If Toonami is shut down for good

[TechExpert2021]

Friday, December 27, 2024, is when Toonami Rewind aired for the last time and got shut down afterward.

But what if Toonami overall is shut down for good, never to return (even for an April Fool's prank like in 2012)? Because I think Toonami is irrelevant nowadays given that 1) traditional broadcast TV overall (including cable TV) has been declining due to streaming services nowadays being a more popular (and convenient) choice to watch TV series, including anime, and 2) fans can buy the home release of their favorite anime series.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Can't see much changing in the short term other than traditional TV losing one of its last remaining niches.

It might shorten Cartoon Network's lifespan, although in the UK there hasn't been a Toonami block (or in our case channel) since 2007 so the channel could hang on a few more years.

Long term we'll probably see another push down the line for a revival of the block, which could go either way depending on whether it gets as much support as it did in 2012.

I think as long as anyone born before the 2010s is alive there will always be people out there that want Toonami, its iconic and nostalgic, but whether that demand is enough to sustain a channel is another question, no doubt over time it will become harder.

Everyone will say linear TV is dead, and I'd agree it seems to be on its way but I'm impressed its lasted as long as it has.

[EF2024]

Problem is crunchyroll they were having no issue when it wasn’t owned by Sony but now they want to keep the content for the site and toonami is becoming increasingly reliant on toonami originals some of which in the case of invincible fight girl were planned for Cartoon Network originally the rest are seen as mediocre and lack interest.
Only other option I think is toonami rewind comes back and checkered past is pushed earlier or over to Cartoon Network.
As for the uk version of the channel I’m sure it’s barely struggling along until till hbo max launches here and maybe after that if pay multichannel tv is even viable when the uk market is so biased towards public service broadcasting that the big American names don’t stand a chance.

[Zephyr]

If it shuts down for good, RIP, thank you for getting me into Dragon Ball, but your expiration date was a long long time ago.

Toonami essentially involves watching dubbed anime on broadcast TV, two things I haven't been interested in for over a decade. It serves no function for me by this point, beyond nostalgia, and that nostalgia is for its original run up through like 2003 or so. So a modern incarnation would scarcely scratch even that itch.

Even if they launched it as some new streaming service that also had subbed version of anime, streaming services are annoyingly unreliable, with things being removed all the time. I much prefer home releases (or other methods) for watching anime (and things in general) these days.

[MasenkoHA]

Why would it matter.

I haven't had cable tv since 2014. Most people I know under the age of 60 haven't had cable in at least a decade

You can watch Dragon Bal Z Kai on Hulu. (And maybe Crunchyroll?)

Is there any reason people on here care about Toonami existing other than "That's how I watched DBZ as a kid" a version that was essentially de-existed back in 2008 anyways?

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

Does anyone even care beyond nostalgia? 4Kids got a lot of kids into Pokemon, but I don't see anyone clamoring for the return of 4Kids the company/morning anime block.
I don't think the networks that these shows aired on holds much weight in the age of streaming and when these anime properties could move channels at any point even back then. For context Pokemon went from 4Kids to cartoon network to Disney XD to Netflix.

[Hellspawn28]

Honestly, I don't think it would matter at this point. I must admit that I haven't tuned into the newer Toonami since 2017, and I've heard that the current lineup lacks engaging anime content. They did had some good shows like Parayste, Jojo, Lupin the Part 4-5 (haven't seen Part 6), Hellsing Ultimate, Megalobox, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Michiko & Hatchin, etc. Now these days, you can watch anime other places besides on Adult Swim (even 20 years ago). With Sony owning most of the anime industry, it's not like they get big heavy hitters now. Even Uzumaki was a disappointment after years of work, coming off as a boring motion comic rather than a fully fleshed-out animated series.

CN as a channel is still functioning, however it will be closed down one day. As with other cable network series, streaming platforms are more easily accessible. Even streaming services such as Pulto TV have channels that broadcast anime, American cartoons, horror movies, and other content as if they were TV channels. So there is that. I feel like Gen Z (1996-2012) is the last generation that grew up with cable TV and physical media while Gen Alpha and beyond will only grow up with streaming networks and no physical media.

[kemuri07]

Tonami is fundamentally tied to my understanding and love for anime.

But at the same time...eeeeeh. Part of the reason why Tonami was the way it was is because it was airing during a time in which most people had to jump through hoops to get access to anime. As shitty as the streaming landscape is nowadays, it's still much better now than it was in 2001.

[Hellspawn28]

Does anyone even care beyond nostalgia? 4Kids got a lot of kids into Pokemon, but I don't see anyone clamoring for the return of 4Kids the company/morning anime block.
I don't think the networks that these shows aired on holds much weight in the age of streaming and when these anime properties could move channels at any point even back then. For context Pokemon went from 4Kids to cartoon network to Disney XD to Netflix.

