Toonami

**Toonami** is an animated programming block formerly on Cartoon Network, and currently on Adult Swim, geared toward action-oriented programming, mostly consisting of American cartoons and Japanese anime. The name is a combination of the words *cartoon* and *tsunami*, suggesting that the block is a "tidal wave" of animated shows. The block originated in the US on March 17, 1997 and ended its run on September 20, 2008. It was revived on Saturday May 26, 2012, as a more mature-geared incarnation on Adult Swim.

## History

### **Pre-Launch**

In 1996, Sean Akins was asked by Cartoon Network executive, Mike Lazzo to create a new action animation block for the network. Akins enlisted his friend Jason DeMarco to help him and together, with the help of several other individuals, they created what eventually became the Toonami block.

The weekend before the launch of Toonami (March 15-16), Cartoon Network held a two day marathon of action cartoons and titled the weekend, *Superheroes Weekend*. The weekend featured the *Super Friends*, a show that would eventually wind up on the Toonami block, and *SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron*, a show that never appeared on Toonami. During the weekend there were also several sneak peeks of the Toonami block.

### **Early Years**

Toonami made its world premiere on Monday, March 17, 1997, initially replacing *Power Zone*, Cartoon Network's most recent action block incarnation. Toonami was originally a weekday afternoon (4-6 PM) action cartoon block hosted by *Space Ghost* villain-turned-producer Moltar from the Ghost Planet Industries building from 1997 to July 9, 1999.

In the animated world, Moltar began the program by sending his mobile satellite probe, Clyde 49, to earth to retrieve data and transmit it through the Ghost Planet Studio, where *Space Ghost: Coast to Coast* was broadcast.

### **Expansion**

In 1999, Moltar was replaced as the host of Toonami by an A.I. named TOM, who was given the Ghost Planet vessel, GPS Absolution Mk. I, to travel through the universe and continue Moltar's work. TOM's first appearance as host actually came during Toonami's very first Midnight Run broadcast, which started at 11:55 p.m. ET on July 10, 1999.

With TOM in the driver's seat, Toonami began reaching out in new and unexpected programming and added several additional programming blocks (Midnight Run, Rising Sun, Super Saturday). In 2000, Toonami premiered the first Total Immersion Event, *The Intruder*, in which an Intruder ate into the Absolution and killed TOM, leaving his successor, TOM 2 to take over and rid the vessel of the intruder. TOM's faithful companion, SARA, was also introduced during the event. On July 3, 2000 Toonami expanded by an additional hour, running for 3 hours from 4-7 PM.

On May 14, 2001, the Toonami block lost the 4-5 PM hour in preparation for the premiere of the Toonami block on Kids' WB on July 30, 2001.

### **Kids' WB Toonami**

From July 30, 2001 until June 30, 2002 Kids' WB aired a Toonami block that was, more or less, the Kids' WB lineup with the Toonami name. It was critically panned by industry observers and fans, who noticed the action branding of the block did not translate content wise, which had added shows like *Scooby-Doo* and *The Nightmare Room*, a live-action series created by *Goosebumps* author R. L. Stine. In Spring 2002, Kids' WB announced that they would drop the Toonami name from their weekday lineup, once again making the Toonami brand exclusive to Cartoon Network.

### **Post Kids' WB Toonami**

On June 3, 2002 Toonami regained the 4-5 PM hour. From August to the middle of September, Toonami hosted Hyper Space Movies on Fridays, but the Absolution got Trapped in Hyperspace due to a computer virus named Swayzak.

In March 2003, an online Toonami comic titled *Endgame* was released. In the comic, the Absolution was destroyed and SARA taken from it. TOM was also destroyed, but was rebuilt into a new body (referred to as TOM 3) and rescued SARA, building a new ship from scrap, dubbed the GPS Absolution Mk. II. On March 17, 2003 TOM 3 began hosting Toonami and the block was shortened once again, losing the 4-5 PM hour.

