Toonami Anticipation Thread

[macattack]

The Toonami Digital Arsenal debuts show folders for the six shows making their first appearances on Toonami, with openings, endings, and AS promos where they apply: http://www.toonamiarsenal.com/

"It's time to stand".

One other thing to keep in mind. Toonami in its prime years (1999-2006) typically got nine new shows a year on average. We're technically getting six right now. We could get three more this year if the ratings hold up.

I wonder how long it'll take for anyone to guess the reference.

 

[Hawkeye]

One other thing to keep in mind. Toonami in its prime years (1999-2006) typically got nine new shows a year on average. We're technically getting six right now. We could get three more this year if the ratings hold up.

Not only that, but Toonami was on over 20 hours a week at times during that era, and that means the new shows to hours available ratio is even better now.

 

[Light Lucario]

AS did pull the rug out of the people watching DRRR!! and Kekkaishi. I don't think there's going to be a huge backlash over it but I am curious why those shows, despite performing better than GITS and Bebop, got pulled. Did DeMarco and company simply decide they didn't want Kekkaishi or DRRR!! to be "Toonami" shows? Or was it because DRRR!! and Kekkaishi honestly clash with the violent and REALLY dark moods that Casshern and Deadman Wonderland offer?

I'm not too surprised that they took Kekkaishi off the lineup since it wouldn't really fit in with the tone of the other shows that they're airing under the Toonami name, even with some of the more intense violence scenes/moments. I'm slightly surprised that Durarara was taken off since I think it could serve as a slightly lighter series by comparison to the two new shows they're airing. Plus, I don't know if they've gone through the whole series again. Though, they probably wanted to use Brotherhood for that, especially if it does get better ratings than Durarara does.

 

[Soul]

I think Tyler needs to specify to people who are new to TDA & ASF, the promos for Bleach/Bebop/GitS ARE [as] promos though.

 

[BrianLeague]

AS did pull the rug out of the people watching DRRR!! and Kekkaishi. I don't think there's going to be a huge backlash over it but I am curious why those shows, despite performing better than GITS and Bebop, got pulled. Did DeMarco and company simply decide they didn't want Kekkaishi or DRRR!! to be "Toonami" shows? Or was it because DRRR!! and Kekkaishi honestly clash with the violent and REALLY dark moods that Casshern and Deadman Wonderland offer?

I think Durarara!! aad Kekkaishi were pulled off the schedule because the rights to air those shows expired for Adult Swim. This isn't confirmed, but I think they would've kept those two shows if they still had the rights to them.

 

[Soul]

Kekkaishi was no doubt included in a deal for more Bleach episodes, and it premiered around this time last year. Durarara!! premiered in June, so the rights to that will drop soon as well.

 

[Kuromi_Star]

I thought the licenses were always for two years?

I wonder if Viz will force Inuyasha on AS in the next Bleach episode grab? I'm kind of getting the feeling that the guys at WS did see Final Act, decided that they didn't love it, and figured that the original series prime was so far off that no one would really care.

 

[Hawkeye]

I thought the licenses were always for two years?

I wonder if Viz will force Inuyasha on AS in the next Bleach episode grab? I'm kind of getting the feeling that the guys at WS did see Final Act, decided that they didn't love it, and figured that the original series prime was so far off that no one would really care.

While two years could generally be the standard length, I presume the length of the license is one of the many things that can be negotiated along with cost, digital rights, a package deal with other shows, etc.

As far as Inu Yasha: The Final Act goes, I wonder if Adult Swim could even air it if they wanted to license it from Viz. While we have seemingly been waiting for the American release of the show for years at this point, something has kept Viz from releasing the DVDs all this time. Perhaps whatever has been holding up the DVDs has also been holding up any television runs. Until The Final Act is actually released on DVD (and even some time after that), I think it remains a good possibility to show up on Toonami at some point.

 

[Sketch]

As odd as it would seem it may be the case that Aniplex was only able to secure a one year contract for Durarara, where as Kekkaishi may have only gotten 2 years despite having 52 episodes and pre-emption inevitably making it unlikely it would finish two runs in two years.

They may have considered Kekkaishi and Durarara too tame for what they wanted to show but it would have made more sense to air tame shows in the 2AM / 5AM hour. (mostly for the 5AM hour)

Durarara would have fit in just fine IMO, Kekkaishi much less so but if they could have finished them it would have been mighty friendly of them to do so. DRR got finished on AS video this week but Kekkaishi viewers are out of luck unless they want to finish watching the show in Japanese on Hulu.

I'm going to assume it was contracts expiring more so than anything else because they could have finished Kekkaishi and Durarara in about half the amount of weeks it would take to finish Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell's current runs.

It just makes more sense if the shows were pulled due their contracts expiring.

 

[Space Cadet]

I thought the licenses were always for two years?

I wonder if Viz will force Inuyasha on AS in the next Bleach episode grab? I'm kind of getting the feeling that the guys at WS did see Final Act, decided that they didn't love it, and figured that the original series prime was so far off that no one would really care.

Well, I did ask Mr. DeMarco on Twitter about Final Act and he said that he loves Inuyasha and they did review Final Act. So, there could be a chance that the show might air in the Summer/Fall of this year. However, if the show doesn't come by early next year, then WS moved on and the gap between the final episode airing on AS and when Final Act started up in Japan was too much to overcome.

Spoiler

Look out Bleach. If they don't start another anime series by the time the run on AS ends, then they'll be in the same situation.

