Nostalgia Goggles: The Golden Age of Toonami Part 2

Its time to continue my reflection on Toonami. Two shows down four to go. Yeah I lied in my last post when I said we had three shows left. Well lets not waste anytime time. First up is the lone western cartoon in the lineup.

3. ReBoot

80s kids had Tron as their computer inspired science fiction story. 90s kids had ReBoot. ReBoot was the first fully CGI animated TV show. The producers, the Canadian based Mainframe Studios, would later create popular shows such as Transformers: Beast Wars. The show took place in a computer system called Mainframe and the plot followed how its citizens fended off viruses and games sent by The User who was basically God. I always pictured The User as some nerdy guy who is extremely frustrated by his constant computer trouble. The first season was lighthearted with a ton of great pop culture satire and humor. Things really kicked into high gear in season 2. ReBoot slowly turned in a dark epic which came in full force during season 3. They turned the obnoxious kid character, Enzo, into a grown up, gun toting anti-hero. Wow, this really was a 90s show. Luckily Rob Liefeld was not involved and the darker tone worked in the shows favor. While I liked the first season I became a hardcore fan during seasons 2 and 3.  ReBoot and great characters and a very creative setting. For example, they turned a web surfer in to a Silver Surfer homage. I always really enjoyed the game sequences. This games in the show were like video games in real life and the characters took the role of the computer player. Never thought I'd be rooting for the CPU. ReBoot is funny, inventive, and quite dramatic at times. It was so go I might just forgive Canada for giving us Nickelback. I like this show so much I'll give you the cliff notes of season 3 complete with the music of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Best opera EVAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. Ronin Warriors

Ronin Warriors tends to be forgotten during Toonami discussions, at least in my experience. That's a tragedy because Ronin Warriors was my favorite golden age show on Toonami. Yes I liked this show more than Dragon Ball Z. Come to think of it I might have liked ReBoot more than DBZ but I digress. Ronin Warriors or Yoroiden Samurai Troopers if you're Japanese, is essentially the male version of Sailor Moon. This show was even better because I could actually say I liked it in public. The Ronin Warriors had a lot of commonalities with the Sailor Scouts including cool character designs and over the top elemental attacks. Additionally, Ronin Warriors brought a surprisingly dark atmosphere to the table. There wasn't constant death or anything but the mood could be very bleak at times. One of Ronin Warriors greatest strengths was its villains led by the floating Japanese samurai demon head of ultimate evil. Talpa got a body eventually but I liked the floating head thing. Speaking of villains, the show had one the first instances of a Heel Face Turn in a cartoon that I watched. The redeemed evil doer became my favorite character for that reason. I loved this show because it was Power Rangers on steroids. I only wish we got more of it. There are only 39 episodes. If the OVA's were aired on Toonami I never saw them.

5. Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

Japan loves their giant robots. They also love their pretty boys. Put them together and you got Gundam Wing. Gundam Wing was my first real exposure to serious Military Sci-Fi. Toonami aired Robotech back in the Moltar days but I never really watched it. Gundam Wing caught on very quickly. However, I could never call myself a huge fan. Let me clarify, Gundam Wing is in no way a bad show I just didn't get into it as much as the other Toonami programs. I mentioned that Gundam Wing was a serious show but it may have been a bit too serious for my eight year old mind. A lot of redshirts got killed and I was never comfortable with that in my young age. Looking back , the show also got very political at points and it had a strong anti war message. I might grown to like the seriousness more but I couldn't watch the show regularly since it was shown at 5:30. I had homework, Wednesday night church, and Karate lessons in the late afternoon and evenings. When I did watch Gundam Wing I enjoyed myself. My favorite character was the team funny guy, Duo Maxwell. The Gundams themselves were all awesome looking and the action was superb. One of my regrets regarding my Toonami fandom is not watching Gundam Wing as much as I should have. I would probably love the show now that I''m older. You can expect a review of the Gundam Wing movie, Endless Waltz in the future. I'm told it can be enjoyed by people who aren't super familiar with the show's story and I'm hoping that's true.

6. Tenchi Muyo!

This show was... strange. Out of all of Toonami's golden age shows I watched this one the least. Thank you late time slot. It was about some guy who met a bunch of hot chicks from outer space. They moved in with the guy and the girls constantly fought each other because they all had crushes on Tenchi. I only saw one or two episodes of the show. Plus Toonami kept confusing me because there were actually three different Tenchi shows, Tenchi Muyo!, Tenchi Universe, and Tenchi in Tokyo. Each show was part of its own continuity and if I remember correctly, Toonami never explained that. I could be wrong though it was 13 years ago. I hate to disappoint the fans but I really don't have much to say about this show. I might check out the original OVA later on.

Toonami was one of the best parts of my childhood. I continued to watch throughout the 2000s. I'll probably talk about the shows which came after Tenchi Muyo! sometime. I see that era as the Silver Age of Toonami and I have a ton of fond memories of that time. However, these six shows represent the most influential and memorable period of Toonami's existence. If this post got you interested in some of these shows, check them out and see if they still hold up. Thanks for reading and stay gold.