The Return of the Comeback

Missed me? I know you did.

Its been a while since I had something on this little space of mine in the interwebz. I'd been out due to a domain name issue, but that did not stop me on working at stuff. I finished a lot during the 3 (or 4 or more, not quite sure anymore myself) months while this blog of mine was out. So lemme get my comeback on with this:

  

Lemme start with one of my 'holy grail builds': a Bandai LM Guymelef Escaflowne.

Super Sentai Savvy Part 2: Hikari Sentai Maskman

 After Bioman, the next big thing in Super Sentai here was Hikari Sentai Maskman (Light Taskforce Maskman).

Maskman (1987) was shown about a couple of years after Bioman in the local airwaves, in which case 2 other previous Super Sentai shows Changeman and Flashman were skipped. Most of us thought that  it was a sequel for Bioman but it turned out to be  a different show altogether. Maskman was a huge departure from the usual Super Sentai formula as it is a lot grittier and more grounded than most Super Sentai shows. The plot revolves more on the characters' dilemma and not just on beating the monster-of-the-week, giving it a broader audience than other shows of its type.

Maskman introduced a lot of epic elements not quite found in previous shows. First, it started out with a one hour special episode which established the main plot points: the arrival of the Underground Empire Tube, the Maskman's origins (they started out as a racing team) and the romance between Takeru/Red Mask (Michael Joe in the local version) and Mio/Princess Ial (Rio). It also introduced a number of 'firsts' : the first 'extra' member for a Super Sentai, in the guise of X-1 Mask (which appeared in just one episode),the first team to have two team weapons, and the first to have each member with a personal machine.

The show also stands out because of its plot turns and twists, something unheard of in Super Sentai in a long time. Shows like JAKQ and Goggle V were a bit serious, shying off some of the younger audiences back then. This is the reason why Maskman was hailed as having one of the more 'balanced' plots showing a good mix of action, humor and a love angle for good measure. The fight scenes were more fluid and coordinated that its predecessors for one. The Takeru/Mio love angle is ever present. And humor is supplied by characters like Anagmas and Okerampa, the latter still being the target of vulgar references up to now by fans of the show.

A lot of fans attest to Maskaman's enduring legacy. Much more are even glad that it was not included into the Power Ranger mythos for fear of it being ruined (we're looking at you VR Troopers!). Even today, a fan would just sing the Opening and Ending theme at random and a discussion about it would initiate more often than not. 

And speaking of the Tagalog dubbed OP and ED themes: 

  

Gokaigers, we're waiting for you to meet up with them!

Aura Power!

Otaku,Then and Now Part 4: My 10 Anime Influences

I've made a personal list of the 10 anime shows that influenced me most. Here they are:

1. Super Dimensional Fortress Macross - the show that opened my eyes to anime. When I was a kid in the 80's all I knew were American afternoon cartoons. That is  before Macross aired, and since then I was hooked into it. I was more into the mecha but was charmed by the space drama nonetheless.It was all fine for me and I'd get goosebumps whenever there's a fight scene accompanied by Minmei's music. This show alone is the reason why I'm so into anime up until today.(Note though: please do not confuse Macross with Robotech.Though Robotech contains parts of Macross, IT IS NOT MACROSS. I could gladly point out the differences, by request).

2. Mobile Suit Gundam - The classic one where Amuro and Char blurted out each other's name while fighting in their 'suits to no end. I was kind of a late bloomer for this, having watched the movie edition in college first, before Animax aired the TV series in its entirety. Gundam for me, is a vision of the future and many of us otaku might feel the same way as I do about the series. After that there was no turning back, since then I've watched almost all Gundam series shown.

3.Magic Knight Rayearth - MKR introduced mo to CLAMP, at that time I didn't know that they were mainly work on shojo manga. But I never cared as MKR has almost everything for everybody: a nice plot, magic, a catchy theme song cool characters and of course mecha that's every bit as lovable for girls and boys alike.

