The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Toonami

0:00 when it comes to programming blocks you'd be hard-pressed to find anything more iconic than Toonami not only is there Nostalgia associated with it but there is a legacy that truly spans some generations now that all have their own experiences with it from the style and attitude that radiated from the bumpers and clips between programs to the selection of programs themselves that brought you some of the coolest pieces of media for over 25 years Toonami has blessed the afternoon and late night scene for those interested in having an appreciation for Japanese animation much like finding so many new programs to get hooked on Toonami had this ever evolving feel to it that constantly brought more and more programs to the Forefront for you to discover while offering visuals and Aesthetics that invoke both past and present when you heard the Hip Hop inspired beats mixed with the early CG visuals reminiscent

0:47 of 80 sci-fi you felt right at home knowing you're going to get some highly memorable experiences through the shows curated for the block but most importantly at least to me was the full-on introduction to anime I want to sell great what tsunami has meant to me throughout my life growing up with it and the programming that truly made it special so let's take a ride on the app solution as we look back through the history of Toonami and see how this programming block Rose fell and rose again welcome aboard the ghost Planet spaceship Absolution later in the mid 90s cartoons on TV were at a rising Peak for kids across different channels and kids everywhere were locked into what they were used to always watching Cartoon Network was looking to add something to their programming lineup that would end up capturing a new audience and hopefully be

1:35 of interest to those already on their Channel entered Cartoon Network executive Mike Lazo who was trying to jump start a new project for Cartoon Network that would be focused on action-based animation he asked Sean Atkins to help Aiden coming up with what this would be as he would then grab his friend Jason DeMarco to fully plot this out both Sean and Jason were heavily in tune with the Japanese animation scene watching and having a great appreciation for anime as they wanted to pull from that to bring it to the Forefront for Western audiences of course this would be no easy feat to do since pitching bringing over Japanese content that would be unfamiliar to most watching the channel isn't a guarantee of viewership for the network to passively Green Light Mike Lazo however was on board with the vision and wanted to Aid with a bit of familiarity that he could offer Mike had already created a purposed outlet for the space goes property from Hanna-Barbera turning it

2:25 into the odd and fun Space Ghost Coast to Coast a late night talk show that would be a cartoon aimed at adults that Cartoon Network would pick up as a show to place on their Network for late night time slots when the Channel's target audience would most likely be asleep taking from this Lazo and his production company ghost Planet will begin building the design of Toonami by first bringing in the character of moltar from the original Space Ghost cartoon and gone is the villain's status and his responsibilities on the coast to coast show and welcomed in are his duties as hosting the first incarnation of the Toonami block along with a Sleek new CG look that fits the computer-generated Vibe they were going for but to help build what this Vibe exactly is came down to Sean and Jason who were trying to figure out this whole idea and Along Came the introduction of another person in the story Michael kahill who would be influential in working with them

3:14 in these editing sessions of taking hip and newer music sounds skateboarding clips and untranslated Anime that they would find through local video of stores that would import them in to create a reel that encapsulates this moment in time that they're in and boom the vibe had been created and the next thought was a host for the whole thing originally to fit the tone they were thinking that it'd be some sort of AI who accompanies a teenage girl but the cost associated with this would be out of any allotted budget so this is where the idea of bringing in moltar fit perfectly much like space goes Coast to Coast moltar was voiced by animator and voice actor clay Martin Crocker together over the next three quarters of the Year this group came together to create what they decided on being the combination of cartoon and Tsunami Tsunami I'll give you later let's get

3:59 back into it after so much time was spent finding the exact Vibe coming up with the perfect name and being ready to launch this new action block of Animation onto the world the premiere of Toonami on St Patrick's Day March 17 1997 from 4 to 6 PM didn't release with the programming that Sean and Jason wanted to bring over many roadblocks stopped them from getting their requested shows to play during their new animation block having access to One initial Japanese production Voltron but in saying that this was the Voltron already brought to the US and edited to suit a younger audience with a lot of original stuff cut from it but this was a start the network did give them their space to be creative in designing what this whole thing would be but that doesn't mean it was just smooth sailing through the Stars until Miracles would happen instead there were worries

