Japan Foundation Manila Library – Manga Collection

Category:	Books
Genre:	Comics & Graphic Novels
Author:	different authors

I've just read that JFM has increased its collection of books and will begin lending these out soon...yehey! Approximately 80 titles/900 books of Japanese manga and 100 J-Pop CDs have been acquired to add to their collection. Some of these manga I have either read or seen the anime. I will only list here those which I am familiar with and I will not review each and everyone in detail but at least will give you an idea of the story. There are other sites out there in the wide world of internet who can give more in-depth reviews (besides, I have lesser time nowadays).

* Slam Dunk

I saw the anime and read some of the manga. This falls under the sports manga genre. Hanamichi Sakuragi joins Shokoku high school basketball team. this is a very hilarious anime series which was responsible for my learning basketball terms and there were times during my grad school days wherein this was a big stress-reliever for me as I kept laughing my head off on their basketball antics. I'd recommend it for boys...and girls (who are a bit more sportsminded) but for me the lesson here is more about friendship and determination. *giggles girlishly*...gwapo ni Rui-san..hehehe...oi, pero di yan yung reason I am recommending this ha!

* Naruto

I saw some anime eps, its still going on, but I have not read the manga or translations. I am familiar with the characters though. The unlikely hero is Naruto Umazaki, a hyperactive ninja who dreams big. He wants to become his village's strongest ninja. Other characters are Sakura and Sasuke, other ninjas in his village. I like Naruto's spirit..the "never say die" thingie and his friendship with Sakura and Sasuke..even if sometimes things get bad, he is still a great optimist. The anime now is filled with filler eps but the manga is still ongoing. Lesson here is friendship among unlikely people. While I have not seen all eps, its also action-packed, hence my colleagues before who had children also watched this...pero ang dami ng eps sa anime..mauubos pera mo sa pag collect nila. I'd recommend this as good reading for elementary students - siguro boys mas gusto to coz of the ninja-action...

* Honey and Clover

I have not seen the manga being sold here, but I will check out a newly-heard (for me at least) store in Robinson's Galleria one of these days and see if they are selling these. I have seen a lot of the anime eps. This is a story of a group of art college students and how they deal with love, graduation, job hunting and discovering themselves on their journey. I think more mature individuals would appreciate this..for high-school student ages and upwards but its geared towards young girls (shoujo manga).

(intermission: there is what you call "shounen" manga and "shoujo" manga. The first is for young boys and the latter is geared towards young girls)

* Death Note

I've been meaning to watch the live action movie and the anime..but sadly only managed one ep. I've heard its good though - this from my other anime-crazy ex-office colleague who has the patience to download anime eps. Its about a high-school student who picks up a supernatural notebook by accident, but guess what, its the God of Death's notebook..so..as you can imagine, if you write somebody's name on it..ayun..dedbol yung tao..hehehe...its not horror though, but I would think this is better off being read by older children...

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While this was not in the list of the article about what JFM acquired, I would like parents to be careful if they get hold of "Yami no Matsuei" or Descendants of Darkness. I personally like the story very much (I read the complete translations and the manga is unfinished, plus I've seen the anime) and its wonderful manga art too..but the hints of male-male relationship may be a bit difficult to explain to younger kids. Its not drawn for all to see, but there are hints that there is some sexual tension going on...well maybe kids may be too young and innocent to pick up on it, but let me tell you that the first time I found out that there were stories like this.

I was a bit shocked and could not imagine myself reading it. There is what you call "yaoi" or yung straight out na male-male and there is "yuri" which is of course female-female. For the translation of the manga (not yet being continued by the author, this is the site -> http://www.theria.net/archive-top.html)

Later on I did force myself to read this and Gensomaden Saiyuki (4 males, but its not an orgy, its more of friendship though fanfics make it a pairing between Sanzo and Goku, and a pairing between Hakkai and Gojyo) and it wasn't so bad, but this will depend really on you and how open-minded you are.

YNM is about the life of a particular shinigami (guardian of death) who works in a department under the King of the Dead. Weirdly though, it reminds me of X-files because the main characters are agents who try to unravel these mysteries of dead persons who wind up in their department when its not their time to die. The main baddie-boy (who looks very handsome) Dr. Muraki seems to have set his yes on the main shinigami Tzusuki, who sounds scatterbrained and just has his eye on sweets, but is actually very powerful. So... imagine the hints on Muraki and Tsuzuki, then Muraki and Hisoka (his young partner murderered and cursed by Muraki), Tzuzuki and .....well you get the idea...

