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Anime in the Philippines.


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kenshinflyer



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 58
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2004 7:23 pm Reply with quote
Hello to all! This is my first entry here at ANN, and maybe I could give some information straight from the Philippines.

Actually, there's an anime war going on here in the Philippines, despite the debut of ANIMAX Asia last January on cable and satellite. The two biggest broadcasting networks, GMA Network and ABS-CBN Broadcasting (including its offshoot station Studio 23) are at the epicenter of this war. And I mean they're bitter enemies, not just in the anime scene, but also in legal terms (ABS-CBN sued GMA for certain copyright infringements.).

First, there's ABS-CBN. They have dubbing capabilities. They are known for stunner anime releases--two of which, Cedie and Princess Sarah, has become top-grossing movies, thanks to its movie arm, Star Cinema. Fast forward: their rival GMA Network has been on their toes ever since they upped theirs. They threw ace after ace after knowing of GMA's plans. Previously they aired Beyblade, (its toy became a mild phenomenon), Super GALS, and, currently, Groove Adventure Rave, Inuyasha, and Fruits Basket (latest) to beef up their Saturdays, and Ragnarok: The Animation, Rurouni Kenshin, and Getbackers for weekdays. Ragnarok is big, since the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) that inspired it is huge in the Philippines. Fast fact: ABS-CBN was the first to introduce sentai (live mecha) shows in the Philippines, starting with Bioman and Shaider. Both were phenomenons.

Second: GMA Network. They capitalized early on the anime boom of the late 1990s with Lupin Sansei, Bubblegum Crisis: 2040, Trigun, Fushigi Yuugi, Jigoku Sensei Nube and Mojacko among others; rehashed Slam Dunk, Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Yu Yu Hakusho from neighbors IBC-VTV 13 (now, simply, IBC-13, with the pullout of major stockholder Viva TV), RPN-9 (IBC's sister station) and ABC-5; and revived Voltes V (which was aired by government-owned RPN-9 in the 1980s) and Daimos (from another government-owned network, MBS-4, now NBN-4) and aired for the first time Combattler V.Of course, ABS-CBN didn't sit pretty and went with their own anime. Smothered with rehashes (Yu Yu Hakusho and Slam Dunk were last on air mid 2004--and Slam Dunk is still on air!), GMA went drastic, taking in One Piece and Rune Soldier--a big one because this is the first WOWOW anime to be dubbed in Tagalog: GMA has now connections to some of the best! In the 80s, they also aired Tatsunoko-produced Christian anime, namely Superbook and The Flying House. They also rehashed the sentai series Shaider. GMA also sparked a huge phenomenon of Mini Four-Wheel Drive racing with their release of Bakusou Kyodai Retsu and Go.

How about the others?

ABC-5. They just ended its relationship with the mammoth Sailormoon mega-series, one of their biggest franchises since 1995, but they currently have Ninja Boy Rintaro and Cyborg Kuro-Chan (an import from IBC-13). They also had Fancy Lala, Yaiba, Zodiac Ragers (Eto Rangers) and Metal Fighter Miku before. They ceded Slam Dunk to GMA. ABC-5 had dubbers from DZRH, one of the top radio stations in the country which produces top-notch radio dramas. They were on-call during the dubbing of the Sailormoon series. They had two sentai series, Machine Man and Jiban.

IBC-13 first brought Yu Yu Hakusho to Philippine TV in 1997 or 1998. Its spinoff movie is the first (and so far only) anime movie to hit the Philippines. They also had Tonde Boorin, Shuurato (if I'm not mistaken--I didn;t give it much thought), Crayon Shin-Chan (which featured the voice of rapper Andrew E as Shin-Chan), and Cyborg-Cat Kuro Chan, (which featured the voice of singer Ogie Alcasid as Kuro-Chan); and tried a hand airing various Toei mecha anime like Gaiking and Grendaizer UFO. If I'm not mistaken, when IBC was a major player, it also aired Mazinger Z in the 70s! They also debuted the sentai series Laser Squadron Maskman in the late 90s.

