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Why were the Toonami promo's so good?

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R

Red Blaster

Member
Strike said:
There hasn't been anything like it since and there likely won't be anything like it again.
Click to expand...

Yep, it was a definitely a case of being in the right place at the right time. Anime was still somewhat exotic in America and torrent/streaming sites weren't du jour yet. Part of my enjoyment of Toonami was just being eager to see what else they had in the pipeline because they really were ahead of the curve.
 
B

blackwatchplad

Neo Member
A dude named Joe Boyd Vigil composed them.

Look up deep space bass if you want to buy a copy, I'm sure you can find one somewhere still.
 
L

Leona Lewis

Banned
Aside from a devotion to stellar production values, these promos demonstrate a deep level of respect for their audience. Growing up with Toonami (and eternally grateful that I did!), I didn't feel like I was being talked down to, and kids are really sensitive to that type of stuff. It was simply revolutionary, a breath of fresh air every weekday afternoon.

Going back and watching those shows again, you realize that the majority of them...did not age well. But Toonami lent them an air of class and maturity that made them seem so special. Thank God for DVDs and Netflix, because the crap kids have today is worse than any other era of cartoons I can think of.
 
B

blackwatchplad

Neo Member
Leona Lewis said:
Aside from a devotion to stellar production values, these promos demonstrate a deep level of respect for their audience. Growing up with Toonami (and eternally grateful that I did!), I didn't feel like I was being talked down to, and kids are really sensitive to that type of stuff. It was simply revolutionary, a breath of fresh air every weekday afternoon.

Going back and watching those shows again, you realize that the majority of them...did not age well. But Toonami lent them an air of class and maturity that made them seem so special. Thank God for DVDs and Netflix, because the crap kids have today is worse than any other era of cartoons I can think of.
Click to expand...

I'm going to sound crazy. But you just made me think about how Toonami shows often demonstrated or taught a lot of different life lessons with its content.
I actually remember some of the speeches, or something akin to a speech that they would air on different things like courage or brains over brawn type stuff.
I think that in itself shows a lot of respect for an audience, especially it being kids.

I'm not sure if it's just me getting older or what, but I just don't seem to see that in today's cartoons.. and I still manage to watch a good number of current ones.
I leave the TV on to CN during the day while I work on things to keep noise in the house... and a lot of the things I see, especially in the later afternoons when kids get home from school, seems pretty brain numbing, or the humor is just off to me. idk.
 
H

Hiltz

Member
Those were the days.

Now I have to find the time to watch Gundam Wing again and maybe even G-Gundam, Yu Yu Hakusho, Zoids: Chaotic Century, Cyborg 009, and Blue Submarine #9.


I'm currently watching Batman: The Animated Series on the HUB, Outlaw Star on MNET , DBZ Kai on Nicktoons (I think thats the right channel), FMA: Brotherhood on Adult Swim and Star Wars: Clone Wars on CN. Still waiting for new season of the ThunderCats to return.
 
C

catabarez

Member
I found out that Toonami got straight cancelled a few years after. Perhaps I was always aware, but I didn't really think much of it, then I heard of Tom's final broadcast and just had to look it up.

I was so depressed that whole day lol.

Toonami was such an amazing part of my childhood, them youngins really missed out.
 
L

Lavalamp1138

Member
Can anyone help me? I remember there was this Toonami promo but I can't remember which one it was or which show it was promoting, but the only thing I can remember was Peter Cullen's voice saying "world phenomenon." It's stuck with me for all these years but I just can't remember the promo.
 
K

KeeSomething

Banned
Stat Flow said:
If you didn't grow up with Toonami you just didn't grow up right. It's a once in a lifetime thing and it won't be able to be matched by anything after it.

Toonami wasn't just a segment, it was a fucking experience.

That is NOT hyperbole.
Click to expand...
I completely agree.

I still watch Toonami promos for some good ol' nostalgia, and I always listen to the promo music while I work on homework.
 
P

Princess Carl

Member
Mine too. But my most vivid memory is when I was in youth American football and I always managed to miss all the best episodes of DBZ for practice. I hated football so much when that happened.

Such quality commercials. Such a thing doesn't come close in modern television imo.
 
T

Takao

Banned
vferrel said:
Fuck man, my childhood. I would stop whatever I was doing at like 5:00 to watch Dragon Ball Z.

Wasn't there a midnight Toonami as well? I remember my friends telling me about it, and how it showed Dragon Ball Z and other shows uncut.
Click to expand...

Yes, Toonami Midnight Run.

DiscoJon said:
You mean like Family Guy?

And King of the Hill?

And American Dad?
Click to expand...

People actually watch those shows.

Leona Lewis said:
Aside from a devotion to stellar production values, these promos demonstrate a deep level of respect for their audience. Growing up with Toonami (and eternally grateful that I did!), I didn't feel like I was being talked down to, and kids are really sensitive to that type of stuff. It was simply revolutionary, a breath of fresh air every weekday afternoon.

Going back and watching those shows again, you realize that the majority of them...did not age well. But Toonami lent them an air of class and maturity that made them seem so special. Thank God for DVDs and Netflix, because the crap kids have today is worse than any other era of cartoons I can think of.
Click to expand...

It's interesting you say that it was obvious to care. I'm from Canada where our anime broadcaster at times mocked the fandom and the shows themselves. The notorious example being when the channel picked up Gundam Wing. They aired Endless Waltz - the finale movie before the actual series and promoted it with a TV ad that stated "Endless Waltz has Endless Waltzes"...

Also blind nostalgia. Most cartoons of today are better than the schlock of the 80s and older.
 