Oh yes, for the other story which I like - Gensomaden Saiyuki has very nice music...sometimes the anime eps are of poor quality but overall not bad, and its based on the classic story "Journey to the West'....remember the monk, pig, monkey king and ...the river-monster or kappa if I am not mistaken. Its more about friendship between these 4 unlikely group of characters, and you have the usual characters of a broody person, a hyperactive person, a calm person and the perverted playboy...hahaha..go figure. They go on a quest to stop the awakening of this monster..and they ride on a jeep which turns into a dragon..and there is some reinarnation, plus the Goddess of Mercy seems to be a hermaphrodite with a great sense of humor...really, I cannot explain it to you unless its a more detailed chat. Anyway, in the anime, there is no all out relationship..its just they get teased by each other on the pairing...and since Goku seems so attached to Sanzo sometimes if you have a naughty, imaginative mind...you would think something is up...but I think its really more of playing to the gallery. Being the logical person that I am..I was shaking my head at first - why on earth don't they just take the airplane to the west if its such a big thing to stop the monster? ewan...this and the Gold (unlimited ba?) credit card of the monk in a setting which looks like old medieval China (do they have electricity here) is just something you can pass off as one of the wonders of manga.

- Jun 20, '07 11:16 PM

Serendipity Sunday on a Mother's Day

Tracy, San Francisco, USA at 02:42 am PST - I just couldn't go to sleep without posting a short note on the amazing day I had on Mother's Day here in San Francisco.

I'm sharing this before I fall flat on my face since I have a 6:15 am appointment to wake up for.

I arrived here on Saturday but I have been so busy that I have not posted any additional photos or wrote any replies/emails etc. since I left Cincinnati. I fully intend to of course, so let me just recount this wondrous tale -

Roehl and Jerry, both my colleagues at good ole "House of Sara Lee" way back in the 1990's settled here in the US. There were other system supervisors which passed thru this company before, during and after my time..but these two, along with Louie were the ones I had more interactions with...between the three of us...we had lost track already of the number of sleepless nights, database errors and fixes, countless reinstallations, cabling and other very exciting nocturnal activites at the branches (all related to IT, mind you!...well okay..might have included a drink or two *grin*)

Today, Roehl and Jerry gallantly accompanied me to Napa Valley.

Our first stop was at the Robert Mondavi winery where I had my first ever glimpse of an honest-to-goodness wine- making facility. I was googly-eyed and bushy-tailed at the sight of all the wonderful rows of wine bottles and other expensive memorabilia..and then they dragged me to the second one - the V. Sattui winery, whose wines are "exclusive"! i.e. they are not sold at the stores or shipped outside of USA.

After "oohs" and "aahs" on my part over the facility and the wine cellar, we chose to postpone the wine-tasting till we got our bellies to stop moaning.We had to satisfy our hunger and we sat down on the damp but verdant green grass under a sheltering tree where we happily munched on some italian sausage and pizza margherita and enjoyed a refreshing reisling (off-dry) and some sparkling water...

Some very necessary strategic picture-taking tasks followed. And finishing our humourous reminiscing about the different people we had known at Sara Lee and where they were now working, living or how they were doing, we then stood up to brush off the dampness and grass to get started on the wine-tasting.

I was sauntering lazily after them when I heard the most surprising sounds in that place - the vigorous calls of - "Cat!" "Cat!"...

Since I don't know anyone in Napa Valley and the only few people I knew that well in Sanfo happened to be with me at that time, my eyes turned as big as saucers when I turned back to face cautiously a table near where we were previously sitting - only to see this tall and pretty, impishly smiling woman say succinctly the word -"Choie!".

I was utterly dumbfounded. I think my mouth was hanging open for all of 2 seconds when she added for good measure - "Multiply Choie!"....and then...like pieces of a puzzle, everything started to fall in place...

Wow, I bumped in Choie, who happens to just be part of my network here in Multiply...thanks in part to Boboy (hugs to Hugzone!).

We never met in person but have only exchanged posts and comments here in this site. Of course, Bananaking offered Cyfunk's services when I wrote I was going to Sanfo (ah..he is a man after my own heart,that BK69, hehe!)

.

Thanks in great part to Choie's photographic memory, she was able to match my face to the pictures I've been posting here at Multiply and to figure out that I was the Cat she had torn sheets and sheets of paper for a couple of times *grin*

I don't have that talent for picking faces from the crowd...and so if it were left to me...Choie and I would have emulated Evangeline and her belowed..and we'd have been just like "ships passing in the night" (apologies to Longfellow for this abuse).

