Wow, that Toonami episode brought back a lot of great memories!
Toonami will always be special to me. Before Toonami, I watched anime, but I'm not sure that I'd call myself an anime fan. During the mid-nineties, I watched anime if I caught it on TV (usually an older show being broadcast on a local channel), or if the subject matter piqued my interest and it happened to be available at the local video rental store, or on those rare trips to Dallas where we might go to the mall and stop by Suncoast. We didn't have cable, but occasionally I would catch an episode of Eagle Riders (Saban's adaptation of Gatchaman II and Gatchaman Fighter) at my grandmother's house.
Most of the anime I saw during this period were based on video games; my gaming hobby was my main gateway into the world of anime fandom for a long time (it certainly didn't hurt that so many fighting games received anime adaptations). I remember looking at the ads in the back of EGM that featured import games, Eva model kits, and figures from something called "DragonBall Z". I wanted to know (and buy) more, but just didn't have the money to do so at that age. With internet access still a little bit in the future, combined with living in a very rural area, finding more information about anime was very difficult.
DragonBall Z airing on the weekends during syndication was a bit of a turning point. I was finally able to see the show I had wanted to see for so long...at 6 a.m. on Sundays. I caught the show when I could, but still missed quite a bit.
During this time, I would walk to my grandmother's house after school and hang out there before my parents got off work, and I seem to remember watching some of the early Toonami shows. I'm fairly certain I watched Birdman on Toonami; I've been a Birdman fan from the moment I saw the show the first time. With that said (and with nothing against Birdman reruns), everything changed for me when Toonami started airing DragonBall Z. The show that I had longed to see consistently quickly became my favorite show, and I found myself enjoying the other anime offerings, like Sailor Moon, as well. As the Toonami lineup grew to include more anime, and as I began to use the internet more and more, my fandom was cemented.
I know that the shows shown on Toonami were nothing new for the hardcore anime fans of the day, but for those with limited access to anime, Toonami was the gateway to another world of entertainment, and boarding the spaceship to that other world each afternoon was something that we looked forward to each day. I can firmly say that I wouldn't be the anime fan I am today without Toonami.
While the revival may never be the same as it was back then, I'm glad to see Toonami back on the air, and even happier to hear Steve Blum return as Tom. Now that DragonBall Z Kai is a part of the new Toonami, the block really feels more like the original again.
Thanks for doing this episode usamimi! Stay gold.
Bang.