Toonami

Toonami is the registered trademark of Cartoon Network, used initially for action-oriented programming blocks on Cartoon Network television channels worldwide. The block mostly showed American and Japanese cartoons, originating in the US on March 17, 1997. The block ended its run on September 20, 2008. It was revived on May 26, 2012, as a Saturday night anime block on Adult Swim. It  is currently a mature-geared "Midnight Run " incarnation.

Beginnings
In the animated world, Moltar began the program by sending probes to earth to retrieve data and transmit it through the Ghost Planet Studio, where "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast" was broadcast. After some time, Moltar passed the torch of being host to an AI named TOM, who was given the Ghost Planet vessel, GPS Absolution Mk I, to go through the universe and continue his work while he is stuck on Ghost Planet as punishment by Space Ghost.

Traversing the Depths of Space
With TOM (quite literally) in the driver's seat, Toonami began reaching out in new and unexpected programming and broadcast blocks(Midnight Run, Rising Sun); dumping comedy cartoons in favor of anime and video games. At one point, an Intruder ate into the Absolution and killed TOM, leaving his successor, TOM 2 to take over and rid the vessel of the intruder. Tom hosted Hyper Space Movie Fridays after this, but got stuck once due to a computer virus.

Battle Ready
Sometime after, the Absolution was destroyed and SARA taken from it. TOM was destroyed, but rebuilt into a new body (referred to as TOM 3), and rescued SARA, building a new ship from scrap, dubbed the Absolution MK 2.

Key people
Current
 * Steve Blum (2000–2008; 2012–present)
 * Mike Lazzo (1997–2008; 2012–present)
 * Jason DeMarco (1997–2008;2012–present)
 * Gill Austin (1997-2008;2012-present)
 * Howard Parker (2012-present)
 * Kim Manning (2012-present)

Former
 * Peter Cullen (1999–2008)
 * Sonny Strait (1999–2000)
 * Joe Boyd Vigil (1997–2002)
 * C. Martin Croker (1997–1999)
 * Sean Akins (1997-2008)

Ending
On Saturday, September 20, 2008, Cartoon Network canceled the block and Toonami aired its final transmission. Employees who worked on the block went to other parts of the channel. Anime was mostly handled by Adult Swim, and a new block titled "CN Real" replaced Toonami on Saturday nights afterwards. Toonami Jetstream remained without the Toonami name until January 2009. At the end of Toonami's final airing, the host, voiced by Steve Blum, ended the block with a final monologue simply reading:


 * "Well this is the end beautiful friends, after more than 11 years this is Toonami's final broadcast. It's been a lot of fun. And we'd like to thank each and every one of you who made this journey with us. Toonami wouldn't have been anything without you. Hopefully, we've left you with some good memories. So, until we meet again, stay gold...Bang."

The last part echoed the final words of the character Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop, who was also voiced by Steve Blum in the English dub of the anime.

Adult Swim April Fools Joke and Toonami Relaunch
On midnight of April 1, 2012, just past Toonami's 15th anniversary, Adult Swim, which generally changes its programming for April Fools' Day, began to play The Room (as they had done the past several years).[1] The scene then switched to T.O.M. (in an updated version of his third incarnation) aboard the Absolution, greeting the viewers while commenting that it is April Fools' Day, before introducing that week's scheduled episode of Bleach. The Toonami-related programming and bumpers continued throughout the night, featuring Dragon Ball Z, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, ''Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, Outlaw Star, The Big O, YuYu Hakusho, Blue Submarine No. 6, Trigun, Astro Boy, and Gigantor''. T.O.M. also presented a review of Mass Effect 3 and promoted the recent DVD releases. April 1st, 2012 will be forever heralded as "The Day That No 90's Kid Slept".

The following day, Adult Swim posted a message to their Twitter page, simply stating, "Want it back? Let us know. #BringBackToonami". On April 4, Adult Swim followed up this tweet with one stating, "#BringBackToonami We've heard you. Thank you for your passion and interest - stay tuned."

On May 16, 2012 Adult Swim tweeted that Toonami will be returning on May 26, 2012, at the same time, starting the Twitter hashtag #ToonamisBackBitches. Executives are saying that voice actor Steve Blum will be continuing to voice main character TOM, who is the host of the block, and TOM will remain in his "TOM 3.5" form from now on.

During the official Toonami panel at Momocon 2013, it was announced that both TOM and the Absolution would be updated to TOM 5 and The Absolution Mk III, sometime during April. It was also announced that Toonami had acquired the rights to show the anime One Piece.