"Toonami" News & Discussion Thread

[BrianLeague]

According to Jason DeMarco, the Batman Beyond short will be airing tonight.

 

[Mister Mayhem]

Compatriot,

cool. this will be my first time watching that short.

 

[Light Lucario]

According to Jason DeMarco, the Batman Beyond short will be airing tonight.

That's pretty cool. It would have been really nice to air it right along with the first unaired episode of Beware the Batman, but this works too. At least it will air tonight.

 

[dannybosa]

I've seen that short a lot of times. It's awesome every time I see it. I can't wait for intruder 2.

 

[BrianLeague]

Jason DeMarco is asking fans to tell him what Toonami should be moving forward.

Here's what he tweeted:

#toonami fans- what ya'll think about us maybe bringing this back? https://t.co/RcyD3xBUlm
Here's the deal. Write me @ 1065 Williams Street, Atlanta, GA 30309 OR send us a message at Toonami.tumblr.com and let us know...
...what you think. We weren't allowed to accept mail for a long while but we are now, so why not? Help us manipulate the manual.
I guess the question now isn't "Is Toonami a failed experiment" but instead "what should Toonami be going forward."

 

[veemonjosh]

I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of what they should be moving forward. Considering how restricted they are by budget, selection, etc., it's hard to really do much more than suggest certain possible titles and hope for the best.

On an unrelated note, the Samurai Jack episodes beginning tonight (starting from 27) have never aired on Toonami before. I believe, before this, Toonami has only aired episodes 1-26 (during the final months of CN Toonami) and 49-52 (premiering them in a marathon with the Clone Wars shorts).

 

[Mister Mayhem]

Cohorts,

i'm not entirely sure what he means by that question. other than suggestions for certain acquisitions i guess what i want toonami to do in the future is:

air more than just teen and adult action shows. space dandy is more comedy(and i use that term loosely) than action so other genres should be given a chance. i want to see more slice of life, drama, horror, ecchi, romance, and toyetic shows.

stuff from other countries. nothing comes immediately to mind but it would be nice to see more than just anime and western action cartoons.

more movie nights. show two new movies once a month. one from 11:30-1:30 and the other from 1:30-3:30 depending on the length.

show fan submissions. everything from artwork, to cosplay, to handmade toys, or even food. as long as its related to the show and the studios give them the okay.

adult swims entire saturday night block. its a pipe dream but starting at 8:00 pm would be cool.

 

[Daikun]

air more than just teen and adult action shows. space dandy is more comedy(and i use that term loosely) than action so other genres should be given a chance. i want to see more slice of life, drama, horror, ecchi, romance, and toyetic shows.

eheh no

 

[Light Lucario]

Cohorts,

i'm not entirely sure what he means by that question. other than suggestions for certain acquisitions i guess what i want toonami to do in the future is:

air more than just teen and adult action shows. space dandy is more comedy(and i use that term loosely) than action so other genres should be given a chance. i want to see more slice of life, drama, horror, ecchi, romance, and toyetic shows.

I really don't want them to get something like horror or ecchi on the block. Despite Space Dandy being more of a comedy than an action series, Toonami has always been a block primarily for action cartoons, so that isn't going to change anytime soon.

stuff from other countries. nothing comes immediately to mind but it would be nice to see more than just anime and western action cartoons.

That's probably the most that they can get right now. Plus, I'm not sure what other shows that they could get from other countries that would work for the block.

more movie nights. show two new movies once a month. one from 11:30-1:30 and the other from 1:30-3:30 depending on the length.

That would be a bit overkill to air two movies every month. I wouldn't mind if they aired a new movie every once in awhile, like maybe during holiday weekends and having a month of movies in December, but doing that too often might not be the best.

show fan submissions. everything from artwork, to cosplay, to handmade toys, or even food. as long as its related to the show and the studios give them the okay.

adult swims entire saturday night block. its a pipe dream but starting at 8:00 pm would be cool.

Fan submissions might be nice, but I don't think that there's any chance that we'd get the entire Saturday night lineup. We still haven't gotten the whole 11PM hour yet, so anything more than that would be a huge pipe dream.

