One of the most nagging question that most otakus (animé fans) are asked is what is animé, well in a nutshell animé refers to the Japanese way of animation or in short Japanese cartoons. But aren't cartoons only for kids or how old are you, goes the second question, no, most Japanese animés have more depth both in their storylines and character development, and most are geared for more mature audiences. Their plots differs from the American made cartoons that they are not afraid to tackle very sensitive issues like occult, politics, shoujo/shonen ai (girl love girl/boy love boy), sex (hentai), extreme violence (talk about flying body parts and lots of blood), and death which their American counterparts dare not tread. Another major difference from their American counterparts is the stunning visuals (even for TV series). The quality of animation in Japanese animé is so high that it is one of its greatest appeals, and the rich audio effects and soundtracks is enthralling not annoying like some "cartoon" songs (Proof of this is the spawning of numerous OST, Image CDs and other Audio soundtracks about the shows). Another appeal is the witty humor incorporated almost all shows. Super deformity (SD for short) which is quite often used to depict angry characters or funny scenes is usually shown. We'll not forget that the characters are kawaii(cute), even some monsters too. Continuity is another reason why they are popular. You always want to know what happens after the last episode. Most animés have continuity in their storylines, and even if a series is finished, it may again resurface as a TV special, a movie, or an OVA (Original Video Animation) or vise-versa. Most of these animés are usually adapted from mangas (Japanese comic books), which are also very popular worldwide, from classic novels and from popular video games. Though some people brand animé as evil or violent/ senseless, the truth is that it is classified according to viewers in as much as the same way as do movies, books and other commercial entertainment stuffs. Modern animé first saw light with Japanese manga guru Ozamu Tezuka's(dubbed as the "Kame no Manga" or God of Manga) early work called "Tetsuwan Atom" or more popularly known as "Astroboy" was released from manga to animated format in 1960. Since Tezuka was a big fan of Walt Disney's animations, he drew nearly all of his manga characters with large-saucer-eye-style which was picked-up by every Japanese animator since then and which animé has been known for.

Animé has been shown in Manila, Philippines' free TV since the early '70s well into the early '80, when they were taken off the air due to their supposed violent themes and the common rebellion themes. Most of these shows features mecha/ team actions including the immensely popular combining mecha Chodenji Machine Voltes V. They were shown in alternating fashion everyday in the afternoon, if were not mistaken.

Then came Uchuu Senkan Yamato or Space Cruiser Yamato (aka Starblazers), Tetsuwan ATOMU or Astroboy, Voltron, Jungle Taitei or Jungle King (aka Kimba the White Lion), Candy Candy and other shows including the cult- fave Macross. Later on animés with soap-opera type plots like Shou-Koujo Sarah or A Little Princess Sarah (aka Sarah Ang Munting Prinsesa), Shou-Koushi Cedie, Furandasu no Inu (Dog of Flanders), Torappu Ikke Monotagari (Trapp Family Singers) and others caught our attention (Most of these stories are based on classic novels by well known authors), and others like Tondera House no Daiboken (The Flying House), and Anime Oyako Gekijo (Superbook) which have religous themes (another proof that animé does not contain senseless violence only).

The next wave included Akira Toriyama's immensely popular Dragonball Z series, the funny but action packed Yaiba, Naoko Takeuchi’s pretty sailor suited girls Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon, the mech-fantasy Mahou Kishi Rayearth from CLAMP, Rumiko Takahashi's RanMa ½, Zenki, Masami Kurumada's mech-guardians Bt'X, the Slayers, the dark world of Yu Yu Hakusho and others. The Philippine animé scene began to heat up with the reruns of the mech animés of the early '70s like Chodenji Machine Voltes V and Daimos was shown in the late '90s. Along with these came the alternate Gundam universes of Kidou Butoden G Gundam, Shinkidou Senki Gundam W, and Kidou Shinseinki Gundam X, the fan-fave Rurouni Kenshin, the highly acclaimed Shinseiki Evangelion, reruns of Dragonball Z and Yuyu Hakusho, Tenchi Muyo, the fiery Reka no Honoo, the mech-fantasy Tenkuu no Escaflowne and the Watase Yuu's shoujo-fave Fushigi Yuugi, not to forget, the phenomenal series Pokémon. These are but just a few of the more popular animés that were shown shown to the animé-hungry Pinoy viewer, despite their flaws such as the dumb@$$ editing (which often edit major parts of the story), the sometimes inefficient dubbing (some shows are available in English while most are done in Tagalog or sometimes in an annoying combination of Tagalog and English), and the poor quality of translations, will still continue to watch animé just for the sheer joy and satisfaction it brings to the average Pinoy viewer/ animéniac.

