It started casually enough. A cousin-in-law, Candy Cruz Datu, renamed her cat from Persia to Tombei the Mist, announced it to friends and family on Facebook and, from there, it was a trip down memory lane toward the world of ninjas and the fabled land of a thousand and one Arabian Nights.
Tombei the Mist was the Iga Ninja friend of Akikusa Shintaro, a ronin (masterless samurai) and older half-brother of Ienari, the 11th Tokugawa shogun. If you’re wracking your brain trying to remember where they all figured in Japanese history, well, Ienari was real enough but Shintaro and Tombei the Mist were characters in a television series that Candy and I faithfully watched as young girls. The show was called The Samurai. It ran from 1962 to 1965 in Japan but, in the Philippines, it was aired in the 1970s.
The Samurai was something I eagerly waited for every weekend. I was so besotted with the setting and the mysterious and romantic world of ninjas that I pestered my aunt to buy me a “sword” which I wore tucked under a makeshift cloth belt around my waist. The lead character and hero, Shintaro, was my first ever crush.
It was a very dated discussion with the two of us talking about things that people under forty won’t probably know about. And as we continued to talk about The Samurai, Candy found photos from the old black-and-white series and I discovered that Ose Koichi, the actor who played Shintaro, is still alive and living in Tokyo, a master of the martial art Iaido. From there, we just dove straight into the 70s pop culture that somehow defined our childhood. It was eerie. We didn’t know each other when we were children (I wouldn’t meet Candy until after I got married) yet we watched the same things and even had a crush on the same TV character.
There was no cable television in the 70s. No Disney Channel, no Cartoon Network, no Nickelodeon. There was RPN 9 which aired Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows from Monday ’till Saturday. And we watched them all. Mighty Mightor, Wacky Races, The Herculoids, The Adventures of Young Gulliver and Shazzan. Most of these were actually produced in the 60s but were aired locally in the 70s.
Mighty Mightor was the story of Tor and his pet dinosaur Tog who rescued an old man. The old man gave Tor a magic club which when he raised as he shouted, “Mightor!” transformed him into a heavily muscled masked man with supernatural powers who protected his village from enemies.
Wacky Races was about race cars in road rallies. There was only one female racer, Penelope Pitstop (who would later star in a spinoff cartoon series), whose pink car had all the amenities of a beauty parlor. But probably the most memorable character is the villain, the be-moustached Dick Dastardly and his sidekick, a dog named Muttley, who rode the Mean Machine with its creaming Double 0.
The Herculoids was set on another planet. The term herculoids referred to a family (in the shape of a human male, female and young male) and their collection of strange creatures all with unique powers. Their mission: protect their planet from invaders.
Loosely based on Jonathan Swift’s classic novel, The Adventures of Young Gulliver chronicled Gulliver’s journey to Lilliput and his search for his missing father with the aid of a map and some friendly Lilliputians.
And then, there was my favorite cartoon of all – Shazzan! This was not the Shazam! that was based on the DC Comic hero Captain Marvel. Shazzan was a giant of a genie. The story was about a brother and sister, Chuck and Nancy, who discovered a chest with two interlocking rings. When joined, they formed the word Shazzan and Chuck and Nancy were transported to the mysterious era of the Arabian Nights where the genie Shazzan awaited to do their bidding. Despite his awesome powers and his duty to serve Chuck and Nancy, the one thing that Shazzan could not do was to bring them home before they could return the rings to their rightful owner who remained unknown.
But cartoon series were not the only things I watched. I still remember parts of a song from the full-length anime film Alakazam The Great, a story about a monkey who became rude and arrogant after he became king. He would later be defeated by a heavenly king and punished to learn humility.
All of that happened before The Transformers and X-Men and computer animation. By today’s standards, the two-dimensional animation of the 60s and the 70s would be laughable. But, back then, we loved them. We got excited as we anticipated what the next episode would bring. And because they were all aired after school hours and just before the evening news, we looked forward to them when we got home from school. So long ago and so far away. But remembering them still makes me smile.
Wow Ms connie!You have very good memory—you can still remember the names of all those characters!Can you remember too that pessimistic cartoon character who always say “we’re doomed!”? I agree with you that Shintaro in his neat ponytail and suave ninja moves was many a girl’s crush during those days!
That’s Muttley who says that.
