If certain people had their way, Toonami would not be celebrating its tenth anniversary on March 17, 2007. In fact, there were many times Toonami should have just died. Still, for a block that was on shaky ground in its second year of existance and mucked around with on numerous occasions, Toonami has truly earned the title of survivor.

Think about it.

There wasn't a demand for an action block on Cartoon Network. Sure, Super Adventures filled the need for action on the network, and yet, they seemed better placed for as few acquisitions as possible, since a majority of the programming was library programming. The acquisitions they did make were few and inbetween, barely registering a blip on the consciousness of America. In the fall of 1996, there was no action for a good chunk of time, so, it should have occurred to the average viewer that there wasn't a real demand for an action block. Toonami just happened to fill the need for a decade.

There wasn't a real anime industry prior to the block's existance. Sure, there were companies distributing Japanese animated titles with strange names like Pioneer, Viz, Anime Village, Synch Point, and A.D. Vision. Japanese animation had always been seen as strange juju in this country after the 70s. A lot of puritanical correct people out there tried to push the whole "anime is Satanic" agenda for much of the 80s and 90s. In fact, when Toonami premiered, Japanese animation wasn't even a major part of it. Sean and Jason wanted the finest action they could pick, and it just so happened that Voltron and Robotech were availiable at the time. When Pokemon popped on the American scene the year after Toonami hit the air, Americans started looking at Japanese animation in a whole new light. It could be seen as cuddly and sweet. So, instead of being cuddly and sweet or "evil and Satanic," Toonami settled for being a showcase for a happy medium, with those distributors with strange names clamorring to put their wares on a block seen by thousands every afternoon, thus creating a stronger industry. And yet, Toonami still doesn't get credit for that.

Cartoon Network didn't want it nor know what to make of it. Toonami was an experiment, not unlike Power Zone before it. Toonami's time on the network was supposed to be finite, a test run of sorts. After all, why premiere it in the middle of March? Nearly a year after its launch, Cartoon Network threatened to end the experiment, thus causing Williams Street to produce those "Is Toonami a failed experiment?" promos. Cartoon Network was going to launch yet another action cartoon project, but Williams Street wasn't ready to end Toonami. Fortunately, the viewers agreed that it wasn't a failure, and it continued to this day.

By 2000, Cartoon Network saw Toonami as a viable brand anchored by the most-watched series on the network, Dragon Ball Z. Unfortunately, the network's new management felt that Toonami was a threat to the Kids' WB brand, so, sabotage was the plan. The name was tacked onto the Kids' WB afternoon block with little regard to the history and legacy of the block in 2001 while the actual block was shaved by an hour. That didn't last an entire year.

By the time Dragon Ball Z ended in 2003, Cartoon Network had no real use for Toonami, but they couldn't just get rid of it. It had become a popular and valuable brand in the States and worldwide. They used the fact that more older viewers than younger viewers were watching the block to begin planning for a weekday replacement while they tested a Saturday night block to see if viewers would watch an action block on Saturdays.

While SVES was considered a threat by many longtime Toonami fans because the weekly block "stole" many Toonami standards, SVES was valuable as a litmus test to see if viewers would watch action on Saturday nights, and they did. So, in one fell swoop, they dropped Toonami from weekdays in favor of a younger-skewing action block called Miguzi and replaced the Saturday night block with the Toonami brand.

At first, it seemed alright. Then, despite them advertising the new Saturday night Toonami as "a block that grew up with you," Cartoon Network still wanted to aim younger. In what could be recognized as the year of insanity, Toonami attracted more older audiences in 2005 with newer acquisitions like Naruto and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo as well as premiering IGPX while also airing reruns of Pokemon movies and Yu-Gi-Oh to draw in the younger audiences. In 2006, Pokemon Chronicles and Yu-Gi-Oh GX both premiered new episodes, much to the displeasure of the viewers. Pokemon even ventured onto Boomerang and Toonami Jetstream for some odd reason. Still, the viewers watched the shows they enjoy regardless.

Now, we come to the present. Ten years after its premiere, Toonami is still on the air. The shows and hosts have changed, and some of the uniqueness it once had is all but gone, but the block survives. Toonami has outlasted Sci-Fi's Animation Station, Nickelodeon's SLAM!, Fox/ABC Family's The Basement and Made in Japan, Kids' WB's Toonami block, TechTV's Anime Unleashed, and Cartoon Network's own SVES and Miguzi. It has evolved and succeeded while the rest of the network continues to struggle. Toonami has been a kingmaker in the anime distribution market, originally handing the crown to Bandai, then FUNimation, now proudly worn by Viz Media, producers of Naruto, Zatch Bell, The Prince of Tennis, and MAR as well as partners on the Toonami Jetstream broadband channel. Though Cartoon Network may try to find ways to change the formula, the spirit and those that believe know that Toonami will continue to do what it has done for nearly a decade.

Survive.