 

[Hawkeye]

It could also be a situation where Via presumes "of course Adult Swim/Toonami will air Inu Yasha: The Final Act considering how big of a success Inu Yasha was for them!" and is therefore is demanding more money than it turns out Adult Swim is willing to pay.

 

[Butterstar]

Look what Jason just posted:


"Mannn these @adultswim SINGLES you guys! I have some MEAN (poop) lined up for ya'll this summer! Can't wait to talk about it soon!"

 

[Raidon Makoto]

Look what Jason just posted:


"Mannn these @adultswim SINGLES you guys! I have some MEAN (poop) lined up for ya'll this summer! Can't wait to talk about it soon!"

I kinda doubt that they're Toonami related. He normally can't talk about the [as] Singles program until Williams Street Records does a press release. This is the third or fourth year (I think) they're doing this.

 

[Butterstar]

I kinda doubt that they're Toonami related. He normally can't talk about the [as] Singles program until Williams Street Records does a press release. This is the third or fourth year (I think) they're doing this.

Though, it would be fun to see the songs from the Toonami album that now goes for hundreds of dollars on here.

 

[Soul]

Yeah, while I had been following Jason for a long time before hand, if you're into good music, especially Hip-Hop and Rap, he's pretty legit on letting people on to good stuff.

 

[macattack]

Yeah, while I had been following Jason for a long time before hand, if you're into good music, especially Hip-Hop and Rap, he's pretty legit on letting people on to good stuff.

DeMarco's [unclassified] compilation will turn dubstep haters into dubstep lovers. My God so much good stuff on there. I hope some of it winds up on Toonami, AS hasn't really been using the [unclassified] songs that much (if at all) and dubstep actually kinda fits Toonami.

 

[Creme]

The line-up looks pretty awesome. Could do without FMA: Brotherhood and Ghost in the Shell but I'm curious to see how Toonami presents them so I might watch for a few minutes.

 

[Kuromi_Star]

As odd as it would seem it may be the case that Aniplex was only able to secure a one year contract for Durarara, where as Kekkaishi may have only gotten 2 years despite having 52 episodes and pre-emption inevitably making it unlikely it would finish two runs in two years.

I didn't think about that. It's true that Aniplex and AS don't necessarily have that same relationship as AS ans Viz or Funi, right? It's also true that Aniplex likes to price highly, so I could see DRR only having the one year. If I were AS, any reason to pull Kekkaishi off the air would be a good one.

 

[Sketch]

The hate I'm seeing for the line-up is remarkable.

People are actually complaining that there are only 2 new shows? That's 3 premiere episodes every week and 2 of them aren't on DVD yet.

People are saying it's bad that 4 of the shows were already on Adult Swim? How are Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy freak'n Bebop not worthy of time on Toonami?

People are complaining that none of the shows are old Toonami favorites? I would have liked to have at least 1 old Toonami fav but Toonami didn't rely on nostalgia nearly as much as it focused on offering new experiences.

This is a whole new ball game. That doesn't make it any less Toonami than any other Toonami. I think we can all agree that it's a much better line-up than some previous weekday or Saturday night Toonami line-ups but it's arguably not the best either. What it is, is a decent start offering some unique flavors.

While it can be argued Deadman Wonderland and Casshern Sins are the kinds of shows Adult Swim would normally go for if people thought Adult Swim was going to get 2 new shows this year for their action block if Toonami wasn't giving a marketing push for action on Adult Swim, they had another thing coming. They probably wouldn't have even gotten Deadman much less Casshern. Ironically the new Toonami is showing more stones than ASA has in quite a long time. All the more so if Panty & Stocking shows up to replace Deadman Wonderland.

There is the budget issue but Toonami has worked pretty well on scraps before and rose to the occasion. It can certainly do it again.

To the comment of Adult Swim "using Toonami fans" for ratings. I'm not going to say they are not trying to squeeze something out of Toonami fans but it's more of a "scratch our back we'll scratch yours" situation. They wouldn't be doing this if they didn't believe it would draw viewership to their Saturday night action block. Unlike most networks that had anime blocks, they actually would like their's to succeed because they still see some value in those viewers but at the end of the day they don't need anime anymore and keeping it around is downright charitable at this point. They're not banking on Toonami fandom because they'd be up a creek without them. They're meeting a demand by giving Toonami fandom something to latch on to. They're a business and when a business see's enough demand for something they generally give the consumer what they are asking for. But of course consumers don't always know what they want and are very fickle and that is why people are complaining about Adult Swim's Toonami not meeting their expectations yet.

There's no reason to believe Jason DeMarco and the rest of the Toonami crew do not genuinely want to bring back the Toonami experience for the action block of Adult Swim. They pushed for this because they were quite fond of the block as well. They believe in the potential for the block even when streaming and simulcasts have made television airings less valuable to anime fans because they were never banking on just those fickle anime fans but rather on the potential new viewers a quality programming block like Toonami can draw in which the minimalist approach of ASA cannot do.

 

[sl4]

While all this stuff about expiring licenses is possible I suppose, I think we're overlooking the more obvious reason for Kekkaishi's exclusion from the new schedule: it absolutely sucks. Kekkaishi is the most generic, anime-cliche-ridden piece of garbage I think they've probably ever picked up, and I'm not even the slightest bit surprised to see it disappear.

Anyway, I'm excited to see Toonami in action again this Saturday. More to the point, I'm excited to see some potentially interesting new shows, a schedule worth watching, the start of something new and exciting, and Adult Swim's action block having worthwhile packaging again for the first time since 2002.