Toonami facts for kids

Toonami ( too-NAH-mee) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese anime and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. The name is a portmanteau of the words "cartoon" and "tsunami". It currently broadcasts every Saturday night from 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. ET/PT.

Toonami initially ran as a weekday afternoon block on Cartoon Network until 2004, when it transitioned into a Saturday evening format until its closure four years later. Cartoon Network's block was primarily aimed at children aged 9–14. In its original run from 1997 to 2008, the block was known for showcasing action oriented animation, with heavy focus on Japanese animation, which became widely popular with American audiences. Toonami is recognized for its distinctive space-themed backdrop, anime music videos, drum and bass-flavored soundtrack, and its robot host named T.O.M. (short for Toonami Operations Module).

On May 26, 2012, Toonami was relaunched as a late night block on Adult Swim. The current incarnation is a rebrand of Adult Swim's Saturday night action block (itself inherited from Toonami's Midnight Run block), which primarily airs mature Japanese animation.

Online video services

Toonami Reactor

On March 26, 2001, Cartoon Network launched Toonami Reactor, their first online streaming video service. The three-month service featured streaming episodes from Dragon Ball Z and Star Blazers, the latter of which was an online-exclusive series. Editorial content was provided by the now-defunct Animerica Magazine, published by VIZ Media. After the three-month "trial run" was over, Cartoon Network took it offline and completely revamped it.

On November 14, 2001, Cartoon Network relaunched Toonami Reactor with all online-exclusive programs such as Star Blazers, Patlabor: The TV Series, Harlock Saga, and Record of Lodoss War, as well as videos from Daft Punk and Toonami-themed games. In the summer of 2002, Toonami Reactor was revamped again under the Adult Swim aegis and, in a joint venture with VIZ's Weekly Shonen Jump, programmed it as "Adult Swim Pipeline." It featured episodes and/or manga chapters from One Piece, Naruto, Shaman King, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Sand Land.

Toonami Jetstream

On April 25, 2006, Cartoon Network and VIZ Media announced plans to launch Toonami Jetstream, a new ad-supported streaming video service featuring Toonami series like Naruto, Samurai Jack, Megas XLR, and IGPX, and the Internet webcast premieres of Hikaru no Go, MÄR, Eyeshield 21, The Prince of Tennis, MegaMan Star Force, Kiba, MegaMan NT Warrior, and Zoids: Genesis, the latter two of which were never streamed.

Toonami Jetstream launched on July 17, 2006 (after a brief unofficial sneak preview that began on July 14), and offered episodes of Naruto, Hikaru no Go, MÄR, Zatch Bell!, Pokémon, Blue Dragon, Samurai Jack, Kiba, Storm Hawks and Transformers: Animated.

On January 31, 2009, Toonami Jetstream was discontinued. Since then, many of the shows aired until cancellation aired on Cartoon Network Video on its main website.

In 2012, Adult Swim rebranded their action videos section as "Toonami shows." It initially featured content from Durarara!!, which never aired on the Toonami block.

Toonami Pre-Flight

On February 27, 2015, adultswim.com launched the online show Toonami: Pre-Flight hosted by Toonami producers Jason DeMarco and Gill Austin. The first two episodes premiered on a Friday at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, and was then moved to Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time until September 25, 2015, when the show was moved back to Fridays at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. Each episode features a series highlight, a weekly topic and other featurettes like sneak peeks at promos and spots, as well as announcements, and segments from voiceover talent Steve Blum and Dana Swanson. Toonami has also done panels from MomoCon, San Diego Comic-Con, Dragon Con and Anime Expo which they've streamed as part of Pre-Flight either live or on tape delay.

Crunchyroll

The anime-oriented streaming service company Crunchyroll became a sibling asset to Adult Swim after AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, and its subsequent acquisition of the remaining shares in AT&T's existing venture Otter Media. In March 2019, Adult Swim and Otter were briefly placed under Warner Bros. as part of a corporate reorganization. The corresponding announcement stated that there would be synergies between Toonami and the service; the two properties had already announced a collaboration on Blade Runner: Black Lotus, an anime series set within the Blade Runner universe. In July 2020, Adult Swim and Crunchyroll announced a new anime series collaboration, titled Fena: Pirate Princess. At the virtual Crunchyroll Expo in September 2020, the two entities announced yet another collaboration titled Shenmue, an anime series based on the video game series by Sega.

Programming

Cartoon Network (1997–2008) / Kids' WB (2001–2002)

Adult Swim (2012–present)

International

Outside the United States, Cartoon Network aired Toonami blocks in Australia from 2001 to 2006. In the United Kingdom, Toonami was a standalone channel from 2003 to 2007. In December 2012, Toonami was launched as a standalone channel in Asia-Pacific. Similar channels were launched in India in 2015, France in 2016 and Africa in 2017. The Southeast Asian and Indian channels have since been closed by 2018.

Australia

The programming block was launched in 2001 in Australia as a weekend block on Cartoon Network. It aired on Saturday from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm and on Sunday from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm with a repeat on both nights from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am. The programming was then converted to a weekday block shortly there after. The programming was dropped from the channel in August 2006.

France

French version of the Toonami television channel was launched on February 11, 2016. It is operated by Turner Broadcasting System France, in France, Switzerland, Morocco, Madagascar and Mauritius.

India

An Indian version of Toonami was first launched as a block in 2001 and was then followed by a stand-alone channel in 2015. It ceased operations on May 15, 2018.

Latin America

On December 2, 2002, Cartoon Network premiered the Toonami block, replacing a similarly-themed block, Talisman. The weekend block of Toonami was then replaced by the premiere of Adult Swim in Latin America on October 7, 2005. In 2007, Cartoon Network cut the Toonami block completely from the channel.

The block was revived on Cartoon Network in partnership with Crunchyroll beginning on August 31, 2020. The revived Toonami block runs every weeknight from 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. local time.

Pakistan

Toonami was launched as a programming block on Cartoon Network in Pakistan and ran from 2004 to 2013.

Southeast Asia

A stand-alone Toonami channel was launched in Southeast Asia replacing Boomerang on December 1, 2012. Although it replaced Boomerang, the channel was relaunched in 2015 alongside Toonami. The channel shut down on March 31, 2018 making it the longest running stand alone channel out all of them, lasting 6 years.

Sub-Saharan Africa

A Toonami television channel was launched in sub-Saharan Africa on June 1, 2017. It was available on Kwesé satellite television platform.

Following Kwesé TV closure, Toonami was removed on 1 November 2018.

The African Toonami was relaunched on 27 March 2020 as a pop-up channel on Dstv until mid-May 2020 when it was relaunched as a permanent channel on StarTimes (channel 306 satellite, 355 DTT).

UK & Ireland

Toonami was launched as a programming block on Cartoon Network in the UK and Ireland in 2001. In October 2002, it then became part of CNX, a new spin-off channel. Almost a year later, CNX was relaunched as Toonami in 2003 turning the block into a stand-alone channel. The channel shut down on May 24, 2007, replaced by a 24-hour Cartoon Network Too.

See also

In Spanish: Toonami para niños