| Welcome to Toonami Fan. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| January 31st, 2008: Inescapable | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 24 2008, 11:56 PM (1,932 Views) | |
| Nick | Feb 24 2008, 11:56 PM Post #1 |
|
Founder and Major Domo
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
The tale of my first encounter with Toonami, and some thoughts on why it sucked me in. So come on, what's your story? What hooked you? http://www.toonamifan.com/toonamiinescapable.html |
![]() |
|
| Soul | Feb 25 2008, 11:06 PM Post #2 |
|
Novice
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Wow. I kinda missed this article at first but yeah. Wow beautiful Nick. Beautiful. I think everyone introduction to Toonami is different and their reasons for watching as well. I was around 9, I was flipping through the channels after school, and I landed on channel 43 via Time Warner in the Austin broadcast. It was DBZ, and it was the fight between Goku and Frieza. It intrigued me if anything. The grunts and groans were big WTFs, yet my jaw dropped as this guy in a ripped fighting outfit was grunting loud, soon yelling, and"Whoosh!" His hair lit up blond and then bam he started wailing on the alien dude. It was awesome, yet it was funny cause my Dad walked in and was like "What the **** are you watching? It sounds like they're ****ing!" I ignored him as I always did, and then it went to a commercial break, TOM came on and I got a view of the Absolution. Etc. After DBZ went of I saw it. That show that would set me a fire to come back every afternoon; Tenchi. This guy wanted by these girls, kind've a awkward guy yet he proved to have his merits and strangth. It was funny, engaging and so on! As time went on I had to get home from school to catch that new episode of DBZ and watever else TOM had got for me. It was around that time, family life had gotten hard; with the fact that i had a abusive, drinking, take his problems out on me father. And school was no better [Until I ended up getting into fights] Toonami was the ultimate escapism. And with the Cell saga in DBZ, Gohan was my idol. He was 11 or so. My age! He did something no one else could do defeat the bad guy, that took down everyone else. I wanted to be Gohan. Outlaw Star was the blowing away point, Gene and his crew going on a grand adventure through space, learning about who his is and type of person he would become through the course the show teaches just to look into yourself to find yourself. Then you had the Midnight Run, catching my favorite action block right before I hit the sack. The Special Edition introduced me to the Gorillaz something I'll always be thankful for, and of course music is a escapism in itself and Toonami always brought it. Finally Toonami brought me the obvious, the love for just great action cartoons, if not the love for anime. So yeah Well I've ran on tolong and if you read through it all? Well Thank You my friend. |
![]() |
|
| Captive Member | Feb 27 2008, 04:38 PM Post #3 |
Novice
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Ah, humble beginnings. |
![]() |
|
| Nick | Feb 27 2008, 05:01 PM Post #4 |
|
Founder and Major Domo
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Thanks for sharing, Soul. I actually busted out laughing at "What the **** are you watching? It sounds like they're ****ing! And for the record, I always wanted to be Gohan as well. Too bad he got so little screentime later on. <_< Like I said, Toonami has always been more of a subculture than just a programming block. Oh, and it's nice to finally see ya, Rizwan. |
![]() |
|
| macattack | Mar 1 2008, 02:16 AM Post #5 |
|
Watch Your Head.
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I've made a mention of this before but I did not have Cartoon Network until the beginning of 2003. The moment I found out we finally had it my brothers and I dived into the TV Guide and checked for when the legendary Toonami came on. We found it and turned it on. It was the final four episodes of Zoids: Chaotric Century. WE did not have any idea of what was going on because we had missed the previous bazillion episodes but we enjoyed them anyway. And then, of course, came along DBZ charging through the Buu saga at top speed. New Century Zero was being reran and we watched that too. G Gundam was another show we stumbled upon halfway through and couldn't quite figure out what was happening, but we tried to figure it out anyway. My God, we spent so many afternoons in front of the TV. Then of course came Giant Robot Week. Robotech, which none of us really cared about but watched anyway. Martian Successor Nadesico, which we were initially interested it but got quickly confused over because it was airing out of order. Neon Genesis Evangelion, which looked kind of cool until Episode 2, which just felt disjointed (of course, that was because of how edited it was, but we didn't know that). Dai-Guard was the show that impressed us, and we were disappointed when it never came back. But March was when the kicker happened. YuYu Hakusho and Rurouni Kenshin charged onto the block. Following G Gundam and the final episodes of DBZ, I was in heaven for those two hours every Monday and Friday. Even though my youngest brother has slowly adopted an "anime sucks" stance over the years and my other brother doesn't have the time to watch TV anymore, I have managed to to continue watching the block since then. Even though I have enjoyed many of the shows Toonami has aired (and despised others), and had a laugh over the Chicago Tribune TV reviewer giving Wulin Warriors a good review (it is notable to say that she no longer works for the paper) . . . I always go back to March 2003 as the hooking point. ' Up until then, the block was intriguing but I was most mystified by the block's legend than by what was actually airing on the block. March 2003 was when I actually was dragged into the substance of Toonami, not just the flash. That will always be my most precious Toonami memory, other than the premiere of Gundam SEED, which was an incredible show to my newbie eyes in 2004. |
