Class of 2000

One of The Greatest Action Cartoons Ever Made

First Modern DC Comics-Based Series to Premiere On Toonami

TOM, Toonami's host, has mislead you, the Toonami viewers into thinking that Dragon Ball Z is the greatest action cartoon on the planet. It's certainly great, as in length, but it's not great as in quality. Sure, it's pretty good, but it's not the greatest by any measure. Come on, the title of "Greatest Action Cartoon on the Planet" isn't something you could just sling on anything, like the title of "King of Pop."

The title for the Greatest Action Cartoon Ever Made only belongs to one show, and it's not from Japan (although studios like TMS and Sunrise did manage to animate a few episodes). The only show that deserves that distinction is Batman: The Animated Series.

Premiering just a month before Cartoon Network went on the air, Batman has become the standard in which all action cartoons are now judged. Every single American-made action series is compared to Batman to see if it could stand the test of time. When Batman premiered on Cartoon Network in 1998, it didn't air on Toonami, but rather on its own in the half hour right after the young block and promoted as "the greatest action show of all time." In 1999, Batman was paired off with Dragonball Z in a precursor to Toonami Midnight Run. Because that pairing turned out pretty good, Cartoon Network decided to create a late-night Toonami franchise later in that year. Batman remained in the post-Toonami slot when TMR took over weeknights in March 2000. When Toonami launched a Saturday morning edition called Rising Sun in April 2000, Batman officially became a Toonami series. When Toonami's weekday lineup expanded by an hour, Batman was a part of it, and a whole lot of people became introduced to the allies and enemies of The Dark Knight.

However, when Batman was a part of Toonami, it was treated rather disrespectfully. Batman only had one theme montage while ran all of the episodes out of order when they received the last set of episodes as well as treated the series as if it was the plague. Batman was a part of Toonami in one form or another until the beginning of 2003, either the classic series (Batman: The Animated Series) or the futuristic series Batman Beyond. Heck, Toonami premiered Return of the Joker first on Cartoon Network, the last hurrah for both the original and futuristic series. Partially because of the success of Batman on Toonami, Cartoon Network actually convinced Bruce Timm to do a series neither he nor Paul Dini ever wanted to do - - create a cartoon based on the Justice League of America, which will become Justice League Unlimited in August 2004. Sometime in 2005, a new animesque Batman series, dubbed "The Batman," will likely be a part of Toonami after its broadcast run. Hopefully, the original Batman series will once again find a home on Toonami in the future.

Just not the distant future.