To my fellow Bananas! Every felt like the “white” part of your cultural identity was undermined by your “more Asian” friends and family? Our Heroic Melon friend, Kevin, does a short video blog regarding that look people give you when you don’t display the appropriate amount of Asian knowledge or demeanor.

It usually boils down to language when this look of disapproval appears. Even in the 21st century, generational misunderstandings still exists between those who can speak their ethnic tongue and those who can not. Granted, with any language barrier there are bound to be linguistic misunderstandings. But in this case, the differences lie in a judgemental perception the older generation of Asians have on the younger generation of Asians. And this is where the term “banana” came about. A mildly derogatory term used to describe a younger generation of Asians whom the older generation thought were too influenced by Western cultures and societies. But today, we embrace this derogatory term as an identity to be proud of. Even if some of us can’t speak our mother tongue, we still proudly embrace the fact that we have Asian and Western traits within us.

Tell us your stories of people giving you the “Asian look of disapproval”! We’d love to hear it.

Cheers.

-phibz.

Its been a little dry on the blog side of The Banana Times as of late, but I assure you its for good reason. Just bask yourselves on poster above and you’ll know its for good reason. Before I get into what I’ve been working on in the past 2 weeks, I first want to promise I will write reviews on all the amazing films I watched at the Reel Asian International Film Festival, just as soon as things ease up a little.

Now, I am happy to say that I am once again part of the amazing movement of Kollaboration Toronto for their upcoming 6th annual show in March 2011. This year I will reprise my duties in producing videos for Kollaboration Toronto as well as being part of the marketing team. I can already FEEL the excitement of this year’s show, because I know it will be awesome. Here are the two videos I’ve proudly done for them so far. Pump. It. UP!

Kollaboration Toronto 2011 Volunteer Video
A mash-up and montage of sorts, highlighting the success of the Kollaboration movement across 11 North American cities (the video is missing Boston, I sincerely apologize..). Did you know Far East Movement was a winner at one of the Kollaborations in LA? Yes. The guys who brought you LIKE A G6 and ROCKETEER (:

An Interview with ESLY – Winner of Kollaboration Toronto 2010
A short interview with last year’s champion of Kollaboration Toronto 2010. She shares her relationship with Kollaboration, what it has done for her, and her overall musical background.

So what are you waiting for? Log on to the Kollaboration Toronto website and get your friends, families, foes to audition! Keep this movement alive! Empowerment through Entertainment. This year’s gonna be huge. 100% guarantee. Stay tuned!

-phibz.

PS: It’s not to say that I didn’t have some time to myself. I carved for American Thanksgiving (:

After working three days straight with TorontoALPHA’s historic Educator’s Conference 3 weekends ago, I had a lot to think about. There were a lot of thoughts roaming around inside my head regarding the events of World War II in Asia and how it is lost in most history books. A lost chapter in history it seems. So I tried to relate with the many scholars, speakers, and brilliant minds who voiced their thoughts throughout the conference, but ultimately, I couldn’t relate. Due to my lack of experience and knowledge with history and anything political, I did as I always did, I listened and admired. The only way I could relate is to connect with my own perspective and my own story. I had to see everything through the lens of a Banana. And thus, I wrote down a speech of sorts, and I voiced it in front of a camera. Enjoy.

A Dire & Personal Topic by Philbert Lui – A Banana’s “Embraced Contradiction” & TorontoALPHA:

The video is fairly long, but I hope you get something out of it. If you prefer reading, below is the written version of what I said (with slightly better grammar and sentence structure and more typos):

Hi there. I’m Philbert Lui of The Banana Times. This particular video blog is going to be a little different. Usually, traditional video blogs would have many cuts in the timeline to jump from shot to shot or scene to scene to make some kind of point. Well, that’s not happening today because of the nature of what I’m about to talk about, I feel that this has to be uncut just so my train of thought is evident.

For those of you who have been following my personal twitter account or the Banana Times twitter account, you might know that I have been working for TorontoALPHA. Now TorontoALPHA is a non-profit organization aiming to promote the education of the events of World War II in Asia. And three weekends ago, TorontoALPHA hosted a very significant conference for the educators of Canada and others; to help spread the word on this lost chapter of history.