 

[Mister Mayhem]

eheh no

I really don't want them to get something like horror or ecchi on the block. Despite Space Dandy being more of a comedy than an action series, Toonami has always been a block primarily for action cartoons, so that isn't going to change anytime soon.

Cohorts,

that's the thing i find sad. a lot of channels have found immense success in steering away from their original vision. you can't expand your viewership if your not willing to take risks. some people are either extremely adverse to change or too afraid of failure so they stay right where they are. unfortunately toonami seems content where it is.

That would be a bit overkill to air two movies every month. I wouldn't mind if they aired a new movie every once in awhile, like maybe during holiday weekends and having a month of movies in December, but doing that too often might not be the best.

i would love for them to break up the tedium once a month. there were a lot of films i never would have watched or even been aware of if it wasn't for toonami. those movie nights back when toonami use to apart of cartoonnetwork were awesome.

 

[Lanmanna]

No one of any adult intelligence ever took that seriously. The problem was, many of the people who did take it seriously were precisely the people AS was counting on to watch anime - anime fans with already serious inferiority complexes. So while it may have been meant "all in good fun", it was also meant for people who have no sense of humor. And of course when they overreacted, AS kept poking them again and again. It's no coincidence that it was right around this time that anime ratings started to decline on AS, and not long after it's popularity in the US in general as well. By the time AS was through having their fun the damage was done.

That's not the reason anime ratings declined. LOL

 

[Light Lucario]

Cohorts,

that's the thing i find sad. a lot of channels have found immense success in steering away from their original vision. you can't expand your viewership if your not willing to take risks. some people are either extremely adverse to change or too afraid of failure so they stay right where they are. unfortunately toonami seems content where it is.

Toonami isn't a channel though. It's a block. Besides that, steering away from their original vision doesn't guarantee success or being well received by the fans. MTV is probably the best example of that. Since Toonami relies heavily on fan appeal, I think it would be better for them to not take a huge risk like airing other genres. If they take a big risk and it doesn't pay off, it could hurt Toonami more than it would hurt for a channel due to how it's just a block and still doesn't have a large budget. So, I can't really blame them for being content with airing primarily action shows. That's what Toonami has been about since day one and I doubt that they'd want to change that at this point.

i would love for them to break up the tedium once a month. there were a lot of films i never would have watched or even been aware of if it wasn't for toonami. those movie nights back when toonami use to apart of cartoonnetwork were awesome.

They were probably able to have more movie nights back when it was on weekday afternoons since they could have the regular schedule going on for the rest of the week while airing a movie on Fridays. Since they only have Saturday nights, I don't think that they could air as many movies as they did in the past. It might get old to have two movies every month. I'd rather that they save movies for holiday weekends and a month of movies during December would be good too.

 

[WickedChild]

That's not the reason anime ratings declined. LOL

Well thanks for offering such an insightful counterpoint.

 

[Mister Mayhem]

Toonami isn't a channel though. It's a block. Besides that, steering away from their original vision doesn't guarantee success or being well received by the fans. MTV is probably the best example of that. Since Toonami relies heavily on fan appeal, I think it would be better for them to not take a huge risk like airing other genres. If they take a big risk and it doesn't pay off, it could hurt Toonami more than it would hurt for a channel due to how it's just a block and still doesn't have a large budget. So, I can't really blame them for being content with airing primarily action shows. That's what Toonami has been about since day one and I doubt that they'd want to change that at this point.

Cohort,

i never said toonami was a channel. its a 6 1/2 hour block on a channel. whether talking about a single lineup or the whole network my point still stands. mtv is a poor example since moving away from showing music videos all the time worked out better for them in the long run. with the onset of the internet, ipods and other mp3 players the audience just wouldn't be the same anymore. mtv would also be one of the main channels to help usher in the "reality" tv era in its current form. stuff like the real world, jackass, punk'd and jersey shore would appeal more to the modern audience. there's a reason why so many networks have moved farther away from their original vision and opted to showcase more lowbrow programming. even the history channel and animal planet vaguely resemble their former selves.

anime is already a niche to begin and toonami isn't as popular as it once was so not branching out into other genres is just plain folly. there's always outcry when tv scheduling changes even slightly buts its usually a vocal minority. diehards are nowhere near the size that they think they are. appealing only to them isn't beneficial for the long haul.

