What, No Hamtaro?

Oh my god, you guys. OH MY GOD. You need to go to this site right now: http://www.toonamiaftermath.com/. Do it.

Did you do it? Do it! I know, I too have been burned when people insist I have to see a site RIGHT NOW that didn't really warrant that level of excitement, but I am telling you, for the first time in my entire life, here is a web site that warrants that level of excitement. CLICK. IT.



I know, right? It warms me well to know not only that there are other huge fans of Toonami and mid 90's/early '00s Cartoon Network, but that they're crazy enough to devote their time, energy, and money to recreating the experience in a way that will almost certainly end with all of them sued. But they did it anyway! The fact that people out there work their asses off just to entertain, for nothing more than that intrinsic value... really, it hits me on a level meaningful enough that it almost brings tears to my eyes. Thank you, you wonderful, crazy bastards!

Look at the schedule. Okay, whadda we got here... Well, you got a lot of the anime my friends, brother, and I would devour after school. Dragonball Z, obviously. Tenchi's there. Outlaw Star, kick ASS. The "Midnight Run" stuff... remember "Midnight Run?" Slightly more violent anime! Cowboy Bebop, 8th MS Team, Yu Yu Hakusho... was Ruroni Kenshin afternoon or midnight?Both? I don't remember, that was kinda at the tail end of my viewership... Don't remember them ever showing Berserk, Ranma 1/2, or Trigun, but whatev, they fit. Then you've got pretty much every single Cartoon Cartoon. Seriously, I think they've got all of them (except Grim and Evil, but I think that one came later...). Some of the early/precursor Adult Swim stuff like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Mission Hill, Home Movies... Batman AND Batman Beyond, both ends of the spectrum. Then some stuff that I don't think ever came near Toonami, such as Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Beast Wars, Roughnecks, and X-Men: The Animated Series, but I don't think anyone in the "Toonami fan" age bracket is going to care. Plus, they play house ads and the old Toonami framing sequences between episodes, for extra nostalgic appeal.

Y'know, we really got lucky, cartoon-wise, anyhow, to grow up when we did. TVTropes calls it The Renaissance Age of Animation, and their description is probably better than anything I could do. Nicktoons, Cartoon Cartoons, Toonami, WB Stuff, Darkwing Duck, The Simpsons... just killer stuff. I guess market forces made hand-drawn, higher quality stuff profitable back then, because today its all low budgets and CGI, because kids have too many other things competing for their time and income, like internet phones that play games and music. Christ, when I was a kid the height of technology was the Game Boy Color. And we were happy to have that Game Boy Color, it was amazing! But at the end of the day, of COURSE we watched Dragonball Z and Outlaw Star. Because all we had to distract us was the Game Boy Color! And I might have had dial-up internet at the time... I think I was the only one of my friends who did, and only one computer in the house was connected, and videos took a few hours to load, and you couldn't make phone calls while online, and-