You Gay Hoe, or why one of the worst Anime dubs ever is going to show up on Toonami

Hey,

If you didn't know, I'm a huge fan of Toonami, Cartoon Network's Premiere Action Animation block. Even if you've never watched it, you've seen it's effects. This block brought us Dragon Ball Z(the non-otaku's anime, being produced into a movie by Fox), All Gundam Shows (even thought they don't get along with Bandai [Gundam's parent company] anymore), and The DC Animated Universe (They showed B:TAS and S:TAS, and premiered Teen Titans, Justice League/Unlimited and Batman Beyond). It spawned Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's alternate channel that airs every thing from Family Guy to Neon Genesis Evangelion (Just announced, I can't wait to finally see that show), all because the guys at Ghost Planet Industries (now Williams Street) did so well making Toonami. Without Toonami, anime wouldn't be the revolution it is today.

Well, lately Toonami has been going through and identity crisis. Until about a year ago, Toonami aired every weekday from 4-6. Well, the head honchos down at CN (abbreviation for Cartoon Network I can now use in all my articles. You've been warned) decided that Toonami was drawing too old a crowd to be on weekday afternoons. They had been testing waters with a Saturday Action Block (called the SVES, Saturday Video Entertainment System, always liked that name) and it got enough ratings to warrant moving Toonami to Sat. Nights. That way Toonami's ratings could be more focused on Teens than the 11 year olds they were catering to in the weekday timeslot. So April 17 2004, on one of the best nights of TV I ever watched, Saturday Toonami premiered with this schedule...

7.0 PM - Duel Masters (a parody of Yugioh)
7.5 PM - Toonami In-Flight Movie - "Bionicle: Mask of Light (soon replaced by Jackie Chan Adventures, Rave Master, and Astro Boy)
9.0 PM - Jackie Chan Adventures (soon replaced by Megas XLR, awesome Mecha show)
9.5 PM - Yu Yu Hakusho (one of my favorite animes)
10.0 PM - Dragonball GT (Okay sequel to Dragonball Z, really hit or miss)
10.5 PM - Gundam SEED (Best Gundam since Gundam Wing)

That's a pretty good schedule once it stopped playing movies. All the shows are new and there is something for everyone. Toonami's schedule has always been ever changing and good shows like Rave Master and Rurouni Kenshin came and went. Sadly, good shows were also cancelled (Megas), shoved into 1:30 AM slots (Gundam SEED), got serious (Duel Masters, just finished it's second season. They added a plotline to the show and now it feels like your watching Yu-Gi-Oh! lite) or delayed indefinitely (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Now, thanks to Kids WB and 4Kids(the two factions that own Sat. morning. One is owned by CN's parent company Time Warner and the other has made the most popular Sat. morning shows in history [Pokemon and Yugioh] and is the only reason Kids WB still exists. That's the reason CN doesn't have a sick Sat. morning schedule) wanting to put every show that is even a little popular on CN, we get this schedule tomorrow's Toonami.

7-Transformers Cybertron(haven't seen it yet, doesn't bode well considering the last two Transformers shows [Armada and Energon] were half done pieces of crap)
7.5-Yu-Gi-Oh! (obvious)
8-Teen Titans (Good Show, but reruns 5 times every day and Currently airs on Kids WB. That's overkill)
8.5-The Batman (Terrible, slang ridden attempt to modernize the Batman of '94. Currently airs on Kids WB)
9-Justice League Unlimited (Good Show in reruns)
9.5-Zatch Bell (Anime ripoff of Shaman King, The dub makes an already bad show worse by aiming it at 11 year olds)
10-One Piece(One of the worst dubs in recent memory, right up there with Kights of the Zodiac and CardCaptors. Currently airs on 4KidsTV)
10.5-One Piece(This episode in particular combines 6 episodes of the Japanese version, That's a movie and two shows mashed into 30 min.)

The worst thing is that Yugioh will get ratings on the block, just because it's Yugioh and the kids will watch. Saturday Toonami was supposed to be for High School kids. What self respecting Freshman would watch Yugioh? The 10 PM hour was supposed to be for un-edited anime and TV-PG shows, not stuff that they srhow on 4KidsTV every Saturday morning. It's just disgraceful. There has never, in the histoy of my watching of Toonami been a point in time where there is nothing I will watch on the block. Until now, that is. You just can't let a company that is named 4Kids program a block that is trying to be everything but for kids, and the CN execs just don't get that. Toonami has reached a new low, and it can only get better from here.

-May you never feel the way I will feel tomorrow.
Pudge