Kamagong, A New Filipino Anime Soon to Launched in the Philippines

Kamagong: The Animation is in production and there’s no definite release date yet, but Sinag Animation Studios president and CEO Dex Villamin said that they are looking to release the anime series in 2019. This sounds very exciting! Filipino-founded Sinag Animation Studios (SAS) is set to issue an anime-styled series based on Kamagong, director Carlo J. Caparas’s comic series about the Filipino martial art of arnis, which was made into a motion picture in 1986.

The very first Kamagong was shown in theaters in 1986. This was starred by actors, Lito Lapid and JC Bonnin and was written and directed by Carlo J. Caparas. 2019 Kamagong: The Animation, on the other hand, is penned by Christian Mark Vidallo, Crisanto King Cortez, and Dex Villamin.
On the other hand, the theme song of this animated series in the Title “Ako’y Magwawagi” was sung by Teddy Corpuz. According to, Mr. Villamin, “Kamagong deserves its near-legendary status in Philippine cinema for making the nation aware of one of its greatest cultural treasures, the art of arnis. We at Sinag Animation Studios are proud to introduce Mr. Caparas’s work to a new generation of Filipinos.”

This animated series follows the story of protagonist Bagtas, the heir to Namayan, a kingdom imprisoned by a foreign empire. His goal is to find the eight bulawans of Bathala to unleash the true power of the titular weapon Kamagong.

Anime lover especially Filipinos will be very happy about this series!
Mr. Villamin said that apart from featuring the Philippines’ own martial art and national sport, the animated series may profit local tourism as Bagtas’s quests take him to different locations around the country. Arnis, also known as eskrima or kali, is a weapon-based martial art practiced in the Philippines. Its exact origin remains unknown, but not a few arnis practitioners attribute its creation to pre-Hispanic Filipinos, particularly Mactan’s hero-chieftain, Lapu-Lapu.

Philippines Have Censored My Hero Academia

Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia has only become more popular in the last few years, and fans have come to love the series' world and characters for their wide variety of personalities and designs. This is especially true for Class 1-A's hero costumes, though one has definitely gotten more attention from the rest. Momo Yayorozu's costume is particularly revealing (and thus a popular choice for cosplay), but seems to be too revealing for one TV network in the Phillipines.

As highlighted by @uwucliffe on Twitter, popular TV network in the Phillipines ABS-CBN oddly censored Yaoyorozu's hero costume with a distinct and hilariously out of place blur.

My Hero Academia fans have been divided over Yaoyorozu's hero costume ever since it debuted in the series, but while it shows a lot of skin, fans generally agree it's not particularly as inappropriate as censoring the outfit would suggest. The explanation the series gives for this outfit is that Yaoyorozu needs to show as much skin as possible because her creation quirk burns through the lipids in her body. While this does not sway every fan, it's generally accepted.

But this hilarious blur over her extended cleavage certainly has gotten attention for its out of place weirdness. @uwucliffe shared another example of Yaoyorozu's censorship (which you can find below), and it brings this weird blur to an even greater focus. It's one of those situations where it's such a ridiculous thing it comes around to being hilariously great.

This calls to mind the many ways anime has been censored for various markets over the years, and some are definitely more aggressive in what they refuse to show than others. But at least there are now options for fans in the Philippines to stream various anime series these days and heavily edited network television isn't the only way to see My Hero Academia in that market.

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he's eventually scouted by the world's best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015. My Hero Academia is gearing up for an even bigger end of 2019 with a new film in theaters later this year too.