They were probably able to have more movie nights back when it was on weekday afternoons since they could have the regular schedule going on for the rest of the week while airing a movie on Fridays. Since they only have Saturday nights, I don't think that they could air as many movies as they did in the past. It might get old to have two movies every month. I'd rather that they save movies for holiday weekends and a month of movies during December would be good too.

even when they became saturday nights only in 2004 toonami still showed a lot of movies.

 

[Jazz1000]

i notice cn doesn't have Teen Titans(not Go!, the action one) on there site anymore, i might have high hope but is it possible that Toonami is gonna air Teen Titans?

 

[Light Lucario]

Cohort,

i never said toonami was a channel. its a 6 1/2 hour block on a channel. whether talking about a single lineup or the whole network my point still stands. mtv is a poor example since moving away from showing music videos all the time worked out better for them in the long run. with the onset of the internet, ipods and other mp3 players the audience just wouldn't be the same anymore. mtv would also be one of the main channels to help usher in the "reality" tv era in its current form. stuff like the real world, jackass, punk'd and jersey shore would appeal more to the modern audience. there's a reason why so many networks have moved farther away from their original vision and opted to showcase more lowbrow programming. even the history channel and animal planet vaguely resemble their former selves.

I was primarily using MTV as an example of how moving away from their original vision was poorly received among fans. It might have been more successful if they just used with music videos, but it moved so far away from its original vision that it probably shouldn't even be called MTV anymore and most of the discussion I've heard about it for years is that the channel is basically a joke now. Animal Planet at least still focuses on animals, although the History Channel seems to be full of reality shows whenever I've checked its listings. If Toonami moved as far away from its original intent like those channels did, I don't think that it would be that well received, especially when those channels had more of a budget to take a risk that big. Toonami doesn't and if it loses the fan appeal it has, that could really do more harm than good for the block in the long run. So, I can't really blame them for sticking with their original vision of being an action block.

anime is already a niche to begin and toonami isn't as popular as it once was so not branching out into other genres is just plain folly. there's always outcry when tv scheduling changes even slightly buts its usually a vocal minority. diehards are nowhere near the size that they think they are. appealing only to them isn't beneficial for the long haul.

This wouldn't be appealing just to diehard fans. If that was the case, they would be focused on bringing back more older shows than they actually have or they would have gotten the original DBZ instead of DBZ Kai. They want to bring in action series because that's what they've sent out on doing since the block started. Now that they have more control over the block, I don't think that they're going to go for a slice of life or horror series as opposed to a series with action. If there's something like a slice of life show with enough action for them, maybe they'll go for it, but I don't think that they're going to try airing another genre just to mix things up. GXP had pretty little action and it was mostly a really bad harem comedy series, at least based on what I saw. It did so poorly in ratings that it was pushed to 3AM and a comment DeMarco made during a Q&A session kind of implied that it was the one show that they regretted picking up. I don't think that they'd want to make trying out another genre more regularly after that. As for Space Dandy, it is mostly a comedy, but it's a world premiere with Adult Swim co-funding it, so it kind of gets a pass. The reason why they don't get too many series besides anime is because there aren't a lot of animated shows that appeal to teenagers/young adults and getting anime is cheaper. While the ratings for the last couple of weeks have been down, I don't think a major change like getting different genres would necessarily be a good solution.

even when they became saturday nights only in 2004 toonami still showed a lot of movies.

I don't recall them airing a lot of movies on Saturday nights. I only remember a couple of relatively short comic based animated movies airing on their Saturday nights.

i notice cn doesn't have Teen Titans(not Go!, the action one) on there site anymore, i might have high hope but is it possible that Toonami is gonna air Teen Titans?

