To Save A Few Pesos

I didn't commute from Guadalupe to Rockwell but rather I got off at Buendia and started walking. All for a CD inside a brown envelope.

And of course, had to walk back to Buendia and got dropped off at Ortigas. Had to walk to Robinsons Galleria to meet Krizelle. Apparently, there are two McDonalds at that mall (but thankfully, one's on top of the other).

A Half Hour I'll Never Get Back

Well, met up with Krizelle and her friend, John Say (a Xaverian), who was pitching me to invest in MIB (Millionaires in Business). I didn't buy it for several reasons.

For one thing, John's technique is too familiar and doesn't suit me. I've heard other sales pitches before (from Xaverians also) and well, the approach they took was the same. Even the opening line was the same. I don't know if that's the result of the training, that he also studied in Xavier, or some bizarre coincidence.

Of course his manner of presenting the product is showing the brochure and telling me what it says. At least he's not reading from the brochure but well, if you're saying nothing new, why bother with the dialogue and not just give me the brochure and let me read it?

I guess he was also talking down on me, explaining each and every detail. While I understand there's a need for this approach when talking to some people, that's not the case for me. He doesn't need to explain the geometric progression (in contrast to arithmetic progression) if income that arises from the venture... provided that you acquire other people to invest.

Meshing of Hobbies

It also amazes me at how anime has managed to find itself in other hobbies. I mean several years back, anime wasn't yet mainstream. It's like a taboo hobby that only few people knew about and it cost you an arm and a leg to obtain related merchandise.

Nowadays, it's blended with other icons of pop culture.

I mean anime and manga (or comics/graphic novels) go hand in hand. Of course before, the number of titles being translated were few (at least to American and Filipino audiences since manga is being translated in a number of Asian and European countries). Now, there's a lot of cheaper (but still expensive) manga being translated into English, and Filipinos for the past few years are doing pirate-translations of popular titles. And then there's the Internet, and the concept of "scanlations".

Personally, I got into anime hanging out at the local shop that sells Magic: The Gathering cards. It's strange at how the transition came about and at one point, I had to choose between the two. Anime won, and not too soon, because a few months after I quit, the main distributor, Novelty Entertainment, closed down.

Of course one of the reasons Novelty closed down (but M:TG distribution survived under Neutral Grounds [formerly known as Hobby Cafe/Gamer's HQ]) is because of Pokemon. And well, the Pokemon Collectible Card Game (CCG) is based on the game of the same name, which in turn eventually got adapted into its own manga and anime series. Anime is no stranger to the CCG market, at least in Japan. There are a lot of anime-related CCGs like Yugi-Oh, Gundam, Super Robot Wars, etc.

And if we're just talking about games, especially video games, anime has dominated that scene in Japan. Big computer companies like Sega have investments in popular anime (e.g. Evangelion, Sakura Taisen) and many best-selling games have been adapted into anime and vice versa.

Of course consumers around the world would fall in love with these video games and people (at least Filipinos) now link it with anime. Games like Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, the various dating sims and (ugh!) hentai games are usually paired with anime. I mean fangirls equate Squall or Cloud as bishonen (pretty boy, or biseinen as Vern would later tell me), a term commonly used by anime fans.

I can't also stress that many of these games are RPGs, a genre that was popular in Japan since the 80s, compared to America where it only caught on in the mid 1990s. Naturally, a number of anime would have RPG games and would be inspired by RPG-related fiction, storytelling, and approach. Record of the Lodoss War is a direct anime adaptation of D&D, but few people realize that other anime like Legend of the Galactic Heroes (using the Traveller RPG rules) and Slayers, Ruin Explorers, and Shadow Skill (all serialized from the same magazine which is known for its fantasy fiction) have its roots in RPGs. I guess right now we have the anime/game HackSign, where the protagonists are assuming video game RPG identities and they know it.

Let's not forget the marketing tool anime has played. Aside from all your Voltes V die-cast toys and Gundam model kits, anime is famous among modelers. I mean robots are the norm but there are other model kits to assemble. For example, the anime Your Under Arrest has a model kit line featuring the vehicles (like the police car or motorcycle) the cast is using. Battery-operated toys like Zoids also has an anime influence. And well, Tamiya as a modeling company (since they do have a diverse set of paints and tools) is now best known for its foray into mini-4WD, especially with the debut of Let's & Go a few years back. And let's not go to the numerous Beyblades and Crushgears starting to show up. But I like to add that while a lot of these seem new, there are old similar-minded marketing tactics. For example, there's this old anime, Zillion, which clearly featured Lazer-Tag equipment (and it's cooler than the cartoon Lazer-Tag).

In the Philippines, pop culture conventions usually have a taint of anime. I mean back in the days of Novelty, there was the Collectibles Convention which featured various icons like Star Wars, Star Trek, South Park, etc. as well as anime. Nowadays, anime conventions are the norm with other pop culture on the side.

That's not to say that there aren't conventions that specifically target those pop culture icons (we did have that SF&F convention, after all). But on those conventions, there's usually an anime presence. For example, a bulk of those who participated in Via Astris con were anime cosplayers. And in last Halloween's costume contest in Ayala by (ugh!) Tim Yap, a number of the participants were anime cosplayers and the grand prize winner was an anime cosplayer.

I also did get to visit animation companies, not necessarily ones that produce anime, and among their staff, there are a lot of people influenced by anime. I see posters, model kits, and plushies on their desktop. And with the release of the movie The Matrix, even anime has had an effect on film (although nothing so huge as of yet).

And for the rumor corner, Level-Up games (OzWorld) might soon be acquiring the online game Ragnarok (Korean title). I think they'll be having a booth on Anime Quest featuring this title, but only time will tell if it'll push through, since it's just a tentative plan.

Wow... this apparently turned into a full-length article on what should have been a few paragraphs...