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Toonami

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For Toonami, the television channel in the United Kingdom, see Toonami (UK).
The US Toonami logo
Toonami (a portmanteau of cartoon and the Japanese word tsunami suggesting a "tidal wave" of animated cartoons) is a registered trademark of Cartoon Network, used initially for action-oriented programming blocks on Cartoon Network television channels worldwide, mostly shows Japanese anime, originating in the United States in 1997.

The Toonami brand name was subsequently used in the United Kingdom as the name of an action-oriented animation channel replacing a former Cartoon Network owned channel CNX, which had been a Toonami/live-action hybrid network.

Contents

United States

Toonami is Cartoon Network's primary Saturday evening action animation block, airing Saturdays at 7-11 p.m. EST/PST. The block, which made its world premiere on Monday, March 17, 1997, initially replaced Power Zone, Cartoon Network's most recent incarnation of the Super Adventure block which had been a staple on the network since October 1, 1992. Toonami was originally a weekday afternoon cartoon block hosted by Space Ghost villain-turned-producer Moltar at the Ghost Planet Productions building from 1997 to July 9, 1999. On Saturday, July 10, 1999, Cartoon Network relaunched Toonami with a new environment, the spacecraft Absolution, and a new host, TOM (an acronym for Toonami Operations Module), both of which have evolved and continues to be a staple for the block. The introduction of SARA, the Absolution's artificial intelligence unit, in 2000 added additional popularity to the show. The hosts have an almost uncanny relationship to one another like the characters in Bungie's Halo. The Master Chief is like TOM and Cortana is like SARA. Toonami has aired older North American properties like Thundercats, , The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and ReBoot, older anime franchises like Voltron and Robotech, homeless franchises like Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, and introduced Gundam, Tenchi Muyo!, Rurouni Kenshin, and countless other anime properties to the US. Toonami was also the exclusive US home of the most recent incarnation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and when they premiered in 2002.

Toonami is given a lot of credit for increasing the popularity of anime in the United States. The block of programming continually pushed the boundaries of airing mature content, the most notable example being the decision to run Gundam Wing in its unedited form during their 12 a.m. "Midnight Run" block.

Starting in September 2000, Toonami presented special interactive events known as Total Immersion Events or TIEs. These TIEs took place both on-air during Toonami and online at the official site, Toonami.com. The very first TIE (and most popular one according to the fans of the block) was The Intruder, which introduced TOM's companion, an AI matrix known as SARA, who played an integral part in the rebirth of TOM, who was upgraded from a short Bomberman-esque character (voiced by Sonny Strait) to a taller, stronger, darker, deeper-voiced incarnation temporarily dubbed as TOM 2.0 (voiced by Steve Blum), though it was the same TOM who still hosted the block. The following two TIEs, Lockdown and Trapped in Hyperspace, continued the adventures of TOM and SARA, but really didn't offer much story wise. The most recent TIE in September 2003 was a diversion from the TOM and SARA adventures and introduced a new, 2D universe. Immortal Grand Prix (IGPX), created by Toonami producers Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by anime studio Production I.G., aired in five short installments and served as a pilot for the first Toonami original series, which premiered in November 2005 (a brief note: although Megas XLR was the first original American-made franchise to actually debut on the block, it was initially a Cartoon Network original that was planned to air on Friday nights, and Justice League Unlimited, which makes Toonami its premiere home in the US, was originally Justice League, which wasn't a Toonami exclusive until the spring of 2004). The Intruder and Lockdown were aired in the UK, but with very little success.

From July 2001 to June 2002, Kids WB aired a Toonami block that was, more or less, the Kids' WB lineup with the Toonami name. It was critically panned by industry observers who noticed the action branding of the block didn't translate content wise, which had added shows like Scooby-Doo and a live-action series created by Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, The Nightmare Room. In spring 2002, Kids' WB announced that they would drop the Toonami name from their weekday lineup, once again making the Toonami brand exclusive to Cartoon Network.

