Airu Plays Decoy to Naruga Kuruga...

Time flies. Haven't been really playing MonHun(seriously), probably because my latest brickwall, the Naruga Kuruga, keeps kicking my ass...

What I've been busy with though is work. Yeah, as in the kind where you get paid so you can eat and live another day. HeartCatch Precure movie's all said and done - in fact kumita na ng $10million sa Japan box office yun. So, omedeto to Toei on another successful feature...

Next up is Precure DX Movie 3, currently in the works, slated for March next year. We're also helping out a lot lately with the OnePiece Tv series( Marine Ford saga). There's also Toriko 3D. Oh, and of course, the new Precure series - Suite Precure...

So no time for monster hunting? Not exactly. Singit-singit na lang here and there...

Welcome! Japan

Sigh. What I'd give to go back there again...

Karigurashi no Arrietti

Studio Ghibli's latest animated feature hits theatres(in Japan) July 17, 2010. The story, written by Hayao Miyazaki, is based on the fantasy novel The Borrowers by Mary Norton. Hiromasa Yonebayashi will be making his directorial debut. Lucky guy!

What got my attention was the soundtrack, stunning by the way, which was written and performed by French harpist Cecil Corbel. It's sounding to be another memorable score for a Ghibli movie, and hopefully it's gonna go up there with the ranks of the other classics like Nausicaa, My Neighbour Totoro, Laputa, Porco Rosso, Kiki's Delivery Service, among others.

Gonna be a long wait 'fore I see this one...

PrettyCure AllStars DX Movie 2!

Takashi-san( pogi director for both AllStars DX movies ) is here in the Philippines, scouting Mall of Asia for reference for his upcoming 3rd AllStars movie, due for next year.

We watched the movie( Light of Hope - Protect the Rainbow Jewel ) kanina sa mini-theatre namin sa toei studios. No subs though, since original material pinanood namin. Animation was top-notch, even surpassing the first movie on some levels. I wasn't too keen on the CG stuff, pero it was okay na rin. What really caught our eyes was this 35-second( yes, a whopping 35seconds of nonstop animation! that's serious stuff ) cut of the Rainbow carnival being decimated and transforming into a wasteland - a must-see and surely must've took sleepless nights to finish, hehe!

Strange that Windy and Bright are in the posters, when they didn't show up in their Precure forms. They do have a cameo, along with literally every side character from the tv series and even from the past movies. It deserves a 2nd and 3rd watch to catch all of them. Bunbee FTW!!

Taka-san will be leaving tomorrow. Ganbate !!

Choto Mate Kudasai...

Haven't bagged a single Elder Dragon yet in my MH game. Kinda odd considering I'm HR5 already. Been picking on 'easy' prey lately( Kutkus, Rathalos...), just because I don't know what direction to go with my game, hehe. Break a leg going up the ranks, or backtrack and try to clean up unchecked quests?....

And yeah, if anyone's asking what ever happened to work , it's precisely that - nothing. Medyo( and I'm putting it lightly) mahina work ngayon, since mid-last year pa in fact. We're now doing layouts for every 10th episode of the HeartCatch series now, as opposed to alternating eps dati. There's a few One Piece work here and there, but nothing much, really. Here's hoping there's still that nice light down the road...

To Takashi-san and Akira-san: Domo Arigatou Gozaimasu!

Nakauwi na sina Taka and Akira last Friday, and it seemed they geniunely had a good stay here last week. Too bad di ako nakasama sa gimmick - ala pera eh, dyahi. Pero katuwa din naman specially with Akira-san, since it's his first time coming here: takot daw sumakay ng eroplano kaya ngayon lang nakapunta rito.

That's most of us in the group pic(taken at the studio), I think the others weren't in yet when we took this.
Takashi-san is the director of the PrettyCure AllStars DX Movie, and Akira-san's a production manager for Toei Animation in Japan. Sabi nila me movie works uli by November, so sana marami, nang makabawi naman kami!

note: nadungisan ng tao blog ko! Where am I anyway?...

Pretty In Pink! Likes Anything That Goes BOOM!!

