Is Toonami more than an April Fools' Day Joke?

Is Toonami more than an April Fools’ Day Joke?

Chris Del Castillo

On April 1st, 2012 Cartoon Network and Adult Swim did something that took fans by storm. For the first time in almost four years, Toonami was back on the air. Steve Blum reprised his role of T.O.M. 3.0 with new voice acting for introductions, commercials, and he even reviewed Mass Effect 3. Anime series that haven’t been aired on CN for years were shown, even if it was only for that one night it was some great nostalgia. It was also known as the night that fans didn’t sleep.

This has led to fans both demanding and begging Adult Swim and Cartoon Network to bring back Toonami, because it was a show that was a part of many kids’, teenagers’, and adults’ lives. It also helped anime become mainstream back in the 90′s. Since April 1st, Fans have started online petitions, posting on forums and even Twitter in an attempt to bring the show back. Steve Blum himself wants to bring it back if the people in power will let him. Even now on April 12th, it’s something you still hear people talking about, which means Cartoon Network and Adult Swim did its job.

Let’s not forget that is was both Adult Swim and Cartoon Network that are responsible for helping FOX bring back two great shows that were originally canceled thanks to fans’ support: Family Guy (which is still one of the most popular watched shows on Adult Swim), and Futurama (now on Comedy Central). Both shows were aired nightly on the Adult Swim block, which led to high viewership and massive sales of the DVDs which led FOX to bring back these two shows from the vault. So maybe it wasn’t just your average trick, but more Adults Swim’s way of testing the waters, knowing that fans would more than welcome it.

If you normally watch Adult Swim, you have recently seen the almost nightly bumps about fans wanting Toonami back. Adult Swim posted on their Twitter, ”Want it back? Let us know. #BringBackToonami” followed by, ”#BringBackToonami We’ve heard you. Thank you for your passion and interest – stay tuned.”

It seems that bringing back Toonami would fit now more than anything. If you remember, the original Cartoon Planet that aired in the early 90′s. It featured Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which had Brak and Zorak co-hosting on a nightly event, and their show was eventually replaced by Toonami. Brak and Zorak are now hosting the Cartoon Planet on Friday Nights which air some of the most popular Cartoon Network original series like Dexter’s Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, Cow and Chicken and so on, which leads into Adult Swim. Since Saturday nights are when anime is aired anyway, it would make sense for them to simply toss the Toonami banner over it.

So, can we expect to see a revival of Toonami in the very near future? My guess is that Cartoon Network’s team has already been planning this for a good amount of time, and April first was just to confirm their decision.

Chris Del Castillo

Growing up Chris watched a lot of the original Saturday morning cartoons and developed a love for arts and animation. Growing up he tried his hand at animation and eventually script writing, but even more his love of video games, anime and technology grew.

AnbuKaru

i really hope toonami comes back it was one of the best parts of my childhood…watching it with my friends everyday until it moved to sat only
Reboot

Very exciting! It would be great to see T.O.M. back on the air, i miss hearing that song that played. I wonder if they will play some old(good) anime too. There was something about Toonami that made the experience personal, and was more then just a string of shows tied together with a CG character.
http://www.facebook.com/Rock89 Chris Del Castillo

anything possible, just make sure to let your friends know be vocal and share this information with your friends including signing the petition.

Cartoon Network loves listening to its fans
http://twitter.com/KwingReviews Luke Kwing

Help Toonami become a trend on the feeds again starting tomorrow April 14th. #adultswim heard us but we aren’t done yet. Anime is in need of Tom again. So let’s #bringbacktoonami. Bang.
Wesley Garvain

i think they should bring toonami back. why because it was the first time i want to stay up and wacth cartoon network and adlutswim at night and for a lot of people.toonami was what make kids,teens,and even adults. really toonami is one of the best things on tv.
Wesley Garvain

and i think they should show it on firdays and saturdays why because it’s what people what to see on firdays and saturdays when we get out of school and even when we get of of work.just saying……
Henderson Dale41

I have watched Cartoon Network for 15 years since 1997 when I was 6 yrs. old. All the old classic cartoon shows from the 90s were awesome of my childhood days. I’m really glad they put back all the classic cartoons for Cartoon Planet on Friday nights @ 8 p.m. ; just like Cartoon Cartoon Fridays back in the late 90s. And also I’m pretty sure that Toonami would be back on the near future. And Saturday nights (12 a.m.) is a perfect block for Toonami to show anime cartoons. With Dragon Ball Z, Gundum, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Voltron, Big O, Trigun and many more anime shows on Toonami (if it does comes back), I’m sure that many fans would be very impressed and very happy of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Steve Blum (the voice of T.O.M) and the Toonami gang. One anime show that I haven’t watch in 13 years back in 1999 and that was…Sailor Moon. I know Sailor Moon is a girl’s anime show, but some boys (including myself and my young brother when we were little) watch the show. It would be nice if Sailor Moon does come back to the United States, then I can watch the whole series, just like Dragon Ball Z.
- Gento70
  
  I wish I had watched more Yu Yu Hakusho and Kenshin when I was younger and it was on. I’ve heard of Trigun before but I never knew it was on toonami. Big 0 is on late late on Saturday, but I never really like that anime (the graphics were weird and the story was too difficult for me to get when I was little. Gundum was fun when I was little, but now it just kinda fits in the stereotypical Giant Humanoid robot thing they do alot in animes (also, there are too many damn different series of it, I got confused which ones went together). I was LITTLE little when I watched sailor moon, I mean little like “I wanna see the pretty ladies” little. Also, toonami never should have changed art style (I was only 2 when it first came out so I never saw the original). I grew up with fat T.O.M., then I liked the new slim T.O.M. but the last version of him was retarded. I want the hear that computer agian.
Gento70

I loved toonami. It censored Anime only to the letter of what had to go (i.e. intense blood, swearing). Why was it cancelled anyway? Why did the animes get cancelled too? I know for a fact that they were very popular, so it wasn’t lack of viewing that killed them off. Was is only to make room for the retarded bullshit shows that have come out like chowder and Flapjack? It’s like they went from shows for kids (cow and chicken, dexter) to shows for kids and teenages (dragon ball, Naruto, Ed Edd n’ Eddy) to shows for mentally-challenged children. It’s just recently in the past 2-3 years they have more mature-er shows, but they still LOOK like little kid stuff. Rant Over
http://twitter.com/IcelandicHossi Hossi Blumengaarten

I LOVE TOONAMI

those memories of watching Outlaw Star , Gundam 0080,0083 and 08th MS Team

what an amazing time to grow up, I feel bad for my brother since everything in CN sucks
CowboyJMB

All I can say is that if they DO bring back Toonami (and I hope they do!) that they had better bring back Peter Cullen as the promo announcer like before. His voice is what helped make Toonami so epic!
http://www.facebook.com/donald.rogers.7796 Donald Rogers

Well Toonami has been back officially for 3 or 4 months now. so if all need to know whats new, lets just say in shorter terms, a lot is new show wise. If you have any questions or concerns just contact me on Facebook and i will give u all the details on whats new with Toonami my friends.

Is Toonami more than an April Fools’ Day Joke?

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