On April 17, 2004, Cartoon Network moved Toonami from weekday afternoons to Saturday evenings with a new demographic of tween and teen audiences (even though tweens and teens were already watching the block much to the network's dismay) while adding a new lighter-toned action franchise, Miguzi, (produced by Williams Street, the folks behind Toonami, its name is loosely derived from the Japanese word for swimsuit, an in-joke to longtime viewers of Toonami) to weekdays in its place. One big reason for the move from weekdays to Saturday nights only, was because the some of the shows on the weekday line up (such as Yu Yu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin) became too violent for a weekday brodcast on the network. Toonami continues to showcase anime and North American productions like Duel Masters, Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited, The Batman, Zatch Bell, One Piece, Naruto and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo among others and often shows movies like Bionicle: Mask of Light, Hot Wheels AcceleRacers, and various DC Animated Universe-themed movies.

Music and Games on Toonami

Toonami had always been a haven for techno/electronica music throughout its history, using original compositions by an Atlanta-based composer Joe Boyd Vigil from 1997 to 2002, many of which were compiled in the CD Toonami: Deep Space Bass in 2001. In 2003, DJ Clarknova took Toonami's beats - some old, some new, some never before heard - and threw them into ProTools along with sound bytes from recent Toonami and Adult Swim shows. Out came an hour-long smorgasbord of Toonami goodness. It was called the Toonami Black Hole Megamix. It was supposed to be the second Toonami CD. But things happened, and the CD never saw the light of day. The full CD is hosted on Toonami Digital Arsenal (See External Links for the link).

From 2003 to today, Toonami has relied on original and library tracks from various artists from publisher Ninja Tune. On rare occasions, videos from musicians like Daft Punk, The White Stripes, and Gorillaz aired on the block.

Infrequently, Toonami will air reviews of video games. The review, delivered by TOM, is fairly short and airs during commercial breaks. Games are scored on a 1 - 10 system, 10 signifying an excellent game, 1 signifying a very poor game. (The score system was originally 1 - 5 until 2001.) Most of the games reviewed (with a few exceptions) receive a rating of 8.

Only one game has received a "?" rating making it infamous, that being "" for the PlayStation 2. The fact that Toonami Digital Arsenal’s synopsis of the review reads "A robot is loses his mind over a video game. Hilarity ensues." speaks volumes regarding the decision to rate this game in a manner that has only otherwise occurred in NGC Magazine (and even then only in it's "N64" period).

Regular Toonami Schedule*

* Not including any specials and/or marathons, this schedule is current as of July 22, 2006 but can change without notice. It is recommended you use a television guide service to get the latest information concerning schedule changes.

Online video services

On March 26, 2001, Cartoon Network launched Toonami Reactor, their first online streaming video service. The three-month service featured streaming episodes from Dragon Ball Z and Star Blazers, the latter of which was an online-exclusive series. Editorial content was provided by the now-defunct Animerica Magazine, published by VIZ Media. After the three-month "trial run" was over, Cartoon Network took it offline and completely revamped it. On November 14, 2001 [link], Cartoon Network relaunched Toonami Reactor with all online-exclusive programs such as Star Blazers, Patlabor, The Harlock Saga, and Record of Lodoss War as well as videos from Daft Punk and Toonami-themed games. In the summer of 2002, Toonami Reactor was revamped again under the Adult Swim aegis and, with a joint venture with VIZ's Weekly Shonen Jump, programmed it as Adult Swim Pipeline.

On April 25, 2006, a little over five years since the launch of the now-defunct Toonami Reactor, Cartoon Network and VIZ Media announced plans [link] to launch Toonami Jetstream [link], a new ad-supported streaming video service featuring Toonami series like Naruto, Samurai Jack, Megas XLR and IGPX and the internet webcast premieres of Hikaru no Go, MÄR, The Prince of Tennis, MegaMan NT Warrior and .

A Month of Miyazaki

On Saturday, March 18, 2006, in honor of the block's ninth anniversary, Toonami began airing A Month of Miyazaki, a four-week celebration of the works of acclaimed anime director Hayao Miyazaki. Like sibling station TCM's similar marathon in January 2006, Toonami aired a different movie every week between Toonami anniversaries (the marathon began on the weekend of the ninth anniversary of the block and end the week before the second anniversary of the block's move to Saturday nights). The films scheduled for A Month of Miyazaki (which all aired uncut and unedited as per Miyazaki's policy not to have his films altered) were as follows:

Toonami Series and Movies

Present Series '''Upcoming Series Former Toonami Series Movies aired on Toonami

External links

Official website

Unofficial websites

'''

 

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