V

victreeb3l

Member
my kids and my grandkids will see the gundam wing promo. such epic shit, my god

that promo is definitely one of the highlights of my childhood. it was THAT good. im so thankful for being able to experience toonami as a kid

the "ITS A GUNDAM!!!!" part still gives me goosebumps
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Toonami got me into DBZ which sort of kicked off my spiral into watching Anime and reading Manga. Plus the shows and the mix was just great. It was also on at a perfect time of day.

Ditto on the comments that was awesome, and the segment in general had effort. Similar IMO to when Adult Swim 1st started (I don't think it's near what it use to be). Great thing about Toonami to was it had the perfect shows that were sort of a gateway into a larger cooler world, but the shows were made for a wider age range to watch.

I feel like the current way of things is just sort of fubar with CN being on then switching to AS later at night. You just don't get this good flow going of high quality post school content to watch these days.
 
S

STG!

Member
The midnight run through the weekdays was where it was at, as soon as they cut that it seemed like the channel went straight down hill. Only Saturday? Man, that's rough.

Loved the promo's that they did back then, Broken Promise (Dreams) was just incredible.
 
P

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
My childhood.

UD6kJ.jpg
 
C

Conciliator

Banned
Didn't watch Toonami(never liked anime), but I did watch a lot of adult swim when that first became a big thing. Interesting fact: Flying Lotus created a great deal of the music for the Adult Swim bumps, and if you listen to those Toonami promos they have similar music. I bet a lot of the beats behind those promos are early Flying Lotus tracks.
 
Genesis Knight

Genesis Knight

Member
Toonami was an experience not to be forgotten. It was more than just a scheduling block - it was a bizarre culture where you felt like part of a community even though you were watching TV by yourself in the basement. I refuse to believe that the "Toonami Magic" was just nostalgia, although that was a contributing factor. There are too many people I've talked who claimed to have been fundamentally changed by it and its shows.

I ran ToonamiFan (http://www.toonamifan.com/home.html) for a while before it went off-air. One of our forum members actually broke the news about the block's impending 'big announcement', which ended up being its cancellation.
 
R

Razorskin

----- ------
I remember having Directv as a kid in Canada for a while and being able to watch nickelodeon and cartoon network, pure childhood bliss. Those two channels kicked YTV's and Teletoon's ass.

I remember watching Zoids, Batman Beyond, Samurai Jack and Dragon ball on Toonami, Great stuff.
 
N

Neffarias_Bredd

Member
Razorskin said:
I remember having Directv as a kid in Canada for a while and being able to watch nickelodeon and cartoon network, pure childhood bliss. Those two channels kicked YTV's and Teletoon's ass.

I remember watching Zoids, Batman Beyond, Samurai Jack and Dragon ball on Toonami, Great stuff.
Click to expand...

I had some baller zoids models back in the day...Liger Zero was my dude

For some reason beyblades just popped into my head too; what the hell channel was that on?
 
V

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Genesis Knight said:
Toonami was an experience not to be forgotten. It was more than just a scheduling block - it was a bizarre culture where you felt like part of a community even though you were watching TV by yourself in the basement. I refuse to believe that the "Toonami Magic" was just nostalgia, although that was a contributing factor. There are too many people I've talked who claimed to have been fundamentally changed by it and its shows.

I ran ToonamiFan (http://www.toonamifan.com/home.html) for a while before it went off-air. One of our forum members actually broke the news about the block's impending 'big announcement', which ended up being its cancellation.
Click to expand...

I think it also came at this perfect time where TV was slowly changing, culture of the late 90s was really starting to broaden, the internet was just really starting to get steam rolling, and Toonami just sort of feels like a part of all of this. In regards to the shows, the intro, the skits, the production, the music etc... it just feels to fit this time period for kids.

It also very much feels like the next wave big push after the mid 80s where we got the original push of Thundercats, Transformers, Voltron etc... as well as all of these other things like comics, video games, board games, ccgs etc.. that were just becoming part of the culture. Having a big block of shows to come on after kids got home just really feels like it tried to tap into all of that.
 
T

TheChits

Member
Stat Flow said:
If you didn't grow up with Toonami you just didn't grow up right. It's a once in a lifetime thing and it won't be able to be matched by anything after it.

Toonami wasn't just a segment, it was a fucking experience.

That is NOT hyperbole.
Click to expand...
This man speaks the truth. And broken promises truly is inspirational for me all these years later
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
El Sloth said:
This is Real Talk for kids done right.
Click to expand...

Which is what baffles me about modern children programing.
It use to be that cartoons would teach you life values and lessons that you could use.
Now... they just make you dumber and more hateful.
Especially stuff aimed at really young kids (Dora, Yo Gabba Gabba, ect).
=/
 
LAUGHTREY

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
I wonder how they got it all in 1080p. It looks like they cut it all together from blu-rays or something, and they edited in with the regular Toonami TOM stuff.

Andrex said:
As Majin Buu and Babidi ravage the Earth, all hope seems lost.

The fighters who faced Buu... failed.

Sometimes, it's darkest just before dawn.

SO MUCH HYPE
Click to expand...

Goku with the piss beaten out of him

"Even Goku's gonna need some help with this one."

You knew shits going down.


Nutter said:
That is such an awesome intro.
Click to expand...
I remember when they switched from Ocean to funimation, I think they even cut some filler episodes.

The first iteration of Adult Swim was uncut DBZ at like midnight or 3AM I think. Cussing and blood everywhere.
 
Genesis Knight

Genesis Knight

Member
Yeah, the "HD" remasters are painstakingly hand-assembled from HD sources using the original promos as reference material. Amazing.
 
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