Everything about Toonami totally explained
Toonami (a
portmanteau of the words
cartoon and
tsunami suggesting a "tidal wave" of
animated cartoons) is a registered trademark of
Cartoon Network, used initially for action-oriented programming blocks on Cartoon Network
television channels worldwide, mostly shows American and Japanese cartoons, originating in the
United States in 1997.
The Toonami brand name was subsequently used in the
United Kingdom as the name of an action-oriented animation channel replacing a former Cartoon Network owned channel
CNX, which had been a Toonami/live-action hybrid network. It has been hosted by two CGI hosts.
United States
Toonami is
Cartoon Network's primary action-animation block. The block, which made its world premiere on Monday,
March 17,
1997, initially replaced Power Zone, Cartoon Network's most recent incarnation of the Super Adventures block which had been a staple on the network since
October 1,
1992. Toonami was originally a weekday afternoon cartoon and anime block hosted by
Space Ghost villain-turned-producer
Moltar at the
Ghost Planet Industries building from 1997 to
July 9,
1999.
On Saturday,
July 10,
1999, Cartoon Network relaunched Toonami with a new environment, the
Ghost Planet Spaceship Absolution, and a new host named
TOM. The night also introduced the Toonami Midnight Run late night block which was originally a five-hour Saturday night block (technically Sunday) at midnight EST until March 2000, when it moved to weeknights in an hour-long format until January 2002.
On Saturday,
April 17,
2004, Toonami was moved from weekday afternoons to its current Saturday evening slot, where it aired for four hours starting at 7 PM EST/PST. Beginning
October 27,
2007, it now airs for two hours starting at 9 PM EST/PST. It is unknown if Toonami will return to its normal timeslot from 7-11 PM.
Hosts
Originally, Moltar was the host for Toonami. Eventually, TOM took over and has been the host since. The appearance of TOM has changed several times since his creation.
Total Immersion Events
Starting in September 2000, Toonami presented special interactive events known as
Total Immersion Events or TIEs. These TIEs took place both on-air during Toonami and online at the official site, Toonami.com, and always occurred the week that the block's most popular series,
Dragon Ball Z, returned for a new season. The exception was in mid-2003, as
Dragon Ball Z had ended by that point. The very first TIE (and most popular one according to the fans of the block) was
The Intruder, which introduced TOM's companion, an AI matrix known as SARA, who played an integral part in the rebirth of TOM, who was upgraded from a short
Bomberman-esque character (voiced by
Sonny Strait) to a taller, stronger, darker, deeper-voiced incarnation temporarily dubbed as TOM 2.0 (voiced by
Steven Blum), though it was the same TOM who still hosted the block.
The following two TIEs,
Lockdown and
Trapped in Hyperspace, continued the adventures of TOM and SARA, but really didn't offer much storywise.
The TIE in September 2002 was a diversion from the TOM and SARA adventures and introduced a new, 2D universe.
Immortal Grand Prix (
IGPX), created by Toonami producers Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by anime studio
Production I.G, aired in five short installments and served as a pilot for the second Toonami original series, which premiered in November 2005 (a brief note: although
Megas XLR was the first original American-made franchise to actually debut on the block, it was initially a Cartoon Network original that was planned to air on Friday nights; other Cartoon Network action properties, namely
Samurai Jack,
Teen Titans, and
Justice League, aired on Toonami but weren't exclusive to the block until their final seasons).
The Intruder and
Lockdown aired in the UK, but didn't achieve the same amount of success as their American airings.
Kids' WB's Toonami
From
July 30,
2001 until
June 30,
2002,
Kids WB aired a Toonami block that was, more or less, the Kids' WB lineup with the Toonami name. It was critically panned by industry observers who noticed the action branding of the block didn't translate content wise, which had added shows like
Scooby-Doo and a live-action series created by
Goosebumps author
R. L. Stine, The Nightmare Room. In spring 2002, Kids' WB announced that they'd drop the Toonami name from their weekday lineup, once again making the Toonami brand exclusive to Cartoon Network.
Giant Robot Week
In the last week of February 2003, Cartoon Network aired on Toonami
Giant Robot Week, a five-day special based on
mecha series, which were licensed by
ADV. The series shown were
Neon Genesis Evangelion,
Gigantor,
Robotech,
Martian Successor Nadesico and
Dai-Guard; the first two series had their official premiere on
Adult Swim from 2005. The pilot short for the then future series
Megas XLR (called
Lowbrow at the time) also being shown. In the evening of the final day, the channel aired
The Iron Giant and a robot-themed episode of
Dexter's Laboratory to give it a special ending feel.