Nostalgia is the reason. TV channels try to recapture nostalgia with stuff like Nick's The '90s Are All That and Toonami Rewind on CN, but they don't last forever. People's nostalgia ends quickly and they move on with other stuff.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Does anyone even care beyond nostalgia? 4Kids got a lot of kids into Pokemon, but I don't see anyone clamoring for the return of 4Kids the company/morning anime block.
I don't think the networks that these shows aired on holds much weight in the age of streaming and when these anime properties could move channels at any point even back then. For context Pokemon went from 4Kids to cartoon network to Disney XD to Netflix.

I don't think Kids' WB was as iconic or as closely associated with Pokémon as Dragon Ball was with Toonami. In my country, for example, we got Pokémon on RTÉ2, Sky One and later Toonami and Cartoon Network.

By contrast Dragon Ball has been shown on Toonami in the US, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Spain, South Africa, Australia and Asia, so it was far more of a global thing.

4Kids are also far more derided for their censoring and Americanizing of anime than Funimation. Funimation of course received criticism for this, but from what I've seen a lot more people defend their dubs.

[MasenkoHA]

4Kids are also far more derided for their censoring and Americanizing of anime than Funimation. Funimation of course received criticism for this, but from what I've seen a lot more people defend their dubs.

Mostly because Funimation evolved with their audience once their original target demo grew past "baby's first anime".

4Kids dub of Pokemon and to a somewhat lesser extent Yu-gi-oh get that same nostalgic pass that Funi's Dragon Ball Z does but since 4Kids decided to get worse (although Yu-gi-oh's dub was pretty standard for their quality people just forgive it because they saw it when they were like 5) they don't get the same courtesy from millennial anime fans that Funimation does.

If Funimation kept their approach they had for Dragon Ball Z and GT for all their dubs there would be a lot of "Funimation is the devil but the DBZ dub is good"

[Kunzait_83]

This community is forever trapped in the early to mid 2000s. Its the year 2025 - a time where broadcast TV is still watched overwhelmingly primarily by only the most decrepitly elderly people - and we're still talking about Toonami like it in any way, shape, or form matters in the slightest.

Everyone will say linear TV is dead, and I'd agree it seems to be on its way but I'm impressed its lasted as long as it has.

Its largely been the 60 and over crowd that's kept it going for much of the last 10 to 15 years or so. Particularly in places like hospitals or in old age homes and retirement centers. If you're still watching broadcast TV in 2025, odds are you're either dying in hospice care, or are otherwise a grandparent of some kind who is addicted to Fox News and isn't on speaking terms with their kids.

There isn't a single person, not a SINGLE person that I've known or interacted with (and I have a pretty large, diverse friend group) in the last 20+ years who so much as even has basic cable, much less even glanced at their TV screen for anything other than video games, Netflix, or Youtube.

Frankly, the ONLY people anywhere in life or in broader culture that I'm aware of who are in any way invested in broadcast television and who aren't also pushing 80 or 90 years old whilst doing so are... well, people who post on forums like this one. And it seems to pretty much be entirely because they're still desperate to relive and recapture being 6 years old circa 2001 plopped in front of the TV and rotting their brains on Yu-Gi-Oh reruns.

But at the same time...eeeeeh. Part of the reason why Tonami was the way it was is because it was airing during a time in which most people had to jump through hoops to get access to anime.

Going to the local video store and buying or renting a VHS tape from the "Japanimation" section isn't exactly what I'd call "jumping through hoops".

For fansubs of specific titles that hadn't been licensed at all yet? Sure, definitely some hoop jumping there.

But for just wanting to see some kind of anime in general? It literally was as easy even back in the late 80s/early 90s as going to literally any (and I do mean more or less pretty much any) store that sold or rented VHS tapes. You'd find anime tapes by the boatloads, albeit usually in their own sections/corners of the store. Not that difficult at all, no hoop jumping required. Go to store, buy or rent tape. Easy. And I say this as someone who grew up fairly poor at that time too.

And even if, for whatever reason, going to a video store wasn't an option for you - lets say you lived in the middle of the woods in a cave, or your parents kept you chained to the radiator after school, or whatever your situation was back then - Toonami wasn't the only, nor the first, mainstream TV station to play anime. Sci Fi Channel and MTV both played a ton of anime all throughout the 90s, well before Toonami ever did.

This community's collective hyper-reliance on Toonami as the barometer for all things anime in the late 90s/early 2000s will never be anything other than baffling and mystifying in the extreme to me.

[Hellspawn28]

Part of the reason why Tonami was the way it was is because it was airing during a time in which most people had to jump through hoops to get access to anime.

It wasn't that hard when you had many video stores that anime. TV channels like Sci-Fi and Starz had anime. Even HBO would sometime show Ninja Scroll or Wicked City. I feel like who say "Toonami was the only way to watch anime back in the day" are people who were too young to rent or watch other anime titles, or had strict parents that would not let watch anything unless it was G and PG.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

This community is forever trapped in the early to mid 2000s. Its the year 2025 - a time where broadcast TV is still watched overwhelmingly primarily by only the most decrepitly elderly people - and we're still talking about Toonami like it in any way, shape, or form matters in the slightest.

