“Bang.” Tom V's final word as Toonami signed off for the final time. At this point, Toonami was only a shadow of its former self; offering little more then a single airing of Naruto each week. No more Midnight Run, no more Deep Space Bass, no more online games to introduce new line ups, no video game reviews, nothing that gave Toonami the magic it used to have remained. This was a time where one could catch an episode of Rurouni Kenshin in between any flavor of Gundam and Tenchi In Tokyo (Which always seemed to be aimed at a different demographic than us who stayed up past their bedtimes to watch these shows, wrapped up in a sleeping bag at friend's house.) These late-night shows presented a world of animation that was; pardon the cliché, completely foreign. Perhaps that’s why the block had such a loyal following, because it revealed to its viewership styles of animation completely alien to those of us who had previously only been exposed to the same cartoons our parents had watched. Flintstones, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo: shows that had started decades ago and yet were still running. Oh sure, Nick ran it's own cartoon schedule, but it did not do so with the same panache with which Toonami presented it’s lineup. Besides, Nickelodeon fans tended to bring their lunches to school in brown bags, and sat in the front of the bus. Us Toonami fans were fascinated with the intricacies of Japanese Culture. We got up at ungodly hours on Saturday to catch Card Captors (though we would never admit it). We logged on to Toonami Reactor to watch Record of Lodoss Wars and Interstella 5555. We locked ourselves in our rooms for the premier of Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz. Whenever Tom and S.A.R.A. were under attack, we were at the ready on our parent's computers, playing our way through the belly of the Absolution to combat the alien menace. We even managed to catch Midnight Run on the weekends every so often. But before long, shows like Outlaw Star and Ronin Warriors was replaced by Code Lyoko and Rave Master, and knockoff blocks like Meguzi appeared. Toonami's hours were repeatedly shortened, and only shown on certain days of the week. With such a dedicated following, what could have happened? To put it plainly, the magic simply wore off. As Toonami's audience grew up, these foreign cartoons failed to inspire the same sense of wonder that they once did. The kids who once were awed by IGPX (The original, of course) now moved to MTV and the adult world for their fill of the strange and exotic. While Toonami was great, it simply couldn't have lasted. Without the mystique that once defined Toonami, a generation looking to distance itself from Pokemon and all the childish things it once enjoyed in an attempt to appear more mature began to regard Toonami as nothing more than yet another cartoon block on television.

It's strange looking on the Wikipedia page and realizing that my memories of watching Blue Submarine #6 and G-Force are almost a decade old now. I still have my old VHS copies of Gundam 0083, outmoded twice-over now. What now? Today there is no comparable programming block on television (the closest is Adult Swim, and they've been replacing all anime with in-house crap), and it's unlikely that any other will both surface, and survive. The survivability is key, as there have been other attempts at a new Toonami on other channels, but none lasted for very long.

I say that Toonami was the best section of television there ever was, because it appealed to my favorite emotion, child-like wonder. Today as I search Youtube for clips of Tom, I have to settle for Wonder's brother: Nostalgia. Regardless, even if Toonami were to come back, it wouldn't be the same. I would now understand the strange culture after which the shows are modeled, I probably wouldn't even be done with my work for the day when the start airing at 7 o' clock. Toonami can't come back, at least not for me. So while I salute Toonami for bringing something to television that is exceedingly rare in the medium, and I understand it's influence on my tastes today, I also acknowledge that it was a once in a lifetime experience, at what was once lost cannot be returned.