Dear Doraemon and Shinchan fans,
First of all… relax. Don’t get angry. Or get angry. Little bit is fine. But I have to say this.
You people will never understand the madness we had. You had Doraemon taking out gadgets from his pocket and Shinchan dancing like a weird uncle at weddings. Very cute. Very nice.
But we had Small Wonder.
Every single day at 5 PM sharp, school ended and we ran home like Olympic athletes who forgot their medals at home.
We threw our school bags and never looked if they even landed on the chair or someone's head. We left shoes somewhere near the door, or did we wear them inside, we never knew. Uniform was still on. Our hair looked like we fought three pigeons on the way...
All this, because Small Wonder had started.
And there was Harriet.
OH. MY. GOD.
Even my tiny 7-year-old heart had anger issues because of that girl. Every episode I sat there like a small judge waiting for justice.
“Today she will get it. Today, someone will finally shut her up.”
And when she actually got insulted or embarrassed? AAAAH. The happiness. But listen carefully. That was only the beginning. The main show came at 6 PM.
Disney Hour.
And that’s when I met the hero who made his place in my heart and never left.
Spider-Man. For 30 minutes the world disappeared. Peter Parker swinging between buildings while I sat on the floor with my chin on my hands like a small poet who discovered clouds in the sky for the first time.
Sometimes I jumped from sofa to chair pretending buildings were below me. But how do you sit properly when SPIDER-MAN IS FLYING?
Then I grew up. But something funny happened.
My height grew, and so did my love for Spider-Man. Nobody in my family cared though. So, I watched Spider-Man movies alone in theatres. No big deal, right? Yeah.
I rented CDs. Burned DVDs. Even watched some horrible pirated versions where the screen shook and someone in the theatre kept coughing.
Because love is love. But something always felt missing. The magic. The swing. The feeling in the stomach when he jumps off a building. Then one day something big happened.
I watched Finding Dory in IMAX 3D.
And suddenly, the screen was not a screen anymore. It was a world. The ocean was everywhere. The sound was everywhere. My eyes were wide like a kid seeing the moon for the first time. That day the small poet inside me made a promise.
Spider-Man deserves the sky. Not small screens. Not laptops. Not half feelings. Only IMAX. Because some stories are not just stories. They are childhood hiding in your chest. They are 5 PM races back home. They are a boy sitting cross-legged on the floor at 6 PM watching a hero swing through the sky.
So yes.
Doraemon and Shinchan are fun. But nothing… nothing will ever beat the madness of running home at 5 PM for Small Wonder, and then sitting quietly at 6 PM waiting for Spider-Man like the world’s smallest, happiest poet.
Some of you had cartoons. Some of us had a childhood that still swings through our memories.
P.S. If you're wondering who is that kid in the picture in my arms, it's the 'baby me.'
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