Toonami Exec Reveals Why the Program Really Ended in 2008
Toonami's survived cancellation to become bigger than ever!
Toonami is bigger than it has ever been in its history these days as a programming block with Adult Swim, and there's a distinct reason it originally came to an end back in 2008. Toonami might be huge now, and might have been huge with anime fans when it began, but there was a stretch of time that the anime block truly struggled with Cartoon Network. It was clear that the media landscape was changing in the mid-2000s, and those behind the scenes at Toonami were more aware of this than anyone else as its cancellation was drawing near.
In a resurfaced interview with Complex from 2017, Toonami co-creator Jason DeMarco (now Senior Vice President, Anime and Action Series/Longform at Warner Bros. Animation) reflected on how the cancellation of the block came about likely through the recession of interest in the home video market following the boom of interest from years before. It started when the Toonami schedule was reduced, and ultimately Cartoon Network moving away towards other priorities.
Why Toonami Ended in the 2000s
"Looking back it was probably when we went from being on five days a week to just being on Saturday," DeMarco explained. "There was this five year explosion of home video and 'Dragon Ball' and 'Pokemon' and 'Spirited Away' winning the Oscar. There was a wave. And then it receded because the bottom fell out of the home video market; a bunch of fake 'Toonamis' popped up and died; and I think it was a cross between the wider cultural consciousness moving away from anime and our network having different priorities."
DeMarco also noted that those at Toonami were very aware of the block's imminent end before it happened, "[W]hen they moved us to Saturday and they started promoting 'Toonami' less, the writing was on the wall for a good two years. Our bosses were pretty transparent, so it wasn't a huge surprise when they told us we were going to be canceled."
But as fans know well enough by now, this is far from the end of the story for Toonami. After being resurrected back with an April Fool's Day joke in 2012, and making a full resurgence a bit later, Toonami has now run for longer than the block did before its cancellation. It's one of the staples of Adult Swim's programming, and continues to grow with original anime releases, English subtitled broadcasts, and much more.
How do you feel about the current state of Toonami? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments!