Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #38

Originally Posted on 02/25/2003 by Jeff Harris

Yesterday, I think I might have overreacted, falling pray to the same misdirections as many of you readers. Perhaps the whole "uncut, commercial-free" vibe that was growing in Toonami faithful kind of blinded me from the obvious, took away all reason, any rational judgement, and the honest truth.

Toonami would NEVER show anything uncut.

Of course, neither would Adult Swim, but since that particular block is glossed over by slight edits, fans don't mind that, and instead focus their rants and ravings towards Toonami, which isn't really for older folks like us to begin with, but was, until recently, the only place aimed towards action-animation and anime fans like us. Hypocritical, I know, but hey, what do you expect from jaded otaku that want to get "free" anime on cable? I'm just happy to see anything different on Toonami, and that's what I feel Giant Robot Week is.

We all had high expectations about what this event would be, and most of our expectations fell short. Who's to blame? Cartoon Network? ADV Films? Williams Street? The man in the moon? The soon-to-be-gone K-beast? Who knows? Is Giant Robot Week a failure? Flawed, maybe, but definitely not a failure. It was risky, one of the most risky endeavors the block has ever taken. Still, I don't feel they took complete advantage of GRW. It should have been much more significant than it was. I'll explain tomorrow.

I'm not going to bother reviewing today's installment much, except for the fact that it was pretty much like yesterday's, except for the fact that today, we knew what to expect.

The squished-down credits were an abomination. Of course, if you actually saw the credits, you can tell they were being SPED UP. Why? To fill in more commercials, which is also why they didn't show the "next episode" teasers (aside from the fact that they didn't air the next episode of Nadesico like they did for Evangelion). They didn't have time to create a fast end credit sequence ala G-Gundam or DBZ.

Overall, I'm going to have to give today's GRW installment a 3 out of 5. More consistant today, but EVA let a bittersweet taste in my mouth.

Until we are one, later.
Jeff Harris
CNX Creator/Webmaster
February 25, 2003