YMMV / Toonami

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: The same fans who spent the last two years of the block's original run referring to TOM 4 as "TOM-ass the Toonami Engine" cried when he left. It was because a simple word ("Bang...") reminded the older audience — the ones who had watched Toonami through all eleven years — that they weren't forgotten. Sure, we thought they had when they started milking Naruto for all it was worth, (practically) changed hosts, and got rid of all the credible shows and original series. But what TOM said — what Steve Blum said — just meant so much more. The fact that 4chan practically broke down during the last hour or so of the final run, overwhelmed with nostalgia and begging each other to do something to stop Toonami from shutting down, simply adds to the heartbreak. In short, Toonami with a crappy looking host is still better than no Toonami at all. As of The Intruder II, he became the subject of an off-screen Bus Crash, as the Intruder gloats about killing TOM 4, and Word of God would confirm that his fellow crewmembers Flash and D weren't spared after the events of the tie-in comic. Poor guy. Even worse was that he and his friends were stranded on the moon at the time, all they wanted was to get home. TOM 4 instead spent the last 36 hours of his life running from the Intruder, and just when things finally looked up... it's revealed it survived TOM 4's attack.
• Animation Age Ghetto: The [adult swim] version of Toonami attempted to avert this by airing Cartoon Network shows such as Thunder Cats 2011, Sym-Bionic Titan, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, all of which were considered much more mature fare than Cartoon Network's other shows at the time. Unfortunately, such attempts were often met with derision and cries of Network Decay from fans, mostly those who think that Toonami is an anime block and that such shows are made exclusively for kids. Of course, if Toonami getting to premiere a brand new season of Samurai Jack and later airing gen:LOCK and Primal (2019) is any indication, they're still trying to avert this.
• Audience-Alienating Era:
  • The TOM 4.0 era was hated by a lot of fans for TOM's redesign, and for things like the Absolution and SARA being dropped without any indication of a reason. The general screwing of multiple shows reducing the block to nothing but reruns and Naruto led many to suspect Executive Meddling, especially given that this happened in 2007, after the Mooninite bomb scare and the resulting management shake-ups at Cartoon Network, eventually leading to the channel's Network Decay. Then the block was taken off, and people mourned its passing, no matter what they'd thought about the retool... But when Toonami came back, it was with an updated version of the previous, well-liked TOM 3, with the Absolution back in space, and with no mention of the last few years of the original run. Until a Shout-Out was made to TOM 4 that insinuated there were multiple TOMS running around.
  • For the UK version, the astonishingly bad idea to reinvent the channel with '90s American live-action sitcoms like Parker Lewis Can't Lose taking up most of the after-school block. Though this only lasted a month or two due to overwhelming backlash, it permanently tanked viewer faith in CN as a whole, and the channel was quietly absorbed into the previously younger aimed CN Too less than a year later.
• Awesome Music:
  • The techno music used to introduce each show was so awesome, they eventually put out several soundtracks.
  • Toonami borrows top-notch tracks from a handful of records labels and artists. (Ninja Tune, Ghostly, El-P, etc.)
  • The Kids' WB! Toonami had that catchy piano riff.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: For the block itself, joked about by [adult swim]'s "Saturday Fanservice" bumpers, with a list of shows that air that night during regular [adult swim] and Toonami, and a "Fanservice Level" meter that instantly fills when the bumper highlights Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann.
• Broken Base: Has its own page.
• Complete Monster: TOM and SARA have faced numerous villains during their time hosting the block. These are the worst of the bunch:
  • The Intruder & The Intruder II: The Intruder, once a mindless, indestructible Blob Monster, became something far worse after consuming TOM 1. Gaining sapience after absorbing TOM 1, the Intruder plotted revenge on TOM for defeating him. Having become proud of the thousands of lives it previously absorbed, the Intruder found TOM 4's signal and gleefully absorbed him and his cohosts Flash and D. Finding the Absolution Mk. III, the Intruder sets out to make TOM suffer before killing him by assimilating SARA and bragging about it to TOM, before trying to kill TOM with the Absolution's canons.
