115: Toonami

Dani and Ify discuss the history of Toonami.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey, how's it going everyone, How you're doing, how you feeling,
and how you're doing. Welcome to another episode of Nerdificent
And sitting across from me as always is Jenny Fernandez.
I'm here and I'm if you introduced myself. I was

(00:28):
just so hyped to be both. Oh man, yeah, how
how you doing, Danny? How's your how's your week? You know? Well?
The thing because we had our whole month that we
did mental health May and so like something that I've
been talking to my therapist about is um celebrating my

(00:50):
winds more because I don't, like, you know me, I'm
very perfectionist and competitive and like I'll get something like
I'll book a roll or whatever. I'm like, cool, great,
onto the next one? What else? What else? I need
to do more? And it's just like not healthy. I
don't recommend it. People will be like, how how do
you do so many things? It's like I'm a perfectionist
that I'm never happy. Don't do it like it's not

(01:11):
worth it. Um. And so anyways, long story short, I've
been trying to treat myself like even if it's just
for an afternoon, like I took myself out to the
middle of like nowhere essentially, and had like tacos and
was just in peace and um social distancing, you know. Um.

(01:34):
But even like going to a beach where like a
secluded beach, uh and just like going into the water
and like just appreciating my winds. So I've been trying
to do that more, even if they're small, it's necessary,
I feel to do that. So that's what I've been doing.
I've been like, you know, I've been doing my my
getting my vibe right. And I've been watching a lot

(01:56):
of anime, which is good because that brings us to
what we're talking about today. We're talking about one of
the anime staples, one of the one of the anime
ambassadors for a lot of people around our age and
talking about it with us today is none other than
j D Witherspoon. A k A run, j D Run?

(02:16):
What did do? Hey? Hi? What's up? J D? Here?
How y'all doing? How you feeling? Man? I'm feeling good.
I'm feeling great. Glad to have you on, Glad to
see Danny sipping on her coffee. Uh, feeling good. You know.
It's like, I mean, you know, I guess we'll be
talking about anime the whole time. But we like to

(02:38):
start off with, you know, asking our guests what they're
nerd ing out about this week. So what's something you've
been nerding out about this week? Um? You know, in
this past week, I have had the privilege of watching
some new anime. Finally. I've been so out of the loop,
but I started watching Fire Force. I haven't already, yeah,

(03:00):
but it's every everyone I know is talking about it.
So that's a great choice. Oh no, that that show
is I mean, well, you know, not to uh sound
like a pun. It is heat, it's good, it is
it is lit. There's a fiery emoji at the end
of it somewhere. It's it's really good. I I genuinely

(03:23):
enjoy it. And the story is so obscure. Yeah, I'm like,
I'm like, okay, anime, I see, I see you stepping
things up. I got that's cool. Yeah, just just mixing
it up a bit, you know. And that's the funny
thing about anime, right. It could be like these deep storylines,
or it could be an anime about girls pushing each

(03:44):
other off of a you know, stool in a pool
with their boobs and butts only uh, I forget the
name of that one, but that's that's the one that
everyone references when they say animal be wildin me this week,
I think what I'm nearing out about is Ghost of Tsushima.
It's gonna be dropping, you know. You know. Now, it

(04:06):
was funny because with Last of Us, Sony hooked it
up with the early copy and everyone was like, oh,
I'm jealous. But now I'm seeing the homies with the
early copy of Ghost of Sushima, and I'm like, all right,
now it's my turn to feel that jealousy. And I
was like, I need it. I need to be slicing people.
M m. Yeah. And for people who don't know, Ghost
of Sushima is this new like Samurai game, it's it's

(04:27):
it's heavily inspired by Kurosaura and so like there's a
whole Kurosawa mode that I didn't I don't even know
about that I'm excited to try out. So it's gonna
it's gonna be that heat. I cannot wait. Uh and
I only have to wait a few more days. Yeah.
What about you, Danny, Well, you you're like damning over there,

(04:51):
too much cold brill And I've just looked over at
Baby's box and she was like vibeing. I was like, okay,
I'm just in my head. I told everyone I live
in a little fantasy world. In my head. I'm just
like dancing. You know, whatever brings you joy during this pandemic.

(05:13):
Um okay, So I started started a reading slash listening,
which I still consider reading on audible. Um this book
by Sylvia Moreno Garcia. It's called Mexican Gothic and it's
really dope. It's set in Mexico. It's this I'm only
on chapter seven, so I'm not sure entirely what's all
going to happen. But it's a horror novel and it's

(05:35):
essentially this woman who I think she's in her early
twenties ish her cousin, who's like one of her best friends,
ends up marrying this guy who has a lot of money,
and like she kind of disappears, and so she goes
to visit her and it's in this like really creepy,
haunted like town that has a lot of history and

(05:57):
this like evil stepmother and stuff. So I'm still learning
about what's going to happen. I'm really fascinated. But if
you want to support um, Latina's in the horror space,
then definitely check out this book, which is a great
horror novel and you can read along with me because
I'm still getting into it. So yeah, definitely check it out.