Hmm....almost 2 years have passed since, several cosplays a few animé cons, animé is still going strong and its here to stay.....hmmm.....a few more re-runs of Fushigi Yuugi, Mahou Kishi Rayearth, Yuyu Hakusho and Dragonball Z is enough to make me reminisce about er.....2 years ago (sheesh). Well notable new animé being shown in Manila 2K2 are Trigun, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, Card Captor Sakura, Digimon, the rest of the extremely loooong Dragonball Z & GT, Soryuuden, Cat's Eye and Yoshihiro Togashi's exciting new series Hunter X Hunter.

Flashback 2K3, ah..several refreshing series shown includes Daa! Daa! Daa!, Sakura Taisen, Bakuten Shoot Bey Blade, Inu Yasha, Digimon 02 and the fan-fave Final Fantasy Unlimited. They also decided to air the entirety of Slam Dunk as well as reruns of old favorites(or pet peeves, whichever side you are anyways ^_- ). Other hot series includes the sensational Hajime no Ippo, the action packed Gekito! Crush Gear Turbo, the chefs-on-parade Chuuka Ichiban, the soul-searching Shaman King & Shamanic Princess, the kawaii Aa! Megamisama, Birdy the Mighty, & Masamune Shirow's cybernetic masterpiece, Kokaku Kidotai(Ghost in the Shell). Other new shows(rather short err, "aborted" series)includes Starlight Scarmble, Zeguy, Fire Emblem(I love this game), & Tatoon Master, other shows includes the action-comedic Groove Adventure Rave, the last of the Sailormoon series, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon Sailor Stars, and the hard-hitting Grappler Baki. A few months later the mech-themed Kijuu Shinseiki ZOIDS was aired.

In 2K4, most series shown nowadays are reruns and seems like anime-mania here is on the wane..X_X..well its a ratings war on free TV so quality anime are usually the casualties...my previous grievances like cutting the air times(showing too many commercials in between) and the incomplete or non showing of the opening and ending credits are still here(sigh!!), well at least the dubbing and timings have improved a lot(hehehe practice makes perfect - kudos to Francis Ibanez and company..who makes most of the dubbing here.), well the newer series includes the smash-hit series Yu-Gi-Oh, followed by th exciting and ninjariffic Naruto and the tear-jerker, Hana Yori Dango(enough with the F4 already ^_^). Others includes the Super Yoyo series, the cute action series, Tokyo Underground and the fast-paced, basketball-packed Dear Boys, the space-Spaghetti-Western, Outlaw Star, the jazzy Cowboy Bebop, the naughty comedic, Ninja Boy Rantaro, the fast-paced Tokugawa-era fantasy, Samurai Deeper Kyo, the fan-fave action-comedy, One Piece, the new "dynamic duo" of Get Backers, the pop fave Ragnarök: the Animation, and the cute shoujo-animes Fruits Basket and Mon Kore Naito, and the hardcore Full Metal Panic the exciting Gundam series Gundam SeeD the popular anime, Love Hina.

