It can not be understated just how influential Cartoon Network’s Toonami block was in helping anime gain mainstream attention. Obviously, the biggest hits from the block were Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon, two franchise that is still popular to this very day. Toonami also introduced American audiences to the Gundam franchise with Gundam Wing, and the Toonami airing of .hack//SIGN helped make that multimedia cross-project the success it was at the time. What about the more questionable shows on the block though?
Tenchi Muyo (while a hit with viewers) was a questionable choice on the block due to the sexual humor of the show. Cardcaptors’ addition would feel more at home if fans weren’t painfully aware of the far superior uncut Cardcaptor Sakura that existed on the DVD market. Perhaps the most controversial show on the block though was Hamtaro, a show geared for young kids about hamsters going on fun adventures. The series was not action-oriented and was clearly geared towards children instead of teenagers (it was even rated TV-Y). Even Toonami’s host Tom introduced the show with perplexity and confusion. Which begs the question: how DID Hamatro wind up on Toonami?!
What is Hamtaro?
Hamtaro is a slice-of-life anime about a hamster and his everyday life. The hamster is named Hamtaro, and he and his buddies (known as the Ham-Hams) have a variety of different adventures each day.
Some of these adventures include playing in bad weather, building a special clubhouse (run by Boss), and learning how to get along. Most of the time the Ham-Hams sing songs throughout the episode. This is all happens while Hamtaro’s owner Laura is oblivious to the adventures Hamtaro has throughout the day.
Why Did Toonami Pick it Up?
In a rare instance, the people who were behind the programming of the Toonami block were not the ones who decided to air Hamtaro. According to Jason Demarco, the parent company Cartoon Network forced the show on the block. They did so for two reasons. The first is that Toonami was known as the block that aired anime, and they figured it would be a good fit there. The second is that Hamtaro had merchandise potential for kids, so Cartoon Network wanted the series on their network just in case Hamtaro was the next “big thing.”
According to DeMarco, this ended up being a huge mistake that would be a black eye on Toonami’s legacy. While Toonami did air a lot of anime, the crew running the block always saw Toonami as an action block and NOT an anime block! The fact that more anime was airing instead of American cartoons reflected the lack of action series being made in America at the time, not that anime was that much more popular (the block happily aired Batman Beyond and Jackie Chan Adventures when those shows were popular, and would gladly have aired more like them if they were being made).
The Legacy of Hamtaro
Whether or not the show belonged on Toonami in the first place is likely to be debated for quite some time, but one thing that is certain is that Hamtaro (despite the ridicule it received from the Toonami faithful) was quite successful. It may be the most successful show to premiere on the block (Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon got their start in syndication). While most Toonami shows began and ended with Toonami, not to re-air until Toonami was revived years later, Hamtaro has aired on Cartoon Network for many years afterward. Granted, the series was mostly aired in the early morning hours and early afternoons (where it arguably belonged in the first place), where it always seemed to have an audience.
Toonami viewers may not have enjoyed it, but once it got away from the shadow of that particular audience by all accounts kids really did love this show. That may be the worst part about this story: had it not premiered on Toonami it might have been the big hit out of the gate that Cartoon Network needed it to be to make the merchandise they wanted to make so badly. By putting it on Toonami it became a bad trivia joke for the anime faithful, and the series found its audience too late. Despite all this though Hamtaro did find an audience after Toonami, and that audience has fond memories of the series to this day!
