Toonamiguy321

They will either cut the rerun that night, or somehow get Yashahime sped up by a week so there is a blank slot the finale can take over then they can refresh 2 slots the following week.

This is a change in tactics I hope they consider. I know they are their main focus, but insisting the originals lead has really held them all back. Seeing Primal pull consistent numbers for 20 straight weeks, then HCC crashing into the dirt, followed by MHA reruns recovering immediately shows a pretty clear issue trying to lead with those shows. Admittedly, they didn’t have alternatives in October, but when they do have a solid shonen anchor show on hand, originals should follow it up at 12:30. I do wish we could keep one slot for a show that isn’t the normal block vibe. MiA kinda fits that role right now, but my expectations for its replacement are a return to the norm. As for the movie, there’s no sense chasing it anymore. They have already spoiled it with S2, as well as told fans to go out and watch it on their own. If they did get it, it would just be a repeat of the end of Hellsing where people don’t bother to watch it since Demarco told them to pirate it instead.

We have 2 regular nights of Toonami, plus our typical 2 weeks of holiday marathons and then we are turning the page into 2023. This year has been quite the rollercoaster for the block, we hit the ground running with a new show announcement the very first day of 2022, then we had a couple more not long after. Things slowed down for us quite a bit after that, but we managed to end on a high note with MHA S6. So what is everyone expecting from the block in 2023? With the market calm, and a small gesture from CR that they may be more cooperative in the future, the future looks a little less unstable. Here’s what we know we are getting. 1. FLCL Shoegaze (6 episodes) 2. FLCL Grunge (6 episodes) 3. Ninja Kamui (6 episodes) 4. Uzumaki (4 episodes) 5. Attack on Titan Final Season That still leaves space for a few more pickups, not a ton since we are only juggling 6 slots, 2 of which are eternally spoken for, but there is space. And a second question, is there anything in particular that you would like to see the block pick up, even if there is no evidence or precedent that it could come? The block really dropped the ball on fresh blood this year, the only new franchise among the acquired shows this year was Made in Abyss. That doesn’t mean next year can’t be different though. We are going to see both Yashahime and MiA S2 leave the block in February, and there aren’t any obvious sequel choices I see them aiming for currently. Even if we see one of the above originals get started early in the year, that’s still one slot for some potential fresh blood.

It’s been so many years now, it’s extremely difficult to envision CN going back an older demo. But, they do have the framework to do so. Cartoonito - this covers the early weekday morning preschool demo. I don’t know much, nor do I really care about preschool content, however it seems after a rocky start, this little block has found some solid footing. Cartoon Network - This has been the biggest problem area for the channel for about a decade now. Ignoring their programming diversity issues, they have cut their target demo to about 5-10 max. As the article states, things like Adventure Time had a more broad appeal up to teenagers and even young adults. 2010 was a big year for CN where they felt like they were trying to pivot hard to appeal to teenagers. Adult Swim - It’s had problems, but has also been pretty consistent in remembering who it’s loyal audience was. Aside from Toonami hours, I have never felt like AS wasn’t aiming at its intended demo. So what it sounds like they want to do is transform CN to a more broad appeal among ages. Actually materializing that goal is another matter, especially with how long CN has had its current reputation. Are they going to just throw hail Mary’s with original shows and hope they work out? Start up a classics block similar to the anniversary one? Air anime? They have stated their goal, it just feels unachievable. As for AS, while I don’t feel like it’s having an identity crisis, I do feel it’s having a content crisis. Countless shows have been cancelled this year, and I firmly believe some of the ones that haven’t been is through luck that they already had S2s greenlit before the cuts started. Excluding sequels and anime projects there is only ONE new show we have been told about this entire year, Royal Crackers. We are hearing them say they want more adult animation, but the nearly empty slate for AS original shows tells a different story. Id love to see change, especially on the CN side, but this is a pretty huge undertaking they are talking about.

I don’t think our boy Zaslav is the answer to this one. Promos outside of Toonami stopped when they started Yashahime S2. Since then, AS has walked back some controversial changes like speeding up intros and entire shows. There was even a brief internal rebellion phase where some madman was running super long bumpers EVERY break. AS has also been struggling to fill their ad time, so it’s not like they don’t have the room now and then. That one HIV medication that has active lawsuits for killing people won’t be any worse off if it airs one less time per night, and I doubt they are paying AS much for that time anyway. Not promoting the block at all furthers the concerns that it’s a bottom tier priority, on top of the simple fact it makes it perform worse, at least in regards to brand new content. MHA S6 was their biggest score of 2022, but it feels like half the audience doesn’t even know it happened.

Perhaps not explicitly not allowing it, but holding the deal up till the week it needed to go on the air could be viewed as an indirect way of limiting promotion. Can’t make a promo without the material, and we had just come off a holiday weekend. Even if they aired it, that was only 4 possible days of exposure. Aside from Housing Complex C, AS hasn’t been airing ANY of the Toonami promos outside of Toonami except the generic 12-3 one. Which at this point is omitting 2 shows entirely. Those weekly topicals for MiA/MHA they make every week? Never seen again after airing right after the prior episode. The only place they appear is on Facebook. I have no idea why they can’t sacrifice even a single commercial slot across the span of 6 days to give those promos more exposure. It makes you wonder why they even make them at all if they aren’t being used.

