p e r i s c o p e p e r i s c o p e C hri z chan “‘A Saiyan was show Flash Fax was something in our born in this place. He memories that can never be replaced. is called Son Goku!’” The locally produced children’s tel- the first line of lyrics evision show, running from 1989 to of the theme song 1999, was memorable for its songs. At TELLY immediately came that time, they were not always avail- to Isabella Wong’s able on CD albums. Pheonix Cham Ka- mind when talking ling, now 21, said she cut out the lyrics WAS OUR about Dragon Ball published in children magazines and Z. She said she was memorized them. That was “kid’s intel- so amazed by the ligence”, as she termed. BUDDY fiery hairstyle of Vince Lam was also a children’s song the Super Saiyans fan. As a small child, she was greatly (超級撒亞人). influenced by the meanings behind Freeza (��菲利��), the lyrics. One of the songs which The colossal collection of kid songs by Mr Oldkid Artificial Human touched her deeply was “The Story of No. 17 and 18, to Majin Buu (�魔�人�布 Ah-Fa”, about the friendship between Tsubasa”, which is about the adven- 歐), the hero Son Goku and other char- a girl and a cat. ture of a Japanese soccer youth team, acters combat these evils through the “I couldn’t help crying whenever I reminds a lot of boys, including Mr 291-episode series. heard about the death of the cat at the

Television was the buddy of those growing up in 90’s. Oldkid, of their good old days on the “Cell is the green villain chri z chan by Keith Yuen football field with friends. who absorbs others’ power “Every boy at that time plays foot- by opening up his tail and e are lucky to have grown “They simply suck. Just take a look at “Now we can download TV shows. ball, as the television is showing ‘Cap- engulfing an entire creature.” up in an era before memo- Dejiko(���數碼子) or PichiPichiPitch(�唱 We watch different stuff, at different tain Tsubasa’. And all of us would sing Nathan Lau, 22, recalled. Wries became too personal. K小魚仙). They are just so stupid and times. A person downloads 10 manga the theme song together,” Mr Oldkid Other villains include Freeza, At those times, we all spent our child- senseless,” said Isabella Wong, 21. series on average. We have very little said. with a purple brain that hood basking in television rays. Four Provided with so many choices and in common to talk about,” Nathan Lau, However, he said the popularity of elongates when he grows o’clock was our prime time, when we ways to obtain TV programs nowa- 22, said. children programmes and songs has to his final form. Majin Buu met our buddies – characters from days, watching TV has become more The manga series Sailor Moon, cre- been declining since the mid 1990s. is pink, can stretch, shatter cartoons like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball personal and less collective. Memories ated in 1992, did certainly find im- Children nowadays are very different or liquefy himself in any way Z and kid’s programmes like Flash Fax. are more ‘dispersed’, as Isabella de- mense popularity among kids at that from those born in his era. “The kids he likes and can even form “I was deeply into Sailor Moon and scribed. time. “The big entertainment for me these days spend their time on tuto- himself into a cannon ball I watched it every afternoon,” 21-year- during holidays was to re-watch the rial schools and online games, while and shoot at his targets. Flash Fax was memorable of its kid songs. old Krystal Ting Suet-ching recalled whole tape of Sailor Moon. Just sitting we spent ours on cartoons.” Cartoon characters were television as a significant part of her “(Now) a person in front of the TV for the whole day That was the time when Pluto was not our only buddies. While many of us end,” she said. childhood. would make me very satisfied,” said still one of the nine planets in the So- today declare that “We grew up with Another tune that stayed with her At that time, Henshin “transforma- downloads ten Krystal. lar System. From Sailor Moon, through ‘Flash Fax’ instead of ‘After School ICU’” is “Life is of value”, which is a bright tion” cartoon series were a big hit. Sail- Its theme song has a Cantonese Sailor Jupiter, to Sailor Pluto – the her- (a group in Facebook with over 20,000 and encouraging song sung by all the or Moon was one of the first series to manga series on version and was sung by Karen Tong oines in Sailor Moon were all named members), the long running children’s hosts of Flash Fax. have females as main characters. The Bo-yue, Linda Wong Hing-ping and after the moon and the planets. m an d Though most of the ideas of transformation, ordinary girls an average. We Vivian Chow Wai-man. Krystal even Sailor Jupiter, who has a tomboy y chi songs revolve around combating the evil, with a little bit of have very little in recorded it and listened to it over and image and attacks enemies with thun- the themes of friend- romanticism added, had indeed fasci- over again until she could sing it. der bolts, was adored by many girls, ship and family, some nated a lot of girls. common to talk “The old tunes are still in our col- including Vince Lam Shuk-man, now a could be as funny as “The morph process, the baton, the lective memories because they can 21-year-old university student. “She is “The Cat and Rat Duet” sailor uniforms, the magic case and about” remind us of some incidents and in- such a cool fighter. I was desperate for and “Twelve Dinosaurs even their nail polish…everything valuable memories”, said Mr Oldkid, a pair of green go-go boots like hers.” Go Picnic”. V was so glamorous!” Krystal excitedly a children’s songs collector who de- Another cartoon series which can recalled. She said she used to emulate “I miss the old days when all of us clined to disclose his real name. still be vividly remembered is Dragon the transformation and memorise all were watching the same cartoon se- Describing himself as nostalgic, he Ball Z. We still remember the number the spells. ries at the same moment. We chatted loves to retrace things in the past from of late nights we spent watching it, as On the other hand, the cartoon se- about the same stuff and we had a lot time to time by recalling the old melo- it was not shown in the after-school ries on TV nowadays are less popular. more resonance,” she said. dies. The Japanese cartoon “Captain time. The characters in Dragon Ball Z stay in our memories.

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