![]() |
|
| Robert | Mar 1 2008, 08:37 AM Post #6 |
|
Clyde
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I never really liked Gohan. Everyone else in my house did but not me. But I do not like what they did to him on DBGT, that was just sad. |
![]() |
|
| Jeff Harris | Mar 10 2008, 11:18 PM Post #7 |
|
Webmaster, The X Bridge
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Great googily-moogily. You all were pretty much kids when Toonami began. I was 19, halfway in my first year in college and rushing to get home to watch what they called "a better cartoon show." At first, it was pretty much built up of the shows I watched when I was in single digits. Thundercats and Voltron on day one and Robotech in 1998. When Toonami brought back Sailor Moon and DBZ from syndication hell in 1998 and ReBoot back in this country a year later, that was just the icing on the cake, I was hooked. I wanted to get the word out about the block any way I could. Surely I wasn't the only person digging the block. Looking at the internet at the time, Toonami sites were pretty sparse (including CN2 [later CNX and much later The X Bridge], you could count Toonami sites on one hand when I started). But word spread. I kind of gotten out there when the block was just getting hot, then it exploded in the great year that was 2000. Heck, March 2000 to about September 2001 was probably Toonami at its apex. My all-time favorite Toonami series, Outlaw Star, came out around that period as did many of the shows I call definitive Toonami classics, including The Big O, Dragon Ball (call me crazy, but I thought Dragon Ball was much better than Z), the Tenchi series, Gundam Wing, Batman, Superman, Sailor Moon S (I'm sorry to admit this, but that season rocked!), and the Android/Cell Saga of DBZ, perhaps the ultimate arc of the series that showed how great DBZ could be. The rest of the years were good as well, some better than others. But the first four years remain the period that Toonami became the heart of Cartoon Network, and to this day, I still believe that. And yes, I still believe the heart can be saved. |
![]() |
|
| Nick | Mar 10 2008, 11:38 PM Post #8 |
|
Founder and Major Domo
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
True, most of us are pretty young. But we're the next gen of the Revolution, right? At any rate, I remember everything from early 2000 on pretty much perfectly, so I guess I'm moderately qualified. |
![]() |
|
| Zipper | Mar 11 2008, 03:12 PM Post #9 |
|
Revolutionary
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
We were all young whipper snappers back then, weren't we? lol I had just turned 12 in 1997 when it all began. I always enjoyed it whenever I could watch it back then (it came on at 1pm instead of 4pm for a while here on the west coast, and I was in school most cases), but I wouldn't become a "Toonami Faithful" until the first episode of DragonBall Z aired in 1998. The whole block was just the coolest thing I had ever seen. Still to this day, one of, if not THE, best block I've seen on television period. From the shows to the extremely distinct presentation. It was all there. Even in the so-called "dark era" of Toonami in 2002 and early 2003, I was still a huge fan, loving every minute of it. I bet most of us wish we could have that "dark era" back when we compare it to what we have now. If that was a dark era, then I don't know what we'd call the current state. Things started going downhill for me in 2003, when I noticed the censorship in DragonBall began to oddly resemble that of the over-edited Saban DragonBall Z. I think that's when the suits decided to take the block in a new direction, and target the kid demographic specifically instead of the wider demographic they had before. So they brought in shows like SD Gundam, aired Pokemon movies, and began to heavily censor shows again. Before 2003, I highly doubt it if we would have seen the disco guns we saw in Gundam Seed. Things started look up again for me in 2005, with the premiere of a PG-rated Naruto. Toonami seemed to get its edge back, and aired things like Hellboy, Iron Man and Condor. We saw lots of PG and 14-rated programming, and things were interesting again. I saw stuff I never thought I'd see airing on American television, like Bobo-bo and Prince of Tennis. Unfortunately Cartoon Network itself began losing its focus at this time, and that bled into Toonami, so we saw things like the live-action Spiderman movie airing on it. Things seemed to continuously go downhill from here, until we made it to the point we're at now. But I still have hope. If the March 15th airing of Toonami isn't the last, I still think there's a chance to save the block. |
![]() |
|
| macattack | Mar 11 2008, 08:09 PM Post #10 |
|
Watch Your Head.