Yay! Suuugoi! Taka-san arrived here last Saturday to thank the Philippine staff personally for a job well done on his directorial debut PrettyCure AllStars Movie...

Tumawag pala sya nung Holy Wednesday sa studio(around 6pm daw) para tanungin nga kami kung ano gusto naming pasalubong - most of the guys(including me) have gone home by then, so he had to call up again Monday. Long story short: pinabili ko tong SIC Spirits Momoranger and a Fraulein Revoltech Yoko( pic next time )...

Hopefully I can take some pics of him and the guys and post it here. Sa Friday pa naman alis nya...

April Hoopla! Aargh, The Freakin' Heat!!

The summer heat's totally unbearable here! I know it's just 32degrees Celsius, and that it's worse in other places, but man! No wonder people are plunging in Manila Bay's waters, kahit me basura pa sa tubig, hehe!...

So, ano na ba? April opened up with the Conficker threat, which may or may NOT have been for real, pero people are taking precautions just in case. Nothing wrong with that di ba? I backed up our pc na rin. The wifey got herself a 500gb external drive( i only have an 80gb pc hard drive ), so everything's stacked safely there. 'Sides, dun na rin namin nilalagay mga download naming toku and jdorama shows, as well as everyday pics and stuff. Nice item to have around, really...

Holy Week's up, so probably by Holy Wednesday or so vacation na kami. We were told that Toei would be sending extra animation works for us to do at home, to be passed next week. Yep, they never miss a beat when there's a holiday here, hehe!

Oh, and as a side hobby i joined up on TV-Nihon's website. My first time to try out joining a forum/board on the internet. My username's Monkeyranger there; just started joining in on the conversation yesterday: on the Kamen Rider Decade episode10 thread, where i posted my very first entry. Earlier in the day i joined in the Ponyo thread. They were talking about the english dub and translations issue, and i dropped in my 2cents worth. Check it out here.

Heard from our bosses that the Precure AllStars Movie did quite well, despite the fact that Taka's directorial debut was 'expensive' to make( more drawings/sheet count ). They say it earned 34% more than the previous movie, and that's a big difference! So i would like to say to 'Pogi Nice Guy' Taka-san : OMEDETO ONEGAISHIMASU !!!

What's Next for Toei?

Presented at the recent Tokyo International Anime Fair, Toei's coming up with a new anime tentatively titled "ROBOT GIRLS" - riding on the popularity of the mecha-musume theme, so it seems.

What's cool about it is that the girls in it will don classic robot motifs from the classic 70's era, like Balatack( which was shown here), Gaiking and MagneRobo Gakeen. It'll be interesting at the very least. Hopefully we can get to do some key animation for the show too, aside from the possible in-between and paint works. I say possible kasi wala pa namang official word or news from our parent studio about the show itself( i just got this news and pic while browsing sankaku and japanimate sites).

Maganda kaya? wait and see na lang...

New Series! Lots of Dancing! Lots of Drawings!

Fresh Pretty Cure ED sequence! Done in CG but still nice to watch. We have the raw footage of the mocap actors/dancers sa studio, used as reference for key animation in episode 1. Didn't expect the actual animated version to look cool, hehe...

Hard not to be proud with our small contribution here, even if this is a shoujo/magical-girl anime. The Precure series is basically where us local key animators train ourselves with the craft. We started out with Nadia, fyi, pero ala pa ko sa KA nun. Other projects we've had the fun of participating are Beet The Vandel Buster, PowerPuff Girls Z, and a little bit of Kitaro...

and check out the credits at 0:32 - Toei Philippine key animation staff!! Yahoo! Wish it were romanized, though...

Will The REAL Cornelia Please Stand Up??

Yep, talk about bad in-between, folks. There's not even a single pair of drawings here na magkamukha, gademit! And do note that this is a SINGLE scene showing Cornelia(of Code Geass anime) walking from one point to the next...

