AS: Two Years And Still Getting Weirder

[StrangerAtaru]

On September 2, 2001, animation as we know it changed....well not forever, but quite a bit. It was that Sunday when Cartoon Network threw all kids out of the pool and opened up a little block we like to call "Adult Swim". Many things were learned on that fateful night, but all that we know was that no matter what happened, things were not going to be as we knew it on late night TV. Personally, I was there from the beginning, mostly due to being a part of a Toonami board at the time, but this night started making me lose a lot of sleep on certain days. (to now, which is nearly every day) Sure the events of this night in September ended up being overshadowed 9 days later (some of which had immediate impact on the block, but it eventually got over it), but that was an ironic circumstance as to when it started airing. But hey, we've gone from Home Movies to Family Guy, Aqua Teens to Sealab, Cowboy Bebop to Trigun, YYH to FLCL, even Pilot Candidate to Reign, and the best may still be on the horizon.

I guess all I have to say is: thanks CN and WS for two great years of edgy animation, and I hope more comes our way in the years to come.

[SSJPabs]

Celebrate 2 years! W00t W00t! cus Anime is teh s uck! COB! and other assorted what-not.

[True Noir]

Yehhhhhhhhhh Happy Adult Swim anni. luv yall from the beginning

[Aurochs]

Well I've been watching from the beginning.

Adult Swim!
Adult Swim!
Adult Swim!
Adult Swim!

Happy 2nd anniversary

[The Landstander]

I've only been watching since July 2002, but no matter. Congrats on two years, AS!

[NewLib]

Watched AS from the first day. I remember we used to think that The Brak Show was the best, SeaLab next, then Harvey Birdman, and the worst show was ATHF. My how first impressions are misleading.

I have watched through the good (The original content, Mission Hill, Cowboy Bebop, Futarama, Trigun, Big O, FLCL, Family Guy, Char's Counterattack, AS Weekdays, Home Movies, and InuYashu when it isnt doing flashbacks.) and the bad (CB episodes being preempted because of 9/11 concerns, MSG never getting a full run, Ripping Friends, Never seeing Rejected and Pilot Candidate). All and all, I say AS has been a success and lets hope the next two years are as good as the first two.

To Adult Swim.

[DianaGohan]

Ah, September 2nd. I remember two years ago when AS just started. I bet no one would imagine how much it would grow in that time frame. And I hope the next years will see AS evolving even more so.

[Jimmy Kustes]

Been watching since the beginning.

Which makes me better. :P

[moreysurf8]

I've only been watching since December '02, but I heard about AS long before then (my cable company finally decided to give us CN last decemeber) but whatever. Kudos to AS for giving us TV shows that are truly, laugh out loud funny and inside jokes that other people may never understand. Congrats on two years!

Oh and Kudos to Toonzone for giving us a place to talk about said programming. Cause think about it...if it wasn't for TZ, some of us might be over at the AS.com board. *thinks about it*...well that was disturbing.

[Hades]

been watching since the start, thanks to a friend who tapes everything. its been a wild ride, here's to two more years and beyond.

[EightOh]

I first saw Adult Swim on Thursday, September 13th, 2001.

It's amazing how much the block has grown. Hopefully, two years from now, I'll be just as amazed at the growth that will follow from this point.

Thanks for bringing it to us, WS.

[goat]

The first time I ever watched AS was sometime during the Old People in the Pool era. Ok, I didn't really watch it, I just caugt a glimpse of it one night. I was like, "Whoa...adult swim? I better change the channel before I get caught watching this naughty thing." Ok, well, I probably didn't think it was "naughty", just weird and Adult and I shouldn't be watching it because I was [more of] a kid [than I am now]. Anyways a year+ passed and I got interested in anime. I'd seen some Japanese-sounding titles on the TV guide channel before so I decided to look into them. Then one Saturday in November 2002 I watched my first Adult Swim.

The only shows I watched were Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Cowboy Bebop because I'd heard about Gundam before and wasn't really interested. I remember...let's see. The Inuyasha ep was "The Toad who would be Prince", I guess on IY's first run. YYH was in Genkai's Tournament, the first episode of the fighting in the dark (several episodes later I fell madly in love with Kuwabara :D ). And I was really lucky, since CB had just started over and I saw Session 1. It kinda depressed me. I've watched ever since @^.^@ <--that's a goat, by the way.

So, thank you, Williams Street, for the goodness that is Adult Swim! Happy aniversery!

[Beat]

We're defientely better off than the Year one aniversary. Back then the one night of ASA was plagued with shows edited to Toonami standards, and the comedy block was in the midst of never-ending reruns.