4. Yu yu Hakusho - Which kid in the early '90's didn't love Yu Yu Hakusho(known locally as 'Ghost Fighter')? Funny story: my buddies and I knew Yu Yu as a SEGA Megadrive game first rather than an anime. In my opinion Yu yu was more gratifying than Dragonball, in that Yu yu's protagonist Yuusuke is much more relatable.

5.Ninja Scroll - I was reluctant to watch this at first given the level of violence and other mature content in it. But going through teen angst with all that identity crisis going on, Ninja Scroll actually felt just what I am looking for: something that is perfectly otaku and out of this world. Well for the mundanes I bet.

6. Ranma 1/2 - I have to confess, if the word 'Ranmatard' existed way back in the '90's then I would have been one of them. I was a teenager and having all these raging hormones inside of me and Ranma put all those at ease with its healthy dose of innuendo and comedy. And know what? I still love the series, I'm extremely ecstatic when I found out that after 16 years, they made a new OVA for it. Hooray.

7. Ghost in the Shell - was the one that pounded some fine anime taste into me. Before GITS, I was content in anime having good art and a good enough plot. GITS (aside from Akira) showed me that anime can be dark, gritty and avante garde all at the same time.

8. Aim for the top! Gunbuster - The anime which showed me that science, space drama, epic plot twists and bouncy boobies can work together.

9.Bubblegum Crisis - the 80's was all about cyberpunk and at that time I was really into Ridley Scott's Aliens and Blade Runner. BGC was one of Japan's answer to all that, heightening my cyberpunk fanaticism and teaching me that burly men aren't the only ones that can wear powered armor.

10. Neon Genesis Evangelion - What's will all the mecha anime in this list? Evangelion is the reason why. A lot of Mecha shows were a run-of-the-mill, enemy -for-the-week fare before Evangelion changed all that. I can't really describe it as a robot show, it's more of a surreal experience that started out from a seemingly mundane premise. I have never looked at another mecha anime the same way again after watching Evangelion.

Otaku,Then and Now Part 3: The Internet

I remember being at the dawn of the Internet. Well not exactly. It's been here since the 1970's but I remember things started to get moving around the 1990's.

I was a college sophomore then, looking for a part-time job around the campus. That is when I happened upon an 'internet cafe' "(Let's call it the 'University cafe' for now). Luckily they were looking for extra hands to work for around 2-4 hours a day so I went in and presented myself for student assistantship. I got hired and got paid around 300 pesos a week, which was a princely sum back then.

As for my tasks: Me and my partner for the day would clean the cafe' (it's a small one so it was easy), serve snacks, troubleshoot, keep track of the time and well basically do everything around the cafe. And my schedule ain't bad also. 2-3 hours after school was managable for me. On the plus side, we get to use the units to surf around the net for quite a bit.

In the '90's, the internet was not that as intensive as it is right now. Surfing was pretty darn expensive at around 80 pesos an hour believe it or not. There's no YouTube, no Wikipedia, no social networking sites, no manga and anime streaming sites and blogs were not called blogs yet. Practically nothing much but chatting on the IRC and look at anime shrines full of pics and whatever information the fans have at the moment. An otaku like yours truly would spend the day looking for and downloading anime jpegs on floppy disks, and that was already the BOMB. I could spend the whole day reading and looking at anime shrines and web rings (remember those?) and we'd be content. And there's pron too, but that's another story.

These days the Internet (or the 'netsu' as most of us fondly call it) is brimming with content than it was a decade ago. Web ring gave way to blogs, wikis were collated into an online encyclopedia and there are dozens and dozens of social networking and video sites out there. And who can forget the phenomenon known as online gaming?And heck, these days you can practically download almost everything from the 'net. Well almost. And the rates are cheaper, don't forget that. Suddenly, us otaku have a new frontier in which we can explore.

Alas, its not all roses. Chatrooms and online forums today gave rise to memes which most of us find amusing but socially degrading for others. 'Trolls'(the online version of bullies) abound causing a call for setting up morals on the internet.

