Ask John: How Influential Was Toonami?

Question:
Since we’re approaching the one year anniversary of the cancellation of Toonami, I was wondering what sort of an impact on the American Anime industry Toonami had. Would anime have had similar popularity without it, or was Toonami one of the major reasons for the big anime boom of the late 90’s and early 2000’s?

Answer:
Speaking from my own, personal perspective, I think it’s ironic that the Cartoon Network’s Toonami programming hours had transient importance and influence on the American anime industry, but ultimately proved irrelevant. Toonami undoubtedly served as a valuable marketing tool, and certainly inspired both viewers and competing TV networks, but the present state of the American anime industry would be the same had Toonami never existed.

The Toonami programming block wasn’t the first concentrated effort to broadcast anime on American television. That credit may go to the Sci-Fi Channel’s earlier routine broadcasts of anime films. However, Toonami was American television’s first effort to attract viewers with a variety of anime programming offered collectively and serially. The success of the Toonami broadcasts certainly inspired similar anime broadcasting on networks including G4 and Spike, all of which contributed to the increasing awareness of Japanese animation in America. Doubtlessly domestic anime distributors welcomed the exposure Toonami provided. Toonami didn’t introduce Gundam anime to America, but its broadcast of Gundam W certainly did help popularize Gundam anime in America. Without Toonami anime series IGPX, D.I.C.E. (Dinobreaker), and Big O II probably wouldn’t have been made.

However, series including series IGPX, D.I.C.E., and Big O II didn’t revolutionize anime or the American anime industry, nor did they inspire a significant boost in the profile or revenue of anime in America. Toonami should be credited for broadcasting Gundam W unedited, but that decision hasn’t lead to a standardization of uncut anime airing on American television. The heyday of the Toonami broadcasts coincided with the pinnacle success of American anime home video distribution but I have doubts that Toonami screenings of Dragon Ball GT, Naruto, Duel Masters, Rave Master, .hack//SIGN, and Prince of Tennis really encouraged a significant number of viewers to develop an interest in domestic DVD releases like Excel Saga, Stellvia, Ai Yori Aoshi, Figure 17, Mahoromatic, Hyper Police, Boys Over Flowers, and Haré+Guu. In other words, Toonami broadcasts certainly inspired additional DVD sales of certain popular titles, but I have doubts that Toonami was responsible for encouraging a large number of consumers that weren’t already anime fans to begin exploring many other anime titles not broadcast on Toonami. I think that much of the rise of American anime licensing and DVD distribution would have developed the way it did during the early and mid 2000s with or without the existence and influence of Toonami. The viewers that enjoyed watching Outlaw Star, Gundam W, Rurouni Kenshin, Naruto, and Yu Yu Hakusho on Toonami didn’t start buying lots of Rahxephon, Popotan, Twelve Kingdoms, Di-Gi-Charat, Princess Tutu, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, Azumanga Daioh, Please Teacher, and Comic Party DVDs. Countless anime titles brought to America during the Toonami era got licensed and succeeded or failed in American release with little or no influence from Toonami and its viewers. Likewise, if Toonami was still broadcasting anime today I don’t think domestic anime DVD sales would be dramatically greater than they presently are.

Without question, Toonami did help boost the awareness, understanding, and respectability of anime in America. The American anime industry and American anime fans have been more fortunate and have had more opportunities because Toonami existed. However, none of the contributions that Toonami made to the proliferation and influence of anime in America seem to have made a lasting impact. Whether that circumstance is a legacy of the Toonami program or a product of America’s inability or opposition to building upon the contributions that Toonami offered is a distinctly different debate.