Join in the J-Pop Anime Singing Contest

Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC), Embassy of Japan in the Philippines is having a singing contest for all those anime enthusiasts who loves singing their favorite anime songs. All jpop/jrock fanatics can finally show off their love to their idols in front of a live audience.

The Grand Finals is on July 24, 2010 and the contestants will get the chance to win scholarships from Nihongo Center Foundation and Center for Pop Music Philippines and be awarded with exciting prizes from event partners namely: Ajinomoto, Canon, Heritage Hotel, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba and Yakult. Participants can also enjoy special courtesy treats of Yoshinoya.

Groups can personally deliver or send via courier their application forms to the Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC), Embassy of Japan, 2627 Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City . Groups can also send their application form at jicc-mnl@ma.mofa.go.jp.

You can also download the application here

Animax's Ani-mates unveiled

Animax, Asia's first and finest anime and youth entertainment channel unveiled today at Conway's Bar, Shangr-La Makati their version of Video Jockeys (VJ) called the 'Ani-mates'. So who are these three personalities who will be serving as Animax brand ambassadors?


The sweet and cheerful 22-year old Stephanie Henares, who came to fame from modelling and hosted in QTV and PLDT watchpad's 'My Campus My View' was the first to be introduced. She will be introducing upcoming shows and host exclusive webcasts to provide the latest news and updates on the regional youth scene.

The next to be introduced were the famous Gosiengfiao sisters who are well known in the cosplay community. The hugely popular cosplayer Alodia and her younger sister Ashley will also grace the channel and participate in youth events as Animax ambassadors.

"This new initiative represents our continued efforts to make Animax an even more engaging and entertaining youth destination in the channel's evolution with the rapid changing tastes and preferences of our dynamic audiences" said by Gregory Ho, Vice President and General Manager of Animax Asia as he proudly introduced the three lovely ladies.

Starting June 1,2010 a new microsite in Animax, http://animaxasia.com/animates will be the home of the Ani-mates and will cater interactive content about the lovely ladies

Review: Prince of Persia The Sands of Time

Video games turned to movies weren't very successful in Hollywood. Mario Brothers, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Bloodrayne to name a few. This time, my favorite game was given a spot on the big screen. Prince of Persia, the wall climbing, friendly neighborhood Persian, was immortalized by Walt Disney which made this promising. Did Walt Disney made a good movie based from this classic video game or did they failed just like the past adaptations before them? Read on...

This movie was about sands, sands, and lots of sands! That's it! End of the review! Just kidding!

Jake Gyllenhaal, for starters, made an uncanny resemblance to the protagonist Dastan. Add some Gemma Arterton to the cast and this is enough to make me watch the movie. Kidding aside, those two mentioned gave justice to their characters, which I might say failed on some video game movies from the past. The story was taken from the game but departed midway. Which, in my opinion made things better. The ending may or may not be predictable to some, but it was a huge difference from the game. The fight scenes were cleanly executed and the added parkour (the wall jumping shinanegans) added some eye candy. Speaking of eye candy, The special effects may be just a handful, but the "bullet time" effects was my favorite and it's simple but clean. The music was fantastic, as expected from a Walt Disney production. So if you like war, babes, bullet time and parkour, this movie is definitely for you.

Catholic Church reburied Copernicus as a hero

On May 22, 2010 Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer whose findings were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical, was given a second funeral in a Mass led by Józef Kowalczyk, the former papal nuncio to Poland and newly named Primate of Poland. Copernicus' remains were reburied in the same spot in Frombork Cathedral where part of his skull and other bones had been found. A black granite tombstone now identifies him as the founder of the heliocentric theory and also a church canon, a clerical rank lover than a priest. The tombstone bears a representation of Copernicus' model of the solar system—a golden sun encircled by six of the planets.

This move comes 18 years after the Vatican rehabilitated the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who was persecuted in the Inquisition for carrying the Copernican Revolution forward.

Jejemon: A Decline in Literacy

It started before as an internet term, now Jejemon became a household name for those who act and talk like a 3 year old kid.


Jejemon came from the way these uneducated youngsters laugh when typing "jejeje" instead of "hehehe". These people lack the knowledge in spelling and tried hard to become cute by altering the words they were saying. For me, this is just lame and pure stupidity. As a former teacher, this is an insult to our education system, and because of mass media, jejemon became mainstream, thus, became popular to all. Many were amused with the way jejemons talk and type. But to me, they need to be taught a lesson. Luckily, DepEd recently waged war on Jejemons. The only issue here is privacy, but I think jejemons were not educated enough to know that. Oh I don't tolerate jejemons myself.



If you were planning to mimic jejemons just for fun, go ahead, and make yourself stupid.