| International Channel - even BETTER than sliced bread! |
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This week I, and many other, DBZ fans are celebrating a special occasion. The International Channel airing of DBZ officially overtakes the English version as of last Sunday!! It is because of this little milestone that I decided to dedicate my editorial to them this week, and also because without IC, this site would have never existed. It all started Friday February 28, well, actually it was pretty late, so I guess it was Saturday by that time. Anyway, I was flipping through the channels looking for something to watch, and was feeling a little worried, because I was getting up into the sixties, where the cable company puts all the loser stations. But wait a minute... what was that on 70?? I could have sworn I just saw... Yep. I flipped back just in time to see the Japanese DBZ logo filling the screen. And just in time to hear an announcer say "Premieres Sunday, March 2nd, 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific, only on International Channel!!" My mouth dropped open, and I just about soiled my drawers. I stayed up for the rest of the night, waiting for them to show the promo again, and they did a couple of hours later. I was VERY happy about this. The English version had been airing for 7 months, and I was just DYING to know what I was missing out on. Episode 126 was where my DBZ collection recorded from Japanese TV began, and I had never seen a single episode from anywhere before that point. That meant I had missed the whole Saiya-jin and Freeza sagas, and came in just after Trunks' first appearance. About halfway through the series, actually. I had been looking for those first episodes for years, and had just about given up hope of ever getting them. When the English version came out, I was a little comforted "Well, I guess this is good enough," I thought. But no! This kick-ass station, that I didn't even know I had, was about to start airing the show at its full Zenkai power, for all to see!! So, there I was two days later, VCR ready, and grateful as hell that I had just *HAPPENED* to pass by that promo so close to the first airing. The rest, as they say, is history. IC has been showing DBZ every Sunday evening for the past year and 4 months, without a single rerun, and only one pre-emption. (This happened two weeks ago, it was some Japanese golf special, and when I saw that it was on instead of DBZ, I almost soiled my drawers again.) I've been there faithfully all but 4 times (damned life getting in the way) and am ever so slowly bridging the gap in the giant hole in my episode collection. If IC keeps this up for just a few more months, I'll have almost the whole series. Anyway, if YOU are one of the International Channel impaired (most of you are unfortunately, few cable systems actually carry it), all I can say is write, write, write to your cable company and DEMAND that they get it. You don't deserve to be stuck with the watered-down swill that FUNimation calls Dragon Ball Z. But as for me, I'm ever so pleased since, as of this week, I can finally watch these episodes BEFORE the English versions, unspoiled and untouched. And when season three of the English version comes around, I'll be ready for it. Hmm... even with a 7 month head start, and all of the cutting, IC managed to catch up with FUNimation rather quickly. Maybe if they would do more episodes, they wouldn't HAVE that problem... Oh and one last note, IC DOES use the TV ratings system for their programs. Wanna know what DBZ is? TVPG some weeks, but most of the time, it's Y7. Kind of gets you thinking, doesn't it? NEXT TIME: Ever wondered what the symbols on everyone's clothes mean? Be here for the hijinks as this clueless gaijin fumbles with his secret decoder ring in an attempt to succeed at the daunting task of Kanji interpretation! Oh well, if I can't, I'll just make stuff up. See you in well, let's see... 12 days. Yes, 12. I have decided to do the editorial thing biweekly, rather than every week. This damned page is taking up way too much of my (nonexistent) free time. |
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