Poll: As a Teenager, which did you watch more? Toonami, or MTV?

[themistermanguy]

In the 90s & early 2000s, there were 2 main TV juggernauts for America's youth culture. The first was Viacom's Music Television, or as it's commonly known, MTV. While it has severely declined over the years, at one point it was a powerhouse network airing music videos, animation, and lifestyle documentaries aimed at teenagers and young adults ages 12-34. And then there's Toonami, Cartoon Network's flagship action-adventure/drama programming block airing weekday afternoons from 4-7pm, weeknights at midnight, Saturday mornings from 9-12pm, and eventually, Saturday nights from 7-11pm and targeted preteens, teenagers, and in the Midnight Run's case, young adults ages 10-17 & 18-24. While it was slow out of the gate, it gradually gained momentum and became known for its edgy anime programming. Toonami took risks, pushed boundaries, and always targeted a bit of an older audience than the Pokémon watching elementary school crowd. Not to mention it featured underground drum and bass, video game reviews, music videos, interviews with popular people, and philosophical speeches that taught important lessons to the target audience.

At one point, Toonami was tied with MTV in the most watched shows amoung adolescents. Which brings us to todays question. Toonami was resurected in 2012 by Adult Swim, an adult-targeted off-shoot of the Cartoon Network family, and has resided in a late night time slot since. Most of its current viewers are adults who grew up with block in its prime during their youth. Some, also grew up with MTV during their adolescence. To those people, which was the most watched? MTV, or Toonami?

 

[dyre]

As a teenager, I didn't have cable until high school T-T

I mostly watched movies, TV shows, anime, etc on the internet.

 

[Auberon]

We had cable when I was in first grade, the aforementioned late 90s. And I don't recall if it had Toonami, but it did have MTV. I spent a long-ass time watching music videos back then...

 

[Jamieson 90]

If I remember correctly we only had the original channels and some digital channels in my teenage years, Toonami and Cartoon Network being included. MTV wasn't however and I think you needed SKY or cable to get it so there really wasn't much choice.

In fact I suspect you'll get a lot of people replying that they only had access to 1 rather than choosing between them.

 

[Erttheking]

I only watched Toonami a few times, but on the other hand I never watched MTV, so Toonami wins by a technicality.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

I'm old, so I watched MTV when I was a teenager. I didn't quite watch it from the very beginning, but I didn't miss it by much.

 

[game-lover]

Toonami. Toonami.

I really couldn't have given a crap about MTV much back then. There were only like a couple shows I really bothered to get into on that channel.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

MTV was blocked on my TV anyway, I don't have a real opinion.

You guys do know Toonami isn't even that old anyway? Even before it came back, it only ended about six years ago, first aired about fifteen years back.

 

[Ratty]

People forget how bad MTV was in the late 90s/early 00s. (And presumably still is, haven't had cable in about a decade and stopped watching MTV long before that.) The closest they ever got to playing music videos outside of 2AM dead air was the minute and a half snippets they played on TRL, even then you couldn't hear the song over dumbass audience members being super-imposed over it and going "I'm so and so from such and such and this band Rocks! WOOOOOOOO!" If you remember ever actually seeing a music video back then, chances are it was on MTV2 or several weeks after it came out on VH1.

Anyways I always watched more Toonami back in the day, for the aformentioned reason. And just because I was going through a weeaboo phase at the time.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I never watched MTV, apart from the occasional episode of Daria.

On the other hand, Toonami was pretty much all I watched after I turned 12. Was home sick flipping channels one day, caught the second half of a turning-point episode of Sailor Moon, and never looked back for the next seven years.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I never watched MTV at all, and while I watched a lot of Cartoon Network when I was a teenager, I remember Toonami specifically being an anime thing, and specifically avoiding it for that fact. Maybe it's different now? I watched Space Ghost: Coast to Coat, Cartoon Planet, and the stupid Hanna Barbara cartoons from the late 60's to early 80's like Johnny Quest, Thundarr the Barbarian, etc. They were really bad, but the internet wasn't very interesting back then, so I wasn't very picky.

 

[Chaos James]

Well, I never got either channel (Toonami because it wasn't in basic cable, and MTV because it couldn't air in Canada), so I can't really pick.

Though I guess MuchMusic is pretty much Canadian MTV, so I guess I could pick that? Mainly just because I watched one obscure anime on it late at night, and because of the Video on Trial being pretty good.

A lot of my youth was spent watching Teletoon and Family Channel though (with the occasional Kids WB on Saturdays).

 

[petercortijo]

Question: What's MTV again?

 

[MorganL4]

As best I can remember, Toonami had a VERY early morning block when I was younger, from about 5am-7am (AkA the time I spent getting ready for school) so I would wake up, watch Reboot, then Zoids, then Thundercats then switch to MTV and watch music videos before running out the door every morning to go to school.... So, BOTH?

 

[loc978]

By the time Toonami came around, I had a job that sucked up all of the time that school didn't... I quite literally didn't watch so much as a minute of TV at a time from about 1996 to 2002. I did watch MTV at friends' houses in the early 90s, though (never had cable at home). Technically I was a teenager during some of that.

My primary TV destination was a local public broadcast channel that showed old episodes of Black Adder, Monty Python and Red Dwarf, though. I learned to love British comedy pretty young.

 

[FPLOON]

*starts laughing* Toonami... DUH!

Though, in all fairness, I only tuned in to MTV (and/or BET) to watch music videos before heading off to school, basically... and Toonami was basically my after school treat to look forward to... If you want to get technical, I didn't start having cable run through my own TV set until I was in middle school, where I truly started watching music videos off MTV2 in the early morning... Before that, Toonami was mostly shown at my grandmother's place, since we would both watch what Toonami was showing (Tenchi Muyo, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon) before we changed the channel at around 7 or so in the evening to watch back-to-back game shows like Shop Til You Drop and/or Supermarket Sweep...

In other words, I will always be a Toonami faithful until the day I die, baby...

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'm 31 years old and we never had Toonami over here. Guess...

MTV was fantastic back in the 90's, before fucking Carson Daly started showing up. Beyond constant music videos, you had shows like The State, The Maxx, and Down Town. And it was a time when the MTV Movie Awards were still amazing. I'm speaking as a European ofcourse where MTV had people like Ray Cokes and Davina McCall running around. Good times.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Tooami since back then where I was from, Tooami was popular to watch amoung us teen guys. Granted I did watched MTV mainly for Room Raider and Pimp my Ride.

 

[Bestival]

Never even heard of toonami before today, so yeah, MTV wins by default.

I was completely obsessed with shows like Jackass and Tom Green Show. They just don't make good wholesome television like that anymore.