*SQUEEEEEE*
Someone who remembers The Samurai with as much fondness as I do! My entire barkada (US expat kids, my classmates in International School) emulated all the ninja moves with an enthusiasm that would have terrified our mothers if they had only known, LOL. Seriously, everything I learned about climbing walls and trees…
“We’re doomed…” wasn’t that the signature line of Glum the Lilliputian? And poor Flirtasia, always trying to get Gulliver to notice her. *grin*
My favorite cartoon story arc of all time was from the Marvel Cartoons Submariner. The one where he feels driven to visit the surface world and finds out how his parents met, and is somehow rescued by his grandmother (?) where he returns to the pining-till-near-death Lady Dorma.
Which is why when I saw Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in the Iron Man movie, I immediately heard the theme song of the cartoon in my head.
OK, returning you to regular comments!
sorry Ms. connie,I think starshadow and Jeng were right— that pessimistic character is from Gulliver’s—so the name was Glum!Thanks guys!
Okay. But whose dog was he?
Wow, I agree with Beth that you have an amazing memory. I cannot even remember the plot of the last book I have read
Actually, we didnt have a TV when we were growing up. Nakikinuod lang kami sa kapitbahay tapos pag hindi kami bati ay pinagsasarhan pa kami ng bintana. But I do remember Batibot and Shaider.
That’s an incomplete list, actually. Some I can’t remember the details anymore. Like The Spy Shadow. Just a vague memory.
But I remember Sesame Street too hehehe And those B&W Tagalog movies — Dance O’Rama most especially.
rats, rats and double rats…was dastardly dick’s favorite cuss word…yes, I remember all those cartoons, you forgot moby dick…
Moby Dick was sandwiched between two episodes of Mighty Mightor, all three within a 30-minute time slot.
hahaha I remember Mightor (we played Mightor with the neighborhood kids) and The Wacky Race (yes, Muttley!) but aside from that I drew blank with the other shows you mentioned. I also loved those LVN black and white old movies (Nida & Nestor, Delia Razon and Rogelio de la Rosa were my favorites). I got my son a second hand DVD of the first season of Super Heroes that I remember watching from that era and I was amazed how tame they were compared to those kiddie Nickelodeon or Disney Channel shows now, no punching or shooting of guns!
They are available in DVD? Whoa! Tempting to buy but the girls might find them too slooowww… LOL
Uh-oh. I’m gonna be a party-pooper here, Connie. But the character who always said, “We’re doomed!” was Glum from the Gulliver series. Another standard line he had was “It’ll never work!”
Gulliver’s dog was named Tagg.
Ms. Connie, you have a very sharp memory! Great to read about those cartoons that I also used to enjoy, including the Justice League… I also watched and thoroughly enjoyed Dance O’Rama plus of course LVN movies. Those were the golden age of television, even if it was just black & white. Next can you write about what you also watched during prime time–Little House in the Prairie (followed by Combat, which my Dad used to watch), The $6Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, Different Strokes for Different Folks, Murder She Wrote, Charlie’s Angels, CHiPs, and late night shows like Soap (loved Billy Crystal there!), Benson, Blansky’s Beauties … gosh I can go on & on if only my memory’s as good as yours! … Life was much simpler then, if there’s nothing good on tv, there are books to read, board games to play esp on a hot afternoon or yard games during late afternoon, or even climb trees. Such were the golden age of our growing up years! These days, kids have a myriad of choices, cable tv, computer games, the internet, mostly indoor, kaya different story pa to have them involve in sports development. … As the saying goes, “Life was much simpler then!”
Hmmm, I don’t remember a thing.
Perhaps, Voltes 5? or Masingersi if I spelled it right?
Mazinger Z.
Partner niya si Aphrodite A; with boobs that shoot out that Mazinger Z holds on to so that he can fly!
Besides Mutley’s funny laugh or sneer, one unforgettable line in Wacky Races would be Dick Dastardly’s signature line: “Drat! And double-drat!!”
Oh and now I remember how he hated to be called by his first name.
I’ve watched this cartoons back in my 2nd to 5th grade in elementary with my best friend. Those were certainly the good old days!
I loved those shows. There was this little boy who helped Shintaro – I think his name is Shisaku. We used to taunt our little brother by that name – not that he looked liked him but he cried like him.
I was a couch potato then and would watch these cartoons over and over again. Most of them were shown by then KBS Channel 9.
Channel 7 had Popeye, Baby Huey, Caper, Wendy and the other Harveytoons plus Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club. Channel 5 had Gigantor – that’s way before Voltes 5 and the other robots!
It’s really nice to recall these shows and look back to how simple life was then.