  • Endgame online comic: Orcelot Rex is a nasty Space Pirate who plans to become the galaxy's first emperor. Kidnapping SARA to use her abilities to harness the energy of multiple suns and gain more power, Rex destroys the GPS Absolution and later TOM once he tries to save SARA. Having also enslaved the Dronomeks after taking over their ship, Rex, after SARA continues to avoid assisting him, Rex threatens her with the destruction of Earth and every planet with lifeforms on it should she not comply.
  • The Forge: The Commander of the Forge, "Booger", is a battle-hardened alien who seeks galactic domination. Creating yellow, sapient TOM units to serve as disposable labor for him and his species, Booger destroys every Clyde unit and captures TOM, SARA, and the Vindication, planning to release the Vindication's true destructive power on the galaxy. Murdering TOM 5 after he starts a rebellion, Booger orders his men to destroy every TOM unit who rebelled, telling the new TOM 6 that he'll die a forgotten failure.
  • Cosmo Samurai: Jaaku is a being of darkness responsible for the Cosmo Samurai's backstories. Leader of the Akutou Space Pirates, allowing them to pillage and murder everything in their path, Jaaku, upon the Akutou's defeat, dismisses his men as pawns and kills his pet to threaten the Cosmo Samurai. Stealing TOM's body, Jaaku opens a space-time portal and heads to Edo Japan, where he kills the country’s shogun and instigates a war between the country and his shadow ninjas, which leaves three survivors.
• Creator Worship: Jason DeMarco and Steve Blum, TOM's voice actor, get a lot of this from Toonami's fandom, since the block's return.
• Critical Dissonance: TOM gave Spider-Man (PS4) an 8 solely for complaining that he disliked the Peter Parker segments and would rather be playing as Spider-Man. Notably, he was more negative about Red Dead Redemption II after saying some aspects of the game weren't needed and not thought out, but still gave it a 9.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Toonami itself was this to Cartoon Network and nowadays to Adult Swim, thanks to its shows sticking out from the rest, its surprisingly complex hosts, its beautiful CGI and the fact that its original run introduced so many American kids to anime guaranteed it to be listed here.
• Fanon Discontinuity: TOM 4 never happened. Ever. It waned a bit after the reveal that TOM 3 and 4 are separate beings, and even more when TOM 4 was killed offscreen during ''Intruder II".
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • A number of Toonami fans have expressed dislike for the FOX reruns on Adult Swim following the block's lost hours, citing poorer ratings as a result to suggest for the restoration of the block's previous length. A less noticeable but still there issue between Toonami fans and Boondocks reruns also surfaces on occasion, with Toonami fans seeing the show as a herald of bad Toonami rating periods when it is the last program between Adult Swim and Toonami programming. Family Guy eventually became the biggest target, since it usually served as Toonami's lead-in and the fanbases for the show and the block rarely overlapped, along with the general growing distaste for Family Guy as the show has gone on.
  • Jason DeMarco revealing that Toonami often has to compete for broadcasting rights with Hulu and Netflix has also predictably lead to this, a rivalry spurred on by DeMarco stating in interviews that he dislikes the concept of streaming and binge-watching, preferring the idea of Toonami being Appointment Television. Fans of streaming services counter that such a way of thinking is outdated and that services like Hulu and Netflix have done more for anime's mainstream popularity in recent years than Toonami could ever hope to accomplish airing weekly late Saturday/early Sunday, as well as pointing out that streaming services can air material completely unedited while Toonami is still ultimately beholden to network Standards and Practices.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Many Toonami fans adore the early Adult Swim shows^note Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Brak Show, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Sealab 2021, Home Movies, The Boondocks as they grew up with those shows during the block's infancy.
