15) Megas XLR
From 1997 until 2004, Cartoon Network seemed to avoid premiering their original series on Toonami. The mindset was apparently that Toonami had its own shows and that the likes of Samurai Jack and The PowerPuff Girls should only play a guest role on the thriving action block. Cartoon Network even established a separate block from Toonami as their home for original action premieres, christening it the Saturday Video Entertainment System. However, with the move to Saturday nights, Cartoon Network started looking at Toonami a bit differently.
Toonami airing only once a week during prime time made it an ideal venue to premiere original action series, with that in mind they tossed the highly anticipated Megas XLR onto Toonami making it the first Cartoon Network produced series to premiere on the block. It was a match made in heaven. The comedic action series created by anime loving gamers for anime loving gamers, was a giant robot cartoon like no other. Instead of having a moody teenager as a pilot, the earth’s only hope against an alien invasion is was a gear head slacker from Jersey. Sadly, it was all too short-lived. Only two seasons were made and it became a tax write-off when the network deemed it a failure. Megas XLR may simply have been a series before its time.
14) Attack on Titan
Toonami had been back on the air for two years by spring of 2014 and the block had seen nothing but growth up to that point but none of the programming was really catching the eye of the mainstream other than Bleach, Naruto and the simuldub of Space Dandy. They needed something big, they got something titanic. On that fateful day when they quietly ran a teaser promo announcing Attack on Titan’s pending arrival, the dream of having the immensely popular series premiere on Toonami was realized.
It was Attack on Titan that put Toonami back on the map. No other show on the block was capable of regularly besting the hour of comedy programming leading into Toonami up to that point. The Labor Day marathon did phenomenal and it seemed like Attack on Titan would become a mainstay of the block. Perhaps that is why the network felt Titan could rerun at the top of the block. That was a costly mistake but perhaps losing those three hours at the time was ultimately for the best. Toonami later reran it at the end of the shortened block to reasonable success and Adult Swim has been streaming episodes of the series on their website for nearly three years now. The wait for the second season has been a long one but it seems to be fate for Attack on Titan and Toonami to cross paths again.
13) Bleach
There is something to be said for a reliable soldier that is always able to lead the charge. From May 2012 until late 2014, Bleach anchored Toonami week in and week out. It had quite a task ahead of it in 2012, holding together something akin to a box of scraps. It kept the ship afloat on troubled waters. It is easy to argue, if not for Bleach’s presence, the Toonami revival would have been very short lived. Though its job became increasingly easier with a stronger line-up behind it, Bleach never let up. We can certainly thank those loyal Bleach viewers for that. Like other series before it, Bleach was that necessary show that drew in more casual observers and gave the other shows on Toonami a strong lead to follow. Had the series not ended, it would likely still be on the block today.
12) Deadman Wonderland
When Toonami returned in 2012 it relaunched with several hold-overs and just a couple of new acquisitions, not so unlike how Toonami started in 1997. They did not yet have the resources to bring in highly demanded powerhouses. They needed something fresh that could grab the attention of long time Toonami fans as well as new viewers. Luckily for them, Deadman Wonderland was brought to the table. It was gritty, vulgar and intense. It made the statement that this wasn’t the Toonami you grew up with, and it certainly was not your little brother’s Toonami either.
Deadman Wonderland not only destroyed the boundaries for every show that had aired on Toonami on Cartoon Network, it even pushed beyond what Adult Swim Action would usually consider airing. With this one show, they stripped away the thought that Toonami’s history as an action cartoon block for children was going to keep it from fitting in among Adult Swim’s cutting-edge programming. The series struck a chord with the audience during its three month run, so much so that it returned for another run in 2015. Black Lagoon, Hellsing Ultimate and KILL la KILL all pushed the content barrier even further but who knows if any of them would have even gotten a chance to air if Deadman Wonderland was not such a game changer?
11) Outlaw Star
After finding some success with other anime and building a relationship with Bandai of America, Toonami came across this space western among the companies’ catalog and decided to roll the dice. Outlaw Star became instantly endearing to the Toonami viewers and received many addition runs of the twenty five episodes they were allowed to air. It was another series that pushed content boundaries and a few slip ups in the editing room made for some truly memorable moments among the viewers.
One of several monologues of the series was the key element to Toonami’s most popular cut-together music video: “Dreams”. Outlaw Star was a mainstay of Toonami’s Midnight run and its success airing late at night further cemented the potential for targeting action animation at adult audiences. On top of all of that, the director Mitsuru Hongo went on to direct Toonami’s first original series.