Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Trivia / Toonami

Go To

  • Acting for Two: Steve Blum voices both TOM 3.5 and TOM 4 when they chat with each other.
  • Adored by the Network: Has its own page.
  • Awesome, Dear Boy:
    • When [adult swim] did an April Fool's joke that revived Toonami for a single night, Steve Blum was the one leading the charge to get the action animation block brought back for the long-term. Why? Because he really wanted to voice TOM again. The network doesn't have the budget to pay him a salary that even a starving college student would be happy with, but he's having a blast.
    • There's only six people manning the ship of the Toonami reboot. They've even admitted that they aren't getting paid for it. Any money that is budgeted to the block goes directly into production values and licensing new series. This is obviously a work of love on the part of the crew.
  • Blooper:
    • On Toonami Pre-Flight, sometimes Jason and Gil will set up for a certain video to play, only to play something else entirely by accident.
    • An incident from late in its original run involved the episode of the Third Hokage's funeral being blacked out for two to three minutes for no apparent reason.
    • When Toonami aired the first episode of Dragon Ball Z Kai, they accidentally aired the version that contained the infamously plagiarized Kenji Yamamoto score. Afterwards, all episodes aired were the ones with the replaced Shunsuke Kikuchi score.
    • When Thunder Cats 2011 was re-ran, the first two episodes were aired out of order. TOM lampshaded this:
      TOM: Sometimes I just am pushin' buttons... what does this button do?
    • On March 16, 2019, the latest episode of Sword Art Online: Alicization froze around 7-8 minutes in. The block then cut to commercial. Afterwards, it went back to the episode... only for it to still be frozen. The block quickly cut back to commercial before they followed it up with the first 15 minutes of the latest episode of Megalo Box, which they then replayed from the beginning in its proper time slot. The block would re-air the Alicization episode in full a week later.
    • At the end of the Harley Quinn (2019) marathon, Toonami accidentally played the fourth episode of Season 1 a second time over the finale of Season 1, unintentionally mimicking [adult swim] accidentally playing a rerun of The Big O over the premiere of the very last episode in 2003.
    • A similar thing happened during the end of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon Season 1. Episodes 22, 23, and 24 were supposed to air, but Episode 21 was accidentally played instead of Episode 24.
  • Channel Hop:
    • Sort of. Toonami moved from the daytime Cartoon Network to [adult swim], the nighttime block of the former.
    • Toonami briefly aired on Kids' WB!, though it never left Cartoon Network during that time.
  • Colbert Bump:
    • Most music featured on the block has a huge surge in popularity afterwards. This is doubly true for original run composer Joe Boyd Vigil, who is almost unknown outside of Toonami fan circles, and DJ Clarknova, a.k.a. Jason DeMarco, who pretty much is unknown outside of Toonami fan circles.
    • Slender became massively popular over the Summer of 2012 after it was reviewed on Toonami. Check the review here.
    • El-P was already an established rap act, but the views for his song "True Story" jumped after it was used in a bumper of the same name.
    • The screening of Evangelion 1.11 had Blu-rays of 1.11 and 2.22 top the Amazon anime charts.◊
    • Despite it airing 4 previous times on American television, Episode 8 of Gurren Lagaan on Toonami saw the charcter tweet #kamina and #ripkamina trend worldwide, the only worldwide Toonami trend that night!
    • Just before Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' was given its limited release, Toonami helped promote the movie by showing a sneak preview. The bump seems to have worked both ways, since the following week after the movie was released, Toonami's ratings surged upwards to the point that Dragon Ball Z Kai managed to break 2 million viewers.
    • A lot of cancelled series, shows disrespected by Executive Meddling regarding their schedules, or short-runners that developed a cult following regularly aired or still air on Toonami in the late-night rotation slots, such as Genndy Tartakovsky produced series and the ThunderCats reboot.
    • Toonami itself was given this treatment because of the April Fools' Day stunt and the hashtag campaign to revive it.
  • Distanced from Current Events: On July 18, 2019, Kyoto Animation's Studio 1 building was set on fire by an arsonist, causing a hefty number of injuries and casualties for those who were in the building. The next day, the scheduled airing of Fire Force was postponed due to the incident. However, on the same day, Toonami announced that the series would be added to the block. They instantly received a load of backlash due to the timing of the announcement, as the series premise is about firefighting.
