By Chris Snellgrove | Published
“When did you first become interested in anime?” is the kind of question reserved primarily for middle-aged nerds. Anyone younger than that grew up in a culture completely steeped in Japanese animation as well as Western cartoons clearly imitating their Eastern cousins. For many ’80s kids (myself included), the answer to that question was Toonami, Cartoon Network’s flagship programming block that introduced countless young people to legendary anime productions such as Dragon Ball Z And Sailor Moon. This year, the network brought back some of its original programming via a special Friday block called Toonami Rewind, but its recent cancellation sent shockwaves through the nostalgia nerd community.
Toonami Rewind Dies
The original Toonami died in 2008 and was resurrected (via an April Fools’ Day prank, no less) in 2012, and it continues to air shows every Saturday night. The idea behind Toonami Rewind was essentially to double this block of programming each week, with Saturday nights focusing on the newer shows and Friday being reserved for a returning block consisting of Dragon Ball Z Kai, Sailor MoonAnd Naruto. The programming block’s intros and interstitial bumpers always featured modern-day Toonami Tom and Sarah as hosts, and the block’s brief intros often referenced nostalgic memories such as coming home from school and putting off homework to watch movies. murderous cartoons.
It’s fair to say that Toonami Rewind, like regular Toonami, always had a very specific audience in mind… not only did the audience have to have cable TV of some sort (increasingly rare in the era of cord cutting), but he would. must prefer to watch hours of ad-laden programs rather than just streaming their favorite shows. The network has clearly decided that not enough people are tuning in, which is why Toonami Rewind is being replaced with more Checkered Past (along with Cartoon Network original). For this nostalgic fan, the death of Toonami Rewind is like seeing an old friend die for the second time.
This is not to say that this block was perfect. From the start, I was disappointed that Toonami Rewind didn’t feature new voice acting over Tom and Sara’s old animations. I would have loved to hear more of the sweet music from that era of Toonami promos, and it’s a little sad that I had to turn to stock videos on YouTube for my fix rather than relying on Cartoon Network itself . Nonetheless, this block of programming revealed many pleasant memories of when I first fell in love with anime, and it also served as a way to introduce young otaku to these foundational series.
Toonami Rewind was good and had the potential to be great, and I was just waiting for Cartoon Network to invest more in this nostalgia block. But it’s remained static from the start, never really straying far from a small handful of intros and the same series of shows that we can relate to. Forget watching the block kiss later beloved shows like Gundam Wing. Judging by the show selection, Toonami Rewind has been stuck in the 90s forever.
For this reason, I’m saddened to see the death of Toonami Rewind, but I’m not surprised at all. This block apparently lacked robust network support from the start, and it’s a bit of a miracle that it got out in the first place. All things considered, I’m just grateful that the main Toonami block endures (I need to get my fix of both Invincible Fighting Girl And Mashle: magic and muscles) despite Rewind’s last broadcast on December 27.
Sadly, Toonami Rewind died with more of a whimper than a bang, and only a few of us witnessed the quiet death of anime’s greatest celebration. Younger fans might not remember or even care, but we certainly wouldn’t have the glut of Dragon Ball Z spin-offs and games (anyone else is really bad at Zero spark?) if the original Toonami hadn’t turned it into a worldwide sensation. Toonami Rewind was a flawed but perfectly charming celebration of the good old days, and if anyone needs me, I’ll try to convince David Zaslav to gather the Dragon Balls and wish him back to life.
