#bringbacktoonami

so right. i'm friends with this girl on fb, because she's a cosplayer that i met back when i started. we don't really talk much anymore, because she jerked a very close friend of mine around a lot about something and basically proved to be a royal bitch about it, and has never once apologized. so. yeah. i'm acquaintances with her, and we're buds on facebook.

anywho.

so she gets on (keep in mind, today in the context of this story is the day that toonami relaunched on cartoon network, may 27th) and makes this post:

So this is how I'm understanding the airing of Toonami tonight. It's basically Adult Swim's typical anime airing night with the addition of two new shows with a talking robot in between shows...

that is copy-pasted from facebook.

i read this last night, as i was getting ready to go to bed (because i had to work at 6 and thus couldn't stay up from 12-3 to watch toonami, much to my dismay. i am, needless to say, frustrated by this.

my short response, which i will extrapolate on here, was this:

I would point out that Toonami, as a piece of programming, predates Adult Swim by years. Thus, they are not one and the same. TOM and the Absolution are the predecessors to having a late night anime block on CN. Adult Swim was a pale replacement for Toonami. So no. It's not "basically Adult Swim with a talking robot". AS is Toonami's kid brother that never quite made it. /oldkidrant

now, her argument after this was "well i didn't really watch toonami growing up because i was too busy with sports, and i really prefer my animes subbed so it didn't really appeal to me."

fine. but then expect that your entire argument is now bullsh!t. pardon the language.

if you didn't watch toonami before, and don't watch dubbed anime, then why do you care about toonami now? why do you think you have any right to judge what it is or isn't? i didn't watch toonami constantly as a kid either - my parents didn't let me stay up that late, and i didn't really know about too many animes during the times that animes i wanted to watch were on toonami. but as soon as I went back to refresh myself on who TOM was, and I heard that voice and saw the interior of the Absolution, i knew EXACTLY who and what that was.

so many of my good memories of being introduced to the world of anime happened during toonami back in my preteens to early teenage years. staying up late with my cousin for a week to watch gundam 08th ms team, as it aired straight through while I was visiting with him. having big o or outlaw star or gundam wing playing in the background while we talked. i know TOM's voice - and that goes beyond the fact that I was lucky enough to meet Steve Blum a year ago.

no. toonami is not just an anime block on cartoon network/adult swim. is it anything like it used to be right now? of course not. they don't have the funding or the ratings to get any of the big name animes on it - and so they need our support. fabulous. i am perfectly willing, as many times as I am able, to get up/stay up and watch toonami. i know i'm not a nielsen ratings person, but at least then i can say "i watched, i supported, i want this to stay here." i want to help them fund and spread the word so that gundam wing can come back on toonami. i want to be able to turn on my tv and hear TOM talk to me again.

i had some time before i had to leave for work this morning, so i turned on the tv and watched an episode of a series i didn't know anything about - because it was ON TOONAMI. and then i stayed a little too late watching a bit of cowboy bebop before i booked it on out the door. it didn't matter that i didn't know the show. who cares? i wanted to support. so i did.

the fact that someone that doesn't know anything about it decided to make a ignorant (and somewhat offensive to those of us that do have a special place in our lives for that block of programming) statement without doing any research on what they're talking about frustrates me beyond all rational logic. now i know how people that argue politics feel. at least there i am always up front about not knowing necessarily what i'm talking about.

oh, which brings up: the comment that "it's silly [adult swim] is doing this" and the comment from someone else in the thread that it "just seems like an empty gesture" on cartoon network's part.

really?REALLY?!

they listened to us! do you not know what happened? the huge twitter storm, the massive uprising after april 1st, when we all chanted to bring toonami back - with steve blum at our mast, guiding the way? WE ASKED FOR IT BACK, AND THEY'RE GIVING US THE CHANCE TO KEEP IT. that's the very opposite of an empty gesture. we asked - we demanded - we brought the word strong and hard, and they listened. they are doing their best, with the minimal-at-best funding that they have, to give us what he wanted. now it's time for us to show our gratitude, and give back to them in return.

no. it's not just an anime block on adult swim.

it's a piece of my childhood, come home.

it's a piece of what's made me who and what i am, finally come back.

it's a gift.

stop trashing it.

EDIT: The user smaragaid pointed out to me that Toonami's Midnight Run aired on Adult Swim, and it was damn awesome. (Also, I'll note myself, technically this run of Toonami is on AS as well.) This is entirely a valid point - I watched Midnight Run and loved it. As far as I'm concerned, that was AS's night point. When I see what AS has become now...it makes me sad.

But yes. I don't mean to trash Midnight Run. It was awesome, and I loved it.