Memories of the defunct International Channel/AZN Network

[Ace Goodheart]

Back when Toonami, and to a lesser extent Kids WB and Fox Kids/Fox Box were the only sources for anime on U.S television, the I-Channel aired a plethora of shows which, at the time were only available on video. Uncut and unedited to boot from my re-collection. It was kinda like the "holy grail" of anime on TV back then; a channel which few had (because it was a premium channel) yet you heard about from the 5 people who had it, and gloated about it.

For many, the I-Channel is best remembered for airing uncut, unedited, literally RAW DBZ and DBGT, straight from Japan. For awhile, they were far ahead of where CN and Telemundo were with DBZ, though towards the end of 2002, when DBZ's run on I-Channel ended, I believe both it and CN were in the midst of the Buu Saga. I came to realize that I even had I-Channel, and that they were airing DBZ late into it's run, and of course I didn't understand a damn thing (I'll bet FUNi had to do with their airings having no subtitles ), the novelty of uncut DBZ that was farther than CN's run was awesome.

I-Channel also licensed both subbed and dubbed anime from several companies, namely the defunct CPM. They kept at it ever after their re-launch as *snicker* AZN Television. Towards the end of the network, they were even airing high-profile stuff such as "Last Exile" (even if Tech TV/G4 had run through it before). Dunno about you guys, but during late nights in my part of town, the former Court TV would switch over to AZN Television rather than air iniring paid programming, and in it's last days AZN aired anime during these timeslots, so for those who never got the channel, you could've caught a little-known glimpse of stuff like "Last Exile" on standard cable.

The obscure "ImaginAsian TV" is the heir apparent to I-Channel/AZN, and for awhile, when they expanded to the East Coast in 2005, things looked promising. They began airing many also-rans from AZN (lots of CPM selections), but eventually started airing a Geneon-sponsored block with some nice exclusives (i.e Elemental Gelade, Hikaru No Go). They even appealed to us old-school fans with a TMS-sponsored block (Nobody's Boy: Remi, Orguss and Cat's Eye), releasing the DVDs themselves through that ill-fated distribution program (I'm still mourning the fact that we will never see Cat's Eye S2 on U.S shores. ) I believe they had the U.S TV premiere of FFVII: Advent Children as well. But beginning in 2008, the channel seemed to begin a downward spiral. Geneon had gone under, meaning it's blocks on FUSE and ImaginAsian were toast, the aforementioned distribution program for the "TMS Classics" DVD's was a debacle and forced the line to go out of print, and they started cutting back a lot. Flash-forward to 2010, and the channel's now headquarted in LA, after all NYC operations were shut down. The only anime airing on the channel is a block of Bandai-licensed anime that they've run to the ground. I fear that the channel may soon share the same fate as AZN. Such promise it held..........


With that in mind, any re-collections of I-Channel/AZN???

[Shredhead]

I watched it back when they aired Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT I think I started watching it during the Cell saga. Thats really the only memories I have of the channel but it was awesome all the same. It was thanks to it that I didn't even bother watching the Funi version of Dragonball GT. I remember it was pretty much a few months after GT ended my cable provider took it off.

[O-chan]

While it was their original run of Dragonball Z that got me into the I-channel they were also responsible for getting me into Japanese Dorama shows back when they subtitled them.

O-chan

[Sparticus]

Oh yeah, I remember AZN. I can't for the life of me remember what anime I'd been watching on there. It was dubbed... some sort of high fantasy thing. IIRC they also aired music videos and Tokyo news - which was hilarious because even in a different language, newscasters are newscasters. XD

[Taoku]

I had the station since '99 and yes, I do remember DBZ in its unaltered form. I came in at the beginning of the Frieza arc (the first transformation ep. to be exact). During and after GT's run, they ran all three seasons of The Slayers aired subbed. I also remember Shinesman and Sailor Victory. During the AZN era is when they aired Last Exile and Moonphase. The J-dramas were a joy to watch, especially Liar Game.

[Beefy]

I never had the International Channel/AZN, but back in 2000 I remember watching some of the Manga Entertainment titles uncut on Showtime Beyond. Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, and Macross Plus.
The Movie Channel 2 aired Wrath of the Ninja, while Encore Action aired Bubblegum Crisis and Blue Seed.

Good times. It was nice to sample titles that were too mature for Toonami. I like to think I was exposed to some of the better anime titles early in my anime watching days, which helped develop my fandom.

[Chaos Yoshi Mage]

I never got to watch the channel as International Channel, but I did get to watch it as AZN Television in it's last couple of years. I didn't have it on satellite at home, but my mom had it at her place, so over the weekends and during half the summer I got to watch it.

It was great having it since for some reason, my mom's cable didn't provide Cartoon Network at the time. So while I missed out on Bleach and such, I did get to see whatever AZN was showing like World of Narue and Patlabor. I also saw Tokyo Godfathers for the first time on the channel.

[Space Cadet]

Yeah, I had the International Channel as part of my extended cable package with Comcast from 1998-2001. That's where I first watched Japanese DBZ. I believed it aired every Sunday night at 9 pm Eastern. I loved the fact that the run was far ahead of the run on Toonami. I could tease my friends in middle school about events that didn't happen yet in the American run. I started watching the run during the Androids arc to the episode where kid Trunks knocks out that kid in the Junior Tournament arc in the Buu saga. That's when Comcast moved the channel to digital cable.

I wish I had the channel when they started airing other anime series more frequently. I really wanted to watch Tenchi when they aired all the series uncut and unedited. I got the channel back when my family switched to digital cable in 2006. By then, the channel was now AZN Television and their glory days had long past by then. Still, the network did a lot in bringing anime to American audiences and it should be commended for it.

[SpaceCowboy]

I remember at one time wanting to watch this channel, but no cable or satellite provider near me carried it.

One year while vacationing in California I did end up staying at a motel that carried it on their cable system and caught one of the Cell games episodes from Dragon Ball Z. Good times.

[Jtaylor1]

I remember watching 2 El-Hazard TVs/OVAs and Now and Then, Here and There back when I had Cox Cable.

[Ace Goodheart]

I'm surprised that they actually ran DBZ in in entirety, weekly, for 6+ years.......that must mean that they started broadcasting it not too long after it's Japanese broadcast ended, and BEFORE Saban DBZ hit U.S shores.

[SpaceCowboy]

I'm surprised that they actually ran DBZ in in entirety, weekly, for 6+ years.......that must mean that they started broadcasting it not too long after it's Japanese broadcast ended, and BEFORE Saban DBZ hit U.S shores.

On the DBZUncensored site, Chris Psaros may have indicated that it was around 1997. So technically, that would mean a year or maybe less after Saban's dub premiered (fall 1996).

As a bit of trivia, I-Channel wasn't the first station in the US to air unedited Japanese Dragon Ball series.
In the state of Hawaii, there was a premium cable station named Nippon Golden Network (or NGN) which aired all three Dragon Ball series in their entirety. They started airing Dragon Ball around 1990 and ended with GT a few years before I-Channel did. Also, their broadcasts of the original Dragon Ball and the first 100 eps of Z were subtitled.
Around the same time Funimation first bought the US rights to dub the show, the station had to stop using subtitles on their broadcasts. From what I recall, this was also the main reason why I-Channel never used subs on their broadcasts.

[ReijiAzuma]

I still have a couple episodes DBZ/GT, Tenchi, Slayers Next, El Hazard, Fushigi Yugi (I think), Lost Universe and Licensed by Royalty on tape.