After watching the 1st episode of this series, I was hooked. I haven’t watched a full-season’s worth of anime episodes straight since Gurren Lagann and Elfen Lied. This series is that good!
Granted that Code Geass doesn’t have the most original of concepts (the series is something like Death Note meets Gundam), the execution of the story, the endearing characters and the suspense-filled plot will really draw you in. Aside from that, the ending of each episode always ends on a cliffhanger, giving you no choice but to watch the next episode. Not that that’s a bad thing, though. ^_^
My only complaint with the 1st season of Code Geass is just like every episode, it ended with a cliffhanger! And a really big one at that! Grrrr…. !$#!*^!@#!@ Good thing that it is only now that I watched the series, since season 2 titled “Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2″ is already under way and it did answer some of the questions left hanging after episode 25 of season 1.
Right now, Code Geass R2 is on episode 8 and looks like this is one anime series that I’ll be looking forward in watching every week, just like Bleach. ^_^
Art Arena: Quick Draw: Seven Day Shuffle is an art contest sponsored by the United Nations, UNESCO, NCCA and Groundbreakers Inc., in cooperation with Manga Kami! Studios. Entries will only be accepted during the Mangaholix Manga Mania Animangaming convention at SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia on May 31st.
DEADLINE
Before 3:00pm on May 31, 2008 during the Mangaholix Manga Mania convention. Please submit your entries to the main Mangaholix booth.
THEME
You must create a pin up, editorial cartoon or 1 page comic that promotes one (1) of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.
Strictly NO SOFTCOPY entries!
HARDCOPY ENTRIES
• Any medium is acceptable.
• Entries should be in A4 size
• Landscape or Portrait orientation is acceptable
• Should include 3 copies of the entry. Xerox or reprints are acceptable (Do not pass the original copy of your work)
GUIDELINES
• Contestant must be a Filipino citizen or resident
• Any elements in the artwork that is deemed inappropriate for public viewing shall be immediately disqualified (e.g. gore, nudity, sex, extreme violence etc.)
• Plagiarism is strictly prohibited (The use of characters, concepts or elements that are registered and copyrighted under any recognized creator or company).
• Collaborations (Artworks with multiple contributors) are accepted.
About the United Nations Millennium Development Goals
By 2015 all 189 United Nations Member States have pledged to:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day
• Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
• Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
• Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
4. Reduce child mortality
• Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five
5. Improve maternal health
• Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
• Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
• Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
• Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers by 2020
8. Develop a global partnership for development
• Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction – nationally and internationally
• Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction
• Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States
• Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term
• In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth
• In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries
• In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies – especially information and communications technologies
Samuel L. Jackson as a lean, mean, kick-ass Samurai killing machine?!! HELL YEAH!!!
Afro Samurai tells the story of a young boy who witnessed his dad being killed in a duel and grows up with nothing but revenge for the person who killed his father. Along the way, he has to fight his way to the top and earn the right to challenge his father’s killer.
Although this storyline isn’t all that original, the way its presented in this 5 episode anime is simply spectacular. If you’re a fan of Ninja Scroll, you’ll have a lot to like in this anime. Both are violent, sword-slashing, no-holds barred, action packed anime at its finest. Although Ninja Scroll features more unique and interesting villains with unconventional weapons, Afro Samurai’s enemies is presented in a very stylized way, with each having a different take on how to defeat Afro Samurai.
Since I’m not a fan of english-dubbed anime, I was plesantly surprised on how good the english dubbing was on this anime, which is no surprise since its Samuel L. Jackson who you’ll hear most of the time, having lent his voice to two characters, Afro Samurai (who usually doesn’t talk much) and his sidekick Ninja Ninja (who talks all the time).
The animation is simply remarkable and has a very unique look to it. It kinda reminded me of Todd McFarlane’s early Spawn artwork, what with all the action poses and some of the clothing blowing in the wind, like Afro’s headband. ^^
Filipino amateur writer Carmelo S. J. Juinio’s entry to the 2007 Animax Awards, Laminated Woman: To the Sand Planet Cerra, will be animated by Animax and will be released in three mediums – TV, online and mobile. The LaMB project will be Animax’s first original production in High Definition, and promises to revolutionize the entire entertainment experience via how content is delivered and marketed to consumers.
The story of LaMB centres around the life of a protagonist who can barely speak nor make her own decisions – she being one of the many felons sealed in a ‘laminated’ suit, known as LaMBs for short. The virtual slavery that is Lamination ensures that those convicted of serious crimes remain productive, if not free, members of society, making both jails and the death penalty unnecessary in a world where human ingenuity, creativity and labour continue to be precious commodities that cannot be replaced by robots or any form of “artificial” intelligence.
