Vampy Bit Me on pictorials, food, and her second visit to the Philippines

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. ...

October 4, 2015 · 8 min

“Master Race events” is just a subjective stance

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. ...

September 2, 2015 · 4 min

What do you need to know about Touken Ranbu?

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. ...

August 7, 2015 · 4 min

On the issue of “Willy Worbla”

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. ...

July 9, 2015 · 12 min

14th Philippine ToyCon 2015: “Same old, but still fun to check out”

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. ...

June 25, 2015 · 4 min

VIVA-PSICOM’s Manga is in Filipino for fair competition

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. ...

May 17, 2015 · 3 min

Yoru no Yatterman: Heroes from enemies

I’ve watched the 2008 of Yatterman on local TV, so I am surprised that they did a different take on this. Yoru no Yatterman (Yatterman Night) is a 12-episode series done by Tatsunoko Production as part of the Time Bokan series that has celebrated its 40th anniversary. This stars Eri Kitamura, Kenta Miyake, Shizuka Itou, Hiroyuki Yoshino among others, and tells the story of Yatterman different from the one we’re used to. ...

April 9, 2015 · 2 min

Otaku Urule Japanime 2015

I went to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines for the first time in my life, and I covered Japanime 2015 there. Its organizer, the Otaku Urule organization, have been running for five years now — a month older than us, apparently. As with most of our event reports, I will be discussing this chronologically. The PUP Freedom Plaza [Google Earth], with a view of the event venue as of 4:45p.m. [Inset] ...

March 23, 2015 · 2 min

Direk Joey Reyes on Mainstream, Indie and Maindie

[Top Photo] Vispathè cinema, in Campi Bisenzio, Italy. (Wikimedia Commons); Director Reyes’ self-portrait with broadcaster Mike Enriquez (Instagram) I was lucky to participate in the 1st De La Salle University Communication Conference held last 27 February 2015, and I am still on a hangover a week after. After all, this is the first conference in La Salle since the launch of their Communication Arts program forty years ago. Various speakers from different industries gather to share insights on the communication landscape in the country, among the things that I’ve taken note of there, Director Jose Javier Reyes‘ talk on the Film and Movie industry made me think the most. In this post, I will write about what I have understood in his talk; meaning that alongside the information and the arguments he shared with the audience, I will try to make sense of each of it. ...

March 3, 2015 · 5 min

MyAnimeList in 2015 — New investors, new infrastructure

I have decided to write something about MyAnimeList after all these times, these 12,000 years of aishite — okay, okay, a long time, I mean. It’s been long since I tracked my Anime fix — which I did just now for my Fifty (Anime) Ships segment — and I’ve tried to gather my MyAnimeList and Hummingbird.me data to do that. There’s only one thing that made me curious about MyAnimeList now — almost a month ago, they’ve been divested from CraveOnline, LLC. This means that they are now MyAnimeList, LLC, which has a different set of investors with them. Not only that, they also now have their own Facebook and Google+ profiles — after, again; all these times, these 12,000 years of aishi– okay, I’m shutting up on that now (I barely know the series where I got that track). So, what happened? ...

February 15, 2015 · 4 min