What are the chances of this happening? With so many wineries here at Napa, and with so many people going to visit it today...how could we have ended up to meet each other in this fantastic place?

But the tale does not end there, my good friends.

This tale truly exemplifies a song snippet which goes this way "its a small world after all!".

Get a load of these snippets of info -

Boboy was my classmate at AIM. He became my connection to Choie.

Jerry and Roehl and I previously worked at Sara Lee (direct selling arm of the multi-national which got bought by Tupperware).

Jerry works with Chevron. Roehl works with Philips (ok, some changes there, but essentially his email address is still Philips). And I? well...let's just still keep it a secret, okay? Permit me my supersitious idiosyncrasies...call it the comfort of the old...

Glenn, who is Choie's equally charming and kind-looking hubby (well he certainly suffered thru my girlish excitement and trills of pleasure over this incident but never once gave me a glare hehehe)...is currently working in a building in the same compound as Jerry which is Chevron's campus, a stone's throw away in fact from Jerry's building number (take ur pick from A to Z)...

Not only that, but he also worked in Philips but back in the Philippines. See his connection to Jerry and Roehl?

When we mentioned that we came from Sara Lee,  Glenn lets go of the name Maciel Sunga...and its quite familiar to us...so we all chimed in unison that we knew of her. Choie then calls Maciel who confirms this.

Now what are the chances of 5 people meeting up on that sunny, wine-tasting day in Napa and getting connected this way? My goodness, if we had also been able to bring Louie and Bong with us...who knows what mutual friends and acquaintances we may have shared?

And yes, I'm now going to sleep coz I have said and written my piece .....(drools over the pillow).

- May 14, '07 5:42 PM

Book Review: "Death Match"

Somebody left this book in the Mabuhay Lounge where I got in by some twist of fate. Holy Thursday had me bumped off a 9:30 am flight from Manila to Cebu because PAL apparently overbooked...but they kindly offered to put me in business class on a 3 pm flight..so 7 ours of waiting time hardly seemed such a bad concept. I got placed in the Mabuhay Lounge and got paid for my ticket...and while I was munching on the free food and swallowing all the beverages there, I came across this abandoned book on one of the cabinets...

Eden, Incorporated is a company who has a somewhat unbelievable state-of-the-art computer dating system. For $25,000 smackeroos, a single person can find a life partner using Eden's superlative matching system which is all hush-hush and involves a battallion of tests (IQ, psychological, physical etc.) Sometimes, as fate would have it, there are a few matches which end up with a "supercouple", meaning the match is 100 percent perfect match for man and woman. And the subsequent marriage is the envy of all the people surrounding the couple (but the employees of Eden of course are euphoric about it) since it seems that the pair are really soulmates (am green with envy myself at this point). But then one supercouple is found dead by double-suicide (apparently they put dry cleaning bags over their heads, embraced and suffocated in front of their infant daughter, how inconsiderate!), and Eden Inc. has the brilliant idea of hiring ex-FBI forensic psychologist Christopher Lash to investigate what led to such a tragic end. Dr. Lash reluctantly puts his own private practice on hold (its lucrative too), but then he discovers that his ongoing investigation of the supercouple has unfurled and awakened ghosts from his own past, poor man.

Then! A second supercouple double-suicide happens and this puts Lash and Eden management in a flurry of panic. This time, I'll spare you the gory details. Dr. Silver, the brilliant scientist who invented the system, along with the enigmatic but childlike Liza team up to bring some names into play as to who could be the culprit and its (surprise!) a little twist when it comes to the ending...but then thats not really a surprise aint it?

I confess I had some suspicions already as to who was behind the manipulation however the slight twist as to the motivation was unexpected for me...imagine...hmmm....and to think I work in IT...and used to love Isaac Asimov's books and his three laws. Oh well.

Anyway, I will not put any spoilers here because there might be some people who will not like it (unlike moi! I love, love spoilers and I always read the ending part of the book first..if I like it, I buy the book...hehehe). But feel free to email me to ask about it if you prefer.

I am writing this review to encourage all the other souls out there who might be looking for their life partner - don't put all your hope into the hands of other people! If you want something, don't just stand there and wait for a dating service..my goodness..go out and get her or him yourself!

While I liked the book, I didn't like the idea of a perfect partner...although its certainly incredible that you can find a person you jive along perfectly on all other aspects, I think its best to have a little friction now and then between couples.