### **Toonami Rules Saturday Nights**

On April 17, 2004, Cartoon Network moved Toonami from weekday afternoons to Saturday evenings, airing from 7-11 PM, aimed at a preteen and teen audience. Cartoon Network also added a new lighter-toned action/comedy hybrid block, Miguzi, to weekday afternoons in place of Toonami.

Toonami also replaced the block known as Saturday Video Entertainment System. One big reason for the move from weekdays to Saturday nights was the fact that some of the shows on the weekday lineup (such as *Yu Yu Hakusho*, *Cyborg 009*, and *Rurouni Kenshin*) became too violent for a weekday afternoon broadcast on the network.

### **3.17.07 (Toonami's 10th anniversary)**

On January 27, 2007, a teaser commercial aired during the *Xiaolin Showdown* marathon on Cartoon Network featuring close up shots of larger Clydes (the remote robot explorers that have been a fixture of Toonami since the beginning) along with the date 3/17/07 and TOM's chest emblem glowing blue.

On March 17, 2007, Toonami celebrated its 10th anniversary with the introduction of TOM 4, and the jungle control room called Flowus 3 with a trio of new robots- Flash, D and a new Clyde. There were also numerous montages celebrating the block's history.

The montages included a look at past hosts, former logos, and a decade's worth of clips and voiceovers from shows that aired on Toonami. There were a total of 4 montages, all of them having different clips.

As part of the anniversary (and to coincide with Cartoon Network's March Movie Madness event), Toonami planned a month of movies:

* March 3 - *The Invincible Iron Man*
* March 10 - *Stan Lee Presents: Mosaic*
* March 17 - *Hellboy: Blood and Iron*
* March 24 - *Stan Lee Presents: The Condor*
* March 31 - *Spirited Away* and *Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo*

On October 13, 2007, Toonami was shortened from 4 hours to just 2 hours, airing from 9-11 PM.

### **Cancellation**

On Saturday morning, September 20, 2008, at the Anime Weekend Atlanta convention in Atlanta, Georgia, Cartoon Network announced that they had canceled the Toonami block due to low ratings. Toonami then aired its final transmission that same evening. Employees who worked on the block moved to other parts of the Cartoon Network or Adult Swim. Anime was mostly handled by Adult Swim, which on that same day, was deemed by Cartoon Network to be the new "main source for anime." Action cartoons were mostly handled by a then-new programming block titled "You Are Here", and a then-new block titled "Action Flicks" replaced Toonami on Saturday nights. Toonami Jetstream remained without the Toonami name until January 2009. At the end of Toonami's final airing, the host, voiced by Steve Blum, ended the block with a final monologue simply reading:

"*Well this is the end beautiful friends, after more than 11 years this is Toonami's final broadcast. It's been a lot of fun. And we'd like to thank each and every one of you who made this journey with us. Toonami wouldn't have been anything without you. Hopefully, we've left you with some good memories. So, until we meet again, stay gold...*Bang*.*"

The last part echoed the final words of the character Spike Spiegel from *Cowboy Bebop*, who was also voiced by Steve Blum in the English dub of the anime. After that, all traces of Toonami, including the Toonami name and mascot were all but completely phased out from mainstream television airwaves and online websites from 2008 until 2012.

### **April Fools 2012 - Toonami Revival on Adult Swim**

On midnight of April 1, 2012, just past Toonami's 15th anniversary, Adult Swim, which generally changes its programming for April Fools' Day, began to play *The Room* (as they had done the past several years). The scene then switched to TOM (in an updated version of his third incarnation) aboard the Absolution, greeting the viewers while commenting on April Fools' Day, before introducing that week's scheduled episode of *Bleach*. The Toonami-related programming and bumpers continued throughout the night, featuring *Dragon Ball Z*, *Gundam Wing*, *Tenchi Muyo!*, *Outlaw Star*, *The Big O*, *Yu Yu Hakusho*, *Blue Submarine No. 6*, and *Gigantor*. *Trigun* and *Astro Boy*, two series that were never shown on the original Toonami, were also shown. TOM also presented a review of "Mass Effect 3" and promoted the recent DVD releases of the series shown that night.

