After almost two decades with GMA Network, the popular comedy anime Doraemon has said goodbye to their former broadcaster, and moved in a big way to their main rival ABS-CBN.
I’m definitely sad to see it go. I’m pretty sure that the big media conglomerate has offered something big to convince them to move to their turf, but that’s not the topic that I want to talk about.
Before the popular franchise made its grand entrance on May 27, it had quite a lot of media blitz, but some eagle-eyed viewers noticed one thing: Takeshi Gouda is “Damulag” no more.
For the past 20 years, he was known for that one particular name, but at this point, he will now be known by his original nickname “Gian”.
I find it really funny that some people are OVERREACTING over the name-change, like its their whole childhood depends on it… or maybe it was? What’s in the Name?
First of all, Takeshi Gouda’s nickname in the original Japanese audio is “Gian”, but it is pronounced as Jaian (ジャイアン), which is the romanji of the English word Giant.
When Doraemon started on GMA Network in late-1999, they used the nickname Damulag, which literally mean “carabao” or “water buffalo” in Tagalog dictionary, but also mean “big baby” in common parlance.
In other countries, they also did something similar with their version of the series, including “Pàng hǔ” (胖虎) or fat tiger in Chinese and “Gigante” in Spanish.
Some people has since accuse ABS-CBN of becoming overly politically-correct, while others think that the network is simply pondering to the “Anak TV” crowd. If you ask me, I think the problem is that most of them are simply doing some kneejerk overreactions.
My advise for them: Just calm down. I know that we have gotten used to the “Damulag” name, considering that’s what we’ve called him for the past 20 years, but there should really be not much of a deal with the name change.
I’ve talked to someone who was involved with the dubbing production, and tells me that the name change was simply “to differentiate the new version from the previous one”.
Also according to my source, the show’s voice cast even has to do a “curing process” just for them to get used to the new name and vocabulary.
But the question still lies, What’s in the Name? Maybe it simply boils down to our childhood, particularly the so-called Batang 90’s and the Millenials crowd that got used to watching our favorite cat from the future.
We’ve grew up with the Doraemon that we have known, considering that we all have been watching the long-running 1970’s version for almost two decades!
I know that each and every episode of Doraemon are timeless in itself, but I think it’s time to give the franchise a fresh take, and for everyone to be open-minded in looking from a brand new perspective.
We already had our childhood, maybe its time for a new generation to have theirs.
BONUS!
Speaking of childhood, I have a blind item! Despite all rumors swirling around the internet, one particular super popular show is highly likely to stay on its homebase, which has been its home for a couple of decades now.
In fact, this super popular show has quite a lot of episodes that are ready for airing, but the big question will always be… when?
If you know, then you know… but if you don’t, well you’re on your own. Hopefully, you’ll find about it soon enough. Stay tuned.
Let me hear from you. If you have reactions about the topic, you can email me at [email protected].
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