OwlChemist81

1. They don't have any genitalia at all, and 2. Even if they did, rubbing your dong in another man's face when he doesn't want it there is a clear sign of aggression!

You might be right. But Lupin would at least seem to be more comedy than action, something that was once considered an asset for an early show in the block (remember Space Dandy?) You could also argue (and rightfully so) that Super is equal parts silly, low-brained comedy and eye-popping action. I think Lupin would have bridged that gap well. Maybe not BE though.

You have a point. I made one reference to a "dumb" decision in the OP so I changed that to "questionable." It's not really insulting to use that Q word...

Well, it's been a hell of a first 5 months for Toonami, and not in a good way. There have been some bright spots but in terms of viewership compared to last year it's been mostly pure :poop:! How did we get here? Well, let's start at the beginning, or rather late last year. Everyone was losing their :poop: on December 7th over the announcement that Toonami had not only acquired the continuation to the wildly successful Dragon Ball Z Kai for the midnight slot, but had also acquired ITS continuation Dragon Ball Super to air at 11:30. Toonami was re-acquiring an earlier timeslot for the new Dragon Ball series, and everything seemed right with the world. Moreover, as Gundam IBO was panned for not including many combat elements, such as laser beams and beam sabers that made Gundam popular, fans were glad to learn that a Universal Century Gundam that contained these things was on its way. It seemed that the new year would usher in a brand new glorious era for Toonami and erase some of the shortcomings seen in the 4th Quarter of 2016. And then the year began with January, but not without one final wrinkle: the 11:30 DBS airings during Toonami would actually be same-night encores of a sparsely-advertised premiere at 8 PM. This had an effect which was probably obvious to everyone but Programming: despite the fact that the 11:30 airing was the "official" airing, those who watched the 8 PM airing and only wanted to see dubbed DBS wouldn't come back for the later airing if they only wanted to watch DBS, not everything else Toonami has to offer. This was merely exacerbated by a short-lived Samurai Jack Season 1 rerun beginning on January 14th which always failed to gain on its Super predecessor. And so it was that the block was only watched by 800K average through the month, a 12% decrease from last year despite the earlier start time. This pattern continued through February, though things began to be looking up. JoJo and Gundam, previously capable only of ratings in the 800Ks in 2017, managed to peak above 900K for the first time on 2/25/17, and Hunter x Hunter was able to cross 800K for the first time in 2017 that week as well. Nonetheless, Toonami's "sleeper" success was only slight since the block averaged 807K and was down from last year by 21%. News spread that Samurai Jack would premiere at 11 PM on 3/11/17, which looked like would augment that burgeoning success... However, the opposite happened. The night that Jack premiered on the 2nd week in March, JoJo, Gundam, and Hunter x Hunter all hit scary new lows. And it was obvious to probably everyone but Programming why: a more attractive viewing option was watching Super, [as] comedy reruns, then Jack, turning off the TV or changing the channel during the 2nd Super. And that's exactly what occurred, but there was one stalwart, embattled show on the other end of the block, the anchor show One Piece. And despite its flagging ratings, there was a general feeling that things would be OK as long as it remained. That was not meant to be, as it was announced on March 10th that it would leave the lineup and be replaced with Tokyo Ghoul. Not only that, but TG would premiere at 1, causing Gundam to fall to 2, and Shippuden to 2:30. This actually seemed like a decent move at first, especially because the ratings that night were the highest yet in 2017 -- 885K, and March average was a year-to-date high 842K, though still down 13% from last year. And then Rick and Morty happened on April 1st, temporarily and without warning shortening Toonami to its old 12-3:30 runtime, also delaying Samurai Jack and Dragon Ball Super for a week. Ratings that night were the 2nd lowest of the year to date, at 621K--more on that later. And it didn't recover from there. JoJo had a 2-part season conclusion out of nowhere with no on-air promotion, and even with Attack on Titan Season 2 joining the lineup at 12:30 AM, Toonami would only manage a 769K average across all its timeslots, another 13% decline from last year, the lowest to date in 2017 and also the lowest monthly average since the January 2015 lineup which included many later timeslots. Say what you want about Samurai Jack's "Gurren Lagann tribute" ending, but it actually set things somewhat right in May, although Attack on Titan was a severe disappointment, dropping 150K or more from its DBZ Kai lead-in (72K or more 18-49), and it's mindboggling that it didn't premiere further up in the lineup than 12:30, being a dub premiere. Perhaps if Kai were after it at 12:30, people would have stuck around to watch it? One smart move they made was the Samurai Jack marathon, which tied up the month nicely and for the first time in 2017 actually gained on its previous year's predecessor by 21%. This left us with an average of 807K in May, but yet another 13% decrease from last year for the month. And then June began, and one more questionable decision ensued, as Toonami persisted with reruns of Samurai Jack at 11 PM, leading to an hour of straight-up RERUNS kicking off Toonami. So far this kicked off the month of June with a worse average than it's gotten since 12/13/14, a mere 615K. And then last but not least, the 2015 reboot of Lupin the 3rd was announced for 6/17--AT 2 AM. Yes, a brand-spanking new dub premiere BURIED in the back of the block while an hour of RERUNS leads the block. Need I say more? Hopefully Toonami will turn it around in the 2nd half of the year. July 8th, after the Independence Day holiday, would be a good time to shuffle the schedule and give the newer shows a better chance to shine. Also, then Tokyo Ghoul will end its decent first season and go to its anime-original Root A 2nd season, so maybe it will get buried at 2 AM and give Hunter x Hunter and Lupin better timeslots? Also, SOMETHING will be replacing Attack on Titan on July 29th, and we can only hope it's something good. It's been a hell of a first half of the year, but I still have high hopes for the 2nd half!

