Toonami: All Engines Are Go.
A random Twitter post earlier today sent me down memory lane. It was a meaningless post, just linking to another YouTube video but damn...the brief trip sure was nice.
I know kids today see their favorite shows whenever they want--what with reruns, clips on stream sites, and even downloads if you know where to look...
But I still feel like, they're missing something. There are great cartoons made these days, but I don't know.
The original Toonami (1997-2003) was literally one of the most innovative blocks on television, and THE most innovative with regards to animation programming. They continuously pushed the boundaries and gave both adults and children a variety of shows so that there was something for everyone.
There's no denying that animation has come a long way since Moltar first sent out the Toonami probe to Earth, and yet I still pity the younger generation. They missed out on an animation renaissance.
You could call it hyperbole. There are a lot of people who don't understand why Toonami was such a big deal. Wrapping their heads around how Gundam Wing is the signature anime series for an entire generation of fans seems impossible. They've seen better anime, they've even seen superior stuff from America. Let me help you out.
For just a moment, I want you to think back to your earliest years as an animation fan. There is no such thing as Justice League Unlimited or Avatar: The Last Airbender. You saw Batman: The Animated Series a few times but you were far too young to appreciate it, and now its just another show with a huge cult following no one can find on television.
The absolute "best" cartoons you've ever seen involve Thundercats, Robotech, and Dragon Ball Z. The only giant robots you've EVER seen are the Transformers, and those motherfucking Power Ranger robots. Think all the way back to then. Are you there? Its...March of 2000. You're about 11-13. On Spring Break. Its a Monday evening and you're settling in to watch Goku fight Frieza when you see this:
If you're too jaded to have taken the path down memory lane, in which case the promo did all the work, let me explain what was so special about that promo:
- First off, that deep voice does the best promo hype ever.
- Second, if you took it for granted, what you don't realize is that for the last ten years, every mecha series we've ever seen has come from 10-25 years ago. The Transformers, Voltron (Go Lion), Robotech (SDF-Macross), these are all 80's series. The latest series you've seen is Transformers, and THAT'S from 1986. So all of a sudden, you've just been kicked forward 10 years into the future of mecha designs, and its a radical shift. You've gone from this:
To this:
And the difference is huge.
- Toonami was always about showing us some of the most beautiful cartoons ever created, but this was on another level. I always call Gundam Wing my first anime because Dragon Ball Z at this point had become so Americanized (this is a neutral term for me) that it never really felt like I was being exposed to another culture.
- Lastly, from the promo alone, you can tell there's a story unlike any you've ever seen before. If you've been following Toonami to this point, you're used to mummies and aliens with galactic empires being your villains. Here, the villains are very, very human. There's deceit, there's betrayal, there's war. Real war, and rebellion too. A new standard of storytelling is being set here.
That's what Gundam Wing did. That's what Toonami did. It made you realize you could still enjoy cartoons after growing up, because cartoons could still offer the same incredible storytelling live-action could. (And for some of us, in many cases, better.)
The people behind Toonami did an excellent job crafting their own bumps, too, making it more than just a block that aired action cartoons. It felt more like a club you were invited to every day after school:
That "after school" part is important. Even though its aired weekly even in its home nation, anime works best when you watch it daily (or multiple episodes at once, if possible). The original Toonami gave us a fresh dose of new cartoons every day from 3-5, giving kids something to look forward to every day after class. That's important, and it means a lot more than stripping a series down so that new episodes are shown for a longer period of time. (Does to a kid, anyway.) Toonami knew it had a problem with reruns, that's why they made this:
No matter who tries to tell me otherwise, the reruns were never a huge deal for "daily Toonami". The Namek Saga HAD to go through repeat at LEAST five times (not counting the two or three times they started from numero uno) before we ever met Trunks, and DBZ was still a huge cash cow. The key lied in their licensing of finished anime, so rather than re-airing parts in a series while waiting for new episodes, they could simply re-air the whole thing.
In any case...take a moment to go down memory lane with a few more bumps. At least one of these will give you a nostalgia smack.
I don't mean to sound all, "my cartoons are cooler than your cartoons"...but, they totally are. :D At least, the block that showed them was. They don't even HAVE blocks anymore--something that fills you with happiness from the opening bump all the way until the sign off clip, where you feel a slight pang of sadness that its done. But with that pang of sadness...a spark of hope, knowing that tomorrow your friends will all be back again. Do people get where I'm coming from here, or am I just rambling?
