Canadian anime news since 2010 (seriously)

In a move that totally wasn’t inspired by TeenNick’s “The 90’s Are All That” block, YTV has set up “Wayback Playback” which they describe as:

Man, this thing's existence is only to make me feel old, isn't it?

Children of the ’90s and the ’00s who remember growing up with good ol’ fashioned YTV will think YTV Way Back Playback is way gnarly (we told ya it’s retro!) We’ve put together a classic collection of YTV shows for your viewing pleasure. New videos will be going up each month, so catch your faves before they grow old again!

So rather than having a late night television block, YTV has decided to open up a retro video portal with content being refreshed once a month. Sounds good in concept, until you realize the shows that are currently listed … Storm Hawks, Mystery Hunters, and Sorry I’ve Got No Head. As a child of the 90s, I can say I did watch Storm Hawks, and Mystery Hunters (I didn’t even know YTV aired SIGNH) but both of those shows are really recent. I wouldn’t call them retro, nor do I think anyone would be nostalgic for those shows yet. I’d say Reboot, and Beasties would certainly be better calls. Though, I suppose they might not have streaming rights for those series.

However, the program is still in its infancy (I suspect SIGNH is only on the service because it’s been sitting on the video player for ages), and while anime fans shouldn’t expect much (as nearly all of YTV’s older anime’s broadcast licenses have either expired, or didn’t include streaming rights) we’ll likely get Beyblade (which is already streaming on YTV.com), and maybe the likes of Medabots, and Pandalian (just when you thought you forgot about Tobi the panda!). I certainly would love to see YTV dig up some of it’s old Cancon productions that are basically impossible to find, like Freaky Stories, Radio Active or even a show that likely will be absolutely rancid in 2011 – I Was A Sixth Grade Alien. It’s certainly something to keep an eye out for, and if there are any anime-related updates, I’ll keep you guys posted.