When Did Toonami... Die?

[Supernovametalstar]

I stopped watching Toonami on a regular basis when JLU and Teen Titans ended. After that, there was nothing that captured my interest, sad to say. But we had some good times and it will be missed.

 

[Light Lucario]

I think that what really killed the block was cutting its hours in half. I didn't mind the move from weekdays to Saturday nights, but I don't remember watching that much of Toonami on weekdays to begin with. They still had some good shows afterwords. When they got rid of One Piece and Toonami pretty much became the Naruto block, that's when the block died and when I stopped caring that much about it.

 

[Space Cadet]

Personally, I didn't think Toonami "died" until its final broadcast last night. On the decline? Yeah, that's probably more accurate to say. There are many reasons when Toonami might have declined. The first one was when the block switched to Saturday nights after being on weekdays for so long. Its easy to look back on it and say it was a bad idea, but at the time, it was necessary to rejuvenate the block. SVES had taken a lot of Toonami's shows while Toonami was getting more kid-oriented shows like SD Gundam. Moving to Saturday nights helped re-established the block as the premiere place to air action-adventure shows.

I think what did Toonami in was around 2006 when the schedule kept changing every couple of weeks. Shows were coming in and out, with only Naruto, Bobobo-bo, and One Piece being the shows that stayed around. And the new look(which I didn't hate personally. It was different, but I liked it) received lots of mixed opinions, which didn't help. And I knew something was up when the 2 hour Megaman Star Force special aired at the beginning of Toonami without any promotion. At that point, anything that aired on Toonami got at least one promo. This one didn't and it was a bad omen.

Cutting the block down to two hours certainly didn't help matters. Neither did the total lack of promos for the block. When Naruto stopped recieving episodic promos, something was up.

Toonami's last hurrah was back in July when for one Saturday, the block aired for 5 1/2 hours. Not only did it feel like Toonami at full strengh for Saturdays(the four hours being gained back), there was a little bit of nostalgia for weekdays Toonami since it started in the afternoon.

So, I don't think Toonami ever "died", but was in a long decline with some bright spots here and there.

 

[Ana]

To me Toonami was off the radar after IGPX ended. Like I honestly don't even know what new material aired on the block after that, other than all the new Naruto episodes I guess. I did watch the recent Samurai Jack reruns though, so it was shocking for the block to suddenly end so soon after I decided to tune in again. I didn't know Toonami was in such a bad state.

 

[MasterofRoku]

Personally, I didn't think Toonami "died" until its final broadcast last night. On the decline? Yeah, that's probably more accurate to say. There are many reasons when Toonami might have declined. The first one was when the block switched to Saturday nights after being on weekdays for so long. Its easy to look back on it and say it was a bad idea, but at the time, it was necessary to rejuvenate the block. SVES had taken a lot of Toonami's shows while Toonami was getting more kid-oriented shows like SD Gundam. Moving to Saturday nights helped re-established the block as the premiere place to air action-adventure shows.

I think what did Toonami in was around 2006 when the schedule kept changing every couple of weeks. Shows were coming in and out, with only Naruto, Bobobo-bo, and One Piece being the shows that stayed around. And the new look(which I didn't hate personally. It was different, but I liked it) received lots of mixed opinions, which didn't help. And I knew something was up when the 2 hour Megaman Star Force special aired at the beginning of Toonami without any promotion. At that point, anything that aired on Toonami got at least one promo. This one didn't and it was a bad omen.

Cutting the block down to two hours certainly didn't help matters. Neither did the total lack of promos for the block. When Naruto stopped recieving episodic promos, something was up.

Toonami's last hurrah was back in July when for one Saturday, the block aired for 5 1/2 hours. Not only did it feel like Toonami at full strengh for Saturdays(the four hours being gained back), there was a little bit of nostalgia for weekdays Toonami since it started in the afternoon.

So, I don't think Toonami ever "died", but was in a long decline with some bright spots here and there.

I agree with everything you said except for the move to Saturdays.
Personally, I felt the move was a good thing and it was when Toonami was it's highest.

I didn't mind miguzi airing on weekdays, but it would've been nice if there was a mini toonami on weeknights and the major block on saturdays.

 

[Space Cadet]

I agree with everything you said except for the move to Saturdays.
Personally, I felt the move was a good thing and it was when Toonami was it's highest.

