Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #148

Originally Posted on 11/06/2006 by Jeff Harris

I remember when I first started this site way back in 1998. This was my first foray into the internet and my first time actually talking about something I liked. I was also drawn to the fairly new Toonami block on the Cartoon Network at the time and was shocked to see that there were so few webpages dedicated to the block. I think I could just count them on one hand. I came around just as the block was just gaining momentum. Seriously, the core of the original CN2 Inner Circle campaign came around before Sailor Moon came on the block, and I launched my site about a month or so after the show premiered on Toonami, so I was a witness to the Revolution first-hand.

I saw the launch of Dragon Ball Z from this site. I saw the coming of ReBoot and Gundam. I witnessed the death and resurrection of the block countless times. I saw many imitators on many other outlets and a few on Cartoon Network itself come and go. I saw the block expand, contract, get lame, grow up, and get held back for almost a decade. I was there when the Toonami network launched and was surprised by the odd directions it took across the Atlantic, directions that led me to believe that while it would be nice, in the wrong hands, it could be a catastrophic failure.

I've seen Spirited Away, an Oscar-winning movie, and many Oscar-caliber films like Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, and The Iron Giant, air on Toonami. I've seen Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh air as the initial shows for the block on a night that's supposed to be for older audiences, something Cartoon Network really don't want. The older audiences, not the two past and present 4Kids properties.

The world has changed a lot since 1998. There are only three all-animation channels in the United States (the limitedly-availiable Boomerang, the HD-only Animania, and the increasingly-better Nicktoons Network). There are two channels that are powered by Japanese animation (The Anime Network and the small, yet expanding FUNimation Channel). Comcast and Sony are still figuring out how to launch Animax in the US (I have a plan if they need one; all they need to do is contact me via e-mail).

As for Cartoon Network, I've grown frustrated with them. As I said on Thoughtnami, I'm getting to the point that I get physically ill whenever I talk about what they're doing down there at Techwood Drive. The folks at Williams Street created the three highest-rated core blocks of the network (Miguzi, Adult Swim [yes, despite how Techwood wants to differentiate Adult Swim from Cartoon Network by labeling it as a "network" for Nielsens reasons, Adult Swim IS a block on Cartoon Network], and Toonami), and yet they get NO respect from the folks at Techwood.

And given the fact that the folks at Techwood has a sick facination with Pokemon, airing it in the slots not taken up by the Cartoon Network Six (Foster's, Billy and Mandy, Camp Lazlo, Gym Partner, the Eds, and KND). It has taken up the first half-hour of Toonami. It's the last hour of Miguzi. If they could, they'd probably place an episode of the first couple of seasons of the show on Adult Swim just to piss you off, just like it did to the few viewers of Boomerang a couple of months ago. This past weekend, it aired twice in the early morning and then two hours later in the 11 AM slot, head to head with the dominant Avatar hour on Nick.

But it's just not Pokemon that's turning me off of the block. There's also the anti-American cartoon stance the network has with the block. Well, maybe not anti-American, but anything that's not 100% made in Japan is almost always the first to go on the lineup and almost always getting disrespected by the block. Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited ended their respected runs with no promotion at all. Even though they could have been renewed, Cartoon Network, in all its wisdom, didn't want them anymore. IGPX, Toonami's first original, made-for-Toonami show, spent its last episodes buried on Friday nights at midnight with no promotion aside from the initial moving promo. The Fantastic Four is slowly getting better when, without warning, it gets dropped, replaced by an encore of Naruto before another encore. Yes, this past Saturday, there was 90 minutes of Naruto on the block, and an hour of that was repeats. Heck, there were only three new episodes the whole night with Naruto, Zatch Bell, and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. Compared to the same time period in 2004 (let's forget about 2005, please) when all eight shows on the block were completely new, only 3/8 of the block was new.

Once the premiere action block on the planet, Toonami has devolved into one good show surrounded by lesser action shows at the end and Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh at the beginning. Seriously, why is it that a TV-PG show like Naruto is surrounded by shows aimed towards younger audiences at both ends? There's a reason why Naruto is the highest-rated show on the block: it goes downhill from there show-wise.

