Last week, we took a look at the Anime Block for the
younger generation. This week, I’m
taking a look at the shows that kickstarted the late night, uncut Anime
goodness for those of us who craved it.
Now as a guideline I set for myself, I’m only picking Anime from the
first five or so years of Adult Swim’s existence. Some background: Adult Swim debuted back in
2001 as a late night comedy/action/adult cartoon block for Cartoon
Network. With the monstrous success of
their first Anime airing, Cowboy Bebop, Adult Swim branched off their Anime
into a whole separate night, at the start Saturdays. This would go on to become a hugely
successful endevour and today, Adult Swim’s Anime has merged with a newly
resurrected Toonami (though I still consider it Adult Swim). So yeah, the block’s come a long way. So I’m looking back at the shows that signaled
for all kids to get out of the pool.
#5-Blue Gender
It’s Starship Troopers with a darker, scarier
psychological edge. The adventures of
Yuji and Marlene in this post apocalyptic, bug infested planet Earth both
excited and genuinely terrified me when I first watched it. I suppose it turned out a lot like The
Walking Dead, when the real problem ended up not being the giant bugs roaming
the Earth, but Humanity itself becoming one of the worst evils on the planet. Adult Swim never did a lot of horror based
Anime back then. Blue Gender was a fine
test into this genre backed with the addition of action and mecha scifi story
telling. And wouldn’t you know it, some
of the images seen were just down right haunting. No wonder I couldn’t get to sleep after
watching an episode.
#4-Inuyasha
While I did lose a little interest later in, the first
few seasons of this show were great. A
half human/half dog demon hybrid teaming up with a cute school girl from the
present was a match made in destiny.
Inuyasha was an arrogant but loveable guy and Kagome was too pretty to
ignore. Factor in a smooth talking monk
named Miroku and a sexy demon slayer in black and pink named Sango and I was
ready to watch more and more adventures every week. The romance worked as well as the
action. Inuyasha and Kagome still stand
as one of my favorite couples in all of Anime and their relationship is pretty
well explored come series end. I don’t
think Inuyasha was my first fantasy Anime (I think I might’ve seen Record of
Lodoss War right before or after this, I don’t remember really), but it’s still
one of my favorites, if only for the cast.
#3-Fullmetal
Alchemist
It was a tough call between this one and Ghost in the
Shell: Stand Alone Complex (both debuted on Adult Swim at the same time). While GITS will always be a hit with me, no
matter the incarnation, there was something most special about FMA when it
first debuted. I once heard someone tell
me this show was the successor to Dragon Ball Z here in the States. He was right but not in the way I
expected. The action on FMA was great
but it wasn’t the main focus of the show.
The tightly knit brotherhood between metallic limbed Edward and his soul
armored brother, Alphonse, really drove home with me and many others. You cheered when they won and cried when they
lost…especially when they lost big (oh Hughes).
So in a way, that stranger was right.
Fullmetal Alchemist became just as big a name in Anime as Dragon Ball Z
and would become one of the big flagship titles of Adult Swim.
#2-Cowboy Bebop
The Anime that nursed me into my high school years. I had heard of Bebop thanks to the sneak peak
trailers on the Gundam Wing VHS tapes that I owned. I mustve watched those trailers a million
times. So I knew what the show was when
Adult Swim was first announced. Boy was
I not prepared for its brilliance. The
characters, the action, the music, the storytelling, the genuine feel of cool. It was like Cowboy Bebop was the title I was
always heading for when I got to a certain age.
Like Dragon Ball Z or Code Geass after it, Bebop practically got me to
love Anime in a new way. And it wasn’t
just an effect had on me. Cowboy Bebop
became Adult Swim’s first big Anime hit and soon stood as the blocks flagship
title, staying in regular rotation almost ten years after it debuted in
2001. You cant really say any other
Anime has had such a success on this block or Toonami. The legend of the Space Cowboy will never die.
#1-FLCL
Bebop got topped?
How? Well as much as I love it,
Cowboy Bebop is not my all time favorite Anime, FLCL is. It’s so good that I chose it for my one year
anniversary review here on Anime Corner (see here: http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/flcl-special-one-year-anniversary-review.html). A guitar sword wielding hottie, robots vs
monsters, the best quotes to ever use in life (Ukulele No Good) and the
greatest soundtrack ever conceived on a guitar and drum set. FLCL isn’t just an Anime you can dive into as
your first taste of the genre. No, this
is a show meant for long time fans of the Anime, call it a coming of age,
graduation test. In any case, when I
first saw this on Adult Swim, I was curious.
When I watched it over again, sad it was only 6 episodes, I was in
love. And thanks to Adult Swim, I know
which Anime is my all time favorite.
Challenged often (by good titles too) but never dethroned, Long Live
FLCL.
No comments:
Post a Comment