Toonami Rules Saturday Nights
On
April 17,
2004, Cartoon Network moved Toonami from weekday afternoons to Saturday evenings with a new demographic of preteen and teen audiences while adding a new lighter-toned action franchise,
Miguzi, (produced by Williams Street, the company behind Toonami, its name is loosely derived from the Japanese word for swimsuit, an in-joke to longtime viewers of Toonami) to weekdays in its place.
Toonami also replaced the block known as Saturday Video Entertainment System or SVES. One big reason for the move from weekdays to Saturday nights only was because the some of the shows on the weekday lineup (such as
YuYu Hakusho and
Rurouni Kenshin) became too violent for a weekday broadcast on the network (although reruns of the TV-PG-rated
Naruto aired throughout early 2007 on weekday afternoons at 5:30 PM E/P, though CN cleverly stopped all Miguzi promos before the show started). The new Toonami line-up showcased anime like
Naruto,
One Piece,
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo,
Zatch Bell, and
Pokémon Chronicles, as well as premiered North American productions like
Teen Titans,
Megas XLR,
Justice League Unlimited, and
IGPX, Toonami's first original production co-produced by
Production I.G and
Bandai Entertainment.
Beginning in late October 2007 Toonami was cut from a four hour block to a two hour block on Saturday nights. Instead of action shows or some
anime, many CN comedy cartoons air from 7PM to 9PM. Currently the Saturday night lineup as of
April,
2008, Toonami consists of
Naruto at 9PM and 9:30PM, at 10PM, and
Samurai Jack at 10:30PM.
Midnight Run
The Midnight Run was once a Toonami block that ran from 1999-2003. It ran daily at 12 AM ET/PT. It consisted of anime such as
Outlaw Star,
Dragon Ball Z,
Gundam Wing,
G Gundam,
Voltron, and
Robotech. Midnight Run tended to have slightly more blood and violence than its day-time counterpart. It at one point ran an uncut version of
Gundam Wing. It sometimes had a special edition. They had one special edition on Friday,
August 31,
2001 at midnight, which aired music videos from
Gorillaz, including "Clint Eastwood", and from
Daft Punk, including "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". Another event was Dragonball Z taking over the midnight Run for a week starting on
March 26,
2001 to
March 30,
2001,the time was 12-1AM for 5 days.
A Month of Miyazaki
On Saturday,
March 18,
2006, in honor of the block's ninth anniversary, Toonami began airing
A Month of Miyazaki, a four-week celebration of the works of acclaimed
anime director
Hayao Miyazaki. Like sibling station
TCM's similar marathon in January 2006, Toonami aired a different movie every week between Toonami anniversaries (the marathon began on the weekend of the ninth anniversary of the block and end the week before the second anniversary of the block's move to Saturday nights). The films scheduled for A Month of Miyazaki (which all aired uncut and unedited as per Miyazaki's policy not to have his films altered). However, there were large complaints due to the large number of commercial interruptions during the films, with commercial breaks cutting in about every 20 minutes. The movies were as follows:
3.17.07 (Toonami's 10th Anniversary)
On
January 27,
2007, a
teaser commercial aired during the
Xiaolin Showdown marathon on Cartoon Network featuring close up shots of larger Clydes (the remote robot explorers that have been a fixture of Toonami since the beginning) along with the date 3/17/07 and TOM's chest emblem glowing blue. A week later, an extended version of the promo aired on the Toonami lineup.
On
March 17,
2007, Toonami celebrated its tenth anniversary with a new packaging and numerous montages celebrating the block. TOM was revamped into a shorter robot who was a commander of a jungle control room with a trio of new robots.
The montages included a look at past hosts, former logos, and a decade's worth of clips and voiceovers from shows that aired on Toonami, as well as shows from the block's early years, that included
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest,,
Sailor Moon and the original
Ocean Group dub of
Dragon Ball Z. There was a total of 4 montages. Meaning, all of them having different clips. 3 of them were 1-minute-long.
As part of the anniversary (and to coincide with Cartoon Network's March Movie Madness event), Toonami planned another month of movies:
March 3 -
The Invincible Iron Man
March 10 -
Mosaic
March 17 -
March 24 -
March 31 -
Spirited Away and
Latin America
In December 2002, Toonami premiered on Cartoon Network Latin America, replacing a similarly-themed block, Talisman. Toonami aired shows that were already on the lineup such as
Dragon Ball Z,
Gundam Wing, and
Pokémon as well as served as the home of
Inuyasha. Over the years, Toonami added shows like
YuYu Hakusho and
Saint Seiya, as well as the revamped versions of
Cyborg 009 and
Astro Boy. However, the block had to move to the late-night slots on CN Latin America due to protests of violent scenes on the block. Mexico moved Toonami to midnight in October 2003 while the rest of Latin America moved the block in November 2004.