Since then, the CN now attracts more adult viewers than CNN, and when Williams Street handles it (go jump off a cliff FUNimation execs) editing is at a bare minimum. Things can only get better.

[Ajax]

You right, AS has change alot. It went from just Sunday to Sunday and Saturday. Then from Sat.& Sun to everyday except Sat.(well Friday too). I would of never thought we would be seeing the shows that air today on Cartoon Network.
Oh and I didn't watch AS from the start, but I did watch ASA from the start, when it aired Feb. of 2002.

[SpaceCowboy]

AS has come so far since the days of the old people in the pool and the red bug on the screen. Thank you WS for the best programming block on TV! :)

[Stripe]

I've been watching since the very first AS. All I knew was that their were going to be new Space Ghosts epps (I'd been a fan of SGC2C since it's very begining when I was only seven years old. I'm pretty sure that show is responsible for what others call my "wierd sence of humor") I also heard that there was going to be more 15 miunute shows buy the "Space Ghost guys" and that Cowboy Bebop anime I heard so much about. I was blown away and have been a faithful viewer ever since.

Now it's pretty much the only thing on TV I really like (damn Sci Fi for cancelling MST3K!) In a world of crappy reality television and other horrible shows their's always good ole' AS, the block of quality programming.

HAPPY SECOND BIRTHDAY AS!

[Mog]

I am also one of the proud that was there from the start. It was CB that got me watching, but after a short time I was watching everything.

[Delthayre]

I remember that night two years ago when I got home from something dreafully tired and desiring relaxation, so with some trepidation I turned on Cartoon Network and saw, much to my surprise, anime, something I hadn't seen on TV in a long time. I cursed myself at the time for not getting to it before 12 and hoped fervently for another show in the same vein...then I saw the opening of Cowboy Bebop, and I pretty well hit just hit the crack pipe. Ever since that night I have been a fervent watcher and supporter. I have gleefully watched Adult Swim became a great success for Cartoon Network. Something I liked, A SUCCESS, this is a remarkable thing. I have been through the good and bad, I have watched this community mutate and grow, long before I ever started actually posting. I have seen the progress from the old people (appropro, but somewhat repetetive), the "worst case scenario bumpers" (nicely produces, but underwhelming), and ther rise of "The Cards" (my flock, this is the promised land).

Here's to 2 more years, and ratings willing, many more beyond that.

[Aurochs]

I was pretty much anxious to watch Adult Swim the first time I saw the promo for it. (about three weeks before it aired) It had new episodes of my favorite show, (SG:C2C) The Brak Show, (I thought they meant the variety show at the time) "that humorous UPN show that got cancelled", and four other shows with bizarre names. Eventually I learned more about the shows. And then it actually aired. It essentially blew the ****ing minds of myself and my friends. Actually, to be honest, I wasn't really impressed by Cowboy Bebop the first time I saw it. Asteroid Blues wasn't really a good first episode. It took me until the Thursday airing to figure out it wasn't a typical episode, but an homage to Desperados. I of course, realized the show was awesome when I saw the second episode.

[AVianes]

I to was there from the start, i remember watching a commerical during toonami and was immeaditly hooked, the onl show i didn't like back then was Home Movies, but that was before I watched a full episode now it is one of my favorite shows.

Ah memories... we shall enjoy them

[TnAdct1]

I remember watching the premiere of Adult Swim two weeks. My main reason for watching that night was to see how William Street handled Cowboy Bebop, considering that I was an anime fan and I somewhat concerned about CB being severely butchered for CN (thankfully, CN kept in as much as possible). However, I did check out the other shows and experienced such things as a rock opera based on "Metamorphisis", "Three hams will kill him", and "HESH WANTS SEX!!!". While it took me a while (more like a year) to get into Home Movies, I began to quickly become a fan of the William Street shows. Two years later, I'm still enjoying the anime and William Street shows and am interested in checking out some more episodes of Home Movies.

[HomeMoviesFan]

Being there from the beginning...
2 YEARS!! And to think...I was a sophmore back then...hahahahahaha...


...recalling memories:

Home Movies's "Director's Cut"...my thoughts: "What the hell...the squiqqling...MY EYES ARE BURNING!!"
The Brak Show's "Goldfish" and "Time Machine"...my thoughts: "GREAT!!"
Sealab's "Chickmate"...my thoughts: "Funny. Very funny....uh....then again...uh...I don't know..."
Seeing SGC2C again...my thoughts: "Ooh...I remember this show! Yeah...I remember it SUCKED!" (just kidding!!)
Cowboy Bebop...uh....didn't see until repeat Thursday...but I remember liking it then.