One part of the story was in consonance with what I had been exposed to in one of our elective subjects in grad school. It was about how supposedly an experiment was conducted, wherein a woman sniffed the tshirt of other guys and got attracted to the tshirt smell of the guy who had the least common genes with her. Hmmmm....I forgot what it was called, but it does make sense...if all for the genes/offspring that might result from such an auspicious smell..I mean beginning.

Go ahead and read this book! I also like to think there's a guy out there who I can get along with famously (but then, there are only a few guys I really butt heads with nowadays so thats not such a good indicator) and its heartwarming to see how the ways people in search of love and their other half hold a beacon for us lesser-fortunate ones.

This is not a Pulitzer prize winning book IMHO but it certainly was entertaining and the circumstances for my waiting for my flight didn't seem so bad after all. I mean, I got fed, watered, placed in an air-conditioned room, upgraded to B-class, got paid for my fare, and got to read this thriller. Not bad for a Holy Thursday...life certainly throws you suprises when you least expect it..

- Apr 13, '07 12:38 AM

Movie Review: "300" (4 Stars)

Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

*puts hands up in surrender and then swoons ala Southern belle style in the hope one of the manly Spartans will catch me* ouch!

I admit..I really watched the movie more for the eye candy it provided me than for anything else. So what? Who can blame me when you've got more than an hour of sitting through a spread of delectable hunka-licious men all battling it out for the glory of their country (ahu!, ahu!!, ahu!!!) and for the free man's rights.

I'm not going to put a summary of the story, or discuss in detail the actors since this will turn out to be a very long review if I do so..but be warned though, the movie IS based on a comic book (Frank Miller's graphic novel) and so please do expect some unrealistic and cooly surreal scenes once in a while. The story has also been tweaked...it is supposed to be based on a real battle but of course its been given the dramatic, over-the-top treatment sometimes...I'm sure there were no ghastly, misshapen creatures that Xerxes managed to conjure from somewhere in his kingdom (except for the big elephants maybe) and from what I know of Persians I don't think the God-king Xerxes would look like the way he did (never mind, he is still drool-worthy *ehem*).

Suffice to say I've chosen as my first ever review this movie since I...deigned to fork over a goodly amount of Philippine pesos just to sit through ONE (I tell you, just one!) sitting of this movie...when normally I'd get my money's worth by reviewing a movie I especially liked at least twice!

Greek mythology was a favorite of mine since elementary days..and I recall we even formed a club and our code names were some Greek goddesses (hehehe, guess who I was...and no its not the goddess of love...phoo!), hence I never miss out on any movie which has touched on the Greek myths and legends.

The scenes do appealed to the gallery. I always liked science fiction because of the special effects used, and in here, though it can't be categorized really as sci-fi, one of my fave scenes was the particular one about the beautiful, nubile, young Oracle doing some amazing, swaying moves as she woved and contorted her scantily-clad body about in a sort of drunken prophetic daze. Getting licked by a gruesome creature afterwards was no picnic though. (I wonder what would happen if we dress the way the Greeks dressed here in the Philippines? its certainly hot enough now to warrant that kind of attire).

I liked the script...Leonidas traded witty, dry repartee with Xerxes..and some uttered lines (though a bit obvious) from different characters still had a very good effect of making titters pop out from the audience's mouth once in a while. Xerxes looked very different from the actor underneath the makeup (he played one of the villains in Charlie's Angels 2) and thanks again to movie magic, he towered above our good ole King Leonidas.

All the blood flying about made me think about "Kill Bill" and Uma Thurman. But I liked the latter..probably because I lean more towards Japanese style hack-and-chop scenes with the sword than with the spearing action here. But, the balletic grace and moves of the fight scenes were simply divine! I liked seing slow-mo effects of soldiers beheading and stabbing people repeatedly as if they were skewering marshmallows..yummy! (uhm..sorry if that came out wrong).

One thing I am also reminded of are the tactics in the book "The Art of War" when I first heard Leonidas explain his plan to hold off the invading army. That narrow valley or gorge is a good application of how one holds off enemies of a vast number, essentially rendering their numbers of little consequence. Logically though (blame the left brain and too much analyzing!), I wondered why they didn't do anything about the weakness of the separate path where the Persians could then outflank the Greek fighters...oh well...*shrug*...then it would have dragged on and on...and the director would have no heart-stirring ending.

