Cartoon Network's Birthday FAIL!!!

After a LOOOONNNGGGG hiatus (months of no new dc cartoons), Green Lantern and Young Justice's animated series both returned two weeks ago and left this viewer wanting more. However in honor of their 20th Birthday, Cartoon Network has placed both shows on another month long hiatus!!! Only 2 new eps in, and back to the doldrums of no new adventures of Green Lantern and the Young Justice team. In their place Cartoon Network is airing Dragons of Berk (some insipid show about geeky viking kids riding weird looking dragons) and I know because when I got up this morning to watch my DC Nation Cartoons (even checked the TV schedule on my DVR to make sure it was recording and it listed that they both had pending new episodes to record today) I saw lame dragons and lamer vikings. I am quite annoyed and will no longer be giving Cartoon Network the time of day...and I encourage anyone who might be reading this to do the same...boycott Cartoon Network until they get their act together and stop pulling good shows for the weird crap that they bloat their network with.

UPDATE
The DC nation cartoon block is set to return this January..so we will how long we get to watch then before the put us on another hiatus

The Shijin (4 guardian beasts) in popular culture

The Shijin (or Shishin) were 4 or 5 (depending on the country) beast gods that protected the four corners of the world, according to Japanese and Chinese mythology. The Shijin were a Blue Dragon (Seiryu/Qinglong), a Red Phoenix (Suzaku/Zhuque), a White Tiger (Byakko/Baihu) and a Black Tortoise (Genbu/Xuanwu). They represented the 4 elements, the 4 seasons, and the 4 points on a compass. Seiryu was East, Wind, and Spring, Suzaku was South, Fire, and Summer, Byakko was West, Metal, and Autumn, and Genbu was North, Winter, and Earth/Water,The Chinese myth also had a Yellow Beast (Ouryu/Huang Long) which was the Center of the Compass, and Aether (or Void). These legendary beasts have made a big impression on cartoons and video games. Here are some notable examples

The Digimon Anime had the Digimon Sovereigns who were embodiments of the Shijin. Ebonwumon (Genbu), Baihumon (Byakko), Zhuqiamon (Suzaku), Azulongmon (Seiryu), and Fanglongmon (Ouryu).

The Beyblade Anime had a team called the Breakers whose Bit-Beast allies were based on the Shijin. Draciel (Genbu), Driger (Byakko), Dranzer (Suzaku), Dragoon (Seiryu), and Gaia Dragoon (Ouryu)

Final Fantasy 10 the RPG video game had the Shijin all appear in the game as themselves, but Ouryu was replaced with a yellow dragon-like animal called Kirin (which, while having yellow dragon traits, was based on the unicorn-like Kirin/Qilin, often closely tied to the Shijin, and in fact replaced Byakko as a Shijin during the reign of the Yellow Emperor in ancient China)

The video game Monster Hunter featured many dragons and 5 of them resembled the Shijin. The tortoise-like Apceros (Genbu), the white tiger-like Barioth (Byakko), the red bird-like Hypnocatrice (Suzaku),  the blue dragon Lagiacrus (Seiryu), and the silver unicorn-like Kirin (Qilin).

The mobile game Guardian Cross had the Shijin appear as hard to kill "Giant" guardians.An interesting fact is that the Shijin in the game had the swirling orbs that the Digimon version of the Shijin had. Also there was no Ouryu, but the Unicorn in the game had golden-yellow armor (similar to Byakko's silver armor) and was huntable in the same zone as the Shijin.

The mobile game Puzzles & Dragons introduced the Shijin as the "Chinese Celestials", 5 animal-themed goddesses. Each goddess represented an element; Genbu Meimei was Earth, Byakko Haku was Darkness, Suzaku Leilan was Fire, Seiryuu Karin was Water, and Kirin Sakuya was Light.

Ouryu was also in Puzzles & Dragons as a "Chinese Celestial", but instead of a goddess, he was an emperor god called Emperor Kouryu Fagan, who shared the light element with Kirin Sakuya.