pool in the local cosplay scene. He’s giddy about it, and I could feel that he’s bowing to the organizers of the event. There’s just one thing that irked me — he’s bluntly dissing off anime fans, so to speak. ...

Cosplayers donning the characters from the DMM online browser game Touken Ranbu. [Photo: Dark Lab Visuals] This is a feature posted on Deremoe on August 8, 2015. So we saw Team Thailand’s skit at World Cosplay Summit 2015. It wasn’t exactly new to me since I saw it even in their country’s national qualifiers. I’m curious as to why they did that skit (curious in a good way). Not to mention, I think I’ve saw things similar to this on my Facebook feed. ...

It’s rather the first time that I will talk about the issues surrounding the Cosplay Community for a long time (with emphasis on “a long time”), but now that I have free time, let me write about it — and if you may, let me write it as if I’m writing a diary or such, unrestricted by formalities and all that stuff. Today, I am going to talk about the recent issue that went up on Cosplay Network Philippines’ (CNPH) “Are You Legit? […]” group. This is about a scam involving the Cosplay Costume Shop, its owner Shigiro Duro and his client. The said issue involves Php40,000.00 and the materials that are used to create a costume. In this post, I gather information why this issue exists. I’m bringing these things up for everyone to know, and take note of. ...

Each year, we go to SM Megamall’s Megatrade Hall for ToyCon 2015 — and while most things haven’t changed (merchandise sales, the toy gallery, Alodia’s presence, cosplay competitions, movie promotions, etc.), there are a few tweaks here and there in each iteration (such as the addition of iflix to the fray of presenters, DC Comics-licensed hoodies, new toys and, so forth) which gives a different flavor. It’s like fried chicken — last year was spicy (no thanks to the Lap Dance skit on Day 1 — I have not yet moved on from this even though I missed it), but this year is delicious … so delicious that it should remind you of the good old times. ...

The October 2014 issue of Otaku USA Magazine featuring a preview for the Shokugeki no Soma Manga that is distributed by Viz Media in the United States. [File Photo] We’ve recently released a news post that VIVA-PSICOM Publishing (to be referred henceforth in this piece as PSICOM — take note that the main PSICOM and VIVA-PSICOM are still treated as two entities) will be releasing Filipino editions of Fairy Tail and Attack on Titan manga series by next month through a launch event at SM Megatrade Hall 3 in Mandaluyong. Now, I’ve read some reactions off Facebook saying that they’d rather prefer PSICOM to release the titles in English. I’m going to put up my stand on this with the intention of convincing everyone here that PSICOM’s move is a viable, if not the only choice. ...