### **Toonami Relaunch**

On May 16, 2012, Adult Swim posted a message on Facebook announcing that Toonami would return on May 26, with a similar message on Twitter, ending with #ToonamisBackBitches. The network issued a press release later that day confirming the block's revival as a Saturday late night block. Toonami made its return on May 26, 2012, after a four-year hiatus from mainstream television airwaves, with all new bumpers, game reviews and an updated animation of TOM. This midnight timeslot block features more mature programming than any of its predecessors. The initial lineup continued some of the Adult Swim Saturday anime block programs and premiered two new shows, *Deadman Wonderland* and *Casshern Sins*.

On September 26, it was announced that the 3-6AM time period formerly used to repeat the Toonami block would be replaced with two episodes (1 hour) each of *Cowboy Bebop*, *Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood*, and *Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex*. This new schedule began on October 6, 2012.

On January 6, 2013, Toonami changed its color scheme from dark red to blue after using the blue scheme to introduce Inuyasha on November 3.

During Momocon 2013, the Toonami staff unveiled designs for a TOM 5 and a new Absolution, and announced a look overhaul (New logo, schedule bumps, etc.) which will all debut in april. Toonami also announced that they would air *Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone* on the block's anniversary March 17, and *One Piece* would be added to the lineup some time in 2013. The color scheme changed to green on March 17, for one day, for Toonami's birthday celebration (and St. Patrick's Day), though on the official Toonami Tumblr, they said the change to green had nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day.

On March 26, on the official Toonami Tumblr, it was announced that TOM 5, the GPS Absolution Mk. III, and the new look of the block, will premiere on April 27. It was also announced that the formerly written off Toonami original series *IGPX* has been brought back to Toonami.

### **TOM 5 Era**

On April 27, 2013, *IGPX*, TOM 5, The GPS Absolution Mk. III, and the new look of the block (logo, bumps, etc.) made their scheduled premiere along with the surprise return of the Absolution's A.I. Matrix, SARA, redesigned and now voiced by Dana Swanson.

On June 27, 2013, it was announced on the official Toonami Tumblr that after July 20th Toonami will no longer hold the rights to *Thundercats (2011)*, so it will not be coming back to the block.

On October 25, 2013, on the official Toonami Tumblr, it was announced that Toonami would be expanded by half an hour, making it a 6 1/2 hour block and would start at 11:30 PM on January 4, 2014. It was also announced that *Space Dandy* would be making its world television premiere on Toonami on January 4, 2014 at 11:30 PM.

On November 15, 2013, on the official Toonami Tumblr, it was announced that December would be a month of movies, with Toonami airing 4 movies over 4 weeks.
The scheduled movies were:

* *Akira* - December 7, 2013
* *Summer Wars* - December 14, 2013
* *Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie - Conqueror of Shamballa* - December 21, 2013
* *Trigun: Badlands Rumble* - December 28, 2013

On February 5, 2014, on the official Toonami Tumblr, it was announced that *The Intruder II*, the sequel to the original Toonami Total Immersion Event, *The Intruder*, was in development for a 2015 premiere.

On April 5, 2014, the block received a surprise look (logo, font, bumps, etc.) upgrade.

On August 15, 2014, on the official Toonami Tumblr it was announced that there would be an *Attack on Titan* marathon on August 30th from 12-6 AM.

On September 22, 2014, on the official Toonami Tumbler it was announced that *Beware the Batman* and *Sym-Bionic Titan* had been written off by Cartoon Network and will never appear on Toonami again. It was also announced that the final 7 episodes of *Beware the Batman* would air on September 27th from 2:30-6:00 AM.

