Joined: 05 Jun 2023
Posts: 68
Location: Flippin Arkansas
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 11:57 am
Could a programming block on television do anything more to alienate their fan base then Cartoon Networks' Toonami?
Saturday night was proof yet again that the bare minimum effort is more than the executives are willing to expend on their Anime lineup. After having concluded the latest season of Food Wars the previous week Toonami decided to replay it in the same timeslot, as if the past 13 weeks hadn't happened.
I understand that currently their is a high demand for content and Cartoon Network is going to struggle against some heavy hitters such as Netflix, and Amazon, not to mention the various Anime specific streaming options out there. It seems pre-Covid no one cared about Anime and Toonami had their pick of the industry. Iconic series such as Bleach and Demon Slayer were all but guaranteed to end up in the rotation. After the pandemic and the shift in consumer consumption of Anime it seems Adult Swim just failed in their strategy to remain a player in this space.
Now I question if series that had their entire run broadcast on Toonami will even make it back to this platform. Bleach - The Thousand Year Blood War seems to have completed its release as well as two complete seasons of Demon Slayer, neither of which have made it to Toonami. Attack On Titan is another one I have invested several years in and I question if the final episodes will make it here either.
There are some people in this world who can not Stream content. Mostly prisoners, so it is difficult to imagine the situation will change for the better if we are the only people affected. I'm sure there are plenty of other unfortunate people out there though who also love this content but can't access it other than by cable broadcast.
Adult Swim has made some questionable decisions the past few years regarding Anime and while their attitude at times even comes off as hostile they do make some moves that makes it seem like they want to be involved in the space. I imagine if they had not wasted so much money on the home grown Anime failures they attempted to create recently that maybe the situation would be different.
If you want a "worst ever" list then let's talk about some of these gems to come from Adult Swim:
- Housing Complex C
- Shenmu
- Blade Runner - Black Lotus
- Fenna Pirate Princess
I'm sure I'm missing a couple but depression casts a dark cloth over my memory right now.
Had Adult Swim used all that money to just purchase the licensing rights to already established franchises this situation could be so much better today. I wouldn't even mind if you got content that was old in comparison to some of the offerings out there. I genuinely enjoy One Piece and I know you can't afford to license the new episodes but being able to show the ones that aired 10 years ago is better than nothing.
Now I hear they are going to create two more seasons of my beloved FLCL! Please don't do this Toonami. You have already watered down this brand when you did Alternative and Progressive, please don't assault it any further. The best thing you can do with that I.P. is just grab some old music videos from The Pillows and broadcast those every week. I would be thrilled with that.
I don't know what the answer is or what the future holds for Toonami. I think the executives in charge should have a long meeting with Mr. Jason DeMarco and determine if his motivations are more in line with his personal agenda or with producing a quality programming block that the fans of the genre want to interact with.
I anticipate another Genndy Tartakovsky marathon in the near future to kill some air time. Hey, I'm a fan of his work as well, Primal was amazing, the first seven times you showed the same season. Are you going to repeat this playbook with Unicorn?
Toonami has done some great things in the past so I'll hold out hope for as long as I can but my optimism is waning.
Does anyone out there know anyone who works for SyFy? Maybe we can get them back on board and revive their Animonday block!
[EDIT: Cleaned up the formatting and made the thread title less-long winded. -TK]
Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 9130
Location: New Hampshire
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 1:01 pm
The biggest issue is money. The funi/CR merger has driven the price of shows up really high so it is difficult for them to get new shows right now. Demon slayer becoming a massive hit also made it impossible for them to aquire new seasons. Far too expensive. As strange as it sounds, making their own shows is the cheaper option. They do have a new show that they have acquired but Demarco explained on twitter that its being held up by Japan, and its going to take some time to get it cleared.
@Andy26 - given your particular situation, I totally get why broadcast based anime like Toonami is important to you given you cannot really get anime any other way. But for somebody like me, the idea of broadcast based anime is bizarre. The only ways I've ever watched anime since I became a fan back in 2009 is a) by buying physical discs b) streaming and c) whenever an anime film shows up in a theatre, I make the effort to go. I understand that watching a series on, say, Toonami is no different than watching a simulcast on, say, Crunchyroll. You have to wait a week for a new episode, either way. Mind you, I guess if you miss an episode for some reason, you're kind of screwed until they re-run it. For me, the main difference is that you generally get a lot more options off a Crunchyroll or a HiDive, plus both of those streamers have an extensive library of titles if you want to dip into those.
In any case, you'll be a lot happier when you no longer have to depend on a broadcast source for your anime fix!
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