End of TV5 Animega? Oh My!

Last year, TV5's Animega seem like a hit for Filipino anime fans for airing anime shows every weekday nights and weekends as replays. But now this year, it's schedule will fade away sooner. According to Zen Otaku Honbu's latest news here, TV5 officially announced that Animega will temporarily go off-air starting May 31, 2010. I'm sure this will be much
dissappointment for anime fans and worried if the anime schedule will be gone in evenings.

Before I found out that news, last week I really enjoyed Shrek, Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third on 5Max Movies which they were aired around 7:30 PM. Then, I found out that there are some major changes in Animega. First of all, Clannad which was aired every 6:30 PM and now it is completely finished then Yatterman was moved in 3:30 PM from 6:00 before Street Fighter. Another one, Casshern Sins was moved in 6:00 PM because at this week will completely finish while D-Gray Man is still on air but on 7:00 PM. Last one is that Fullmetal Alchemist still air every Friday nights from 7:30 PM up to 8:30 PM before Midnight DJ. Sounds like a major difference, right? Even at their Facebook fan page, many fans are complaining about the movement of schedule and some of them suspected if the line-up will replace Koreanovelas.

In my observation and opinion, TV5 should not remove their Animega line-up because it is one of the main reasons why the station reach it's success. Animega is also different because every 6:00 PM up to 8:00 PM is the time where news from other stations air while viewers will enjoy anime (especially while they're eating dinner). Best of all, TV5 Animega is the home of requested popular anime shows like Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Code Geass and Lucky Star. From 2008 starting with Yamato Nadeshiko: The Wallflower and Shakugan no Shana, viwers are following the anime timeslot and supported that TV5 should air more anime shows.

While the school time is near, I can't imagine what will happen if the kids will not enjoy watching adult primetime shows like news and dramas and have no time for anime slot. It will be very dull and boring! We also wonder what will happen if many stations especially ABS-CBN, GMA 7, Studio 23 or even TV5 itself place full of Koreanovelas and other dramas over shows for young ones like anime.

Yatterman Remake

Just after TV5's Masked Rider Hibiki ended, another new anime replaced called Yatterman. Suprisingly, when I search about this anime it was indeed a remake of the original Yatterman which was created in year 1977 up to 1979 by Tatsunoko Productions. Before the 2008 remake, the 1970's Yatterman was the 2nd longest show created by Tatsunoko Productions after Time Bokan. It was also the part of Time Bokan series.

Up: (from left to right) Gan-chan and Ai-chan .Down: Yatta-wan the Robot Dog, Dice and the Yatterman

Yatterman 2008 remake

Yatterman tells about the two young mechanic heroes who are trying to stop the Dorombo Gang from searching their boss' Dokuro Stones which it has an ability to grant wishes whoever gets it.From the original series, Gan-chan and Ai-chan transforms into Yatterman with the help of their mechanic robot dog named Yatter-Wan and travel diffrent parts of the world in order to search the Dokuro Stones. But everything is not on their direct way if there are Dorondo Gang, lead by Queen Doronjo and her wacky troublesome henchmen Boyacki and Tonzra trying to stop the heroes and get what they wanted. In the end, the Yatterman always win the battle and found the stones.

Since am I talking about the remake, Yatterman was created in year 2008 with it's new changes but still the original character design are still there. One of the changes about the anime is that instead of Dokuro Stones, both teams are searching Dokurobei Rings that is scattered all around the world. Gan-chan is also given a personality for him as a slacker and not quite serious unlike his friend Ai-chan.

In the first episode, a genius but slacker mechanic Gan-chan tries to repair his old Yatter-Wan which is meant as a promised gift from her friend Ai-chan. In return, when the Dorondo Gang appeared to create trouble, Ai-chan displays her appeal in order to convince Yatter-Wan to awake from his sleep. The rest of the episode plots got the similar format - the Dorondo Gang creates a scam to earn money, summoned by their boss Dokurobei and tell where to get the next Dokurobei Ring; the Yatterman found about the plot and call their Yatter-Wan to follow the evil gang, Ai-chan feeds Yatter-Wan with "Mechatonic" which helps summon mini-mechas. At the last scene, the Dorondo Gang flew away from the explosion of their mechas (like the ones in Pokemon's Team Rocket) and being punished by Dokurobei.

