OwlChemist81

Gotta be a bigger bad to be the big bad of Season 2! Probably that damn Diamond Kingdom!

Well, all good things come to an end. Last Saturday night, UFC 235 happened, and its overwhelming media buzz pretty much brought Toonami's momentum to a standstill, BUT some shows still trended: http://toonamifaithful.com/toonami-trending-rundown-for-march-2-3-2019/ United States Trends: #Toonami [#10] #MegaloBox [#11] #JoJosBizarreAdventure [#10] So, #HunterXHunter's trending streak finally comes to an end. It lasted 11 weeks. But at least that's 9 rounds out of 10 that #MegaloBox has trended in the U.S.! And a bot also reported that #DragonBallSuper and #SwordArtOnline trended in the U.S., but no screencaps were taken.

Plus, at least theoretically, they could paint "Idiot" across all the faces on Mount Rushmore...

Well, I say, that's pretty interesting! Why don't we compare it with the official genre lists on Anime News Network, since I am kind of an "ANN Loyalist": Dragon Ball Super: Genres: action, fantasy, science fiction Themes: aliens, developing powers, fighting, martial arts, superheros Boruto: NOTHING, but for the Boruto movie, we have this: Genres: action Themes: ninja My Hero Academia (Note: Article is Season 1): Genres: action, comedy, drama, science fiction Themes: developing powers, growing up pains, school life, special abilities, superheroes, superpowers Sword Art Online: Alicization: Genres: action, drama, fantasy, science fiction Themes (from SAO Ordinal Scale): augmented reality, MMORPG, survival game, swordplay, virtual reality Megalobox: Genres: drama, science fiction, tournament Themes: boxing, future, sports JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable: Genres: action, supernatural Black Clover: Genres: action, comedy, fantasy Hunter X Hunter: Genres: adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy, tournament Themes: bounty hunters, coming-of-age, developing powers, gore, organized crime, special abilities, survival game Naruto Shippuden: Genres: action, drama Themes: evil organization, fighting, ninja, powerful creatures, revenge, war Attack On Titan: Genres: action, drama, fantasy, horror, psychological, thriller Themes: Dystopia, military, post-apocalyptic, shapeshifting, superpowers, titans/giants, tragedy Hmmm, both 5/10! So I guess the lineup could be considered to be "half-fantasy", though why the Naruto franchise isn't considered fantasy is beyond me. And just in case you were wondering, as for the other shows that have left the lineup so far in 2019 (for whatever reason): Mob Psycho 100 - Genres: action, comedy, supernatural; Themes: espers, special abilities, superpowers Pop Team Epic - Genres: comedy; Themes: absurdity, parody, sketch comedy Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (Season 2) - Genres: action, drama, science fiction; Themes: mecha, military, politics, space, war

Why South Dakota? Because Colorado seems like it's more up their alley! Except of course for Toonami. Relocate that to Texas because that's where most of the VA's live!

How about Star Blazers 2199/2202?? You want quality, that show has it in spades! It's a TV remix of a Theatrical Movie series, for goodness sake!

This may be helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy I guess JoJo doesn't really fit into the "fantasy" sub-genre either, but since it takes place in 1999, it also CAN'T be sci-fi. It may have been when it was written, but in modern day it feels more like "historical fiction", though a bow and arrow that causes people to be able to control their life energy in super-powered ways is certainly a fantasy concept. I guess that's the wonderful thing about JoJo: it really doesn't fit nicely into any sub-genre. As for SAO, though improbable that we will ever reach that level of sophistication by the 2020's with virtual reality at this point, it is currently sci-fi. However, yes, the VR worlds have an abject fantasy overtone. In time (well beyond its airing on Toonami), it may be seen as "historical fiction" as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Is_Unbreakable This confirms that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4 was written in 1992-1995. Therefore, indeed a story set in 1999 was at the time post-modern science fiction. But nowadays with the anime and its Toonami run, it can only be considered "historical fiction," and of course we also have a wonderful song from the period used as its ending theme!

2019 seems to be the year of the Fantasy sub-genre on Toonami--but is it too much? Let's examine: Dragon Ball Super - Martial arts multiverse fantasy/sci-fi Boruto - Modern-day-esque ninja society fantasy My Hero Academia - Superhero sci-fi/fantasy Sword Art Online - VR Sci-Fi...with fantasy overtones MegaloBox - Sports/political sci-fi JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Super-ability horror fantasy Black Clover - Magic-based fantasy Hunter x Hunter - (currently) …chimera ant fantasy?? Shippuden - Slightly less modern-day ninja society fantasy Attack on Titan - apocalyptic dark fantasy The only show missing fantasy overtones is Megalobox--and that's only got 3 episodes left. Since Pop Team Epic and Gundam IBO left the block, it's been lacking a lot of variety. It is quite easy to argue that it's taking more of a fantasy bent these days than ever before, though the first half is quite well-laced with sci-fi as well (yes, I have to give it to DBS since the multiverse is kind of a sci-fi concept).

Probably not much, really. It seems like the WarnerMedia mission statement is very much in tune with the network's current direction. It might even mean MORE programming like Toonami and less like Tropical Cop Tales...

The 4 Kids version!? Give me a break. Then again, it IS also mostly true that once the FUNimation version got yanked off Toonami in 2017, ratings fell and still haven't quite recovered.

But back to Boruto: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/boruto-naruto-next-generations/episode-20/.120208 Grade: "B+". I'd say it was a good episode, and I'm really looking forward to more from Sasuke and his daughter Sarada!

What the hell makes you think Toonami was a "zeitgeist" in 2005!? I'd say more like 2000-2003. I guess the "zeitgeist" was kinda still going in 2005, but by then it was old hat and not even on weekdays anymore. Or maybe you meant 2015, arguably Toonami on [as]'s ratings heyday? Either way your argument has more fail than Trump's latest visit to North Korea!

Yeah, except for dozing off for a few minutes during Shippuden, I made the 5-hour challenge tonight!!

Next episode!!

Yeah, back then we'd have never guessed the Colossal Titan's name was really Bert Hoover!

I didn't think much of it at the time, but it turned out to be REALLY important! Silly kiddie skirmishes compared to what we see later on!

Yeah, you noticed Keith too! I forgot he had these lines in this episode!

It only happened once, when Space Dandy premiered at 11:30 before an AOT marathon. Bleach was usually at midnight (forgot about it?)

Actually, that never happened. Bleach was always between them! Hannes. Missed him.

These promos were actually a re-imaginging of the old Fall '03 Old English Toonami branding! Yeah, of course they cut the OP. You'd think they could let it play all the way through the first time, but I guess no such luck!

It's on!! Wow, can't believe they didn't change the bumpers from Season 3...oh wait, yes I can! This episode is SOOOO ICONIC!

I think it's designed to wake your ass up!

Yeah, and I made a mistake in the episode title. It's actually "Flash x and x Start!"

Wasn't it more like 6 episodes?

That was a pretty damn good episode! But there is no review this week, as for some reason Episodes 59 and 60 were together... ON to Hunter x Hunter!