Toonami (1997-2008) RIP

[guile_bio]

Its been more then a year now, and it still bothers me that its ended, it could of at LEAST went that entire year with airing of classics, but NO.

It was one of the best cartoon block I have ever seen, with the best of the best cartoons.

I had first saw a glimpse of Toonami at a friends house, and loved it. First show I saw was Mobile Suit Gundam, and Dragon Ball.

I never had cable programming when I was young, and the best thing that I'd do at a friend's house, besides hang out with that particular friend, is watch Toonami. I watched the shows with glee and never learned to appreciate it till Toonami was gone.

So throw in your thoughts, favorite shows and least favorite shows.

Favorite Shows:

Spoiler

Sailor Moon
Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball
Ronin Warriors
Tenchi Muyo!
Batman The Animated Series
Gundam Wing
Cardcaptor Sakura
Batman Beyond
Outlaw Star
Zoids:New Century Zero
Transformers Armada
G Gundam
Samurai Jack
Yu Yu Hakusho
Rurouni Kenshin
.hack//SIGN
Teen Titans
Zatch Bell

[takenoko]

What the heck is Toonami?

[Kogashi]

A section of Cartoon Network's weekly afternoon block that began as simply dedicated to airing dubbed Japanese anime, including the uncensored version during their midnight showing time very early on... But like anything good it slowly became crap.

[takenoko]

If it's just dub, good riddance to that

[Deka_Hero]

Those A-Holes used 9/11 as an excuse to stop airing Mobile Suit Gundam because it had low ratings.

They had signed on contract stating they had to air the whole series, but they used the Attacks to their advantage and pulled the series.

[yumenotenshi07]

Wow, Toonami. I used to rush home from school just to catch the end of Sailor Moon. And Ronin Warriors. Duuude.

Loved Gundam Wing... Dragonball Z... Outlaw Star... Tenchi Muyo! was pretty good, though now I have no idea why they tried to make it suitable for kids. XD

Man those were the days.

[Kogashi]

If it's just dub, good riddance to that

You have no idea how fully I agree with that, however for those just being introduced into the anime scene, such as myself when I first learned of Toonami it's a fair stepping stone to watching anime the correct way... Though there are still animes out there that are pretty good, even sometimes better dubbed.

[takenoko]

Well, I kind of agree and don't

Like I was a teen in the 90's and I watched these dubs:

Sailor Moon
Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball
Ronin Warriors
Gundam Wing
Cardcaptor Sakura
Yu-Gi-Oh

And these cartoons:
Batman The Animated Series
Batman Beyond

Of those in the list, I'd only spare Ronin Warriors and Yu-Gi-Oh and the cartoons from dying in some sort of fire. Dubs are just really stupid

I never saw these, but I kind of know they're stupid as well and would also gladly burn them in cleansing fire:

G Gundam
Transformers Armada

If it's not the censorship (Sailor Moon and the reanimation of stuff and lesbian stuff cover up) the cut job to the footage and airing out of order (Sakura) it's the just blatantly stupid or made up dialogue (Transformers/ G Gundam).

[IijumiSoukai]

Made up dialog worked well for "Samurai Pizza Cats". Loved that show.

[takenoko]

Okay, I'll give you Samurai Pizza Cats

[KamenRiderKnives]

If it's just dub, good riddance to that

dubs are preferable to nothing at all and are a great introduction to anime. I wouldnt say "good ridance" to something which introduced a lot of people to anime and encouraged them to go find original language anime, neither would i say it about one of the very few outlets for anime in the west.

your comment smacks of elitism

[takenoko]

Your argument is dependent on your initial claim that without dubs there'd be "nothing at all". There aren't, there are subs. I don't think the anime watching generation will die out because some lame channel that showed dub disappeared

"Few outlets of anime"? Seriously? There's been anime fans for decades before the Internet, and there'll be plenty more to come. Your post smacks of poor capitalization and not-thinking-enoughism. Way to justify my quote

[KamenRiderKnives]

Toonami was one of about two places where anime can be veiwed on tv in the UK (the other being adult swim). Also there is NO subbed anime shown on uk tv (apart from the occasional anime movie, usaully from the 80s or 90s). So without the dubs there is, as I said previously, nothing!

Personally i lament the lack of anime on (uk) tv, even more the lack of SUBBED anime

yes there are dvds and fansubs but these are not as accessable as tv, television undoubtedly reaches a wider audience, an audience which will willingly lap up dubbed anime in the absence of subbed anime.

People in the know prefare subs to dubs, they are definatly better, im with you on that one. But as a fan of anime in general and not specifaclly original language, subbed not dubbed anime, i have to say the loss of Toonami is a blow. But hey maybe your not that big a fan, maybe you dont want to share anime with the world, the loss of Toonami means that less anime will be viewed by the english speaking world. To me that is a great loss indeed.

[takenoko]

Sure, people in the know watch anime and know where to find it. But I really don't stand behind the "all the anime in the Great Britains is dubbed and on Toonami". I feel like, if you're the kind of person that digs playing Dungeons and Dragons, you'd have friends who know about D&D and they would tell you about it.

There's fansubbing, there's anime in video rental stores, you can watch anime streaming on youtube.

I'll be tolerant about a lot of things, but not dubs. I would argue Power Rangers is actually better than dubs (wait, here me out here) because of the fact that they're not pretending to be the original source material. Dubs do pretend to be the original source material, but provide a false experience for it (watching a sub can be a completely different experience compared to watching a dub). That's why I don't stand behind dubs at all

[KamenRiderKnives]

I know what your saying but i still think dubs are necessary, what about the dyslexic community lol!

you mentioned Power Rangers, for a large majority that is their entry into Sentai. Dubs are similar in that for a large majority their introduction to anime was by way of the dub, for me it was Akira and Fist of the North Star in the 80s. The subs are far superior but it was the dubs which got me hooked on anime.

and honestly the only anime on uk tv is on Adult Swim in the evenings, except dubs of yu-gi-oh, pokemon, dragonball and digimon, seriously kids are gona grow up the uk thinking that thats what anime is - a dub of Pokemon! and thats SAD