  • Doing It for the Art: Steve Blum returned to voice TOM because he really wanted to. In fact, he led the charge for its return when the April Fools' broadcast revitalized the fanbase.
  • Dueling Works:
    • The revived [adult swim] block has to compete with streaming services like Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Hulu. If Toonami isn't airing a highly requested series, it's most likely because a streaming service got the distribution rights first.
    • For some time after Toonami's revival, Nicktoons held the airing rights to the Dragon Ball series, and would often attempt to compete with the block by airing marathons of Kai, GT, and the movies on Saturday nights.
    • Toonami's short-lived Saturday-Morning Cartoon block, Rising Sun, was specifically cancelled to avert this, since it would've resulted in in-house competition with Kids' WB!.
  • Edited for Syndication:
    • The Toonami crew's policy with show openings and endings is to use a shortened opening provided by the show's distributor for the sake of making way for commercials. Despite this, the first available episode of a show, or when a show is the lead-in slot when the block starts, if necessary, usually keeps the show's full opening. The endings are also shortened regardless, except for the first two seasons of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. This may exclude shows from Adult Swim and Crunchyroll, Housing Complex C and Ninja Kamui, since these are always in the lead-in slot during its premiere runs, as well as its rerun slots. The same goes with Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, due to being originally aired on Adult Swim. This makes it more reasonable due to TOM's answer.
    • While JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was given the same treatment of having its opening and ending shortened, many fans speculated that the ending (which uses "Roundabout" as its theme) would end up getting either dubbed over with different music or cut out entirely due to licensing issues. This notion was jossed entirely when the promo for the series was revealed on Pre-Flight and finally when the series began airing proper, as "Roundabout" was kept as the theme.
  • Executive Meddling:
    • The reason why Hamtaro aired. TOM's bewildered reaction to it was probably a case of Biting-the-Hand Humor.
    • According to the official Tumblr, Wulin Warriors sounded like a case of this.
    • An unfortunate example would be Cartoon Network writing off Beware the Batman and Sym-Bionic Titan, which means that Toonami can no longer air either show legally. The former was still in the middle of its run when this was announced, and it forced Toonami to marathon the last seven episodes before they took it off.
    • At one point Toonami was going to air Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine but were informed by Standards and Practices that even with then-looser standards (such as being able to say "shit" unbleeped) the necessary edits for the block would make the show unwatchable. Instead Toonami elected to air Samurai Champloo, which required no such level of editing.
    • AT&T's forced layoffs at WarnerMedia caused the end of the Pre-Flight podcast/livestream — the entire AS livestream team got canned.
  • Fan Community Nicknames: Toonami Faithful.
  • Follow the Leader:
  • He Also Did: The production crew behind Toonami were also behind Saturday Video Entertainment System (which was basically Toonami on Saturday nights, even airing many of the same shows, before Toonami itself moved to Saturday) and Miguzi (a Lighter and Softer Toonami that aired on weekday afternoons after Toonami moved to Saturday).
  • In Memoriam:
    • C. Martin Croker, the voice actor for Toonami's first host, Moltar, passed away on September 18, 2016. On September 24, 2016, TOM got one last message from his predecessor.
    • The January 1st, 2022 program block started in dedication to Keiko Nobumoto, creator of Wolf's Rain and script writer for Cowboy Bebop, who passed away in late December of 2021. "Gone too soon."
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: When Toonami Pre-Flight first began streaming, [adult swim] didn't archive the episodes in any way due to rights issues revolving around Jason and Gill playing YouTube videos on the podcast. They eventually started uploading the two most recent episodes up on the official website, but for the most part, fans who wanted to watch any past episodes they missed will have to rely on Toonami Digital Arsenal.
  • Long Runner: The original block ran for 11 years, from 1997 to 2008. Several shows on the block also count, most notably Bleach, which began running on [adult swim] Action while the original Toonami was still airing on Cartoon Network.
  • Marathon Running:
    • When Moltar was still around, Toonami had the Lunar Eclipse, a marathon of the last 17 episodes of the English dub of Sailor Moon R.
    • Being one of the block's darlings, Dragon Ball Z was often given marathons sporadically. They rang in one New Year's Eve with a full showcase of the Garlic Jr. Saga.
    • In 2000, there was a marathon called Full Cycle, where Toonami took over Cartoon Network for an entire day.
