19 February 2005

a meeting of old friends

I met some old friends at the MetroWalk in Ortigas Center last night (by 'old' I mean late 90s). We planned it a couple of weeks back. I just felt that we haven't seen each other for the longest time, and soon was as good a time as any.

It was fun seeing them again. We all got together through a mailing list that was trying to achieve a certain goal. We were anime enthusiasts who wanted to bring back Voltes V on TV. It may seem a trivial thing to you, but GenXers at that time were imprressionable grade school kids who were growing up watching these and similar anime every afternoon. Its abrupt broadcast cancellation (just when there were 4 episodes left!) was something that left many wondering how it was all supposed to end.

The late 90s, 20 years after it first aired on TV, looked like the perfect time to have the entire series shown once more. That was when I first saw the power of the Internet. I stumbled across this mailing list, which was growing in the number of subscriber base. I enthusiastically joined, and my e-mails jumped to over 300 per day.

A petition was then made to re-air the entire series to a broadcast network. It was turned down. Undaunted, the petition was sent to a rival network. A couple of weeks later, we did the dance of joy as we saw the advertisements announcing the return of this series! Some members had a couple of TV guestings. We also had a well-attended grand event. We even had the voice actors join us as special guests.

Stories poured in about office executives rushing for home to catch an episode. Traffic was uncooperative at times, and they'd mumble that at least they still remember how that current episode went. Parents sung to the tune of a Japanese song to the amazement of their kids.

The last 4 episodes were to a full-length movie. We were able to get special seats in the premier and watched Voltes V on the big screen. We were kids again.

Those momentous events seem like decades ago. Within that huge crowd was a small group of friends who managed to keep in touch after all the hoopla has come and gone. I met some of them last night. We caught up on news of each other's lives. I even received a nice gift from Cherry! I love it.

Thank you, my friends. I do hope we meet again soon.

6 comments:

  1. deja vu..hehehehe..and I was thinking of Voltes V last night when I was having a bad fever...wow...it's been a while eh? I used to remember those late night chat sessions and website development at geocities...

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  2. Greetings From Mars...Sign me in if you have any more petition for the re-showing of the legendary five-a!!!. About last year, i was surprised pleasantly that Voltes V was shown again in GMA but it did not last long. How come? I just don't know. Lack of advertisers perhaps. Maybe, we can pool some advertising executives who were Voltes V fanatics before in order to make the series appear again on the TV screens.

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  3. lets volt in? hehehe

    if there is anything I can contribute let me know :)

    I saw in ebay before a collection of Voltes-V show being sold. This was, it was Beta tape and I remember wondering why sell the beta? they could transfer it first to DVD before selling. I figure they might not be very clear so I passed the chance.

    you haeva good week.

    g

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  4. Seems just like yesterday, ey, jgotangco?

    Hello Major! I think we've seen the ending already and that's what really matters. Perhaps a re-airing can be done 2 decades again from now. :-)

    Hello Cerridwen! I actually have the complete episode in VHS, original Japanese! As a Voltes V fan, you might think that I have the VCD and DVD versions as well. Unfortunately, no. :-) I have a book and the die-cast metal toy though.

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  5. how good is the dvd version?

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  6. grabe, voltes 5! brings back memories sa akin yan, watson.

    hindi man ako gen-x'er (tail-end kasi ako ng baby boomers), i enjoyed voltes 5 so much. katabi ko lagi mga kapatid ko habang nanunuod kami ng tv.

    brought back a lot of memories :)

    ReplyDelete

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