Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #8

Originally Posted on 09/20/2002 by Jeff Harris

Everything is back online, and the server move is complete. From the looks of all things, everything is in order, and CNX is back creating chaos in the Toonami fanbase. Over the almost month-long hiatus, I have created a few scattered thoughts. If it seems like rambling, please forgive me, but I'd like to share these thoughts with you guys:

- Spirited Away is opening today, September 20, in theaters near . . . somebody you know, but probably not near you. Looks like Disney hasn't learned their mistakes from Princess Mononoke and releasing the film in very select theaters in a few states.

- Batman is a player in every since of the word. Please tell me you guys saw the recent Justice League two-parter "Injustice For All," and tell me you don't agree with me that Batman has that mojo that drives the ladies wild. - 50% of the Fox Box sucks and the other 50% is Ultimate Muscle and Kirby. Do the math.

- What's New Scooby-Doo? wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, and Ozzy and Drix was pretty good too. It's kind of good seeing Kids' WB! actually programming the Saturday lineup more than one series made by Warner Bros. Animation, unlike last fall. Now, if they ever decided to have Cartoon Network promote their wares on KWB.

- Words do not exist. They are nothing more than artificial representation of thoughts made by man. Same thing with numbers. For example, what does the fraction 10/6 represent for you?

- Everybody's talking about Viz's new American version of the popular Shonen Jump monthly manga anthology (probably because of the powerful Bandai/Cartoon Network muscle behind them promoting it) coming this November. However, does anybody know about the weekly anthology coming that same month called Raijin Comics? From Gutsoon! Entertainment, Raijin Comics will have titles like City Hunter, Grappler Baki, Bomber Girl, Guardian Angel Getten, and Slam Dunk in a weekly publications with over 220 pages up to 250 in a squarebound format. That's right, weekly, not monthly! Just thought that you'll know.

- Call me crazy, but this Kingdom Hearts game might actually convince me to buy a Disney game for the first time. Oh, and a PS2.

- This new Fox show, Firefly, intrigues me. Maybe it's because it reminds me of one of my favorite Toonami series. Watch tonight, and you'll see what I mean.

Alright, I'm going to stop rambling now. Back to the business at hand. Well, Trapped in Hyperspace has come and gone, and I have to ask. Was it worth the hype, or rather, lack of hype? I could understand why Cartoon Network underpromoted TiH. Lockdown was promoted on almost every outlet on the planet, including non-Turner nets like MTV, TNN, Sci-Fi, and USA Network. Unfortunately, the lack of real plot on-air in comparison to The Intruder was almost inexcuseable, thus earning the less-than-favorable name in the Toonami fan community, Letdown. The gameplay for Lockdown was much better than what you saw on-air. Many people blamed the lack of on-air story on the fact that the folks within Williams Street were busy on other projects, most notably Adult Swim and the Kids' WB! ill-fated Toonami shell-coated lineup.

Cue to a year later, almost without any advanced promotion at the 2002-03 Fall Lineup announcements earlier in the year, and out of nowhere, the third Total Immersion Event was announced here at CNX first (and confirmed by me at Toon Zone News). Nobody knew about it, and for a while, I thought it was just a line fed to me by the network just to shut me up (they wouldn't do that, would they?). Anyway, earlier this month, the first promos began running on Toonami. The promos showed the first vocal villain (named Swayzak on-air and Menace online) and Sara getting infected after entering hyperspace and TOM going into the computer to take on the viral enemy. And that's all we got from the promos. Cue to the actual episodes, and, well, they were kinda short. All of them were very small segments. The first segment introduced the element of danger and it was, to say the least, a little slow. Probably because we've seen the first episode in the promos. And yes, though the episode was a little over a minute, it was pretty good. The episodes improved as the week went along, though they all remained one minute long. Sure, that didn't satisfy the masses that are used to epic fights between two people lasting about twelve episodes or a period of five minutes lasting twenty episodes, but it did entertain, though I'll admit, I wanted them to be a lot longer than they were. After a while, I realized something . . . exactly how long should interaction with a computer virus take, especially when you have to get rid of it to save a friend? And wasn't that a tender moment at the end? The game was, once again, the huge draw for the game-loving crowd. It was kind of a unique experience using Flash. I think it's safe to say that Trapped in Hyperspace was MUCH better than Lockdown. Wonder if TOM, Clyde (who actually was more intelligent than the earlier Clyde 50s), and Sara are still headed to the Earth after all of this . . .

Sorry for the small update. Next time, I promise to have more. Before I go, a little trivia. Toonami had 37 series and specials (not counting movies, which is grouped as one "special") in its five-year history on-air and online. Which year had the most premieres and which year had the least?

Until we are one, later.
Jeff Harris
CNX Creator/Webmaster
September 20, 2002