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Toon Anime is an aesthetic that was profoundly associated with the monster battle anime craze of the late 1990's that started with the rise of the Pokémon franchise. The franchise began its hype in Japan as part of the Red & Green series. It began circulating in Japan due to its addictive RPG model and slowly Pokémon started gaining traction in the United States, further popularizing the Nintendo GameBoy and competing with the likes of The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy which were the domineering RPG franchises at the time. Soon after Pokémon made it into television sets with its own anime series called Pokémon: Indigo League which was released in 1997 and starred a 10-year-old Ash Ketchum along with his friends and pet monster Pikachu, the show was a huge success and later other monster collecting shows followed such as Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Beyblade etc., all of which were platformed on Toonami for western audiences, hence the name Toon Anime.
Visuals[]
The visuals of the Toon Anime aesthetic vary from series to series, and tends consist of the following; it usually includes bright vibrant colors and an ambient atmosphere, the main protagonists are usually kids and who, more often than not are highly ambitious, wanting to be the greatest at what they do. Sometimes the kids live with at least one parent in the middle of a forest grove. The main protagonist usually has a close pet monster, a love interest they're trying to impress or a rival they are trying to beat. The kids often wear contemporary late 1990's/early 2000's Japanese street fashion such as spiky frosted tips, baggy cargo shorts, tactical jackets, fingerless gloves and chunky sneakers, they'd also wear goggles sometimes. A lot of the time they go to an academy where they’ll hone their skills to become the best, and if not, they'll go to any other school that hosts these activities.
Y2K Aesthetic[]
This aesthetic was more prominent here than in other animes at the time, the clothes the kids wore often were heavily influenced by Japanese streetwear of the late 1990's/early 2000's. The fonts used were often Neyko Sans, Kansei, Cytone and Maxerones, as well as many other fonts popular at the time. The platform for these shows were mostly publicized by Toonami, a TV programming network heavily associated with the Y2K aesthetic especially during its intervals which were hosted by a CGI robot called T.O.M. who manged a spaceship and described segments of the shows we were going to watch. Other Y2K visuals include computer graphics on certain monsters, especially during theme openings, and, of course, matrix-style coding visuals.
Fashion[]
The fashion of Toon Anime is a mishmash of different styles, such as Y2K-style clothing, typical shonen anime protagonist getup and Japanese street wear. The colors are usually very bright with tones of reds, blues, yellows and greens. Fashion also includes accessories, primarily tech-savvy gadgets such as communication watches, goggles, and devices they use for collecting monsters (ex. Pokéballs, Duel Disks, Digivices and Beyblades).
- Cargo shorts
- Goggles
- Tactical jackets
- Tactical sneakers
- Striped T-shirts
- Backwards caps
- Face paint
- Vests
- Backpacks
- Belted jeans
- Fingerless gloves
- Cargo pants
- Spiky frosted tips
- High socks
- Bandannas
- Scarves
Media[]
Toon Anime rose to prominence after the heavy breakthrough of Pokémon during Pokémania in the late 1990s. The rise of Pokémon led to many other shows that centered around monster collecting; not only just shows, but video games and even music too as pop punk, nu-metal and J-Rock was heavily used in the opening and soundtracks to these shows.
Anime[]
- Pokémon
- Beyblade
- Digimon
- Bakugan
- Mon Colle Knights
- Monster Rancher
- Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Dragon Drive
- Dinosaur King
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
- Medabots
- Cardcaptor
- Zatch Bell
Video Games[]
- Pokémon Red & Blue (Original GameBoy)
- Digimon World (Original PlayStation)
- Bakugan Battle Brawlers (Xbox 360)
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories (Original PlayStation)
- Dinosaur King (Nintendo D.S.)
- Kartia: The Word of Fate (Original PlayStation)
- Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu (Original PlayStation)
- Jade Cocoon 2 (PlayStation 2)
- Robopon Sun, Star, and Moon Versions (GameBoy Color)
Toys[]
Toon Anime is also known for its various toys and collectibles as kids would often collect platinum trading cards and accessories; a more notable one was the Pokémon trading decks that came with a variety of different Pokemon power levels and rankings based on the abilities of the Pokémon, these trading cards were huge in the late '90s and the early '00s as kids would often have a huge sum of collectibles to trade. This toy trend further extended to other anime such as Yu-Gi-OH! and Beyblade respectively. These collectibles even became real life competitive sports among adults, with Pokémon even having its own championship sport starting in 2004.
- Pokémon Trading Cards
- Pokédex Toys
- Poké Ball Blaster
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Cards
- Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Disk
- V-pet Digimon
- Charmander Toys
- Digimon Trading Cards
- Beyblades
- Duel Masters Trading Cards
- Medabots Action Figures
- Medabots Trading Cards
- Pokémon Power Bouncer
- Bakugan Battle Pack
- Dinosaur King Trading Cards
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Model Kits
Gallery[]
