Butterfly

Last night I heard something terrible.

A pretty bad news for us 90s survivors.

The singer of "Butterfly", the opening theme of Digimon anime, that nostalgic song that still gives me goosebumps today, the spirited upbeat song of my childhood—had passed away due to his cancer.

Kouji Wada

(1974 - 2016)

Come to think of it, I didn't really listen to the original song as a child. We Indonesian kids were exposed more to the translated version of the theme, which was great, as it showed how we appreciated his song that we didn't change the other part of it -unlike Americans who created a whole new stupid opening theme and I bet even the fans of Digimon in America have no idea of who Kouji Wada was. As I grew up I knew I had an extended love for Digimon. So I began to get myself exposed to the original version of the song, and I fell in love with it.

I knew him only from Digimon Adventure -the very first serial- and the latest Digimon Tri. What I didn't know is that he was apparently also the man behind each and every single latter series of Digimon franchise. I took him for granted.

And now that he's gone, I felt pretty crushed.

Well then what can I say now,

But to wish him a very peaceful rest.

Pic belongs to him. Or her, I'm not sure.

So.

Quoting my tweet,

I'd like to say it again.

Rest in peace Mr Kouji Wada,

You'll always be the prettiest butterfly

In my childhood garden

90s Strikes Back

It's been almost two weeks since I returned from Hong Kong.

I know, I owe you stories but I've been pretty busy with my other project--that's why I kinda abandon this blog. But I have something I really can't stand keeping anymore. It's about the group I met during my trip. These cool people whom I had this hiking adventure with, down to cliff and through the woods, in an island called Tap Mun.

Well I don't know where else to run but here so I'm gonna spill it here anyway. It's seriously kinda weird and might be WTF for those people so, I hope they never find out about this post. And hey guys if you happen to bump into this post, please, before you go on, leave at once!

So there were the eight of us. Five boys, three girls. With the jungle-ish setting and wild fantasies of ours, everybody started talking about scenarios we could possibly play, from "Lost", "The Walking Dead" to "Hunger Games". As a 90s kid, I, on the other hand, drove my mind straight to Digimon Adventure.

I completely forgot where I got this pic but the thing is, it's not mine.

You know, one of my favorite anime during my childhood. Well, it's not just "one of my favorite", it's what made me I am today. The whole cartoon is still so relevant to me I mean, if you want to open a dumb discussion about Digimon, I really can do it like right now.

So yea back to my team. Eight of us were on our way from the cliff back to the harbor, racing with time because we have to catch the boat. We were like taking a detour in the middle of the woods, directed by this French guy named Fred. Okay he's one hell of an adventurer so we counted on him to lead us back using shorter route. He then subconsciously became our leader, and lineup of who was who suddenly appeared in my mind.

Tai - Fred
The leader. The one who's so eager about adventures. The one that will most likely be the last person alive in a zombie apocalypse. Or in our case, in digital world. Fred and Tai are just so alike. He leads our way out of the jungle by using his own map, and that's what Tai did for their whole adventure.

Matt - Calvin

One of our leaders. He could stand up to take the role of the head of the pack, if it's not about surviving in the wild. He plays music, and so does Matt. And by that time, he was hosting me it made him frequently look after me. A familiar scene in which Matt protects his younger brother T.K., yes?

Sora - Sherry
Sora is the girl of adventure. That's what I saw on Sherry. And both are the eldest girls of their group. At first, those reasons are not pretty strong to me. But when I realized that Sherry and Sora have the same hair style, nobody can change my perception anymore.

Izzi - Kit

The only pure local, made Kit be the one with the most knowledge about the Hong Kong (compared to others). Sounds so Izzi? Not until I found out that his CS profile was the richest of us all. Which roughly made me assume that he's so active in cyber world as well. Sounds so Izzi.

Mimi - Zoe
Mimi was, damn cheerful. She was a happy-all-the-time type of girl, and that's what I thought about when I see Zoe. But what's more coincidental was, Mimi was a year younger than Sora, and two years older than Kari. By that time Zoe was 25, Sherry was 26 and Emily was 23. How's that?

Joe - Ray
If you're a fan of Digimon Adventure, you must remember who was the only one who brought food to the digital world, yes? Joe. And guess who brought most food for our hiking trip? Ray. Aside of that major serendipity, Ray was also calm, wise, more action than talking which all resemble Joe's personalities.