Now, to summarize, or to attempt to summarize any of the topics and amazing speeches seen at the conference would do the entire event injustice. Due to the amount brilliant minds that congregated at the conference, me trying to relay any of it would be feeble and quite offensive. So in order to shed any light on the event, on what I learned and on what I feel, I would have to speak from my perspective. For the few people who actually read The Banana Times blog or watches our once-in-a-blue-moon video on Youtube, may have noticed that I take pride in recognizing my own bias and that I embrace the contradictions within myself.

When I say being a contradiction, I mean it on several levels. For one, I think many people who assimilate with the Banana identity, whether you think you’re completely Westernized on the inside or that you feel like you’re multicultural on the inside, sometimes unknowingly lack the understanding that you are on some level a contradiction. Now I say and mean this in the most inoffensive way I possibly can. When I say you or people, in this context, are a contradiction, it is not an insult or an attack. Rather I think it is something to be embraced, and is also what my team and I strives for in The Banana Times. Being a Banana requires a capacity to embody more than one set of cultural values and attitudes beyond your native Asian identity, thus making you a liaison between certain boundaries of society. Being a person of Asian descent and be influenced and inspired by Western cultures and societies, in its very basic, traditional and prejudice form, is a contradiction. But going back to the origins of the term “banana”, it was used by an older generation of Asians who considered themselves purely Asian, against a younger generation who have been brought up or influenced by Western cultures. In short, it’s a derogatory term. And yet today, we embrace it with pride. And with that pride comes an embraced contradiction. An acceptance that with this nation-less but global label, comes the ability to withstand conflicting forces of culture, society, politics, gender within yourself. A power to hold and contain contradiction, which otherwise have been deemed negative by many others.

Now even though I identify with this “embraced contradiction” it is only 100% guaranteed applicable to me. To say it is applicable to others is nothing less than presumptuous. With that said, I also take pride in expressing through the lens of my own bias. Everyone’s point of view, perspective or opinion is in itself a bias, and can be beneficial if embraced. Again, this is all me. I take pride in calling Craig Ferguson one of my modern day heroes because a few years back he said “I am no expert or alcoholism or anything, but I am an expert on my own story. I was there when it happened”. These two sentences stuck with me, and perhaps will continue to for as long as I live. I claim to have the ability of “embraced contradiction” and the recognition of my own bias, because this is my own story. Out of everything I will learn, or come to learn or teach in my life, I will only be an expert on one thing. Myself. And thus I take much pride in saying and indicating that I have a bias and that I walk with contradiction with whatever I express or create.

I constantly reference the “Banana” or “Banana culture” because it is a significant of my story. And being able to reflect on my own story as an expert, I discovered something. Sure, after hearing my theories on biases and inner contradictions being good things, always talking about Bananas makes a lot of sense. But this is also valid because it is a case study. Being a Banana, in my words, means you have a beneficial ability to withstand, contain, and excel with more than one set of values and attitudes within you, but this is not only applicable to Bananas. Rather, it applicable to any similar form that also has an embraced contradiction. Meaning that anyone of any race who were raised, inspired, influenced, lived in a different society or culture from their ethnic origin can have this embraced contradiction. The Banana is only a case study in which me and The Banana Times specialize in, there are many other case studies related to multicultural capacity that I would not be nearly qualified to talk about. But I urge those who are experts of their own story to explore this capacity, to embrace this contradiction, and to be proud of your own unique bias.

Now that I’ve talked a little bit about how I operate and how my mind kind of works, I’d like to return to the weekend I’ve had. TorontoALPHA held a historic and important educators conference last weekend, I believe the first of its kind since WWII, and I was lucky enough to volunteer for them as a videographer. They aim to raise global awareness on the history of WWII in Asia specifically, as many people don’t know about the atrocities that happened on that side of the world, especially those of us who grew up in the West. Many studies and books have been written about the European side of WWII with the genocide of the Jews, but there was also a similar Holocaust in Asia instigated by the Japanese Empire. And ultimately, TorontoALPHA aims to convince the Japanese government to make a sincere apology for their war crimes and admit to the atrocities they committed over 60 years ago. There were many speeches, testimonies, videos from many scholars and filmmakers, and to try to relay their knowledge would be egotistical of me.