(06:18):
It's on audible if you're like me and dance around
in life apparently and don't sit still. I can't sit still,
and so I'm always like cleaning and I'm listening to
it or cooking and I'm listening to it. So um, yeah,
check it out, you know, Um, I think we'll just
jump right into it with you know, the early beginnings
of Tonami, which I remember, which is you know, launched,

(06:42):
and then that was the Maltar Error. That was the
Maltar Era, and yeah, it wasn't at this time. It
wasn't like the anime Haven that it was before, premiered
March sevent and it replaced this block called power Zone
and then it was like a weekday afternoon cartoon action

(07:04):
block and it had Malta from Space Ghosts, which you know,
well Space Ghost was running from coast to coast, so
he was already Yeah, it was like, so I'll just
in that with that from Malta who was at the
time on Space Ghost Coast to coast, so it wasn't
like a wild reference for kids, like they were like,

(07:25):
oh yeah, I remember that guy from that show. Uh
and it was in the Ghost Planet Industries building. Um, yeah,
do you all remember this ever much? I remember bits
and pieces, bits and pieces of Tsunami or just like
space Ghost or all this stuff. Was the host of
Tsunami and he would just pretty much like pull levers

(07:46):
and that would start shows. What I feel like, I
remember that, But was that pre the main host that
Steve yea or yeah, because we're going to talk about
that because he said the main host Steve well, giuse me,
not the main but the guy who he's the one
that people know. But I know that there was someone
else who played his voice. Yeah, for like a year,

(08:10):
and then I think he came back for one more year.
So yeah, I don't know, but I don't know why
I don't. I think I do remember such a brief.
It was so short though. It was like it was
like Moltar be like blah blah, and he would just
like he'd be like he would like pull a lever
and be like, yeah, we got some u yasha tonight,
we should check that out. And I just remember I

(08:34):
remember that, but I remember the vibe being so off
because he wasn't like smooth or cool. He was just
kind of like, yeah, you like you like you like anime. Shut.
This was before they had kind of officially moved over
to anime, so they had a lot of non anime
because they took over that power zone. They wanted just

(08:56):
like action shows for that, which they still had, you
know when it fully moved over to Toonami, they still
had like it was kind of the it was like
the call for like they just wanted action adventure that
was like supposed to be the block at the time,
So even the anime that that they allowed to exist
had to largely be action adventure. Um. But yeah, this

(09:19):
was before dbz uh and before Gundham and before a
lot of uh those shows that we finally got in
the Tom era. Oh yeah yeah, so yeah, that's that's
what That's what I was saying, because the Tom Tom
era was was dope and uh and so it was
first Sunny Straight and then it was Steve, which Steve

(09:40):
we know voices all buff characters. So it's also funny
that this was like Chubby Tom. You remember how at
first he had like oh yeah, yeah, yeah he did,
Yeah yeah, I'm tripping. This is so this is this
is just taking me back. I forgot about all of this.
We and the reason we start doing this episode is
because we're doing the Cartoon net Work episode and me

(10:01):
and Danny had that like flashback when we were reading through,
like oh snap, and we're like, we gotta do a
whole episode just on two Nami because this is this
is what straight up fueled me into the anime nerd
I in today. Like this was like you know, because
you know, back in the day, Internet wasn't popping like that.
You you have to get fans subs if you don't

(10:21):
know what fans subs were. That that was when the
one we who actually understood Japanese would be translating the
Japanese dub and then they'd be putting whatever they want.
They'd be adding cuss wars like the G two be
dropping F bomb. We Uh. We had a we had
a spot, me and my boy, we had a spot

(10:43):
near a Toys r Us that used to sell uh
dubbed tapes that that I don't know if he dubbed
them or if he just works or if he wants
a Little Tokyo and and bought them a wholesale to
try to make a profit. But he, my boy, had
all that the Dragon Ball Z episodes that Tsunami refused

(11:06):
to get to, that they that they took so long
to get to. He was like, bro, I can't wait anymore, Yo,
Let's watch this. Let's watch this, uh this movie about
some dude name Jannemba. And I was like, I was like, okay,
so and it was it was just the japan It
was the original Japanese show with it wasn't dub it
was subs so it was subtitled um the Japanese subtitle one.

(11:30):
And it was like some of the stuff that was
written on the screen. I was like, is this what
they're talking about? I was so confused. Now those were
the j one, so like around that you you pretty
much were relying on like Tsunami. But yeah, they had
the new host, Tom, which was voiced by Sonny Straight
at the time, and this is and he had the

(11:50):
speech to kick it off, my best Sonny A Straight,
which is gonna be bad. So it's a brand new Tunami,
but the mission objectives remained the same. My name is Tom,
I'm the new Moltar. Welcome aboard the Ghost Planets spaceship
Absolution Cartoon Networks first and only Interstellar broadcast an exploration vehicle.

(12:11):
I'll give you the tour later. From this day forward,
she is completely responsible for all two Nami transitions. I'm
taking you guys into the new millennium. No big changes now,
same show, same attitude, new place to do, new guy
to do it with. I'm not gonna waste any more time.
Let's get back to it later. And then that also
premiered the Midnight Run, which who that was that one?

(12:36):
That one that's when you have those like it was
because I remember the one thing I remember from Midnight
Run that I would that I can never forget. It
was always Dragon ball Z uncut. I was like, Oh,
what they're gonna show on that and all it wasn't that.
It was like all the blood stuff that they tried
to hide from us, they showed it to us. I'm
thinking I thought Mama was about to come out nude

(12:58):
or something like the way like because also at the time,
for those who didn't know, we also had BT uncut,
which you got to see the uncut tip drill video,
which is not the same at all. Well that was
do you remember in dB Z like so they would
have the blood was like purple. Yeah, that's like so

(13:21):
basically you just got to see red or non existent yeah, true, true, true,
So basically you just got to see red blood like
coming out of vegeta as opposed to the purple but
uncut and we were staying up late. I remember seeing
Krillin getting pierced by freezes Horn during the second Transformation, Yeah,

(13:41):
in Japanese, and I remember watching it. I was like,
what the hell is this episode? I was like, this
did not happen in America because Freezer like rams him
and then like like ride makes him ride the horn
for a few minutes and he's like he's just like
he's just get stabbed. And I'm like, yo, this, I

(14:02):
don't remember this. This is gross. Which, by the way,
um we should mention Krillan, voiced by Sunny Straight is
the voice of Tom this first this first running Wow,
that's crazy. Um so he did sound not like how
if he sounded very smooth? Yeah, I didn't know that.
I was like Sunny Straight was a blaxploitation. I don't remember,

(14:24):
Hey Straight, and welcome back to Tonami. Like, you know,
this man sounds too smooth. He was This is from
the wiki was a well, by the way, Tom's stands
for to Nami Operations module and this was like a
pudgier shorter funny that it was voiced by Krill and

(14:44):
this is the shortest version of tom um And yeah,
so he he was like our little uh, our little DJ.
Essentially he was the best version. I didn't like when
he got buff I was like, what is this is said?
I was like, bro at the glow up. I was like,
give me back the couch potato. I can resonate with

(15:05):
what do you say? Like, like what you put the
gut back on him? So I can get back to
feeling the same as he is when it comes to
watching my anime. Let me eat my chips in the bed,
you know. Oh yeah, oh yeah, I forgot this new
the new one was like, yeah, y'all, well I'll go ahead. No,

(15:25):
I was gonna say the Intruder okay. So so how
that came to be is they had this like this
eight episode mini series called The Intruder where and it
ended with him really um iconically like getting taken over
by like molten where he was like sinking um and

(15:46):
that's how he essentially, quote unquote like died. He also
had an Ai Sarah I don't know if you remember, yeah,
kind of floated around him um. And so this all
took place in his ship called the Absolution, and then
when he came out, she like essentially rebuilt him. She's
like Tom Tom and he comes out and he's like

(16:07):
totally jacked, and I don't know. I feel like also
because was this the error where they had reboot? Yeah,
they had reboot early on, so I feel like they
were taking some some notes from some of those jacked
res sexy characters on reboot. They have some gifts of
him in the I I linked also all the Tom's

(16:30):
in the chat. But also here's a site that has
kind of like uh is explaining like his evolution and
he came out with that thing on him. He came
and he started blast and I was like, dang, that's tight.
I'm watching like a Tsunami retrospective video right now in
the background just to remember all this stuff. I'm watching

(16:51):
this video of of Tsunami, just realizing how all they
did was repurpose old ass anime. Oh yeah, us low
yeall just I'm sitting here and I'm like, I'm like
yo lo ki. They played us like like it's all
this stuff was dope, But I'm looking at like throwback
animal like brod These are eighties animes that they were

(17:12):
trying to sell us in the late nineties. They were like, yeah,
this this is we can we can make some out
of this, right Yeah, it's like you got it. We
have to take a really quick break and then we're
going to hop into Tom era too in the anime
that was behind it, that was my era right after this,

(17:36):
and we're back so Tom the second era, the beefed
up Tom had like a bomb r esque character. He
was taller, sleeker, deeper voiced. Um they Sonny got to
stay as Krillan, but Steve Blum is the one that
took over as his voice. And they also added a
Saturday morning block. I don't know if you'all remember this

(17:58):
was called to Nami Rising sun Um. This was from
two thousand and two thousand one and it was at
nine am. I think they were really trying to figure
out their kids age bracket because they had hooked a
lot of middle school and high school kids. At least
that's what I watched when I came home from school
at four pm, like that, that two Nami block, but
then they had the uncut. They stayed up a little

(18:19):
bit later, realizing that high school and college kids were
highly consuming it, and then they were like, how do
we capitalize on the little ones though, or at least
the younger so like that block um was more age
appropriate I think for like elementary and middle school, and
they also had it on over. They had a two
Nami block over on WB Kids or kids WB lineup,

(18:42):
they also had it, and then eventually just realized it
was a lot of competition with each other, which was
fascinating to Nami ended up competing a lot with adult swim.
So they were still like trying to figure this out
what they were doing the morning block that I remember
because I was gonna say I were remember when I
was really young, I was watching Dragon Ball in the