    • In 2006, Toonami had the Naruto Hundo, where the block celebrated Naruto reaching 100 episodes by marathoning every past episode for three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).
    • On the night when Trigun: Badlands Rumble was aired as part of A Month of Movies, the movie was followed by a best-of Cowboy Bebop marathon to help promote the world-premiere of Space Dandy.
    • On the night Season 2 premiered, Space☆Dandy had a mini-marathon (airing the last two episodes at 11:30 AM and 12:00 AM, with the premiere of Season 2 airing at 12:30 AM), preempting Attack on Titan and Bleach for one night.
    • In light of the news that Beware the Batman was written off by Cartoon Network, Toonami gave the last seven episodes of the show a marathon in order to let it reach its conclusion.
    • Starting in 2015, for notable Holiday Weekendsnote  the block will air Marathons dedicated to one of their current airing series.
  • Milestone Celebration:
    • Back when the block turned 10 years old, they aired a montage of old clips from over the years. What was thought to have suffered from Chuck Cunningham Syndrome was shown. TOM 4.0 even recalls taking over the Absolution after the Intruder. A very bad case of Trolling Creator, indeed.
    • The 15th Anniversary gave a special airing of Evangelion 1.11.
    • The 20th Anniversary saw the block adopt some retro effects for the whole month of the anniversary, as well as repeated old clips of past Toonami video game reviews and bumpers.
    • December 2nd, 2023 set a new milestone for the revived Toonami block, which had now been airing for 4,207 days, officially surpassing the 4,205 days that the original block lasted.
  • Network Decay:
    • Averted for the most part, though even they weren't immune to this during the CN Real era.note 
    • In the United Kingdom, Toonami had its own channel for a while. It was awesome...until they started showing live action. It has since mutated into CN Too, which is actually marketed as a second Cartoon Network. (Hey, TOM wasn't even voiced by Steven Blum on the UK Toonami, so...)
  • Network to the Rescue:
    • In a case of What Could Have Been, the Dragon Ball Z dub almost ceased production due to its original syndicate run not drudging up enough interest. It wasn't until Toonami picked the series up that it became a smash hit and one of the pillars of the anime boom of the '90s.
    • Much like with Dragon Ball Z, the DiC Entertainment dub of Sailor Moon only got 17 episodes into its second season before it was cancelled due to the USA Network dumping all of its animated content. Once it was picked up by Toonami, not only did it become a smash hit, allowing the rest of the second season to air in the U.S. (after its initial Canadian airing), but it also allowed the third and fourth seasons to be dubbed (the fifth season would never get released due to the entire franchise being discontinued in North America before it was to be licensed, until many years later when Viz Media licensed the series).
    • Toonami aired the last two episodes of Hellsing Ultimate during the 2014 month of movies, only a few weeks after they announced they'd only be able to air the first eight.
    • Disney used to air Naruto Shippuden on Disney XD, with some edits removing blood and swears to make it more appropriate for Disney XD's younger target audience. That may not necessitate a rescue, but when the series started to get more violent, Disney simply stopped airing it and did absolutely nothing with the series. Once the license expired, Toonami wasted no time picking up Shippuden for airing uncut and uncensored. Hilarious in Hindsight considering the "TOM talking smack" bumpers from when Naruto used to air on the original Toonami.
    • Beware the Batman is certainly a case of this. Subjected to Invisible Advertising while Teen Titans Go! became Adored by the Network, the show was put on hiatus al la Young Justice (2010) and Green Lantern: The Animated Series after airing 11 episodes, with the only word of its return being from Batman's voice actor in the show, who said it would return on January. When that time rolled around, it was delayed even further until "the middle of 2014" (the fact that new episodes were airing in New Zealand didn't help matters much). Cue the Toonami crew announcing that Beware the Batman would be coming to the block.
  • No Budget:
    • On a Toonami sub-Reddit AMA, Jason DeMarco cited budgetary issues as the reason for certain questionable decisions regarding the block, such as rerunning Attack on Titan at 11:30, putting a rerun at 2:30 once Hellsing Ultimate leaves, and repeating some movies for Month of Movies 2014.
