Your introduction to anime may have begun with the now defunct Fox Kids or Toonami. When both programs were eventually cancelled, true anime fans were forced to head online, while others turned their sights to manga. In those programming blocks’ short tenure, we saw a whole slew of anime premiere on American television and then disappear as quickly as they were introduced. Here are 5 great anime we watched as kids that we wish had received a proper ending.
1. Rave Master
Haru
Hiro Mashima’s Rave Master was a critically acclaimed manga, but sadly, the anime didn’t receive the same praise. Produced by Studio Deen, the anime only lasted 51 episodes, although the manga ran for 35 volumes. The dubbed version premiered on Toonami in 2004. Even though the anime may have been trash to seasoned anime veterans, to anime viewers below the age of 14, Rave Master was epic. You can basically put anything that involves swords and magic in front of a young anime fan, and they’re going to enjoy it. Rave Master was no exception.
2. Zatch Bell!
Zatch Bell
Unlike Rave Master, Zatch Bell! was actually a very good anime. It premiered on Toonami in 2005 and ran for two years before suddenly disappearing. The show later became available on Toonami Jetstream, but its fanbase wasn’t prepared to watch TV online, given that the switch was made in the early 2000s. Still, so many of us wanted to see Zatch eventually become king of the Mamodos.
3. Zoids
Zoids
The Zoids franchise began as a line of modeling kits and blew up at a time when assembly toys like Bionicle were big. Zoids: New Century was dubbed in English and originally aired as a morning series before moving to Toonami in 2002. There is a lot of speculation to what led to the downfall of Zoids in the United States. Some people, like Reddit user sylvanelite, attribute the end of the series to Zoids: Fuzors — an American-made version of the anime that ended up being cancelled. Zoids was an extremely large franchise that seemingly vanished out of nowhere.
4. Medabots
Metabee
Who doesn’t love bite-sized mecha anime? Medabots was originally a video game franchise that later became an anime in 1999. The English dubbed version of the show made its way to the U.S. in 2001. The sequel aired a year later, but did not do as well due to the removal of a lot of the characters. However, the toys and video games were extremely popular, and the anime deserved a long-run. It would be amazing to see what it would look like with some updated graphics.
5. Yu Yu Hakusho
Yusuke
Quite possibly the most popular and well-known show on this list, Yu-Yu Hakusho is a little different from the other shows on this list. It did have an ending, yes. But you probably were not able to see the ending. It moved to Toonami from Adult Swim in 2003, and a lot of it was edited due to the gore and language. But, as children, we really didn’t notice the switch. We did notice when it disappeared from Toonami in 2005 despite being a highly watched show. It was moved to a very early Saturday time slot that many of us probably slept through. Luckily, we can watch it online today.
