The Death of Toonami and Anime on Cartoon Networks

TheMajinRedComet · Post by **TheMajinRedComet** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:06 pm

http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/09 ... s-toonami/

I have not watched Toonami in years, but this is still pretty sad. Kind of feels like part of my childhood has died. I really hope that they do not remove all their anime from the network.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:10 pm

With the cancerous, ugly thing it had become, perhaps it was for the best that it was "put down." I mean, just look at the lastest TOM. Ugh.

I will, however, still greatly miss what it was, and be grateful that it introduced me to such great stuff, DBZ included.

Chuquita · Post by **Chuquita** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:13 pm

Followed the whole thing Saturday evening; it's all very sad.
I wouldn't be typing this right now if it weren't for Toonami; that's how I got into Dragon Ball in the first place.

Sadly, I believe Toonami had been on its deathbed for a while now.

The move to Saturday evenings + Adult Swim + Video-sharing Sites + shoving any ol' show like "Goosebumps" onto Toonami's shoulders pretty much killed it.

Tom's goodbye speech plus the Samurai Jack episode they chose to end their final broadcast with got the message through to me that even though things had gone down the tubes that there were still people involved with the block that cared about it.

Post by **Herms** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:17 pm

Chuquita wrote:The move to Saturday evenings + Adult Swim + Video-sharing Sites + shoving any ol' show like "Goosebumps" onto Toonami's shoulders pretty much killed it.

Is there actually a Goosebumps cartoon show, or did they show the old live-action series?

Tom's goodbye speech plus the Samurai Jack episode they chose to end their final broadcast with got the message through to me that even though things had gone down the tubes that there were still people involved with the block that cared about it.

That's good to hear. What episode of Samurai Jack did they play for their final broadcast?

Super Ghost Kamikaze · Post by **Super Ghost Kamikaze** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:18 pm

The block started to stink from...well, somewhere between the latter last ROB and the introduction of this new one that had eyes and a mouth.

Frankly, it barely even registered on my radar. Toonami has been dead to me for a long time.

Also, "The Death of Anime on Cartoon Network"?

Hardly.

They'll find a place for Naruto, whether they call the block Toonami or Narutime.

They have that "Shippouden" or whatever movie that they're interested in showing, if Cartoon Network's panel at AWA was any indication.

Scarz · Post by **Scarz** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:22 pm

Toonami's final farewell.

Wow, its really over.

SSj Kaboom wrote:With the cancerous, ugly thing it had become, perhaps it was for the best that it was "put down." I mean, just look at the lastest TOM. Ugh.

I will, however, still greatly miss what it was, and be grateful that it introduced me to such great stuff, DBZ included.

I couldn't agree more. Toonami wasn't getting any better and I've secretly dreamed of the block's cancellation but now, that it actually happened, I kind of miss it...Excuse me...I have something in my eye.

Chuquita · Post by **Chuquita** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:39 pm

Herms wrote:
Chuquita wrote:The move to Saturday evenings + Adult Swim + Video-sharing Sites + shoving any ol' show like "Goosebumps" onto Toonami's shoulders pretty much killed it.
Is there actually a Goosebumps cartoon show, or did they show the old live-action series?

Tom's goodbye speech plus the Samurai Jack episode they chose to end their final broadcast with got the message through to me that even though things had gone down the tubes that there were still people involved with the block that cared about it.
That's good to hear. What episode of Samurai Jack did they play for their final broadcast?

The old live-action series from the 90's.

It made me shake my head in dismay.

Toonami ended with "Jack's Sandals", the Season 2 finale.
It was about Jack's sandals getting destroyed and his search for new ones. This shoe-store owner gives him dozens of crazy shoes that don't fit him at all and end up embarrassing him infront of the evil robot-cars he's trying to fight against.

Then Jack spots a boy wearing sandals just like his old ones. He chases after the boy and ends up at a car garage where an old man and his family have preserved their home in an Asian styling similar to the type from Jack's original time/era. They talk about respecting the old ways while telling both the old and new stories. The man fixes up a pair of sandals for Jack, Jack gives him his straw hat, and goes on his way to fight and defeat the robot-cars.

In a way, it sums up a lot of what Toonami had been going through the past several years. Being sent away from their original home timeslots to Saturday evenings, having uncomfortably fitting shoes (like Goosebumps) shoved onto them; but the message is that even through all of this, they'll continue to fight and still be there somewhere. As long as the viewers have their memories of Toonami, it's still there somewhere. :3

mAcChaos · Post by **mAcChaos** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:52 pm

It should've been put down a long time ago. After they took out all the good shows like DBZ and Big O and Kenshin and started to play anime-that-wasn't-actually-anime it became a joke. And then Adult Swim... it's just random jokes now instead of real shows.

