Top 5: New Toonami Shows

Last time, I took a trip down memory lane with a list of my five favorite shows that were on Toonami back when it was on Cartoon Network. Today, I'm going to do a list of my favorite shows from "new Toonami". Now, I have not missed a night of Toonami since it returned back in May 2012 (DVRs are an awesome invention), and I've made it a thing to watch the entire night. This was a tough list, as the number of great shows vastly outweighs the number of bad shows that have been on Toonami since 2012, but I got it down to five. Here's my top 5 new Toonami shows.

Top 5: Classic Toonami Shows

It's been quite awhile since I last posted (almost five months), and quite a bit has happened in both my life and Toonami in that time. For me, getting ready for college during my senior year of high school is quite the ordeal. Enough about that, though. We're here for Toonami. Today, I decided to list my favorite shows from classic Toonami, or Toonami when it was on CN from 1997 to 2008. Let's get to it! One rule, though, they had to be shows that I watched during the original run of Toonami. Some shows, like Outlaw Star, IGPX, and Naruto, did air on classic Toonami, but I didn't watch them until after 2008.

Ah, the memories of days gone by...

Review: Daft Punk's Random Access Memories

Wow, it's kinda been a few weeks since my last post. I guess that sort of thing happens when school gets busier at the end of the year. School is still pretty busy, so I'm gonna  write a shorter post for today. Since Daft Punk just released a new album, Random Access Memories, it might be fitting to have a little review of it, considering the duo's connection to Toonami.

So, what do I think about it? It's definitely nice to hear some new tracks from Daft Punk, but this album is less electronic-focused than their previous albums. Daft Punk collaborated with a whole list of other artists for this album, and as a result, I feel like that in most tracks Daft Punk act second fiddle to the other artist. The music is still very enjoyable, just don't expect it to be the most natural sequel to their earlier albums. As for my favorite track, I would have to pick the tenth track, "Motherboard", which also happens to be one of the two tracks on the album that was solely composed by Daft Punk.

Conclusion: Definitely worth a listen, but don't expect it to be another Discovery or Human After All.

 

My Favorite Toonami Promos/Intros, Pt. 1: Dragonball Z Android Saga Intro (2000)

Every Toonami fan has at least one promo or intro that is forever in their heart as something that they enjoy deeply. I have more than one of those, many in fact, so I decided to have a series of posts, each highlighting a specific promo/intro that has stuck with me for a long while.

My first is probably one of the most well-known Toonami Intros ever: the intro shown during the Android Saga of Dragonball Z in 2000. Dragonball Z was at a huge peak in popularity during this time, so the intro has stuck around in many people's memories. It stuck with me due it being part of the only thing my family recorded from Toonami on VHS tapes: the end of the Cell Games Saga, as my dad was a huge fan and was working evening shifts that week. Anyway, here it is:

 

Music: "Heavy" by Joe Boyd Vigil

So, why is this intro so darn awesome? I think because of its nice, fast pace, along with the alarm-like music that in a way reflects the "imminent threat" feel of the Android saga. Also, it premiered not very long before the Intruder TIE, so "Heavy" also fits really well with that.

Here's a little bonus I found on Youtube courtesy of DuelstG, starting at the 3:00 mark:

It's a TOM 1 (Pre-Intruder) version of the intro! This is probably the first time it has been posted onto the internet, so it's a real great find. It's really fun to think that there are still parts from Toonami's history that haven't seen the light of day on the Web, and this proves it.

Fun little thing: Alternative Covers for the Toonami Music Albums

I was messing around on my computer, and I decided that it would be fun to come up with new album covers for the three officially-released Toonami Albums (though technically the Megamixes can't really be called albums, I will for the sake of simplicity): Deep Space Bass, Black Hole Megamix, and Supernova Megamix. They use the new logo, and I'm proud that I was able to pull it off as well as I did. You may use them in any way you wish, though I ask that if you post them anywhere else, please credit me. Thanks!

