Toonami lives again – CartoonClack

Internet fan bases tend to rally passionately for their favorite shows, so it’s always nice when the networks actually listen to us every once in a while. On April Fools Day of this year, Adult Swim was supposed to broadcast the so-bad-it’s-good movie The Room, but brought back Toonami (the uber-popular anime showcase that ran in different forms between 1997 and 2008) for one night instead. They even brought back TOM, the cool CGI host of the block voiced by Steve Blum. The immediate response from fans was joy. The lingering response from fans was an insatiable hunger for more. On April 2nd, Adult Swim sent a message via Twitter asking their fans to speak up if they wanted Toonami back on a regular basis. Well, over the last month and a half the fans obliged with tweets, emails and even a rap. This past Wednesday, CliqueClack received official network confirmation that Toonami was coming back … this upcoming Saturday!

If you read CartoonClack you probably know this already, but Toonami had a few different iterations. One was the TV-Y7 rated afternoon showcase, which featured a variety of kid-friendly anime and action-focused western cartoons. Certain anime like Dragonball Z had their more violent or profane scenes edited down for this time. The other version of Toonami was the late-late-night block of the more violent cartoons like several of the Gundam series.

Thanks to the showcase premiering when I was 12, Toonami was my first real encounter with anime. While I’m still nowhere near an expert in the decades worth of Japanese animated shows that have developed cult followings in western culture, I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the programming even if I didn’t always understand it. I also liked that they included some of my favorite western cartoons of that decade, including Batman: The Animated Series, The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest and Reboot. On top of that, my exposure to anime through Toonami led me to enjoy the genre more when I got to college and spent those long nights studying or writing papers with Adult Swim on in the background.

Now I mentioned before that I’m not an expert in anime, and I mean that. Of the television shows, I’ve seen all of Cowboy Bebop, some of Gundam Wing and a handful of episodes from Bleach, Death Note and Fullmetal Alchemist. Of the classic anime films, my main experiences are Miyazaki’s awesome filmography (Toonami actually devoted a whole month’s programming to some of Miyazaki’s best films back in 2006) and the Cowboy Bebop movie. From my earlier years, I watched a good amount of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, but mostly out of order — that didn’t quite help. Oh, and I’m a fan of most of the Pokemon series and movies … and I feel absolutely no shame in that. But I know that as someone who writes about cartoons every week, I could certainly dive deeper into the rich world of anime. Toonami’s return is the perfect time for me to experience these shows and I look forward to it.

Now, the press release from Adult Swim didn’t officially confirm that Blum is coming back as TOM, but if I may harken a guess, I’d say he’s in. For one, he was a part of the April Fool’s Day surprise. For another, he’s been a huge supporter of the #BringBackToonami twitter rally. And more than that, Adult Swim has already shown that they’re listening to their audience … I don’t think they’d bring back Toonami and not bring back the robotic host that gave the showcase its heart. Oh, and he’s plastered all over the Toonami page on adultswim.com. I think the odds are good.

So while you go through your work this week, you can smile knowing that Toonami comes back this Saturday (May 26th) at midnight. I’ll be watching … will you?

Clacked by Katie Schenkel
on May 21, 2012 @ 13:00 EST5EDT