(19:03):
mornings and I had and I had to wake up
really early to watch the new episode. Same with Pokemon. Uh,
Pokemon wasn't wasn't the Tunami stuff, But I just remember
maybe that was the w B thing because I remember
getting up and getting almost at least in the in
the first arc of the Freezer Saga watching that, and

(19:24):
and the and also the the saying saga and all
that stuff. And I'm trying to remember. I'm like, I
remember it being on early in the mornings, and then
randomly Tsunami came out and it would be on in
the afternoon, and then they went and started like a
late night after like later block of their of their viewing. Yeah.
So so during the first TOM block, the shows they

(19:47):
had running during that first TOM one point, I will
say was Batman, the animated series, DBZ, Gundam, Wayne, The
Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, Reboot, Running Warriors, Sailor Moon,
Tinchi in Tokyo, Tinci Muyo and Tinchie Universe, and ThunderCats.
They they they were already pushing that Tinge on us
and uh so so then we had we talked about

(20:10):
you know that that TOM two point oh, and that
was in September twenty two of two thousand and uh
and they and they had a few schedule changes, like
on May fourteenth that changed it from five to seven.
Then on June three and two thousand and two they
went back to four to seven. So, but all the
programs that ran under TOM two point. Oh were the
Batman the animated series, still going Batman beyond the big

(20:34):
oh boom. You know, I'm not gonna pick that figure
up again. The Blue Submarine Number six Card, Captors, Dragon
Ball and Dragon Ball Z, G Gundam, Gundam, wing Ham Taro,
which I remember being so he Man, Masters of the Universe,
Mobile Suit, Gundham, Mobisu, Gundham eight Mobisu Team, Outlast Star,

(20:55):
which I just got on Blu Ray, Powerpuff Girls reboot,
Running Warrior still going, Sailor Moons still going, Superman, the
animated series, Tinchi in Tokyo, Tinchi Moyo, Tinti Universe, both
of those three still running, ThunderCats and Transformers, Armada, Yeah
you you Hockey Show and uh you you Hockey Show

(21:15):
and Zoid's New Century zero and Chaotic Century. So they
were the were pushing quite a few things. Uh now
that's like you know, and those are all the different
ones that were in that block. But I mean these
this is definitely one that I remember because these have
all the big ones are big Oh, Outlast Star, Gundam,

(21:37):
Wing g Gundham, DBZ, Dragonball, uh freaking even like Sailor
Moon Running Card Capture Sakura. You know, uh, Tinchi Moyo,
all that Tinchi run. Like, I think this was the
one I was really watching regularly from Yeah, I mean,
I it's so fascinating. I know I've talked about high
love Tinchi Moyo, and maybe it was just from the

(21:58):
sheer amount that it was put at us um, but
it is really fascinating because out of all these I
still gravitated so much to DBZ, which is wild. It's
just like that fan base became so ravenous. I think
that that helped. Well, I mean, I don't know a
better word to describe it. I mean people would go

(22:21):
it's kind of like what j D was saying, like
we would go out of our way to get stubs
and subs, and like you know, of course everyone jokes
that too. Nomally would re air the same episodes, but
like I was playing earlier, that's because of the Ocean
dub then moving over to the Funimation dub, and so
it was like all this like delay essentially and getting

(22:41):
English version over here. Um. But also I think a
reason why we we became obsessed is because we were
just inundated with the same you know, uh, the same
shows on here, but um, they threw in some other things,
like you said, like uh, powerpuff Girls, you know, things

(23:04):
that weren't necessarily things that were in their regular line
up that they added it. And and it really like
it like watching like like kind of like looking at
this list, I can totally see how everyone has like

(23:26):
broken off, you know, from from this, Like all the
gundham Heads are in here. You know, you got big
robos because you have the Gundam's big Oh then you
have like Outlast Star you know in here, you know,
holding it down and I and the uu hockeu shows
of it all like these these were like all the

(23:46):
I feel like the anime sex were starting right here. Um.
And also this is the this was the list that
if if if you were talking to some like gate
keep Ee Weaves, you you have to say something other
than these you you can you can say they're like, oh,
oh you watch Yeah, I'm sure you watch you show,
but have you seen this thing a bit like shut up. Yeah.

(24:07):
They started to do cool things to like, um, expanding
just from what their list was they had In two
thousand three, it was the week of February they did
Giant Robot Week. I don't know if you remember that.
It was a five day special where they only aired
MEC series and mac anime. Um, so they were they
were taking a lot of risks, I think, um over

(24:30):
there trying to see They were still trying to figure
out their demo, at least in my opinion, by like
the different experiments they did with having a late night,
having an early morning, moving their times around, trying to
figure out like which kids they were hooking. Um. And
so then we go into the Tom three era, which
was two thousand three to two thousand seven. Yeah, well,

(24:53):
you know what's really funny, Like their Masthead show in
my opinion, which was DVZ had super muscular buff dudes,
so um oh yeah. They also premiered their own show,
which was Immortal Grand Prix. I don't know if you
guys remember that. I remember it. I definitely sounds familiar. Yeah.

