Toonami Article | State of Toonami 2005

Originally Posted 05/05 by Jeff Harris

On April 17, 2004, Cartoon Network moved its venerable action-animation block Toonami from its comfortable weekday late afternoon timeslot to Saturday nights in prime time. Promising a shift in demographics from younger kids to tweens and teens, viewers took to the new and improved block swimmingly.

Afterall, Toonami has made at least one premiere a week for well over a year, and continues to do that today. Toonami has premiered more episodes and movies per week in 2004 than it had in recent years. The entire run of Dragon Ball GT, including all but one of the lost episodes, was exclusive to Toonami as was the new cycle of Yu Yu Hakusho. New episodes of Teen Titans also debuted on Toonami as did the revamped Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and the final episodes of Samurai Jack. Toonami also saw premieres like Gundam SEED, Duel Masters, Rave Master, Astro Boy, Zatch Bell, and the first CN original to premiere new episodes exclusively on Toonami, Megas XLR, which premiered 25 of its 26 episodes only on Saturday nights. Toonami also premiered both Bionicles movies, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, Justice League: Starcrossed, Accelleracers, and other action-oriented films, briefly turning Saturday nights into action theater.

Strangely, Toonami's demographics, for the most part, shifted back to the younger audiences that it moved to Saturday nights to avoid. Gundam SEED, which was definitely skewed towards older viewers, moved to late night Fridays in the fall of 2004 while younger-skewering shows like D.I.C.E. moved to the Toonami. Reruns of Saturday morning shows like The Batman and One Piece also ended up on Toonami while older skewering shows like Yu Yu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin disappeared. Most fans wondered if the whole "tween/teen" demographic shift would ever come, even at all.

In February 2005, Cartoon Network announced a bulk of the slate of shows coming to Toonami over the next twelve months. These acquisitions included two original shows (IGPX, Toonami's first original series based on the Toonami microseries from Production I.G., and a second series from some of the creators of Teen Titans), the US premieres of Zatch Bell, Bobobo-bo-Bobobo, and the eagerly anticipated series Naruto, and the Toonami premieres of The Batman and One Piece, both of which are now playing on the block. The only new show that diehard Toonami fans are truly puzzled about is Wulin Warriors, an American dub of a foreign puppet show. That's right, a live-action puppet/CGI series in the tradition of Gerry Anderson's Lavender Castle, a popular series that aired on Toonami in Latin America, is coming to our block. I guess if it worked for Lavender Castle and Thunderbirds on Toonami UK, Wulin Warriors might work Stateside, but I'm cautiously awaiting its premiere. Plus, 900 hours of episodes and movies under its belt, you have to take it seriously

The state of Toonami is fine. It's not in any danger of being replaced nor being cancelled from the Cartoon Network lineup. Believe it or not, Cartoon Network sees Toonami as a viable exclusive brand for the first time in its long history. Also, for the first time, Cartoon Network is actively pursuing original properties for Toonami, with more shows on the horizons in the coming years. They're also looking beyond Japan for show acquisitions, with Wulin Warriors being the first non-North American/non-Japanese acquisition for Toonami. Perhaps Toonami will also show an appreciation towards French animation like other outlets currently do. Before they do all that, the executives at Cartoon Network need to realize what Toonami is and should be. The producers have an idea about what Toonami should be, and I think those in charge of CN should listen to them. Toonami is one of the most important animation blocks on television today, and for the first time in a long time, I am very optimistic about its future in the years ahead.