A10 Nerve Clips.

My brain is fried. I shouldn't do this again. One of my favorite, favorite things to do is to hunt down memories from childhood media--songs, TV shows, cartoons. Earlier this week I tracked down the shows that used to be on ABS-CBN in the mornings and in the afternoons after school; apparently most of them were from World Masterpiece Theatre (世界名作劇場, Sekai Meisaku Gekijō) like "Little Prince Cedie" (here called "Cedie: Ang Munting Prinsipe"), Remi: Nobody's Girl, and so forth. (And was I the only one who thought Remi was a guy?) I also made the interesting discovery that "Julio at Julia", one of the earlier cartoons, was not in fact Japanese but of French/Belgian origin. It was called "Les jumeaux du bout du monde" (or "Twins of Destiny" in English-speaking countries). I'd feel jologs about it all, before reminding myself that nearly all of the kids in my generation watched this stuff since it was on free TV, and it was some of the best entertainment that could be had back then. (Though you have to wonder what enterprising minds thought it was appropriate to put "Neon Genesis Evangelion" on ABS-CBN in the afternoons. I'm twenty-two and I still feel too young for it. It was hardly to be grouped with "Adventures of Peter Pan" and "Swiss Family Robinson.")

Interestingly, here's a Wiki list of the shows aired by ABS-CBN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shows_previously_aired_by_ABS-CBN#Anime_and_Tokusatsu) and the anime aired by AXN-Asia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AXN_Asia). I feel obliged to mention that I am not now, nor have I ever been, what is called an "otaku"; this was all mainstream back then, and like as not, your seatmate in Grade 1 probably knew the mangled lyrics to the Grander Musashi ending theme as well as you. As anime seemed to me to get more stupid and shallow, and less wholesome, I gravitated away from it. But it doesn't make those memories any less sweet. Oh to come home in the afternoon and be greeted by Tenchi Muyo on AXN, and to watch it while eating merienda and while refusing to remove your white ankle-high socks!

To add to this, for the whole weekend I've been remembering a song that I was certain was from an AXN-Asia show. It went "dararum, daramum, ready, oooh-oooh." Then "DUAL!" That was my big clue, and from there I tracked down the show. It's called "Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure" and is about an awkward high school boy, Kazuki, who ends up in a parallel world. I always identified with one of the other characters, a certain Mitsuki, who (Asuka Langley-style) cared deeply about Kazuki but hid it by treating him abrasively. I found where the episodes can be downloaded (Veoh, in case you're interested) and even found the ending and opening themes. All right, I downloaded the entire OST here) just because I was curious! And the curious thing is, I still really remember the opening and closing themes really well. When I played them, I could sing along with the lyrics, despite hardly understanding any of it. My favorite is the song called "Real", Dual's ending theme.

And there's no one I can talk to this about, because even if I could find someone who watched this show, a) they probably wouldn't remember or b) they wouldn't want to talk about it or c) they'd be my brother. So I post here out of a desire to send this cosmic message "out into the void" (Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail).

Now the last memory I'm hunting down, before I promise I'll give up this habit entirely, is this: I'm sure it was on AXN and I'm sure it was dubbed. It was also a mecha series (you know, the kind that was so popular back then, with the protagonists operating fighting robots) and in one of the episodes, the lead character, a young girl, had taken an anti-heroine with her to have pancakes at home. This anti-heroine was the cold, unwanted-as-a-little-child type, and the whole memory is tinged with the anti-heroine's bitterness at the protagonist taking for granted the warmth of a home, the experience of making pancakes with her mother, and the ease of self-confidence--in short, everything she herself lacked. I was a melancholic little kid so I never forgot the emotional impact of that moment; however, in retrospect, I also blame it for the fact that I never took pancakes for granted either, and the reason they're my favorite carb.

Oh unnamed show that I can't find on the above lists, where are you? I just want to find you then I'll rest easy.