SSj_Rambo · Post by **SSj_Rambo** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:55 pm

It's a shame that Toonami is gone, but they didn't have anything that interested me anymore. The good news is that no shows will be cancelled because of this, just rearranged (all of the anime will now be on Adult Swim and a new block will soon take Toonami's time slot). It's also good to hear that none of the dedicated workers in charge of Toonami lost their job (despite some of their poor programming choices).

I'm just extremely happy that I can still enjoy and create nostalgic memories (since I didn't really watch Dragonball Z or Toonami when it was "popular") of all of Toonami's commercials and promo's for nearly every one of their shows, especially all of their wonderful Dragonball/Z commercials and promos...and their few AMV's!

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:56 pm

So the only thing keeping me watching Cartoon Network at ALL now is Adult Swim. That's still got a good mix of stuff, like Venture Bros, Robot Chicken, Metalocalypse, ATHF, and the occasional Family Guy and American Dad reruns. Shame Shin-chan got yanked, that was one of my favorites too.

Super Ghost Kamikaze · Post by **Super Ghost Kamikaze** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:58 pm

mAcChaos wrote:It should've been put down a long time ago. After they took out all the good shows like DBZ and Big O and Kenshin and started to play anime-that-wasn't-actually-anime it became a joke. And then Adult Swim... it's just random jokes now instead of real shows.

Hey now.

I love myself some Venture Bros., Robot Chicken, Frisky Dingo, and Lucy. And Aqua Teen is sometimes pretty decent because it's so late, a lot of stuff gets funny. =p

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot Metalocolypse. That show definitely grew on me.

Bussani · Post by **Bussani** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:18 am

I don't live in the US, and we haven't had Toonami for a while, so I'm not sure but...I've heard that Toonami's being 'replaced' with the same shows in the same order. In other words it's gone in name only. Is this the case?

Either way, it still feels like the end of an era in a way.

ZAR · Post by **ZAR** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:19 am

It is pretty sad to see Toonami go after all of these years of it being on. I stopped watching it every day though after they finished showing the Dragon Ball series. I did occasionally watch Samurai Jack along with some other shows too, but then I just completely stopped watching it around 2005 or 2006.

Still though, I'll always remember how it got me into DBZ.

SSJ2bardock · Post by **SSJ2bardock** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:57 am

You know, I haven't watched Toonami in a good 3 or 4 years, but seeing that video of Tom giving his final farewell choked me up a little bit.

MagicBox · Post by **MagicBox** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:35 am

To copy/paste my post from ToonZone:

Y'know, I didn't think I'd be as sad about this as I am. After all, I haven't really watched Cartoon Network in years, so what should I care, right?

Wrong. I feel like I'm mourning the death of a friend.

I tuned in out of respect. Anybody else see TOM's "farewell" message at the end? I swear, I was fine until I saw that, and then I honestly got sad. I loved TOM. I can honestly say that, back in the days when I actually watched TV, TOM was the only host on any network that I liked. He was the only one I respected. They managed to give him so much character that he almost seemed like a friend. A lot of that credit goes to Sonny Strait (TOM 1) and Steve Blum (TOM 2-4) for their excellent voice work. And I swear, I wouldn't have been sad if anyone but TOM had given that goodbye. I think the fact that Steve Blum was voicing him had something to do with it too. I couldn't help but interpret TOM's goodbye speech as less of a "bye fans" speech and more like Mr. Blum saying goodbye to a beloved character that he had been voicing for eight years now.

It was only 30 seconds long, but it was handled so well. The words of thanks, the goodbyes, the "bang" at the end. So awesome. What's funny is that the little brats who watch CN nowadays won't even get that speech, or the references in it. That goodbye wasn't to them. It wasn't for CN's little kiddie main demographic. It wasn't to the people who had been randomly flipping channels and ended up on CN. It was to US. Us and nobody else. The fans who had grown up with TOM, Sara, Moltar, the Big Guy (voiced by the amazing Peter Cullen), and the Absolution.

I don't quite know how to sum up how I feel about all of this, and though I feel it's a saying said WAY to often these days, this really is the end of an era.

