My thoughts on TV5 Animega as the channel reached its 10th year
So here’s another drunk post I prepared last night, and I don’t plan editing this as I poured all my heart and soul (???) into writing this draft (yes this is a draft that is marked done; lazy right?).
So it’s been 10 years since the name TV5 popped out straight into Philippine households, and yes it’s that time when anime fans are reminiscing the TV5 they know. TV5 (now The 5 Network) was launched formally on August 8, 2008 at 7 in the evening, and I got to know the channel through its anime block.
The Animega block has got us tugged much further into anime. In my case, how TV5 Animega share a huge part of my history? Ito lang naman yung istasyon na pinag-uusapan sa ZEN Otaku Honbu (which eventually transitioned into Anime Pilipinas), ‘yung nagdala sa akin sa mundo ng yuri (SHIZNAT) at ang nagbigay ng rason kung bakit isa akong seiyuu fanatic.
Ganto kasi yun: During this time I got introduced to @soulassassin547 on Twitter, who then had this artwork called “Isang Bala Ka Lang” with Mai-HiME’s Natsuki Kuga in it. Also in the poster is the name of Glenda Resurreccion, who is a local voice actress.
Also in the poster are the names of Mary Grace Cornel [Constantino] and Rona Aguilar, also local voice actresses. If I didn’t saw this on the ZEN forums, I may have seen this on Twitter.
So edi alam ko na yung mga boses sa likod ng mga idolo ko.
Here’s the thing: I got addicted into this so much that I even have daydreams in high school about the Mai-HiME franchise (including Mai Otome, which is contrary to popular opinion ay mas bet ko kasi hindi kasing-sadboi ng story ng Mai-HiME, sorry po). I had an argument with one of my classmates on how to pronounce Kagutsuchi (tama siya by the way).
Of all the channels, TV5 has its audio frequency at 81.7MHz (this is in the Japanese band spectrum, and you may want to get a portable world band radio to hear for yourself). At that time I was living in the Antipolo-Taytay border without any electricity and radio is my entertainment, so konting kalikot sa radyo and poof I heard TV5. This must be an open secret na.
This helped me recognize that unique Grace Cornel voice every single time. Years after this I will eventually meet her and request for an autograph — and that happened at The Best of Anime.
When O’taco Bites posted the video above, syempre mas focus ko na hanapin ang Mai-HiME over every title they spliced and mashed there.
This is also the time when I got introduced to Letter Day Story, as one of their songs are used in promoting Animega on the channel.
Tapos nagkandaletse-letse na buhay ko, and the rest is history. Also, at first I was like, “HOY IBALIK NIYO ANG ANIMEGA” and from there I gradually got enlightened thanks to the internet atmosphere and eventually resigned to the fact that internet killed the TV star, so on and so forth. To the point na hindi na ako makapanood ng TV kasi may trabaho na ako. Mga ganun.
This is the same with the cosplay community, but that’s another story ha. Ito muna masasabi ko for now.