RPN-9. Simply put, it was the very first major anime station. It first aired Voltes V, which was put out of air due to Martial Law. Later, in the 80s, they began with US versions of Astro Boy and Macross. In the 90s, they had two aces: Dragonball and Dragonball Z, all rehashed by GMA. Today, they're out of the anime race, content with a Nickelodeon franchise. Its sister station IBC-13 still is.

NBN-4. It has gone a long way from being the former Maharlika Broadcasting System (MBS). In its glory days it owned rights to Daimos. But that was a long time ago. It was renamed twice: first, it became PTV (People's Television)-4 and, now, NBN (National Broadcasting Network)-4. They are out of the race.

Studio 23. This offshoot station of ABS-CBN has sent shockwaves in its early days with its debut of Rurouni Kenshin on Philippine TV. Currently it is airing a Tagalized version of Samurai Deeper Kyo.

CinemaOne. This is a cable-only movie channel owned by ABS-CBN. They aired Variable Geo on a limited basis.

Foreign networks which air anime in the Philippines include WOWOW, AXN Asia (which aired some subbed versions of WOWOW anime), and ANIMAX. Listing their anime here would be a long chore... Our cable company had brief taps into Sony Mandarin and Hollywood Channel of Taiwan. Sony Mandarin had Rurouni Kenshin (of course--it's Sony), while Hollywood Channel once carried All-Purpose Cultural Girl Nuku-Nuku and Idol Defense Force Hummingbird. HBO Asia recently aired Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door.

Well, there it is. I hope it helped a lot! I'll be keeping an eye on anime trends here in the Philippines! Until then, currently monitoring...
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 9902
Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2004 9:53 pm Reply with quote
kenshinflyer wrote:
This is my first entry here at ANN, and maybe I could give some information straight from the Philippines.

Welcome to ANN! I've seen those broadcaster's names being submitted by other ANN users under "English companies" but got deleted later. However, you CAN add Tagalog information now, thanks to areaseven.

Still waiting for Chinese as a language option at ANN (sigh). Rolling Eyes
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kenshinflyer



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 58
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2004 10:55 pm Reply with quote
Thank you very much for the welcome!

Actually, the anime situation here is quite volatile--ABS-CBN is hinting on airing Gundam Seed. And these guys are ABS-CBN--they're known known to deliver what they say (like what they did to Fruits Basket). That's not all--ABS-CBN promised more, like Angelic Layer, Tokyo Babylon, and Galaxy Express 999. GMA, on the other hand, has found a source for those fabulous WOWOW anime--with their airing of Rune Soldier, who knows, they might air Boys Be, VANDREAD, or either Onegai Teacher or Onegai Twins in the near future! That goes to show how ABS-CBN wants to outsmart GMA, and vice versa. I'll keep an eye on things. Definitely, anime ain't dead here!

However, I'm furious because our cable company doesn't carry ANIMAX... and AXN has gone from bad to worse Sad Oh, well.
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Sarki-Kun



Joined: 16 Jun 2004
Posts: 594
Location: Spain
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2004 3:37 am Reply with quote
I wouldn't never guessed so much things about the Philippines by myself. Hey, they surprised me! Anime smile + sweatdrop Anyways, welcome to ANN.

Dormcat wrote:
Still waiting for Chinese as a language option at ANN (sigh).

Dan42 wrote:
From the same post you linked

[...]Hmm... I don't really remember about Tagalog, but about Chinese I've said it before and I'll say it again: IT'S NOT A LANGUAGE! So should I add Chinese or Mandarin or Cantonese? If I add "Chinese" does it mean that the Mandarin and Cantonese casts will be merged together? But does it make sense to have something like "Cantonese companies"? There's a lot of confusion possible regarding those three "languages" and I'm not really sure how to handle it; probably the best would be to change the current languages to something like a locale system.[...]But since the system is not really adequate to represent the Chinese language(s), I'd rather wait. It's not like we need it.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 9902
Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2004 4:02 am Reply with quote
Yeah, yeah, I knew that. Mad

For now, the English ones are more like "American;" not having enough info for UK/Australia/NZ licensors. Just as Dan said, I think the easiest way is switching to a locale system, like language option in MS Windows: English (Australia), English (Belize), English (Canada); Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Macau), Chinese (PRC), Chinese (Singapore), Chinese (Taiwan), etc.

