Both ‘Encantadia’ and ‘Bagani’ have created their respective following and their share of bashing; but let us alone focused on the part where the heroes and the heroines get their transformations from ‘who’ they are in their ‘worlds’ to be the ‘individuals’ that they are destined to be with powers and more.
Let me talk about ‘Encantadia’ first. Since this was the hit that GMA ‘Kapuso’ Network had back in 2005 with 160 episodes and had a sequel-prequel titled ‘Etheria’ and went on to have its third installment the ‘Encantadia: Pag-ibig Hanggang Wakas’ premiered in 2006; and the clamor of mounting it again in 2016, the Network opted to have a reboot or it can be called the re-quel or the re-telling of its original version.
Admiring the brilliance of the said series is something that I admit, but not entirely since it is still not original in its creation or conception.
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If the audience is well-read and has watched a lot of films and even TV series–they could easily figure out what I am actually referring to. I once wrote something similar to this in the past. ‘Encantadia’ is an amalgamation of many fantasy stories that I have already encountered.
Clearly, when the best-selling novels of an English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien, titled ‘The Lord of the Rings’ had its film versions, first in 2001, then in 2002 and in 2003, respectively–it was Suzette Doctolero‘s turn to create a Philippine version of the said masterpiece. By the way, the Tolkien novels are among the best-selling novels ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.
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And maybe, Doctolero may not have claimed as such but the series was slightly based on a 1982 animated fantasy film ‘The Flight of the Dragons’ produced by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. and loosely combining the speculative natural history book of the same name (1979) by Peter Dickinson with the novel ‘The Dragon and the George’ (1976) by Gordon R. Dickson.
In this particular film, (which eventually was released by Warner Brothers as a made-to-order DVD in the US on 17 November 2009 as part of ‘Warner Archive Collection’); there were four wizards–the Green Wizard Carolinus, who presides over nature with his three other brother-wizards–the Blue Wizard Solarius, who commands the heavens and seas; the Yellow Wizard Lo Tae Zhao, whose realm is light and air; and the Red Wizard Ommadon, master of black magic and the forces of evil.
Since Filipinos are more fascinated with female leads, thus in ‘Encantadia’, four heroines were created instead by Doctolero, which she also mentioned that she inspired it from the story of Maria Makiling, a diwata (fairy) in the Philippine folklore, but gave it four different personas. Frankly, this is a brilliant ‘seed’ of a concept.
Now, this brings us to the comparison of this creation of Doctolero versus that of ABS-CBN‘s or Kapamilya Network‘s ‘Bagani’, which recently premiered on 5 March 2018. Its plot revolves around the struggle and conflict of five groups–Taga-Patag (farmers), Taga-Laot (fishermen), Taga-Kalakal (traders), Taga-Gubat (hunters), and the Taga-Disyerto (warriors) in a fantasy world called ‘Sansinukob’. And yes, even though the characters have been inspired from Philippine mythical creatures, which this series stumbled into a lot of bashing, issues and concerns.
Prior to its pilot telecast, the show was questioned by historical societies and indigenous groups. They viewed that the creators have ‘misused’ the term ‘Bagani’ and have misrepresented the Philippine tribes as well. Also, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) released a statement that stressed about the ‘Bagani’ as real, not fictional or a ‘mythological group of warriors’. Originally, the term refers to the peacekeeping force of the Manobo and other indigenous groups of Mindanao.
When ‘Bagani’ had its episode where the five-lead characters–Lakas (Enrique Gil), Ganda (Liza Soberano), Lakam (Matteo Guidicelli), Mayari (Sofia Andres) and Dumakulem (Makisig Morales) had their transformations; the viewers, fans and other critics had shared their thoughts on the transformations.
Personally, the Baganis transformed themselves into colorful flashes and ray of lights just as the Power Rangers get to transform themselves. Then there’s a semblance on the theme of assembling the five Sansinukob’s Mightiest Warriors to the American animated environmentalist television program created by Ted Turner and Barbara Pyle, titled ‘Captain Planet and the Planeteers’.
A clear example is the spirit guides of the five heroes. Gil’s character Lakas summons Minokawa, a mythical bird who serves as his powers. Soberano as Ganda is Makiling-personified, she takes on the goddess’s character and possesses the supernatural abilities, too. While Guidicelli as Lakam is Bernardo Carpio, the creature that provides him destructible strength. Both Andres and Morales are Kataw, the merfolk and Liwliwa, the pixie.
The kind of transformations they go through is reminiscent of the ‘Power Rangers’ and the ‘Captain Planet and the Planeteers’ shows. If the audience could notice the transformation of the Baganis is a combination of the two superheroes series. Compared to the warrior-fairies of ‘Encantadia’—the Sang’gres especially the 2016 version may probably have borrowed its effects in their transformation between the ‘Power Rangers’ (especially the morphing part) and the ‘Sailormoon’ characters. Though the GMA-Kapuso heroines are more fashionable in their transformation—still I prefer theirs over the Baganis.
Between the Baganis and the Sang’gres, the latter has more cinematic appeal because it painted such dramatic special effects; but the former five-man superheroes created by ABS-CBN Kapamilya network is not something to be set aside though. It’s just that the animation for the fairies has been meticulously executed as opposed to that of the Baganis. The costumes of each of the Sang’gre were focused by body parts while the Baganis had to content with its ‘somehow’ copied effects from the previous ‘Encantadia’.
Even if Bagani’s head writer, Mark Angos, explained via his Twitter account that the heroes and the setting of the said series are set in Sansinukob, a fictional alternate world with elements from Filipino mythology; it cannot be taken away from Philippine mythology fans to look for semblances that could be loyal and resonant to the depiction of each mythical character or the universe it has previously been painted. Since the series is not set in precolonial times thus it doesn’t follow that it’s historical too. That’s understandable still.
It’s probably like saying—it’s fantasy, so anything can just happen.
But given that the creators expressed their intention of exploring the concept of the series from the indigenous people’s point of view; then it could have managed to painstakingly develop a more engaging material since the previous fantasy series of its rival channel was even accused of copying ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, and even ‘Game of Thrones’ back then—thus the more challenge is given to this Kapamilya fantasy series to outdo the Sang’gre-centered fantaserye in all aspects of its storytelling.
Let me end here by quoting a favorite line from a favorite author Charles R. Swindoll of mine, “The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail.”