  • Rick and Morty gets a lot love from the Toonami fanbase, as the former show has a lot of anime references and the block has aired multiple R&M shorts done by Japanese directors. It's been noted that the block's ratings as a whole tends to increase when this show acts as a lead-in rather than Family Guy. In 2022, [adult swim] would even go on to order a 10-episode Rick and Morty anime directed by Tower of God's Takashi Sano, who handled two of the previous anime shorts.
  • Many people were baffled that Final Space, a show seemingly tailor made for the Toonami block, never aired before it was cancelled, especially in 2020 when the block was struggling to acquire shows and resorted to airing other Adult Swim shows as late block filler.
  • While the various Seth MacFarlane animated comedies are loathed by much of the Toonami fanbase, that loathing notably does not extend to all of the animated Fox comedies. Most notably, the non-MacFarlane series King of the Hill and Futurama are beloved by Toonami fans, and both shows returning to the block in late 2021 was met with just as much approval as non-Toonami fans.
• Gateway Series:
  • Entire generations of fans learned about anime in general from the network. Without it, the anime boom of the early 2000s would likely have never happened. It's no surprise because of this that quite a few fans say that the original cancellation of Toonami marked the end of that anime boom, and the block's revival is proof that we are in the middle of another one.
  • Musically, the block was responsible for introducing many kids (and adults) to artists like Daft Punk, The White Stripes, Amon Tobin, Run the Jewels, and many, many others.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Toonami was almost singlehandedly responsible for popularizing franchises such as Sailor Moon, Gundam, Rurouni Kenshin, Naruto, and above all Dragon Ball Z in the U.S. Shows that bombed in Japan like The Big O, Outlaw Star, and Deadman Wonderland made it big in America on the block.
• Growing the Beard:
  • Toonami's beard first emerged with the acquisition of its two killer app anime; Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z.
  • For the Framing Device itself, it was The Intruder miniseries for establishing everything that makes Toonami unique.
  • Toonami's relaunch grew its beard when they fully expanded to six hours in length. The beard thickened considerably when it gained One Piece to complete the Naruto-Bleach-One Piece trinity.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • TOM 4.0's speech "Eleven years and counting! Raise your hand if you were alive during Toonami's launch" wasn't as celebratory when it eventually turned out to be the final year of the original Toonami's existence.
  • "Till the sun rises on a world without Toonami" was rather cringeworthy during the period of Toonami's cancellation when the sun actually rose on a world without Toonami.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • When "Raise your hand if you were alive during Toonami's launch!" was uttered by TOM 4.0, it was uttered during the last year of Toonami's existence... Then it got revived! Looks like we're still counting.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • At the end of each Tenchi promo, you hear the narrator say, "love stinks", keep in mind that that narrator was the voice of the original Optimus Prime! Mr. "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings"! A character who is known for being serious and almost entirely lacking in a sense of humor (at least in later Transformers shows and movies)!
  • Back at the height of the 2000s anime boom, some ads mistakenly labeled Cowboy Bebop as part of the Toonami block. It took a while, but it did finally happen in 2012.
  • There was once a obscure [adult swim] bump in the past, making fun of the fact that Toonami claimed to be cooler than Adult Swim, and had a pretty comical in-house rivalry (both being run by Williams Street). Cut to 2012, where Toonami has been Uncancelled and now runs on Adult Swim hours.
  • One of D's quotes, "Glad to see you stayed with us. Toonami loves you", could easily describe the revival.
  • In 2002, the Toonami review of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind had SARA praise it while TOM act completely dismissive towards it. ("...if you care.") Flash forward 10 years later, where TOM looks at Skyrim and not only showers it with praise, but gives it a rating of 100/10 (Dawnguard got an 8/10.)