Okay, I know Canada is not a good example; they are in R1 and don't need a separate release. I was simply following the list....

Nani? Why wasn't Tagalog listed in MS IME? Why "English (Philippines)" instead? Could you tell me why, kenshinflyer?
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Animefan16



Joined: 24 Apr 2004
Posts: 1014
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2004 5:19 pm Reply with quote
kenshinflyer wrote:
Fast fact: ABS-CBN was the first to introduce sentai (live mecha) shows in the Philippines, starting with Bioman and Shaider. Both were phenomenons.



I used to live in the Philippines as a kid, and I remember seeing those sentai shows. I think they showed the Japanese version of the Power Rangers there before the American version. Anyway, the show I enjoyed the most as a kid was Ultraman. Do they still air it there?

Quote:
IBC-13 first brought Yu Yu Hakusho to Philippine TV in 1997 or 1998. Its spinoff movie is the first (and so far only) anime movie to hit the Philippines.


Actually, they released two DBZ movies before that. The first movie was the Coola movies edited together into one movie. The second was the Brolly movies (Movies #10 and #11) also edited together. They never showed the 1st Brolly movie in the Philippines.

For the 1st movie, they dubbed Cha-la-head-cha-la in English and made a new ending song which was also in english, but they left the op. and ed. for the 2nd movie alone.
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areaseven
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 11 Dec 2002
Posts: 1486
Location: Makati, Philippines
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 5:26 am Reply with quote
Yeah, DBZ was popular in the Philippines (which was among the last group of Asian countries to pick it up) before it hit the U.S. As a matter of fact, it spawned a live-action musical adaptation. (Don't ask me for pics or sample songs. I never bothered to see it or buy the cassette.)
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Animefan16



Joined: 24 Apr 2004
Posts: 1014
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 8:36 am Reply with quote
areaseven wrote:
Yeah, DBZ was popular in the Philippines (which was among the last group of Asian countries to pick it up) before it hit the U.S. As a matter of fact, it spawned a live-action musical adaptation. (Don't ask me for pics or sample songs. I never bothered to see it or buy the cassette.)


A DBZ musical? Well, that's a surprise. I don't even want to picture how that would look like.
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kenshinflyer



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 58
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 8:38 am Reply with quote
Well, Dormcat, actually, Tagalog is a dialect. It has been chosen as the national language and is also known as Pilipino. However, Filipinos aren't like the Spanish or Japanese who are zealous about their language. Speaking in English seems to be a more "trendy" way. I hope Microsoft notices this!

To Animefan16: There is still one sentai running, and that's Power Rangers: Wild Force. The old ones--the classic ones--have been phased out, the last being a rerun of Shaider. Thanks also for the data, but as far as I know RPN-9 did start the DBZ thing. Anyway, it doesn't matter--RPN-9 and IBC-13 are sister stations: they share TV rights, which explains the DBZ movies on IBC-13.

By the way, to all: GMA is showing Witch Hunter Robin tomorrow in place of Rune Soldier, which already ended its run. Another thing: Rune Soldier, despite its short airing period, shot up to become 21st of 25 most widely-watched TV programs in the Philippines. The other two happens to be Hunter X Hunter (#13) and Slam Dunk (#8) (on the promise of new episodes). ABS-CBN's fancied Ragnarok: The Animation and its ANIMAX import Getbackers was nowhere in the list. One more thing: GMA is winning the ratings war, anime wise: three anime on the Top 25 against ABS-CBN's zero. Since Ragnarok failed to gain ratings, their only hope now is Gundam Seed.

Tudaloo! Monitoring...
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kenshinflyer



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 58
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 8:38 am Reply with quote
Well, Dormcat, actually, Tagalog is a dialect. It has been chosen as the national language and is also known as Pilipino. However, Filipinos aren't like the Spanish or Japanese who are zealous about their language. Speaking in English seems to be a more "trendy" way. I hope Microsoft notices this!

