History of OTAKU in the Philippines

If I remembered I was about 5 or 6 where I first watched my first anime Voltes V in tagalog dubbed. I'm guessing the airing of Anime in the Philippines started 90's or 2000. I already knew it was Anime who gave birth from my OTAKUness and a thanks to my dad who favored the Old Anime titles like: Ghost Fighter and Slum dunk. He would change the channel and make us watch it with him me and my brother that is, those were good old memories of mine.

Before, if I could remembered this wasn't much an impact to Filipino viewers cause back then they prefer to watch Taiwanese(secret garden) and Spanish dramas which I wasn't enough related to it.  I was wondering how did the History of Anime go well in the Philippines back in the days and somehow while researching I read this article by MMX entitled The History of Anime in the Philippines .

So here's a brief information, Anime back then wasn't much known however Cartoons was fanatical that had caught the attention of many Filipino viewers. Though Anime hasn't shown its full potential yet and it follows to some viewers as the same level as Cartoons.  Eventually, the Mecha genre appeared in Anime that made a distinction to Cartoons. Like, when the Astroboy, Voltes V and other Mecha genres had been exposed in media. 

It states that:

Why did the filipino people love these shows so much that up to now(even I was surprised) many still watch it? It is because these animes had the elements that filipinos liked and didn’t find in other cartoons at that time.First, these animes had developing plots. Not like other cartoons, filipinos love waiting for what happens next to the character.

That even touched the lives of many viewers that made a change in the local channels. On that point few people had already a glimpse of "anime". Anime got more introduced in a drama version that gotta be a must watch to kids and/or maids. Now that it got exposed the Filipinos grew more to the LOVE of Anime and started a new era for local media.

Here are the channels, viewers rate that was present in the appearance of Anime which can be found in the article:

• ABS-CBN: Anime status has changed little but for the good. Most cartoons that they air today are anime but their time slots are still reserved for some of their own shows. They still air those dramatic animes. Lots of great animes aired though like Slayers, Saber Marionette J and Tenchi-Muyo.

• ABC-5: Tried to get in the anime bandwagon with small results. After Sailormoon and Yaiba, no hits followed them. Slamdunk and Miku: the Metal Fighters were among those who got very little attention still ABC-5 continued the Sailormoon series(Sailormoon R,S and Super S) in hopes to get the Sailormoon magic back.

• GMA-7: The channel that really changed the status of anime in Philippine TV. GMA-7 saw the potential of animes for high ratings ,so using their slogan “We are Anime”, they brought back great anime hits in the Philippines like Ghost Fighter and put anime in primetime slots. We have yet to see other channels if they will try to emulate what GMA did. GMA-7 also aired the ever popular Gundam series (Gundam W and Gundam G).

• RPN-9 and IBC-13: The two channels who first aired those anime hits that GMA-7 is slowly bringing back today. So far, these two channels have been quiet in the anime scene. RPN-9 aired Sweet tales of St. Tail but without success. IBC-13 tried with small time animes but also to no avail. We know they have taste in animes but only time will tell if ever they will air another anime hit here in the Philippines.

• UHF channels: Not much to say here. One channel, SBN-21 once aired the Macross movie “Do you Remember, Love?”. Only Studio 23(owned by ABS-CBN company) had initiative to air anime series. Studio 23 aired Samurai X(Ruroni Kenshin) which, to the dismay of viewers, they didn’t finish.

In overview, despite that Cartoons was winning over Anime. It still didn't focus on how much Filipinos view it when it comes to a great plot in Anime. Mostly, what had touched the lives of local people was the overall character development whether the situations are dramatic, action, Mecha and romance. In the end Anime got the Victory. Today in Filipino local media Anime has overpowered that became favorable for the people who desires new anime to watch.