4:45 that each week could be their last week airing Toonami as Sean would come back from meetings with a level of uncertainty from the higher ups with the ratings for Toonami being fine not great just fine something was needed to really pull in the audience to prove that what they have is truly special and that opportunity was just about to present itself the following year after only having Thundercats the real Adventures of Johnny Quest of Voltron and then cartoon roulette featuring a bunch of older random cartoons being chosen in 1997 1998 proved to be the year that things would start taking off having access to the original Super Friends and even Transformers Beast Wars was cool for sure and even moving on to get Robotech helped out but two programs in particular were about to change the attention Toonami was receiving first was the English dubbed

5:33 version of Sailor Moon where it was already being played on another Network owned by Turner as it didn't get the viewership in ratings overall that it needed to continue over there on the USA Network this led to Toonami being offered to be the new home for Sailor Moon where it started to get the attention that the network needed to be able to push for more in order to grow that summer Sailor Moon helped bring in enough leverage for the tsunami crew to not just ask for but heavily push for getting Dragon Ball Z to be added into the rotation both Sean and Jason really wanted to get Dragon Ball Z it was a show that Sean would wake up early to watch when he was younger when it would be played only on a local channel early in the mornings as he had the thought that if he was doing this back then then there were others like him doing the same if they were able to make it more accessible for a western audience to watch Dragon Ball Z and play it at a time slot

6:20 in the mid-afternoon on a highly watched Network as opposed to a random early morning time slot on a local channel this would be huge and they were right this was huge as in 1998 Japanese properties and Japanese animation were making their way over to the states and kids as well as young adults were eating it up the ratings would continue to go up and more people would be tuning into Toonami for a dose of action and more importantly a dose of anime as we get into 1999 other shows like reboot the Powerpuff Girls and Robin warriors were added to the mix of programs that would be played this created a healthy balance of shows from both regions being in this couple hour mix but Dragon Ball Z alone would bring in the eyes that the network loved to see providing some of the highest viewed broadcasts that made Cartoon Network on a level of viewership more or less to

7:05 Nickelodeon at the time they even premiered movies on some Fridays with the first being Batman mask of the Phantasm while not directly following the anime flow that is a great movie and I think it fits the vibe Toonami was hot and it was getting noticed with some semi-edited versions of Dragon Ball Z movies being played it began to expose another side of anime to Western audiences who are now invested what we were receiving to watch on TV were not the original versions of the program now Toonami began pushing some limits but the key word here is limits these were still not the uncut versions that are now known the popularity of Dragon Ball Z along with anime in general in the states at the time garnered a level of credibility to this field of Animation but now it's nearly the end of the decade and in July of 1999 tsunami had a bit of a revamp sun setting

7:54 moltard introducing a little robot fella named Tom who was now voiced by Sunny Street along with this the setting of Toonami was now aboard the spacecraft called the Absolution as the new host welcomed Toonami fans in with a brief introduction calling this the brand new Toonami but with the mission of staying the same with what to expect Tom was there to Usher us into the New Millennium right around the corner promising the same shows you already like in the same attitude to go along with it Sean and Jason were beginning to both enjoy the success of their programming block but also deal with the more forceful oversight from their higher-ups sure companies like Bandai would hit them up looking to bring a new version of Gundam Stateside hoping that Toonami is the perfect place to springboard the program to fans and that's great but with this much attention they would be forced to show certain other programs because while they may run Toonami they don't

8:43 own it none of this was remotely bad enough in their back and forth to cause a rift thankfully and something great did happen and that was the introduction of midnight run which would play more uncensored and uncut versions of anime making it a good alternative to still deliver the goods that people want on it in both formats Toonami was being viewed as the spot to connect yourself for celebrating other forms of Animation but through multiple mediums as they would even get the chance to work with gorillas and Daft Punk for their animated music videos which clearly fit right in and played into the perfect midnight vibe run Daft Punk even brought some of their music videos to Premiere first on Toonami and soon after gorillas did the same thing today both those names and music are extremely well known and largely celebrated but back then those levels of Fame weren't there and they saw tsunami as the direct place to help push their music and