In 2005, Toonami had short-lived weekend schedules, which were later replaced by the premiere of Adult Swim in Latin America.
In March 2006, Toonami revamped their lineup to include more adult-oriented series, such as
Love Hina, taking advantage of the schedule and the refusal of anime on Adult Swim, as well as to compete against the anime channel
Animax for new anime series. In June 2006, Toonami premiered anime movies in two monthly variations:
Dragon Ball Theatricals (which had 17 different
Dragon Ball movies), and Toonami Movies (general animated action movies).
In January 2007, Cartoon Network encased Toonami with four extra hours of anime series with two hours before and after the block. However, from
March 26 (in the same year), the channel stopped airing the block, and eventually its hosted series were being removed, from
Saint Seiya and
Yu Yu Hakusho to
Ranma 1/2 (late April, when the series ended),
Zatch Bell (from July) and
Naruto (only Mexico and Argentina). The movies were no longer aired, save those of
Dragon Ball Z.
Music and games on Toonami
Toonami had always been a haven for techno/electronica music throughout its history, using original compositions; first by skater/artist
Tommy Guerrero from 1997 to 1999, and then by Atlanta-based composer
Joe Boyd Vigil from 1999 to 2002, many of which were compiled in the CD in 2001, which is now out of print. His webpage can be found
here
. In 2003, DJ Clarknova took Toonami's beats (both old and new) and mixed them with sound bites from recent Toonami and Adult Swim shows. This resulted in an hour-long compilation of Toonami remixes, called the, but for unknown reasons was never published. However, the Megamix recently was hosted by
Toonami Digital Arsenal, a popular unofficial Toonami multimedia site.
From 2003 to today, Toonami has relied on original and library tracks from various artists from publisher
Ninja Tune. On rare occasions, videos from musicians like
Daft Punk,
The White Stripes, and
Gorillaz aired on the block.
Infrequently, Toonami will air reviews of video games. The review, delivered by TOM, is fairly short and airs during commercial breaks. Games are scored on a 1 - 10 system, 10 signifying an excellent game, 1 signifying a very poor game. (The score system was originally 1 - 5 until 2001.)
Only one game has received a "?" rating, "" for the PlayStation 2. TOM explained that he'd no idea what to rate the game because he couldn't get past the sixth level. This was accompanied by repeated footage of TOM losing on that level. The synopsis on Toonami Digital Arsenal reads "A robot is [sic] loses his mind over a video game. Hilarity ensues."
Toonami has done many game reviews since the beginning and are mostly given a
9/10 or an
8/10. TOM 4 hasn't done reviews so far, but his assistant T has. More reviews started to air when TOM 2 started hosting. Games such as
Beach Spikers, and
Mister Mosquito received a 6/10. Possibly because of gameplay.
Ignition (2:54)
Gundams Are on Earth (Gundam Wing) (2:44)
Anvil Snare Remix (Sailor Moon) (2:39)
Dragon (Dragon Ball Z) (2:18)
Information Leak (Gundam Wing) (2:39)
Arabic (Dragon Ball Z) (2:37)
D&B Remix (Midnight Run) (3:00)
Depthcharge (Blue Sub) (5:32)
Tension (Tenchi Muyo) (3:25)
Prayer (3:36)
Crashgroove (2:48)
Puff&Bass (Powerpuff Girls) (2:39)
Darknight (2:32)
Starwind (Outlaw Star) (3:00)
Capslock (Ronin Warriors) (2:31)
Broken Promise (3:39)
Walking Stick (2:47)
Spacetime (6:24)
Online video services
On March 26, 2001, Cartoon Network launched Toonami Reactor, their first online streaming video service. The three-month service featured streaming episodes from Dragon Ball Z and Star Blazers, the latter of which was an online-exclusive series. Editorial content was provided by the now-defunct Animerica Magazine, published by VIZ Media. After the three-month "trial run" was over, Cartoon Network took it offline and completely revamped it.
