Class of 2001
The Only Kids' WB Castoff That Matters
The First DCU Series To Have ALL Its Episodes Premiere On Toonami

Once upon a time, Kids' WB acquisitions weren't frowned down upon. Afterall, Batman and Superman: The Animated Series both landed on the Toonami lineup after their run on the broadcast lineup was over. By the time Batman Beyond premiered on Toonami in October 2001, the average fan were ready to throw a Molotov cocktail at the broadcast network. Afterall, a completely watered down version of Toonami had begun airing on Kids' WB that July. It bared no semblance to the Cartoon Network block of the same name. In fact, it looked almost exactly like the Kids' WB afternoon block a year before and didn't even acknowledge the cable block at all. The KWB infection also crept to the CN Toonami, with Cardcaptors becoming a lead-in show for a brief period until the brief run of Mobile Suit Gundam started. So, by the time Batman Beyond premiered, there was a sense of hostility in the fandom. Lockdown wasn't exactly as compelling as The Intruder, Kids' WB continued to mock the Toonami brand name by airing un-Toonami shows like The Nightmare Room, Detention, and Generation O, and, after the tragic events of September 11, had limited a lot of the action on the block, most notably the abrupt cancellation of Mobile Suit Gundam.

Needless to say, Batman Beyond came at the right moment at the right time. For the first time ever, Batman Beyond was treated like a quality action series, handled carefully with kidgloves, and shown in its entirety, in the correct production order, which is what Kids' WB never did. They just aired the series whenever they wanted to because, well, they're Kids' WB. Unmasked, the last unseen episode of the series, made its television debut on Toonami. The characters of Batman Beyond mixed some of the best elements of the Batman franchise with a little taste of Spider-Man-esque angst and villiany. And in spite of all those that damned it because it wasn't anime, it turns out the series was actually good. A couple of years later, we saw the final chapter of the Batman Beyond story, Return of the Joker, which was admittedly in its edited form (the first time anybody could say that about an American animated film on television). It too made its television debut on Toonami.

Batman Beyond may have been a Kids' WB castoff, but it will forever be a Toonami series that made an impact.

Go on to the next show.