9:32 music videos out to a wider audience this led to Toonami taking one hour of their midnight run block to be focused on introducing music in a way that wouldn't interfere with what their usual broadcasts would be and keep the network happy since it wouldn't affect their ratings directly being at the time that these would be shown this was influential in the way that people would be discovering music at the time and for a generation now growing up with the curations of art found through Toonami there were people finding their own new tastes from it Toonami was quickly becoming known as the tastemakers of the turn of the century as we enter into the year 2000 the explosion of the brand would continue further while you had stuff like Batman the Animated Series and Superman the animated series getting some love during the block the explosion of anime was more prevalent than ever GeForce guardians of space a few tenshi series

10:20 blue summary number six and Mobile Suit Gundam Wing would all join in on the broadcast slate to upgrade the brand further we got to experience the first ever tie or total immersion event which would only focus on Tom and subsequently Sarah voiced by Sally Tims who was brought into the series during this first event here as this AI companion for Tom you know what come with me the first event premiered on September 18 2000 and was known as the Intruder and Snippets of the story aired throughout the week during the broadcast until the 22nd where the finale to this tie came to a close each part of the Intruder story ended with a password to play a flash game on the Toonami website where you would try and save these other robots as well as yourself from being eaten by this Intruder throughout the shorts Tom and Sarah find themselves dealing with

11:07 this mysterious Intruder having interactions with it trying to stop it from eating up everything and destroying the ship in part 4 we end on Tom screaming in pain while being consumed by this hungry blob leading to the reveal in part 5 that Tom actually dies and Sarah downloads him and places his data into a new sleeker body called Tom too this taller Tom was now voiced by the iconic voice you may remember Tom for the most Steve Bloom to add on to this event and get more crowd participation for those engaged with Toonami there was a phone number listed on the next broadcast to vote for which new engine Tom 2 should get for their ship repairs and a little over a month later that decision was showcased and a few weeks after that the repairs were done leaving a little piece of the Intruder floating by as it says the end with a question mark

11:57 foreign found a way to keep you engaged with a CG host that gets a really cool upgrade and listens to things that our viewer voted to change how they happen plus for now Toonami received an extra hour for their programming block running on weekdays from 4 to 7 PM now they were all having fun trying new and different things with Toonami and this event proved that if they were tasked to make something with the original character of Tom given a budget and allowed to create a story with him that they could do it this leads us to 2001 where quite a few things happened for the tsunami brand with more shows coming like Outlaw Star the Big O three Mobile Suit Gundam series Batman Beyond zoid's New Century card captors and most importantly for them Dragon Ball as this would be a great way to introduce fans of Dragon Ball Z to the original Dragon Ball series

12:45 that leads into it the higher ups wanted to expand Toonami out and bring it over to a special block on Kids WB which caused the regular 4-7 PM block on Cartoon Network go to a 5 to 7 PM walk to allow time for the creation of this new channel block and in July of 2001 this new Toonami block would take over a bit of kids WB but had one specific flaw The Branding around Toonami works thanks to how greatly it's paired to the content that it houses and for kids WB the anime aspect wasn't there as much while sure Pokemon fits the anime bill it really was taking over time slots that could be used to Showcase other programs there would be glimpses of some other anime here and there but the majority were cartoons like X-Men evolution Jackie Chan Adventures Batman Beyond and Scooby-Doo they also tried to infuse the music aspect of Toonami by mashing up clips from several

13:34 showcase shows like cardcaptors or X-Men to create these odd music videos called Toonami tracks while some of these shows could be classified as action most of them lean more towards the comedy aspect and the audience could tell that something was off this wasn't what they expected from Toonami and this was becoming a problem for the networks to push other types of shows onto the tsunami brand but while this was happening the regular spot on Cartoon Network for Toonami was pushing strong come September the second tie titled lockdown took place this event was a lot bigger as it worked alongside a tie-in game called lockdown as well where each day a new part of the game unlocked that would tie into the story seen in the shorts of this event this was another huge hit that included a sweepstakes sponsored by Nintendo in promotion for their new console the GameCube 300 winners would win a GameCube branded shirt 150 winners would win a GameCube

