Cureless

Belated Happy Birthday to my good friend, Jenny!
Belated Happy Birthday also to Joy Borge!

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Growing old, I often wonder how grown-ups think. But I deduce that at a certain point, people reach this level of maturity where they stop thinking about what else could they do in their lifetime. And reaching this level from my observation takes a very long time, normally. My parents, even in their forties still have a lot of plans for themselves and the family. Thus, when you’re in your twenties, I guess you need not worry about “why you think a lot about the future”. It’s but natural because we actually assume that we could do something significant for ourselves and for other people. Be thankful because you are thinking this way at the least, whereas, some people realize this only when it’s the end-of-the-world for them.

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[EDIT] I uploaded the articles on my previous anime site about anime in the Philippines & anime censorship. It’s at geocities because I intend not to revise that anymore. It’ll be there as long as geocities exists. [/EDIT]

The past weeks have been unbelievably busy for me & my fluffy’s both personal & social lives.

Two weeks ago, I hinted that I’m wanting to visit the SM Mall of Asia, another monumental infrastructure in the country. (Read: largest mall in the country & 3rd largest in the world) Fluffy “willingly” shall I put quotes in there? I think yes ;^^ obliged so we went there with two of our buddies. For me, the best feature of the mall would be the overpass at the back of the mall, facing the Manila Bay. It could have been a scenic spot. The gray waters however took away the view. Still, thank goodness, the breeze didn’t reel us with stink.

Following that weekend, Fluffy spent the days at Isabela while I was perpetually free in the office, modifying and uploading stuff on my server to update the site. When he came back, we watched The Omen. I couldn’t say more than two things about it except that it was one creepy movie as I was hiding most of the time. And it was better a film than The Da Vinci Code.

Then came Saturday, we went to SM Megamall, met with my college friends to attend the Toy Convention. I saw one kickass creative Cloud Strife cosplayer who used the soft broom’s golden strands as his headgear (Cloud’s hair). The funny thing was Fluffy posed beside a transvestite Chobits Chii cosplayer. We could have stayed longer to be with JB for a movie but we were too tired since we’ve gone from Fort Bonifacio to San Mateo then to Ortigas. We then had a dinner with his family at SM Southmall. (I’ve been mentioning 3 SM’s now ;))

On Sunday, we attended our former colleagues’ baby’s christening in Quezon City. Such a cute little one. I rested the whole after the event.

Monday was Fluffy’s birthday. Since he spent his vacation leave at home, I thought I might surprise him with a little chocolate cake when he comes back. The plan was jeopardized though. I lit the candles too early that they melted before Fluffy can blow them. Hah.

Then the following days were quite normal. We jogged to prepare for our 2nd PFT. Now I’m not going home again since I’ll be tomorrow’s duty computer.

I just found out now that there’s a band called bôa who sang Serial Experiments Lain’s opening theme, Duvet. All the while I thought it was BoA, the Korean sensation who sang it.

Names could be misleading sometimes. But I noticed the differences in the vocals and I can’t believe the pop star BoA did those. I was just browsing through YouTube, and this video shed light on this issue. I can’t believe I’ve been misled for 4 or 5 years already.

I so feel like I’m abandoning my journal… *hugs journal* *hugs journal with Cliff layout* See, I’m quite so busy with real life and fangirl life music fangirl life.

Currenly, I’m on the 3rd episode of Samurai Champloo. Jin is so Ishida (Bleach). *smirk smirk* I’ve been researching about the similarities and “possible” relations (like similar director, character designer, etc) between Samurai Champloo and Bleach. And I found nothing… so far. I only found out that Samurai Champloo’s director is Shinichiro Watanabe, also known for the remarkable Cowboy Bebop direction.

What bothers me about what I brought up in the previous entry is not about how bad Ginji’s name was pronounced as “Jinji”, then reverted back again to “Ginji”. Or how “Souma” was pronounced as “Suma” (amp!) in Fruits Basket.