  • For April Fools Day 2014, the fan site ToonamiFaithful.com wrote an article stating that the original Dragon Ball Z would be returning to Toonami. Fans went absolutely berserk, as despite being written in a very conspicuous manner (including fake quotes and a very nonsensical fake lineup), the article managed to fool a lot of people into thinking that Dragon Ball Z really was returning to the block. One month later, on May 24th (which was coincidentally the same night that Toonami aired Cooler's Revenge), Toonami confirmed at Momocon 2014 and on their Tumblr that the show really would be returning to the block in the form of Dragon Ball Z Kai.
  • Back in 2011, one of the first shows that NeoToonami (which was essentially a fan-made Toonami streamed on the internet) aired was Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. A couple years later, Gurren Lagann started airing on the official Toonami.
  • In 2013, around when the first season of Sword Art Online was announced to air, there were detractors claiming that airing the show would lead to the death of Toonami. Fast forward to the time of this edit. ^note May 2022. Not only is Toonami still around, but the second and third seasons, Sword Art Online II and SAO: Alicization, have also aired in full.
  • Back in the TOM 2.0 era, there was a review for Super Mario Sunshine, during which TOM comments on the large amount of coins. ("I'm seein' coins in my sleep...") If he thinks that game has a lot of coins, let's wait until he plays a more recent Mario game...
  • TOM himself is a tough male character in blue without any eyes; cue the Eddsworld jokes.
  • When FLCL first aired on [adult swim] in 2003 and did gangbusters for the block, [adult swim] pushed several times for a second season. 13 years later, they finally got their wish. If that wasn't enough, [as] ordered two more seasons of FLCL (Grunge and Shoegaze) in 2022 to celebrate the original series' 25th anniversary.
  • It seems that whenever ToonamiFaithful.com makes an April Fools' Day joke, said joke eventually becomes a reality. Case and point is this fake promo for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, made for April Fools' Day 2015. About a year later, it was announced that the show really would be airing on Toonami. Especially now that Stardust Crusaders (the season shown in the fake bump, which is actually Season 2) has aired as well!
  • Another JoJo's-related funny coincidence: The episode of Pop Team Epic that aired right before Okuyasu's introductory episode had a reference to Okuyasu in it (his voice actor in the Japanese dub of Diamond is Unbreakable played Part B Pipimi in PTE's Japanese dub of that episode, so Kamikaze Douga snuck in the signature sound effect of Okuyasu's Stand, The Hand, when Pipimi got mad in the "Pop Team Cooking" segment).
  • The old DBZ movies Adult Swim Toonami aired before Kai were the first Cooler and Broly films. Toonami would later gain Dragon Ball Super, a series with its own versions of an "other Frieza" and "Legendary Super Saiyan" in the Universe 6 and Universal Survival Tournament arcs, respectively.
  • While reviewing Alien Hominid, Tom references other games like Contra and Metal Slug. Steve Blum, the voice of Tom, would later go on to voice Master Contra, the Big Bad of Neo Contra. And finally, come 2024, Steve Blum would go on to voice Bill Rizer himself in Contra: Operation Galuga!
• I Knew It!:
  • When Cartoon Network announced the return of Cartoon Planet, some fans speculated that this would lead to Toonami returning as part of the network returning to its roots for its 20th anniversary. Of course just a day after Cartoon Planet premiered, on the night of March 31-April 1, 2012...
  • Around May 2019, the Toonami staff hinted that another non-action title would air on the block following the success of Pop Team Epic. Many fans speculated that it would either be Food Wars! or Osomatsu-san since both were the most requested non-action anime titles. The former was later confirmed to air on Toonami in July 2019.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • TOM Talking Smack.
  • "If ya leave now, you'll be sad, you'll be all cryin' WHY DID I LEAVE?"
  • Hot Pockets became one due to how much the commercials aired during the November 16, 2019 showing.
  • "This month's fan-art features some real heavy hitters!"^Explanation While the circumstances behind the incident and the aftermath are arguably tragic, the most notable thing about the stolen fanart in the 1/8/23 bumper that made it the final one was that it was a fetish drawing to the varying levels of surprise of many viewers, not only using reuploads of the bumper as a shock video, but also making TOM's beginning line a pun regarding the fetish in question.