(25:13):
It was like let me, I'm gonna look up images
because I had the name. Yeah yeah, I g p
X Immortal Grand Prix. Uh. It reminded me a lot
about because it was like a racing show. But like
I think they wore these like these Yeah, they had
these giants suits and it reminded me a lot of

(25:33):
Tiger Bunny UM and I think I used to mix
them mix them up a lot because of that. And
so another thing that they did during this time was
they actually took to Namie off of weekday afternoons and
they moved it to a Saturday evening slot. I think
this also represented one that that you know, on our

(25:53):
Cartoon Network episode, we talked about how Cartoon Network like
was in their heyday. This was like Atta and Nettie,
power Puff Girls, Dexter like all of those. So that
was their afternoon block, and so they ended up moving
to Nami to weekday afternoons, um and and late night.
I think to also show how their viewership was aging.

(26:15):
You know, a lot of the kids that were starting
to watch them, that watched them in say nine, we're
now graduating high school and so it was still trying
to figure out I still to this day think they're
trying to figure out their demo. UM. But we'll get
into that too, because now they're competing against streaming anime services.
I guess um j D. I had a question like

(26:37):
what shows did you resonate with the most and how
do you remember consuming two Nami didn't. Were you watching
it late at night? Were you watching the main block
after school? Like? What was your how are you consuming it?
I think I was definitely one of the after school consumers,
like because I vividly remember bothering my parents to pick

(26:57):
me up on time so and they and they'd be like, well,
you gotta come home soily for what can't you just
hang at school and play on the yard. And I'm like,
stop neglecting me, pick me up and take me home
so I can so I can heat up some pop
tarts and some nest quick so I can watch whatever
whatever is coming on this afternoon. Because I know, I

(27:19):
know when I was when I was younger. I know
for like a fact that, like, um, because I'm looking
through the shows right now, I know Beast Wars, Transformers
was he I was. I was so into that I was.
I remember specifically saying to myself, yo, I was. I
was specifically saying, you know, Transformers has has never been
as good I was. I was like, I was like,

(27:43):
I was, like the fact that they ever thought transforming
into into cars or planes was ever cool? Was trash?
Give me robots that turn into animals. I loved I
loved Optimus ape Prime and the Cheetah and whatever else
they did on that cartoon show that that was such

(28:04):
he Um. Obviously, Dragon ball Z Sailor Moon was great. Um,
super Friends was trash to me. Reboot to Me was
probably the first semi representation of animated black people that
I remember seeing when I was younger, because I was like, yo,

(28:25):
I was like, I know that they're all polygons, but
my man, my man's has got to wear a do
ragged night Like I'm looking at this, there's no way.
And and he had that like, um, he had that like,
uh what I forgot the name of the dude who
plays Erkele. Uh he had that type of voice, Jalil
White he had like that, he had that Jalil White like,

(28:46):
oh man, y'all, we gotta keep going, like you know,
it was like the whole show. It was definitely that
Powerpuff Girls. Dang is that where they debuteded on or
is that just something that came across nowhere. Yeah. I
think they were like what constitutes anime? We're gonna add
you know, they were starting to do that with more shows.

(29:06):
But like you were mentioning, um, super Friends, like they
did if this is owned by Warner Brothers, and so
they had a lot of the d C characters that
they so you know, they ended up having um, you know,
multiple Batman series like Batman Beyond, I Believe in Teen Titans,
Justice League Unlimited. So they started to add just started

(29:27):
to boost it with some of their DC franchises too,
um and then also having Samurai Jack. You know, they
had some of their own Cartoon Network produced shows that
they were that they were adding. Um. But what is
fascinating about this is like you couldn't miss like as
far as us, like Racing Home. Everyone talks about like

(29:49):
Racing Home to see two Nami. The difference between two
not a lot of Tunami shows and say Cartoon Network
or Adult Swim is that they a lot of their
shows were episodic, meaning it would contain all be contained
in one episode. If you look at Dexter, each episode
just stands alone. You don't have to watch like if

(30:11):
you miss an episode of say DBZ, you're gonna be lost.
Typically it's like a bunch of things will happen that
will feed into the next episode, so you know, or
there's a lot of standing around and nothing really happening,
so you're okay, but like you can't just like it's
not just like Edit and Eddie where you could pick
up wherever you wanted, and they're all self contained. So

(30:35):
I wanted to talk about because we're talking about them
kind of riding there other shows and kind of like,
you know, building this culture and riding the hype, and
I can't, as a big Robo fan leave the I
think best American attempt at that which was Megas xl R,
which was about these two like American dudes, slackers who
found a robot and used it to fight fight these

(30:57):
giant monsters, and Andy had like lots of like references
to different anime, like there was a group called the
Ultra Chicks that were obviously Sailor Moon rip offs. Like
it was. It was a really good show Mega's XLR,
So definitely check it out. We have to take another
really quick break then we're going to hop into tom

(31:19):
Era four and their cancelation right after this, and we're
back now we're talking about tom Era four was very fascinating.
Um again, they wanted to, i think make a more

(31:40):
kid friendly version of Tonami because they were starting to
lose their numbers were starting to lower, so they ended
up making these two new AI robots and turning Tom
essentially into I'm not gonna like his face looks like
Thomas the tank Engine. In fact, there's like memes online
about out it. UM. I think they were experimenting and