But I would like to say this. I identify myself as a Banana. A person of Asian descent, more specifically Chinese descent, who was born in the West and have been influenced and surrounded by Western culture throughout his life, therefore creating a contradiction within myself as I said before. This contradiction is what I thrive on, and I tell stories and accounts of this contradiction through my own bias. And from this, I want to tell you something that I feel bananas are obligated to do. Learn about the events of World War II in Asia.

As members of the Banana community, we know more than one set of values and attitudes, that is our nature. But like any culture, it originates from history. The post-WWII era is a period in human history where mass-diaspora and migration increased, thus creating hybrid identities like Bananas. Not only do we need to learn about the events of WWII in Asia because of justice, but also to learn how identities such as the Banana came about. We are not only Asian or Western; we are international because of the nature of our identity. The Holocaust of Asia is not a Chinese problem, or a Japanese problem, or a Korean problem or an American problem, it is a global problem and a human problem that has yet to be resolved even after 60+ years.

Many of our grandparents were alive during WWII and without their strength and their vigor we would not be here. If there were a time where you should practice the Asian tradition of respecting your elders, this would be the time. Respect them by learning what they had to go through and what they had to endure for you to be here. Without our grandparents and their peers, Bananas would not exist. We would not exist. I would not exist.

Now what I have said comes out of the brief experience I have had with Toronto ALPHA. These are all thoughts from my own bias, and may be flawed. But if you are going to take anything way from what this contradictory, presumptuous Banana boy has said, take away this. If you believe you are a Banana, or have any other identity that enables you to have a multicultural capacity, and that you think that you have a contradiction within yourself that you can benefit and excel from, talk about it. Tell people your own story, because that’s the best tale you can tell. You are the expert of your own story. Learn more about the Holocaust in Asia and maybe that would become part of your life and part of your story as well. Banana Culture is a culture that is both local and global. If your voice is heard, it will travel far.

Good luck.

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot them my way – philbertlui@thebananatimes.com – I’ll be happy to answer them. I have to stress that everything I have said is only 100% applicable to me, for others it may be different. But even so, this is just a gathering of thoughts from a person who is trying to tell his own story, but I hope it connects with people in any way possible. Because what happened to our grandparents and forefathers during World War II in Asia must be heard and learned.

I wish you luck.

-phibz.

On July 20th, 2010, Jeremy Lin, was signed by the Golden State Warriors. After being undrafted coming out of Harvard University, the 6’3 point guard dazzled in the NBA summer leagues, including going toe to toe with the NBA’s 2010 first pick, John Wall in a summer league game against the Wizards. An American born to Taiwanese parents, his exciting and ferocious play in 5 games has turned Jeremy Lin into a fan favorite even before having an official NBA team. This, for more reasons than the average NBA fan would understand, matters.

Basketball to me has always been my favourite sport for a number of reasons. There’s pace, there’s drama, there’s tension, but most importantly, it is the most vicarious sport. Everyone has their inner athlete, or at least their yearning to become one, even though a majority of us are not athletically gifted. We go to playgrounds and rec leagues, trying an Iverson crossover, a Steve Nash behind the back, or a Lebron crab dribble drive (that’s called less and therefore easier to perform). Those who are lucky can pull off a Hakeem (and now Rondo) Dream -Shake, or God-forbid even dunk once in a while. We try these moves because we all want to be these athletes, and even though we can’t string all these athletic gifts together, we dream. It’s why we watch basketball; so that we can live vicariously through these amazing physical specimens that do what we cannot. They defy gravity. They will themselves to greatness.

This is even more important for the banana community.

