The History of Toonami, Chapter Three
Jeff HarrisJamie Kellner was about to leave Turner Broadcasting by the end of 2003. Everybody knew that but weren't sure if he would renew his contract. Afterall, at Turner, he had significantly more power than he did at The WB, especially since Robert Pittman, AOL Time Warner's COO, put The WB in Turner Broadcasting's operations. Of course at the beginning of 2003, Pittman, was forced out by the board. Steve Case, who led the group behind AOL's purchase of 51% of Time Warner (see, people tend to believe that AOL bought all of TW, but they only bought a slight majority), and Gerald Levin, who owned a bulk of Time Warner before selling it to AOL, were gone as well. So, with three major allies gone, Kellner was almost on a rail out of Atlanta. When Ted Turner left his post in the management of the company, the rest of the board of directors bent over backwards trying to please Turner, who is the largest individual shareholder of the company. One of the ways they pleased him was the removal of Jamie Kellner and The WB, someone he loathed, from the management of the company he created and replacing him with Phillip Kent, someone let go during the 2001 coup.
And thus the first three months of 2003 were great ones for fans of Toonami.
With the final episodes of Zoids: Chaotic Century airing in a special version of Toonami Super Saturday, the year also had more inner-network projects, including an NBA special which presented a pair of Toonami franchises (Thundercats and Masters of the Universe) alongside other Cartoon Network shows. The icing on the cake was the North American premiere of .hack//SIGN, an innovative fantasy series, followed by a week of ADV-produced mecha series for an event called Giant Robot Week, which featured the Cartoon Network debuts of Evangelion, Nadesico, Dai-Guard, and the final two episodes of the final saga of Robotech, which never aired on Toonami.
That weekend, Cartoon Network launched Saturday, a new action-animation franchise that featured Toonami programming and action shows that wouldn't "fit" on Toonami nor Adult Swim. Known as SVES by the fans of the block, many considered Saturday as the death knell for Toonami, which more or less was used as a place to premiere shows that would later be exclusive to SVES in the loyal Toonami fans' eyes. They may have been right. During the course of 2003, nearly every show that aired on Toonami, excluding SD Gundam, the first Gundam series to make its world premiere in North America, were standards on SVES.
What did premiere in 2003 on Toonami? Aside from a new logo and redesigned TOM and Absolution, several shows made their Cartoon Network debuts on Toonami in 2003, including the new season of former Adult Swim Actioner Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Cyborg 009, SD Gundam, Dragon Ball GT, and the final seasons of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball. The last Total Immersion Event on weekday Toonami was a unique one. For the first time ever, Toonami has presented IGPX, a 2D adventure in the tradition of Zoids/0 and G Gundam. Animated by Production I.G., this microseries became one of the most talked about events of the year that was filled with, according to some, cosmetic change and plenty of doubt about its future.
At the beginning of 2004, Cartoon Network execs were refocusing their brands. In what sounded like an ominous sign to Toonami fans, network execs stated that Saturday nights would be the major period of all new action-animation on the network. Fans feared that shows promised for Toonami in 2004 like Gundam SEED, DuelMasters, and Rave Master would be exclusive to SVES. However, on February 25, 2004, Cartoon Network announced that Toonami would no longer be on weekdays, replacing that block with a lighter-themed action block known as Miguzi, guided by the same folks behind Toonami. On that day, they also announced that Saturdays now belonged to Toonami, refocused as a teen-oriented action block. As the promos stated, the block that we've grown up with is now growing up, adding all the shows rumored for the block plus a Cartoon Network premiere series, Megas XLR, as well as the new seasons of Dragon Ball GT, Yu Yu Hakusho, Teen Titans, and Justice League, now known as Justice League Unlimited. A refocused Toonami premiered on April 17, 2004, becoming the premiere place to find new, intriguing action shows.
After seven seasons, Toonami has seen its ups and downs, but after all these years, Toonami still is the leader. Will the block continue to lead the way, or will it have a lot of catching up to do? Stay tuned because the history never ends, and as network execs stated, Toonami isn't going anywhere any time soon.
Previous InDepths
The History of Toonami, Part 2
The History of Toonami, Part 1
|