Yes, but WHY is that the only other option? Why could they not show some backbone and USE the 11 PM timeslot for cable original programming? SOMETHING that would make a good lead-in to Dragon Ball Super--wait, I've got it--LUPIN! Or if not Lupin, then maybe gone after Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga? That would have done well at 11; instead, looks like it will wind up on Hulu. Point is, 11 should be a marquee timeslot for a fresh new show. Even if FLCL is coming, it's not like they couldn't play up a "mid-season finale" before FLCL interrupts!

It's back on the stream this week, and we've gone all the way back to the first 5 episodes (99-103 in the series as a whole), but for some reason the full OP has been cut from Episode 99, when it played in full on air, and I believe the last time they streamed. Why do they do that online when runtime doesn't matter??

DeMarco is NOT in charge of programming! He really has very little say in what timeslot programs end up in. He might be able to suggest a range though!

Personally, I don't mind it. There's a bunch of things I'd usually rather be doing at 10 PM on a Saturday than watching TV, and I don't watch the Family Guy rerun hour. That said, that is just me. Reruns other than Family Guy and other McFarlane shows have been proven lately to lose viewers, so it just would make more sense for a premiere to be directly following the Family Guy hour than 2 reruns. Hopefully they do shake it up somehow in July!

I was wondering that same thing! It would be funny if they did an entire episode of his most unhinged soundbites that ended with him getting impeached, but since his voice is dead, that might be in poor taste. I wonder if he'll die in the series? I guess we'll find out this fall. I do kinda like how South Park handled Isaac Hayes being fired with the Chef Vader thing but he hadn't died yet at that point! Anyway, this was quite an enjoyable episode. Nice to see some of the minor characters holding their own, not completely useless! What I wanna know is where in the hell did Goku and Vegeta go with Whis?

Well, at least it would start on July 8th. Maybe it will get a worse timeslot after a marathon break on July 1st? [we can only hope]

Showing the Lupin the 3rd promo during Samurai Jack was probably a good move--now why can't the show replace Jack!? Also, someone should CHANGE THE FOLDER BANNER accordingly. Samurai Jack is old news at this point!

It's called a "Teaser". They try to show you/tell you enough to make you want to watch the episode, but not enough to give anything huge away. I think they do a pretty good job myself. But I don't get why it didn't even play on TV until almost 3 in the morning. Why not right AFTER Attack on Titan ends? If they're going to bother with these topicals at all, they should directly follow the previous episode when they first premiere. Even more insulting is the fact that we got a freaking "OK KO" commercial (on CN) during Gundam Unicorn's finale rather than one of these!

Well, I guess we'll see what happens. It DOES indeed look like they'll most likely leave Jack at the top for the rest of June though. Maybe sanity will prevail somehow in July?

Well, they did actually fix it at some point, I found out right after Toonami went off the air on [as]. So at least it was right tonight and will be right tomorrow!

Good! I can hardly wait to see those in HD!

What's funny is I must admit I pissed my pants a little bit when I typed this... :it:

Pee on yourself. It's time for GITS!

Yeah, they retouched a lot of scenes for the TV version, so for all intents and purposes, the TV version should be superior, but somehow it is rarely considered as such. Maybe that's because the TV edits are somewhat awkward?

Why, to entertain us with its visual and musical wizardry, of course!! STORY: 7/10 ANIMATION: 11/10 MUSIC: 11/10

I'm really glad it kept the full ED!

Alright, quit frontin', Riddhe!

HAHAH!! Bright Noa saves the day!!! The TRUE hero of Gundam Unicorn!!!

I'll see that, and I'll raise you...

Yeah, here is the next week promo--appropriate!