Well, that's different. Cel-shaded CGI intro with the big robot thrashing the city. This has got to be the second time I've seen Cartoon Network use that technique (the first time, I believe, was that sweeter-than-hell Sly Cooper contest promo).
Instead of seeing the whole end credits of Nadesico, we saw it sped up surrounded by the Giant Robot Week logo and the small GRW promo. Interesting, and it serves the point, thus freeing time for those oh-so-nice sponsors that keep the block afloat.
Speaking of sponsors, for all of those that were expecting this to be a commercial-free affair, the joke's on you! Sure, we're getting a segment of Gigantor four times in the hour, but it's basically a whole episode. Very interesting to see Cartoon Network do that.
Toonami got its hands on the regular Nadesico dub tapes and a completely different Nadesico dub tape. I say EVA was different because, well, the original English-language releases had English text masked over the original kanji, irritating a lot of fans of the series.
Shame we couldn't hear Cruel Angel Thesis on EVA. Nice theme. Pity it had a naked Misato in it, which more or less prevented us from seeing it. Uncut my butt.
It's still fun to see Nadesico and Evangelion on Cartoon Network. Wonder how they're going to do day two.
As for Cartoon Network selling End of Evangelion on their website, it's a good idea on paper, but deadly wrong in execution. End of Evangelion is NOTHING like the series, and it's definitely not aimed towards kids. Heck, the original series isn't all that kid-friendly, which surprises me why it's on Toonami this week in the first place. Selling EoE on the official CN site is totally irresponsible, but who am I to judge.
Overall, I'm going to have to give today's GRW installment a 3.5 out of 5. Good introduction, just want to see some juice tomorrow.
Until we are one, later.
Jeff Harris
CNX Creator/Webmaster
February 24, 2003