14:24 game and 10 lucky winners would receive a GameCube along with six games the mainstream attention of Toonami was there the network knew this and the brands took notice to get deals like this though the tsunami team was told to make their brand bigger to propose the ideas of what you have to more Brands which led to the idea of this lockdown game in the first place giving viewers a chance to feel like they are actively helping Tom out and are a part of the story taking place it was genius as it asked the audience directly to have fun in a different medium instead of just voting on something arbitrary heading into 2002 the hits kept coming with Hamtaro zoid's chaotic Century mobile fighter G Gundam as well as playing episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Transformers Armada and GI Joe but even more exciting getting to show episodes of a newer

15:11 Cartoon Network classic Samurai Jack the real downside of this year or upside whichever way you want to look at it was the ending of the kids WB version of Toonami by the end of June the block went away and because of this the main Toonami block on Cartoon Network received its extra hour back returning to a 4-7 PM programming block the next tie took place and another game and another sweepstakes with Nintendo happened as well it was still for the GameCube but mainly to promote Super Mario Sunshine for 2003 the year started off great getting to celebrate giant robot week where anime with giant mechs were at the front of the line with programming getting a chance for a tsunami to air special showings of Neon Genesis Evangelion Gigantor die guard Martian successor nodesco and even bringing back Robotech this greatly introduced even more anime for those

15:57 not in the know of some of them tsunami's iconic hip-hop inspired beats were released on a special CD titled Toonami deep space base Tom even got a bit of an upgrade bringing him to Tom 3 an even more muscular designed version that can age up with the CG a bit this was also a big year for the new add-ons for broadcast Justice League Star Wars Clone Wars cyborg 009 the cyborg Soldier heroni Kenshin YuYu Hakusho Superior Defender Gundam Force dot hack sign and another Dragon Ball series with Dragon Ball GT coming into the mix whether you like it or hate it that series was brought out on Toonami instead of having another regular tie this year they instead delivered an original segmented pilot miniseries for an anime that Sean and Jason produced with

16:43 production IG called igpx or Immortal Grand Prix which surely was different from what fans of Toonami were expecting but seeing that the minds behind tsunami were doing this was pretty cool even if a younger me had no clue that that was the case but the specific TI will play into something down the road 2004 changed things up come April of that year the weekday afternoons for Toonami were taken away and moved to a singular Saturday night slot that ran from 7 to 11 pm while the somewhat similar but more toned down magoozi block took its place the move was made to follow the Aging up of its audience thinking that those who watch would prefer a late night weekend production over an every weekday mid-afternoon one Sarah received a new look now along with a new voice actress Samantha Robson and the newest programs this year were dual Masters Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Justice

17:32 League Unlimited Transformers Energon Astro Boy Rave Master Jackie Chan Adventures Teen Titans and Megas XLR over the next couple years things were pretty much the same having this special dedicated weekend block and adding plenty of new shows as 2005 brought us dice the Batman the uncut version of Dragon Ball Z Transformer Cybertron Yu-Gi-Oh Zatch Bell one piece Naruto bobobo and the full version of igp X after it was teased with that micro series back in 2003 so a nice offering of some well-known properties and helping start off a lot of kids in America's obsession with Naruto headbands but also getting to see the uncut version of Dragon Ball Z was a big deal Cartoon Network allowed it thanks to its newer later run time 2006 brought us Woolen Warriors

18:19 The Prince of Tennis Fantastic Four world's greatest superheroes Mar Yugioh GX and both Pokemon Battle Frontier and Pokemon Chronicles it wasn't until 2007 where things became interesting enough to bring up as this would be the 10-year anniversary of Toonami starting it was hiked up and when the date came around to celebrate it we were introduced to Tom IV bringing along two other main robots hanging out with him flash voiced by Dave Wittenberg and D voiced by Tom Kenny the year didn't add much new to its already solid rotation of Animation only adding in Mega Man Star Force and Storm Hawks but the future seemed pretty great for the programming block it even celebrated the anniversary with special movie premier years every week in March that year but come 2008 this wouldn't be the case with only a few more additions like Bakugan Battle Brawlers blue dragon

19:08 and Ben 10 Alien Force things seemed a bit off the year was going by just fine but on September 20th at a convention called anime week in Atlanta Cartoon Network dropped the sad news that Toonami was officially going to end putting two low ratings being the cause and literally that same night Toonami aired their final broadcast with the end of it having a final farewell from Tom himself saying goodbye after 11 years hoping you have made some Unforgettable memories and to stay gold and those words were held on to by everyone watching something so special from their childhood and so suddenly before their eyes and just like that tsunami was gone until we meet again Stay Gold bang years went by and Toonami did become this distant memory but enter in Adult Swim another