I don't know, but one thing I know for certain...my next girlfriend needs to be a Toonami fangirl. XD (I couldn't help it after that harem clip!)
I know kids today see their favorite shows whenever they want--what with reruns, clips on stream sites, and even downloads if you know where to look...
But I still feel like, they're missing something. There are great cartoons made these days, but I don't know.
The original Toonami (1997-2003) was literally one of the most innovative blocks on television, and THE most innovative with regards to animation programming. They continuously pushed the boundaries and gave both adults and children a variety of shows so that there was something for everyone.
There's no denying that animation has come a long way since Moltar first sent out the Toonami probe to Earth, and yet I still pity the younger generation. They missed out on an animation renaissance.
You could call it hyperbole. There are a lot of people who don't understand why Toonami was such a big deal. Wrapping their heads around how Gundam Wing is the signature anime series for an entire generation of fans seems impossible. They've seen better anime, they've even seen superior stuff from America. Let me help you out.
For just a moment, I want you to think back to your earliest years as an animation fan. There is no such thing as Justice League Unlimited or Avatar: The Last Airbender. You saw Batman: The Animated Series a few times but you were far too young to appreciate it, and now its just another show with a huge cult following no one can find on television.
The absolute "best" cartoons you've ever seen involve Thundercats, Robotech, and Dragon Ball Z. The only giant robots you've EVER seen are the Transformers, and those motherfucking Power Ranger robots. Think all the way back to then. Are you there? Its...March of 2000. You're about 11-13. On Spring Break. Its a Monday evening and you're settling in to watch Goku fight Frieza when you see this:
If you're too jaded to have taken the path down memory lane, in which case the promo did all the work, let me explain what was so special about that promo:
- First off, that deep voice does the best promo hype ever.
- Second, if you took it for granted, what you don't realize is that for the last ten years, every mecha series we've ever seen has come from 10-25 years ago. The Transformers, Voltron (Go Lion), Robotech (SDF-Macross), these are all 80's series. The latest series you've seen is Transformers, and THAT'S from 1986. So all of a sudden, you've just been kicked forward 10 years into the future of mecha designs, and its a radical shift. You've gone from this:
To this:
And the difference is huge.
- Toonami was always about showing us some of the most beautiful cartoons ever created, but this was on another level. I always call Gundam Wing my first anime because Dragon Ball Z at this point had become so Americanized (this is a neutral term for me) that it never really felt like I was being exposed to another culture.
- Lastly, from the promo alone, you can tell there's a story unlike any you've ever seen before. If you've been following Toonami to this point, you're used to mummies and aliens with galactic empires being your villains. Here, the villains are very, very human. There's deceit, there's betrayal, there's war. Real war, and rebellion too. A new standard of storytelling is being set here.
That's what Gundam Wing did. That's what Toonami did. It made you realize you could still enjoy cartoons after growing up, because cartoons could still offer the same incredible storytelling live-action could. (And for some of us, in many cases, better.)
The people behind Toonami did an excellent job crafting their own bumps, too, making it more than just a block that aired action cartoons. It felt more like a club you were invited to every day after school:
That "after school" part is important. Even though its aired weekly even in its home nation, anime works best when you watch it daily (or multiple episodes at once, if possible). The original Toonami gave us a fresh dose of new cartoons every day from 3-5, giving kids something to look forward to every day after class. That's important, and it means a lot more than stripping a series down so that new episodes are shown for a longer period of time. (Does to a kid, anyway.) Toonami knew it had a problem with reruns, that's why they made this:
No matter who tries to tell me otherwise, the reruns were never a huge deal for "daily Toonami". The Namek Saga HAD to go through repeat at LEAST five times (not counting the two or three times they started from numero uno) before we ever met Trunks, and DBZ was still a huge cash cow. The key lied in their licensing of finished anime, so rather than re-airing parts in a series while waiting for new episodes, they could simply re-air the whole thing.
In any case...take a moment to go down memory lane with a few more bumps. At least one of these will give you a nostalgia smack.
I don't mean to sound all, "my cartoons are cooler than your cartoons"...but, they totally are. :D At least, the block that showed them was. They don't even HAVE blocks anymore--something that fills you with happiness from the opening bump all the way until the sign off clip, where you feel a slight pang of sadness that its done. But with that pang of sadness...a spark of hope, knowing that tomorrow your friends will all be back again. Do people get where I'm coming from here, or am I just rambling?
I don't know, but one thing I know for certain...my next girlfriend needs to be a Toonami fangirl. XD (I couldn't help it after that harem clip!)
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