I didn't mind miguzi airing on weekdays, but it would've been nice if there was a mini toonami on weeknights and the major block on saturdays.

Oh, I didn't mind the block moving to Saturdays. I was just giving one of the main reasons why people think Toonami "died."

 

[MasterofRoku]

Oh, I didn't mind the block moving to Saturdays. I was just giving one of the main reasons why people think Toonami "died."

Oh. All right then.

 

[Ajax]

So, I don't think Toonami ever "died", but was in a long decline with some bright spots here and there.

Yeah I can see what your saying but you gotta admit, there's a difference between being on the decline and just being comatose. Toonami was a corpse in late 2007 and for the rest of 2008.

 

[Mickialla]

When did One Piece stop airing?? And was DBZ or Bobobo still airing when it did??

 

[MasterofRoku]

When did One Piece stop airing?? And was DBZ or Bobobo still airing when it did??

One piece stopped airing in March and DBZ I forget when it stopped airing.

 

[Ajax]

Im pretty sure it was March of 08. IIRC Bobo^10 ended in Sep of 07. Not sure about DBZ, I think it was airing at the time of OP's cancellation.

 

[Mickialla]

Im pretty sure it was March of 08. IIRC Bobo^10 ended in Sep of 07. Not sure about DBZ, I think it was airing at the time of OP's cancellation.

Considering that, I'd say Toonami died at the start of this year, if not a little later. It definitely had time to be saved...

 

[Master Moron]

Yeah, the weekend move set off the domino effect that effectively killed the block.

What was the original reason for reducing it to once a week anyway?

Actually, I believe the reasoning was that Toonami wasn't getting girl ratings. Hence, the creation of Miguzi.

 

[toonami012]

It died when they cut toonami from 9:00-11:00 and put an hour of naruto fillers, Ben 10, and samurai jack.

 

[creativerealms]

I defended Toonami durring all the tough times, except one, and that was when it was cut to two hours last October. That was when I could no longer deny something was up.

 

[I.D.Will19??]

The removal of shows like Gundam SEED, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Rurouni Kenshin. I started to check out after that because I didn't really like most of the shows that came on after that.

Cutting the block in half by 2 hours. What were they thinking? When they cut the hours on Saturday, they should've brought back the Toonami weekday block. That way you have Toonami for 2 hours 6 days a week.

Spoiling Naruto to death. Not everyone watches that show. A little variety, along with a healthy amount of promotion and better selection, could've gone a long way.

 

[1SSJ4Gogeta1]

toonami was half dead when they showed sucky shows and it became fully dead when the naruto fillers showed becuase all people watched toonmai becuase of naruto.

 

[Neo Ultra Mike]

Let's Look At This Logically.

The switch from Moltar to TOM1 - Though I liked Moltar getting Toonami it's own original Host and idenity and not just tying it to Space Ghost was a good thing. It was a shocking change at the time Tom and Sara added a different layer to Toonami that made it feel like it was seperate from just regular Cartoon Network. And back then they knew how to promote that properly so no problems there.

The switch from TOM1 to TOM2 - That was something to give The Intruder a bigger impact. I mean I don't think anyone saw Tom1 dying like that coming. Still the fact he was replaced with a different body and still had the same attidue showed you they knew what they were doing with this and were having fun doing the interludes, something that hasn't come up as much latley.

The switch from TOM2 to TOM3 - It didn't have the proper sendoff that Tom1-2 but it wasn't a sign of any sort of death. I mean yeah having to do it in a novel instead of an event was kind of disappointing but maybe it was just a sign that you don't need to see all of Toonami's changes to know it's going strong.

The move to weekends - I think that this was sort of blow. Not a deadly one but not one the block needed. Obviously CN was looking to completley change they're image at this time and trying to reclaim weekdays for female viewers was one of those. Thus it was off with Toonami and onto Miguzi which ended up fizziling long before Toonami did. Still the four hour night did work and it felt like a Toonami free of some of the filler trappings it had gotten into in it's weekday run.

