#4 - Full Cycle
Twenty-four hours of Toonami. For many Toonami fans, it was something they always wanted to see. It was the stuff that dreams were made of and what inspired others to make dream schedules for. So, on April 8, 2000, Cartoon Network gave Toonami 24 hours to play with.
What did they do?
They pretty much played it safe. Aside from the premiere of the Garlic Jr. Saga, the day was pretty much a couple of Batman movies, a couple of episodes, but nothing truly worth memorable. Even when the opportunity to air Gundam Wing uncut at midnight arose, they didn't commit, which is a shame.
What went wrong with Full Cycle? Well, for starters, they basically had a Boomerang-like lineup for the entire day, that is airing the same episodes of shows four times during the day, which got old quick. Nothing truly revolutionary that day, except for the fact that they aired two Batman movies and a couple of Dragon Ball Z movies during the day, but we've seen those before.
It's a pity Cartoon Network didn't bring back the Full Cycle concept for the tenth anniversary of Toonami. Perhaps if they did, they probably would have done it right this time since the 2000 Full Cycle event was a bit disappointing..
#3 - The Arrival of Yu-Gi-Oh
The reason Duel Masters was so popular with fans of Toonami was because it made fun of card battle shows that took themselves a little too seriously like Yu-Gi-Oh. Somewhere in the back of the minds of The Network heads, they pondered if viewers liked Duel Masters, how would they react if Toonami aired Yu-Gi-Oh? The virus was set. It began innocently enough with the airing of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie. For several weeks after that airing, the show aired back to back with sibling virus Pokemon Chronicles on Toonami. And the reaction to Yu-Gi-Oh was the same as the reaction to Pokemon.
They didn't want it.
Yu-Gi-Oh was later replaced and all went well until the end of 2006 when Yu-Gi-Oh GX, the more obnoxious spinoff of Yu-Gi-Oh!, began airing new episodes exclusively on Toonami rather than the Miguzi block where the series was a permanent fixture. And the fan response was the same as the original show.
They didn't want it.
Yu-Gi-Oh! and GX were shows that had no business on Toonami, but The Network doesn't care what the viewers want in that regard. Therefore, we're all left with disappointment. It was bad, but nowhere near the disappointment we felt with . . .
#2 - The Arrival of Pokemon
It's an unwritten rule that Pokemon is a viral series. When the US first heard of Pokemon in 1997, it was after an episode of the popular series caused massive seizures in Japan. Not a good sign. When it aired in the US a year later, it became moderately successful, but it didn't become big until it became a part of the Kids' WB Saturday morning lineup in 1999. Kids' WB found ratings gold, and the virus that is Pokemon begin spreading.
And killing everything in its wake.
The success of Pokemon was influential in Fox and Saban selling Fox Kids Network to Disney. With that sale, Fox cancelled Fox Kids from weekdays and later Saturday mornings, replacing the lineup with 4Kids TV, owned by Pokemon's former producer 4Kids Entertainment. Kids' WB, no longer facing broadcast competition, felt invincible after Fox Kids died, so they became complacent and placed Pokemon all over their afternoon lineup (in some cases, twice a day) and twice on Saturday mornings. By fall 2005, ratings began to slip on weekday afternoons thanks to lack of good programming and in January 2006, Kids' WB was no longer on weekday afternoons. By fall 2006, the series was no longer on Kids' WB.
Of course, somebody had to pick up the series since they were still producing episodes. The cultural impact has faded, and Pokemon was still in production under Pokemon USA. Cartoon Network stepped in and picked up the franchise that summer and placed the series on all of their outlets. They placed the older episodes on Boomerang, the new season on Saturday mornings on Cartoon Network, and the "lost" episodes, Pokemon Chronicles, on, of all places, Toonami.
The last thing to air on Toonami's original weekday slot in April 2004 was a Pokemon movie. Not quite an image to reflect on the original block, but that's the lasting image of the weekday Toonami. Fans of the block was less than thrilled. Toonami was also a marquee property on the ill-fated Kids' WB version of Toonami at the top of the second hour. Pokemon was also a part of international Toonami blocks, most notably in Latin America where it shared time with Rurouni Kenshin and InuYasha on the block. Perhaps fans of Toonami never expected to see Pokemon on "our" Toonami. A Toonami that housed hard-hitting franchises like Justice League and Gundam. A block that has housed parodies of anime cliches like Duel Masters and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. A home to the most-watched properties on Cartoon Network like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto. When the block was supposed to become more of a "teen-oriented" block, Toonami continues to aim lower in viewership, and this show is the poster child for what The Network wants. Tired of taking risks, Pokemon is one of the "safest" anime properties in the United States, and for a risky block like Toonami, being safe is a bad thing.
Pokemon is the lead show of the Toonami block and continues to kill the 7 PM hour in the older viewers that the block is aimed towards. Pokemon has even invaded a place many viewers had hoped they could escape from it, Toonami Jetstream, sticking out like a sore thumb. And if you don't believe me about Pokemon being a block-killer, consider this factoid. On weekday afternoons, the series was part of the Miguzi block, which only recently began airing anime programming. And you know what's happening to that block.
Such disappointments are a part of being a Toonami fan. However, the biggest disappointment was the announcement that nearly killed the Toonami block. No, it wasn't the creation of the Saturday night block, dubbed by the fans as SVES. No, it wasn't the creation of Adult Swim's action lineup. In fact, I'm more upset that ASA isn't really respected by Adult Swim than anything else. So what could possibly be the most disappointing event to happen to Toonami? Click here for the most disappointing event in Toonami history.