Toonami was different from other programming blocks. Even different from Cartoon Network. Toonami cared. They really did. It was always about what the fans wanted. Always. It was the only block that really made you feel "cool." It didn't talk down to kids; it had a "look, we know you're smarter than everybody else gives you credit for. We're not gonna dumb down anything for ya." And they didn't. They even had TOM 1, the beloved host, killed in front of the fans' very eyes. Toonami dared to be mature. Even if some of their most popular shows were terrible dubs (Sailor Moon, DBZ), the experience was like nothing you could have anywhere on television.

So, we say goodbye to probably the best block of children's programming ever aired. I'm pretty sure everybody here, from the most casual of fans to the most hardcore of otaku, owe some of their fandom to Toonami. That's how big it was. I know I personally owe them eternal thanks for introducing me to so many classics of Japanese animation. Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, all of DragonBall, Tenchi, Big O, Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing, and even Sailor Moon (which, even though I was too embarrassed to watch a "girl's show," I was glad to have aired alongside my faves anyway). Thanks Toonami, for being all about the fans. Thanks for never failing to entertain me after a hard day at school. Thanks for so many wonderful memories.

"Bang."

And I'm sure that some of you who didn't grow up watching the block will think I'm being very overdramatic, so sorry. It's always sad when a part of your childhood goes away forever, even if Cartoon Network had degraded it to a shadow of its former self.

SSJ2bardock · Post by **SSJ2bardock** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:47 am

MagicBox wrote:
Y'know, I didn't think I'd be as sad about this as I am. After all, I haven't really watched Cartoon Network in years, so what should I care, right?

Wrong. I feel like I'm mourning the death of a friend.

My thoughts exactly, when he came on and said goodbye it really hit me.

MagicBox wrote: What's funny is that the little brats who watch CN nowadays won't even get that speech, or the references in it. That goodbye wasn't to them. It wasn't for CN's little kiddie main demographic. It wasn't to the people who had been randomly flipping channels and ended up on CN. It was to US. Us and nobody else. The fans who had grown up with TOM, Sara, Moltar, the Big Guy (voiced by the amazing Peter Cullen), and the Absolution.

I feel the same way, and it was nice to see Toonami pay homage to the people who made them what they were there at the end in his farewell.

MagicBox wrote:
I don't quite know how to sum up how I feel about all of this, and though I feel it's a saying said WAY to often these days, this really is the end of an era.

This is true, even though I never watch it now anyways, the cancellation of Toonami has officially made CN dead to me.

MagicBox wrote: So, we say goodbye to probably the best block of children's programming ever aired. I'm pretty sure everybody here, from the most casual of fans to the most hardcore of otaku, owe some of their fandom to Toonami. That's how big it was. I know I personally owe them eternal thanks for introducing me to so many classics of Japanese animation. Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, all of DragonBall, Tenchi, Big O, Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing, and even Sailor Moon (which, even though I was too embarrassed to watch a "girl's show," I was glad to have aired alongside my faves anyway). Thanks Toonami, for being all about the fans. Thanks for never failing to entertain me after a hard day at school. Thanks for so many wonderful memories.

I owe my existance as a fan of anime soley and entirely to Toonami. They made me an anime fan before I even knew I was watching anime.

MagicBox wrote: "Bang."

And I'm sure that some of you who didn't grow up watching the block will think I'm being very overdramatic, so sorry. It's always sad when a part of your childhood goes away forever, even if Cartoon Network had degraded it to a shadow of its former self.

Not over dramatic at all. The only thing I can compare this to is the day I saw Tom come on my screen and tell me that DBZ was coming to an end ( during my initial run of watching it ). This is truly a sad day for many of the members here.

ultimateemail5000 · Post by **ultimateemail5000** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:00 am

Was Moltar part of the last Toonami episode? After all, it originally started with him, back when Space Ghost was popular, they played ThunderCats, and Sailor Moon I believe. Was DBZ part of Toonami when Moltar ran the show?

Post by **Herms** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:09 am

Now that I think about it, isn't Tom/Blum signing off with "Bang" a little weird? I mean, Cowboy Bebop never ran on Toonami, did it?

Raki · Post by **Raki** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:32 am

Herms wrote:Now that I think about it, isn't Tom/Blum signing off with "Bang" a little weird? I mean, Cowboy Bebop never ran on Toonami, did it?

Nope, but didn't Steve Blum play Spike on Cowboy Bebop?

Post by **Herms** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:39 am

Raki wrote:Nope, but didn't Steve Blum play Spike on Cowboy Bebop?

He did, but why reference that at the end of a program block that Cowboy Bebop was never on? It's not like Blum himself is going away forever.