Listen up, Cartoon Network. I know you guys don't really want to talk to a guy like me over there at Techwood (the Williams Street guys are cool and I have much love for them), but I'm giving you some free advice, just like the olden days. Whether or not you want to take it, it's your call. If you insist on keeping Pokemon on the block, at least pair it up with Zatch Bell in the first hour. Bo^7 skews young as well, and you don't want want a non-Japanese show on the block (and by all indications, you don't), you could keep the show on Toonami after Zatch Bell. Or, better yet, put it on Fridays at midnight right before another Toei classic, Dragon Ball Z. It'd be a perfect bridge between Fridays and a pseudo-Midnight Run type of block you guys should seriously consider bringing back because you have NO AUDIENCE after midnight on Fridays with the crap you're airing now, which is basically the Cartoon Network Six plus Squirrel Boy, Class of 3000, and any other CN original in a period where the target audiences for those shows are ASLEEP.

If anything, you should make post-Naruto darker content-wise. Look at Bleach. There's no reason why it couldn't be on Toonami. In fact, themetically, it resembles another Toonami veteran that also aired on Adult Swim, Yu Yu Hakusho. There are other shows that could easily air on Toonami from all points of the globe. Just stop looking at that small island nation in Asia exclusively.

The reason I haven't updated around here is because I'm frustrated with Toonami, Cartoon Network, and the industry at large. I'm frustrated with Toonami because Cartoon Network refuses to allow them to grow up, especially with the insistance of keeping Pokemon on the block, their removal of non-Japanese shows over the year, and the lackluster shows that follows the older-skewing Naruto at the end of the night. I'm frustrated with Cartoon Network because they're sick of cartoons at Techwood, they're more content airing something like Dumb and Dumber or Cats and Dogs rather than Corpse Bride or The Polar Express, and they have a strange love affair with Pokemon as of late, and they're jumping the couch as a result of that love. I'm frustrated with the industry because they're still so segregated. People strongly hate The Simpsons, Family Guy, and any 3D movie not made by Pixar, particularly those made at Dreamworks. The whole "anime isn't cartoons" stance otakus have is laughable and idiotic at the same time, as if anime is some other media that's superior than animation throughout the world. And we're living in two PC worlds: a politically correct world that is afraid to offend folks and a puritanically correct world where people really can't do anything because of self-imposed moral issues because THEY'D be offended.

I've vented my frustrations at Thoughtnami because, for the moment, Blogger is independent and doesn't have any connections to any studio, network, nor distributor. Both The X Bridge and I are independent and don't have any connections to any studio, network, nor distributor as is my site's host, Toon Zone. However, Toon Zone does deal with studios, networks, and distributors directly for various reasons and often wants to be on their good side because they do provide them with news and such. I'm an opinion writer, but I personally feel that some of the things I write around here will upset a few folks. I've evolved from a rah-rah cheerleader for Cartoon Network into a critical thinker that realizes that, wow, Cartoon Network kinda sucks, and for that, my relationship with them has become kind of strained in recent years. They don't really want to talk to me, and I don't want to risk hurting Toon Zone any more than I might have. I'm a nice guy on the surface, but when I get upset and angry about something, I'd let people know about it. So, when I do write a piece here at The X Bridge, I do hold my keystroking tongue from time to time and keep my comments in check. Yes, I hold myself back from what I really want to say on many occasions.

What does this mean for The X Bridge? I don't know. I really don't know if I'm going to continue the site beyond the tenth year. I want to, but I'm at a point where I want to move on, try something different, just being more creative. I'm getting older now, and I'm not as big a fan of Toonami as I was in 1998. Hell, I barely watch Cartoon Network nowadays, and I think they're happy that I don't. You grow tired of doing commentary for something that refuses to grow with you. I think that I'll continue this ride for a few more years, but then, I think I'll go sailing towards a sunset. I've done a lot of things over the years, talked to people I never dreamt of talking to, influencing people I never thought would actually listen to me, and experienced things people rarely do in one lifetime. I mean, I actually had a finger in creating a cable network for goodness sakes. But you have to know when it's time to move on. It's not time for me to go anywhere anytime soon, but I do know that I do see the finish line.

I think for now, I'll slowly walk toward it and cross it when I feel like it. Eventually.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
The X Bridge Creator/Webmaster
November 6, 2006