Yesterday, I got hooked up on cartoon music soundtrack from Masha and The Bear series. I used to watch it regularly in the morning when I was still at elementary school. I remember, eating nasi uduk while turning on TV and selecting ANTV channel.

Masha and the Bear

Boom, there it is. At 6AM, the intro of Masha and The Bear starts to play. And usually I watch it for half an hour, before taking a shower and get prepared for school.

For those who don't know it, Masha is a little girl who appears to live in a remote village, surrounded by animals. One day, he decided to walk around the forest, and found a cosy wooden home, which is the home of a Bear (Misha).

In each episode of the show, Masha is portrayed as a bright but mischievous little girl who loves exploring the world around her. Masha's shenanigans result in unexpected but entertaining situations that are at the heart of the show's episodes. The kind-hearted Bear is always trying to keep Masha out of trouble, but often ends up the unintended victim of her mischief.

-Quoted from Wikipedia

My opinion on this show is that it's good. The animation looks great for that time, and I really like Masha Russian sounds (not the dubbed one). In addition, the animation studio that makes the cartoon still regularly produce new content.

Unfortunately, I can say that their golden era is over, as the new seasons of the stories are either too childish or simply too monotone.

Rating: 4 out of 5 (I still watch it lol)

Doraemon

Doraemon is one of cartoon that I usually watch on Sunday morning when I was in elementary grade. It's pretty self-explanatory. Doraemon is the blue robot with the ability to summon everything from his pocket at the front of his body.

The show mainly tells us about the adventures of Nobita & his friends, exploring the world with Doraemon. Sometimes, they need to use weird scientific tools that somehow Doraemon conceived in a matter of seconds.

What I don't like in this show is that because RCTI (the broadcaster of the show in Indonesia) doesn't bother to buy new episodes, so they re-run old episodes over and over again.

Rating: 2.75 out of 5

Pororo

A Korean made show that I used to watch from Kindergarten till my last year at elementary school. It is one of the longest show that I've watched over & over again.

The show mainly tells us about the adventures of 10 different characters, with the main one being called Pororo. There is no critique for this show; it's just me outgrown their target audience.

Rating: 3 out of 5

SpongeBob SquarePants

I'm sure that you know this show. Even though it is targetted to teen (13+) audience, I can understand the cartoon since kindergarten. At elementary school, I didn't watch it except when I'm at my grandma house because my house can't receive GTV (SpongeBob broadcaster in Indonesia).

As time passed, I began to understand dark jokes that were included in the show. The KPI (Indonesia Broadcasting Committee) mandates TV to censor everything that sounds adultly, and it did. Because the show is dubbed, sounds like swearing were blackened out, swapped with blank voice.

But, some scene does pass the censor check, so visual text containing adult or advance reference still shown. I like it when I'm the only one who understand the jokes in my family xD

Anyway, GTV broadcast episodes from old seasons, but I think it's not bad. I heard that since Season 4 or 5, things start to going downhill. I'm not entirely sure of this, but a quick search on YouTube about “SpongeBob new episodes” makes me wonder 'why the characters starts to look like a plastic?'

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Upin & Ipin

A show from Malaysia that tells the story of two brothers called Upin and Ipin. They are twin, and live with his older sister Ros in a stilt house.

Main ideas of the show were about friendship, tolerating each other, and Malay culture. A great show, because it resembles some cultures from my birth island, which is Borneo.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

We Bare Bears

This show maybe the only cartoon from Cartoon Network that I ever watched. The cartoon tells us the life story of 3 bears; Grizzly (often called Grizz), Panda, and Ice Bear. They're constantly trying to integrate with human society, like becoming online artist, ordering food online, and such. But they struggle to do so due to the civilized nature of humans and their own animal instincts.

To me, it has special places in my heart brain, because I still remember the plot of the story. I watch this show when I was in middle school (Junior high school), and that is around the time when I start to understand English, so I could understand the visual references.

My favourite character from the show is obviously Panda, the nerdiest of the 3. I felt some similarity, especially when it comes to his quick but clumsy action. It's like me.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Hello Jadoo

The 3rd Korean cartoon that I watched when I was a middle school student. Jadoo is a 1o y.o girl who is tomboy, and she is in constant pressure of her mom to be “the best in the class”. She's rebellious, and has a best friend called Minji. Minji is on the opposite of Jadoo personality.

Thoughts about this cartoon; I don't watch it any more because NET (the broadcaster) always re-run old episodes. But, it's a great show, you'll get a lot of life tips after watching it. Not so relatable to me, but her mum does behave similar to my mum (albeit my mum is not that cringe)

Rating: 4 out of 5

Detective Conan

The one and only Japanese-based show that I watched regularly on weekends. As the name said, it is a show starring Shinichi Kudo, a young adult detective, who somehow transformed into a child. But, he still kept that detective instinct, so he often helped solved cases.

The show mainly tells us about the story of solving criminal cases, with some jokes. I like this show a lot because the show explained to us how criminal act can be so creative.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

I probably missed out a lot of cartoons, but that is 8 cartoons that I watched frequently (from the past included). When I wrote and search for information about these cartoons, I got into nostalgic mood, and even watched some episodes on YouTube.

Did you guys also wanted to see your favorite cartoons as a child? Go, watch it now, before it disappear into the abyss xD