• Mis-blamed:
  • Some fans believe that Naruto was responsible for Toonami's original demise, since it was going through a notoriously lengthy filler arc at the time, when it was in fact Cartoon Network's fault for refusing to make or acquire more action cartoons and anime for the block. A lot of it had to do with the Network Decay Cartoon Network was undergoing at the time as they were heavily pushing a retool of the network with live action shows instead of cartoons to compete with Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, which evidently did worse for the network than whatever Naruto did. Plus, if Naruto did prove to be a block killer, it would not have been a part of the block's revival, much less be one of the headlining shows.
  • A lot of viewers don't like that the intros and outros of shows get trimmed down or cut entirely and will usually blame Toonami for that. However, it's actually the distributors themselves who do that, due to TV time constraints. They even addressed this on an on air Q&A session.
  • Marathons. Ever since the start of 2015, Toonami has continually ran marathons during weekends with major holidays ^note Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day due to television ratings be traditionally low. Fans get upset with producers despite them being rather transparent about the limited budget they are working with.
  • Ratings. Jason DeMarco attributed part of the reason One Piece was suddenly removed from the block in 2017 was due to its low ratings. This led to a sudden rash of fear that low ratings will kill any of the show's placement on the block.^note DeMarco later rectified that it was low ratings in addition to Toei increasing the broadcasting fees that led to One Piece's removal.
• Moe:
  • It should noted that the block itself almost never airs any anime that has Moe art style or aesthetic, mainly because many of the Moe anime usually aren't action anime.^note The staff consistently said that Toonami is an action block, not an anime block. That being said, several individual series such as Sword Art Online and Akame ga Kill! have characters that fit into this bill, as well as when Hamtaro aired in 2002. Made in Abyss is the most obvious exception, as it's cute aesthetics intentionally lure in the audience before gripping them with a strong narrative that doesn't pull any punches.
• Moral Event Horizon: In The Intruder II, the Intruder ripping out out SARA's core, seemingly killing her. To make things worse, he gloats about killing TOM 4.
• More Popular Spin-Off: Of Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Coast to Coast is widely considered a Cult Classic and the beginning of the surreal humor that would come to define the [adult swim] lineup, but it didn't fundamentally change how an entire medium was viewed in the same way Toonami did.
• Older Than They Think: In the United States, Toonami was repurposed as an adult-oriented block in 2012 when it returned to Cartoon Network (thus becoming part of [adult swim]), but the first instance ever of Toonami being a programming block for adults happened in March 2006 in Latin America to contrast the adult-oriented western animation broadcasted via [adult swim] (as no anime was aired in that block, hence the decision). When Toonami returned in 2020 to that region as an adult-oriented anime block, it merely brought back an idea that was born there.
• Periphery Demographic: TOM's final farewell closed with a reference (and Actor Allusion) to Cowboy Bebop — a series that had appeared on [adult swim], but never Toonami (until the relaunch). The relaunch itself can also fit into this bill. Even though the relaunched Toonami is geared towards a more adult and teenage male audience, that doesn't stop the block having female fans or even fans that are younger than their intended audience, especially kids who sneak downstairs and try to watch Adult Swim. Basically, the block has fans of all ages.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • TOM for Moltar, although this died down as TOM was able to develop his own personality in bumpers and specials like The Intruder.
  • TOM 4 for TOM 3. When the block was revived, it was done with TOM 3.5, ignoring TOM 4 before moving on to TOM 5.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • The Toonami faithful eased up on the D and Flash hatred since the return of the block. D even got some love for his seemingly prophetic quote (see Heartwarming in Hindsight above).
  • The decision to revive Toonami did this for CN executive Mike Lazzo, who was previously reviled by anime and cartoon fans for his department's implementation of what would become the Boston Bomb Scare and kicking off the increase of live-action shows on the network.
