Anime Shows

Banzai!

I'm still bugging myself about the time line and history of anime in the Philippines. I heard the popularity of anime in the Philippines can be traced back in 1970's when early stations such as RPN 9 and GMA Network aired the early anime shows such as Tadao Nagahama's Voltes V and Daimos and others. Both of the networks is the first to show anime in the Philippines. It's really influencing to get being hit with the anime shows in the past.

Although I wasn't born during the 70's or early 80's, the popularity of anime in the Philippines still active starting from the 90's. Let's start with some different Philippine networks. ABS-CBN during the 90's showed some anime shows from Nippon Animation such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Heidi ,Daddy Long Legs, Peter Pan, Princess Sarah and others. GMA did introduce some anime shows from Nippon Animation too such as Charlotte, Marco (3000 Leagues In Search Of Mother), Anne of Green Gables, Bush Baby, Grimm's Fairy Tales,etc. Both of all shows in two networks influenced young viwers in the 90's and all of those shows were purely Tagalog-dubbed. It was a time the anime bacame a hit especially those anime shows were based on Western fairy tales and books.

ABC 5 (now TV 5) introduced some of the anime shows such as the popular Sailor Moon that aired every evenings. The station also showed Time Quest, Yaiba and Go go Mach 5. Many said that the ABC 5 gained high ratings before because of the anime shows. It's a full-throttle of youth for watching those kind of anime shows. ABC changed into TV 5 since August 9 this year and they currently show some new anime series as their primetime block of their network like Yamato Nadashiko:The Wallflower, and Shakugan no Shana.

IBC 13, was said to show many earlier anime shows that were transferred to GMA Network, RPN and ABC 5. Examples are Voltes V,Daimos, Mazinger Z, Ghost Fighter, Super Pig and others. The last anime aired on IBC 13 was Crayon Shin Chan and Cyborg Kuro Chan back in the year 2001. I remembered that the Crayon Shin Chan and Cyborg Kuro Chan aired every weekday evenings.

Meanwhile in RPN 9, the network which first introduced some classic anime shows such as Astroboy, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball series but only aired only short episodes. In the year 2006, when the Cartoon Network series launch to RPN 9 for free, Zoids: Fuzors and Yu-Gi-Oh showed only in English-dubbed.

GMA Network got lots of anime shows that are currently aired and replayed. In the year 2000, they made some scheduled anime shows such as "We Are Anime"- an anime block that aired every afternoon every 4:00-5:00 then in the evenings 7:00-8:00 P.M. This is one of the network stations I started to watch anime. I remembered in "We Are Anime" shows such as Ghost Fighter, Gundam, Doraemon and Mojacko aired every afternoon. They are all dubbed in Tagalog. Then in the evenings they aired Pokemon (English-dubbed), Lupin III, HunterxHunter and Fushigi Yuugi. GMA Network showed anime shows in the midnight such as Cat's Eyes with their local show named TxtTube. Around 2002-2003, the anime block series changed into "My Anime". They aired new anime shows such as Shaman King and Magic Knight Rayearth. The timeslot in the afternoon was still 4:00-5:00 afternoon but they get rid the anime evening schedules because of the rise of GMA Telebabad shows. In "My Anime", viewers can download logos and picture messages via their cellphones and MMS during those years. Then around 2004-2005, the "My Anime" was gone into the block but the schedules were still on that year. Also during those years, popular anime shows from Shonen Jump such as One Piece and Dragon Ball GT premiered in the Philippines. The anime schedules were also available during weekend mornings even today. As of present time, GMA anime shows only aired in weekday and weekend mornings. Pokemon is now in Tagalog-dubbed and continued their series than before. The network even aired other old anime shows as replays,too. GMA's sister network, QTV borrowed some of few anime shows then let them finished.They even picked new anime shows on their own.

Like in GMA, ABS-CBN showed some great classic anime shows aside from Nippon Animation. Classic anime shows such as BTX and Zenki, became popular to the Filipino youth in the past. The station aired also other anime such as Crush Gear, Beyblade,Yakitate! Japan, Naruto and Yu-Gi-Oh. Shojo animes such as Magic Knight Rayearth OVA and Cardcaptor Sakura aired also in the Philippines every weekday afternoons then weekend morning. Not sure about the anime schedules on ABS-CBN today but it seems they only air anime during weekend mornings only. Studio 23 borrowed anime shows from ABS and let them finished the series.

With the rise of anime popularity in the Philippines, ANIMAX and Hero TV are available now in order to view new anime shows. No doubt the young viewers here are much hooked in anime even today. It's a big influence actually. With some local network stations I've mentioned, you can say anime is a big hit and that's the reason you gotta like the Japanese-style cartoons.