There’s no arguing around it; Asians are generally less athletically gifted than most other people, and those that are are usually deemed finesse players (like in baseball), are gifted in sports that do not require pure athletic power (such as racquet sports), or need to be trained non-stop by their Government to produce results (diving, skating and gymnastics). Even back at Boston University, there was a rec league for Asian players 6’0 and under (which is about 90% of us). We need more than most others to live through our television sets, because if we can’t do, we can watch, and feel like we are taking part in something bigger than ourselves.

This is where Jeremy Lin comes in.

Yao Ming was no doubt one of the largest factors in marketing NBA and the sport of basketball to Asia, and specifically China. But even before Yao was drafted, people joked about how he was a creation of the Chinese Government, just a way to manufacture a player into the NBA like they have done in other sports. Even to some of his most die-hard fans, we were proud to finally have a Chinese star in the NBA, but didn’t really believe that a regular Chinese person ever could unless we were 7’6, never mind being put under a state controlled farm system. And this is why Jeremy Lin matters. A division II state champion in high school, Lin has always been about proving that Asians can play, and more importantly, showing that this sport can be had by the new breed of banana’s (whether it be ABC, BBC, CBC or other westernized Asians). Despite never getting a Division I scholarship or being drafted by an NBA team, Lin is trying to overcome stereotypes to realize his dream in the association, entering with a chip on his shoulder like many other Asian athletes may have had. Though he will not create a basketball buzz like Yao did back in 2002, he does have a drive and slash game that relies on his athletic gifts that previous Asian players like Yi Jian Lian, Yuta Tabuse and even Yao himself do not have; the type of game that fans of the game watch basketball for. Though he will not break all Asian stereotypes (there’s a joke I’ve heard a few times about how Asian parents wouldn’t let their children become athletes unless they graduate 4 years from an Ivy League school first), he will be an important stepping stone in proving that Asians have got game too, whether it be in dominating all-star games or contributing 10 minutes off the bench. And we all should be watching.

Just a little less vicariously this time.

-Garron
twitter/thegarz88

PEEL ME is an award-winning film made by us, The Banana Times, that began its film festival run in July at the Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival. Our next step is to bring our film to as many film festivals as we can, meaning PEEL ME won’t be available on our Youtube channel until our festival run is over. But we will be periodically uploading short clips from the film to let everyone know what PEEL ME is all about! This week’s clip features Andrew Kim, an actor who was part of the play The Boat People, which was recently featured at the Hamilton Fringe Festival.

A Clip from PEEL ME – The Grey Area of a Banana

In this clip Andrew refers to a very common issue of cultural identity crisis many Asians in North America experience due to their parents being immigrants or themselves being immigrants as well. I had the pleasure to watch the play he was in, The Boat People by Sylvia Vuong, and it tells a true and universal tale regarding the struggles of the countless Asian immigrants that had to leave their homeland and flee to the West. As a result of this mass-migration of our previous generation, many of our generation experience struggles with culture and identity. But of course, our current problems, which are at times overdramatic and immature, are nothing compared to those who came before us.

Andrew can be considered lucky in a sense, to be able to distinguish himself from set archetypes of Asian-North American cultural identity. He realizes that because of his Korean ethnicity, he is never going to be Caucasian-Canadian. Nor can he be fully Korean due to some of the Western cultures and influences he’s been brought up with. The term “grey area” rarely has a positive connotation. But when it comes to the context of the “Banana”, I think we should take pride in being part of the grey area. We are not purely white nor purely Asian in any sense, but somewhere in between. It has been birthed out of two extremes into something new that has a global following and relevance. What’s not to be proud of?

-phibz
youtube/thebananatimes
twitter/bananatimes
twitter/philbertlui

You can watch the trailer for PEEL ME here:

PEEL ME is a short film created by us, The Banana Times, that recently screened at this year’s Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival in July and we also took home the Spectator Award of the night. We are immensely proud of this film and will continually shop it around various festivals in the coming year. Many have made requests for us to upload the whole film up onto Youtube, but due to the nature of the film, we would like to finish our festival run before letting cyberspace know what our film is about. But don’t fret, we will be releasing various clips from the film in the coming weeks to spread the word of PEEL ME. Here’s the first:

A Clip from PEEL ME – Old School Bananas VS New School Bananas:

