MAJOR RANT AHEAD! Let's get this out of the way first. Sorry for the delay in posting this blog. I wish I could honestly say that it's entirely due to the medical convention I attended this week. But suffice to say, I'm more than annoyed to want to update the blog, because this would end up clearing the "Comments" box for CERTAIN PEOPLE in the SEA site who have been abusing it for their own personal chatroom. Worse, all throughout the convention, I've even had some Animax fans who are close friends of mine actually text me to complain that they could not comment at all because the "Comments" section has been smothered with useless chatter. One friend who is an avid blogger said that "Don't these people know what they're doing violates Netiquette? Are they THAT STUPID that they don't know that there are proper venues where they could chat?" Even my nephew has frowned upon this, saying that this would actually warrant an outright ban in other forums, and he is right. I have been tolerant of all these "Add Me" requests. Heck, I even tried to be exceptionally tolerant of FOUR PEOPLE who have turned the blog into a chatroom. BUT, I had to draw the line when these same people began fighting among each other, and quite publicly IN THE BLOG. Have you no sense of decency, for crying out loud?!

Just to have some peace and quiet, I have OFFICIALLY reported this matter AND these people personally to the Animax Webmaster, who is also just as irritated as I am simply because clearing up your unnecessary chats is added work for them. I really don't know if Animax fans are really that clueless about socializing on the Net and Netiquette. If you want to chat, you DO NOT do it in blogs. I personally chat with people on MIRC. Heck, just download the program and you could already enter a number of empty chatrooms wherein you could chat to your hearts content. I've seen that some of you even have Yahoo accounts. Form your own Yahoo Groups. Yahoo Groups has a chatroom function. I should know because I also have my own chatroom, but I found MIRC more convenient and faster.

Since practically no one in SEA was able to put in questions thanks to these irritating chatters, I'll just be answering the questions from the India readers instead.

This is in reference to the article entitled "Top Japanese Anime Naruto Set to arrive in India via Animax." Just do a search on Yahoo because the writer deleted this post, presumably due to the large number of hate mail he got from Indian viewers, but you could still view it in Cache.

I wish I could say that I was totally caught by surprise when Naruto's premiere was announced on the rival network, but I wasn't. What DID surprise me was the aforementioned article. Before I read this article, the magazine I work for got a press release from the rival channel, announcing that Naruto anime was going to be aired in the U.S. From personal experience, I've noticed that anime acquired by the U.S. channel subsequently get aired in the Asian region. I'm pretty sure Animax India was negotiating for Naruto, but with the U.S. acquisition, you should already expect talks to bog down, as what obviously happened in this case.

I think it would also be best to say this now. The Philippines is heavily into anime, so you have several channels in my country alone airing anime. Sometimes, certain distributors would sell the title for exclusive airing in the Philippines ALONE. Since Singapore, India and the Philippines share the same Animax feed, there is a strong likelihood that Singapore and India may not be able to watch certain anime by virtue of an exclusive airing license that was paid for by networks in my country. The closest example that I could give are the Oscar Awards. One time, a free TV network actually sued a cable channel for airing the Oscars in the Philippines because they have exclusive rights to the broadcast. Since then, this cable channel could only air the Oscars AFTER it has been aired in my country. The same, it seems, applies here.

Bad news, I'm afraid. It seems the production company does not have the budget to make a Season 2 of Alice Academy. But according to my nephew, they are still looking into the possibility since it is a very popular title. When a Season 2 will be greenlighted will, for now, remain a question. Definitely, it will not happen this year.

Each anime, TV show and movie has an airing license that could either be limited to 1) a certain period of time (like 2-3 years) or 2) a certain number of airings. Once the license has expired OR the above conditions (and others like them) have been met, a TV network could no longer air the show WITHOUT buying/renewing the license again. This is the reason why Wolf's Rain and GetBackers, which were shown when Animax was launched, are not airing anymore. IMHO, why should I dish out good money for a rerun when I could use it to buy a new title?

Simply put, because many Animax viewers request them.

