Goodbye Toonami, 1997-2008

Sorry, Toonami has been dead ever since the move to Saturday nights only and when CN decided the people that were watching it were above their target demographic (why the Kenshin runs were so half-assed). But yeah, good times, coming home from classes and looking forward to some really awesome shows (especially during a time when American animation was -and still is- mired in a deep slump of garbage).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Sorry, but anime has absolutely nothing to do with the sloppy and downright ugly "original" shows that CN has been springing on us the last ten years. As amateur efforts, as an aside from the usual, they were nice (and I love Cow and Chicken...Dexter and Johnny Bravo got old fast). As the basis of an entire network and as more of these things than I could keep track of started spawning and as all the "classic" cartoons were removed to make room for them...yuck. I really haven't watched more than 10 hours total of CN since Miguzi started (and I don't get Boomerang).

As an aside, I'm not really a huge fan of Adult Swim's anime offerings (Case Closed/Conan, Cowboy Bebop and Lupin being exceptions when they ran...Inuyasha had moments, but didn't really hold my interest). I tended to prefer the stuff from Toonami in its' prime.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

They're not bad shows, they just look like they were made on a shoestring budget (like so much of CN's original properties) and the jokes were constantly recycled. I didn't think they had enough steam to survive more than a season. They were definitely among the best "WHAT. A. CARTOON."'s, if that makes you feel any better...

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by M.U.G.E.N. Forever

Um, excuse me, dear sir!

Anime wasn't big round these parts (USA) during Toonami's early years, in fact, I'd dare say that the popularity of the few good and many shitty anime series that Toonami churned out was the direct cause of American studios to adapt Japanese styles (which, as any fool knows, is never a good thing) after at least four years of its creation!

SO, my dear friend, shows on that Cartoon Network, even Nickelodeon, as well as what FOX aired certainly where not, and certainly in their classic forms are still not garbage. You are confusing today's TV-shitfest with yesterday's gold.

Then again, you may be a young person who's early memories of Toonami where all quite recent. If this is the case, then yes, everything on TV was horrible at that time.

Huh? All I meant was that in 1998, when Toonami was hitting its stride, a lot of what was on was garbage (or shows that had been in reruns forever). Dragonball Z and Sailormoon were very different from what was on when they premiered. A lot of the really great shows either had their runs before 1998 (the Disney Afternoon was long gone) or were showing repeats already (or older Hanna Barbara or Tom and Jerry shows were on). The only good things were the original "What.A.Cartoons." and I viewed them as a low-budget novelty at best. Oh, and South Park, which was the shit in 98-99. I forget if Doug (the original) and Rocko were at the end of their runs around this this time though, but I remember there were few little American cartoons competing for my attention in 1998 (Rugrats was huge, but I didn't like it myself...Admittedly, I didn't get into Family Guy and Futurama until their Adult Swim runs).

So I still don't understand this mentality that American animation went to shit by producing low-budget anime ripoffs. It went to shit in the late 90's by not replacing the high quality shows that were leaving the airwaves or were going into reruns like Tiny Toons, X-Men, TMNT and the Disney Afternoon shows (and hey, the last few good seasons of the Simpsons were around this time period as well, so...). It went to shit without a reliable afternoon block (which Toonami ended up filling the void for...I doubt it would have taken off if it had run against the Disney Afternoon in its prime) It got even worse once they started mimicking the anime shows, granted, but that was only because the anime shows (remember, this was also at the height of Pokemon-mania) pretty much walked up for free and garnered a whole new audience because it was fresh and the competition was light. In essence, you're faulting anime for being a quality product that people flocked to and was essentially tapped into by the suits here, that were making American cartoons. Blame the suits for the garbage, not the anime (although do blame the people dumb enough to watch these shows and consider them "entertainment")

If I'm forgetting stuff, feel free to let me know. But I don't recall many great American cartoons coming along in the later 90's and I regularly watch cartoons from the 40's and on, up to that point.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?