I'm not sure if that's a possibility. I'd rather see them air the Green Lantern series instead and I don't think that the original Teen Titans series would fit on the block that well, primarily due to but if they're still able to air more DC shows after they finish Beware the Batman, that would be pretty cool.

 

[Mister Mayhem]

I was primarily using MTV as an example of how moving away from their original vision was poorly received among fans. It might have been more successful if they just used with music videos, but it moved so far away from its original vision that it probably shouldn't even be called MTV anymore and most of the discussion I've heard about it for years is that the channel is basically a joke now. Animal Planet at least still focuses on animals, although the History Channel seems to be full of reality shows whenever I've checked its listings. If Toonami moved as far away from its original intent like those channels did, I don't think that it would be that well received, especially when those channels had more of a budget to take a risk that big. Toonami doesn't and if it loses the fan appeal it has, that could really do more harm than good for the block in the long run. So, I can't really blame them for sticking with their original vision of being an action block.

Cohort,

that's the thing though, angry letters, online outcry and petitions aren't always indicative of poor performance. the public can't stop complaining about jersey shore, honey boo boo, the kardashins and other reality shlock but the ratings tell a different story. most of the time the people who criticize and make fun the are the same ones who help contribute to a hated programs popularity. they pretend their too cultured for that kind of stuff and want better fare but their glued to the screen just like everyone else.

This wouldn't be appealing just to diehard fans. If that was the case, they would be focused on bringing back more older shows than they actually have or they would have gotten the original DBZ instead of DBZ Kai. They want to bring in action series because that's what they've sent out on doing since the block started. Now that they have more control over the block, I don't think that they're going to go for a slice of life or horror series as opposed to a series with action. If there's something like a slice of life show with enough action for them, maybe they'll go for it, but I don't think that they're going to try airing another genre just to mix things up. GXP had pretty little action and it was mostly a really bad harem comedy series, at least based on what I saw. It did so poorly in ratings that it was pushed to 3AM and a comment DeMarco made during a Q&A session kind of implied that it was the one show that they regretted picking up. I don't think that they'd want to make trying out another genre more regularly after that. As for Space Dandy, it is mostly a comedy, but it's a world premiere with Adult Swim co-funding it, so it kind of gets a pass. The reason why they don't get too many series besides anime is because there aren't a lot of animated shows that appeal to teenagers/young adults and getting anime is cheaper. While the ratings for the last couple of weeks have been down, I don't think a major change like getting different genres would necessarily be a good solution.

by diehards i might the action junkies who don't want to see anything else. as for gxp, it wasn't unsuccessful because it was a harem comedy, it was unsuccessful because it was a bottom of the barrel harem comedy. if the dvds didn't sell so hot and tenchi fans didn't like it i don't know why they even considered putting it on tv. doing a bit of research beforehand into what series sold well or were viewed often on streaming services shouldn't be that difficult. if they simply pick cheap non action anime williy-nilly of course the results won't be good. the adult swim action block survived this long, so they can afford to take some calculated risks every once and awhile.

I don't recall them airing a lot of movies on Saturday nights. I only remember a couple of relatively short comic based animated movies airing on their Saturday nights.

it was mostly comic book related movies and the naruto and dbz films but they did air some repeats of them.

 

[Light Lucario]

Cohort,

that's the thing though, angry letters, online outcry and petitions aren't always indicative of poor performance. the public can't stop complaining about jersey shore, honey boo boo, the kardashins and other reality shlock but the ratings tell a different story. most of the time the people who criticize and make fun the are the same ones who help contribute to a hated programs popularity. they pretend their too cultured for that kind of stuff and want better fare but their glued to the screen just like everyone else.

Not everyone who complains about those kinds of shows are actually watching them, but this part is getting a bit off topic regardless.

by diehards i might the action junkies who don't want to see anything else. as for gxp, it wasn't unsuccessful because it was a harem comedy, it was unsuccessful because it was a bottom of the barrel harem comedy. if the dvds didn't sell so hot and tenchi fans didn't like it i don't know why they even considered putting it on tv. doing a bit of research beforehand into what series sold well or were viewed often on streaming services shouldn't be that difficult. if they simply pick cheap non action anime williy-nilly of course the results won't be good. the adult swim action block survived this long, so they can afford to take some calculated risks every once and awhile.