  • The daylight savings easter egg actually made fans happy and excited about seeing TOM 4 again.
• Sacred Cow: The block as a whole for a lot of anime (and action cartoon) fans, especially in The New '10s, and TOM and SARA, the hosts, as well.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Most of the revamps got this, but the 4.0 revamp was the worst, no doubt thanks to the block being cut down to two hours a week (Toonami started out with fifteen), TOM 4, SARA's disappearance, and (finally) the cancellation of the block.
  • The 2012 revival caused a Broken Base. Opposers complained about the Darker and Edgier elements, the later time slot, the poor launch lineup, and the fact it was near indistinguishable from [adult swim]'s normal anime block. Supporters were just happy that [adult swim] was (showing interest of) returning to its roots after the whole Network Decay fiasco that ravaged Cartoon Network during the late 2000's, and pointed out that it'd likely get better shows and an expanded timeslot if it received support. Whether or not its lineup of shows improved is debatable, but it did get an expanded timeslot after a few months (and there's still support to get the timeslot to expand even further).
  • The Midnight Run from the early 2000s going from five hours long on Saturday evening-Sunday morning to one hour long on weeknights. It not only reduced the amount of viewers who were able to stay up and watch it, but by the end of its run, it became rather repetitive (Dragon Ball Z and another show, a Gundam show and some other show, etc.). Plus its abrupt suspension due to the creation of [adult swim]...
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: While most people loved The Forge, many lamented that all the spare TOM units used the same body mold of TOM 5, rather than having a nice little nod by having them be models of TOM 1 and TOM 2. (Then again, given Booger's plans for galactic domination, it wouldn't make much sense for his army to use older TOM models when higher-tech, sleeker ones were available. Plus, using TOM 5 Palette Swaps was probably the cheaper route for the event.)
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Cartoon Network Presents Comic-Book Adaptation of the block was published by DC Comics, but limited to the Hanna-Barbera action lineup from Cartoon Roulette due to presumed rights issues. One could only wonder how DC writers at the time like Dan Slott (who wrote a few short stories for the Toonami-themed issues) would have handled writing stories about Dragon Ball Z, Ronin Warriors, or other anime before the medium gained mainstream popularity.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: While Hamtaro is not actually a bad series, it was completely out of place in the Toonami block. So when Executive Meddling gave them the series, the team decided to go for broke with the promos, using a Peter Cullen voiceover in a completely serious tone over heroic hamster antics in a valiant attempt to make lemonade out of the lemon they'd been given. The effect was actually pretty awesome... for the promos.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Toonami as a whole has inadvertently become a time-capsule of the changing trends in anime. During the block's heyday, long-running, Merchandise-Driven Shonen series were often the mainstays and anchors of the block. Since the revival, the block has favored more shorter Seinen and darker-shonen series... Only to go back to long-running shonen around 2019. At one point in Fall 2020, every single anime on the block except one were Shonen Jump properties, and the one anime that wasn't was still shonen.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • If there's one thing Toonami has a reputation for outside of stellar programming and a kickass host, it's the CG effects. Ever since the early days with Moltar and TOM 1.0, Toonami has been provided with some of the best-looking CG this side of Pixar, with the CG work getting better and better with each successive retool. The TOM 4 era used Pixar's Renderman software, which at the time was usually too expensive for a TV budget!
  • Special mentions for the animation on the Intruder in the original event, and the Hyperspace vortex bumps seen in the TOM 2 era and the Trapped In Hyperspace event.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: While it was written by Gill Austin and didn't name names, the "Sometimes the Bad Guys Win" speech was interpreted by some as being Jason DeMarco's opinion on Donald Trump's presidency, especially since he's openly stated his distaste for Trump on Twitter.
• Win Back the Crowd: The decision to revive Toonami is one of the many things Cartoon Network as a whole has done to win back viewers after the whole CN Real fiasco.

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ONLY Toonami.
Kids Love It!

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