I know this is quite a dangerous speculation but I can’t help thinking that these people are slowly climbing up the ladders of elitism bigotry.

I know the analogy may seem farfetched but there’s a small connection, right? What happened a few weeks ago with the Muslim community trying to put up a prayer center at the Greenhills Shopping Center, with much protest from the homeowners association could be the “larger-scale” effect of such attitude. Tsk.

I beg to disagree. But I refuse to call myself “jologs” (being referred to as something akin to a preppy criminal I suppose) just for enjoying Tagalog-dubbed anime. Self-proclaimed die-hard fans absolutely have no right to bash other viewers for enjoying “their favorite shows” and possibly gushing over “their favorite characters”.

I don’t get the point. If they feel that the anime is violated for the dubbing job, then think again. I’ve done an argumentative paper before regarding anime censorship, and it partly relates to this, but I don’t know if what proceeds is a valid argument.

What is more “violating” than acquiring illegal copies of subtitled anime series? I’m not saying that these self-professed fans have seen these anime series through illegal means. They could have watched them over cable TV. But my point is that there’s really nothing to fret about “Tagalog-dubbed” anime shown on TV unless these “anime-subtitled” fans are forced to watch the dubbed version. The dubbing TV company has bought license to air these anime on TV, and it’s similar to manga having been translated into Mandarin by Tong Li (a leading Taiwanese manga publisher).

A classmate from college once gave me a sensible reason for watching dubbed anime instead of subtitled ones. It’s as simple as not being able to understand the story completely because of the subs.

I still prefer the subtitled ones over the dubbed ones. But having this choice doesn’t give me the right to call fans who watch the “Tagalog-dubbed” anime jologs.

When I browsed through my little sister’s Friendster account, I saw several particular links to ANTI-celebrity friendster accounts (e.g. ANTI-Khristine Hermosa, ANTI-Sheryn Regis, ANTI-Geoffrey Eigenmann, ANTI-Diether Ocampo, ANTI-Angelika dela Cruz, etc). And yes, these are local showbiz personalities.

Although, I think most of them were created “just for fun”, the remarks were insulting and offensive, most especially to the family and fans of these celebrities. There was one remark there saying “Sheryn’s family is cheap,” WTH? Wait, I’m not saying that I’m a fan to any one of those mentioned but I do respect them for being a part of the local entertainment industry, and (some of them) for having shown talent in acting and singing.

I’m simply irritated. So what did I do? I reported the users of the hate-friendster (how ironic!) accounts, and some of their friends who do not meet the terms of Friendster with regards to using copyrighted materials.

If they think they have every single right on earth the FREEDOM (which I think they have yet to understand) to create these things because of their dislike for these actors/actresses/singers, I too, have the right to dislike them, thereby, I’m airing my complaint to Friendster by reporting the misconduct of these users. (Hey, I reported my sister too.)

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Anime rantage. Get Backers is now showing on ABS-CBN. Ban and Ginji! (I didn’t know Ginji is pronounced as “Jinji”). I saw the episode, which Aeyan and the CE Peeps mentioned last summer, where the two main characters pathetically starved themselves, to the point of begging on the streets. LOL. Although it’s not the best anime series I’ve seen (I think Cowboy Bebop IS, among those I’ve seen lately), I’m gonna watch out for bishounen galore in the next episodes.

The Ragnarok Anime is also being shown right after Get Backers. So far, I’ve seen encounters with the Clock Tower Manager (first appearance of a Midgard monster), Thief Bugs (which were referred to as surot and ipis), Orcs, and the Golden Thief Bug. I think it’s quite unfair for players like me that they’ve shown a swordsman (first-job character) defeating a boss (goldie), whereas, in the game, only second-job players can defeat that monster, single-handedly. Well, at least, unlike the MMORPG, the anime has a story to tell, and ending to anticipate.

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I’m just wondering about the dreamy-sparkly sound effects of Mulawin. I think they’re similar to NWN’s forest (Charwood, etc) sound effects. I’m suspicious.