I'll be going to Perlis!

Tomorrow some members of my family will be going to Perlis, the northernmost state of Peninsular Malaysia for somebody's wedding. I think this is the second time going far away (not including Perak) because in June, me and my family have gone to Langkawi for vacation and Alor Setar for my mother's younger brother's wedding. This time is a bit further because Perlis is close to the international border and in the neighbouring country of Thailand they use a different time zone which is UTC +19:00.

TV test patterns in Malaysia

From my Flickr photo page
 
TV test patterns used during off air time by local free-to-air TV stations in 2009

TV Alhijrah colour bars in 2010

EBU colour bars before TV Alhijrah test transmissions in late 2010

Philips PM5544 in 2011 on TV1

Comparison between Philips PM5544 in 2012 and 1986 on TV1

Ah Ziz Kota on Melodi 1995 and 1996

Ah Ziz Kota is a young man who found his fame in Sinaran, a talent show on TV3 in 1994. His stage name is a parody of Aziz Desa who presented Malaysia Hari Ini in the same year. In 1995, Ah Ziz Kota appeared in the gossip segment of Melodi as a stereotypical Chinese businessman. He sometimes appear as the real himself when he is in relief for Fauziah Ahmad Daud, the presenter of Melodi between late 1993 and 1997. I only know about him when the Emas channel on HyppTV Unifi aired Melodi episodes from the 1990s.

Fujiko anime currently airing in Malaysia (as of November 2012)

This is a list of Fujiko anime which is currently airing in Malaysia as of November 2012, compiled by myself. "Fujiko anime" refers to any anime that is based on either Fujiko F. Fujio or Fujiko Fujio A's works (eg. Doraemon and Ninja Hattori-kun). All animes are broadcast in their own flexible time (especially pay-TV) except otherwise stated.

FUJIKO F. FUJIO
1. Doraemon (NTV7, Sat 7:30 pm) - has been on this timeslot for a long time since 2003. Has been on NTV7 since 2002 with Crayon Shin Chan and was originally on TV1. Currently airs episodes from 2005 (the new series since 2005 in Japanese run) on a re-run basis before waiting for new episodes from 2006 onwards. The drawing song at the end of the show was dubbed in Malay. Doraemon movies have also been aired on Astro Ceria.
2. Kiteretsu (TV3, Mon 6:30 pm) - has been airing since March 2007. Episodes are currently from Spring 1995 period.
3. Perman (TV9, Fri 7:00 pm) - airs on this channel since 2009 with Monster Kids (Kaibutsu-kun). The original airtime was Sunday 5:30 pm; the current airtime was made in late 2010. Was aired on TV2 in the early 2000s in the morning.
4. Chimpui (Disney Channel Asia Astro Ch 615) - the first time an anime based on Fujiko F. Fujio's work is broadcast on pay-TV. Both the opening and ending songs are dubbed in Malay audio track and English audio track (Disney Channel's official broadcast language), however the opening and ending songs that is originally in Japanese is present in the Mandarin audio track.

FUJIKO FUJIO A
1. Ninja Hattori-kun (Astro Ceria) - originally aired on NTV7 between 2006 and 2009. The original dubbed audio track is still present when it is airing on Astro Ceria.
2. Monster Kid (Astro Ceria) - also known as Kaibutsu-kun in Japan. In TV9 it airs as "Monster Kids" and was aired between 2009 and 2011. The original dubbed audio track is still present when it is airing on Astro Ceria.

NTV7 airs more paranormal documentaries than any other free-to-air station

Looking at this week's NTV7 schedule yesterday, I could analyse that this TV station has more programmes related to paranormal and ghost stories than any other free-to-air TV station (not counting pay-TV). I'm not a real fan or interested with these matter but I have some enthusiasm to list out the programmes related to the matter.

Here are some of the paranormal and ghost story documentaries that are airing on NTV7. The first two airs at prime time. The third is a re-run while the fourth airs after midnight. The last one is currently in hiatus. The countries where the documentaries were made (second to fourth) are shown in brackets.
1. Paranormal Zone (locally-produced in English)
2. Ghost Lab (American)
3. Incredible Tales (Singapore)
4. The Unbelieveable (Hong Kong)
5. Seekers (locally-produced in Malay, has been airing on NTV7 since the mid-2000s)

NTV7's sister station, TV9 has started another paranormal documentary called Misteri Malam, which introduces viewers evidences made by local celebrities about ghosts and paranormal matters. TV9 also earlier started Switch Off, a reality show which challenges indie band celebrities about the same thing. TV3 has broadcast Misteri Nusantara which has been aired around the same time since NTV7's Seekers was started.

