Ah, the good old days when you can watch anime on weekday afternoons. Toonami was the leading the way in decent anime you can see without staying up late at night on a Friday night to see the SciFi Channel’s anime lineup–provided your parents could let you see them at the time where anime was considered “Too Hot for TV”.

Sadly, those days of watching anime in the daytime is gone. The longest running action cartoon block on the Cartoon Network said its last goodbye in September 2008. While it’s a little late to mention this, I would like to share my memories of the one block that changed the lives of many anime fans new and old in the US.

I had just turned 8 when Toonami first aired, I didn’t take notice of it right away until one day I decided to check it out to see what the hype was about. I started watching Dragonball Z in the midst of the Saiyan Saga (now known as the “Vegeta Saga”). The episodes shown was where Gohan tells Nappa he “smelled like toenails!”. I’m sure everyone will agree that while it was a very corny line to say, it will remain in our hearts as one of the best quotes ever for a heavily (and badly) edited dub.

There was also Sailor Moon, which also received the same editing treatment as DBZ. I watched it in the middle of the series–and the only part of the series I’ve ever watched. It was the “Heart Snatcher” and “Dream Snatcher” arcs; Unfortunately, I can’t recall which arc came first… These were the only two arcs of Sailor Moon I took interest in–after that, it was completely unwatchable for my tastes.

Later was another rare classic, Ronin Warriors. This aired on Toonami’s Midnight Run block on Saturday nights. But just as Ronin Warriors was getting very good, the Midnight Run on Saturday nights were no more. I never got to finish Ronin Warriors, but Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon were still around for the masses.

I’d long gotten sick of Sailor Moon and was deeply infatuated with DBZ. It was around this time a new season of Dragonball Z was about to begin, and Toonami ran an all-day marathon (which was actually Toonami’s allowed time slot of 3 hours) of the previous episodes of the Ginyu Saga–leading up to the episodes where FUNimation made their mark with new voice actors that we now all know and hate love, and slightly better editing, with a couple of slip-ups (“Don’t piss off the God of Love!” - Dende).

A few years later, Dragonball Z, and its counterparts, Dragonball and Dragonball GT aired as well. But Dragonball Z was the most important to us all. After DBZ ended, DBGT was there to fill the void, but for some, it wasn’t quite the same…

The majority of this post is all about that Dragonball, but it’s the sole reason I became an anime fan. There’s also Gundam Wing to thank for getting me into the series that started it all. The last few years of Toonami has given converted normal kids into Otaku, all thanks to Naruto. Naruto was the only anime that saved Toonami long after all traces of Dragonball were no where to be found.

As of 2008, Toonami is finally put to rest. Naruto is still on the air, but it can make it without Tom…the Space Cowboy. On September 20th, 2008, Toonami said goodbye for the final time. I did not learn about this until a few days ago. I wish I’d known about this sooner, but now I know…and everyone else who has drifted away from the network that we embraced for the one block that was close to becoming an anime channel will now know about it.

Thank you, Tom, for all you have given us. Until we meet again…