"Toonami" News & Discussion Thread

[MadMan400096]

Q&A starts soon!

 

[GWOtaku]

Toonami Q&A tidbits. If anything more of note pops up in the last 10-12 minutes, I'll edit those in.

• The 5 AM hour cut doesn't impact Intruder 2 at all.
• On the schedule shrink: "We aren't super happy about it, but we don't really think it's a big deal, either."
• The cut also does not affect the block's budget or prospects for "surprises" this year.
• Intruder 2 on track for 2015, it's not known when it will run.
• The Toonami webcomic will come out with Intruder 2.
• They perceive their audience as split between newcomers and those who were fans during the days Toonami 1.0 on Cartoon Network, and they try to serve both groups.
• How Toonami chooses programming: "Our head of programming, Kim Manning, sits down with us and we look at lists of available shows and bring our ideas of any shows we don't currently have the rights to and want to research. Then it's a complex mix of how much the show costs, where the rights are, how quickly a deal can be made, if the show needs edits, etc."
• Subtitles will not be televised, ever. Seriously, if you're out there and asking this, stop. It is impossible and subbed anime are online E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E. There is a greater supply of this for the USA now than at any point in history.
• Deadman Wonderland probably won't be rerun anytime soon after it finishes again.
• Plans change, but Dragon Ball Z Kai will be at 11:30 for the "forseeable future"
• Not a surprise here...sports anime are a non-starter for the block.
• This is obvious but hey...as a general matter, comedy anime aren't considered a good fit for Toonami either. "Comedy is a very regional thing, for the most part, and we don't feel a lot of the humor would translate well to a general audience."
• Teen Titans is "not likely" for many legal reasons. The same goes for Justice League, the rights to air it are not available. And, alas, no Young Justice either.
• Also "not likely": the return of Death Note.
• Movie month did not do as well as they hoped in 2014. Another one in 2015 is possible, but unlikely.
• Most demanded shows at this time: Attack on Titan S2 (this isn't made yet!), Sword Art Online 2, Kill la Kill, Sailor Moon, "Anything Gundam"
• Toonami content & time investment: Lineup commercials and bumpers take a week or two to produce, game reviews are the fastest thing for them to make. Music videos take the most time and effort - several weeks, sometimes longer.
• On Kill la Kill and edits: "We will, as always, edit as little as humanly possible. But yes, KLK is likely to have an edit or two, as Hellsing did, and Deadman Wonderland did."
• It's "pretty likely" the Toonami crew will be at Momocon again.
• Attack on Titan and DBZ Kai are considered their most well received shows in 2014.
• Williams Street has nothing to do with Toonami-branded blocks in other countries.
• Edited openings are usually made by the distributors of the show. The length of them depends on how the math works for commercial time.
• DVR recordings are typically recorded in Nielsen ratings if viewed within 3 days.
• Apparently the rights to televise Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods were "not available".
• For DBZ Movie 8, they didn't run the Faulconer soundtrack because of rights issues and that was FUNimation's domain...but they hated it anyway. Heh.

 

[MadMan400096]

Highlights:

• The shortened schedule will have no effect on Intruder 2.
• No set date for Intruder 2.
• 5 episodes of Bleach were skipped for contract reasons.
• Several shows were wanted by Toonami but couldn't be gotten.
• Akame ga Kill is the most requested Sentai Filmworks show.
• Kai will stay at 11:30 for the time being.
• No chance of Transformers: Prime. (Or any prior TF series, for that matter)
• Unsurprisingly, no sports anime.
• They'll announce Feb. 7th when they finalize it.
• Jason DeMarco, apparently, is well-endowed.
• Legal reasons won't let them get OG Teen Titans.
• Most wanted shows include new seasons of AoT and SAO, Sailor Moon and any Gundam show.
• Kill la Kill will likely get some minor edits.
• Death Note is unlikely.
• The Toonami crew watches and enjoys Gundam Build Fighters.
• Toonami at MomoCon is likely.
• AoT and DBZ Kai were last year's best-received shows.
• Not enough moolah for more Deadman Wonderland a la The Big O.
• People are idiots.
• The Toonami crew know nothing about AoT season 2.
• No voting.
• No Toonami outside ot Saturday.
• They can't get Justice League or any big superhero shows.
• They love Utena.
• Turner bans donations to Toonami.
• The SM requests mean Crystal.
• No current plans for Gundam.
• Toonami needs to put "no subs" on the FAQ.
• Movie Month #3 is unlikely this year.
• As much as they love Steven Universe, they don't think it'd work on Toonami if CN were to dump it.
• No plans for the whole 11p hour.
• They're game for girlier anime with heavy action.
• Kill la Kill still starts on 2/7.
• The rights to Battle of Gods weren't available during planning for the Month of Movies.
• Moltar's never coming back.
• They find troll questions fun to answer, surprisingly enough.
• "No subs" will now be an official part of the FAQ. You're welcome.
• The relative lack if comedy anime on TV is because cultural differences in humor.
• They're still interested in dark shows.
• The deal with Sling TV is uncertain.

 

[BrianLeague]

Also:
- It is possible to regain the 5am hour.
- They believe Attack on Titan reruns starting off the block hurt more than helped.

 

[Thepowerofnone]

They believe Attack on Titan reruns starting off the block hurt more than helped.

Like I said before, Attack on Titan reruns to start the block wasn't a good idea.

 

[TheCtes]

Fun fact: As of this weekend, Ghost in the Shell has finally aired all episodes of both seasons of Toonami. Next weekend is the episode that was on Toonami's opening night in 2012.

