Forum - View topicNEWS: Adult Swim Anime Plans
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Maenos
 Posts: 1 |
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I saw some posts wondering why there was mention of Robotech.
I'm the guy on the Adult Swim boards who asked the question (as well as the one for Naruto and FMA, heh). The reason I asked...well, I'm a big fan of Robotech, what can I say? I knew what the response would be, but I was still curious. So I asked. Gotta say, though, it surprised me to see the inclusion of Robotech here on ANN's announcement, heh. |
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herbkir
Posts: 251 Location: Michigan |
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A male character changing gender to trick other men was a problem AS had with Ranma, whose central joke revolves around this. But a questioner asked whether AS had still absolutely ruled out Ranma or anything like it, and Manning's reply was "Mmmmm...maybe." Could this be an indication that they are shifting on this point? If so, that could open the way for Naruto in future.
AS has been pushing the violence boundaries of TV-14. Just look at the mutilation scenes in the "Jungle Cruise" episode of GitS. Maybe they think it's time to start pushing the sex boundaries as well. And the sort of fantasy gender play in Naruto or Ranma might just be the way to do it. With Naruto, the real question is just how strong an appeal it would have to adult viewers. Inuyasha keeps adult fans like me interested because of: 1) The central conflict between duty and desire that underlies the romantic triangle of Inu-Kagome-Kikyou. 2) The sibling rivalry between Inu and Sesshomaru. 3) The comedy in Miroku's attempts to have his cake (Sango) and eat it too (his irrepressible lechery). Take these away, and Inu would be just another Toonami action-adventure series. As is, Inu offers a good balance between action and emotional relationship development. Kenshin also offers adult-level themes, since its main character is a man who in modern terms underwent a career crisis because of a changing world, and decided on a total career change. Unfortunately, his past won't sleep. How can he keep his past from destroying the people he cares about in the present, without forsaking the future that he's chosen for himself? A very adult dilemma. Like Inu, Kenshin offers a good balance between action and relationships. In both shows, we as viewers care about the outcome of the action scenes because the emotional, relationship-building scenes have made these characters into quasi-real people in our minds. If adults see Naruto as engaging them with adult-level emotional themes and conflicts amidst the teen-level action, then it can succeed as an AS show. Otherwise, no. It'll end up like Conan. I think the main thing that doomed Conan on AS was that it moved too slowly in the character relationship side. It didn't give adult viewers enough reason to care whether Conan solved the central mystery of his shrinking, let alone whether he would prevail in each episode's mystery. Conan engaged the adult intellect with its puzzling mysteries, but moved too slowly to engage adult emotions. Also, I think Conan didn't have as high a replay value as AS needed because a lot of people lost interest in the reruns once they knew who did it and how it was done. Don't get me wrong here, I loved Conan and was sorry to see that it won't get new episodes. (^_*) |
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emory
Posts: 615 |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7351 Location: Maine |
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I don't think that's what has kept Ranma off of Adult Swim. They've mentioned a few times in their interstitials that they just don't like Ranma 1/2. If anything the gender bending would make for a big draw for Adult Swim, they're usually keen on stuff that is edgy and unusual. As for the answer you're talking about, have they ever ruled out anything like Ranma? The way the question was asked lets them say maybe without actually indicating which they're talking about, Ranma or something like it. They may have always been able to show something like Ranma, but have never wanted to actually show Ranma. Emerje |
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slickwataris
 Posts: 1334 Location: Carol Stream, Illinois |
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Don't worry I watched the first two dvd's of the fourth season and it was nothing major. Only the first episode on the second disc where spoiler[ Conan thinks he found where the men in black are hiding and then the hotel room blows up when he gets there. ] |
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Necros Antiquor
 Posts: 571 Location: Funny in a car crash sort of way |
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It is true that Adult Swim is pushing the limits of the TV-14 rating (and I'm proud of that). However, while I forsee them pushing the sex boundaries too, such as the non-editing in FLCL (and ignoring Blue Gender), I just don't see Ranma going on TV. This isn't because Adult Swim couldn't handle the show; if it went on, there'd be just an occasional edit or a digital bikini on a nude shot. However, look at the facts. Ranma is freaking old. All of the old shows put on AS (or Toonami for that matter), including Conan (which isn't old, but looks it because of art style and bad film transfer), have done bad. Lupin III is the only one to do decent. I think Ranma's age (and their dislike of the show) will keep it off the air.