Bottom line is, yes, go and watch this movie if you have a fondness for anime, comic books, graphic novels, gym regular hunks, bishounen, blood spurts (hmm..blood sports?) and such. I liked "Kill Bill" and Akira Kurosawa's movies so I guess its natural I gravitated towards this too. I wish the effects were less obvious...it looks too smooth sometimes...

Afterwards, I ran to the bookstore and read Neil Gaiman's "Season of Mists" in the Sandman library. That is also one cool series...I wonder if they will ever make it into a series of movies like HP (Harry Potter) or even a tv series one of these days? Hmm...even some cartoon series is fine with me...

Wahoo!! Not bad for a Saturday lazy meandering around Greenbelt area eh?

P.S. trivia: "ahou" in Japanese means "idiot"...its just that when I heard the Spartan's battle cry, which sounded suspiciously like this (ahu!) if given the kind of sudden and strong intonation...I suddenly, uncontrollably snickered...and I became the recipient of weird looks from my fellow movie-goers. Good thing it was dark, coz I stuck my tongue out at them (at the audience or at the actors?)...\(^_^)/ 

- Mar 26, '07 10:59 PM

Today is my own Groundhog day

I just wanted to write down how I felt earlier yesterday, my first day in another job, another company, another set of people to work with, another set of rules to live by and another risk taken. I've moved from company to company since I've started working at age 19 and an orientation in a new company may seem like something to become jaded about...but there is always an element of excitement for me, no matter how many times I've gone through it.

For now I will hold off talking about this current company of mine since I've yet to see how it goes and prove to myself how I can handle this major change. Some would say I must be mad, trading off something familiar with something uncertain, regardless of how the company's brand stand out, and I can probably hear about the line in playing to your strengths instead of going after the weaknesses. Of course, having the company's office within walking distance of one's domicile is a plus factor!

Not only was the environment, the culture I've heard about, and the first day of orientation group dynamics good enough to make me happy about my decision to take the plunge. While watching a couple of videos about the company,about the antics of its people (Ngek! may spoof pa kay GMA, and The Ring, complete with authentic Japanese dialogue subtitles, made by the employees and starring the employees and which pokes fun about the work they do, makes you wonder if they just do videos the whole day!), it made me teary-eyed, metaphorically speaking of course.

I got reminded me of the videos and case studies about this company in B-school.

As I walked back home, all I could recall after the day was done was of how one of the major founders emphasized how important it was to take risks. He said it more magically than I ever could, but the idea was the same.

This line reverberated inside me as I walked home. To think that they put themselves at risk to do something which would turn out to make things better for people, that is something I would like to do myself again and again. I've tried to start something like this in my previous companies and although it's not in the magnitude of these guys but it's humbling to think I may have the measure of success they have in the future, who knows?

It is inspiring, it is terrifying to step up to the plate, but in the end, if one surpasses that particular hurdle, no other feeling can compare with it. And to see, years later how one's particular actions inspired other people and practically spawned an entire new paradigm...all I can say is..."wow, awesome, coolness!"

- Mar 2, '07 1:37 AM

Countdown to the New Year (2007), in Makati City

Makati City, Philippines, 31st Dec, 2006 -  I was torn between free food (but for the difficulty in finding a taxi) at an aunt's far far away and the concert and booths in Ayala corner Paseo de Roxas in Makati City.

The latter won the contest as to where to spend New Year's eve by a hair's breadth (thanks to the difficulty in finding a taxi willing to ferry us to that far far away place)...

Makati is still a small place, or it could really be because its the center of action. The same with Mall of Asia. - I still bumped into two developers from my current company in the midst of the large crowd which gathered at this junction.

OPM was emphasized and enjoyed with such bands as Imago, Itchy Worms, Rocksteddy, Sandwich etc. etc. (sayang walang sandwich na binigay!).
All the activities and booths were for a good cause, proceeds and donations were to be given to the victims of the recent typhoons (though if you ask me, some of the organizations could have donated more you know *wink*)

I had a couple of funny experiences that night, but all in all, it wasn't a bad end to 2006! Sure, its inevitable that fun was poked at the single people in the crowd, and yung mga may "sungay" but hey, I had 20 minutes of fireworks to look forward to that night.



- Jan 2, '07 12:59 AM

Harbor Bay, Roxas Blvd, Post Xmas 2006

Paranaque, Philippines, 26th December 2006 - After Christmas Day (which we spent either cleaning or sleeping), spent the day at Roxas Blvd...from Harbor Square to Baywalk, to Mall of Asia.

- Dec 28, '06 10:01 PM