What ‘#MyDay the Series’ Means to the Future of Oxin Studios and PEPPS

The Background

About four months ago, Oxin Studios, known as Oxin Films on Youtube, is kind of a dead channel. In the real world, they do have a lot of projects, usually involving product shoots, AVPs, and other corporate stuff.

Then came the BL or ‘Boys Love’ series phenomenon whose market usually consists of Southeast Asian as well as the Hispanic audience.

So, Oxin Studios, specifically its good-looking progenitor and leading director, Sean Lim aka Xion Lim, decided to make one.

And the rest is history.

From less than 100 views a day, the channel now gains more than 100,000 views per day to more than half a million. The channel now has more than 100,000 subscribers and peaked this September, has started gaining momentum in June 2020 when they first released announcements regarding the series.

So, where does PEPPS come in aside from the obvious partnership with Oxin Films? Well, if you are not much into the male pageant scene in the Philippines, you might not be aware that PEPPS is the biggest male pageant producer in the country. Headed by Carlo Morris Galang, who incidentally plays a support role in the film as one of the office workers of Ace of Cakes, it will most likely take the talent development arm route.

After all, they did produce quite a number of pageant winners who went on to find modest success in showbusiness. Ion Perez though, a product of Misters of Filipinas 2017, is what you call a big success.

Miss Becky the Pageant Expert

1. If you are an industry insider, then, watching #MyDay the Series is not just gonna be enjoyable because of the comedic way the story is present, but also because there are fine details you will be able to appreciate.

Take the character of Miss Becky for example. Giving off the same energy as Corazon from Marimar and Sister Krone from The Promised Neverland, she goes about dusting furniture and taking care of Ace, the cake prince, while swaying around the house as if she is in a ballroom.

Well, Miss Becky is actually Ameer Sanchez one of the two people at the forefront of Missossology Philippines, which is one of the top pageant websites in this country.

See, just like vlogger, PaoLul likes to say it, it all interconnects.

Ameer is actually an accountant by profession and though this is his first big role in a film or TV show, it really doesn’t show, since he is actually pretty natural for a neophyte. Yep, better than the actress playing Moira and annoying hysterics.

Why Oxin

Oxin used to be Xion but then since the owner Xion Lim who has both Zamboangueno and Chinese roots believe strongly in feng shui, he was told that having an ‘X’ at the start of a company’s name will bring bad luck, so, he switched around the letters.

Xion, when he was still known as Sean, started out as a fresh graduate of the prestigious Bigfoot aka IAFT film school in Cebu. If I remember correctly, he was just 23 back then when he started making his first feature, Xenoa, which starred his long-time friend Paolo Ballesteros and the late Isabel Granada.

If there’s another thing that Xion is good at aside from directing, it is being a graphic designer. The website for Xenoa back then was so shiny and edgy that I actually auditioned for a part and became curious about his works. Sadly, I did not get a role but a colleague from theater got a major part because I told him about the audition.

He is also a photographer, a collector of vintage stuff especially cars, and a grandfather to many young shitzus his long-time dog Chukchuk (who has a support role in the series), has sired.

Anyway, fast forward to a few years later, we got introduced via a common contact and I remember the first meal we shared was at the Goto Republic.

So, I’m totally psyched because the success of My Day the Series will up the chances of undiscovered gems in the Oxin Films Youtube channel being discovered.

Not only that, since Xion, who posted his picture in the community wall of the Youtube channel, got very positive comments from the series’ fans regarding his looks, he might also be able to branch out again as a model and a singer.

Remember, Nash Ang who’s also a director got casted in several Korean TV shows, so it is not impossible for Xion, who looks more of a Korean or Japanese rather than Chinese. Heck, we might even see him star in a BL series in the future.

So, what is the series all about anyway?

The High Point

The latest episode is the 6th, which, provides the necessary disruption to the happy-go-lucky world of the series.

In the official synopsis, it seemed that the main conflict will be about Sky Mercado (Miko Gallardo) clashing with, Ace Tan (Inaki Torres) the boss of the company he interns at. This has been established from the get-go, with the first episode’s average views around the 800k+ range, just trailing behind the Pinoy BL series with a large number of followers, Hello Stranger and Gameboys.

However, with the emotional depth of anime characters, the personages of the show find it easy to forgive and forget, even shrugging off a high level of rudeness from Moira or Ace, as if it was nothing.

 

So, episode 6 is refreshing, since it not only disrupts the familial and societal plateau, but it brings the focus back to another major objective of some of the show’s main characters, to win the cake competition.

Now, a new problem as appeared. Don’t read the next sentences if you haven’t watched the series yet since those are my predictions.

Well, I think Sky will end up representing Ace of Cakes and that will give him and Ace the chance to close the gap between them.

The Aces of the Show

Well, Inaki Torres is definitely a better actor than Miko Gallardo. But, my favorite in the main cast would have to be newcomer Kate Yalung (Kim) who is just oozing with sincerity in every scene she is in. She has really good chemistry with the waiter dude, so, I hope their story gets developed more.

Those who did cameos are actually pretty good especially that gay chef who kind of looked like Wowie de Guzman. I learnt his name was Jhune Salud. He is such a natural so I hope he appears in more episodes.

So, My Day the Series is definitely the best thing to happen to Oxin Studios as well as most of its cast members who are pretty new to acting. I would not be surprised if this also gets a Season 2 like Gameboys or gets a foreign adaptation.

After all, we don’t have much shows where cake and baking play a big part and this pandemic infested country could definitely use a lot of sweetness.

My Day the Series’ new episodes are released every Saturday. Similar to a Thai BL, it is split into four parts and has a lot of product placement.