 

[Light Lucario]

I'm glad that losing the hour doesn't affect their budget or whatever surprises they have planned. It's also good to hear that it's certainly possible for them to regain that hour back. If the ratings are more consistently good, then that could allow for them to get the hour back at some point. Shame that the month of movies didn't do well for them, but I can't say that I'm surprised. The ratings weren't that good aside from the DBZ movie if I recall correctly. Plus, compared to the previous month of movies, I thought that it was pretty lackluster. It's great that they were able to get the last two Hellsing Ultimate episodes after all, but unless you were already interested in that show, seeing that at the start of the block wouldn't be too appealing and that would make it less likely for people to stick around for the movie following those episodes. Besides, they only aired two new movies while everything else had already aired in the past. A part of me hopes that they are able to air another month of movies this year with a better selection, but I don't think I'd be too heartbroken if they didn't either.

It's too bad that they can't air Justice League or the original Teen Titans, but I'm not surprised about that either. I'm also glad that they clarified that the requests for Sailor Moon were for Crystal. It's still probably going to be awhile before they can air that when it's still airing in Japan and Viz Media probably hasn't started working on its dub, especially when they still have the redub of the original series to work on and there's probably a higher demand for that to get done first. The only reason I'm surprised about Death Note being unlikely was because I thought that they were considering it after another Q&A session or a convention, but I'm fine with that.

As for Attack on Titan, I can still understand why they decided to put it at the start of the block and I don't think it was a bad idea per say. Attack on Titan, along with DBZ: Kai, was one of the best received shows of the year and the ratings it got for that Labor Day marathon were insanely good. They probably figured that it would still do well in spite of being reruns because of how successful it was, which makes sense. It became clear later on that it wasn't going to work out as well as they had hoped for unfortunately. No surprised that they want DBZ Kai starting off the block for the time being since it is technically new to the block and the audience does seem to want DBZ.

 

[veemonjosh]

Fun fact: As of this weekend, Ghost in the Shell has finally aired all episodes of both seasons of Toonami. Next weekend is the episode that was on Toonami's opening night in 2012.

I was actually wondering about that. Now I definitely see GitS as the show being kicked off to make room for Kill la Kill.

 

[MDawg]

It seems like there's enough DC movies to have in the month of movies if they did it again. I'm guessing they're too cost-prohibitive or some other issue is holding that up (God forbid WB wants more people to see them).

 

[Daikun]

Glad to hear they dropped the possibility of Death Note. It wouldn't have made much sense on the block.

By the way, did anyone ask whether they'll air the Deadman Wonderland OVA?

 

[MadMan400096]

Glad to hear they dropped the possibility of Death Note. It wouldn't have made much sense on the block.

By the way, did anyone ask whether they'll air the Deadman Wonderland OVA?

Nobody did. I guess it didn't cross their minds.

 

[zoombie]

Airing reruns of Attack On Titan, hope they learned their lesson once you see something, reruns are reruns no mater how great they are.

Perhaps now they will air Fairy Tail which won't have the same problem that AoT had.

 

[The Man in Black]

I doubt that we wil see the Deadman OVA. This Deadman rerun seems like it was a potential "free-bie" since they already had the materials to air it, or something. Or at the very least probably at quite the discounted rate.

 

[Rynnec]

Airing reruns of Attack On Titan, hope they learned their lesson once you see something, reruns are reruns no mater how great they are.

Perhaps now they will air Fairy Tail which won't have the same problem that AoT had.

Yep. Fairy Tail sure wouldn't have the same problem AoT had. It'd just be yet another overly long 100+ episode shounen that would clog up even more of the schedule and prevent more acquisitions.

Seriously, long-running 100+ shows are the last thing Toonami needs to pick up right now.

 

[Light Lucario]

Yep. Fairy Tail sure wouldn't have the same problem AoT had. It'd just be yet another overly long 100+ episode shounen that would clog up even more of the schedule and prevent more acquisitions.

Seriously, long-running 100+ shows are the last thing Toonami needs to pick up.

I agree. While I like Fairy Tail, I don't want to see Toonami picking up yet another long running series. They already have four of them on the lineup right now, including the Bleach reruns. They don't need to make it five. That's one reason why I'm glad that the requests for Sailor Moon were for Crystal instead of the original series. Even though it won't be ready to air for quite some time, Crystal would be better due to not being two hundred episodes long.

 

[Zipp_Rezzeppa]

These Q&A's are always entertaining to skim through. Sometimes I wonder how many people asking questions actually watch Toonami.

 

[PapaGreg]

These Q&A's are always entertaining to skim through. Sometimes I wonder how many people asking questions actually watch Toonami.

I think that they do but they want Toonami to do better because the current lineup is kindve weak right now and the rehashing of movies from December didn't help

 

[Light Lucario]

I think that they do but they want Toonami to do better because the current lineup is kindve weak right now and the rehashing of movies from December didn't help

The lineup is pretty lackluster right now. The Toonami crew are doing the best they can with the budget they have and the budget might have been one reason why they re-aired movies during December, so I don't think that the lackluster schedule is their fault. It's more like they're just few shows that I actively watch and like compared to previous lineups.

 

[Zipp_Rezzeppa]

I was thinking more along the lines of some of the questions that could literally be answered if someone even knew what the current lineup was, let alone the current state of said lineup.

 

[The Man in Black]

I don't really see how the line-up is lackluster.