A Look Back At Toonami’s Best Anime Blocks

Toonami was an entry point for many kids into the world of anime.

Every week day it was time to tune in to see what happened in Dragon Ball Z, Transformers, and other classics. Looking back, many didn’t appreciate the impact Toonami had on television, and perhaps how important it was for anime in the western world.

Yesterday, Kaptain Kristian posted a video about the history of broadcast anime, describing Toonami’s humble beginnings, death and rebirth.

The video explains how in the late 90s Toonami was “designed to bring awareness and a respectability to an art form somewhat overlooked by American audiences.”

He then talks about the importance of Toonami’s curiation and robot host TOM.

Toonami has always held a high respect for anime, not just calling it a “genre”. The cool part about the programming block, is that it provided a lot of variance and there was everything for everyone.

As Kaptain Kristian says in the video, “If a viewer wasn’t into Sailor Moon, that wasn’t representative of the whole Toonami block.” Toonami showed shows that were long lasting serialized epics, such as Gundam Wing and DBZ, so the viewers engaged with the characters and stories daily.

Toonami originally ran from 1997 to 2008 but was unfortunately canceled, but was revived in 2012, and still runs today.

Check out the video to learn more, and see why Toonami is so highly revered.