This kinda thing's not unique or isolated. Crap like this happens way lot, kahit dito sa Toei,especially when deadline pressures are involved. Then again, some employees don't need it as an excuse to 'kitbash' models. Meron talagang 'artistically -challenged' sa drawing skills na napapasok dito, and worse - some assholes just don't freaking care kung tama ang model nila o hindi, because they get paid nonetheless. Hai! The Naked Truth!

Details of this Code Geass article on the SankakuComplex website...

Movie Homestretch! Hands Will Rest!!

PrettyCure All-Stars Movie 2009. Just a couple of days more( till Tuesday next week), and we shall have finished the movie's key animation. Pretty tight sched( again, not surprisingly), since all the difficult - and oftentimes the cooler action scenes - take the most time to make, kaya sila ang nahuhuli lagi sa gawa. Konting tiis na lang on our part at makakapahinga na rin kami, hehe! It's been months of key production, and hopefully the in-between and paint department pulls through with the short deadline. Sigurado naman kami "Pogi" Taka-san will not disappoint the series' fans : this will definitely be the best PrettyCure movie yet.

Too bad ala sa pic yung mga bagong PrettyCure warriors, hehe! I think pinalabas na ata yung pilot sa japan. I can post na pics of them siguro next time...

DANJOBI OMEDETO! Happy Birthday, Bunso!

Am neck-deep in movie works, hence the very late entry. After the smoke clears on this project maybe i can get back to doing blogs on a semi-regular basis. All i can say is this PrettyCure All-Star movie's gonna kick ass, hehe!

Magical Girl Power!

Konichiwa!!!

Been way too busy with the movie! Almost a month and a half gone by without a post. Kinda reminded how i got started with blogging in the first place, hehe! all those weeks with hardly any work coming in a few months back and with nothing to do. Kala ko pede kong pagsabayin e, kaso iba rin talaga pagod ng work. Some may think it's just drawing on paper, pero trust me, nakakaputok din ng ugat ng utak to!

Pretty Cure SplashStar Movie opened in Japan last Nov. 8. We really didn't think na matatapos in time ang movie, this one was as close as you can get. We had tighter deadlines before, pero ito grabe. The work is fun kung walang deadline pressures...

And just when we think the smoke has cleared - Pretty Cure All-Star full length feature naman! This one's gonna be directed by our man Taka( Pogi )-san! We're just happy we get to help with his film directorial debut! This one's gonna be shown March next year, but we're starting on it already this past week. I'd like to post some pics, kaso di raw muna pede. Taka-san wants to hold the surprise.

More insider news next time!

Calm Before the Storm...

Waddaya know, it's October already!

Legal holiday today, option to work pero opted to rest muna. Just had our videoconferencing with our Japanese counterparts yesterday for the Pretty Cure movie. I have until next Saturday to finish scene 22, which has 16 cuts in all. Baka sa Friday ko pa maumpisahan since i'll be finishing my lay-outs for episode 41 of the tv series tomorrow.
First post for the month is this Kamen Rider Agito Ground Form S.I.C. Sya muna upload ko kasi hindi sya nasali dun sa group shot sa header ko, along with Amazon. They're the couple ones with the awesome bikes. Agito has Machine Tornader, while Amazon has Jungler. Yeah, funny names them Japanese come up with. Si Amazon next time na lang siguro ko kuhanan ng pic...

Movie Deadline! Tasukete Kudasai!!

Crunch Time! Movie and tv cuts keep pouring in at work, s'good thing i've been keeping pace!

Pretty Cure Movie is slated for a theatrical release in November, if i'm not mistaken ( the movie does have a website, except it's in japanese. Nice interactive stuff going on there, for all the little girl fans of the series ). Production's about halfway through only, from the looks of it. Lots of lay-outs still need to be done; i've been tagged to assist, so it's gonna be a real challenge to be able to do lay-outs for a movie, since we've only done lay-out clean-ups in the past. Schedule's running short though. Editing and dubbing's around the corner already...

Add this to our regular dose of tv eps and we got our hands full! Gonna be doing L/O for PrettyCure ep-41, as well as for ep-44. Dunno if we're still getting more Kitaro cuts.
Ayos! Busy busy busy! As they say in japanese...
HAI !! GANBARI-MASU !!!

