A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

This being Easter Sunday, the end of Lent and unofficially the beginning of Spring, I thought I’d put up something upbeat. Being laid up with bronchitis the past week in the most somber week of Catholicism is, to say the least, not fun. If you’re thirtysomething, I hope you’ll enjoy this. But first - a little quiz:

This *guy has crossed his arms because:

a) …his pants are too tight.
b) …he’s showing Annie how he’ll hug her.
c) …he’s scared of Puma Lear going medieval on him.
d) …it’s too cold in the time/space warp.
e) …he’s about to transform into Shaider, Pulis Pangkalawakan.

My sister, ever a reliable source of time-wasting urls sent me this link and urged me to download the Shaider theme. I checked the site and it contained not only the Shaider theme, but also tracks from the other anime from my childhood. Growing up in the 80s, you’ll have to be aware of Anna Lisa, Flordeluna, Gulong ng Palad and unfortunately, That’s Entertainment. But you’ll also have to be aware at least one of those giant robot cartoons. It was called cartoons by the kids before we became aware of the term anime.

It was however no cartoon we have ever seen before. There aren’t any funny animals talking here. It had the drama like the most melodramatic twist and turns of Anna Lisa and villains as colorful as Senora Agueda. It also had astounding action sequences and startling violence (remember when Mrs. Armstrong crashed her plane to save her kids?) . This however prompted dear Ferdinand Marcos to ban the giant robots off the Philippine airwaves.

Voltes V or rather its theme would play a bigger part in my life: when I asked Petite to be my girl, a string orchestra started playing the Voltes V theme. I kid you not. I couldn’t have planned it better. You have to love serendipity. It was that time when GMA 7 revived the series and it was becoming popular again. We stopped by this hotel lobby after attending a function by her company at that time. We needed a place to sit down and the plush sofas of the hotel was perfect to sit down and rest our feet. When I told her my feelings and she said yes, the string orchestra playing for the dinner crowd broke into the unmistakeble strains of the Voltes V opening theme.

Space Cruiser Yamato was one of the earliest movies which my father and I watched together, a boys day out without my mom or my sisters. Unfortunately, the theater where we watched it now plays Pinoy ST flicks. Yamato wasn’t Disney either. It was the story of a space ship called the Yamato (named after a legendary battleship sunk in WWII) and its crew to find the planet Iscandar. In Iscandar lay the key to fixing Earth’s irradiated atmosphere, a result of the alien Gamilons (all together now: Dess-lok! Desslok! Desslok!) bombing in preparation for their invasion. The TV series and the movie was dark. Half the crew died and I’m not sure if they actually succeeded in their mission. Plus they had this powerful weapon, the “wave-motion-gun” capable of blowing moons to bits but renders the ship powerless after its firing. It’s sci-fi sure but neither the crew nor the ship was ’super’.

Of course you have the other giant robot cartoons: Daimos and those annoying lovers Richaaaard! and Erikaaaa! Richard has killer karate moves and Diamos has the chest blizzards but he can’t do squat about Erika and their Romeo and Juliet situation. Nuts.

I won’t even try to delve into the possible psychological impact on impressionable kids when they kept seeing Aphrodite A’s rockets-as-breasts week after week in Mazinger Z. Aside from the classic images of Koji Kabuto’s hair and Mazinger Z rising out of the pool, I distinctly remember one episode: Mazinger Z, unable to fly because of some malfunction, uses Aphrodite A’s flying rockets as propulsion. Remind me to bring that up when I go into therapy. Oh and I remember Aphrodite A running very much like a human girl with that hydraulic “ksssssh! ksssssh! kssssh!” sound.

There’s UFO Grandizer which still confuses me to this day. He’s somehow related to Mazinger and they all somehow turn into Grand Mazinger. There’s Getta Robot, Balatak and Mekanda Robot which, while may not be as popular as Voltes V, Daimos, or Mazinger Z, was certainly exciting enough to watch. The unique animation on these shows was enough to hold interest. There was also Candy, Candy and Paul in Fantasyland which appealed to the younger set. I did get a few bumps in the head when I tried those yoyo tricks Paul were doing in the show. Remind me to bring those up in therapy as well.

The big robot episodes shown in the Philippines were not in sequence and to my knowledge never fully aired until the revival in the 90s. By that time, the kids who were watching these cartoons had some disposable income. GMA 7 published the Voltes V and Daimos series in VCD which, I was told, did well. And if you have any doubt that nostalgia is profitable how about this: when I was in Greenhills last year, I saw a complete Voltes V die-cast toy being sold for Php 25,000. I was surprised at the price for a used 10-15 year old toy. Two weeks later, it was no longer on display and out of curiosity I asked the store attendant where it was: someone had bought it.

And I have to mention Shaider. Shaider never actually appealed to me but I got to see it because my cousin, when he was younger, would bawl whenever we turn the channel to watch something else. He’s in college now (my cousin, not Shaider) and he has taken to the anime/manga thing better than I did maybe due to the Shaider and Bioman exposure. There’s one particular episode which freaked me out. It wasn’t due to the scenes of guys in rubber suits fighting or Annie exposing her knickers to dodge laser beams yet again but because of this one song where the kids were being led astray a la Pied Piper to play hooky from school. I remember Kanto Girl posting something about it.

So here we are, hoping I can bring back a couple of nice memories for you. Personally I’m grooving to the Mazinger Z theme. I can imagine this Japanese guy with a pompadour belting it out like a lounge singer from the 60s. I’m loving the horn section on this song.

Last but not the least belated Happy Birthday to an otaku and clickmomukhamo co-conspirator, Emer. Battousai is alive and well and will soon be throwing the (law)book at people.

1. Voltes V Opening Theme
2. Mazinger Z
3. Mekanda Robot
4. Daimos
5. Space Sheriff Shaider
6. UFO Grandizer
7. Getta Robot
8. Candy Candy
9. Space Cruiser Yamato
10. Voltes V Ending Theme

* Yes I know Hiroshi Tsuburaya, the guy who played Shaider, passed away in 2001. May he rest in peace. Funky pose though you have to admit.

Launch player. Happy Easter!