When I was growing up, my first experience in anime was on a television show known as Agro’s Cartoon Connection, which was hosted by a puppet named Agro (Controlled by a brilliant comedian and radio personality Jamie Dunn). It was really in my opinion, the first incidence of anime being shown to the Australian populace. It began in 1989 and was run for approximately 8 years before being closed down in 1997. Whilst I don’t remember much about… well almost every series on it, let alone the actual segments between the episodes, however the one series that did catch my eye, was Sailor Moon. It was essentially the thing I spent all of my Grade 1 mornings watching and pretty much managed to watch the first season of it. Fast forward to sometime in early 1999, Pokemon was being broadcast on Saturday nights at a 7:30 (or 6:30) PM time slot and from there, gained notoriety as being the most successful anime franchise of the time to hit Australia…. for once ever I think, not having any knowledge of Pokemon would have rendered you the ‘uncool’ person.
Fighting evil by moonlight~ Winning love by daylight~
The biggest thing that loaned itself to the boom in the anime/cartoon craze would be the television series Cheez TV. This was most probably the show that got kids awake early every morning on a school day, and even up early on Sunday mornings to enjoy the weekend episodes as well. The hosts Jade Gatt and Ryan Lappin, both seemed to appeal to the mid-youth early-teen demographic of cartoons, and having covered events such as Pokemon expos and the like, they proved to be a big hit around the early 00′s. I cannot actually say why I started watching Cheez TV, as I most probably was going with the flow, but if anything put messages into my head that anime was a potential hobby, then this would be it. Surprisingly, someone has actually kept a TV schedule listing from 2001 onwards for their shows which can be found HERE. Primarily of interest to most I would think, would be Digimon and Pokemon which aired on the same day, with Digimon I believe being dropped off to a double weekend session (I remember groaning because it mean’t I had a reason to wake up at 7AM on a Sunday – Do note that some of this takes part in 1999 – 2000 which is not covered by this guide). It was especially annoying waking up early to be prepared for it, only to find that the aerobics show (Featuring middle age women in work out gear and bending in ways I don’t think I ever could) was on.
Digimon, Digital Monsters, Digimon are the Champions!
I was more a Digimon person, whilst I followed the trends of the anime series and TCG/Game series, I thought the anime series of Digimon was a lot more…. solid and linear in storyline then Pokemon which had no talking monsters (Except Meowth) and a more “Lets me best friends~” non-linear plot that felt like one main episode + 20 filler episodes, then repeat. I sort of dropped watching it in 2001 (With an exception being for Digimon and Pokemon I think), sadly missing out on several other series such as Card Captors, Sailor Moon repeats, Mega Man and hell, in the end several seasons of Pokemon (The exact episode I stopped watching the anime was the episode that Ash gave the GS ball to the professor).
After this, there have been morning programs on TV that show cartoons such as Toasted TV which now shows more Japanese oriented series such as Naruto and One Piece. Sadly, nothing managed to beat Cheez TV in my books, and even a facebook event, gaining tens of thousands of supporters to get Cheez TV back on air, even for a reunion failed when the event page was taken down by Facebook (Okay, maybe thousands of emails to each TV network might have pissed one of them off).
Now you may ask why I have mentioned all this. It is due to an announcement made by Madman Entertainment during Supanova that they had acquired the license to release Digimon Adventures for a Collection release. It has recently been made clear that Adventures 1 will be released in two parts, the first consisting of episodes 1 – 27 and the other consisting of episodes 28 – 54 and from what I can gather, is most probable to be an August release, alongside other series such as Dance in the Vampire Bund. For those who have watched the series but don’t recall each individual episode, highlight the following bracketed area for descriptions on when the collections start and end. Collection 1: [From the kids arriving at the DigiWorld to leaving the Digiworld through the gate to the human world.] and Collection 2: [From arriving back to the human world to defeating the four masters.].
Now, I know we all grew up on such series and you may think that there are many better anime series out there, however I for one am very excited for the release of this series on DVD. It will be good to take a trip down memory lane and see the series we used to watch again, considering how they are no longer aired on TV, and also for the younger generation, that they can enjoy the same series we did as youth…. similar to how old British shows such as Some Mothers do have Them and Are you being Served are delightfully funny (To me at least).
So I would like to pose a question to you all. Ignoring the inevitable localisation changes (Character names etc), Opening Song changes and if you think they were bad, English voice acting which will most probably be the only voice acting on the DVD’s, what are some of the older series you would like see released as collectors sets? Here is my list of series I think would do well with a DVD collection release.
Digimon Adventures 2, Tamers, Frontier etc.
Seriously, if they license the first season, I would like to think they have plans for Adventures 2 at least…. but I never really got to watch Tamers or Frontier so it would be a good chance to see how the “cartoon” styled Digimon continued, as I am not really into the newer Digimon seasons at all.
Sailor Moon
True, it is your girly anime series, however at the same time, it was the first anime series I ever watched, so credit needs to go where it is due. Alongside the significant fan following and the fact I cant remember anything other then the first season being aired, would be interesting to see the whole series again.
Card Captor Sakura
For the simple fact that, Madman released three volumes of this then never released others…. maybe a set is called for?
From what I can tell, the other primary series shown on Aussie TV (DBZ and Yu-gi-oh) have all been released on DVD at some point and to some extent of completion. So yes, I open up the comments to everyone…. If you are Australian, what anime series from when you were younger would you like released over here? and to everyone in the world: What anime series from say, a decade or so back have and have not been released in your region, what would you like released in your area and also importantly, any stories you want to share of your viewing habits from cartoon tv shows? Basically, the comments forum is open!
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