(32:03):
they just wanted a more I don't know what they
were going for, um, but they ended up kind of
just canceling the Twounami block and Tom had this whole
little send off where he was like, you know, um,
oh this is it says, well, this is the end,

(32:26):
beautiful friends. After more than eleven years, this is to
Nami's final broadcast. It's been a lot of fun, and
we'd like to thank each and every one of you
who made this journey with us. Tunami wouldn't have been
anything without you. Hopefully we've left you with some good memories.
So until we meet again, stay golden. Bang and he
um just fired off into the sunset. UM. So yeah,

(32:51):
so that that happened and it was off the air
for four years. Actually, well that Tom version four who
did the because I was no it is I'm looking
at this time and I forgot about this. This one
needed to go. You to this one looks ridiculous, like,

(33:13):
I don't know what the reason that's the reason it ended.
I don't know. I don't know what. I don't know who.
I don't know who, who the I don't know who
the artist was. They needed, they needed to shut that down.
I forgot. I skipped this era. This is yeah, this this,
this is two thousand and seven. Oh yeah, I was
in high school. I wasn't watching Tunami as often as possible.

(33:33):
I was leaving high school. I was going into college. Yeah, yeah, same.
I graduate two thousand and six, and by this point
I've already reached the era when my homie was downloading
not it though from the internet the fans ups burning
it to a DVD R to me and then given me.
So I'm I'm already like I've been locally sourcing my
anime at this point, Like, I'm like, but to the

(33:57):
early Tuami era, let me see if they have it
or maybe this was adult Swim. Yeah, it was adult
Swim at this point, because they had a split at
one point where Trunami was like some anime and then
the darker stuff they pushed two adult Swim. So like
Andreid key Hider, I saw that on Adult Swim, but
also which Hunter Robin. And the only reason I remember
rich which Hunter Robin was because I was so hyped

(34:18):
that and I remember this. I taped all of it
on the VHS and I was like, I was like,
I gotta get this, and I taped all over all
the vhs. But then by this point, yeah, we the
Internet was a little more available, like my dad still
had me on that net zero, but I still was
able to, like, you know, download videos here and there.
I was downloading Red versus Blue videos and I was, yeah,

(34:40):
I was out of tunami. I was gonna say, I
meant to add before I forget that that final when
he said bang is because um, Steve Blum also voices
Spike from Cowboy Bebop and that's what he says, so
it was kind of like a little nod to that. Um.
I also think this is when they were airing Dragon
Ball GT. So another reason why it needed to end

(35:00):
hold on that I like got to start with this. Hey,
I'm so glad you said that, because I literally wanted
to do a GT episode And I was like, but
I have to find someone who messes with GT, because
I want that be someone who thinks I'm a fight
for mustache. The arcs were weird, but it wasn't bad.

(35:22):
People act like it was bad. I'm like, how are
you going to be mad at the man for continuing
his story? And then they're like, no, no, didn't. I
don't think it was. I don't think it was Toryama.
It wasn't a cure. I don't think I mean, I
think he had kind of he wasn't as I mean,
I might be wrong and someone all right, but that
was why it was a big deal. Win super he
was involved with when he came back and it was like,
this is this is how it should be. Um carried on.

(35:45):
But you know what, to your credit j D super
stating four is the coolest form. They look dope and
hot and they're just like they're they're fur on their
bodies along with like they're under their mascara whatever they're wearing,
their eyeliner. It is a Goku that looks like he
actually knows what he's doing in the bedroom and out.

(36:09):
I will say that it was the first time when
I was like, wow, I can't say because we don't
cuss on here, but I was like this man, f's
I can tell regular looks like someone's dopey little brother
who I adore. Um, but that Goku looked like the
Level fours were interesting, I think the I think the
reason Level fours were cool to me. To me, I don't,

(36:32):
I don't know if they were my favorites, but they
were cool to me. And I don't even think that's
really the appeal of of g T I'm more, in
my opinion, the main appeal is the fact that you
get to see Goku go back to being a kid
for for for however long. I kind of thought that
was dope, just because I watched Dragon Ball back in
the day, and and it's just dope that little kid

(36:52):
Goku is just beating the brakes off of people. I
don't know why I enjoy that. But this look at
this this man looks like he would take your girlfriend
in front of you and you'd be okay with it,
Like we get him. I mean, that's the one thing
I will if we were going to take this full
sidebar bar. That's why I like Level four because Level

(37:12):
four is the only super saying transformation that makes sense.
You know, like they have all this power in there,
like you know, their guerrilla form and so of course
you would think like a powerful form would have some fur,
have their tail grow back, and so it's like, I
hope they like reckon it and like added into you,

(37:34):
you know, newer ones if we get some they should
because making him skinnier was like not the choice in
my opinion. Remember how we talked about how you already
I feel about that. Okay, wait which one which so
his um but is it his most recent and uh
in super they made them leaner, they made him skinnier, yeah, yeah,

(37:58):
and there are a pin in he should be able
to It was like, you know, most fighters that are
efficient are not actually bigger, Like that isn't the most
efficient for how fast and your power? Someone's going to
write me because I'm butchering this, but essentially that was
the mentality behind it, was that they would be more
efficient with their so they wouldn't have to be all

