Oct 30

The Life of Toonami!

By Kieran Kieran 3 Comments »

Hey Otakus, I thought I’d Break away from video games and talk about something even better, Anime. I’ m gonna talk about the one thing that truly enlightened everyone in America to Japanese Cartoons.

In 1997, Cartoon Network replaced it’s old 2 hour block of shows with a new one entitled Toonami. It was hosted by the cartoon character Moltar, of Space Ghost fame. When It began, there was little Anime, but that would soon change. In 1998 was when actual Anime like Robotech and Sailor Moon started airing. The next year, Toonami would get a new look and host. This is the Toonami everyone remembers. The Host’s name was Tom, and everything takes place on a giant ship called the Absolution. Toonami would have Tom introducing the next show in the Absolution, and then you get your Anime action. Tom was a small robot who was tasked with transmitting Toonami to kids all over America. Toonami had many little specials like the Toonami Midnight Run, which would show unedited Anime at, of course, Midnight. Toonami’s golden age was great.

For a minute, I want to talk about the evolution of Tom.

As I said before, he began as a small blue and white robot aboard the Absolution. In 2000, Tom became a star in miniseries’ you could watch on tv, or on the internet. They were called Total Immersion Events. The first event, called The Intruder, featured two important storyline additions to Toonami as a whole. One, it introduced SARA, the AI matrix in charge of the Absolution, and two, TOM DIES! Kind of. The titular Intruder, a big red blob, destroys the original Tom unit, so SARA transfers Tom’s data to a new and improved Tom 2.0, a sleeker, darker looking model. A few years later Tom got another upgrade, an even more mature, tall and dark suit. Sadly, the more mature Toonami and Tom didn’t last long. Cartoon Network was worried that “mature” Anime was on at a time younger kids could watch them, so Toonami was pushed until later at night, and the 4 hour time slot of Toonami was replaced with Miguzi, which was really, really bad. As for Toonami,they replaced the good shows with younger aimed shows for “kids my age”, but I’m sure everyone liked the older aimed version better. I mean what kid my age wants to watch Bo-Bo-Bo-BoBoBo, Zatch Bell,Prince of Tennis, Blue Dragon, Noir, and the 4kids dub of One Piece that I despise with a passion! Oh 4kids, I’LL GET TO YOU LATER!! So anyway, Tom was turned into a mix of Thomas the Train and a Gundam with a dopey expression on his face. After the change in Toonami, all the good Anime was moved to Adult Swim…  Anime being shown on Adult Swim usually was and still is rated TVPG!

Toonami didn’t just have Total Immersion Events,or TIEs, and The Midnight Run. They had crazy sneak peeks into upcoming shows, music videos, and Anime montages. The narrator for some montages was even Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime (No I don’t mean from the horrible movie)! They later even did Game Reviews! Some you can tell are totally biased though (Super Mario Sunshine 10 out of 10). Toonami was great! Why am I speaking about it in past tense now you ask? Well…

The truth is, licensing Anime can be expensive, and if ratings aren’t high enough, networks will stop showing them. Adult Swim stopped airing Family Guy on Saturdays and just aired Anime all night. Ratings TANKED! That was the point where Cartoon Network held back on it’s Anime. They just didn’t see the profit in it. Still trying the waters, Cartoon Network did something truly genius on Toonami in March 2006. Month of Miazaki. Toonami aired an entire month of films by the acclaimed Anime director, Hayao Miyazaki, the master of Anime movies. This really helped  establish Toonami as the go-to place for Anime. Toonami Jetstream also started that year, giving you Anime online, but sadly, it seemed to be too little, too late. Slowly but surely, Toonami began to strip away. Going from a 4 hour block at 2pm to a 2 hour block at 9pm. On Saturday September 20, 2008, Cartoon Network canceled Toonami and replaced it with CN Real (LAME!!!!!). Toonami Jetstream lasted until January 2009. At the end of Toonami’s final airing, Tom left the Absolution with one final monologue. “Well, this is the end beautiful friends. After more than eleven 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’ve 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.”

I’ll miss you Tom.

Hey, I think I’m Forgetting something. Let me think… Oh! I think it has something to do with this.

Next Time…

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Oct 05

Japanese Spider-Man?

By Kieran Anime No Comments »

Hey Otakus! Something was brought to my attention a few weeks ago. As you probably don’t know Japan has a type of Television Show called Tokusatsu, which is live action, Anime style shows like Power Rangers. I found out about a Spider-Man Tokusatsu and was in awe. Not by how cool it was, but by how different it was from the real Spider-Man. Spider-Man Tokusatsu

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Oct 02

Ludington Labor Day

By Brian Brian, Declan, Kieran, Linda, Owen, Vacations 1 Comment »

We took a little vacation to Ludington over the Labor Day weekend. Linda and I used to visit Ludington quite a bit. Even after Kieran was born we went a number of times. We even camped in the state park back then. However, we haven’t been back to Ludington for a stay since we became a family of five. It was nice to be back!

We surrounded our one night in Ludington with nights in Reed City. So we headed up to Reed City on Friday night. We had dinner at home and then hit the road. We thought maybe Declan and Owen would sleep in the car if we got a later start. That didn’t work all that well, but it was worth a try. Saturday we got ourselves over to Wrights Bake Shop for breakfast. We got enough to take with us for the next day too. It’s always great to visit Wrights!