On November 8, 2014 on the official Toonami Tumblr, it was announced that December would be another month of movies, with Toonami airing 6 movies over 4 weeks as well as the final 2 episodes of *Hellsing Ultimate*.
The scheduled movies were:

* *Hellsing Ultimate* (Episode 9) - December 6, 2014
* *Summer Wars* - December 6, 2014
* *Hellsing Ultimate* (Episode 10) - December 13, 2014
* *Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos* - December 13, 2014
* *Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan* - December 20, 2014
* *Akira* - December 20, 2014
* *Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone* - December 27, 2014
* *Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance* - December 27, 2014

## Toonami Staff

### **Current Toonami Staff**

* Jason Demarco (1997-2008; 2012-present)
* Gill Austin (1997-2008; 2012-present)
* Mike Lazzo (1997-2008; 2012-present)
* Jonny Ray (1998-2008; 2012-present)
* Steve Blum (2000-2008; 2012-present)
* Dennis Moloney (2000-2008; 2012-present)
* Sara Hardy (2002-2008; 2012-present)
* Brent Busby (2005-2008; 2012-present)
* Chris Hartley (2012-present)
* Howard Parker (2012-present)
* Kim Manning (2012-present)
* Dana Swanson (2013-present)
* Shawn Moore (2014-present)

### **Former Toonami Staff**

* Sean Akins (1997-2008)
* Michael Cahill (1997-2002)
* C. Martin Croker (1997-1999)
* Randall Lane (1997-1998)
* Tommy Guerrero (1997-1999)
* Joe Boyd Vigil (1997-2002)
* Peter Cullen (1999-2008)
* Sonny Strait (1999-2000)
* Sally Timms (2000-2007)
* Mike Terrell (2004-2008)
* Julia Merrill (2005-2008)
* Tom Kenny (2007-2008)
* Dave Wittenberg (2007-2008)

## Toonami Programming

### **Toonami Series (1997-2008)**

The series that appeared on Cartoon Network's Toonami block from March 17, 1997 to September 20, 2008.

**Note:** The dates under "**End Date**" are the last time the series appeared on Toonami, Toonami's Midnight Run, or Toonami Super Saturday. Some series had multiple runs that were not always consecutive.

### **Toonami Series (2012-Present)**

The series that have appeared on Adult Swim's Toonami block from May 26, 2012 to the present.

### **Toonami Movies (1997-2008)**

The movies that appeared on Cartoon Network's Toonami block from March 17, 1997 to September 20, 2008.

### **Toonami Movies (2012-Present)**

The movies that have appeared on Adult Swim's Toonami block from May 26, 2012 to the present.

### **Toonami Reactor Exclusive Series**

 2
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## Toonami Programming Blocks

### **Midnight Run**

The Midnight Run was a Toonami Programming Block that ran from 1999-2003. Initially from 12:00 AM to 5:00 AM on Saturdays from 1999 to 2000. It was then moved to weekdays and ran from 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM until 2003. It consisted of series such as Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, Outlaw Star, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, among others. Midnight Run tended to have slightly more blood and violence than its day-time counterpart, at one point even running an uncut version of Gundam Wing.

### **Rising Sun**

The Rising Sun was a Saturday morning Toonami Programming Block that started and ended in 2000, Toonami's Rising Sun initially ran from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, but later was changed to run from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. It consisted of series such as Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, Batman: The Animated Series, and Ronin Warriors, among others. The Rising Sun was somewhat hampered to avoid competing with sister network Kids WB.

### **Super Saturday**

Super Saturday is a Toonami Programming Block that ran on Saturdays initially from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, then from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. It consisted of series such as Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002 TV series), Transformers: Armada, and .hack//SIGN. The final 4 episodes of Zoids: Chaotic Century were shown for the first and last time on any Toonami block on January 4, 2003 as part of Toonami Super Saturday. The block premiered in 2001 and was cancelled in 2003, replaced by SVES, a Non-Toonami action oriented cartoon block.