    • Before 2015, Toonami opted to air movies during the holidays as a way to "shake things up" from the norm. While movies initially brought some good ratings, after the 2014 Month of Movies brought in lackluster ratings for various reasons combined with the block’s shortening a month later and a need to refocus the budget to get more popular shows, Toonami has instead opted to showcase marathons during the holiday weekends which are much cheaper to air as they were included in a show’s broadcasting contract from the get-go, in addition to the benefit of giving those lagging behind to catch up with the current broadcast. That all being said, Toonami has since aired movies on very special occasions, such as Children Who Chase Lost Voices during the end of Daylight Savings 2016, and Mind Game during the 2018 April Fools' stunt.
  • No Export for You: Toonami has never had a presence in Canada. There is a Canadian [adult swim] channel (a 24-hour one, at that), but Toonami has been nowhere to be found there, and given the loss of interest in anime on the part of Canada's broadcasters—yes, even YTV—it seems unlikely that Canadians will get to experience Toonami any time soon, at least on regular television.
  • Old Shame:
  • The Other Darrin:
    • TOM was first voiced by Sonny Strait. Steve Blum would took over from the Intruder event onward.
    • SARA's absence all these years was attributed to Sally Timms being unavailable to voice her. She is now voiced by Dana Swanson, a full-fledged member of Toonami's crew.
    • Swayzak (from Trapped in Hyperspace) is an interesting example. On TV, he was voiced by Star Trek alumini Michael Dorn, but in the online tie-in game, he was voiced by this unidentified amateur from New Zealand. What's even stranger is that when Swayzak cameoed in the Rez review from April 2004, they used an archive recording of his laugh from the game.
  • Playing Against Type:
    • Back in the earlier days, they aired Hamtaro, which was an anime children's show aimed at a much younger demographic than that of the block. Tellingly, it's the only show Toonami has ever aired with a TV-G rating.
    • Toonami normally air shows that are either action-oriented series (regardless if the anime is Rated M for Manly or not), or if it's not an action series, it's most likely an adventure type instead (i.e. Space☆Dandy). Pop Team Epic is a far cry from their usual titles, as it's a parody comedy Quirky Work similar to South Park that takes a lot of Japanese pop culture references. Likewise, Food Wars! is a shonen work that isn't an action title. Yet, the series is a World of Ham so over-the-top where cooking is taken as Serious Business to the point that it can easily pass as an action title without actually being an action title.
    • Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is a downplayed example. It technically counts as an action show, but it's also a wacky Gag Series that heavily parodies other shonen anime, and is appropriately described by Peter Cullen in one promo as "an action show unlike any you've ever seen."
    • There were a few instances when the Cartoon Network block aired shows and movies that weren't animated. Wulin Warriors is the most infamous, though the block has also aired Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and the first Spider-Man movie (the latter done as promotion for Spider-Man 3).
    • One of the reasons why the Toonami block on Kids' WB! was unsuccessful, as that block sometimes aired shows that plain didn't fit the block's action branding such as Generation O!.
  • Referenced by...:
  • Rule 34 – Creator Reactions: In January 2023, they showcased fat fetish art of Nami from One Piece, which was originally hidden behind a paywall. After backlash from fans, they discontinued the fanart segment.
  • Schedule Slip: In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic affected two series airing on the block:
    • The first series affected was Season 4 of My Hero Academia, where Funimation moved their simuldub production to work at home, but then saw delays. Toonami re-aired episode 85 on May 5, and after episode 86, did a rerun of episodes 84-86 and episode 49 before the final two episodes of Season 4 premiered starting on June 20.
    • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind was the second series that had its dub production delayed from the pandemic. Ballmastrz: 9009 took its timeslot on June 6 before returning on August 1.
  • Screwed by the Lawyers:
    • One of the reasons why JoJo's Bizarre Adventure wasn't able to make it onto the block earlier than October 2016 despite being one of the most highly requested series by fans. Warner Bros. had no interest of letting Toonami airing it unless the latter was willing to pay up a fortune, and it wasn't until after Viz Media acquired distribution rights for the series on Blu-ray did Toonami finally manage to license the series for airing. Because the series changes protagonists every arc, it also allows it to go off-air between seasons, allowing for other series to take its time slot.
