If Toonami is shut down for good

[MasenkoHA]

Who gives a f*ck outside of the hand full late 20s-early 30 somethings who cling super hard to their nostalgia? Toonami served its purpose during the era it debuted in. When it died the first time it was already a shell of its former self, hence why it cancelled in the first place.

Let new age anime have their way of watching it. They’re not gonna enjoy it any more or less by hearing Steve Blum say “Layter Dude” everyday/week etc.

Are their any 70s/80s anime watchers out their clinging to some imaginary glimmer of hope that their cartoon block makes a comeback?

This. Toonami was probably dead to me by 2005 anyways. I always forget it stuck around until 2008

[AliTheZombie13]

If I recall, Toonami was created to bring to audiences content that was completely inaccessible, that you could only find in VHS stores, that the producers were incredibly fond of.

Well, it brought us that content, we loved it, then we found our love for anime and moved on.
Like others in the thread have said, Toonami served its purpose. It's no longer a pet project by anime enthusiasts, but a capitalist enshittified program with little good to offer these days. I'd rather it stay dead.

[MasenkoHA]

If I recall, Toonami was created to bring to audiences content that was completely inaccessible, that you could only find in VHS stores, that the producers were incredibly fond of.

Ehhh not really. It initially started as a superhero rerun block showing stuff like Thundercats, Johnny Quest, and Superfriends

When it got around to getting into anime it was stuff like Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, which, despite rumors to the contrary, where already proven hits with kids in syndication. They just saw way more success with a dedicated weekday after school block instead of weekday/weekend morning syndication

They did EVENTUALLY get around to showing heavily edited VHS anime favorites like Tenchi Muyo (which the head of Toonami said he brought over because he was fan and they were willing to do the extra work to make it acceptable for Y7 FV standards) and Outlaw Star. But this was like 3 years into Toonami after the mega success of Sailor Moon and DBZ proved 90s babies were hungry for anime.

[AliTheZombie13]

Ehhh not really. It initially started as a superhero rerun block showing stuff like Thundercats, Johnny Quest, and Superfriends

When it got around to getting into anime it was stuff like Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, which, despite rumors to the contrary, where already proven hits with kids in syndication. They just saw way more success with a dedicated weekday after school block instead of weekday/weekend morning syndication

They did EVENTUALLY get around to showing heavily edited VHS anime favorites like Tenchi Muyo (which the head of Toonami said he brought over because he was fan and they were willing to do the extra work to make it acceptable for Y7 FV standards) and Outlaw Star. But this was like 3 years into Toonami after the mega success of Sailor Moon and DBZ proved 90s babies were hungry for anime.

And there goes the last of my affective memory for that show lol

[Kid Buu]

So call this anecdotal, but in my case people still use linear channels as an option and its not strictly something being consumed in elderly homes. I'm sure over time less people will be watching them though.

I'd say it depends on the country. Here in Argentina, even though streaming has become the most popular option, TV is still being watched in both households and public places like restaurants and pubs, mainly because of sports like football soccer (the most popular in the country) and recently, Formula 1 (perhaps you guys may have heard of this guy named Franco Colapinto).

Same here in the UK. The largest cultural events are are sporting events watched via broadcasting TV. It's not uncommon for people to base their entire weekend around a Premier League game for example, and not to mention other events such as the 6 Nations Rugby or Wimbledon.

Also might be anecdotal but I honestly heard more people in my work office talk about "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" and "Gavin and Stacey Xmas Special" than any show on Netflix.

Obivously streaming is a thing, but I wouldn't say broadcasting TV is irrelevant in 2025.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Also might be anecdotal but I honestly heard more people in my work office talk about "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" and "Gavin and Stacey Xmas Special" than any show on Netflix.

Same, I hear a lot of people in work talk about reality TV shows like Love Island and I'm A Celebrity on linear channels. I'm sure they watch streaming services too but they don't depend on them because everyone who pays the TV license has access to a bunch of traditional channels so they make use of them if there's nothing that interests them on Netflix at the time.

[EF2024]

The uk is public service biased so the big American pay tv names cannot fairly compete. There will always be some public service live tv going and the British mentality seems actually to be copy the main 5. I’d say anime on tv here is dead past Pokémon repeats and iplayer.

[Kid Buu]

Yeah, if we're specifically talking anime then yeah streaming has definitely become the way to go for it. However if we're talking overall than I wouldn't put broadcast TV as irrelevant.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Yeah, I was listening to some old Manga UK podcasts from 2012-2014 and even back then Jerome Mazandarani was saying people ask them about anime on TV but on the rare occasions it did air on a Sky channel no one watched it.

Sure, Dragon Ball Kai was airing on Kix around this time, but there are always exceptions, and in the long run the cost of licensing it was probably prohibitive.

Jerome also noted in the same podcast (episode 21) they usually get home video, streaming and broadcasting rights with a license but that broadcasting rights were useless as so few TV channels wanted anime. For Dragon Ball, Manga UK got DVD, streaming and VOD rights but not TV rights.

This was also only a few years after the short-lived Anime Central channel, which likely didn't inspire confidence in a Toonami UK revival, and now that a generation or two would have grown up streaming anime the ship has probably sailed.

Traditional TV is still relevant for casual viewers as sports, soaps and reality shows attract that crowd, but anime has been more of an enthusiast's market for a long time and that's not going to change.

[super michael]

I used to like Cartoon Network when it used to have both cartoons and anime with action, adventure, fighting, comedy, etc. However in the mid 2000s or late 2000s they started to remove anime until there was none left. They were removing super heroes cartoon and removing DC cartoon until only Teen Titans Go was left. They remove any cartoon that was 20 minutes long per episode, so only 10 minute per episode exist. They even sabotaged some cartoons, but only being allowed to be on Saturday at 06:00 or 07:00 and no more, so the network could say that no one watches it.

The only thing CN cared about was 10 minutes cartoon that were not about super hero, having cheap art style and bad story.

CN is a shell of its former self, I quit watching that network many years ago and I don't care what happens to it.