## **Total Immersion Events**

Starting in September 2000, Toonami presented special interactive events known as Total Immersion Events or TIEs. These TIEs took place both on-air during Toonami and online at the official site, Toonami.com, and always occurred the week that the block's most popular series, Dragon Ball Z, returned for a new season.

The very first TIE was **The Intruder**, which introduced TOM's companion, an AI matrix known as SARA. *The Intruder* was an eight part mini-series that aired during Toonami from September 18, 2000 to September 27, 2000. It resulted in the rebirth of TOM, upgrading his appearance from a short Bomberman-esque character (voiced by Sonny Strait) to a taller, darker, deeper-voiced incarnation dubbed TOM 2.0 (voiced by Steve Blum).

The following TIE, **Lockdown**, aired between September 17–21, 2001, and included the introduction of CartoonNetwork.com's first MORPG as well as a record-breaking amount of page views and ratings for the network. During *Lockdown* TOM fights to save the Absolution from an attack by a giant trash compactor.

**Trapped in Hyperspace**, the next TIE, ran for a week from September 16–20, 2002. The ship's computer, SARA was infected by a computer virus and TOM became trapped in hyperspace. TOM eventually destroys the virus before the absolution hits Earth. *The Intruder* and *Lockdown* aired in the UK, but did not achieve the same amount of success as their American airings.

The TIE in September 2003 was a diversion from the TOM and SARA adventures and introduced a new, 2D universe. *Immortal Grand Prix (IGPX)*, created by Toonami producers Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by anime studio Production I.G. It aired in five short installments and served as a pilot for the first Toonami original series, which premiered in November 2005.

## Online Video Services

### **Toonami Reactor**

On April 30, 2001, Cartoon Network launched **Toonami Reactor**, their first online streaming video service. The three-month service featured streaming episodes from Dragon Ball Z and Star Blazers, the latter of which was an online-exclusive series. Editorial content was provided by the now-defunct *Animerica Magazine*, published by VIZ Media. After the three-month "trial run" was over, Cartoon Network took it offline and completely revamped it.

On November 14, 2001, Cartoon Network relaunched Toonami Reactor with all online-exclusive programs such as Star Blazers, Patlabor, Harlock Saga, and Record of Lodoss War, as well as videos from Daft Punk and Toonami-themed games. In the summer of 2002, Toonami Reactor was revamped again under the Adult Swim brand and, with a joint venture with VIZ's *Weekly Shonen Jump*, programmed it as "Adult Swim Pipeline."

### **Toonami Jetstream**

On April 25, 2006, a little over five years since the launch of the now-defunct Toonami Reactor, Cartoon Network and VIZ Media announced plans to launch **Toonami Jetstream**, a new ad-supported streaming video service featuring Toonami series like Naruto, Samurai Jack, Megas XLR, and IGPX. As well as the U.S. internet stream premieres of Hikaru no Go, MÄR, Eyeshield 21, The Prince of Tennis, Megaman Star Force, and Kiba. *MegaMan NT Warriors* and *Zoids: Genesis* were scheduled to be part of Toonami Jetstream but never ended up being streamed.

Toonami Jetstream launched on July 17, 2006 (after a brief unofficial sneak preview that began on July 14), and offered episodes of Naruto, Hikaru no Go, MAR, Zatch Bell!, Pokémon, Blue Dragon, Samurai Jack, Kiba, Storm Hawks, and Transformers: Animated. On January 30, 2009, Toonami Jetstream ended it's run. After Jetstream's end, many of the shows aired until their cancellation on Cartoon Network Video on it's main web site, cartoonnetwork.com.

### **Adult Swim**

In 2012, Adult Swim rebranded their action videos section on video.adultswim.com as "Toonami shows". The site features current Toonami shows such as Bleach, Naruto, and Soul Eater. As well as past Toonami shows such as Big O, Deadman Wonderland, and Samurai 7. The site also features a Non-Toonami, former Adult Swim Action show, Durarara!!, but all content from the show was removed from the site as of June 24th, 2013 and adult swim lost the rights to the show.

