At the turn of the millennium, Cartoon Network aired a cartoon block named Toonami that focused on a combination of Japanese and American animation. The Japanese anime shows—Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, and the like—were aired late at night during what they called the Midnight Run.
One such show aired in 1998, and a certain seven-year-old Royals Review writer-to-be happened to see it. His parents taped him a number of episodes, though not the full thing, but he was enraptured nonetheless by this animation style he’d never seen before. The show was like nothing he’d ever seen.