Happy Birthday Toonami

Thirteen years ago an action block debuted on Cartoon Network and blazed a path of glory that brought the block to legendary status in the annal's of animated programming, that block is known the world over as "Toonami". There was nothing like it before and there will probably be nothing like it afterwards, but while the block was on the air it helped to usher in a sea of new fans to both Cartoon Network and to the format of anime as a respected platform for storytelling, for this I will always be greatfull toward Toonami. Today (3/17/10) Toonami would have celebrated it's 13th birthday had it still been broadcasted, but as everyone knows, the block was cancelled back in September of 2008 but it's memory and spirit live on to this day.

Happy Birthday Toonami, the animation world still mourns your death to this day.

Who will replace The King as host of CN's "You Are Here" when CN rebrands?

When Cartoon Network rebrands itself, what will become of The King? Some people have brought this up over on the Toon Zone forums and I for one believe many have grown attatched to The King as the host/mascot of CN's Friday night action block, You Are Here (YAH), but who will come after him, or should I say....what will come after him? I think people have come to expect action blocks on Cartoon Network to have a host and The King fits the role nicely, but I am worried that instead of good bumpers or a great host we will be greeted with generic bumpers with random shots of the show thats currently airing before commercial breaks, that wouldn't sit well with me and the packaging of YAH would become ruined. I guess time will tell what will happen to the host spot and the bumpers, hell, some people even think that YAH will probably leave the network when the rebrand happens, I certainly hope that won't be the case because it's an awesome block as it stands today and all it needs is a little TLC to make it stand out and become memorable.

I hope Cartoon Network does not screw this up, they have a chance here to bring a whole new life and identity to it's Friday night action block and to keep the brand of YAH going, adding a new and likable host to the block can only help it, but no matter what happens I will always have a soft spot for The King and his evil brother "Devil Nood". I think those who are fans of the block will too, it may take a few years, but they will.

Where are you? You.....Are.......Here!

My blog is up and running!

Hello everyone, my name is Sean (better known as AnimationX) and I am a huge fan of animation and have been my whole life, so here in my first ever blog I would like to take the opprtunity to give readers a brief history of me and my history with animation. Well, it all started in the middle to late 1980's when I was just a little one, I would spend hours in front of the television watching cartoons on Saturday mornings and learning the names of the characters as well as trying to remember what shows they were on, I remember being absalutaly convinced that Slyth was a villain on TMNT and had nothing to do with Thundercats until I finally got used to the shows, I guess I was a stubborn child. Anyhow, as the 80's turned into the 90's I was getting older and finally got down a schedule as to what time certain shows came on and on what networks, before I knew it I was just enthralled by watching cartoons and I knew that it would turn into a lifelong hobby for me, I first realized it when friends would come over and ask me to go out and play with them or to go shoot some hoops or something and I would decline because all I wanted to do was watch cartoons.

It's been a long time since those days and now I'm all grown up and have a career, a life and a lot of responsibilities but my main hobby has always remained the same. I watch cartoons. I have other hobbies on top of being a fan of animation, I enjoy reading manga and comic books, I love video games, I have a massive collection of movies that I have been building since 2001 and I kind of enjoy Pac-Man collectibles, but my true love in life is animation and spending my time watching as much of it as possible. My girlfriend hates it, my friends don't understand it, and the people I work with always seem to look at me funny when I flick on Nicktoons or Cartoon Network during the day when I'm working, but I don't care. I watch cartoons. Around the end of the summer in 2009 I realized that I don't have any friends who share this hobby with me, most of my friends are heavy into sports and video games so I decided to find a place where I can discuss my hobby with people over the internet who share my same passion, thats when I found a place called ToonZone.Net. Toon Zone a website & forum in which animation and pop culture fans can read the latest news and views with whats going on in the animation world and discuss the stories in their community, it's been a fun ride so far I must say and everyone seems to have some level of passion for the hobby. Sometimes I do kind of wish that my friends shared the hobby with me, it would be fun to all get together and toss on some anime on DVD or maybe fire up Cartoon Network on a Friday or Saturday night, but it is what it is and it wont change the fact that I enjoy spending time watching cartoons.

That's all for now.
Sean (AKA: AnimationX)