On November 14, 2001, Cartoon Network relaunched Toonami Reactor with all online-exclusive programs such as Star Blazers, Patlabor, The Harlock Saga, and Record of Lodoss War as well as videos from Daft Punk and Toonami-themed games. In the summer of 2002, Toonami Reactor was revamped again under the Adult Swim aegis and, with a joint venture with VIZ's Weekly Shonen Jump, programmed it as Adult Swim Pipeline.
On April 25, 2006, a little over five years since the launch of the now-defunct Toonami Reactor, Cartoon Network and VIZ Media announced plans to launch Toonami Jetstream (External Link), a new ad-supported streaming video service featuring Toonami series like Naruto, Samurai Jack, Megas XLR and IGPX and the internet webcast premieres of Hikaru no Go, MÄR, Eyeshield 21, The Prince of Tennis, MegaMan Star Force, MegaMan NT Warrior, and, the latter two of which haven't premiered as of March 2007.
Toonami Jetstream launched on July 17, 2006 (after a brief unofficial sneak preview that began on July 14), and currently shows Naruto, Hikaru no Go, MÄR, Zatch Bell!, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Pokémon, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, Transformers: Animated, and Blue Dragon.
Toonami series and movies
Present series
Naruto (TV & Jetstream) TV-PG
(TV) TV-Y7
Blue Dragon (Jetstream) TV-Y7
Samurai Jack (TV & Jetstream) TV-Y7
One Piece (Jetstream) TV-Y7 and TV-PG
Pokémon (Jetstream) TV-Y7 FV
Zatch Bell! (Jetstream) TV-Y7
Dragon Ball (Jetstream) TV-Y7 and TV-PG
Dragon Ball Z (Jetstream) TV-Y7 and TV-PG
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (Jetstream) TV-Y7 and TV-PG
(Jetstream) TV-Y7
Hikaru no Go (Jetstream) TV-PG
MÄR (Jetstream) TV-PGSeries on hiatus/possibly cancelled
Zatch Bell! (TV) TV-Y7
The Prince of Tennis (TV & Jetstream) TV-PG
MÄR (TV) TV-PG
MegaMan Star Force (Jetstream) TV-Y7
Eyeshield 21 (Jetstream) TV-PG
One Piece (TV) TV-Y7 and TV-PG (only for a short while)Upcoming series
IGPX (Jetstream) TV-Y7 and TV-PG
Megaman NT Warrior (Jetstream) TV-Y7
Zoids Genesis (Jetstream) TV-Y7
List of Hosts
Moltar (March 17, 1997 - June 7, 1999)
TOM 1 (June 10, 1999 - September 22, 2000)
TOM 2 (September 23, 2000 - March 14, 2003)
TOM 3 (March 17, 2003 - March 10, 2007)
TOM 4 (March 17, 2007 - present)
Past Lineups and Premieres
1997
Thundercats
Super Adventures/Roulette (comprised of Space Ghost, Birdman, and other Hanna-Barbera action shorts)
Voltron
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (Went off-air shortly after TOM's debut on September 24, 1999)
1998
Robotech
(one week only)
Sailor Moon
Dragon Ball Z (Ocean Group dub)
Superfriends
ReBoot
1999
The Powerpuff Girls
Ronin Warriors
Dragon Ball Z (FUNimation dub)
2000
Gundam Wing
Tenchi Muyo!
Tenchi Universe
Tenchi in Tokyo
Blue Submarine No. 6
2001
Outlaw Star
The Big O
Cardcaptors
Mobile Suit Gundam
08th MS Team
Dragon Ball
Gundam 0080
Batman Beyond
2002
Hamtaro
G Gundam
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
G.I. Joe
Samurai Jack
IGPX (micro-series)
2003
.hack//SIGN
Martian Successor Nadesico (Giant Robot Week)
Gigantor (Giant Robot Week)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (Giant Robot Week)
Dai-Guard (Giant Robot Week)
Rurouni Kenshin
YuYu Hakusho
Justice League
Cyborg 009
SD Gundam
Dragon Ball GT
2004
Duel Masters
Astro Boy
Jackie Chan Adventures
Gundam SEED
Megas XLR
Teen Titans
Justice League Unlimited
Rave Master
2005
D.I.C.E.
Zatch Bell
The Batman
One Piece
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Naruto
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
IGPX (regular series)
Dragon Ball Z (Uncut)
2006
Wulin Warriors
Pokémon Chronicles
Fantastic Four
Pokémon: Battle Frontier
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
MÄR
The Prince of Tennis
2007
Storm Hawks
MegaMan Star Force
2008
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Blue Dragon
Further Information
Get more info on 'Toonami'.
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