Back then, I usually took interest in American media over everything else. Although I'm not anti-American but I haven't been interested in it lately. Maybe it's because most American media is stupid? Plus, I can't accept the whole notion that something is better because it's in a language you can understand. No, a show isn't better because of the language. It's better because of the content. Fortunately, there are subtitles but back then, there weren't subtitles.
I started to do Internet searches and I started discovering a lot about it that some of the American shows I watched were also based on Japanese shows. I discovered that Power Rangers was an American production based on Toei's property called Super Sentai and that it's a joint production between Toei and Saban (with Saban as its front because it's an American production). I also learned that Lion Voltron, Vehicle Voltron and Saber Rider were based on Toei Animation's Golion, Dairugger XV and Seijuu Bismarck. What was also funny was that Golion didn't do well during its airing in Japan while Lion Voltron allowed Toei Ltd. to gain money from World Event Productions.
I still can't forget the angry reaction I had towards the Americanization of Japanese shows. I sort of wanted to ask, "WHY TOEI WHY?!" It was all for business reasons. Then I directed my hatred towards TV stations who just keep favoring everything American. I wanted to become anti-American then I realized I was contradicting myself. I still use stuff born out of American influence. But again, not all American shows are bad and not all Japanese shows are good. But I admit, most American shows tend to be very anti-intellectual and a lot of Americans tend to have very small minds. I guess that explains why the Philippines suffers from an anti-intellectualism plague.
Perhaps my favorite example of that would be American children's TV cartoons. A good example would be how Golion and Dairugger XV turn out to be better than Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron. Many times, American children TV shows based on Japanese shows tend to easily write off deaths. I always wanted to say, "Look! You could keep dead characters dead even if you edit out the gore!" I guess they had no idea on what to do back then. In Power Rangers Time Force, we had Ransik really cause Dr. Ferrick's death that turned the latter into the robot Frax but the brutality was trimmed. Dr. Ferricks was burned off-screen. It made me say why couldn't the Voltron series keep characters... dead as they should even if the brutal scenes were edited out?
Another issue I had with American shows was overextension and why Toei even allowed it. Lion Voltron ended up getting a super stupid second season with no direction. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers should have ended after 40 episodes. But no, the extension MMPR had produced that overrated character Tommy and that pompous Jason David Frank. JDF is just an overrated jerk. Want a real legend? Hiroshi Miyauchi has been in multiple Tokusatsu shows playing different characters. JDF has just been Tommy, Tommy and more Tommy so there's no real variety. That's why MMPR rewatches can be painful because of... Tommy. A real legend would be Hiroshi Miyauchi who played several characters and did them right. JDF himself can't top that. I'd say that JDF is one good reason why I usually feel like an MMPR rewatch can be painful. I can't forget how I liked Tommy a lot as a child but after seeing Burai, I really gave Tommy two dirty fingers. Miyauchi fueled it even more to why I usually choose to watch Super Sentai and not Power Rangers.
This also got me to focus to watching Hong Kong and Taiwan films over what America has to offer. I still can't forget that abomination known as the Tekken film or the Street Fighter movies from Hollywood. I'm happy I didn't watch that stupid Dragon Ball Z movie. Even if I had to learn reading subs, I was more entertained by Hong Kong and Taiwan films. The same went for Japanese and Korean movies. They always had better plot and dedication than most American films. While I'd still watch some American films but I usually choose to avoid them. I've had some fun with some American films but I don't get that much of a satisfaction compared to most Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese films. But again, there are also bad quality films from where I get most of my favorite films and vice versa.
Fortunately, there are subs now. I don't like dubs either. After seeing Bioman subbed, I really don't want to rewatch the dub by Telessuccess. The lack of quality of rushed dubs makes me cringe now. I could understand Telesuccess had deadlines to meet, the time frame and everything but why would I still want to watch the dubs when I could listen to the real deal? The same went for me with Voltes V after watching its fan subs. It was never the same thing again. The dubs aren't the real deal compared to hearing the actual Japanese voices with the plot intact. Too many stuff got lost in translation with Telesuccess having to meet the weekly deadlines since they were broadcast, not Betamax releases where they could take their time. I could appreciate shows that I think are better but unfortunately, they aren't in English.
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