On July 3, 2013, Toonami got it's own section on video.adultswim.com, complete with full schedule, a tumblr feed from the official Toonami Tumblr, and links to show pages, also on video.adultswim.com, that host full episodes and clips from most of the current Toonami shows.

## **Music Releases**

Toonami proved to be a haven for music throughout it's history, using original compositions; first by skater/artist Tommy Guerrero from 1997 to 1999, and then by Atlanta-based composer Joe Boyd Vigil from 1999 to 2002, many of which were compiled in the CD **Toonami: Deep Space Bass** in 2001, which is now out of print. In 2003, DJ Clarknova (the alias of Toonami co-founder Jason DeMarco) took Toonami's beats (both old and new) and mixed them with sound bites from recent Toonami and Adult Swim shows. This resulted in an hour-long compilation of Toonami remixes, called the **Toonami: Black Hole Megamix**, but for unknown reasons was never published. However, the Megamix recently was hosted by Toonami Digital Arsenal, a popular unofficial Toonami multimedia site. DJ Clarknova then released another Toonami album, entitled **Toonami: Supernova Megamix**, on Christmas Eve of 2012 as a free download through the official Toonami Tumblr webpage.

From 2003 through 2008, Toonami relied on original and library tracks from various artists from publisher Ninja Tune. On rare occasions, videos from musicians such as Daft Punk, Linkin Park, The White Stripes, Beck, and Gorillaz aired on the block.

## Video Game Reviews

Frequently throughout it's history, Toonami aired **Video Game Reviews**, written by Jason DeMarco and/or Gill Austin. The reviews, delivered by TOM and occasionally SARA, were fairly short and ran during commercial breaks. The hosts scored the games on a 1 - 10 system: 10 signifying an excellent game, 1 signifying a very poor game. (The score system was originally 1 - 5 until 2001.)

Two games were given a "?" rating, *Dropship: United Peace Force* for the PlayStation 2 (because of many failed attempts to get past Level 6) and *Slender* by Marc "Parsec" Hadley of Parsec Productions (because of not finding all eight pages in time, and the fright of looking at the Slender Man).

## Toonami Comics

Toonami has released multiple comics during it's history. The first comics were part of DC's **Cartoon Network Presents** series. The next two were online comics. **Toonami Swarm** (A flash comic) and **Toonami Endgame**, told overall plot-related stories about the origin of TOM 1 and the origin of TOM 3 respectivly. The fourth comic, that doesn't offically have a name but is refered to as the **Lost Toonami Comic**, was never released during Toonami's original run. The lost comic was released post Toonami revival via the Toonami Tumblr page. In the next couple of months the Toonami Staff will premiere an online comic that will tell the story of how TOM 3 became TOM 4, how TOM 4 became TOM 3.5, where Sara and the Clydes were, and how TOM 5 and the new Absolution came to be.

## Toonami: Outside The U.S.

### **Latin America**

On December 2, 2002, Toonami premiered on Cartoon Network Latin America, replacing a similarly themed block, Talisman. Toonami aired shows that were already on the lineup such as Dragon Ball Z, Gundam Wing, and Pokémon. It also served as the home of Inuyasha. Over the years, Toonami added shows like Yu Yu Hakusho and Knights of the Zodiac, as well as the revamped versions of Cyborg 009 and Astro Boy. However, the block had to move to the late-night slots on CN Latin America due to protests of violent scenes on the block. Mexico moved Toonami to midnight in October 2003 while the rest of Latin America moved the block in November 2004.

In 2005, Toonami had short-lived weekend schedules, which were later replaced by the premiere of Adult Swim in Latin America (October 7, 2005). In March 2006, Toonami revamped their lineup to include more adult-oriented series, such as Love Hina, taking advantage of the late schedule and the refusal of anime on Adult Swim, as well as to compete against the anime channel Animax (now Sony Spin) for new anime series. In June 2006, Toonami premiered anime movies in two monthly variations: Dragon Ball Theatricals (which had 17 different Dragon Ball movies), and Toonami Movies (generally animated action movies).

