Toonami Rewind - What's Old Is New Again... Again
Originally written on May 31, 2024.
Today's the day that Toonami Rewind goes live on Adult Swim, and everything about this is so surreal that I never could have predicted this even a decade ago. I've been watching Toonami's CN incarnation for most of my life.
Since Toonami came back in 2012, I've been as big of a fan as ever, but even then I knew that the initial climate it was made it was inherently different. Firstly, Toonami was made as a nostalgic throwback block. These didn't really have names in the 00s because even if the shows were old, nothing was old enough to be nostalgic for a whole time period, if it makes any sense. I still saw Hey Arnold reruns on Nicktoons, Pete and Pete reruns on The N, and Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Lab reruns on Boomerang. In the 2010s, there was a specific motive to throw back to the 90s, even if these were the same reruns as before, with novelty and new bumpers you could get a consistent audience of 20 or 30 somethings to watch the same stuff they loved as a kid. In theory, this prints money when you don't have to put nearly as much into producing new media. In practice, it's a lot more difficult.
Toonami is the only one of these blocks that's survived because they weren't shackled down to a specific era of anime, instead keeping things fresh by introducing new titles. Their debut lineup consisting of shows like Samurai 7 and Casshern Sins may not have been hot off the presses, but were likely new to whatever audience was either tuning into Toonami as a newcomer, or was a holdover from the Adult Swim Action block. Having Deadman Wonderland as their flagship new title for a while really sent the message that this wasn't a kids block anymore. Airing Bebop, Inuyasha and GiTS:SAC were seen as formalities but welcome all the same, but I personally never felt like airing shows like that was seen as pandering or milking nostalgia.
The block also worked because of wanting to have variety. As they were able to afford bigger and better acquisitions, what was seen as a novelty was now the standard. Airing Black Laggoon, Michiko and Hatchin, Samurai Champloo, or even Parayste the Maxim would never be done on Cartoon Network, but the acquisitions still fit. It's not to say that only adults were watching this new form of Toonami, hell I started in 8th grade. At that time I also was watching TeenNick's throwback block, which went through an absurd amount of rebrands for having mostly the same amount of programming over the course of its life.
In spite of the new variety in programming, Toonami has been pretty reliant on shonen anime, or shows aimed towards young boys. This isn't to say that they're the ONLY people who watch these shows or people older aren't also avid fans. The big shows that air though, like Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia, One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto are shonen through and through. And I won't lie, even though kids absolutely would stay up till 11 - 2 AM on a Saturday to watch as how they like, but some of these shows would likely have a bigger splash if directly marketed towards kids. We're not in that era anymore though; any kids networks that air anime are toyetic in nature (Pokemon, Beyblade, and Yu-Gi-Oh and Yokai Watch all being on Disney XD at one point speaks for itself) while shows with a more pronounced fanbase air either on Toonami or are just licensed for online broadcast through Crunchyroll or something similar. If this were a different decade, I could absolutely see someone market My Hero Academia directly to kids on a kids network, but it's a different time and hardcore anime fans would likely yell about any form of censorship regardless of how tastefully it's done (even though they have very easy access to uncut versions, making it moot).
Toonami Rewind sticks out as an all star move because it lets people have their cake and eat it too. It's not just kids that would benefit from watching shows that are for their age range AND have lasting legacy (with Toonami and the western anime fanbase as a whole). Every month, you have someone wistfully posting online how they wish Toonami was back... even though Toonami's been back since 2012. What they really mean is that they want Toonami back to when it was when they were a kid, airing all the shows that they once loved there. For multiple reasons, that's not possible. I hard wrote off any attempt of that because of me realizing that CN and AS are different beasts with different approaches to programming, knowing that the crew behind Toonami are stretched thin enough as is, and knowing that the 8PM rerun timeslot of DBZ Kai and One Piece many years ago didn't spark much regarding anime at primetime.
So this crowd basically got what they wanted... and there were still complaints. I get the inevitability, and the fact that not many people are as in tune with this stuff as I am. As I've joked about before, Toonami fans speculate about programming in the same way that I imagine fantasy football fans obsess over players. We find it engaging, others find it strange. There were realities that I had already accepted that others really found annoying, and it's honestly frustrating.
