The Mike Abundo Effect

Philippine TV network GMA is about to make their own version of the tokusatsu classic Shaider. The genius director they’ve chosen for the job? Dominic Zapata, the same guy who ripped off Sailormoon and denied it. The show will replace GMA’s short-lived Indiana Jones/Lara Croft double ripoff Asian Treasures.

Oh yeah, all this rehashing and bastardization will definitely save GMA’s falling profits.

Dominic Zapata, director of GMA’s Sailormoon ripoff Super Twins, deserves a medal from me. People like him accelerate the fall of Philippine TV, much to my delight as a Filipino YouTuber.

Prior to the start of series, many have been pointing out that Super Twins is a rip-off of anime series such as Sailor Moon and Amazing Twins. The show’s director, Dominic Zapata, cleared things out by saying, “If you find similarities, it is outright coincidental. Hindi po ako nakakapanood ng Sailor Moon and Amazing Twins.”

He sure “cleared things out”, alright — like a hot stinking fart clears out a room. Oh, and Amazing Twins is a live-action Mandarin series, not a Japanese anime.

“Sabi ng lawyer, you shouldn’t have access to these things. It’s not something na nagawa na dati-[it has] a new story, nice drama and solid characters.”

So a Philippine TV director needs a lawyer to assure him he “shouldn’t have access” to Sailormoon, one of the most popular anime in Philippine TV history? I don’t know who’s dumber: the director or the lawyer.

I hope these Philippine TV dinosaurs never learn that they can’t lie to a connected population. That way, their constant bumbling will provide us hours of amusement before the growth of the Philippine Internet crushes them.

(Via Jepoy Bengero.)

Inquirer.net editor Joey Alarilla lays the smackdown on GMANews.tv editor-in-chief Malou Mangahas for her TV dogs’ conspiring to scavenge around his podcast interviews (Yeah, I know. Offline media surviving off scraps from online media. Fun times.). The last few paragraphs convey a veiled threat to keep her dogs at bay.

So, yes, it’s all been about civility.

It’s the same civility that has prevented us from pointing out that you set up GMANews.tv some eight months ago when your network had an existing agreement that INQ7.net was the news site of both the Philippine Daily Inquirer and GMA Network.

It’s the same civility that has prevented us from telling the whole truth about INQ7.net, while you go around playing the good cop, taking the “high road” and telling bloggers that it’s all a misunderstanding.

I wonder, is it easier to take the high road when you’re the one who’s at fault, and to remain silent when the truth would hurt your organization if it comes out?

Yes, we all know a lot of things, and we’ve been civil despite everything that has been happening behind the scenes.

But don’t mistake civility for approval, or expect it to last forever.

First they try to stab an online partner in the back, then they try to scavenge off its table scraps. What a sad little TV network.