after a huge show of support from an april fools' toonami broadcast, toonami is actually back! but there's some concerns from longtime fans that it won't be the same and are refusing to watch it.

i can understand that some people were expecting toonami to be just like how they remember it, but there's a few good reasons why it won't be, why it shouldn't be, and why you should tune in anyway.

the biggest complaint about the return of toonami seems to be that they are not showing any of the old animes.

first off, toonami doesn't have as high of a budget as it did during its daytime block, and the cost to license some of the shows like dbz are even higher now than they used to be. even if this wasn't the case, [as] can't wipe an entire 6 hours of programming for newly licensed shows in an instant. axing 3 (kekkaishi, FLCL and Big O), and adding 2 (deadman wonderland, casshern sins) is probably as much as they can handle in a single swipe - and i think it's a good start. FLCL and Big O are awesome, but they've been rerun enough.

secondly, toonami was never about nostalgia. what is the thing everyone remembers toonami for? introducing the viewer to shows they had never seen. dbz, sailor moon, gundam wing.. these animes were brand new to most of us when we watched the old toonami. while it is true that a majority of the people who are going to be watching toonami late saturday night are probably longtime fans who are expecting what we remember, we should still look forward to the opportunity to view newer anime on american television where it is being introduced to tens or hundreds of thousands of new eyes. this is good for the audience and for the producers of the shows. a lot of producers of animated content in the east are keeping a watchful eye on performance of dvd sales and theater attendances of anime in countries like the united states. if it's important to them, it should be important to us.

i do think that the perfect toonami would be a proper mix of the old and the new - granted they are still showing bebop but they have rerun it so many times. but toonami's success won't come without two things - time and ratings. toonami is an experiment for the network. if it doesn't get ratings, it fails - and we can kiss it goodbye forever.

some of us may feel entitled to instant gratification and the perfect toonami lineup. but it needs time to mature and get viewer feedback. if we watch what they give us and appreciate the effort they went through to bring toonami back to us, we'll get a better programming block as time goes on.

it's important for toonami fans to put aside their complaints and look at the positive. if you have a cable box, set it to cartoon network saturday night at midnight and leave it there 'til 6AM. they can't please everyone, but clearly they are trying their best to get a long lost programming block back on its feet. obviously they listened to us once enough to resurrect the entire thing - something almost nobody was expecting. they should have our complete gratitude just for that.

now show them you're thankful by tuning in. remember - they're listening.

the revolution will be televised