20:00 programming block on Cartoon Network that would control the late night and early morning scene with teen and adult programs making the clear cut at the end of the day when Kid Entertainment ends and when the older crowd can flip on the channel starting in the early 2000s as well Adult Swim was conceived by Mike Lazo as there is a connection here to leverage one programming block to bring back another April Fool's Day for Adult Swim is always a night full of whatever weird they can come up with and people enjoy the shenanigans that they pull but this next one was different as it could be pulling on heartstrings more than anything on April 1st 2012 Adult Swim just played a Toonami block consisting of Dragon Ball Z u Hakusho and other Classics that you would find on Toonami full with the Toonami branding and everything and as fun as this was to revisit

20:46 Toonami it wasn't just some joke to do so in fact it was a secret attempt to get people in interested in bringing back Toonami as social media was really becoming a staple part of everyday life Adult Swim put the Power onto the people to get their voices heard saying on Twitter that if you want Toonami back use the hashtag bring back Toonami people sure made their voices heard when Sean and Jason became aware that the April Fool's joke was to play some old school Toonami they got excited over the fact that this could be a way to revive the whole thing and then there they watched as the internet overnight exploded with support of Toonami and with that the hashtags wanting to bring it back it was so demanded and so well received that literally the following week bumpers on Adult Swim stated we're listening and we're looking into it cut to May 26

21:33 2012 where Toonami was officially back and on the air and with that an onslaught of shows throughout 2012 the programming block had bleach dead man Wonderland Cowboy Bebop Thundercats Inuyasha Casher and sins Samurai 7 symbionic Titan Eureka 7 Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood two Ghost in the Shell series tenshi Muyo GXP and the uncut version of Naruto it was a fierce return in the fans of Toonami ate it up welcoming new fans to join in on it as well Toonami even expanded to over six hours in October of that year it was great all around coming into 2013 Tom 5 premiered along with a new but older look for Sarah for her third variant voiced By Dana Swanson Soul Eater fully Cooley the big O2 Star Wars the Clone Wars sword art online the return of igpx and even the uncut

22:25 version of One Piece started to flood into the programming block movies like Akira and Summer Wars were played and everything was rolling into 2014 in high swing with not only the announcement that a new tie was in the works to come out the following year and be a sequel to the tie Intruder but even more shows were being added to the Slate Space Dandy Blue Exorcist two Black Lagoon series Beware the Batman InuYasha the Final Act Helsing ultimate during Attack on Titan Dragon Ball Z Kai uncut the original four seasons of Samurai Jack and the uncut version of Naruto Shippuden in 2015 however Toonami was shrunk down a bit now running from Midnight to 3 30 a.m but things were still okay this year brought the return of ties where we got the Intruder 2 that led to a new overall

23:13 look for the block it also led to the Absolution being destroyed and Sarah dying but she was put into the computer system and now the programming block was hosted from the planet shogo 162 program wise we got the additions of kill a kill Sword Art Online 2 parasite the maxim akame ga Kill and Michiko and hachin for 2016 one punch man JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Mobile Suit Gundam iron-blooded orphans Hunter Hunter Samurai shampoo and dimension W were the newest batch of shows and for this year the next tie was announced at that Year's Anime Expo where it was surprisingly another part in the Intruder series titled intro III this led to them getting a new ship the planet they were on being destroyed and Sarah getting a new version of herself this time with little

23:59 wings during this year the broadcast time shifted to 11 30 pm to start ending at 3am but this would be reversed a handful of months later anyway so nothing really significant there they did announce another new micro series called the sand whale and me to Premiere in 2017 being a joint production of Adult Swim and production IG and directed by mamuru Oshi for 2017 the length of Toonami started to grow once again at first getting to start at 11 30 PM once again and then quickly earning that start time of 11 pm making the whole block four and a half hours now we also saw the addition of Dragon Ball super Mobile Suit Gundam unicorn two Tokyo Ghoul series Black Clover Dragon Ball Z Kai the final chapters JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders Lupine III part