Hmm, does this remind me of a Super Sentai show especially the original Yatterman was created during the time Himitsu Sentai Goranger was produced?

Voters Education Animation - Tagalog Version

A short Philippine animation project created by Bouncingball Inc. If you want to see the English version, click here.

Batibot Will Be Back!

One of the reasons why I'm so happy on TV5 is that according to this Pep.ph website here, TV5 will pick up the Philippines's oldest popular children's show Batibot. For people who grew up in 80's up to 90's will also glad about this. For those who want to know about the show, you can look my blog entry here which I posted last year.

I'm sure nobody will forget the memorable chacaters in Batibot like Pong Pagong, Kiko Matsing and the storyteller Kuya Bodgie. I also hope that original puppet chacters and the original song will return :)

Lucky Star

I first heard this kind of anime which is called Lucky Star around 2008 and I was so curious about it aside from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I also heard that many (or let's say millions) of anime fans that they are excited to see that anime because of comedy and a mix of slice-of-life genre. In the opening theme of the series which I first found it in Youtube, the characters are cute and cartoony plus showing their funny facial expressions. Now when I first saw it in TV5 for real, I realize that their looks can be really deceiving....

The Lucky Star manga was created by Kagami Yoshimizu back in 2004 and published in Kadokawa Shoten's Compiq. It later published in other magazines like Shonen Ace. The anime version was created in the year 2006 by Kyoto Animation. The story tells about the daily life of four girl friends who are both in high school - Konata Izumi, Miyuki Takara and the twin girls Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi.

When I saw Lucky Star in on Philippine TV , it seems that they fell apart when it comes to storyline especially the show was dubbed in Tagalog. It doesn't mean that the dub is horrible than the original Japanese. If you ever watched few episodes of Azumanga Daioh, you'll know what I mean. Of all of the twenty-four episodes in anime, all you can see is that the main chacters meet in school, talk to each other about certain things, making jokes and do hang-out. In other words, they are just a bunch of vignettes. Plus before the ending credit of an anime, there goes a mini segment called the Lucky Channel which adds the taste of comedy and squeaking the fans.

The problem of the many viewers who watch Lucky Star (especially if the a viewer is a manga of anime first-timer) is that they must be familiar in Japanese video games, anime, and other Japanese pop culture stuff so they will understand the conversation of the characters. Else,the comedy will be terrible to them. Aside from less comedy slices and humor, I also think that the main character's personality doesn't change or develop as the episode goes on. Konata Izumi , is a smart and sporty gal who has blue hair and green eyes. Sometimes she can be lazy in school work and instead she likes to play video games every day which is the reason why she's not good at school. Kagami Hiiragi, one of the Hiiragi twins with a long purple hair is a smart, stubborn one but not good at household chores. Tsukasa Hiiragi, twin sister of Kagami who has a short purple hair is the opposite of her sister - nice but an airhead. Miyuki Takara, a girl with pink hair and glasses is intelligent but sometimes she can be clumsy.

As I watch the few episodes of them on TV5, I felt like I've wasted every 30-minutes and I'd rather switch the channel to watch the news like 24 Oras or TV Patrol. There are few things I really impressed about Lucky Star are the music like the opening theme here and the clean artwork design. I also the like the show's impression of making cameo appearances of other anime shows and characters like Sgt. Frog and Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

In the end, I'm quite enjoyed watching the series. It may have a weak plot but I'm interested as well because of their modern culture like anime and manga. Lucky Star is just like the junior version of Azumanga Daioh where a bunch of random high school girls are present and experience situations, either can be fun or frustrating as long as they're friends. It can be a good comedy series, only if you understand the Japan's entertainment culture.