Local women-targeted TV channel to launch in 2013

Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Prime Minister launched a TV channel exclusively for women at Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur on November 23, as reported by Bernama. Femina Channel will launch in 2013 through multichannel TV services (pay-TV) as a free channel. It is broadcasting from Innovation House, Technology Park Malaysia, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur. Programme genres that will be broadcast include drama, reality, news and health for women. It is operated by Panomax (M) Sdn Bhd and the managing director is Mohd Johari Mohd Noor, as revealed in The Star the next day. This channel is currently under trial transmission.

(Updated on November 24)

My new review about Chimpui

Since the first time I saw Chimpui on Malaysian TV, I've mentioned a lot about Chimpui anime from the man behind Doraemon in terms of content and scheduling of the anime in my blog. The start of the anime was flexible since it's already school holidays. Today I will talk about the episode synopses for the Chimpui anime that have been broadcast until today, my thoughts about Chimpui and the airtime schedule for Chimpui on Disney Channel Asia.

Episode 1: In the first story, Chimpui and Grandpa Wanderyu, two alien creatures from Planet Mahl came to meet Eri to announce that she was selected to be the bride of a prince. Eri's mother was going out and advised Eri to look after their house and avoid meeting with fake salespeople. In another story, Eri talks to her friend Uchiki that she found a new friend called Chimpui. Eri doesn't like Uchiki being busy playing baseball that his friends forced to, so Chimpui helped him. Uchiki also made a trick by pretending Chimpui as a stuffed toy to Eri's mother. In the end of the story, Chimpui was seen eating ramen which would later become his favourite food.

Episode 2: Wanderyu films the life of Eri on a disc which makes her embarassed. Eri was eager to know how life in Planet Mahl looks like so he showed a promotional disc to her. Planet Mahl is shaped like a soccer ball but the number of shapes in the planet is more than that of a soccer ball. In another story, Eri and her friends are busy completing their school assignment about their family's ancestor roots.

Episode 3: Eri wants to go for a vacation in Okinawa like how Sunemi and her parents did so she and Uchiki was brought to there through a teleport by Chimpui by holding his tail. The excessive use of teleporting by Chimpui makes his energy heavily decreased. In another story, Eri obtains power from Chimpui by making a trick to him.

Episode 4: Wanderyu meets with Uchiki and tests his bravery and wants him to avoid being friends with Eri to protect her future. (This is Wandayu of Indonesia's favourite story). In another story, Chimpui bought some special paper where Eri can write somebody's name to avoid being seen by the person she wrote on the paper. Wandayu wants to film Eri and Chimpui having an interaction between animals. Wanderyu also revealed that Chimpui dislikes cats because he is a mouse. It is almost similar to Doraemon dislikes mouse because he is a robot cat.

I want to make some thoughts about Chimpui. The anime is more like a shojo anime but has science fiction elements much like how animes based on manga series by Fujiko F. Fujio would do. I've once heard that it is the girls version of Doraemon. Its content is more targeted towards a goal, making preparations to meet Eri's future husband who is waiting far away in Planet Mahl in the nearest time. The royal family in Planet Mahl are married at the same age as Eri which is at childhood stage, unlike people who would marry at adult stage in earth.

Chimpui is the main character in the series with Wanderyu in between helping him. They are both alien creatures from Planet Mahl who are shaped like a mouse and a dog respectively. At first I thought that both characters can't speak like human and only cry out their name and Chimpui is more like a unique creature, but my predictions were false. Eri is the character who accompanies Chimpui in the series. Her characteristics can be compared with Nobita in Doraemon. She also has the habit of entering her house through the garden fence.

Eri's friend Uchiki in the terms of his zigzag hairstyle is like Takahata in Esper Mami and Gian in Doraemon. His characteristic is more like Dekisugi in Doraemon. The character Sunemi in the anime in terms of look and characteristic really resembles Suneo in Doraemon.

And about the airtime of Chimpui on Disney Channel Asia, I was glad that the channel was able to air repeats of Chimpui, not as I thought in my earlier blogposts. It would also be the first time in Malaysia a Fujiko anime that has repeats in supplement of the main broadcast (on a pay-TV, not including Doraemon movies, Ninja Hattori-kun and Monster Kid by Fujiko Fujio A which is re-run and repeated on Astro Ceria). The schedule as follows:

Monday to Friday: 8:30 am, 1:30 pm (main broadcast)
Saturday: 2:00 pm
Sunday: 6:00 am, 3:00 pm. 