I will wholeheartedly acknowledge that these shows have legacies existing far longer than my own existance. I'm also not saying that the most well known version of these shows are bad or antequated or shouldn't exist. Licensing issues simply aren't our friend. The last time that Cartoon Network truly aired DBZ was on April 1st, 2012 (or the Toonami April Fools Prank). Having a one night license would obviously be much easier than a weekly one. Since it landed in the west around 2011, it's very safe to assume that Toei wants DBZ Kai as the definitive way to watch DBZ. It's much more friendlier for modern broadcast standards, the vocal performances are better, the voice cast in its current form have went on to do further projects with Dragon Ball, and it can easily be censored for a younger audience and still be enjoyable if needed. It won't have the Falcouner Productions soundtrack or any "over 9000's" or "rock the dragons", but I'm fairly sure at least those elements are easilly available on streaming or modern home releases (quality notwithstanding).
I only got into Sailor Moon around 2019, through the ViZ Media dub with no prior nostlagia for the franchise. Many fans older than me are familiar with the DiC and Cloverway dubs, and I lament more with them because there's no easy / legal way to watch that version these days due to the changing of hands. I do wish more people understood that a dub that stitched together episodes, had a entirely new soundtrack had questionable vocal performances, and wrote around queer characters wouldn't be great to air in this climate, in spite of the nostalgia.
Again, I'm not meaning to belittle anyone who grew up on these versions. The only thing I take issue with is insulting them, and by proxy, insulting the people who grew up on Kai or the ViZ dub respectively. I'm not a fan of generational warfare and I try my best to not repeat the cycle to people younger than me.
Sailor Moon in any form airing on TV is still huge, and could potentially lead to episodes never originally broadcast making a US television debut. It all depends, of course. Outlaw Star got a re-run in HD due to the new blu-rays that were out in 2017, and they aired the penultimate episode that previously got skipped for broadcast because it's a gratuitously raunchy beach episode that happens to reveal a very important plot element at the same time. Having Sailor Stars finally air on television would still be a huge victory, though that all depends on if Sailor Moon will have a presence on the block after the first season finishes airing.
We're now in a frenzy of online discussion again, with people making rant videos and speculating on schedules, urging everyone to watch so the block can improve. It's just like 2012 all over again, honestly. I'm glad that Toonami is doing so well that it can expand like this, and relegating nostalgia reruns to a seperate block will mean Saturday Night Toonami can focus on newer acquisitions.
For me, I hope for any show that never got to run entirely on Toonami. Yu Yu Hakusho was given a early morning death slot. (Naruto never finished its run despite being at the peak of its popularity in the US, and I don't honesty think it will finish on Toonami Rewind.) Bobobo is an insane anime that's a laugh a minute and has a new release and a cult audience, though it did finish its run. Megas XLR is a legal nightmare but something that deserves to be on especially if we can get western shows on Toonami Rewind. Samurai Jack Season 5 is curiously geting a Checkered Past rerun, but it wouldn't hurt to see the original series there or on Toonami. IGPX never got to finish its broadcast in HD, picking it back up would definitely work.
Licensing deals are obviously more tricky considering how the anime industry isn't in a great state and Crunchyroll continues to consume, but Toonami is a name that means something to many generations of people and I hope that they can use this to haggle.
As for the actual broadcast, it seems that any Viz show is more likely to show episode previews than a FUNi show, as Sailor Moon and Naruto had next episode previews. I missed them so much honestly, so I'm glad to see them return. Naruto also had its japanese OP air for the first time on Toonami which was surreal, honestly? I have NO nostalgia for the original opening, "ROCKS", instead growing up on whatever aired for the US english dub at the time. DBZ Kai aired the Kikuchi soundtrack to be the same as current releases of it, and I won't lie, even as someone who isn't as familiar with the Japanese version, the sound cues used needed more variety and don't fit in as well as the Yamamoto songs. Though, I won't stress too much.
I'm hoping for the best, it's nice to watch this and I think the block has potential. 2 hours is also perfect without getting too bloated like Nickelodeon's offerings. I'm insanely biased as a fan of Toonami, of course. But I'll likely be watching these shows again as long as I'm able to, and I'll enjoy it too