We made the hour drive to Ludington and got there around lunch time.  What to do for lunch?!  Linda got a brilliant idea.  She suggested we got to Bortell’s.  If you ever go to Ludington during the Summer you must eat at Bortells.  We were introduced to it by the proprietors of Bed and Breakfast at Ludington where we used to stay.  It’s a little way out of town, but quite popular.  They do seafood.  You pick what you want from their display case, then they take it out and fry it up right in front of you.  Oh it is good!

Bortells Fisheries

Bortells is on South Lakeshore Drive along Lake Michigan outside Ludington. There isn't much parking in the lot.

Bortells Street Parking

Because Bortells is so popular, there are usually cars parked along the road.

Bortells Outdoor Seating

There is no inside seating at Bortells. If you want to sit down and eat, there are picnic tables outside.

Bortells Food

We got two orders of whitefish, an order of shrimp, an order of fried mushrooms, and an order of fries. Yum!

Bortells Fish Sign

Something's fishy

Since there are five of us these days, our favorite B&B isn’t as good an option any more.  So we opted to rent a cottage for the night.  The Lakeview Cottages owners were nice enough to rent to us for a single night at the last minute.  It was the end of the season so they helped us out.  Our cottage (#3) was nice.  It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside it’s good.  The kids weren’t sure about the lack of TV, but that’s just fine for Linda and I.  It does have Wifi which works for the two of us.

Lakeview Cottages Sign

Our cottage was actually the back portion of this corner building.

Kids at Lakeview Cottage #3

Here are the boys outside our cottage door.

After we got our stuff unloaded we walked a couple of blocks down to Stearns Park.  That’s the city’s lakefront park.  The wind was pretty strong, and it had been for a while.  It had blown lots of sand off the beach across the parking lot into the grassy part of the park.  It was also causing big waves that were crashing up over the north breakwater.  We thought it was crazy that there were actually people out on the breakwater while those waves were present.  Our common sense was right.  On Monday, after we’d returned home, a tourist was out on the breakwater and a big wave swept him right off into the lake and he drowned.  You should never underestimate the power of the lake!

Waves Over the Ludington North Breakwater

The waves are crashing over the breakwater and common sense is apparently absent.

Stearns Park Sky

I thought the sky was amazing.

Stearns Park Sand

Just a small sample of the sand blown off the beach. The city spent the next week putting it back.

After we walked the length of the park we were at Ludington Avenue.  So we headed up the street and checked out some of the shops.  It didn’t take long for the kids to get bored with that.  We had dinner at the Jamesport Brewing Company.  A walk in the dark back to our cottage was fun.  When the kids weren’t being raucous we could hear Lake Michigan a couple of blocks away.

Sunday was Big Sable Point day.  We had the Wrights goodies that we brought with us for breakfast, picked up some lunch at Subway, and then drove out to Ludington State Park.  We parked at the Lake Michigan beach and started our walk to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse.  To get to the light you either have to walk along the beach or a state park road.  You cannot drive out to it.  The walk along the beach is much more fun so we do that.  On the way out there was much “I cannot walk one more step” heard from the children.  It got better once we walked far enough for the top of the lighthouse to come into view.

Walk to Big Sable Point 1

Kieran and Mom had lots to talk about on the way to the lighthouse. You can just see the top of it over the grass.

Walk to Big Sable Point 2

A little further down the beach, now it looks like a lighthouse.

Walk to Big Sable Point 3

Now the color bands are more visible. The kids were getting more excited at this point.

Walk to Big Sable Point 4

The fog signal is visible on the left now.

Walk to Big Sable Point 5

Keepers quarters starting to rise out of the grass.

Looking Up Big Sable Point Lighthouse

This view gives quite a different perspective. I didn't realize somebody was looking down at me until after I took the picture.

Bottom of the Big Sable Stairs

We paid the keepers and climbed those stairs to the top of the tower.

Big Sable Point Lighthouse - At the Top

Hold on to your hats! It's windy up at the top of the lighthouse.

Lake View From Big Sable Lighthouse

Looking toward the lake from the top of the lighthouse. The replica fog signal structure doesn't actually have a fog signal in it.

Behind the Big Sable Lighthouse

This is the view behind the lighthouse from up top.

Big Sable Keepers Quarters From Above

Looking down at the Keepers Quarters from the top of the lighthouse.

Looking Back Where We Came From Atop Lighthouse

This is the view back in the direction we came from.

Ludington State Park Beach Near Lighthouse

Looking down the beach we walk to get to the lighthouse.

Big Sable Point Lighthouse Lunch

We sat down for lunch in the shadow of the tower, but the shadow moved.

Big Sable Lighthouse in the Sun's Glow

From the shadow of the tower the sun cast a bright glow from behind the top of the tower.

Big Sable Point Outhouse

There's no bathroom in the Keeper's Quarters, but there is a very fancy outhouse.

Big Sable Big Tree Stump

This huge tree stump is between the lighthouse and the outhouse

Freighter and Sail Boats

As we started to walk back from Big Sable Lighthouse I spotted this out on the lake.

Playing in the Sand

On the way back from the lighthouse everybody eventually removed their shoes and walked close along the water.

Lake Michigan Sand Play

Just can't resist the sand.

Our Beach Walking Kite

One of us was holding this kite for our walk out and back to the lighthouse. There's no better place to fly a kite.

It was a beautiful day to walk along the water.  The sun was shining and it wasn’t too hot or cold.

We made it back to Reed City for dinner with Grandma and Grandpa who came up that day.  After a nice evening with them the kids slept well.  The fresh air and walking helps with that.  Monday it was time to head home.  It was a short vacation, but a great end to the Summer.

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