Toonami 20th Anniversary Retrospective By: Syaoran Li The Intro: I’ve already written a review on the complete Intruder trilogy, but I decided to do a little something extra for the 20th anniversary of Toonami. Thus, here we are; taking a look over the history of the block, with some of my own memories mixed in, for good measure. It’s time to press the button. The beginning, and Moltar era (1997-1999): Toonami, like many aspects of early Cartoon Network, can trace its roots back to a little show called Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. Premiering in 1994, this show was a parody of late-night talk shows, hosted by Space Ghost (Himself originating from the ‘60s Hanna- Barbera cartoon of the same name), with two villains from the original Space Ghost as his assistants: Zorak and Moltar. This show was Cartoon Network's first big hit, and helped to pave the road for not only Adult Swim, but also a block of action cartoons that aired weekday afternoons, called Toonami. On March 17, 1997, Toonami began its very first broadcast; hosted by none other than Moltar (Voiced by the late C. Martin Crocker), except instead of reusing the old animation cells as they did for SGC2C, they instead rendered Moltar in CGI, with the Ghost Planet Industries building using the same model used in the later SGC2C intros. Even from the start, you can tell that there was care put into it; the CGI honestly holds up quite well for its age, for how smoothly everything moves. The bumpers take place in the Ghost Planet Industries building, where SGC2C is hosted; making it feel like this is what Moltar does when he isn't helping to produce Space Ghost's talk show, and also when he's not watching reruns of CHiPs. "Oh yeah! Welcome to the Moltar Show!" -Moltar (SGC2C) Initially, it just consisted of mostly action cartoons they had the rights to, like Thundercats and The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest (Their newest show at the time, having premiered in '96), with the only anime series they had being Voltron. Eventually, they would obtain the rights to Sailor Moon, which became one of their first big shows, before obtaining a little show called Dragon Ball Z. There was more to the block than just the shows and the stylish bumpers; as Moltar would often give sage advice to the audience, on subjects such as teamwork and why they’re airing so many reruns. He even occasionally reviewed video games, as well. This aspect would become one of the defining aspects of the block, among other things we’ll get to as they happen. Sadly, I never got a chance to experience the Moltar era during its time; my crappy cable provider, which has changed their name more than their channel lineup, refused to add Cartoon Network for the longest time, and by the time they did, it was the TOM 1.0 era. I'm more familiar with Moltar on SGC2C, though from the clips I've seen of him hosting Toonami, he was great; it's honestly a shame I never got to see the block during his time hosting it. TOM 1.0 era (1999-2000): “My name is TOM. I’m the new Moltar” – TOM 1.0, in his introduction In 1999, Moltar was retired, along with its setting of the Ghost Planet Industries building. Now, Toonami was hosted aboard a spaceship called the GPS Absolution, with a small robot named TOM (Toonami Operations Module. Voiced by Sonny Strait) at the helm. Aside from the visuals, not much changed…though TOM was the focus of a lot of hatred from people that had been with Toonami from the start; feeling he was a poor replacement for Moltar...and, watching some clips of the early TOM 1.0 era, I can kinda see why; the presentation wasn't near as slick yet, on top of TOM's voice lacking the same grit of his predecessor. At one time, he was seen as a robotic Scrappy-Doo It was during this era, that my cable provider finally added Cartoon Network, and the first thing I saw when I flipped over was a Toonami broadcast of Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might. I’m almost 100% certain it was during the Toonami Full Cycle marathon on April 8, 2000, but I’m not completely certain of that. Regardless, not only did I finally get to see what this “Dragon Ball Z” thing was that people were going nuts over, but I also saw these cool bumpers featuring this robot that reminded me of Bomberman. I actually really liked TOM, to the point I drew fanart of him. Toonami quickly became my go-to weekday afternoon block, after that timeslot had been dominated by Fox Kids for almost my entire life up to that point. After all, why would I watch reruns of Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue, when Dragon Ball Z came on at the same time? Hell, I remember my mom rushing me home after we stayed overnight with her family, just because Outlaw Star was about to be on and they didn’t get Cartoon Network (We had other reasons for leaving so quickly, but that goes far beyond the scope of this retrospective). However, they did more than just weekday afternoons, as they’d run a late-night edition called the Midnight Run; aimed at an older demographic, with the shows having less censorship (Including, most famously, airing Gundam Wing completely uncut). They also ran a Saturday morning edition, called the Rising Sun; which mostly aired reruns, though they were the exclusive home of the DBZ Garlic Jr. Saga for a time. I remember one of the things they did over the summer was air the OVA, Blue Submarine No. 6; which my sister loved, though I was indifferent about it. Though, I do remember the bizarre censorship of it; as our main character had his cigarette digitally edited into a toothpick…but they didn’t remove the smoke coming from it, resulting in the birth of the “smoking toothpicks” in-joke with my sister. One of the first big things to happen was the first TIE (Total Immersion Event, though some sources call it a “Toonami Immersion Event”), called The Intruder, in fall ’00. I won’t go into detail on it here, since I already reviewed the entire Intruder trilogy, so I’ll skip it. TOM 2.0 era (2000-2003): In the aftermath of The Intruder, we were left with a new host; TOM 2.0; a taller and slimmer version of his previous self, voiced by none other than Steve Blum (Whom would voice every incarnation of TOM from this point onward). This proved to be a good move, as this incarnation was much better received than his predecessor He looked and sounded the part It was also during this era, that there were some…interesting experiments. For starters, there was the laughably bad Toonami on Kids WB, which was just the Kids WB Weekday block but with a Toonami sticker put on it. I did like the bumpers, as we saw TOM doing more than just sitting at a console, but without the iconic drum & bass music or an announcer with a gritty voice, it just didn’t work. Besides, they didn’t have the right kind of shows; Scooby-Doo is the last thing that comes to mind when I think of action cartoons. Thankfully, it was discontinued after a year. One show that premiered in this era, that I know a lot of people enjoyed, but I never really got into back in the day, was Zoids: Chaotic Century. As a kid, this show pissed me off for easily the stupidest reason possible: one of the pilots announced that he was going to "transform" his mech, and all that happened was that he went into some sort of chamber that swapped out the armor, which changed its abilities but didn't do much to change its physical appearance. Keep in mind, I was 11 years old at the time; they say "transform", I think it's going to be like Transformers. One of the stranger things I recall was how, sometime in spring 2001, they heavily promoted that they were going to play Sailor Moon R: The Movie...only to suddenly change their promos later into the week to say that Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone was airing instead. I never found any info on why the sudden change of plans, but they would eventually air that movie the following November. There were also attempts to air non-action shows, perhaps in an attempt to try and appeal to a broad audience. While nothing new, given the popularity of Tenchi Muyo during its run, it became more apparent in this era. The example everyone typically goes to is Hamtaro; which is a cutesy show about hamsters going on adventures, and in no way an action show. Because of it airing alongside Big O and DBZ, Hamtaro ended up becoming an in-joke among friends years later, as we jokingly describe it as “the most manly anime ever” and being “like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, but with hamsters”. Even TOM was confused about why they were airing this One of the things I do remember was a special edition of the Midnight Run, where they ran Interstella 5555; an animated special based on the music of Daft Punk (The first time I ever heard of them). I didn’t get to see it, but the group’s name stuck with me for years; when TRON Legacy came out long after the fact, and I heard Daft Punk did the soundtrack, I was like “oh yeah; those guys that did that thing for Toonami”.