Chimpui episode flow on Disney Channel Asia

Continuing from my previous blogpost, I wasn't really sure how the episode flow of Chimpui on Disney Channel Asia starting from last Thursday looks like (they repeat episode one on that day) until I watched today's Chimpui which was actually repeat of last Wednesday's episode three. I'm most sure that the channel will air episode four and the next one starting tomorrow onwards.

UPDATE at 12:30 pm November 20: A repeat broadcast of Chimpui has been added by Disney Channel Asia at 8:30 am. The current episode position is episode two and was started yesterday.

(This blogpost has to do with the scheduling of a TV programme and is not related to the programme's content)

Traffic-specialised radio station would be possible in Malaysia

PLUS Malaysia Berhad CEO Datuk Noorizah Abdul Hamid was featured on The Star today. She was talking about organising traffic information on its expressway network. PLUS collaborates with radio stations and relies on their goodwill to broadcast traffic updates provided by its personnel monitoring the traffic at Persada PLUS at Kelana Jaya. Noorizah says opening a radio station specialising on traffic information (traffic updates) is not part of the company's business but could consider setting up a radio station if the need arises. It must also involve other highway operators in the country besides PLUS. Meanwhile PLUS corporate communications head Mohd Nizam Ismail recommends to keep up to date with by following its twitter handles "@plustrafik" for traffic updates and "@KembaraPLUS" for highway users planning for travel and holiday.  

TV Alhijrah's 2nd year of broadcasting

Yesterday TV Alhijrah introduced a brand new presentation design for its 2nd anniversary which is more colourful but still retains its theme song.

Y.B. Mejar Jeneral Dato' Seri Jamil Khir bin Haji Baharom who is the Minister in the Prime Minister Department was also there in a ceremony commemorating TV Alhijrah's 2nd anniversary event that lasted for two hours between 8:30 and 10:30 pm. He also announced that TV Alhijrah will be expanded to Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor in January 2013. I believe that this will complete the nationwide terrestrial coverage of TV Alhijrah.

Complaining about the broadcast of Chimpui on Disney Channel Asia

Yesterday when I watched the premiere broadcast of the Chimpui anime on Disney Channel Asia, I thought that it will broadcast the first episode again just like what the channel did last Saturday and also episode two today, but they did the other way by just continue airing episode three instead of showing episode one and airing episode four and the next onwards starting today even though Chimpui now airs at a fixed airtime of Monday-Friday 1:30 pm, not as I was expected. Even worse, Chimpui airs an episode once and will not be repeated again, maybe. The channel does not want to give Chimpui the opportunity to air repeats after the first showing unlike other shows that are airing on the channel. Of course, TV channels that are not on the terrestrial platform has more opportunity to air repeats of their shows for the benefit of its audience, especially those who do not have a video recorder.

UPDATE at 2:53 pm: I watched Chimpui this afternoon on Disney Channel Asia and aired the first episode again, not another episode after episode three yesterday. I don't know what happens next tomorrow.

Maal Hijrah

Good morning everyone. Today is the first day of the Islamic calendar. It's 1 Muharram 1434AH. The first day of the Islamic calendar is celebrated by Muslims to commemorate the hijrah of Rasulullah SAW and his followers from Makkah to Madinah to spread the jihad and the teachings of Islam as guided by Allah SWT. The outcome from the Hijrah was the Madinah Charter which was the first written constitution in the world. The constitution was agreed together with the Muslims and non-Muslims in Madinah. Hijrah in today's context can also mean changing our ways, from being bad to be good in a more Islamic way.

In Malaysia, the Maal Hijrah is celebrated nationwide such as doing the prayers for the new year in the Islamic calendar which is called "doa akhir tahun" and "doa awal tahun" which is read before and after the Azan Maghrib. This practice was officially started during the Khalifah Umar Al-Khattab era.

I knew a lot about the Hijrah because this event was mentioned in the Sejarah textbook. Even when I first received the Sejarah Paper 3 paper a month ago, the question paper asked about Hijrah. So on this opportunity, I would like to say Selamat Maal Hijrah to all Muslims around the world.