    • Sym-Bionic Titan, Thunder Cats 2011, Beware the Batman all share one thing in common- being darker, gritter TV shows that only got to produce one full season apiece before being moved off Cartoon Network and written off as financial failures, each owing lack of support and interest to their downfall. Due to being written off, this meant none of the shows would be permitted to be rerun on the network. Moreover, action cartoons were falling by the wayside to comedic cartoons (and a disturbing uprising of sadist shows), which were easier to market to a wider range of audiences rather than a niche periphery. Toonami aired every single one in full before their licensing rights were vaulted.
    • This is the reason a number of highly requested series don't end up airing on the block. Jason DeMarco has mentioned several times that the block will sometimes have to compete with the big streaming services, and this sometimes results in them losing out on the rights of various series, meaning that several popular series like the Fate Series, Sailor Moon Crystal, Fairy Tail and Puella Magi Madoka Magica ended up off limits. Season 1 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba aired on Toonami without a hitch. Then it became so immensely popular when with the release of the interquel movie that the price of season 2 skyrocketed beyond their budget.
    • The reason Naruto: Shippuden wasn't aired immediately when the block was revived, as Disney still held the airing rights for some time before expiring, even though Disney XD stopped airing it after November 2011.
    • The reason One Piece got pulled prematurely from the block in 2017, as Toei decided to increase the broadcasting licensing fees of all of their franchises. While the network was willing to pay the extra fees for Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Z Kai, One Piece unfortunately did not turn over the type of ratings that they would be willing to pay the extra price for, leading to the show unfortunately having to be removed from the block.
    • The airing rights to Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 and Food Wars! Season 3 are owned by Crunchyroll, which is why their release on Toonami has been halted.
  • Screwed by the Network:
    • Toonami aired every weekday for years before being moved to Saturdays only, and the block's time slot was cut in half; its schedule eventually consisted of reruns, filler, and Naruto; it was replaced by the network's new darling Miguzi the week following its move to Saturdays-only...the list goes on and on. Long story short, it was cancelled by Cartoon Network, which was supposedly due to bad ratings, despite the fact they were the ones causing them. Then, it was un-screwed when the fandom made enough noise.
    • This has (rarely) happened on the new Toonami. Thunder Cats 2011, Sym-Bionic Titan, and Beware the Batman all had to be removed after their rights were written off by Cartoon Network, while Star Wars: The Clone Wars was yanked as a result of Disney buying out Lucasfilm, and wanting to commission their own cartoon series for one of their own networks. Also, Tenchi Muyo! GXP was moved down to 3:00 a.m. in a schedule move, as the show's ratings weren't doing so hot.
    • The rights issues that caused Inuyasha to get pulled off in March 2014, and lead to Hellsing Ultimate's last two episodes being delayed, could also count.
    • Jason has never been shy about talking about the troubles and licensing knife-fighting that led to Toonami being denied the rights to Magic Knight Rayearth and Slayers, the former in particular being something that Jason wanted very much for Toonami's early days.
  • Sleeper Hit: As detailed throughout this page, anime series that didn't do well during their original Japanese run and were simply picked up due to having low asking prices for TV airing ended up becoming quite popular in their Toonami incarnations. The best examples of this are Outlaw Star, The Big O, and Deadman Wonderland. The latter series deserves special mention because by the second episode, its ratings rivaled those of Bleach.
  • Trolling Creator: Quite a bit. Whether it's their send-off to Deadman Wonderland, their responses to negativity on the Tumblr, or Jason DeMarco re-tweeting "Toonami Sucks" tweets, the crew gets plenty of trolling on the fans.
  • Un-Canceled: Toonami's Back Bitches.
  • Uncredited Role: The voice actor for SARA v2 is unknown and Jason DeMarco has said that that is unlikely to change.
  • Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things:
    • The Toonami Tumblr stopped answering questions daily starting in April 2013 because they kept getting "nonsense", and questions they already answered countless times. They still post pics, gifs, behind the scenes stuff, and music suggestions, however.
    • After years of toxicity, the official Adult Swim message boards were shut down◊ on November 2, 2016, and the Toonami discussion went along with it.note 
    • On December 2022, the long-forgotten Toonami fanart showcase was brought back after over 10 years. Come January 2023, the showcase was permanently discontinued when it was found out that one of the broadcasted fanarts (which was weight gain fetish art of One Piece character Nami) was stolen from another artist who had said fanart locked behind a paywall.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • There were various series that were meant to air on Toonami, but didn't make the cut:
      • Some shows that aired on [adult swim] such as Blue Gender, Trigun, and Pilot Candidate were originally meant for Toonami, but instead ended up airing on the former.