24:45 4 the Italian Adventure Outlaw star and a brand new revived Samurai Jack that returned for a final Fifth Season that was a bit more adult than the original series there was another tie titled the countdown where Tom gets brought to the Future by his future self to help stop a corrupted version of Sarah really building out more of the story that they have been making for Tom and Sarah as hosts of Toonami as the year went on more time slots were open to Toonami but it wasn't until 2018 that it would truly get even bigger the block earned more and more time slots on both ends running from 9pm to 4 am making a solid 7 hours for Toonami to Showcase all that it has this was the peak moment of Toonami's return after more than five years of being back it has taken over

25:31 once again and has acquired the licenses to play way more anime than ever before my hero Academia two different fully Cooley series Pop team epic JoJo's Bizarre Adventure diamond is unbreakable mob psycho 100 Megalo box and boruto Naruto the next Generations joined Toonami in 2018 as well as 2019 rolled around Adult Swim was biting back some of its time as Toonami shrunk back down a bit to five hours long running from 11 pm to 4 am now but still having new shows like Sword Art Online alicization Lupine III part 5 Misadventures in France fire force gen lock Dr Stone The Promised Neverland food Wars Mobile Suit Gundam the origin Advent of the red comet JoJo's Bizarre Adventure golden win and Demon Slayer we got another tie called the forge which is where Tom was created

26:21 and also killed again bringing us Tom six thanks to Sarah using the forge and then Toonami got an extra half an hour back running until 4 30 a.m again entering into the 2020s these time slots would constantly be played with going up and down and up again but it would roughly even itself out around being a four hour long block from Midnight to 4am from 2020 to present day of making this video Toonami has continued to add more anime and other shows to their run and things in general have been running as good as they always have while there wasn't a tie in 2020 2021 had the next tie titled Cosmo Samurai and was advertised as a non-canonical event that featured the tsunami characters and it was done in a full traditional anime style this carried on for the 2022 tie that had Cosmo Samurai 2 but right after that ended the following weeks would

27:12 air another tie this time titled the return this one was canonical and had Tom trying to come to terms with there being many Toms that exist when a ghost from the past arrives being the original Absolution spaceship that we know is being destroyed as we see the original Sarah AI from 19 years ago glitched onto the screen as the ship then gets shown to actually be from 250 years in the future having more powerful capabilities to intergalactically travel donning the new name of the GPS app solution Mark 14 as we continue the tsunami broadcasts as usual as of 2023 Toonami is still running stronger than ever having new anime and other show shows premiering all the time and just celebrating all that makes tsunami special over the years since its comeback Toonami

27:57 has been the main Hub that is accessible to so many for new and old anime to be presented it's not just the classics it Embraces but all the new stuff as well which to some can feel like it takes away the Nostalgia factor of it but to others this is their first exposure to a lot of this anime much like it was to me and to a lot of you back in the day during Toonami's original run and I think that that feeling and those moments are special currently Toonami still runs on Saturday nights from Midnight to 4 a.m offering an ever-growing lineup of new and classic anime plus a whole lot more it really is amazing to see quite the comeback for a programming block that originally was just meant to end and be a thing of the past but through an April Fool's joke that really wasn't a joke the fans made it possible for the network to actually listen and bring back

28:43 Toonami with more support than it ever received initially it wasn't just the programs it played it wasn't just the vibe that the host segments created it was the all-around encompassing of different forms of media for you to discover sure there was anime which is a big part of it but the music created for the show along with the music played during the music video segments really helped shape some new discovery within the various sounds out there the video game reviews that would happen gave you your own little slice of G4 here getting to see a Showcase of many different video games and their reviews of them mainly put together by Jason himself and there was always some sort of sweepstakes going on to take place in and it felt that Toonami was there for one thing and one thing only you the viewer to have an experience discovering new things to

29:29 love and build lifelong memories from whether you first discovered Toonami during its original run or found yourself getting into it because of its return the same Universal feelings of it can be shared by us all Toonami was a crucial part of my childhood and I thank it for introducing me to so much from anime to some music and even a few video games I would love to know your experiences with tsunami as well when did you discover it and what did you discover from it tell me in the comments as always I've been Jordan Fringe thanks so much for watching like And subscribe later please