Author: Chris Snelgrove Published
“When did you start getting into anime?” is a question mostly reserved for middle-aged nerds. Anyone younger than that has grown up in a culture that is fully immersed in Japanese animation and Western animation, which are clearly modeled after their Eastern cousins. For many ’80s kids (myself included), the answer to that question is Toonami, Cartoon Network’s seminal programming block that introduced countless young people to legendary anime titles such as Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon. This year, the network brought back some original programming with a special Friday show called “Toonami Rewind,” but the recent cancellations sent shockwaves through the nostalgic nerd community.
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The original Toonami died in 2008, was resurrected (at least via an April Fool’s Day prank) in 2012, and continues to air every Saturday night. The idea behind Toonami Rewind is to double this block of programming each week, with Saturday nights focusing on new shows and Fridays retaining a retro block that includes Dragon Ball Z Modification, Sailor Moonand Naruto. The show’s block intros and gap bumpers still feature modern-day Toonami Tom and Sarah as hosts, with brief block intros often referencing nostalgic memories such as coming home from school, putting off homework and watching killer cartoons.
It’s fair to say that Toonami Rewind, like Toonami in general, has always had a very specific audience… not only must the audience have some type of cable TV (increasingly rare in the age of cord-cutting), but they will One must prefer watching hours of commercial-filled shows instead of just binge-watching their favorite shows on streaming media. The network apparently decided that not enough people were watching, which is why Toonami Rewind was replaced with more Checkered Past (featuring the original Cartoon Network). However, for this nostalgic fan, death in Toonami Rewind was like watching an old friend die for the second time.
That doesn’t mean the block is perfect. From the beginning, I was disappointed that Toonami Rewind didn’t feature new voices for the old Tom and Sarah anime. I would have loved to hear more of the sweet music from the Toonami promo era, but it’s a bit of a shame that I have to turn to archival videos on YouTube to get my fix instead of relying on Cartoon Network itself. Still, this programming mod has opened up many fond memories of first falling in love with anime, and it’s also been a way to introduce young otakus to these foundational series.
Toonami Rewind is good and has the potential to be great, I’ve been waiting for Cartoon Network to invest more in this nostalgia block. But it stays the same from the beginning, never really deviating from a solid show with a handful of introductions and an equally relatable cast. Forget about watching block hugging later favorite shows like Gundam W. Judging from the programming choices, Toonami Rewind is forever stuck in the 90s.
So I’m sad to see Toonami Rewind pass away, but I’m not surprised. This block seemed to lack strong network support from the start, but it’s a bit of a miracle that it even aired in the first place. All things considered, I’m thankful the main Toonami block still exists (I have to fix both issues) Invincible fighting girl and Masle: Magic and Muscle) although Rewind aired its last broadcast on December 27th.
Sadly, Toonami Rewind’s death was more of a whimper than a bang, with only a few of us witnessing the quiet demise of animation’s greatest celebration. Younger fans may not remember or even care, but we almost certainly won’t have too many Dragon Ball Z spin-offs and games (the others are just really not good at it) spark zero? ) if the original Toonami hadn’t turned it into a global sensation. Toonami Rewind is an imperfect but utterly charming celebration of the good old days, and if anyone needs me, I’ll be trying to convince David Zaslav to collect the Dragon Balls and wish for its resurrection.