My Week in a Nutshell

hooookeee! wassap? Kinda busy the past week( that's what we all say,huh )-well, not that superbusy i guess. So, what went down?...

Monday, Sept15 : slept the whole day off ( eyes got tired probably from all that net-surfing the night before )...

Tuesday : Hey, it's my brother Dennis' birthday! Happy Birthday, bro! Sorry wasn't able to greet you right on the date. e-mailed you, though...

Wednesday : REVENGE!! The rats( yes, as in more than one ) have been taken down! Momo's happy now. Have to write another post about that episode later...

Thursday : On the downside, my V3 soft fig broke off his antennae( both ) after plunging head-first on the floor. Ouch. Need to do reconstructive surgery after patient recovers from trauma. Plus! Chatted with Faye late midnight, cuz-in-law whose in Germany now. Achtung!

Friday : Busy day at the studio. Lots of Kitaro and Pretty Cure cuts to be done. Episode 30 of PrettyCure5 available for viewing on our computers( and i must say we did a real good job with it, yay! )

Saturday : Bought me a pair of jeans. Sale down at the 2nd floor, sayang at magaganda pa naman. Dinala ko sa AlterToFit sa SM North para pa-repair ( bootcut jeans, masyadong mahaba ), thing is nawala pagka-bootcut ng maong dahil malaki nabawas sa length. Still looks good though.

Sunday : Today - posting catch-ups on my blog. Be adding some arts and photos next time. Parang me writer/artist block ako or something. Takes me too long to come up with stuff...

ANIME JUMP TOUR!

Dragonball and One Piece(plus Naruto and Bleach) will have exclusive animation specials on Anime Jump Tour, a roaming convention to be held in Japan(dunno 'bout the date, have to look up that one). Kaya pala kami gumagawa ng Dragonball uli. So much for being able to watch it though( i speak for myself of course). I doubt if Toei sends us a copy. We did Z Mazinger a couple years back for another convention, and we never got a glimpse of that one...
...watch your back, rat. Momo WILL be avenged...

Slowly But Surely...?

Man, and i thought i was off to a good start yesterday. Sometimes i really hate Tuesdays. First off: walang shuttle service, coding crap. Takes forever to walk to where you need to take the jeep to work.
At the studio, i spent the first half of the day looking for the model sheets i needed for my work. It's a pain in the ass to have to look for it in our server( there's the problem of bad labeling or archiving, call it what you want ). I think i began actual work almost 11am na.
Then there's the classic case of 'easier said than done' syndrome. Daming keys na sobrang rough, takes up a lot of my time to clear up the mess. Doesn't help that i'm slow either. Only managed to finished up 5 keys(drawings). I sorta' changed tactics this time 'round: after the pencil lines i draw in the necessary shadow lines now. Figured i can put a little more quality to it compared as to finishing the line art first for all drawings, then rushing the shadowlines for them later. Ewan ko lang kung magiging effective, we'll see...
Still, work's work. We complain a lot here. Heck, it's a hobby. But we get the job done in time. I just hope i finish mine early, so i can do some more. Kelangang kumita, be-bertday pa si mabs!

Of Birthdays and More Hard Work

It's a good breather to be able to just do cuts from a tv series again, best way to start my week! at least pag tv series di gaano kaselan with details. Well, doesn't mean na we'd ditch detail altogether, pero i think you guys in the know will get what i mean.
Taka-san sent me and ugin each another cut from his short to clean-up. Mine came first this morning. It's 50 drawings for a 4-second exposure on film. By this i'm used to how hard it is, so i can't complain anymore, hehe. YOSHU! GANBAREMASU!!
I rushed to finish my tv cuts early( taka's cut can wait till tomorrow). I stopped by Trinoma, dun kasi me Red Ribbon. Mabs told me Ica always wanted to try their Red Velvet cake, so i got her one. Try a slice of it later...
This morning i also gave Ica a 200 peso bill, sort of a birthday pabaon. Sabi ko itago nya para savings. She says she couldn't spend it even if she wanted to kasi buo, hehe. I just hope she's happy on her birthday.