Ah...what a time! And to imagine it's been two years, and we've achieved regal ratings, big shows like Futurama and Family Guy, expanded to weekdays, and soon are becoming an all-nighter!...

HAPPY TWO YEARS, AS!!

[JetMaster5]

There's so much variety in shows at Adult Swim then what it used to be. It expanded from 1 day per week to 5 days per week. It even beat out late night talk shows in ratings. That's saying a lot.

May the Golden Era of Adult Swim continue forever. Happy 2nd aniversary.

[Beat]

To sum it up for the you-

The Good-

In house editing getting less and less common
Recycled animation starting a trend
Shows that wouldn't air anywhere else

The Bad-

Third parites that edit to make you buy their DVD's. (coughFUNicough)
The fact that Rejected still hasn't aired, despite all the Jesus related jokes in the last two years.
The fact that people are too stupid to give older shows that are really good (coughLupincough) a chance.

[dancougar]

Here is what I want to see on Adult Swim in the future:

Area 88-Acts 1-3
Magazone 23-parts 1,2, and 3(I-II)
The Bubblegum Crisis- parts 1-7
Macross Plus (parts 1-4)
The Guiver-parts 1-8
Fist of the Northstar
Neo Genisis Evangellion (1-26)
Street Fighter II V (1-30)
Dark Starkers

Does anybody support the idea of having these cartoons on the Adult Swim Lineup? Let's write to them about it? Comments on my sugesstions are always welcome.

[herbkir]

I started watching AS when it ran on Saturday nights. I stumbled upon it by accident one Saturday night when I was idly flipping channels for something to watch and hit on ANIME!!! I think it was Cowboy Bebop. But I also saw Tenchi, YYH, Pilot Candidate. I'd been watching the anime on Sci Fi but despaired of ever seeing it again when Sci Fi took off their anime. I was plain overjoyed to discover AS. And then they started Inuyasha and I was in anime heaven. My late Saturdays were never the same until AS moved to weeknights. Now my weeknights were never to be the same. So here's to another year as memorable as the previous years. (^_*)

[Lord Infamous]

Heh, I still remember two years ago... I took a chance on Cartoon Network, expecting to see The Flintstones or something equally boring. I was amazed to see Sealab 2021. It was the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time and I kept watching. I then saw the first episode of Cowboy Bebop. To this day it remains my favorite ep. The whole "Red-Eye" thing just blew my mind. Here's to 10 more years of AS, lord willin'.

[Aurochs]

Here is what I want to see on Adult Swim in the future:

Area 88-Acts 1-3
Magazone 23-parts 1,2, and 3(I-II)
The Bubblegum Crisis- parts 1-7
Macross Plus (parts 1-4)
The Guiver-parts 1-8
Fist of the Northstar
Neo Genisis Evangellion (1-26)
Street Fighter II V (1-30)
Dark Starkers

Does anybody support the idea of having these cartoons on the Adult Swim Lineup? Let's write to them about it? Comments on my sugesstions are always welcome.

"Fly this topic directly to Cuba"

[Eddy]

I remember seeing Adult Swim back from the begining... Mom fell asleep and left her TV on... I walked in to see Brak. Surprised to hear Zorak say "What the hell?" or something like that... I think the first Brak Show episode to premire was "Goldfish."

Sigh...

We started with Home Movies, Harvey Birdman, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Brak Show, Space Ghost Coast-2-Coast and Cowboy Bebop. I remeber when the rating remained in the upper corner of the screen for the entire episode. TV-PG, TV-14 both at the top for the entire thing.

The Saturday block which didn't last... it gave us Yu Yu Hakusho and InuYasha...

"All kids out of the pool for Adult Swim! All kids out!"

"No diving in an empty pool.... no diving...."

And who could forget Betty? God, that Betty swimming part was a bit to long for my tastes. I always would fastforward during those parts.

I remember the old promos too.

Habby b-day AS! Thank you CN and WS! CUS ANIME IS TEH S UCK!

[jeffrey 228]

And I also would like to say that these 2 years have been good at showing new Episodes of ATHF and soon to be new Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and don't forget many new anime including Cowboy Bebop, Inu Yasha and even FLCL wich was very rare to happen.

[Anime Guy]

To sum it up for the you-

The Good-

In house editing getting less and less common
Recycled animation starting a trend
Shows that wouldn't air anywhere else

The Bad-

Third parites that edit to make you buy their DVD's. (coughFUNicough)
The fact that Rejected still hasn't aired, despite all the Jesus related jokes in the last two years.
The fact that people are too stupid to give older shows that are really good (coughLupincough) a chance.