As our co-founder Wilkin Cheung states in the clip, we find that there is a distinction in today’s society regarding the Banana. In later weeks we will upload a clip of our interview with Professor Theodore Goossen who specializes in East Asian Studies where he explains the origin of the term “Banana”. The term was originally used by an older generation of Asians who regarded themselves as purely Asian, against a younger generation of Asians who grew up or was heavily influenced by Western, North American or European attitudes and values. We here at The Banana Times find that there are more people who fit the New School Banana rather than the Old School Banana, where there are Asians who are completely Caucasian on the inside. This extreme Banana, so to speak, is rare in modern North American society where there are Asians who have no trace of their cultural heritage within them. Maybe with a few exceptions of Caucasian parents who have adopted Asian children might this be the case.

I guess we’re trying to beg the question: “Which is more prominent in today’s multicultural society: the Old School Banana, or the New School Banana?”

-phibz.
youtube/thebananatimes
twitter/bananatimes
twitter/philbertlui

Check out the trailer for PEEL ME:

I haven’t written a harsh and critical movie review since the comic-book adaptation blasphemy that is Spiderman 3, but thanks to Mr. Shamalamadingdong I get to vent once again. First things first, background check. I may be out of turn speaking so unkindly about a film that was adapted from a franchise that I only recently came to love. I only finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender two days before watching the live-action movie, meaning I am still in a haze of praise for the Nicktoon. But even if you disregard background knowledge of the animated series, M. Night Shyalaman’s The Last Airbender was a theatrical disaster.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS TO THE HORRIBLE EXCUSE OF CINEMA THAT IS M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN’S ‘THE LAST AIRBENDER’. JUST READ IT. YOU CAN THANK ME LATER.

First things first, since the ethnic mix up in the film is blatantly obvious, I’m going to disregard it, for now. I could come up with many theories on why Shyamalan decided to stray away from the source material and mess up all the races portrayed elegantly in the original series. For example, Shyalaman’s last three films have been pretty much failures, and I hope he knows that. It is possible that he needed to give himself (and his people) a big ego-boost by casting the powerful, colonizing and tyrannical Fire Nation as predominantly South Asian. How noble to give back to your people M. Night. If I had three consecutive horrible films and my next one was expected to be worse, I’d cast the powerful characters as Bananas (white-washed Asians, for lack of a lengthy description) for sure. Not white-washed Asians, actual bananas, they would be more menacing than the Fire Nation in the film anyway.

First thing that made me cringe, which was no more than 10 minutes into the film, was the pronunciation of words and names. Aang is “Ong” instead of “Ang”; Sokka is “Sow-ka” instead of “Soh-ka”; Iroh is “Ee-row” instead of “Ai-row”; and at times characters would say the word “Avatar” as if Arnorld Schwarzenegger possessed their body, and the list goes on. Understandably, this can be seen as Shyamalan’s feeble attempt at trying to inject some proper Chinese/Asian-ness into an otherwise rock-bottom attempt at trying to adhere to the original cartoon. But, film adaptations are allowed to vary with certain aspects such as pronunciation of certain words and names. But the problem is Shyamalan’s inconsistent and indecisive choices with his reference to the source material. He obviously wanted a trilogy, each film adapting the three books (Water, Earth, Fire), or three season of the cartoon. Why go through the trouble of mirroring the storyline and dialogue so similar in structure to the source material, and fail to mirror anything else of relevance?

Disregarding the wannabe Star Wars scrolling text at the beginning of the film, the introductory scene, where they reveal Avatar Aang for the first time, was so lackluster and uncaptivating that anyone can predict the rest of the film to be just as unimportant. This is the scene where THE Avatar! Savior of the world! Master of the four elements! Awakens from is century-long slumber to end the treachery of the Fire Nation. There was no sense of epicness, not even an exciting soundtrack to somehow uplift the importance of the Avatar’s reappearance. Nothing. No emotions of grandeur were conveyed, no urgency, nothing to steer the movie into any type of positive outcome. It’s as if Jesus’ second coming was greeted with a chorus of shoulder shrugs and people saying, “meh”.