Good point. I watched each episode straight through (sometimes glued to my seat, if it was exciting and desperate), and once I finished an episode, I never looked back, especially with nothing plot-important happening. In fact, other than a couple of episodes, I'd be fine never watching those episodes again. I'm sure many people have this sentiment. Want to know why they're still making episodes of Conan? Because no one wants to watch the old episodes (unless they're a diehard fan), but people still want to watch the show (with new mysteries). It's a shame Adult Swim didn't want to commit to these new episodes. |
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Ken-san
Posts: 32 Location: Michigan |
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I disagree. Age really has no revelence. It's subject matter that usually determines popularity. Dragonball, DBZ and Yu Yu Hakusho are all older shows (Dragonball being around the same time that Ranma was initially on TV) and their art is older as well, yet they are/were popular staples of CN. Ranma is damned funny in the first 3 seasons. I still haven't laughed as hard as I did with some of the early jokes, plus the situations Ranma is constantly put in are hilarious. I feel that CN is just a little skittish about the amount of dollars they'd have to spend to cover up all the nudity. It's not cost effective for them. Plus there is the little matter of the FCC potentially getting involved. All it takes is one holier than thou parent to get up in arms to raise a huge stink about it. In contrast some might argue that Tenchi was heavily edited for nudity, but the amount of episodes in Tenchi Muyo can't even scratch Ranma's. |
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Swordfish_II
 Posts: 617 |
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I disagree with your disagreement. Most of the anime Cartoon Network has aquired in the last couple of years has either been newly made or newly released in the US. Lupin, Conan, Yu Yu and the like more than likely made it on due to their popularity in Japan. In a recent interview with Sean Akins over at Toon Zone, he was asked if Escaflowne was still a possibility and he replied that it was just too old now. |
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Phoenix512
Posts: 17 |
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I agreed with you on the character development of Detective Conan. It's too slow for the most part. It would be nice if the Detective Conan movies would be brought over but that would required AS to show up to episode 130. I won't say why because of spoilers. The movies have better character development but I'm curious on Funi would dub the second movie since the Japanese names of the characters is a key to the overall mystery. |
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cubs2084
 Posts: 206 |
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Good point. I watched each episode straight through (sometimes glued to my seat, if it was exciting and desperate), and once I finished an episode, I never looked back, especially with nothing plot-important happening. In fact, other than a couple of episodes, I'd be fine never watching those episodes again. I'm sure many people have this sentiment. Want to know why they're still making episodes of Conan? Because no one wants to watch the old episodes (unless they're a diehard fan), but people still want to watch the show (with new mysteries). It's a shame Adult Swim didn't want to commit to these new episodes.[/quote] That's precisely why I don't understand their thinking in not picking up more episode, but still showing the 50 re-runs. As much as I love this show, very few episodes are re-run friendly. They focus on the mystery within the episode, and after you've seen it once, it's just no fun a second time. By showing the same episodes over and over, Cartoon Network is not only killing the show's current fanbase, but any potential future fans they would get by showing new ones. |
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Fazz89x
 Posts: 49 |
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Naruto's Sexy no Juitsu should no problem airing on Toonami after maybe a smuge of touching up. I don't think Naruto does it anymore than five times or so. I guess none of you guys have ever seen the original Dragon Ball episode towards the beginning where Goku and Krilllin are sent to go find chicks to impress Master Roshi. He even gets one of the girls along with Goku and Krillin to all dress up in playboy bunny suits. That episode was just damn creepy. But it still aired anyway.
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Ken-san
Posts: 32 Location: Michigan |
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If that's the case then Ranma should also be considered since anything Takahashi touches usually turns into gold. Besides that I did say that SUBJECT matter was the determining factor. Subject matter is what makes the show popular, not the art style. I did hear that they were passing on Escaflowne and I feel that that's a mistake, but they may be fearing that god-awful edit job Fox did on it years ago. |
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herbkir
Posts: 251 Location: Michigan |
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With the flood of new anime being licensed in the USA, Adult Swim and other TV anime outlets have lots of new material to choose from. They have no need to run old series anymore.
Further, the popular older series are readily available new and used, often at really cheap prices. By shopping around online or in person, you can often get an entire old series for less than the price of one dinner out. (I've done it.) One reason distributors consent to TV showings is to promote sales of the DVDs and other merchandise to people who don't have them yet. With older series, a lot of the potential buyers already have them in their collections. Anymore, it seems that the TV networks are concentrating on shows made within the last 5 years that are new to the USA. (^_*) |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I wouldn't agree with that. Maybe in Japan it turns to gold, but not always here. AS already has a Takahashi show, and that's Inu Yasha. It's aparentely doing well enough in the ratings to lisence new seasons, but it's not making ratings anywhere near as high as GITS or FMA. |
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Emerje
Posts: 7351 Location: Maine |
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Er, no, subject is only a factor that determines popularity, but in the US the overriding factor is age. Just look at all of the series that have tried to make it on Cartoon Network but failed, like the original Gundam, Saint Saiya, Detective Conan, and Lupin. All great series in their own respect, all insainly popular in Japan, but all doomed to cancelation in the US. Let's look at the examples you gave: DB and DBZ have been maintaining popularity in the US since 1996, at that time the series were still fresh, heck the series had just wrapped up in Japan the same year it debuted over here. Then there's Yu Yu Hakusho, this series had two previous movie releases in the US so it wasn't entirely alien to people, not to mention it has aged extremely well visually. On the other hand, Ranma hasn't aged quite as well, especially the early Viz dubing. Also the entire series has been released in the US and with a long running popluarity in the US it most of the people who are interested in Ranma have already seen enough of it that they probably wouldn't watch watch it again on AS, that's a big chunk of veiwership right there. Even if AS thought Ranma was pure anime gold even then I don't think they'd concider showing a series that is already widely available and showing it's age. Emerje |
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