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
FTR, I was fifteen and a half when I was first exposed to Toonami. Which means that if I had gotten Toonami at the very beginning I'd have been nine. Dammit. I still blame Jones Intercable/AT&T for denying Cartoon Network all those years when Toonami was at its strongest. |
![]() |
|
| Rizwan the Captive Member | Mar 11 2008, 09:29 PM Post #11 |
![]()
I'm Not Into Labels...the First
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Too true, friend. I think many a current Toonami fan was deprived of Toonami and late to the show when it first began due to those bastard cable companies. Many of us missed the birth of the televised revolution that was Toonami. But hey, we're here now, so let's akuna matata and be part of the new revolution! Yeah, I used a reference from the Lion King. So what? I know you all loved it at one point, just like me. Poor little Simba...
|
![]() |
|
| Zipper | Mar 11 2008, 11:03 PM Post #12 |
|
Revolutionary
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
My cable company always had CN, but it just did something weird back then. It used to cut off at 6pm and show PPV previews for the rest of the day. What kind of crap is that? lol I was pissed because when I was over a friend's house once late in the evening, I noticed he had CN on and it was after 6pm, and there all kinds of shows that I could never see thanks to the cut off. |
![]() |
|
| dorian_greek | Jul 8 2008, 10:17 PM Post #13 |
Novice
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
finally a cool site!! I was 11 years old when I first saw toonami. Like many of you, I was switching through the channels (bored) until I landed on Cartoon Network. They were showing Dragon Ball Z. The episode was when Gohan was fighting Cell. I thought of how cool it was and decided to watch it after having seen some Dragon Ball of when Goku was a young midget. The rest is history. After that I got hooked on most of the shows and was watching them regularly (I especially loved Outlaw Star, somehow it tied in with TOM and the Absolution). I couldn't wait to get back to my house to see toonami. Then came TOM and the Absolution. The second I saw that robot, the ship and heard the extremely cool beat, I officialy loved toonami. You know, Nick is right when he said that it was more of a cartoon. Indeed it was a revolution and even a culture. Toonami was the type of show that gave you inspiration after watching it and the gave you that feeling that it was an animation that was suitable for not just kids, but adults too. Therefore, you never really felt immature when watching Toonami, especially when you look at the really awesome and educational promos that featured (especially Dreams, I mean come on). After the new downgraded TOM came about, I stopped watching it. I mean it wasn't the same, now it was a kid's show and the new TOM was nowhere near to being as cool as the last 4. Nevertheless, I still have hopes that Toonami will get better (it's old self because I can't see anybody topping that) and we will be able to see how Toonami was meant to be seen. The nostalgia...... |
![]() |
|
| billyarnie | Jul 10 2008, 12:10 PM Post #14 |
![]()
3... TOM 3!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Sorry, guys, this geezer just realized he has no life. I've enjoyed cartoons & comics for a loong while, and I was watching Toonami from the ground floor, almost since the beginning of 1997. I was on vacation from work & my wife had her own car & was at work. Depending on whether I saw my 1st Toonami in late spring or early summer, I was either... 41 or 42! Hey, I said I have no life... :lol:Still, I've learned a bit more about anime since then. Back then, I didn't even know it was anime... just some weird-looking but cool, kick-butt cartoons. I gained my semi-official otaku status when I read something in Anime Insider that taught me about certain anime tricks (sweat drops, bulging veins, etc.) & that DBZ was edited for U.S. TV. Edited?! Who knew? Then in 2005, [adult swim] Action had the Good Times before the bad times in 2007 & 2008. I'm not watching Naruto filler because I'm waiting (hopefully) for Shippuden. It's good to see Ben 10: Alien Force & especially Samurai Jack back. If Toonami's still here, let's hope CN gives it a little respect... |
![]() |
|
| NiMu | Dec 14 2009, 10:35 PM Post #15 |
Novice
![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Man this was it! Alrite i was in my room surfin when saw this wierdo in an orange jump sute nock the stew out this fat bald guy. my first thout was holly sĄż@. it was a rainy tuesday and i just got home. the moment i saw my anim a«? wupin iwas hooked next thing i know im home eryday watchn erythang from dbz 2 gundums 2 da legendary voltron. that was 10 yers ago i must be the only blood eva to love anime. man thnx for helpn me know that i wasnt crazy or at least |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · Article Feedback · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z4.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)





I've enjoyed cartoons & comics for a loong while, and I was watching Toonami from the ground floor, almost since the beginning of 1997. I was on vacation from work & my wife had her own car & was at work. Depending on whether I saw my 1st Toonami in late spring or early summer, I was either... 41 or 42!
Hey, I said I have no life... :lol:
3:59 AM Jul 11