Aang was supposed to awaken from the sphere of ice full of joy, playfulness and positive energy. He’s supposed to embody the endless amount of energy a 12-year old should have. Instead, the only slither of optimism he had was when he visited his old Air Temple. Most of the time he just looked confused and constipated. The weird expression he had at the end of the film when giving his half-assed monkey bow to the people of the Northern Water Tribe, reflected the look I had when watching the film. It was like he was resisting the pain of a very small carrot being shoved into his ear, without flinching.

Noah Ringer’s performance in The Last Airbender was definitely questionable, but seeing that he is new to acting and was chosen more for his martial arts background, it was somewhat excusable. It just goes to show Shyamalan’s direction of Haley Joel Osmond in The Six Sense was either a major fluke, or that someone else wrote the script for him (and maybe even held his hand and directed it for him). Basically, Shyamalan can’t direct kids, and it clearly shows in a movie where all the main characters are kids. Rest assured, the original trio of Aang, Katara and Sokka in the live-action version had no resembling mannerisms and personalities of their animated counterparts.

Nicola Peltz, who plays Katara, had a permanent worrisome frown on her face. She always looks concerned about something. That, or she was constantly constipated. Maybe that’s the general direction Shyamalan gave to his young actors. “Act worried! Act concerned! As if you really want to poo but you have to hold it in!” The one shot where she smiles is when Aang bends a giant tidal wave attempting to crush the Fire Nation navy, but of course he doesn’t follow through. Why have Katara break out of her worried constipated state and muster a passable smile as she witnesses the Avatar about to destroy the entire Fire navy only to have him resist as some sort of moral excuse? Katara wants the destruction of the Fire Nation navy Shyamalan! Just give it to her! There is no need for some righteous personality undertone for Aang’s character; you have modeled him to be nothing like his alter ego in the cartoon anyway. There is no quick fix for the sub-par direction Shymalan gave to the actors and the entire movie. And where was Koizilla!

“Sow-ka” was not even slightly as witty, wise-cracking, or as clumsy as he was in the original animation. He, much like his other young co-stars, also had a constipated and worried expression on their face. But what do you expect, it’s the same actor who played the crazy junky vampire in Twilight (yes, I regrettably watched that too). Basically the lightheartedness that packaged the animated series so well is completely non-existent in this movie. Iroh was not wise nor did he have his endless proverbial advice to give to Zuko. Above all, he only mentioned tea once. ONCE! He is a tea JUNKIE! It’s like making an Incredible Hulk movie and making his skin orange! Iroh needs his f***ing tea!

All in all, Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender failed to resemble anything good about the original animated series. He attempted to salvage himself through laughable ethnic pronunciations and a weak mimicry of structure of the original storyline. But there were good aspects to the movie (yeah, I’m surprised too). The first few seconds after the Star Wars scrolling text knock-off was the amazing sequence introducing the four bending elements. It mirrored the original opening sequence of the animated series and added longer authentic martial art movements. That was pretty much the best part of the film. A measly 10 seconds. It honestly got me extremely excited, only to have me sit through another two hours of constant crashing, burning and facepalming. I do have to commend Dev Patel’s decent performance as Prince Zuko. I do feel bad for him. After Oscar-winning success with Slumdog Millionaire, his next film had him surrounded by idiots. I bet he worked hard to put on that American-accent and desperate personality, but all to no avail. There is always one good thing with film adaptations, but they are almost always surrounded by sub-par direction and schoolyard screenwriting.

I shan’t write anymore, it gets my blood bending (see what I did there?). To fans that fell in love with the Nickelodeon original, I share your pain, even though I only joined your ranks recently. It seems that it is a trend in Hollywood to green-lit horrible adaptations of beloved comic books, video games or animated franchises. How many hearts are you going to break Hollywood? How many faces will you palm? How many more bad films are you going to make until you call it quits M. Night Shyalaman?

M. Night, you do understand that you are one of few fathers on Earth who ruined their child’s favorite cartoon right? Actually, that depressing club is just going to increase if more crappy adaptations are given a thumbs up.

