The day Toonami died (technically yesterday)
I know I haven't posted in a long time. But I must come out from the shadows to share my mourning of cartoon network's toonami block. I should have seen this coming. One of my friends was planning to boycott the channel when adult swim moved the premier episodes of code geass and moribito to 4 a.m. only. But the death of toonami blind sided me completely.
Then Tom said "bang."
God thank Steve Blum (voice of Spike Speigal, and Tom) for giving us a dignified end.
I can't believe it's been 11 years; and I never expected it to end. I'm 22, so I was 11 when I started watching it, and I didn't even have the channel yet. I had to be a really, really good child so that I could make it to my friend's houses without fail every weekday afternoon. When I packed up my room before moving away to go to college, all of the vhs tapes I owned were filled with anime recorded from toonami, midnight run and early adult swim (aside from a couple from the action channel.)
Cartoon network was one of the leading pushers for anime in the US. It might have even been the key ingredient for anime to have gone mainstream here. So why are they cutting so much anime now. I feel so betrayed. It seems like the only places that could fill the void are channels like sci-fi and the earlier G4, and those series are more suited for adults. It's horrible for me to picture a world where kids don't have access to anime on network tv. They should not have to put up with seeing only the crap that 4kids shits out.
And what about series like Naruto. Sure it was in the filler, which is a pretty bad place to be, and I'm fairly confident that cartoon network will continue showing it without toonami - but what if it doesn't. Naruto is sooo hot right now. Hundreds of kids hearts will be broken or betrayed by a crappy ending to a great series. What? Is Shippuden too mature for them. It's sad that family programming can't contain any of the elements that families really aught to be able to talk about, like death, betrayal, depression, and having to work with people you don't get along with. I've seen small children reading the last Harry Potter book (very dark if you haven't read it) and let me tell you they looked perfectly sane and unlikely to do something violent or unethical should the chance arise.
What does this say for the anime industry. That's my dream house. I've known since I was 9 years old that I wanted to have a career in anime. And now everyone says that anime is on the decline and you need to find the new hot niche. How can anime be on the decline if it has been around for the last fifty years and you can see it in theaters in multiple countries around the world. Anime isn't going to decline from this except from in america. Sadly, anime producers stopped being affected by the increase in sales of series sold in the US, there would be less american influences on it. This means more unsexualized nudity and Japanese settings. But that would be horrible. I've always wanted to share the wonders of anime with english and other foreign language speakers. It's cruel to see the outlets declining. And what about our precious dubbers. Without them there is no future for anime in America. I love fansubs as much as the next person, but; seriously, if they start losing airtime we're gonna have to seriously increase our purchasing power to keep them in business. We should all pinch pennies and tip in to helping them out. Really, I'll start donating anime to hospitals and orphanages or something. We should all tell the workers of public libraries the value of having anime dvds, vhs, and manga for rental.
Everyone Please go to a hastings, a sun coast, a local anime store, anywhere that sells the stuff new for a decent price and buy something dubbed or translated into english. Buy something that you know you can find online, or have already read online over and over. Do it this week (or this month if your short on cash.) Just do something, buy something, encourage others to buy something. I'm sorry if I sound demanding but I WANT TO FIGHT!
I don't want anime in America to die out in a breath, in a distant 10 second apology like Toonami did.
I know I'm not the only one. There are lots of kids just like me who grew up watching toonami and who love anime as much as I do. We're all getting older, we're all reaching that age where we're moving up in our lives and we have the power to do something. All of us, together, our voices are a whirlwind shaping fandom, shaping the trends in our market, letting the media know what we want. Sure, anime may not be every American's favorite past time (and I'm not trying to exclude any foreigners who may be reading this - feel free to join in too!) but there is a huge fan following here. We are the cause, we are the demand for anime in our area and it will not end with us. I know that we all plan on showing our families, our children, anime - and they don't have to be in any way shape or form as obsessed with it as we are; but, nevertheless, they will have the opportunity.
The battle isn't over...it's just begun.
Then Tom said "bang."
God thank Steve Blum (voice of Spike Speigal, and Tom) for giving us a dignified end.
I can't believe it's been 11 years; and I never expected it to end. I'm 22, so I was 11 when I started watching it, and I didn't even have the channel yet. I had to be a really, really good child so that I could make it to my friend's houses without fail every weekday afternoon. When I packed up my room before moving away to go to college, all of the vhs tapes I owned were filled with anime recorded from toonami, midnight run and early adult swim (aside from a couple from the action channel.)
Cartoon network was one of the leading pushers for anime in the US. It might have even been the key ingredient for anime to have gone mainstream here. So why are they cutting so much anime now. I feel so betrayed. It seems like the only places that could fill the void are channels like sci-fi and the earlier G4, and those series are more suited for adults. It's horrible for me to picture a world where kids don't have access to anime on network tv. They should not have to put up with seeing only the crap that 4kids shits out.
And what about series like Naruto. Sure it was in the filler, which is a pretty bad place to be, and I'm fairly confident that cartoon network will continue showing it without toonami - but what if it doesn't. Naruto is sooo hot right now. Hundreds of kids hearts will be broken or betrayed by a crappy ending to a great series. What? Is Shippuden too mature for them. It's sad that family programming can't contain any of the elements that families really aught to be able to talk about, like death, betrayal, depression, and having to work with people you don't get along with. I've seen small children reading the last Harry Potter book (very dark if you haven't read it) and let me tell you they looked perfectly sane and unlikely to do something violent or unethical should the chance arise.
What does this say for the anime industry. That's my dream house. I've known since I was 9 years old that I wanted to have a career in anime. And now everyone says that anime is on the decline and you need to find the new hot niche. How can anime be on the decline if it has been around for the last fifty years and you can see it in theaters in multiple countries around the world. Anime isn't going to decline from this except from in america. Sadly, anime producers stopped being affected by the increase in sales of series sold in the US, there would be less american influences on it. This means more unsexualized nudity and Japanese settings. But that would be horrible. I've always wanted to share the wonders of anime with english and other foreign language speakers. It's cruel to see the outlets declining. And what about our precious dubbers. Without them there is no future for anime in America. I love fansubs as much as the next person, but; seriously, if they start losing airtime we're gonna have to seriously increase our purchasing power to keep them in business. We should all pinch pennies and tip in to helping them out. Really, I'll start donating anime to hospitals and orphanages or something. We should all tell the workers of public libraries the value of having anime dvds, vhs, and manga for rental.
Everyone Please go to a hastings, a sun coast, a local anime store, anywhere that sells the stuff new for a decent price and buy something dubbed or translated into english. Buy something that you know you can find online, or have already read online over and over. Do it this week (or this month if your short on cash.) Just do something, buy something, encourage others to buy something. I'm sorry if I sound demanding but I WANT TO FIGHT!
I don't want anime in America to die out in a breath, in a distant 10 second apology like Toonami did.
I know I'm not the only one. There are lots of kids just like me who grew up watching toonami and who love anime as much as I do. We're all getting older, we're all reaching that age where we're moving up in our lives and we have the power to do something. All of us, together, our voices are a whirlwind shaping fandom, shaping the trends in our market, letting the media know what we want. Sure, anime may not be every American's favorite past time (and I'm not trying to exclude any foreigners who may be reading this - feel free to join in too!) but there is a huge fan following here. We are the cause, we are the demand for anime in our area and it will not end with us. I know that we all plan on showing our families, our children, anime - and they don't have to be in any way shape or form as obsessed with it as we are; but, nevertheless, they will have the opportunity.
The battle isn't over...it's just begun.