Foods to Get You Through the Day

Dish Four - Three Encounters of The Ultimate Jariang

Any common otaku, generally meaning geeks in Japanese if you asked, would know that there were these despicable moments in some particular animes, where a character would recall half, sometimes all, of his entire past life before doing a single ultimate punch or a single goal-shattering kick. And these flashbacks could last up to a quarter of a showtime season.

Normally, I found those filler-worth episodes as utterly loathsome, but at one certain particular time, I suddenly encountered the urge to do exactly that, recalling long flashbacks.

The reason was the thing I found on the bottom tray of the giveaway food box I received just then. That moment, I was facing my Third Encounter with the Ultimate Jariang.

***

Like any ole' good flashback, it began at my tender age.

It was still at the age of VCR, the age when most parents ignorantly thought that any type of animated show was harmless. And it was also the time when the word 'otaku' was yet to be known outside Japan. Yet, without me knowing, I was already one.

Since the time I could remember, my physique was always on the weaker side. I got bedridden like once every month, and I had nosebleeds every other day. By the time I was eight years old, I've been hospitalized about a dozen times for various symptoms and allergies. Somehow, my body had a knack to turn any simple illness, even the most common to be found in any infant, into something much more severe. And due to that very reason, I didn't come out much throughout my childhood, literally. Instead, when I wasn't busy devouring books in my dad's personal library, my parents could find me befriending our VCR, teleporting myself into distant planets through various animes and super sentai series. Little to no surprise, by the time I was ten, I was already a full-fledged space cadet.

It went without saying that I didn't have many friends. If anything, it could be said that I had none. Due to my physical condition, I skipped school so many times that half of my class had forgotten I ever existed. The few reasons I was never held back during my years were the school's lasting understanding of my condition, and my mom's resolve to keep me up on my studies, even when I was hospitalized. When I managed to return to school at all, I couldn't follow the conversations, since I wasn't there when cool things happened. When some kids were kind enough to get out of their ways to try and talk with me, it was always hard to find common grounds. I couldn't understand why local football was such a hype, and likewise, they couldn't care less about profound differences between Japanese mechas and American mechs. In the end, both parties found aforementioned attempts as big hassles.

It was also yet the time for weebs to be ubiquitous. In general, my hobby was considered childish and was denounced with utter disdain. It was ages before a certain ronin in the Meiji-era Tokyo, or a certain blonde-haired ninja, became famous worldwide. Basically, to my peers, I was an alien that spoke an alien language, fussing about uninteresting alien issues. Before long, I got too tired, and the VCR looked too friendly. Thus, my 2D intergalactic voyages continued.

Like any proper parents should be, Mum and Dad were deeply concerned, so were my Gramps and Granny. That was why, by the time I was a five grader, while I was coalescing from yet another drop, my parents sent me to my Gramps' house for a month. Gramps and Granny said they missed me, Dad said I could use some fresh air and change of scenery, and Mum said I might make some friends and have some outdoor activity. Though I had my doubts about the 'making friend' part, or on how to get a VCR plugged out in the open, I didn't resist. I loved Gramps and Granny nevertheless, so it wasn't like I was unenthusiastic Even so, looking back to the days, perhaps the real reason behind that long holiday might be as simple as my parents got disgusted with me hogging the TV, and they wanted to have their own turns. Just kidding, ... or so I hoped.