Toonami

[Dr. Insomniac]

I guess it'll have to be Blue Exorcist or something.

[Avaitor]

CN's Facebook page has been posting stuff on their timeline referring to older events in the network's history, and yesterday, they made a post on the date of the first Toonami airing, and asked followers what their favorite show was. My OCD made me tally up all of the shows named and compiled into a list.

10- Ruroni Kenshin (20)
9- Thundercats (21)
7 (tied)- Zoids/One Piece (25)
6- Gundam Wing (27)
5- Yu Yu Hakusho (38)
4- Samurai Jack (40)
3- Sailor Moon (54)
2- Naruto (67)
1- Dragon Ball Z (127)

I cut out the [as] shows listed, like Cowboy Bebop and Bleach, but yeah, take that as you will.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Well, at least Yu Yu Hakusho got more points than Gundam Wing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Naruto has more votes than Yu Yu Hakusho. I just don't believe I'll ever understand that. I guess people are more interested in a filler-heavy uninspired adaptation than they are of something that actually has some more solid effort put behind it. As for DBZ being the show that most people listed as their favorite, well that's just blind nostalgia talking, of course.

[Rynnec]

Naruto has more votes than Yu Yu Hakusho. I just don't believe I'll ever understand that. I guess people are more interested in a filler-heavy uninspired adaptation than they are of something that actually has some more solid effort put behind it. As for DBZ being the show that most people listed as their favorite, well that's just blind nostalgia talking, of course.

Well, Naruto is pretty much the DBZ of this generation (well, in America at least) so it's not too suprising. But yeah, mainstream anime audiences love those style-over-substance Battle Shounen shows.

[Avaitor]

Yeahhhh, a lot of people who comment on CN's Facebook page are idiots.

Hell, a lot of them thought that they were bringing Toonami back on weekdays when they were made this post. And I even saw one person list Digimon as their favorite Toonami show.

[gunswordfist]

Good to see Samurai Jack in the top 5. I of course hate seeing Naruto being favorited so much and wish RK was higher.

[Nel_Annette]

Naruto has more votes than Yu Yu Hakusho. I just don't believe I'll ever understand that. I guess people are more interested in a filler-heavy uninspired adaptation than they are of something that actually has some more solid effort put behind it. As for DBZ being the show that most people listed as their favorite, well that's just blind nostalgia talking, of course.

Well, Naruto is pretty much the DBZ of this generation (well, in America at least) so it's not too suprising. But yeah, mainstream anime audiences love those style-over-substance Battle Shounen shows.

Damn right I do. I honestly can't say I remember one thing about Yu Yu Hakusho except the dude getting hit by a car, the woman with Frieza's voice, that orange-haired dude with the really bad gravely voice and some roided out bad guy. And a blue-hair chick. That and really dated looking animation. Not saying it's bad, but I rarely ever caught it and when I did, it was never that appealing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's a shame, but that's your opinion I guess. To me, the show is pretty brilliant past the first arc. Its villains are more complex than DBZ's (though to be fair, the villains were meant to be archetypes in that series, but I found that the anime never pulled them off as well as the manga for whatever reason), yet at the same time they are never up their own ass like I find the villains in Naruto tend to be (this whole destroying reality shtick with Tobi really drives me up the wall), the show never dragged out its fights like DBZ and Naruto tend to do, and its animation really isn't anymore dated than DBZ's, and I cared more about the story and characters than the animation, anyways.

Also, Yu Yu Hakusho is probably the only long-running shonen anime without a single filler episode (well, technically it has 1, but even that episode doesn't feel like a filler episode). It stays consistently for most of its run, never drags out its fights like the other 2 series seem to do way too much, and generally does a great job of balancing out its characters, with each character getting the right about of characterization without any single one ever feeling like they are hogging the spotlight.

I will say that if you only watched the early episodes, I could very well see how you wouldn't find it memorable because those are honestly pretty average and generic stuff, but as far as I'm concerned The Dark Tournament arc is my favorite tournament-based arc in any shonen series, and the Chapter Black arc is my favorite story arc out of any shonen series, period.

As someone who has genuinely seen all of DBZ (and read all of the manga, which I find to be superior), and who is actually keeping up with Naruto as weekly chapters are released (though I do it more out of habit than anything else at this point), I can honestly say that I find YYH to be better on the whole than either of those series by miles. But once again, maybe that's just me.

[Nel_Annette]

I can honestly tell you I probably didn't give it a fair chance at the time. I wasn't willing to watch anything with dated-looking animation when it aired, which is why I was skipping on a lot of Toonami shows anyway back then. I think the last episode I ever saw of YYH was the red-haired guy being forced to kill a kid who was antagonizing them so they could reach the main bad guy. Like I said, I was never really interested but I'll always give it props for taking the dark route on that.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, that's another thing I enjoyed about the series. It was still mostly mainstream with the way it handled things, but there were some darker tones to it that it didn't shy away from exploring. Togashi's 2nd big (and still currently running) shonen series, Hunter X Hunter, goes into much darker territory that was only hinted at in YYH, for better or worse....

Anyways, speaking of Toonami and HXH, if that series ever gets licensed by FUNi than they should totally strike up a deal with the current AS Toonami to have that show air on there. Its a perfect fit for the current Toonami, since it is essentially an older shonen series (it at least started in the late 90's), but with a modern adaptation that would be a bit too dark and violent to air on the original Toonami but would be just fine airing the the AS Toonami since it wouldn't have any of those standard restrictions put on it. Of course, this is just wishful thinking on my part.

[Avaitor]

That would be a great fit, but Toonami only seems to be able to afford Funi's older, less popular series and newer shows that are less in demand. That's also why I don't see One Piece being a possibility to return.

That, and the show already had 2 chances to air on TV in the states, and didn't meet expectations either time. Give some other anime a chance already.

[Rynnec]

With Bleach ending in the next couple of years, Hunter X Hunter would be a perfect replacement for it (as would the new JJBA anime if it ever gets licensed). Toonami should be able to afford it by then.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was also going to mention JJBA, but since it has only aired 1 episode so far, I think its too early to judge whether its a keeper or not. There are a lot of series with strong starts. I have to see if this series can hold my interest after dozens of episodes (assuming that its intended to last that long). Still, what I've seen so far certainly looks very promising.

[Daxdiv]

No Zatch Bell made me sad.