In 2K5, several new series shown includes the anthemic martial arts epic, Shadowskill, the soccer-crazy Wild Striker Hungry Heart, the on-off romance in Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou and the shoujo-fighting dolls in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer, the tear-jerker Marmalade Boy, the fan-service laden Tenjou Tenge, the creepy Imperial China-fantasy Twelve Kingdoms, the robattling Medabots, the cute full 3-D anime SD Gundam Force, the alchemical Full Metal Alchemist, the cute adventures of Hamtaro, and Inu Yasha and Naruto's second season and not to mentions tons of reruns of DBGT, Reka no Honoo, Shaman King, Kijuu Shinseiki ZOIDS, Outlaw Star, Slam Dunk, Shou-Koujo Sarah, DBZ, Rune Soldier, Dear Boys, Love Hina and marathon reruns of Rurouni Kenshin Meiji Kenkaku Romantan, Gekito Crush Gear Turbo, Super GALS! KOTUBUKI RAN, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Project: ARMS, Astroboy 2003, Groove Adventure Rave, Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer, and Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters.

Enter 2K6, new shows includes, the sanitized version of the popular series Great Teacher Onizuka, the GATT-inspired Kiddy Grade, the cool tennis action in Tennis no Oujisama, the kid-friendly Machine Robo-Rescue, the fantasy-battle Shin Shirayukihime Densetsu Pretear, "Journey to the West"-inspired Monkey Typhoon, and Gensoumaden Saiyuki, the bread battles in Yakitake! Ja-Pan, Tenshi no Tamaiki, Naruto's third season, Battle B-Daman, the Masked rider-wannabe D.I.C.E the sequels Bey Blade V-Force and Crush Gear Nitro, new seasons of Inu Yasha Sengoku O-togi Zoushi and Medabots, the cute Chitchana Yuki Tsukai Sugar and Wagamama Fairy Mirumo De Pon, the acrobatic Kaleido Star, the soap opera-like Maria-sama ga Meiteru, the naval battles in Zipang, the cute D.N.Angel, the new color version of Tetsujin 28 GO, the mech wars in ZOID Fuzors, the fantasy-laden Scrapped Princess, Harukanaru Toki no Naka de (kinda reminds me of Fushigi Yuugi) and Elementar Gerad, the breadworks in Yakitate Japan, the fast-paced Last Exile, the cute all-girl powered Galaxy Angels and Peach Girl, the new card duels in Yu-Gi-Oh GX, the SD BB Daman Bakugaiden, the weird space-faring Moby Dick, the shounen-fighetrs of Saint Seiya, and the shinigami-laden Bleach. This years reruns includes DBZ, Fruits Basket, Duel Masters, Arupusu no Shoujo Heidi, Doraemon, Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer, Karekano, GateKeepers, Zenki, Twelve Kingdoms, Majyutsushi ORPHEN, Honey Honey, Bush Baby, One Piece, Popolocrois Monotagari, Twelve Kingdoms, Outlaw Star, SD Gundam Force, Slayers, Yuyu Hakusho and marathon reruns of Angelic Layer, Naruto and Yu-Gi-Oh.

This site intends to (or about the exact equivalent) archive all (well, almost) animés that was shown/ still showing in Manila, Philippines' FREE TV and give a brief description and/or a whole page for a show, as long as we find articles for/ about it, files worth to post and space for it , otherwise we'll just show you great links for these shows, those with the logo indicates spoilers ahead, so read on at your own risk. Any contributions/ help is welcome to make the site more complete. The reviews are in the animé guide section and the other sections (like MIDI) are quite self-explanatory.

Multimedia stuffs like video clips, Mp3s, JPEGs and MIDIs and some lyrics and tablatures can be found on this site too. There are some mono-ringtones, desktop theme stuffs available too, like animated cursors, icons, startup logos, wav files for sound events and Winamp skins. Check it out. Also check out the links to different sites, which we recommend very much. You can also drop by the Animè Trivia to test your knowledge of different animés. Also please support #weareanime channel at DALNET, the webmasters can be found sometimes there (hitokiri_shinji & DancingSushi ).