Hello everyone. JMTV here. This is my thread of mock/fanmade Adult Swim bumps.
The reason why I'm making my own Adult Swim bumps is because I've been really loving the black and white text lately. It's so simple, but it works. I love its snarky and sarcastic jokes and being so genuinely creative on how to work around its limitations. The music choices within these bumps are so awesome and super catchy. Like low-key super catchy.
With me growing up, I wasn't really into Adult Swim as much as Cartoon Network, but over the years, I'm very aware its existence. For a long time, I always grow fondly of Cartoon Network more because it is a lot more appealing to me. I love CN's rich history and I love their shows and blocks. Not to say Adult Swim was bad, but it was just wasn't for me.
That being said, my memory with Adult Swim as a kid goes all the way back in 2012 when Toonami came back, which got my exposure to the history of Toonami for the very first time. Another exposure to Adult Swim was the story of the Boston Bomb incident, which was my first impression of Aqua Teen Hunger Force (unfortunately lol) And probably my last exposure to Adult Swim was the story about the Dexter's Lab banned Rude Removal episode. I remember Pan Pizza (RebelTaxi99) made a video about Rude Removal and as a kid, I thought it was fascinating. I really wanted to know what happened to that episode. I wasn't in the #TellJeff and #RudeRemoval Twitter crusade because I don't have social media back then, but I want to see Rude Removal. Of course, now we got in the next year, and I thought it was so funny, even if they censored the cursing, but I digress.
After a while, as I grew older, I moved on from Cartoon Network and TV in general. Sure, I watch TV for Harvey Beaks and My Little Pony Friendship is Magic at the time, but I was getting so bitter towards cable television that there's no point of me even watching stuff on TV anymore when I can watch shows online and on YouTube.
It took me until at least 2018 when I was in a web development online class at technical college, I need something to watch to kept myself relax over this overwhelming amount to schoolwork. Then, I watched Captain B. Zarre's videos of old Cartoon Network and Adult Swim commercials from the early 2000's. 2003 to be exact. I remember seeing the full Adult Swim block from August of 2003 in that tape, and I absolutely loved it. It was a really great experience to see what was Adult Swim like back then, a simple Cartoon Network block for adults before it became its own half-channel. I remember after the Futurama and Family Guy reruns within that tape, Adult Swim Action comes on with FLCL. I remember seeing that bump with the silhouette with one of the main characters in the anime and have some really cool effects, along with really great music in the background. To say I was immediately blown away would be a massive understatement. Despite the bumps looks simple and basic, the really cool effects on Adult Swim Action bumps was got me so invested. I don't know what it is, but I really adore it. Then, I remember seeing the Blue Gender bumps with some really boppin' music. After that, was the Trigun bumps and seeing the silhouettes of the Trigun characters was so cool. Finally, the Cowboy Bebop bumps and it's the best bumps out of all of them, hands down. Great silhouettes of each Cowboy Bebop character, god-teir amazing music, and super awesome effects for the silhouettes. It's such a perfect combination of everything I love about the Adult Swim bumps, and I really miss that.
After a while, I begin to watch some old Adult Swim bumps from the Pools era, I started to love Adult Swim even more because it had such a subdued vibe than anything going on at Cartoon Network at the time. Although, that was pretty short-lived because I begin watch Cartoon Network again and focus a lot more on that.
From recent years in 2019-2024, I've been laser focused on Cartoon Network and barely paid attention to Adult Swim. Sure, I was annoyed when that start at 8pm, but that was the least of my problems. It wasn't until 2023 when Warner Bros Discovery came to array, Adult Swim has begin to shown the spotlight when My Adventures with Superman and Unicorn Warriors Eternal (two shows were originally supposed to be on Cartoon Network back in 2020-2021) airing on Adult Swim, and its retro block dedicated to Cartoon Cartoons called Checkered Past also came out on that same timeframe.
When I heard about this news, I wasn't really all that surprised. I'm not going to talk about it here since it has been talked about to death, but let's just say, ever since the merger happened, I lost interest in Cartoon Network after that. So I did check out Checkered Past now and again, and I do love that, and I did watch Toonami when there's nothing else is on, and I do enjoy that as well, but again, the whole WBD fiasco left a bad taste in my mouth that it's hard for me to be enthusiastic about anything going on at Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim to some extent.
Now, this year in 2024, I went from being cool with Adult Swim to have a love/hate relationship with Adult Swim to liking Adult Swim again. Here's the thing. When I heard about Invincible Fight Girl (and again, another show was originally supposed to be on Cartoon Network back in 2022) being moved to Adult Swim, I was so aggravated because it left Cartoon Network with nothing to look forward just because of the show has violence very frequently. Not gonna lie, I was huffing and puffing all that copium and blame Adult Swim for everything lol. I know that's an over exaggeration, but I left very annoyed. Though, overtime, I begin to accept it because there's nothing I can do to change anyone's minds. let alone WBD, but I digress.
Finally, what really got me back to Adult Swim again was the fact that Smiling Friends has become a huge thing. I binge watched the first season, and I absolutely loved it. Then, I was able catch the Season 2 episodes of Smiling Friends when it premiered on Sundays, and man, all the episodes were banger after banger after banger. It's just that good. As time went on, when I was loving Smiling Friends, I've been watching old school Adult Swim shows for the first time, and I've been loving Adult Swim ever since.
So that's my history Adult Swim.
With that said, I wanted to do my own version of Adult Swim bumps. This year, ever since I got into a multimedia design class in another technical college, I love playing around with Adobe Photoshop in my own spare time when it's not part of my school work. I thought it would be a fun idea to do fanmade Adult Swim bumps just like it was back in 2003 and 2004, but in my own style. For what I recall, Adult Swim did say the bumps were made in Adobe Photoshop (and Adobe After Effects for ASA), so it's perfect.
Alright, with that out of the way, HERE WE GO!!!
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Cartoon Network Signs off at 5pm.
5pm. It's time for Adult Swim.
(30 secs ) Music: Sidewalk Strolling-Instrumental (Full length) GAL049-1 Nu Jazz
Now, it's time for Checkered Past.
