Toonami Co-Creator Reflects on Program's Legacy for 24th Anniversary

It has been twenty-four years since the arrival of one of Cartoon Network's most popular programming blocks in Toonami, which helped introduce a ton of new viewers to anime series that they might have never seen otherwise, and one of the co-creators of the outlet took time to reflect on its creation decades ago. Over the course of its history, Toonami has housed some of the biggest anime series within the medium, including the likes of Dragon Ball Z, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Inuyasha, Mobile Suit Gundam, and scores of others that helped solidify anime's presence in the West.

Everything hasn't been peaches and cream for Toonami, despite its original success on Cartoon Network, as Cartoon Network had announced in 2008 that they were pulling the plug on the long-running outlet, seemingly bringing to a close the channel that had been a tenant of the cable channel for over a decade at the time. In recent years, Toonami saw a resurgence when it was brought back as a part of Adult Swim, appearing weekly on Saturdays to once again introduce fans to anime series such as Attack On Titan, My Hero Academia, The Promised Neverland, and more that were continuing to stream out of Japan.

Jason Demarco, the co-creator of Toonami and current Senior Vice President/Creative Director for Adult Swim, recently took to his Official Twitter Account to discuss the legacy of the platform and how he could never have imagined that Toonami would still be present twenty-four years after its introduction:

Today is #toonami's 24th birthday. I never would have imagined that 24 years later it would still be running, let alone thriving. I'm profoundly grateful to each and every one of you who watched, whether it was for a minute or 24 years. YOU FOLKS are the reason we are still here.

— SPIRAL CURSE DEMARCO (@Clarknova1) March 17, 2021

Toonami clearly isn't going anywhere anytime soon, with the programming block continuing to add additional anime series, and animated series from the West, onto Cartoon Network, and we look forward to seeing what the future brings as this year will bring about new original series such as Junji Ito's Uzumaki, Cosmo Samurai, and more.

What do you think of the legacy that has been created by Cartoon Network's Toonami? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Toonami.