(38:20):
buffed up. They could be more powerful just with their
power as opposed to their body, like their physical body.
Come on now, Beefcake Gokulo, don't even saying that. Saying
that negates the whole power level power up moment between
Goku and Freezer. Don't even do that, like when they

(38:43):
started getting routed out, I was like, yeah, they're getting
big big. He's like, I'm not even using my full power.
Will show it to me. Those shoulders turned in the
freaking planets. I love that. Even though it did I
didn't care, but I still loved it because because unfortunately,
that's just what the nineties and early two thousands, eighties

(39:05):
and everything before that, that's just what that's what power
meant you. You have, you got muscles, like you know,
so they can't. They can't. But that's why they have characters.
When you look at Beers, isn't Jack like that, but
is a god like stronger than everybody. So they started
to lean into that more and even to some extent Freezer.
I always love how they freeze. His dad, King Cold

(39:29):
is like twice four times his size, but like you know,
has only half his power. So I love that they
would constantly surprise the audience by having smaller characters actually
be the most powerful. Yeah, I know what you mean.
I think it's yeah, there's definitely a difference between Super
and DBZ. But I was going to say, yeah, I

(39:53):
did think, like unless unless this, unless the moment in
the arc called for it, They did not need de
Royd out like like now now thinking about now, think now,
thinking now, literally thinking about that Super Trunks was a
waste of goddamn time, like like he know, he was good.
I'm saying that there's a point in the Cell saga

(40:14):
between uh Cell Dog and everybody in in form number
one or he was absorbing people, and then when he
became level two by absorbing uh seventeen, Trunks was the
I think Vegeta allowed it to happen. He got his
ass beat and then Trunks was like, I'll handle it, father,

(40:35):
and he he couldn't get to Super Saiyan level two.
He could only get to Super Saiyan one and a half.
And he was like really big and bulky, and I
was like, what is this and he and he specifically said,
my mobility is limited and I was like, yeah, because
you like went and just did Royd's bro you you're

(40:57):
not stronger, You're just you're just bigger, like the Hyperball
time chamber did nothing for you. That was funny though,
but but but you know what, but they still did
nod down to like the more leaner type of body types.
Because even Cell when he finally transformed to perfect cell.
He went from level one to two, which was really hulky,

(41:20):
to level three, which was the the obnoxiously you know
uh uh Maurice Lamar's like, yes, yes, like you know
that that thing and I and I respected that. But no,
every time a character you think is gonna be whacked
and strong, that's always dope. Always an anime, no matter
what it is. Every time mm hmmm. I mean that's

(41:41):
the main thing of Really Mob Psycho and One Style
too with One punch Man there the main character. They're
always so basic and then they get hyped up and
then they get hyper stylized. Oh give me that he
can he can do that bit for the rest of
his career and I'm eating it all up. Yeah. One
punch Man els that so well because at the end

(42:02):
of the day, Jeno's is supposed to be so dope,
but he is dog garbage. He's trash like he's he's
he's so cool. He tries so hard, he gets all
these modifications, but at the end of the day, he's
just not that dude. He's the vegeta of He's the
crill in of that show. Almost like he's he's the vegeta,

(42:24):
but he's he's always wondering how to get stronger, and
he'll never reach Saitama and Sitamas just like, hey man,
someone's in my way and there's there's a there's a
sale going on at the grocer market, like I don't
want to do it, but I gotta because I need
to get to this sale. Like I love that. Uh So,

(42:45):
on April Fools in two thousand and twelve, Adults Swim
switched it up and normally they would air like the Room,
but instead they made the two Nami block their April
Fools joke, you know, you know, hurting our hearts like
that there at the scheduled episode of Bleach and then
they went through with DBZ Gundam, Wing Tinchi Muyo like

(43:06):
all the classics. But then, uh then after that, Adult
Swim posted a message to the Twitter page saying want
it back, let us know, hashtag bring back to Nami
and so this so it was just a perfect move,
Like I think they knew they were bringing back to Unami,
but they were like, They're like, let's get the hype
there so people can be hyped about it. So it
just exploded until the next year. In April two thirteen,

(43:30):
where they premiered The New Look um and uh the
and the Return of Sarah, and it just kind of
kind of been that that's when it kind of came back.
There's not much to say. I think the only thing
we can really talk about is how cool they premiered
The Space Dandy on January four, even before they premiered
it in Japan, which which is kind of like flipping

(43:51):
the whole spirit of Tsunami, which was like kind of
like the big export. Now they're like, now we're gonna
we're gonna pop it off here too. Yeah, and so
it's a little it difficult for them now as far
as like the future, it's it's almost like, okay, So
they start a lot of series, let's say Super or
My heir Academia when it's already on like season three,

(44:13):
you know, in Japan or on crunchy Roll or even
Funimation their app and so it's just like some of
them they've been trying to release as quickly as possible
as they can. With Japan, I know that this is
heavily wrapped up in contracts, So it's not like they
don't want to air it immediately, you know. For people
that are like they should do this. I know that

