Giant Robot Week

Giant Robot Week was a five-day salute to the mecha genre of Japanese anime. The special ran for the week of February 24–28, 2003, from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Cartoon Network's Toonami block with zero commercial interruptions.

The anime series shown were all popular series licensed by A.D. Vision. The event marked the first time Evangelion, Nadesico, and Dai-Guard had been seen by a nationwide television audience as well as the first time the original black and white episodes of Gigantor had aired since its initial broadcast run back in the 60's. Several series had to be edited for content, especially Evangelion, which was heavily edited because of its extreme violence, gore, and Christian symbolism.

Programming

 * Dai-Guard — Episodes 1 & 2 were shown edited for content.
 * Gigantor — Since Giant Robot Week was commercial free, episode fragments from two Gigantor episodes were aired as filler where commercial breaks would have normally been. Episodes 1 and 10 were shown.
 * Martian Successor Nadesico — Episodes 1, 6, and 25 were shown edited for content.
 * Megas XLR — On the final day of "Giant Robot Week," the Cartoon Network original short Lowbrow aired as a four-part "micro series" at half-hour intervals during the remainder of the Toonami block, outside of the hour-long special event. This six-minute short was later expanded into the first episode of Megas XLR.
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion — Episodes 1 & 2 were shown heavily edited for content.
 * Robotech — Episode 1 and the final episodes of the New Generation, a series never shown on the network before, were shown.
 * On the evening of the final day of Giant Robot Week, The Iron Giant aired on Cartoon Network's Cartoon Cartoon Fridays, followed by an episode of Dexter's Laboratory titled, "Big Bots", involving giant robots as a time filler. Although it wasn't marked as Giant Robot Week, Cartoon Network promoted the airing as "a conclusion to Giant Robot Week".

Monday, February 24th
This schedule consisted of:
 * 4:00 PM – Martian Successor Nadesico – Episode 1: "To Go Like a Man"
 * 4:30 PM – Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episode 1: "Angel Attack"
 * Commercial Breaks - Gigantor - Episode 1: "Struggle at the South Pole" Part 1-4

Tuesday, February 25th
This schedule consisted of:
 * 4:00 PM – Martian Successor Nadesico – Episode 6: "Sort of Like a Fateful Decision"
 * 4:30 PM – Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episode 2: "Unfamiliar Cieling / The Beast"
 * Commercial Breaks - Gigantor - Episode 1: "Struggle at the South Pole" Part 5-8

Wednesday, February 26th
This schedule consisted of:
 * 4:00 PM – Martian Successor Nadesico – Episode 25: "Being Myself, Being Yourself"
 * 4:30 PM – Robotech – Episode 1: "Boobytrap"
 * Commercial Breaks - Gigantor - Episode 10: "World in Danger" Part 1-4

Thursday, February 27th
This schedule consisted of:
 * 4:00 PM – Dai-Guard – Episode 1: "Disaster From The Sea"
 * 4:30 PM – Robotech – Episode 84 - Part 1: "Dark Finale"
 * Commercial Breaks - Gigantor - Episode 10: "World in Danger" Part 1-4 (rerun)

Friday, February 28th
This schedule consisted of:
 * 4:00 PM – Dai-Guard – Episode 2 "The Fort at Night"
 * 4:30 PM – Robotech – Episode 84 - Part 2 "Symphony of Light"
 * Commercial Breaks - Gigantor - Episode 10: "World in Danger" Part 5-8
 * Commercial Breaks (5:00-7:00 PM) - Lowbrow - Pilot: "Test Drive" Part 1-4

Trivia

 * Giant Robot Week was sponsored by Mega Bloks.