Homage

When we were kids, we used to have our own superheroes. Other's were followers of some American hero flicks like Superman and Batman or even Marvel, but I turned my eyes to the Japanese.

All I could remember is that it started from merely trading a game card or a "tex" during our recess when I was in elementary that evolved into some sort of devotion to a fictional superhero that would become a major part of my childhood life.

He stands 40 meters tall, has a fin as a nose that extends to his head, he has eyes like those of a praying mantis and has a red stripes and silver color for a body. He fights giant monsters and aliens as big as Godzilla and King Kong and he has this blue color timer that blinks red when this guy becomes weak.

Everyone calls him

Ultraman.

Ultraman changed my entire childhood life. For the first time, I felt how to become a fan of something that moved you completely. I could even remember passing every formal gatherings and outings just to be sure that I could follow the episodes every sunday. I used to even cry when I failed to watch one of its episodes.

It was like he was my god. Eventually, instead of playing tex with other kids, I spent all my baon attempting to collect every tex card that relates to him (which I still keep until today). I even had a major conflict with my parents after I tried to write a blank cheque amounting to P2,500 to a friend who had just acquired a book about Ultraman.

During the latter part of my childhood, I started re-enacting his exploits at home when I acquired a locally made toy of this guy, some several boxes of imported alcohol. miniature plastic jetplanes and other thingies, and of course buying several toy "monsters" that would become his enemies.

For a time, Ultraman and Ultraman Ace had become my world. It was a time when my thoughts and actions bordered on madness for he did affect every aspect of my childhood the entire time I was hooked up to him.

Then, as fast as he caught my interest and devotion, its dissipation was swift as well. Eventually I grew up and things that used to amazed me suddenly doesn't excite me anymore.

Those very light plots and kid-friendly episodes became less and less appealing to me. It gradually bored me until my interest on him stopped... I grew up and Ultraman had become a mere kid's dream and fantasy to me.

Later, when I discovered the wonders of the internet, I went back to my roots and tried to look decipher the entire story of the Ultraman universe. Those pictures and information I was trying to decipher because it was written in Japanese/Kanji became clear to me. After I understood everything. I closed that chapter of my life.

Ultraman, and all things ultra suddenly became a memory to me.

Then suddenly, I stumbled upon a DVD of his successor at Quiapo this afternoon.

For 1 hour and 30 minutes I watched the film. Suddenly, all the memories I kept from those years I was worshipping this superhero came back to me like a raging river of nostalgic thoughts and childhood innocent moments.

I thought I have completely forgotten. But with just one trigger - like that DVD I watched this evening, things that I thought I have forgotten already were actually all inside of me.

The text, the song, the superhero. It's like, its part of my consciousness. It just became dormant from all those years I never mentioned or consciously remembered him.

Nothing really changed. The Ultraman of my past is still the Ultraman of my present.