(44:33):
if they could, they would, but I think in order
for them to survive, they're gonna need original anime right
that you can't get anywhere else. I think that that.
I think another thing is if they're open to doing subs,
Because subs like dubs. It takes a while to get
the dub out, and I feel like if they were
open to subs that aren't necessarily huge on Crunchy Role

(44:57):
or huge on funimation, um, that might bring in an
audience that's like trying to find that anime, even old anime.
I feel like they could also capitalize on that by
bringing back like, hey, you know, I know you grew
up with Sailor Moon and DBZ, but here's some stuff
you might have missed back when you're in elementary school
that was coming out that no one remembers anymore. So

(45:19):
it's hard. I mean, in my opinion too, I don't
really want I was kind of watching it for Super
a little bit, but I don't really watch Tunami anymore. So.
As much as everyone's like, yes, bring it back, we
adore it, it's like, how much of us are actually
sitting down and watching it. Well, that's That's the one
thing I was talking about because I was wondering the
same thing, like I was wondering, how can a show

(45:41):
like to Nami exists now? And it finally hit me
when I kind of saw what they're airing now. The
show's Tunami doesn't live for people like us, I'll call
old head Weaves, because we got you know, we got
our connection. We we we have we have we have
no problem getting crunchy role and aunomation. It lives for

(46:01):
those high school kids because when I saw what they're running,
I was like, Oh, all the popping animes that have
all these kids yapping in the replies all the time,
or what's on your doctor stone my hero all so
like yeah, yeah, like fire Force, you know, like those
and they and they are like they're so you know, wild,

(46:24):
like it was. It was so funny because uh, you know,
I know, um Zeno Robinson who voices Hawks and now
voices Ogan and fire Force, and like we did this
thing where we switched each other's profiles and with mine
to switch and I put my face over it and
it was and his was just like a black version

(46:45):
of Hawks. It was a Hawks image painted black and
uh and like I and I had it and I
forgot about it and I just left it up there
because it was still a picture of me even after
we were done with a bit and I got like
some some some d M that was like, hey, um,
can you remove your your your profile picture because that
is my edit that I made for Zeno and for

(47:05):
for his purposes only. And I was like what, And
I was like and I looked at the profile and
it was like a seventeen year old kid, and I
was like, Okay, I'm not even gonna like go into
you know, copyright law with his kids or why him
just changing a character black does not make it his.
And I'm just doing one because it's nice and too
because it's a seventeen year old They're not gonna so

(47:26):
I changed. It was so funny because I was like,
oh yeah, you know, like like as as much you know,
hate Dubbs, get like the people who are like standing
them and those voice actors are the people who were
us when we were little, and we only and that's
that like we we we were not you know, get
going online. We're just watching it on TV. And so
so it just made me go like, oh, yeah, Tsunami

(47:50):
can still exist because it's for the new generation, you know.
And that's and that is what makes me happy that
it's still around the generation that uh, the generation yells
at you for reposting their content that they ripped off
from somewhere. Hey man, hey man, that's my tweet. That's
my that's my tweet of that TV show that I

(48:11):
like that. I don't, oh, but that's my tweet. Man,
give it back, like like like I almost want to
be like, yo, parody law how me? Like I put
my face on it, so it's not it's not it's
I put a watermark. What you're gonna do? Just transformational? Yeah, Like,
last thing I need is to be dragged by some
seventy year old and another Uh this person steals art.

(48:33):
Oh man, don't do it. Man, they'll they'll, they'll, they'll
stay TikTok army on you. Yeah. I don't know that anymore.
I'm on TikTok. I know how they how they work.
Oh my gosh. Um so uh so we're gonna we're
getting out of here. J D. Where can people find you?
Let people know where to get in touch with you?

(48:55):
What you've got going on? Um? You know, uh, social
media platforms anything j D Witherspoon. I also do gaming
content on Twitch and YouTube under run j D run.
Those are my handles. But yeah, I don't know. You
could just a search, search stat and you'll you'll more
or less find my platforms. I post too much for
people not to see what I'm doing, so yep, that's

(49:18):
where I would say to check me out. Oh okay,
and you know me if you wide away on Twitter
and Instagram, if D's on Twitch, discord dot eg Ford
slash Salt Squad, if you want to join the convo,
uh and get in there and start chip chopping, which
people have already been like, there's thirty six episodes of
or thirty seven episodes of of death note not twenty six.

(49:42):
And I knew when I opened up my crunchy ass
uh blu ray, but I was like, yeah, I mean
that's a small edit, y'all. Y'all know, and we all know,
so just letting you know, we we know, but thanks
thanks for letting us now. I always got to step
back on that and the Discord people come wrecked. But yeah,

(50:02):
Danny White people find I'm at miss Danny Fernandez and
all the things. Um what else? Oh, yeah, um, I
think this comes out. Thanks for everyone for writing me
about my great debate episode. I have another one coming
out this month, so check that out. And I will
also be posting things as I'm allowed to announce them.

(50:23):
So yeah, yeah, speaking of what you yet, my episode
is this Thursday. So it was last Thursday. Oh yeah, goodness,
you missed it? Did you see it? Did you see it?
And as we always say, stay nerdy, Stay nerdy,