Relocation: part 2

Dragonball Z, Samurai X, Cowboy Bebop. The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. These are all television shows that managed to exit out of Japan’s orbit by way of commerce. As of 2008, they’ve infiltrated toy shelves, gaming consoles, viral video, and the blogosphere. 50 years from now, chances are high that they won’t even exist.

American TV was the number one reason I wanted to leave the Philippines. I would wake up every morning and switch to American, Australian, British, or Japanese broadcasts because in the Philippines, the only program they put effort into were variety shows. You’d find an actor singing or dancing, or a singer or dancer acting, and they had to be funny at the same time. Donita Rose was an MTVasia veejay who ended up acting in an American film. After that brief stint, which was unsurprisingly overplayed in my community, she disappeared off MTVasia’s airwaves for a while. It seemed like everybody wanted to leave. Living in the third-world is all about hopes, dreams, and aspirations, but it’s desperation that gets you out. I learned that when I was five.

So there I was sitting in front my television set. Some station was broadcasting Samurai X, in Japanese. Rirouni Kenshin. They didn’t color the blood white in this version. I remember how much they censor out of cartoons in the states. In Japan, they didn’t censor it at all. It felt like I had crossed onto some rift between the two nations and their opposing views on the youth’s exposure to media. I was very much an American, but I was getting a small taste of Japanese moral culture. Did that make me any less American? I’ll always wonder. Believe it or not, America is teeming with culture, and you don’t have to go to church to be exposed to it. You don’t have to join a club or commit to a routine. You just have to be an impressionable child, sitting in front of the television.