      • Cartoon Network attempted to get airing rights for The Vision of Escaflowne and Slayers. Unfortunately, the rights ended up going to Saban Entertainment instead, and of those two series, only the former ended up airing on Fox Kids. They also attempted to license Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water from ADV and Revolutionary Girl Utena from Central Park Media, but were unable to do so. Slayers did air on the Japanese version of Toonami, though.
      • Two series that were intended to stream on Toonami Jetstream, had the service been kept alive, were Megaman NT Warrior and Zoids: Genesis.
      • According to Jason DeMarco on Episode 7 of Toonami Pre-Flight, one series that was intended for Giant Robot Week but never got to air was Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still.
      • On December 13, 2015, DeMarco tweeted that the crew was trying to get Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine as a replacement for the timeslot for Michiko & Hatchin, which would end that weekend. Both were helmed by visionary director Sayo Yamamoto, who has collaborated frequently with Shinichiro Watanabe. They discovered it had too much nudity they would have to censor, and couldn't simply edit those shots out considering some are even in the opening sequence, and sex plays a heavy role in the story. At the 11th hour, they replaced it with an [adult swim] rerun in Samurai Champloo for the start of 2016.
      • They were "very close" to getting Sailor Moon Crystal on the block, but it was one of the many shows outbid by Neon Alley, a former Hulu-based streaming site.
      • The anime adaptation of Slam Dunk almost ended up airing on Toonami during the block's days on Cartoon Network. The reason that never happened, according to Jason DeMarco on an episode of Toonami Pre-Flight, is due to U.S. audiences' general reaction towards sports-related series at the time.
      • Had Sunrise not stepped in and forced Toonami to air the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Toonami could've followed up Gundam Wing with either After War Gundam X or ∀ Gundam.
      • According to Jason DeMarco, the block pursued airing TRON: Uprising. However, Disney wouldn't allow it.
      • The 2018 April Fools' Day gag, which involved Toonami airing subtitled anime, was originally planned to include the first episode of FLCL Progressive. However, the animation for the episode wasn't finished, so they instead showed the first episode of Alternative.
      • DeMarco also says that they tried getting The Rising of the Shield Hero and KonoSuba, but they were too expensive to get the airing rights for. However, he hopes that this may change soon.
      • They wanted to air Ranma ½, but they couldn't because there was too much nudity.
      • The network had interest in Excel♡Saga for the block, however they felt that they would have to edit too much of it to air, and disagreements with licensor ADV eventually killed it.
      • Initial D was another one that fell through from licensing problems, especially with complications involving some songs on the soundtrack.
    • When the crew began to look for a replacement for Moltar as host, they went through several ideas, including an AI named "Serge" who would send shows to a live action control room run by a teen girl.
    • Before Sonny Strait and Steve Blum were cast as the voices of TOM, other voice actors were in consideration to provide his voice. This include Freddie Prinze Jr. and Beau Billingslea. Billingslea later voiced the Forge Commander in The Forge.
    • The concept art for TOM 4.0◊ shows a much taller, lankier TOM with big forearms to support big weapons, and fingers that could turn into tools and display holograms, as opposed to the short, squat, TOM 1.0-esque model that was used. The blue and yellow coloration was also much more vivid.
    • Over the years, Jason DeMarco and the Toonami crew have repeatedly tried to make a standalone series featuring TOM and SARA as the protagonists, but their pitches were rejected. This tied into the "lost" Toonami comic set during the TOM 3.0 era, involving a Robot War with TOM and SARA joining "The Specials" in combatting General Grey, leader of the rebellion.
    • When Kill la Kill was announced for airing, the crew stated that it would air at 11:30 PM, relegating the Attack on Titan reruns to 2:30 AM. Unfortunately, [adult swim] decided to have a knee jerk reaction towards the low ratings that said Attack on Titan reruns were causing and take away 11:30 PM (as well as the entire back-half of the block), resulting in Kill la Kill having to premiere at the less impressive timeslot of 12:30 AM.
  • Word of God: Glen Bartlett, the man who ran the Toonami Asia channel, has said that NAMI, the host of the channel, existed in the same universe as TOM and SARA.
ONLY Toonami.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top