My guess as to why they got it was because it was something Tenchi related that they hadn't aired before, so it could be something new while appealing to nostalgia at the same time. On paper, it sounded like a good idea, but the show's quality itself really should have made them realize that this was not a show for Toonami. I'm not sure if a good harem comedy would have done significantly better on the block since people do generally expect action out of Toonami. While looking into DVD sales and what has been viewed a lot on streaming services sounds like a good idea, what shows they pick up generally depend on if they can afford them. Even though they have upgraded a lot since the block first started up again, they still don't have a large budget to play around with. That's why channels taking risks doesn't mean that Toonami should follow their examples since they have more money to take that risk. Toonami doesn't. Taking calculated risks every once in awhile sounds fine, but the shows they'll pick up are still going to be primarily action shows since that's what the block has been about since day one.

 

[DonkeyKongSong]

Yeah, even with the old Toonami, airing non-action shows like Hamtaro and to a lesser extent Hikaru no Go (though that was a Jetstream series) resulted in massive outcry from the fans (though we've recently learned Hamtaro on Toonami was a result of Cartoon Network's creative control over the block; that one TOM promo basically is them saying "We didn't want to air this! They made us!") I don't want Toonami to shy too far away from their action-based regime, and while Space Dandy is more of a comedy, it's not only a world-premiere series, but one by the creator of the series that basically put AS anime on the map.

 

[Mister Mayhem]

Not everyone who complains about those kinds of shows are actually watching them, but this part is getting a bit off topic regardless.

Cohort,

possibly some but most people will deny it just so they won't sound like a hypocrite or be categorized as one of the unwashed masses. won't go off topic again jeje.

My guess as to why they got it was because it was something Tenchi related that they hadn't aired before, so it could be something new while appealing to nostalgia at the same time. On paper, it sounded like a good idea, but the show's quality itself really should have made them realize that this was not a show for Toonami. I'm not sure if a good harem comedy would have done significantly better on the block since people do generally expect action out of Toonami. While looking into DVD sales and what has been viewed a lot on streaming services sounds like a good idea, what shows they pick up generally depend on if they can afford them. Even though they have upgraded a lot since the block first started up again, they still don't have a large budget to play around with. That's why channels taking risks doesn't mean that Toonami should follow their examples since they have more money to take that risk. Toonami doesn't. Taking calculated risks every once in awhile sounds fine, but the shows they'll pick up are still going to be primarily action shows since that's what the block has been about since day one.

there's bound to plenty of non action anime they can acquire without breaking the bank. they just gotta ask the licensors which ones. a lot of anime do cover multiple genres so its not like certain shows would be completely devoid of action scenes. no one's saying change the identity of the whole block but one or two series that break the mold wont kill anyone. there would still be plenty of hours dedicated to butt kicking, especially if an extension ever occurs down the line.

Yeah, even with the old Toonami, airing non-action shows like Hamtaro and to a lesser extent Hikaru no Go (though that was a Jetstream series) resulted in massive outcry from the fans (though we've recently learned Hamtaro on Toonami was a result of Cartoon Network's creative control over the block; that one TOM promo basically is them saying "We didn't want to air this! They made us!") I don't want Toonami to shy too far away from their action-based regime, and while Space Dandy is more of a comedy, it's not only a world-premiere series, but one by the creator of the series that basically put AS anime on the map.

hikaru no go and hamtaro were actually good for what they were so you know those people were hating for no good reason. i mean really, their so thirsty for spectacle they can't go an hour without seeing an explosion or fist fly? even the most hardcore stuff on toonami had the occasional episode that focused primarily on comedy or story progression and featured little to no action. i'm primarily an action anime fan myself but i can go a couple of minutes without seeing violence. action junkies need to chillax.