Need some cough medicine? I read that on another board when someone was doing that cough thing.

[Sir T. Ghostal]

Been watching since the beginning as well. How long does everyone think Adult Swim will last anyways? Or will it be on the air forever...?

[Parallax]

I can't believe AS is two years old....anyway, I've been watching for ever since I saw a little ad for a new anime block on CN in a video game mag. Thta blcok was Adult Swim Action. And I've been watching ever since.

[Tienshin]

Been watching since the beginning as well. How long does everyone think Adult Swim will last anyways? Or will it be on the air forever...?

I don't think AS is goin' anywhere anytime soon, but on your TV. Next to Toonami this is the best idea to come out of Atlanta in a long time.

[Anime Guy]

I don't think AS is goin' anywhere anytime soon, but on your TV. Next to Toonami this is the best idea to come out of Atlanta in a long time.

Toonami is cool, what with the music, and the flying through space, and the cursive writing on flashy, colorful backgrounds. Yeah, it's pretty cool. But, I think Toonami only does that to attract the kids. I know some people are saying, "Duh, of course they're trying to attract kids, they want ratings." But, I think they try to hide behind a slick image like on that South Park episode where the boys start watching MTV all the time, and on an ad for MTV, it says, "You're watching MTV, the channel that hides behind a slick image that hypnotizes kids 12 and under to watch us." I think they do that to seem cool when they're really just editing anime without telling them. So, I think Adult Swim is better, but I still like some Toonami stuff. *to self* "Damn, what a LONG post!"

[Mynd Hed]

But, I think they try to hide behind a slick image like on that South Park episode where the boys start watching MTV all the time, and on an ad for MTV, it says, "You're watching MTV, the channel that hides behind a slick image that hypnotizes kids 12 and under to watch us."

The thing is, in the early days when Toonami aired more 80's stuff like Thundercats and Voltron, I always thought that the "cool" image was kind of there to be purposefully ironic. I mean, they'd dress everything up in this "cool" facade like it was the next new thing, but then as soon as the show came on, it was the same old 80's cheesiness that I grew up with. I think they kind of did that on purpose, to juxtapose the new slickness with the old campiness.
But as time went on and Toonami dropped more and more of the old 'toons and started to rely on more recent stuff, it seemed like that sense of irony kind of went away and they started to take themselves a little too seriously.
Or maybe I just outgrew it, I can't really tell.

[Rabi~en~Rose]

2 years and Birdman still only has 8 episodes.......


um but anyways I only started watching last year when it first went to the saturday/sunday schedule! pilot candidate aside it's been all good times.

wish they'd have kept inuyasha at only one airing a week though. that way the drought would have never happened and I'd like the show more cause seeing it 4 times a week really drills in its repetitiveness. http://members.aol.com/kimminakochan/chicken.gif

[Beat]

Need some cough medicine? I read that on another board when someone was doing that cough thing.

No, I'm good. ;)

[Mugen]

I first heard about AS from Greg Werner's old Ultimate DBZ Info Site. He was talking with some CN employee and the person said that CN was thinking about making a block for adults. I was intriged, but never thought about it until I was reading Entertainment Weekly and saw an ad for Adult Swim. I saw an ad for Cowboy Bebop(which had a picture from Wild Horses and none of the main characters were in it) and decided to watch it. On one of the Sunday's, I sneaked to the T.V. and watched episode three of Cowboy Bebop. I remember being surprised at the language being used and thought to myself, "Is this the same Cartoon Network that airs Toonami?" I would catch Cowboy Bebop every now and then, but it wasn't until ASA started did I start getting into Adult Swim.

I remember the ASA threads, the Toonami-edit shows, Matt Wilson trying to start a petition to make WS go back and de-edit Gundam 0083 and Pilot Candidate, people complaining that Tenchi Universe's opening didn't air, people complaining about the openings taken off, why AS couldn't air TV-MA shows, Beatdigga being critical of AS and hoped TNN's block would suceed(lol, we know how that turned out), Kikyo's ass being shown(only to be taken out during the second run :( ), Yusuke's middle finger being restored(it's funny how FUNi[no pun intended] were the ones trying to make AS standards less strict and yet look at the controversy for Blue Gender), People praising Char's Counterattack(with the exception of DianaGohan), and many more stuff. Keep it up WS!

[Mibbitmaker]

Since I was already a big fan of SGC2C, I watched AS since the beginning (come to think of it, I was watching SGC2C since it began, too... I just like post-modern satirical versions of old, silly adventure shows!). I had first heard about it online, I think on the animation newsgroups, maybe TZ, too.