Toonami Jetstream

Toonami has been Cartoon Network's home for action shows for nearly a decade now. After giving up its weekday morning block in early 2004, it moved exclusively to Saturday nights. And now in 2006, we have Toonami Jetstream, the new free video service from Cartoon Network and VIZ featuring various on-demand, full-length streaming episodes of shows from Toonami's past, present, and possibly, future.

How does Jetstream work? Simply go to the website (it doesn't support Mozilla Firefox, sorry), click on the shows tab, and pick the show you want to see. Currently, Jetstream contains episodes of past shows such as Samurai Jack and Megas XLR, present shows such as Naruto and Pokemon Chronicles, and newcomers Prince of Tennis, Hikaru No Go, and MAR. Each episode is divided up into four or five parts for easy viewing. Simply click on a part (logically the first part, if you're just starting an episode) and watch away! Of course, keep in mind that for streaming video, you'll need to have a fast internet connection, so dial-up users, I suggest you invest in DSL and save yourself hours of annoyance waiting to watch a show. Be sure to catch them while you can, because every four to six weeks, the earliest episodes of shows will be removed. Shows are regularly updated with new episodes every Monday.

If you've seen Toonami before (and who hasn't?), you know that airing shows isn't the only thing the block does. You can also catch game reviews and interviews with celebrities, among other things. Well, Cartoon Network has taken the liberty to carry these things over the Jetstream for your viewing pleasure. Watch Toonami's host TOM talk about Shadow of the Colossus or a clip reel of Naruto. You can even learn how to play Go!, the game of Hikaru No Go.

A search function is also available, but considering there are only three to five episodes of any show on the site at any one time, it's easy to simply look around without having to use this function.

Another feature is the Favorites list. If there's an episode of a show that you particularly like, you can save it to your favorites page. If you gather up enough favorites, you can play them one by one. Once again, with content consistently coming and going, I can't see this feature being very useful unless you're on the site a few times a week.

Want to keep yourself updated on when new shows become available? Click on the RSS Feed link to be updated on your favorite newsreader! If RSS isn't your thing, you can download a Desktop Receiver program, which works in much the same way, except the updates are sent to your desktop. Definitely two handy little tools!

Jetstream eagerly encourages viewers to comment on their service. Click on the comments icon below the box on the right side of the screen and let Cartoon Network know how much you enjoy the service!

What's in store for the future? The press release stated that other shows would be joining the Jetstream family, including Megaman NT Warrior, Zoids Genesis, and IGPX. When they will join is unknown as this point, but as popular as the service has been so far (more than 9.5 million video streams thus far and 725,000 unique visitors a week since launching on July 14), you can be sure that Cartoon Network and VIZ are more than excited to see new shows hit the block for a long time to come.