Wandayu of Indonesia's thoughts about Chimpui

Today while I was surfing the internet I was busy searching for pictures about Chimpui on Google Search until I saw this blogpost made by Wandayu of Indonesia. She is talking about Chimpui, her favourite anime ("film kartun") that she watched at a time during her primary school days. Even her friends called her "Paman Wandayuu", after one of the characters in Chimpui. So this is probably the reason why the Wanderyu's blog is named. What a coincidence.  Paman here refers to grandfather in Indonesian language and also used as a name and its variations for males in Indonesia. The definition of the Paman name is not related to the anime Perman by Fujiko F. Fujio. (The name of Perman anime in Indonesia is changed to P-Man when it was shown there).

When she is 19, she surfed the internet to find pictures about Chimpui. She says that there are fewer threads that discuss about the anime. She also says that the pictures are almost like the Doraemon manga. She also made a synopsis about the anime. She says that the anime is about a girl named Kazuga Eri who is a tomboy. She likes to enter the house through the fence. One day, two aliens came to Eri's room to give a piece of news that she is selected to be the bride of Prince Lulealv from planet Mahl. But Eri didn't accept it. Because of that, Wanderyuu, a dog-shaped alien wanted Chimpui, a mouse-shaped alien to stay with Eri temporarily and at the same time agreed to marry the prince. Slowly they like each other as a friend because Chimpui always helps Eri.

Eri is also as lazy as Nobita in Doraemon and dislikes doing housewife chores. She has a good friend called Uchiki. He is poor in sports but she is as smart as Dekisugi in Doraemon.

Brief opinion about the usage of internet by the local media nowadays

Just took out some excerpts from my Facebook page where tonight I had expressed my opinion about the usage of internet by the local media nowadays.

1. Companies nowadays prefer to use social media more often than using only websites, especially Facebook. In my opinion, companies think that using facebook allows more interaction between the company and its customers rather than websites which is more one-sided.

2. I can already feel like local TV stations are too late to introduce a news website, unlike newspapers and news agencies where they have one each. RTM now has one, Media Prima has one too since 2011. Both stations have a few attempts to introduce a news website in the 2000s. Astro Awani prefers Facebook instead. 

3. (refrerring to the 1st paragraph above) When companies use Facebook more often, they will almost forget about their website. That's my opinion.

Terrestrial digital TV in Malaysia becomes very possible

Recently I was feeling excited because The Star reports that the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has shortlisted three companies i-Media, Puncak Semangat and Redtone for the digital terrestrial television broadcast (DTTB) infrastructure contract with the first rollout starting in early 2014. Three companies have been selected from the many companies whhich is under the Applicant Information Package. Then, the companies will have to submit a more detalied business plan within six months based on the original submission for the first round of evaluation. The results of the second round evaluation will be announced in July 2013 where only one company will be selected to make the DTTB roll out starting early 2014. By the end of 2015 there will be full nationwide coverage.

Summing up from the news report that I've read, there is a possibility that DTTB will arrive in Malaysia soon, not rumours that Malaysia will not have DTTB. Currently, digital TV is provided through satellite pay-TV provider Astro and several fibre-optic IPTV providers such as Hypp TV Unifi and Maxis Home.

A review about Chimpui

I've just watched one-hour premiere of Chimpui, the anime from the man behind Doraemon on Disney Channel Asia (Astro Ch 615). The one-hour premiere which aired at 2:00 pm today is the first showing of the first two episodes that will be airing at a regular airtime starting Nov 14 at 1:30 pm. This is the first time a Fujiko anime is airing on a pay-TV in Malaysia. The anime which is broadcast on this channel is dubbed in English, Malay and Chinese (in my country), especially for the opening and ending songs which were all dubbed. I watched the whole thing in English.

I first knew about Chimpui on the internet when I saw some excerpts of the Chimpui manga posted by a Japanese blogger named Sukoshi Fushigi. Chimpui originally appeared as a manga series in 1985. It later became an anime series in 1989. So I probably have some knowledge about that before the anime was broadcast in my country.

The story of Chimpui begins when a group of creatures Chimpui annd Wanderyu the dog from planet Mahl selected a girl named Eri-chan to become the bride of a prince. The ending of the story was Chimpui finished up Eri-chan's housechores by saying "Chimpui", his catchprase or a spell, I think

The second story introduces to a new character called Uchiki, Eri-chan's friend. Eri-chan didn't like Uchiki being busy playing with baseball that his friends forced (Uchiki's friends' faces look more like Gian and Suneo). Then Chimpui casts a spell by having rain on Uchiki's friends to interrupt the game. Later, Uchiki met with Eri-chan again. Uchiki was fascinated watching Chimpui because he has never seen an alien like this before. Back at home, Eri-chan was worried about her reactions about Chimpui to her mother. Uchiki knows that Eri-chan's mother has weakness too which is does not like to have pets at home. He gave her a good idea by pretending Chimpui as a stuffed toy to Eri-chan's mother. In the last scene, Eri-chan prepared some ramen to Chimpui which would later became Chimpui's favourite food. Thinking of Doraemon likes dorayaki and Korosuke likes korokke. (When I first wrote this blogpost I thought that Chimpui's favourite food was introduced in the first story, I later corrected because it was wrong).

