RAYGUN!*Starts playing Standing At Edge of The Earth* Back then, this song is used for a promo on GMA’s Anime Resurrection block… and back then, they are THE Anime Authority here in the Philippines. To be exact, this is the first AMV most young Pinoys back then watched. To those whom did not have the chance to see it, it is best describe as all the best bits of every anime in GMA combined into a 1-minute plug. The shows, scene in the commercial, if my memory serves me correctly are Ghost Fighter (Yu Yu Hakusho), DragonBall Z and Flame of Recca. The best part is, it is on the primetime lineup! Sweet.
Those where the days, but since my parents are watching the news in the opposite channel, I did not have the chance to watch these shows… on primetime! Except if my parents are not looking and doing something or the other station’s reception became fuzzy, that is the only time I watched those shows. I almost forgot, back then, GMA had a back-to-back Red Hero lineup before it evolved into Anime Resurrection, namely, after Lupin the 3rd (In which Lupin, as usual, wears his red coat) is DragonBall Z (in which Goku wears a darker toned orange gi).
Those where the days, but since my parents are watching the news in the opposite channel, I did not have the chance to watch these shows… on primetime! Except if my parents are not looking and doing something or the other station’s reception became fuzzy, that is the only time I watched those shows. I almost forgot, back then, GMA had a back-to-back Red Hero lineup before it evolved into Anime Resurrection, namely, after Lupin the 3rd (In which Lupin, as usual, wears his red coat) is DragonBall Z (in which Goku wears a darker toned orange gi).
The only time I got the chance to watched anime on primetime is during Fridays, the titles aired during Fridays, on GMA are Pokemon followed by Fushigi Yuugi and on ABS-CBN, Digimon Adventure later on replaced by Digimon 02. Since I have the remote on Fridays, I watched both shows, namely, Pokemon and Digimon simultaneously. After I discovered about the seizure event that happened in Japan
In case you are wondering if back then there anime programs are aired in the afternoons, yes, there are programs aired during the afternoons! In GMA, they aired Gundam Franchise (To be exact, Wing, G and X) while in ABS-CBN, Evangelion and B’T X, that is why it created a certain mark back then that GMA has the right to air Gundam… till SEED and SEED Destiny aired on ABS-CBN years ago! Aside from that, I really love watching Mojako back then on GMA. That orange fur ball is entertaining! More than that, I loved watching the earlier episodes of Doraemon. Doraemon’s voice back then sounded like a reliable cat… not Son Goku of DragonBall stuck in a robot cat’s body.
As the years past by, the primetime anime lineup has been dissolved and moved in the afternoons. That is why, I had the chance to watch those programs aired in the afternoons. That is when I knew their stories and got hooked with them. The only show in the old primetime lineup that never aired in the afternoon slot was Trigun. The only episode I watched is when Vash and that guy in blue shoot themselves together and the blood that spurted out from their bodies was ketchup!
Back then, I was addicted to Voltes V (Voltes FIVVVE! VUH!), Daimos (ERRIKA!), DragonBall Z (KA… ME… HA… ME… WAVEEEEE! VUH!), Hunter X Hunter, Doraemon (Ang Mahiwagang, *Insert Name of Gadget Here*), Ghost Fighter (RAY GUN!), Flame of Recca (FLAME POWER!!!), and more titles. Back then, I memorized all Recca’s flame dragons (and still memorized them! Proof? Saiha, Nadare, Homura, Setsuna, Madoka, Rui, Kokou, and Obeshi) and tried doing the kanji on the air. In addition, Ohayou was my LSS back then (and still now!). Those shows mentioned above are the popular shows back then.
Since back then GMA is the Anime Authority, they aired many unknown titles like Flint Hunter X Hunter OVA Greed Island
Since I am too focused on GMA (GMA hogged most of the known titles Filipinos know by the way), I will now tell you the other shows aired on ABC, the future Anime Authority better known as TV5.
ABC aired one of the most popular Magical Girl genre anime, the Sailor Moon franchise. I still remember Usagi, transforming as Sailor Moon and that little girl as Sailor Chibi Moon. Mamoru Chiba always acting like the dashing masked knight who will stole the scene at the end of some episodes which caused Usagi to blush. Those where the classics. Most of the shows aired on ABC back then are targeted for girls, to be exact, the other well know anime aired on ABC was Fancy Lala. The only shows that targeted back then for young boys that aired on ABC were Slam Dunk, dubbed in English and Yaiba.
Wondering what shows that aired on ABS-CBN every morning? Most of the shows they aired are anime shows that aired on Japan back in the 80’s or late 70’s like Cedie, anime adaptations of Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Daddy Long Legs. Cedie, is one of my favorites back then, I love how he plays his flute and the fact that he is the grandson of a duke. As for GMA, don’t ask the shows aired on GMA during the morning timeslot, they only aired Sesame Street