Gephyrophillia | Page One #1

Originally Posted on 02/01/2002 by Jeff Harris

If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all.

Yes, it's improper English, but it's also a song lyric that makes so much sense when you've stepped into my life these last couple of months. But if you haven't heard about the trials and tribulations I've been through, trust me, it's bad. I don't want to bore you with them here. Instead, I want to reintroduce myself.

And my site.

This is CNX: Toonami Revolution, a webpage dedicated to the Cartoon Network action block known as Toonami, not to be confused with the block on that children's broadcast television block that airs that worn-out fad show with the little monsters and that old show with the talking Great Dane on that frog network of the same name. I mean, geez, the powers that be can't be THAT stupid, can they? Anyway, this is a site dedicated to the block that brought us super-powered spiky-haired martial artists, valiant solar princesses in short skirts, nuclear-powered giant robots, cities within your computer, a spacecraft powered by a nude girl (near nude on Toonami) and piloted by a reckless outlaw, and a boy that has an entombed space pirate and 500-year old princess drawn to him. Since March 17, 1997, Toonami has been on the air and gaining a type of cult following ever since. Well, it's not really a cult following. The block just has a lot of fans due to the fact that Toonami airs quite a number of anime like Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Tenchi, and Outlaw Star, among others. It's an unfair accusation to consider Toonami an anime block, especially since they aired shows like Batman, Superman, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and ReBoot.

Last year, Toonami has fallen on hard times (let's face it, it's the pits, man!), thanks in part to a massive restructuring in the ranks of Turner Broadcasting, which included new management, the departure of the network's founder Betty Cohen, and what many people considered the last straw . . . pimping the Toonami name to Kids' WB, bringing the block to a larger audience. Normally, this would be a good thing. Unfortunately, Kids' WB basically uses the Toonami name as an alternative nom de plume for the Kids' WB block, meaning shows that wouldn't see the light of day on Cartoon Network's original block like Detention, Generation O, and (God help them) Scooby-Doo air on it ad-nauseum. Shame really. But like the legendary phoenix, Toonami will rise again, bigger and badder than ever.

When I began this site back on July 10, 1998, I wanted to create an internet home for the block, as well as launch a campaign to create a Toonami-branded network. It was a farfetched idea back when Cartoon Network was airing promos asking whether or not the block was a failure. Now, in the year 2002, with a large global audience (Toonami and its Latin American brother Talisman are seen in countries ranging from Brazil to the United Kingdom to India to Austrailia), a large international distributor in parent company AOL Time Warner and many anime distributors willing to be a part of the block, the idea is not so farfetched anymore, and I believe it's time to bring back that campaign once again. But that will come in time, my friends.

How about the new design? I wanted to bring a magazine-like atmosphere to CNX, not unlike Absolution Station. Does this mean that I'm abandoning AbStat? No, not at all. I'm still using that section as a spotlight area, with monthly spotlight stories and reviews outside of the Toonami spectrum. It's still a little toy I enjoy playing with, but now I'm incorporating the magazine into the mainframe of this site. This magazine format is more comfortable to me now, and in the coming weeks, you'll see the return of Absolution Station at CNX.

It's also time for me to get back to the basics. No more mister nice guy. It's time to kick butt and take names. It's time to make people squirm. The first new CNXtras opinion article in some time is aimed towards the jugular of a few individuals. Certain individuals that, well, ticked me off to no end with their actions over the last year. Yeah, I'm going to offend, but I haven't done that in a while. Got to get a few things off my chest. Check it out now!

It's signoff time for now. Rest assured, I will be back. Later.

Jeff Harris
Webmaster
February 1, 2002