To Animefan16: There is still one sentai running, and that's Power Rangers: Wild Force. The old ones--the classic ones--have been phased out, the last being a rerun of Shaider. Thanks also for the data, but as far as I know RPN-9 did start the DBZ thing. Anyway, it doesn't matter--RPN-9 and IBC-13 are sister stations: they share TV rights, which explains the DBZ movies on IBC-13.

By the way, to all: GMA is showing Witch Hunter Robin tomorrow in place of Rune Soldier, which already ended its run. Another thing: Rune Soldier, despite its short airing period, shot up to become 21st of 25 most widely-watched TV programs in the Philippines. The other two happens to be Hunter X Hunter (#13) and Slam Dunk (#8) (on the promise of new episodes). ABS-CBN's fancied Ragnarok: The Animation and its ANIMAX import Getbackers was nowhere in the list. One more thing: GMA is winning the ratings war, anime wise: three anime on the Top 25 against ABS-CBN's zero. Since Ragnarok failed to gain ratings, their only hope now is Gundam Seed.

Tudaloo! Monitoring...
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Animefan16



Joined: 24 Apr 2004
Posts: 1014
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 8:42 am Reply with quote
What pissed me off about RPN airing DBZ was that they never showed the sagas after the Saiyan saga. After the Saiyan saga, they would just air Dragonball, and then they would show the Saiyan saga again.
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kenshinflyer



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 58
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 8:47 am Reply with quote
areaseven wrote:
Yeah, DBZ was popular in the Philippines (which was among the last group of Asian countries to pick it up) before it hit the U.S. As a matter of fact, it spawned a live-action musical adaptation. (Don't ask me for pics or sample songs. I never bothered to see it or buy the cassette.)


Yep, it became TOO popular, if you ask me, that I got sick of it. To complicate things, we actually had Dragonball GT five years after the maiden release of DBZ. Sheesh--and its batchmates, Jigoku Sensei Nube and Sailormoon Sailorstars, have been long finished. Sailormoon Sailorstars was already airing for the FIFTH time, yet there was no sign of Dragonball GT. Dubbing not done? That's impossible. They could've aired the English version, like what they did to DB and DBZ. By then I lost interest in Dragonball GT, focusing on WOWOW and AXN anime instead... Sorry, DBZ fans. I liked it, but too much of a good thing isn't good, right?
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kenshinflyer



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 58
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:26 am Reply with quote
Animefan16 wrote:
What pissed me off about RPN airing DBZ was that they never showed the sagas after the Saiyan saga. After the Saiyan saga, they would just air Dragonball, and then they would show the Saiyan saga again.


Yes, I noticed that too. Well, perhaps it is a trend comparable to that of Slam Dunk--It was also aired in an incomplete series, and they're just completing it now (if they're telling the truth about that Shohoku vs. Ryonan rematch!). Perhaps it's money problems behind it. It's RPN--fourth largest network in the country, and partly government-owned. And they were airing Monkey Magic and Ranma 1/2 at that time. These are costing RPN-9 some good money.
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Animefan16



Joined: 24 Apr 2004
Posts: 1014
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:30 am Reply with quote
Didn't they use the viz dub for Ranma?
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kenshinflyer



Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 58
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:26 pm Reply with quote
They did. It was the dub where they used this WORDFIT System lip-to-voice matching software thingee, used by a dubbing studio in Canada (I forgot the name). They also used that in Monkey Magic.

Perhaps another factor is the sudden single breast exposure in one of the episodes. I have heard that from one of the forumers at the AXN Asia forum years ago. But that wasn't the last. GMA took Ranma 1/2 years after it, and I think I saw Shampoo with a single breast exposure. Since then, GMA abruptly stopped airing it. Since ABS-CBN and GMA are playing a "dirty" anime war, they are wary of those kinds of mistakes (and RPN is partly government-owned)--actually, GMA heavily censored Rune Soldier of nudity--and I never saw Mireru take a bath naked in that pot of gold!!! (Eherm, eherm...) Well, this could decide the possibility of any station here airing a WOWOW anime at all without censoring--a near majority of them has a 'tinge' of ecchi in them (Just take a look at Onegai Twins...)
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