If I were you M. Night, I would repent profusely and make a public apology to the thousands, if not millions of kids, teens and adults across the globe that had to see a great piece of storytelling ruined by your own hands. And if they do give the go ahead for adaptations of the Book of Earth and Book of Fire, I suggest you stay far, far away from it. Maybe then will your daughter begin to forgive you. Thank you.

Philbert: @philbertlui
Banana Times: @bananatimes

How nerdy are you when you recognize melodic similarities in theme songs from different Anime series? Otaku alert!

So when the fifth ending theme song, Ray Of Light by Shoko Nakagawa, premiered on episode 51 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I couldn’t help but notice a similar tune in a much earlier Anime, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, and one of its ending themes. Keep in mind that I find far-fetched resemblances in many things. Such as my post about Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes looking like Alucard who also resembles Carmen Sandiego.

First up, Ray Of Light in FMA: Brotherhood. Pay attention to the background strings from the beginning of the video to about the 0:32 point:

Now onto Yuu Yuu Hakusho’s Anbaransu na Kiss o Shite (Kissing the Unbalanced) by Takahashi Hiro. The similar background melody starts at the 1:12 mark:

Is it just me? Or do you catch the similarities as well?

-phibz.

PS: Click the links on the song titles to check out the full version of the songs.

If you don’t know already, The Banana Times and I have worked frequently with the Heroic Melon Collective. The HMC’s history is a new one, and as of April 2010 it would be one year old! I am truly proud to be part of Heroic Melon for many reasons, most recently because of THIS. It’s like raising a child that breastfeeds from 5 heterosexual (for the most part) fathers. Quite an image (:

On to the main point. Even though the HMC is still in its infant stages, we managed to garner a following so numerous it can trample over the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can’t Read Good And Who Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too‘s model.. To that effect we present to you this amazing piece of fan art from xlithiumflowerx aka Kei-chan (that’s what I call her)!!

On behalf of the HMC, we are truly honored and ecstatic to receive this awesome token of appreciation. Go check out her deviatart site HERE! She has other amazing artwork like this Kamen Rider!! How crazy is that?! Also follow her on Twitter KOCHI!

To end off, here’s a little bit of “art” that I did, dedicated to the Heroic Melon Collective (:

(Hiroiku Meron Korekuchibu)

I ran out of magnets to make double consonants or innovative Katakana characters, but it still works! (the tail of ‘チ’ could bend a little more..)

-phibz.

I’m proud to be part of a creative group of people who are brilliant enough to create great works of awesomeoness (and otakuness), shown in the Central Squares Saga. In the name of loving martial arts, anime, and all things nerdy, Central Squares is a true testament to the power of popular youth media, both Eastern and Western.

In 2006, the first installment of the Central Squares Saga garnered over 18,000 views on YouTube with its intended slapstick cheesiness and low-budget appearance. Above all, its ridiculous humour caught the unexpected waves of the Internet. Unknown to many, the title “Central Squares” has no direct connection to the narrative (or lack thereof) of the video series, but is simply the name of the area of York University in which it was filmed.

A surprise to most, four years later, a sequel was born. With a better set of hands provided by the Heroic Melon Collective and a departure from the beloved handycam look, Central Squares II was bigger, better, flashier, and more nerdy, with a plethora of references to popular video games, anime and television shows:

Dragonball, Star Wars, Naruto, you name it, and Central Squares II pays homage to it in some way. If my nerdiness serves me right, I counted at least 9 references to popular youth media. As I mentioned on our Twitter page, “It has references up the BUTT!”, which makes it all the more epic.

It took four years before a sequel was released, do we have to wait until 2014 before we see Central Squares III? I highly doubt that. Considering the diverse body of work the HMC have created, they are more than capable (not including myself, of course) of doing one, if not two, more installments to this great fanboy saga. With that said, RJ Tumanguil (Perfect Destiny Pictures) has sacrificed blood, sweat, tears, and many nights of sleep to polish the grand display of special effects in CS2. For now, we’ll let the trooper rest. For now (:

-phibz.