by Chris Snelgrove
| Published
“When did you first get into anime?” It's the kind of question mostly reserved for middle-aged nerds. Anyone younger than that grew up in a culture absolutely filled with Japanese anime along with Western cartoons clearly imitating their Eastern cousins. For many '80s kids (myself included), the answer to that question was Toonami, Cartoon Network's seminal programming block that introduced countless young people to legendary anime productions like Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon. This year the network brought back some of its original programming with a Friday special called Toonami Rewind, but its recent cancellation sent a wave of shock through the nostalgic nerd community.
Death of Toonami Rewind
The original Toonami died in 2008 and was revived (via an April Fools' Day prank, no less) in 2012, and the shows continue to air every Saturday night. The idea behind Toonami Rewind was to essentially double this programming block each week, focusing Saturday night on newer shows and reserving Friday for a throwback block consisting of Dragon Ball Z Kay, Sailor Moonand Naruto. Programming block intros and interstitial buffers still feature modern Toonami Tom and Sarah as hosts, and brief intros often reference nostalgic memories like coming home from school and putting off homework to watch killer 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 need cable TV of some sort (an increasingly rare thing in the era of cord-cutting), but they would have to They prefer to watch hours of programs laden with commercials rather than just watching their favorite programs My neighbor. Apparently the network decided that there weren't enough people tuning in, which is why Toonami Rewind was replaced by More Checkered Past (featuring the Cartoon Network original). For this nostalgic fan, the death of Toonami Rewind is like watching an old friend die for the second time.
This does not mean that this block was perfect. From the beginning, I was disappointed that Toonami Rewind didn't include new voice dubbing on the old Tom and Sarah animation. I would have liked to hear more beautiful music from the era of Toonami trailers, and it's a bit sad that I had to resort to archival videos YouTube To solve my problem instead of relying on Cartoon Network itself. However, this software package has opened up a lot of beautiful memories about falling in love Anime for the first time, and also served as a way to introduce younger otaku to this foundational series.
Toonami Rewind was good and had the potential to be great, and I kept waiting for Cartoon Network to invest more in this nostalgic collection. But it has remained consistent from the beginning, never straying far from a small handful of intros and the same set-piece performances. Forget watching the block embrace later beloved shows like Gundam Wing. To judge by the selection of shows, Toonami Rewind is forever stuck in the '90s.
For this reason, I'm sad to see Toonami Rewind die, but I'm not entirely surprised. This block seemed to lack strong network support from the start, and it's a miracle it made it to the air in the first place. All things considered, I'm just thankful that the main Toonami block still stands (I should fix both invincible Girl fight and Machel: Magic and muscle) although Rewind last aired on December 27.
Sadly, Toonami Rewind died with more of a groan than a bang, and only a few of us witnessed the quiet death of anime's greatest celebration. Younger fans may not remember or even care, but we certainly won't be treated to an abundance of Dragon Ball Z toys and games (anyone else is pretty bad at that). Zero excitation?) If the original Toonami hadn't turned him into a worldwide sensation. Toonami Rewind was an imperfect but absolutely charming celebration of the good old days, and if anyone needs me, I'll try to convince David Zaslav to collect the Dragon Balls and hopefully bring them back to life.