In episode two, the first story is about Wanderyu paying a visit to Eri-chan to watch a promotional disc about the life at planet Mahl. Planet Mahl is shaped like a soccer ball but it is pink in colour.

The second story is about Eri-chan's friends are getting busy completing their assigment on finding their family history. I also saw Suneo-lookalike girl. The ending of the story is a bit complicated.

(Revised on November 11 and 16)

TV Alhijrah expands to Kelantan and cooperates with Peace TV

TV Alhijrah's terrestrial transmissions have been expanded to Kelantan today, according to blogger Aku Pasrah. It broadcasts using UHF channel 48. The transmission site is at Menara TM, Telipot, Kelantan, shared with several free-to-air TV stations in the site. Some months ago, TV Alhijrah had started broadcasting to the states of Kedah and Perak. Meanwhile, the blogger says that TV Alhijrah started cooperating with Peace TV, an Islamic satellite TV channel, to broadcast programmes from Peace TV in the Bicara Tonight slot. Programmes that will be broadcast include "ceramahs" from Zakir Naik Malaysian Tour 2012 (according to TV Alhijrah's official website), Yusuf Estes (who has appeared on Tell Us About Islam, a children's show on Astro Oasis) and Abdur Raheem Green. Berita Harian reports that TV Alhijrah will extend broadcasting hours to 2:00 am starting November 15 in conjunction with TV Alhijrah's 2nd anniversary.

(Revised on November 11)

Moretsu-kai in Kiteretsu and Chimpui will air on Malaysian TV

Today I've found two things around the Fujiko anime genre. The first one is in Kiteretsu on TV3 where there is a new character called Moretsu-sai. He was once a good friend of Kiteretsu since their youth years while studying at Nagasaki, creating new things together, until Moretsu-sai saw Kiteretsu-sai making a robot that would be called Korosuke. This causes Moretsu-sai to start disliking Kiteretsu-sai's inventions, so he build his own robot called Koronoshin. The robot is more powerful than Korosuke. The below picture is the ancestor of Moretsu-sai and Koronoshin in the episode.

Meanwhile after I watched Kiterestu I suddenly saw a promo for a Fujiko anime called "Chimpui". It will be airing on Disney Channel Asia (Astro Channel 615) on November 14 at 1:30 pm. I was extremely excited because this would be the first time a Fujiko anime will be airing on a Malaysian pay TV channel. More than that, it airs for the whole Southeast Asian region because of their coverage. Even more importantly, this is the first time a Fujiko anime will be broadcast English-dubbed. The preceeding Fujiko animes (Doraemon, Perman and Kiteretsu) have been aired on free-to-air TV while Fujiko Fujio A's animes (Ninja Hattori-kun and Kaibutsu-kun) have also formerly aired on free-to-air TV and on Astro Ceria.

It's already November!

Hi everyone! It's already November. The year-end exams at my school is over and the last paper for the exam was Sejarah Paper 3 (History subject). It's an open-book test with where candidates at have to prepare materials such as Sejarah text book and reference books related to a question related based on a topic in Sejarah given a month before the exam as an assignment beforehand. The year-end exams happened throughout the month of October and I was busy with it.

With the end of the year-end exams, I can now relax a bit and enjoy my school holidays. I've missed a lot of shows that I REALLY want to watch. What I mean is the shows that only stream on the internet but not airing on local TV such as the Kaibutsu-kun drama and the ongoing anime Uchu Kyodai. But I can still catch up on shows that are aired on local free-to-air TV such as Perman and Kiteretsu.  Besides, I can also find anything interesting and learning more on the internet. And I can spend more time writing my thoughts and also my interests on my blog too!

Oh wait, my parents have planned something for this school holidays, like going for a holiday. This weekend me and my younger brother will be going to Melaka with NASOM students. And also, my father is going to climb Mount Kinabalu next month, so he is going to make his body in good shape.

Starting next year I will be taking SPM exams. So that means I have to be more serious with studies. I'll start going to tution next month.

That's all for my blogpost for today. See you soon!