The main difference is that actors for film and stage have the convenience of being able to use facial expression and body language aside from their voice. For voice actors, they have to rely solely on using their voice and imagination (for radio dramas) and the movements/expressions of the characters in anime. Putting it this way, a regular actor may not have an effective speaking voice, but could make up for it with facial expression and body language. This is not true for voice actors. In the case of anime, it's the voice actor who provides the voice and the anime character the emotions and actions. If both are not in sync, you'd have a disastrous performance. That is why, with a few notable exceptions, only a few actors possess the talent to become good voice actors as well. If you want a real good example of an actor who is also a fine voice actor, check out Hugo Weaving's performance in V For Vendetta.

I could only speak for the Philippines. In a previous interview I did with a voice acting group in the 1990s, the rate then was USD 100 to 200 PER episode. Now that voice talents are given the recognition that they deserve, their talent fees have also gone up considerably.

No. Most of the voice actors I know keep a day job. Competition is fierce for voice acting jobs, which are sometimes far and few in between projects. Most consider voice acting as a profitable hobby.

No, because Hiei in India said it's boring, so to those of you who are fans of the Animax voice actors, blame him. I'm setting my sights higher by interviewing key people from the top animation companies in Japan and, hopefully, a few movie companies making anime-related projects. Animax already gave me the greenlight for this, and this is what I'll be working on for the rest of the year.

I was thinking of posting Part 2, which features a mock interview with the Shohoku Team about what happened during the Inter High, later this week. But it would largely depend upon the behavior of the peeps in the SEA site since my posting this blog will be clearing up the "Comments" box for them to abuse again. If I am riled up enough by their antics, the next blog might be about Netiquette, at least to teach some of you how you should behave in chatrooms, forums, blogs and such Net venues.

If you consider yourselves anime fans, the least you could do is to actually learn the terms being used. Kyou Kara Maou is NOT yaoi. It is a "shoujo" title, or an anime that is aimed at girls and young women, although some have argued that it is "shounen-ai" in reference to Yuuri and Wolfram. Shoujo anime sometimes have hints of "shounen-ai", or romances between boys and/or men. Anime/manga that are really labeled as "shounen-ai" include Gravitation, Seimaden and Gorgeous Carat. One anime that also qualifies as "shounen-ai" is Koutetsu Sangokushi, which I reviewed in a previous blog. "BL" ("Boy's love") or what is commonly known as "yaoi" should be limited to anime/manga that have sexual content in them, whether they are pornographic or not. However, some Japanese acquaintances have insisted that the brazenly pornographic titles should be the ones labeled as "yaoi".

Oh, they do listen. In the case of anime reruns, refer to my answer in the second question. However, I must point out that anime fans actually have a very bad rep for being rude, obnoxious and demanding. I personally find it a huge turn off when some of you make rude demands instead of making polite requests. It always pays to BE COURTEOUS AND POLITE. Always remember that.

Technical problems? Email the Webmaster at webmaster@animax-asia.com for SEA and webmaster@animax-india.com for India. HOWEVER, I must strongly mention that the reason why the site is having problems to begin with is because there are a lot of you who have been abusing the functions of the site. What is happening in the "Comments" blog in the section is just one very good example. Be responsible enough to delete old messages so as to not clutter your Profiles. And I will repeat it again. DO NOT USE THE BLOG'S "COMMENTS" BOX FOR YOUR CHATROOM. As the popular line in that old TV series went -- You REALLY wouldn't like me when I'm angry, so DO NOT TRY MY PATIENCE!

FINALLY, Hiei's question: How do you compute pi?

Pi is defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Mathematician Archimedes originally computed pi with the formula: A = pi r^2 (which is actually used to compute the area of a circle). With the development of calculus, several formulas have been put forth to compute pi with much greater accuracy, including Newton/Liebnitz arctangent function (arctan(x) = x - x^3/3 + x^5/5 - x^7/7 + ...) and the one I was taught way back in High School, Machin's Formula [(pi/4 = 4 arctan(1/5) - arctan(1/239)]. Since pi has an infinite number of decimals, there is presently a race among scientists in computing the most number of digits, with a formula developed by Indian mathematician Ramanujan able to compute pi up to 17 million digits. Does this answer your question, Hiei? NEXT TIME, young man! Don't insult my intelligence. You're talking to a Science Major here.