Kari - Emily

Emily was the youngest of all the girls and she's my age, so that's the first reason. But I'm not finished. She was also the last one to join the group before we head to Tap Mun, making her so much alike to Kari which was the last digi-destined. Don't you like all these "OMG IT MATCHES!" things??

T.K. - Vicky
Well I was the youngest one of all. So was T.K. And Matt is T.K.'s brother, which on the time being, Calvin was my temporary brother because I stayed at his place and I was basically counting everything on him. More (stupid) reason? Well, I wore a beanie, and T.K. did that all the time.

But on top of all, did you remember the true ending of Digimon Adventure? Yea, that apparently T.K. writes every single thing about their adventures, on his book. He's an author. And would you care to guess what I am right now? :)

This shit has just got real.

I know this weird obsession is, weird. But I can't help it!!! I'm all about Digimon and those too-real-to-be-true things are, TOO REAL TO BE TRUE!

You know what, rumor has it that this year there'll be a continuation of Digimon, highlighting the original eight characters. Well, after more than a decade, I finally get to see them again. And let's see if this coincidence still relates to the cartoon. I can't tell.

What I can tell is,
I don't want to wait for a decade
To meet these people again.

Oh no,

I'm not talking about the cartoon characters.
It's about those crazy silly Hong Kongers which,
I'm so gonna meet again someday, somewhere.

Because we're destined

NP: World of Digital Past

Halo.

Gatau kenapa akhir akhir ini gue ngerasa mellow banget. Bawaan pengen nostalgia ke jaman kartun masih berjaya -dan bermutu- trus merenung, trus diem, trus... Nangis :'/

Oke jadi di postingan gue beberapa hari lalu, gue bilang kalo gue mau nambahin kesan youthful di blog gue ini kan. Nah jadilah setelah pertimbangan matang dan mumpuni, kayaknya gue mau bikin sesi nostalgia deh buat kesenengan pribadi.

And I'm gonna name it "Neverland Playlist"

Sesuai namanya, isi dari segmen ini adalah playlist lagu lagu jaman dahulu. Bukan lagu musik gitusih, dulu jaman gue kecil gue belom doyan musik kali ya, MTV juga belom kenal.

Instead, playlist ini bakal berisi lagu opening kartun populer -bukan populer as in "pokoknya pulang teler" ya, temen temen Bali ku :)- jaman dulu yang kalo gue dengerin lagi sekarang... Berasa muda dan bergairah kembali :')

Nah buat batch pertama, gue mulai dari yang paling gue suka dulu kali ya.

Digimon

Category:

Younger Elementary

Oke gue freak banget sama anime yang satu ini. Booming pas gue kelas 3 atau 4an gitu gue lupa, pokoknya bukan gue doang tapi temen-temen sekelas gue juga pada gila. Ceritanya yaaa bocah banget gitu deh, anak-anak kejebak di dunia monster, ngelawan monster jahat, ngebebasin dunia nyata dari monster jahat yang lolos... Fana banget. Tapi suka banget soalnya monsternya bisa berubah dan levelnya banyak! Ya tau kan gue kayak semacam orgasme gitu kalo ngeliat film yang tokohnya banyak dan ada hirarkinya.

Nah di Digimon itu ada 8 anak terpilih beserta Digimon mereka masing-masing, berarti ada 16 tokoh utama kan? Ya jadilah ya gue dan 15 temen gue membentuk pasukan Digimon kita sendiri. Favorit gue adalah Koshiro -versi Inggrisnya namanya Izzi- dan Digimon gue itu Tentomon, tapi gue lupa siapa temen gue yang jadi Tentomon.

Hm Digimon.

Saking maniaknya dulu gue bikin komik sendiri ceritanya gue dan temen-temen imajiner gue terjebak di dunia Digital trus yaa sama aja sih kayak versi kartunnya, tapi tokohnya aja berubah. Dan ada guenya.

HAHA UDAH KALI YA??
Jadi keumbar kan masa kecil gue.

But that's just the essence of Neverland, isn't it?
So I'm afraid it'll last quiet long with more posts coming.
Enjoy the time machine, Vick