But, as they say: It just keeps better and better...

Who knows what they will come up for next.

Otaku,Then and Now Part 2: Otaku video gaming back then

Video gaming is an essential aspect of being an otaku. And for most of us, this is where our fascination began.

And the console of choice: the Nintendo Family Computer a.k.a the Nintendo Entertainment System in North American territories. The Famicom as it was fondly called, was responsible for bringing us games like Super Mario Bros., Legend ofKage, Ikari Warriors, Contra,Rockman, Ninja Gaiden and the lot. Those games were simple yet brilliant, looking back they were the games that shaped not only our otaku fancy but the whole video gaming industry itself. I remember playing some of these straight out of Japan and thus, were untranslated. English versions of early games were uncommon, but due to the stright-forward nature of most of these games, figuring out the plot and finishing them were relatively easy.

Then came the Sega Mega Drive, which was a revolutionary system for it's time. Sega introduced us to Sonic, Golden Axe, Killer Instinct and a slew of other next gen games. Suddenly, the industry was abuzz, prompting Nintendo to step in with their Super Famicom rivaling Sega's machine supremacy. For a few years, Sega and Nintendo were tooth and nail with each other. Companies like Atari and 3DO came up with their systems, but were not able to cope up with the two's dominion.

Then came the 'portable console wars' which started with the Nintendo Gameboy which was an instant hit among otaku gamers as they can take their games practically everywhere. Sega, never far behind came up with their Game Gear, a colored portable system that seemed to give Nintendo a run for its money. But the Gameboy was proven to be the better system all because of one game: Pokemon. But that is another story altogether reserved for another time.

Then came the Playstation era, giving us beautiful games such as Final Fantasy VII, Tekken, Ridge Racer 4 and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to name a few. Playstation games undeniably paved way to better content not only in terms of graphics but also in a game's plot.The Playstation was so revolutionary that disc based systems were made the norm up to this day (with Nintendo shifting to mini-DVD's just recently. Metal Gear Solid for example, was dubbed as one of the most successful games in history not because it was finely strewn together thanks to the Playstation's hardware.

More on the otaku lifestyle then and now on later parts of this series.

Otaku: Then and Now Part 1

I have considered myself an otaku ever since the term came into public consciousness. For those not in the know, an otaku is the Japanese equivalent of a geek or a person that is too passionate towards his or her hobbies. So you can safely interchange toy geek, comic geek and car geek with toy otaku, comic otaku and car otaku.

I've been hooked to anime, manga, tokusatsu, sentai and practically anything Japanese since I was a kid. Although back in the 80's and early 1990's, the words anime, manga, tokusatsu, sentai was not in anyone's vocabulary yet. We referred to giant robot shows such as Mazinger Z back then as 'Japanese cartoons' or 'Japanimation' (check out old anime and manga magazines and you'll see). But more importantly, there's no such thing as an otaku here back then.

VHS was king back then...

Me and my buddies would watch anime in little old VHS tapes that we prop up in those bulky VHS players. Stuff was hard to come by and we treated our own little would-be-subculture as part of the geek 'underground'. Very few people know back then knew anime and manga beyond Voltes V, and watching Macross and Devil Hunter Yoko, even Urotsukidoji, back then was our trip. In a good sense at that.

Now for manga, we usually get them at a thrift shop that sells obscure stuff. Tankobon (manga collected volumes) were cheap but then again, we don't have manga translation sites or translated graphic novels back then. We had to come up with our own stories for everything that we read. And it all felt just right. Ah, the things we do during our pastimes...

Back then there were still no cons, no cosplay, no video streaming sites. People don't gather to discuss the latest episode of Sailormoon for fear of being branded as 'weird'. Anime and manga sites were known as 'shrines'. Playing Japanese video games is like having an alien give you a cartridge to play with out of whim. And model kits back then require glue to build.

Every bit of anime is rare and golden and that was I and a lot of people growing up in the 80's and 90's remembered it. And those were good times. But things change, we all know it.

More to come!