Toonami… R.I.P.
For those of you who don’t know what toonami is, it was a 2-4 hour block of anime series that was aired on Cartoon Network from September 1997 until Setpember 2008. I don’t know if it was aired outside of America, but for those of you in the US I’m sure you’re mourning along with me when you heard Toonami was finally put to rest this week.
While during the last few years the quality of Toonami had deteriorated to the point where I found it unbearable to watch, I was still thankful towards it for all it had done in my childhood. If not for Toonami I probably wouldn’t be here (on Zotaku right now). Toonami was the SINGLE source of Anime immersion in the states. It not only had standard shows like Dragon Ball Z, but Gundam Wing, Tenchi Muyo, Outlaw Star, and Rurouni Kenshin (my favorite show of all time.) It even gave me my first tast of Evangelion, the first two episodes during their special “robot week.” This was anime… good anime… during DAYTIME television. Every single day when I got home from school I was able to watch anime right on my television. It was a dream come true.
I remember the most excited I ever got watching toonami. I was with my brother… and we were watching Dragon Ball Z. It was one of the episodes Goku was fighting Freiza… And that battle just went on forever. But goku… goku Turned Super Saiyan=D And me and my brother were just screaming like little school girls who found a roach or something… my mom came in and asked “Whats wrong with you guys!” But we were too excited to answerXD “He’s gold!!! Super Saiyan!!! Super Saiyan!!!”
If not for Rurouni Kenshin I would have never even gone on the internet… I’m not even exaggerating. Rurouni Kenshin was caught in the middle of the turmoil when they started moving to late night television. And I missed lots of it, and they cut the last season completely. So the only solution I had was to look up about it online. That eventually brought me to a site learning about the manga, and to online anime, and to several sites till I ran into Zenical which led me to here so I could type this post…
After several years though all their most violent shows were pulled. I can only imagine how many complaints they probably got about the violence. Not only that, but Tenchi Muyo and Outlaw Star a bit ecchi for children (As a child I was a bit embarassed to watch it myself)… It also got moved to a later block only one time a week, and started showing only 3rd rates shows, and mainstream programs like Naruto and once peice. To me its been dead for years… but the official news is still kind of depressing.
I salute you toonamiTT____TT
You held strong for a long time fighting off criticism of angry moms who thought their kids were being corrupted by evil “chinese cartoons.” Despite dieing as whipped dogs… if not for your presence I’m sure there would be exponentially less US otakus… Rest in Peace Toonami… Rest in Peace…
I saw it blue, thats why I published the post. LOL
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Toonami is what made me an anime fan as well. If it was not for Toonami, none of you would know me LOL. I would not have an appreciation for japanese anime. Thanks to toonami who gave me my frist taste of anime. I will miss Toonami, and even more the Robot who made it all possible, Tom TT_______TT.
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Toonami wasn’t my first taste~
My older brother bought anime stuff I could watch before toonami… although I was probably way too young to watch some of his stuff lolXD
1997 was an amazing year… FFVII, The legend of Zelda Ocarina of time, Pokemon (I should really finish my pokemon postXD), and toonami. If not for toonami there would be no conceivable anime market in America I fear… Just bootlegged stuff…
Any one else notice the relationship between when Toonami was fatally wounded a few years ago (when it started just airing one night a week off its normal schedule)~ and how the Anime market in North America has pretty much crashed and burned since thenXD
Illegal downloading get the whole blame for it~ But in reality its because there’s nothing left on televisionXD
I sure as heck am not going to buy something I haven’t seen already… anime is way too expensive for impulse buying…(Or rather I’m way too cheap)
And yes… Tom the robot was love=3
I really liked his voice for some reasonXD
And yes Char~ thanks for posting lalala~
I fixed the links in another post just incase there’s a chance you’re still awake and want to post it somewherexD
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Maybe the reason you liked his voice was because he was played by Steven Jay Blum? XD you know the voice of Spike from Cowboy Bebop, and the other billions of anime role’s he has done XD. I liked him as Spike the best. I buy anime cuase I like to support the industry, I have the extra cash so I don’t mind ^^.
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@ testament: you need to buy FIGURINES! LOL
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and bluesnow.. I don’t know who is Toonami T_T
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@Zenical – Toonami was an anime block of shows. Every afternoon, around the time all the kids got home from school it would start. The host of the block was that little Robot on top. He was COOL! XD
I wan’t to buy figurines, but the shipping is killer T____T.
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^ Do they have cartoon network there Zen?
That’s probably why you’ve never heard of ToonamiXD
It was pretty much the first instance that the media had the guts to show Anime on TV in the US~
CN is pretty much a standard cable channel… so everyone got it~ Like the Disney channelXD
Today they still show anime on some channels… but they aren’t standard TV channels… like Satellite and Super upgraded Cable only that costs more monies…
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@ bluesnow: they do, but like what u told me, Cable TV!! Lol. Remember the talk about the US Drama? XD. Yeah it’s like that. Cartoon Network is actually quite boring.. I don’t know, is it because of the lame shows showing? +.+
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^ Cartoon network is lame here too lol~
They have been since toonami was killed haha…
Although I kind of liked foster’s home for imaginary friends for a while XD
I used to love it when I was really little though… they had looney toons and stuffXD
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