Reminiscing my childhood: Watching Dragon Ball at the neighbor's place and my Dragon Ball artworks in high school

Hi, The Anime Realm Community! This is my first time posting here. Please allow me to share my childhood memories while watching the Dragon Ball animated series back then.

I remember, we never had colored TV because our black and white TV that was given by my grandparents was already broken. We had no choice but to go to our neighbor's house to watch TV.

Another memory was when my sister and I attended the afternoon mass during Flores de Mayo or Flowers of May. After the mass, we saw our neighbor's windows were open. Several neighbors were near the window to watch the TV. At that time, Dragon Ball was on RPN Channel 9. Marimar, the Mexican telenovela was also on the same channel during that time. Hahaha!

We finished watching Dragon Ball, it was late evening already. My mother scolded us because she was worried, she waited for us after mass but we never got back home in time. I told her we were safe because we watched a TV show at the neighbor's house. Still, she wasn't happy about it.

Every Sunday, we scheduled our time to go to the neighbor's house. All the kids would chant in chorus, "Chala, head chala!"

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According to Wikipedia:

"Cha-La Head-Cha-La" (Japanese: チャラ・ヘッチャラ, Hepburn: Chara Hetchara) is a song by Japanese singer-songwriter Hironobu Kageyama, released as his sixteenth single. It is best known as the first opening theme song of the Dragon Ball Z anime television series. Columbia released the single on vinyl, cassette and mini CD on May 1, 1989. It is coupled with the first Dragon Ball Z closing theme, "Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Power!" (でてこいとびきりZENKAIパワー!, Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Pawā!) performed by Manna.

Source: here

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I was in grade 5 when we got our first colored TV from the brand Sharp. It was a square box TV, we got the tiny colored TV because that was the time my parents could afford it. So, how did my parents afford to buy the TV? Well, it was my mother who won in a gambling session named Jai-Alai. Hahaha! Can anyone relate?

Finally, we got our TV and we never had to go to the neighbor's house.

My Highschool Artworks

For me, the easiest anime to draw was Dragon Ball characters. Well, the main characters have all the same facial patterns (Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, and Trunks). And of course, the Pineapple hairs. I really had fun drawing their faces and their pineapple hairs. And I had no trouble to color them.

My First Sketchbook Second Year High School

I decided to buy a sketchbook and a cheap watercolor. Oh, I had a collection of Dragon Ball cards from a snack item for One Peso. Meaning, I can copy and draw many different Dragon Ball scenes and characters from my little collection.

By the way, I love Trunks. I love his purple hair but here is the Super Saiyan version.

Gohan with his Kenton cloud

During the Third year high school with our Drafting lessons with TLE

Because of Drafting, I fancied myself to be an architecture student but I really wanted to take Fine Arts in UP Cebu. But my father discouraged me because he said I wouldn't earn so much money as an artist. Yes, I wanted to be a painter so badly.

With this plate we did in high school, I got a 95% rating for Goten and Majin-Boo.

I used Latex Paint to color. Buying paints like poster paints or acrylic paints was very expensive. So, I had to ask three of my friends if we could share those little cans of paints of red, yellow, blue, white, and black.

This is my favorite drawing. I just love those big muscles and six-pack abs. I loved playing with the skin tone color. Lol, I had this fantasy to paint men in the nude with their abs. You know, the shading and defining them just hit differently. I just wanted to paint realistic skin tones if there's a chance I could paint a human body part on a canvas.

My husband was really surprised that I could draw and paint

It's just this year my husband knew about my hidden talent in the world of arts. He never knew this when we started dating in 2018. I wasn't into sketching/painting/drawing because I was busy traveling as a digital nomad. Now that we have two kids who are now 2 and 4 years old, I got the chance to pursue my love for art. He was surprised when I started buying and collecting art materials. Now, I have a Himi gouache paint and several paintbrushes. Thanks to my Hive earnings. Haha!

He asked me why I never told him about it. I just said I had no time to discuss it. Anyway, I showed him all my drawings I posted on Facebook 10 or 20 years ago. LOL

It was my husband who told me that The 'Dragon Ball' creator Akira Toriyama, just died recently. He watched Dragon Ball before but I think in general, Filipinos are more of a fan.

Since Filipinos love to sing in Karaoke, one Christmas time, I sang a few Japanese anime songs from Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, and Voltes V. LOL, it was funny, they were so impressed with my Japanese/Nihonggo singing skills. But actually, I never understood any words when I was singing. Well, I sounded so legit since I told them I've been to Japan twice. Hahaha!

Oh well, I am just happy reminiscing about my first-loved anime. Hopefully, my husband, my kids, and I could visit Japan as a family. Since they're French, they can stay up to 90 days visa-exemption while me, as a Philippine passport holder, need to apply for another Japan tourist visa. XD

That's all folks! I hope you enjoyed my first article to this community. :D

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