The removal of Gundam SEED, Rurouni Kenshin, and Yu Yu Hakusho for Zatch Bell and Bobobo - At first I didn't see how this was a blow. Afterall Toonami replaces shows with other shows all the time. What makes this different? The answer is of course there were more legimiate reasons before then just "these are faltering some in the ratings: let's move onto other things". And they always were treated with more respect then just moving them into death slots. Also it gave way to a lot of shows getting the "move off Toonami and not really be seen again" vibe most shows ended up getting during the rest of Toonai's run. Not the death sign but a bad sign all the same.

The removal of a Toonami original series, IGPX - Besides the cut to two hours, this was probably the death sign. Don't forget that IGPX was the first real Toonami original show made specifically for the block. Not just for American Auidences, not just for Cartoon Network, but for Toonami. If it succeeded and did well more original content would of been made and Toonami wouldn't of crumpled. If you can make merchandise and marketability off original products you can obviously keep the block your on and strengthen. Yeah sure the look would still have changed but the Toonami image would of been kept in some form. When it failed though it meant that no originals could succeed (the old "one strike and you're out policy". WS sort of has that when it comes to anime they have a hand in producing for a block. See Big 0 Season 2 for AS and how they didn't help proudce anymore AS anime) which defintley threw any plans Toonami had more of branching out.

The revamp - Hey everything has to revamp. The Cartoon Cartoon Block revamped from Cartoon Network Fridays to Fried Dynamite. Unlike FD though the Revamped Toonami still felt like Toonami. Okay yeah the designs were a bit more kid friendly but it was Still Tom and it was still the Toonami logo. Even the time cuts for shows not getting the original Toonami openings and promos they may of gotten before was okay since they were getting they're original openings more often. it meant loosing a part of themselves perhaps but it was defintley liveable.

The cut to two hours - I'm going to say this was the death sign. First it was because of Goosebump taking up some slots, and then it just became... any cartoon they could air. What had originally been given slots on Toonami now just went to anything CN wanted to air, which is a defintie sign that they don't care. Combine this and the fact they weren't promoting at all during the phase and you got the definite death blow: Cartoon Network was just goign to put whatever they wanted at that time and Toonami would just be lucky enough to scrounge any amount of hours it get to hold the amount of programs it could hold. Really it was the popularity of Naruto that probably kept them from just letting go of the block by that point until they realized "hey we dont' need Toonami to show Naruto, we'll just put it on... whenever! i'm sure kids will notice it if we don't bother to promote it's new time and if they don't that means the show must be stupid and we must stop airing it". Seriously if you don't see Naruto around CN anymore that'd be the stupid reason why.

The removal of Dragonball Z and One Piece - Eh by that point it was dead. The removal of those shows for filler like Blue Dragon and Samurai Jack just cinched it even more so since those weren't even Toonami exclusive or had been rerun already. CN just splattered whatever they could on Toonami and called it a day until the day came when they cancelled it.

There were some falling points previous but just for the whole "we don't care about Toonami at all" vibe, it has to go to the 2 hour marking of when the block died. At least it died with a bit of respect which is more then I can say for any other CN block that's destined to die within a few years due to CN's nowaday tiny attention span.

 

[Lazerboy5000]

Toonami got cut? WOW, what rock was I hiding under (apperently the college/homework rock).

But I say when Toonami went to two hours. When Toonami had it's four hours, it had one of it's best lineups ever, IMO. Yeah, TOM4 wasn't as cool, but they still had the shows, and they still had the fours hours, and everything was cool for the most part. But the change to two hours really was the boom headshoot.

 

[Ajax]

The move to weekends - I think that this was sort of blow. Not a deadly one but not one the block needed. Obviously CN was looking to completley change they're image at this time and trying to reclaim weekdays for female viewers was one of those. Thus it was off with Toonami and onto Miguzi which ended up fizziling long before Toonami did. Still the four hour night did work and it felt like a Toonami free of some of the filler trappings it had gotten into in it's weekday run.

Four years is a long time so its easy to forget, but Toonami sucked donkey balls when it was on weedays (early 04). Being on every weekday for seven years took its toll on the block, it needed a change in venue. Like I said people forget but the 08 Toonami and the early 04 Toonami were eeriely similar to each other as both blocks were basically comatose, both blocks were only two hours long and both blocks had their flagship series represent one hour of the block (DBZ and Naruto). Moving to Sat. extended Toonami's shelf life a good four years.