In 2007, CN Latin America cut Toonami completely and the movies were no longer aired, save those of Dragon Ball Z. After its cancellation in Latin America (March 26, 2007), the anime programming of the channel gradually vanished, currently the only anime which air on CN Latin America are Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z Kai.

In January 2010 the block Animaction was created, showing on Wednesday evenings. This block broadcasted both action programming and anime programming until it was removed in April 2011.

### **UK & Ireland**

Toonami UK was a programming block on the Cartoon Network in the UK, until October 2002 when it became a key component of CNX, a new channel launched by Cartoon Network UK, the first Cartoon Network derivative to launch outside North America. CNX also broadcasted martial arts movies and dramas like The Shield and Birds of Prey at night. The network catered towards a young male audience. A year later, CNX was relaunched as Toonami and was then targeted at younger audience.

Toonami UK, throughout its existence, also aired cartoons based on DC Comics properties on the channel, such as Justice League Unlimited and the first two seasons of Batman Beyond (aired as Batman of the Future). Contractual disputes with Warner TV distribution prevented the channel from showing the third and final season of Batman Beyond and the whole of Superman: The Animated Series, forcing the channel to recycle through the first two seasons of Batman Beyond as a result.

In 2004, Toonami got rid of TOM and SARA and adopted a new look, featuring spinning and sliding red and black squares in different forms on a light blue background. From March 6, 2006, Toonami UK changed its focus from action cartoons to entertainment in general, as the channel moved to Sky 602 and began airing live-action shows such as Backyard Science, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper and Life with Derek, Blue Water High. Additionally, the channel's graphics were redesigned, with the black, white and red logos replaced by a new blue background logo and giggling, blob-like mascots that are used in the channel's break bumpers, promos and idents which contrasted heavily with the original themes of the channel. Toonami and Cartoon Network Too merged into one channel on May 24, 2007, ending the run of Toonami UK.

### **Australia**

Toonami launched on Cartoon Network Australia on 7 July 2001 as an outlet for action animation. Most of its lineup consisted of anime, including already popular shows such as Dragon Ball Z, as well as the Australian premiere of Cardcaptors and exclusives such as Gundam Wing and Yu Yu Hakusho. Occasionally it also broadcast action cartoons from the United States such as Batman Beyond.

On its launch, Toonami broadcast on Saturday evenings from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm and on Sunday afternoons from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Each day's programming was repeated in the Toonami "Late Run" from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am. Toonami soon expanded to weekdays, and for a number of years could be seen seven days a week. Although timeslots varied, the main Toonami block remained on weekday afternoons; in 2005 it was airing weeknights at 6.00pm, with mini-marathons playing on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

In September 2006, Toonami was dropped from the Cartoon Network Australia schedule. Former Toonami programming, and new programming that would have previously gone to Toonami is now spread out across the network's other timeslots.

### **Toonami Asia**

**Toonami Asia** is a television channel that launched in Asia on December 1, 2012. It is operated and distributed in Asia by Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific Inc., a Time Warner company. Although the brand carries the same name as the programming block available in the US, they are in no way affiliated with each other, other than both being part of the Turner Broadcasting family. The Toonami channel in Asia is available 24 hours a day.

## External Links

* Toonami Wiki
* Official page
* Official Tumblr
* Toonami Digital Aresnal

## References

1. ↑ Toonami To Lose One Hour. animenewsnetwork.com (April 25, 2001). Retrieved on April 4, 2015.
2. ↑ Toonami Gets its 3rd Hour Back. animenewsnetwork.com (April 18, 2002). Retrieved on April 4, 2015.
3. ↑ Program Changeup at Cartoon Network. animenewsnetwork.com (February 4, 2003). Retrieved on April 4, 2015.