Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

If Toonami solidified my interest in Japanese cartoons, Adult Swim nurtured and matured it. The way I found out about Adult Swim was a little strange. I came to know about it by way of my first ever DVD purchase– Outlaw Star volume 1. It was on that disc where I saw the trailer for Cowboy Bebop. I was blown away. It seemed like the show had the perfect combination of everything I liked– jazz, science fiction, guns, women, action– everything. My 13-year-old mind was blown. I’m pretty sure I watched that trailer something like 100 times. I’m not exaggerating, either. However, as a penniless 13-year-old, I didn’t really have a good way of getting my hands on DVDs of the show. So, instead of watching it, I frequented anime websites (remember those? Just general anime websites?) watched the opening of the show 2 billion times, and read up on any news and information related to the show.

My research was rewarded! Not only did I find out that SPIKE DIES, but I also found out that the show was slated to air on a then new Cartoon Network block called Adult Swim. I grew giddy upon hearing this announcement. The idea of a block of TV showing mostly uncensored anime filled me with excitement. The chance to finally see this stuff with all the fun swearwords, blood and sex for FREE on TV was just too much for my little brain to handle. I waited for months with bated breath, and when September 2nd finally came… I taped it. I was 13! I couldn’t stay up that late! But, much like with Toonami, from that point on I watched Adult Swim religiously.

For the most part, I was only interested in the Japanese portions of Adult Swim. I’d watch Mission Hill, Home Movies, ATHF and the rest occasionally, but I was mostly in this for the anime. In the same way that Toonami took good care in presenting their programming, Adult Swim did the same. However, Adult Swim’s approach was naturally more mature. The way Toonami went about promoting their anime certainly was cool, but it lacked the adult sensibilities that came with the Adult Swim bumps. Adult Swim really did present this stuff as “cartoons for grown-ups” and not in the MANGAAAA video way. Their approach was mature, stylish and sexy. Ok, so the robot voice in their earlier action bumps kind of sucked, but it was a start.

Out of all of Adult Swim’s action block bumpers, the ones I loved the most were the photos of Japan. It tickled my young Wapanese heart to see images of Japan play along with my Japanese cartoons. The one that probably left the biggest impression on me was of Fujiyama. That image matched with that old-timey piano piece really sticks in my mind to this day. Probably because it was the last thing I saw for the night, each night for a year or so.

Due to me not having a TV in college, I stopped watching Adult Swim after highschool. Again, much like Toonami, this was fine with me. By that point I had almost completely switched over to subbed anime, so dubbed anime late at night wasn’t all that important to me. However, I cannot deny the giant impact this one little block of TV had on me as a fan. It provided stuff for me to talk about with my friends each day, gave me something to look forward to on the weekends and gave me a chance to watch shows that I may have otherwise never checked out. Adult Swim was one of my dearest friends for a good while, but I wasn’t really sad when we had to part ways.

In recent years, I’ve heard that Adult Swim has turned to crap. Last I read, they killed their anime programming by damning it to the dreaded early morning hours, and let their mostly horrible original programming take priority. I can understand this, since Adult Swim’s original shows are where they ratings are, but as a result I’ve lost respect for them. That said, while the current iteration of Adult Swim is dead to me, memories of its great past live happily in a fuzzy, nostalgic corner of my brain.

Yup, you guessed it! Another long and boring personal post is coming up, so turn back now if you’d rather not suffer through this crap. I’m sure you have a backlog of Zettai Karen Children subs to get through.

Every space pirate, Tao master and outlaw in the galaxy knows this already, but Cartoon Network’s Toonami block finally came to a close just about a week ago. I can’t say I honestly care all that much, but for a while Toonami was one of the most important parts of my life.

But let’s back up a bit. Toonami is not what got me into anime. Pokemon is what got me into anime. Before Pokemon, I didn’t think much about anime. I saw some Sailor Moon commercials and stayed away since it looked girly, and of course girls were icky back then, so I didn’t really bother with it. My cousin told me to watch Pokemon, so I did. I really liked it, and after a couple weeks of watching it I fired up my 56k modem and browsed the internet for anything and everything related to Pokemon. It was through these searches that I came upon the word “anime” (mostly thanks to AniPike) but I still didn’t really think much of it. Pokemon back then was just another cool thing to do. Another cool cartoon. It didn’t consume me. That changed with Toonami.

It was in the summer of 1999, I believe, that I was talking with an acquaintance of mine. He expressed his fondness for Dragonball Z, a cartoon I had heard of but never thought to watch since it seemed ever so violent. I wasn’t much for violence. However, he insisted, so I opened my mind a bit a gave it a shot. On Toonami, of course. I loved it. And from that point on, I would be watching Toonami religiously for next 7 years.

Toonami solidified my interest in anime. It was on Toonami that I learned that there was more to anime than just Pokemon. I became interested in mecha anime through Toonami (thx Gundam Wing wwwww), I developed a liking for sci-fi adventure through Toonami (Outlaw Star) and I finally saw the various Tenchi TV shows that went with that movie my buddies and I rented a long while back through Toonami. Toonami, for a good number years, was the most important part of my weekday afternoon.

As I was going into high school, Toonami changed into a weekend-only block. I still watched it, but was more interested in Adult Swim (which at this point was a really cool block of TV itself. More on that in a potential later blog post.) I still thought the block was super cool, but it just became a routine. I was getting into digisubs at around that time too, so dubbed anime on TV became less attractive.

I stopped watching Toonami when I went into college. I didn’t have a TV, and by that point I was 100% into watching anime in Japanese. However, as you can see in this blog post, I can still reminisce fondly about Toonami. It truly was a very important part of my life, and I have nothing but fond memories associated with it.

One thing I really liked about Toonami was how the creators had a genuine love for anime. They really did their best to promote this stuff as really cool, as demonstrated in their various impeccably made commercials. They put out shows that otherwise would not have been shown on US TV. I mean, who would have expected Tenchi to be shown on Cartoon Network? No one. But they did it. And that’s why they were awesome.