Deep Space Bass

Download Here (click the Actions tab, then click "Download Photo")

A trend you'll notice through these covers is that I like having the background image be a representation of the album's title, in this case deep space. The image is part of the famous "Deep Field" picture taken by the Hubble telescope. I added the "Cartoon Network Presents" as a nod to the original cover having the CN logo on it. My favorite part of the cover is the effect I found that made the Toonami logo appear as if it was behind the galaxies shown in the photo. Also, I added a little throwback with the usage of BDDoomed (the font Toonami used from 1999-2000), which is available at Toonami Digital Arsenal, along with the other fanmade adaptions of Toonami fonts.

Black Hole Megamix

Download Here

Taking a cue from ACDC's Back in Black cover, I decided that a full black background with barely visible text and images would be a nice way to replicate the feel of a black hole. This combined with TOM 5's head, the Toonami symbol, and the usage of the other classic Toonami font, SF Transrobotics, makes for an image I am proud to say I made. It might be hard to see clearly in certain conditions, though.

Supernova Megamix

Download Here

This has to be my favorite of the three. It was the first one I made, and I learned some fun stuff to use in my photo-editing future. The artists and title are done in the font Polentical Neon, available at Dafont. I originally was going to put TOM's head in the supernova, until I realized the Toonami symbol fits very nicely in a circle. So I made the cover seen above, and decided to put TOM's head on the BH Megamix cover. 

So there you have it. Enjoy! 

Oh, and for those who are curious, I use Paint.NET.

Toonami's New Look: My Thoughts

So, that time has come again. The time Toonami gets a new look, new TOM and a new Absolution. Seeing that the last time this happened, we got TOM 4 (with no Absolution), perhaps whatever they did would've been satisfactory. But it seems satisfactory is too little for the Toonami team, as this design is stellar. Let's look at each aspect, starting with the host with the most (of my childhood): our old friend TOM.

Toonami Operations Module (TOM) 5

When TOM 5 was initially revealed, I was a bit skeptical. The design just didn't look that great to me, but I noted the heavy TOM 2 influence. Now that I've seen him in motion, I have no worries. I find the design to work great, which is nice because he now has someone to talk to, because...

SARA is Back!

The Toonami team held back one big secret about the redesign, and that is the return of everyone's favorite spaceship AI, SARA. SARA is now voiced by Dana Swanson, and her new design combines the "bald head in the monitor" aspect of her first incarnation with the white coloration of her second. Not counting the April Fool's Prank, it has been over five years since we've last seen her, and I'm certainly glad to see her back in action!

The Absolution mk. III

With this being the smallest Absolution yet (hey, fuel prices are high these days), it may prove that bigger is not always better. It kinda reminds me of a cartoonified version of a WWII-era bomber, but it works well overall. I can't say its beats the previous designs of the Absolution, but it isn't too far off. We'll see after I get used to it within a few weeks. 

The block's overall look

 Toonami's first new design for the 2010s brings the block right in to the decade with a fresh look that is very pleasing to the eye. The return of CG to the title screens is welcome (though it might have killed the hopes of Toonami promo/intro making fans), and having TOM and SARA saying that the show "will return in a moment" at commercial breaks is something I never knew how much I'd missed. 

All in all, the new design is great, and I'm really excited for the new possibilities it brings.

5 Reasons Why I don't Think Adult Swim Hates Anime

I've noticed that there has been this belief spreading across the web, especially YouTube, that the people who run Adult Swim hate anime and anime fans. A while back I had a heated debate against one of the most vocal supporters of this theory (I won't name names, but those well versed in the YouTube anime crowd could probably figure it out). He had a video of Funimation voice actor Greg Ayres complaining about [as]'s jokes about anime. This YouTube user and I got into a heated debate, and he ended up saying that I had "Adult Swim's cock way too far up my throat", which he then proceeded to block me. He had accused me of blindingly accepting what Adult Swim and the Toonami crew had been at saying. Of course when I didn't take what HE said at face value he got ticked off. Double standards can be quite the pain.

The thing is, I have accepted what [as] had said about anime and Toonami, but it's not because I have a blind devotion to them. I accept what they say because I have reasons to believe they actually care about anime. In fact, I have come up with five.