I think most people know that Toonami has little, if any relevance in the modern entertainment climate, even the OP acknowledges that. It was the programming block that got a lot of people on this forum into Dragon Ball though, so naturally there's still nostalgia and a desire to talk about it, it's not a case of wanting it to return to its glory days, more reminiscing about the brand name a lot of English-speaking fans, particularly in the US associated with Dragon Ball.

And yes, there were other channels and means of getting into anime in the 90s and early 2000s. Plenty on this forum have talked about getting into Dragon Ball through tape trading, but that was more a niche, enthusiast's thing whereas Toonami was more mainstream, so inevitably its discussed more.

You did of course have other channels like YTV in Canada, Channel 10 in Australia (although they had Toonami too), TV3 in New Zealand, SubTV in Finland, Kanaal 2 in Belgium, SABC2 in South Africa and Central in Singapore that all aired Dragon Ball (and specifically the most popular installment Dragon Ball Z) in English, in the early to mid-2000s no-less, but all of those territories have populations far smaller than the US so we hear less from those fans. These countries are nonetheless proof that Dragon Ball can and has done well without Toonami so there's no reason to think the US needed the block. A lot of people were just exposed to Toonami and have fond memories of it.

Its largely been the 60 and over crowd that's kept it going for much of the last 10 to 15 years or so. Particularly in places like hospitals or in old age homes and retirement centers. If you're still watching broadcast TV in 2025, odds are you're either dying in hospice care, or are otherwise a grandparent of some kind who is addicted to Fox News and isn't on speaking terms with their kids.

Maybe that's the case in the US, but my parents are in their late 50s and still watch traditional TV, my mam uses streaming services the odd time but probably finds the ocean of content overwhelming at times.

Most of the people in my job are under 60 too and they still watch content on the local channels from RTÉ and Virgin Media for the water cooler conversations. They do of course watch streaming services too and for those of us under 40 (myself included) its a lot more.

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.

[Tian]

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).

[MasenkoHA]

Part of the reason why Tonami was the way it was is because it was airing during a time in which most people had to jump through hoops to get access to anime.

It wasn't that hard when you had many video stores that anime. TV channels like Sci-Fi and Starz had anime. Even HBO would sometime show Ninja Scroll or Wicked City. I feel like who say "Toonami was the only way to watch anime back in the day" are people who were too young to rent or watch other anime titles, or had strict parents that would not let watch anything unless it was G and PG.

Even then for people whose entire frame of late 90s/early 2000s pop culture reference was kids television anime was literally everywhere between Fox Kids, KidsWb, and all the other big Saturday Morning/Weekday afternoon cartoon blocks. Toonami may have been the most "dedicated" to showing anime to the 6-11 demo but they were far from the only ones.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

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).

Yeah, most people watch some kind of sport whether it be premier league football, rugby, GAA or in my dad's case golf or snooker on traditional TV in both their homes and pubs, restaurants, hotels, etc. So in addition to the news, sports plays a huge part in the TV market.

For anime though, I can agree that the golden age has long since passed for linear TV in English-speaking territories. Its fun to reminisce about blocks like Toonami, but it's not realistic to think that when and if the Daima English dub comes to traditional TV in the US it will be as big a deal as the original three anime were on it 20 years ago.

[Tian]

For anime though, I can agree that the golden age has long since passed for linear TV in English-speaking territories. Its fun to reminisce about blocks like Toonami, but it's not realistic to think that when and if the Daima English dub comes to traditional TV in the US it will be as big a deal as the original three anime were on it 20 years ago.

A similar thing happens in Latin America. In fact, nowadays it's a bad idea to launch an anime TV channel here due to rampant piracy in our region and the bad management.

Back in the early 2000s, we, Latin Americans, were lucky to have some options to watch anime. Besides Toonami, we had Locomotion, Magic Kids and some local channels.

Locomotion was the main broadcaster of anime here in the whole Latin America at that time. A lot of people were introduced to anime thanks to this channel.

Man, I wish I could've watched more of Locomotion because I really love the Y2K aesthetic it had and there were some good stuff aired there like Lain, Geneshaft, Alexander Senki and EX-Driver but unfortunately, I was a silly kid who only watched it for South Park at the time...

[Hellspawn28]

Gen Alpha kids don't need TV to watch cartoons either. They have Tubi, Pulto TV, Hulu, Netflix, etc on their TV or phones. Some people still think kids these days are still living in the same way they did in the 90s or early 00s. Like when Kai aired on Nick Toons, people were concerned that they would be confused with GT appearing without the Buu saga, despite the fact that the entire series was legally available on DVD for them to watch in the early 2010

I have two nephews who are Gen Alpha (One year old and 8 month year old), both watch stuff like Miss Rachael and Bluey on streaming services. My cousin two year also watches Transformers Rescue Bots on Tubi and on Moana Disney+. Therefore, Toonami is not necessary for children to watch anime now. If Toonami ends, Adult Swim will have more shitty Seth Mcfarlane shows to air re-runs of. It's why I haven't watched AS in ages.

[goku the krump dancer]

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?