FELIP, the leading face of the Filipino music scene, visits Japan! After his first live performance in Japan, FELIP’s love for manga and anime explodes with a shopping spree! 【Pocket Money Shopping Spree with Animate】

Sakuragi Hanamichi as a life guiding star

(FELIP finds SLAM DUNK on the shelf)

FELIP: "SLAM DUNK was my first love! I’ll look for the art book later."

Animate Times: "You really love it, huh!"

FELIP: "I love it so much! My current hair color is red because of Sakuragi Hanamichi.”

FELIP (in Japanese): “Hanamichi daisuke!” (I adore Hanamichi!)”

Animate Times: (laughs)

FELIP: "I even have the same basketball shoes that Hanamichi wears."

Animate Times: "Wow, that’s a dedication. Do you play basketball, too?"

FELIP: "Of course! And I’m good at it (laughs)."

Animate Times: "In the music video for your song STRAYDOGS, you filmed at Enoshima and Kamakura, where SLAM DUNK is set, right?"

FELIP: "Yes! I took a three-hour trip to Kamakura just for Hanamichi. It was definitely worth it."

FELIP: "I’m also buying a copy of SLAM DUNK now. I love the theme song Sekai Ga Owaru Made Wa."

FELIP staff: "Sing it!"

FELIP: "No way! I don’t want to mess up the lyrics in front of you guys (laughs)."

【コミック】SLAM DUNK -スラムダンク- 新装再編版(1)

　
(The staff then brings the art book of SLAM DUNK.)

Animate Times: "This is the art book of SLAM DUNK. There are two of them: Inoue Takehiko illustrations, PLUS/SLAM DUNK ILLUSTRATIONS 2.

FELIP: Oh wow! This is amazing… I can say this over and over, but I really love SLAM DUNK. To the level that I cosplay Hanamichi. I will buy both of them!

【イラスト集】INOUE TAKEHIKO ILLUSTRATIONS

【イラスト集】PLUS/SLAM DUNK ILLUSTRATIONS(2)

It was SLAM DUNK, a popular manga series by Inoue Takehiko, that influenced FELIP’s hairstyle, shoes, and even his music video. We never would have guessed that his cool red hair was inspired by Hanamichi! Getting more familiar with FELIP’s excessive love, we kept looking around the manga floor.

FELIP says he’s currently obsessed with Black Clover. Although there wasn’t a bilingual version of the title, he said, "Maybe I’ll use a translator to read it. One day, I’ll practice enough Japanese to read it fluently!" with a charming smile.

A shopping spree on the goods floor!

After browsing the manga floor, FELIP headed to the 5th floor, where you can find character goods and merchandise. We continued looking for goods from the Weekly Shonen Jump world. Picking up an acrylic stand of Aomine Daiki, a character from Kuroko’s Basketball, FELIP explains that he wrote his heavy-rap-tune anthem SUPERIORITY based on the line by Aomine that goes “The only one who can beat me is me.”

Particularly choosing an acrylic stand of Aomine Daiki from Kuroko's Basketball. "His line, 'The only one who can beat me is me,' inspired my rap track SUPERIORITY," FELIP shared.

It is evident that the manga and anime from Japan is a part of FELIP’s flesh and blood.
Also, we found FELIP’s long-awaited Choso goods at the 5th floor: Stuffed Doll KeyChain withCAT Eye Mask (Choso). Rapidly, FELIP continues his shopping spree by adding 3 pieces of uniforms by Haikyuu!! In his shopping bag.

【グッズ-キーホルダー】呪術廻戦 第2期 withCATアイマスク付きぬいぐるみキーホルダー/脹相

【グッズ-Tシャツ】ハイキュー!! 高校ユニフォーム 烏野高校 澤村大地 XL

FELIP: "With Haikyuu!!, I like Shoyo Hinata, Kenma Kozume, and Kotaro Bokuto. They have great fighting spirit and I think that’s cool."

Animate Times: "Do you especially like sports manga series?”

FELIP: "I don’t really stick to one genre. I like isekai, sports, and sci-fi genres. And, of course, Jump titles."

He also mentioned that he’s not exactly a sci-fi maniac but loves works like Parasite and Dr. STONE. He then adds his other favorite titles like Tokyo Revengers and WIND BREAKER.

Animate Times: "Such titles are so-called ‘Yankee Manga’ in Japan."

FELIP: "Oh really! I do get attracted to aggressive personalities."

Animate Times: "I see."

FELIP: "Does that phrase ‘naruhodo’ you’ve been saying in Japanese mean ‘I see’?"

Animate Times: "Yes (laughs)"

FELIP: "Naruhodo (‘I see’ in Japanese). I just learned another Japanese vocabulary. "

Now it’s time to wrap the shopping spree. FELIP’s shopping basket was overflowing, and when we tallied the total, it came down to 26,860 yen - five times over the 5,000 yen limit!

Animate Times: "Once you become an adult and start to work, you tend to purchase a lot of goods without much thought. The idea behind this feature is to remember the times when you had a budget limit, and try to choose what you really like to have."

FELIP: "I see! It’s so true that we need to buy with a sense of responsibility. So…I swear to my mom that I will work harder, so I must buy the 2 SLAM DUNK art books!"

Animate Times: "That’d be about 6,000 yen…but in celebration of the success of your first Japan show, we will buy the books as a special bonus for you!"

FELIP: "Thank you so much mom! I’m so happy. I realized how Japanese people are living my dreams through this feature. You guys can casually go like ‘I’ll go buy the next book’ when you are finished with your book, right? We need to wait for more than a week to read the next. I ask my staff or friends to fetch the books every time they go to Japan."

FELIP’s buys are these 2 items -

- INOUE TAKEHIKO ILLUSTRATIONS

【イラスト集】INOUE TAKEHIKO ILLUSTRATIONS

　
- PLUS/SLAM DUNK ILLUSTRATIONS (2)

【イラスト集】PLUS/SLAM DUNK ILLUSTRATIONS(2)

　
The total price was 6,055 yen. FELIP beamed with happiness buying his beloved SLAM DUNK art books!

After the shopping spree, FELIP and his crews kept buying a variety of other goods they had picked out during their visit. Animate Times has interviewed FELIP how the shopping today felt like.