Any other week, numbers like that would barely get a show to crack the top 50. Really shows how down cable is if that’s enough to get #14. I think we will see MHA grow further in the coming weeks, as I’m sure many people didn’t even know it started S6 since it got basically zero promotion. Word of mouth should start to spread.

Maybe not any price, but with all the cuts and penny pinching this year, they may have been able to reach the new, higher price that seemed unreachable earlier in the year. They blew a huge wad in January out of necessity since the last 4 months of 2021 were such a drought, but after that they got much more conservative with their spending. Hopefully with a more compact block going into 2023, we will have a steady stream of content through the entire year. Once they handle Yashahime and MiA, it will be late spring before the schedule needs to change again. And we know AoT is coming, so that’s one slot taken care of already.

That’s not surprising, it was only on AS for a brief period, and when they cancelled it they completely scrubbed its existence. So if you missed that small window of time it was on you would never know about it.

I doubt they have the resources necessary to do topicals for 2 shows. Plus, they are kinda pointless now that they never air them outside of Toonami hours. I haven’t seen this promo air yet but I haven’t watched a full night of AS yesterday or tonight.

Bye bye to it’s chances of being on Toonami. I don’t think it’s going to stop being made entirely. It’s not like the block had a good working partnership with DC anyway. They gave us 4-6 movies per year at best, to be aired at a time rarely convenient for Toonami.

It was many years ago and likely no longer relevant with all the market shifts, but someone asked Sentai directly if they would put Princess Principal on Toonami, and they said they would if Toonami could be convinced to take it. A shame it never happened because it’s a great series, though I do fear the average viewer would be thrown for a loop with the first episode. Anyway, you never know, their offer may still stand if enough people request the show.

I’m glad Ballmasterz will at least have a chance at a more definitive conclusion. So many shows this year have just been cancelled and written off without a word. I was highly doubtful it could get an entirely new season, so this is a good compromise between that and just abrupt cancellation.

Oh definitely, if you told me to program the block with the Sentai catalog, I could have it taken care of in 10 minutes. But I was looking at it from a Toonami POV, and in recent years they have really struggled with giving anything a chance. That’s why I was surprised MiA made it on, because it’s way outside of their norm. That’s also why it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what in their catalog they may be looking at. Are they looking for things that are hits like Danmachi? Or are they looking at things on the backlog request list like Ushio and Tora? Not really sure where they set the age cutoff these days besides “be in HD”.

I kind of assumed something like this was the case in recent months. It’s not like Demarco has ever been 24/7 Toonami online, but recently he has seemed kind of distant from everything. Anyway, looking at Viz, I think we can all agree their eyes are on Bleach. Nothing else from Viz really seems like something they would go for. Sentai though? I can’t really make any type of guess at which show they may be looking at. MiA certainly wasn’t a show I expected from them either. There’s always the lingering S5 of Food Wars. Any other thoughts?

Interesting. Still though, not going to increase my hopes and expectations just yet until we see further evidence of CR changing their ways. “Believe” and “hope” mean nothing is for sure yet. And Demarco says right there, we will see. Looking at it from a more optimistic standpoint, let’s say CR really does change their ways. Will that only apply to shows Toonami has had a stake in in the past (MHA, Fire Force, Dr Stone etc) or would CR be more willing to crack open their entire catalog? Demarco did say a few years ago they were interested in things like Konosuba, so is that something that would be possible? And this is why I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself before we have a better gauge of where CR actually stands, because it may be raising expectations to an unattainable level. For now, I’m just glad we got something. If CR doesn’t change, well, that’s a problem for 6 months from now.

For now, we should just be happy that any Crunchyroll show at all was able to sneak on to the block. I don’t see this as a sign that AS is now best buds with CR, but instead AS pulled the wool of their eyes and snatched this while they were distracted. Knowing their mindset right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are already consulting their legal team on how they can make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Well they certainly made us sweat, but they pulled it off. That’s a very healthy lead in for the next 6 months or so. Sony absolutely fuming right now.

If they don’t have anything again this week, I don’t think they will double dip on a marathon again. We already have 2 guaranteed marathons in December, any more will really get people worried. Not sure what they would cover the slot with though. They already advertised MiA for 12:30, so nothing can really double up to cover the time. That said, they had no issue backing out on MiA last week so it could happen again. We got the marathon reveal early Monday, so hopefully the same will apply for this schedule change.

But Demarco and co. know well ahead of time when shows will be finished airing. Demarco even said we wouldn't have a repeat of what happened last year with not having shows lined up. Yet they got caught with their pants down again. So unprofessional and incompetent. Unfortunately, they can’t get out of their own way. They easily could have tapped Viz and Sentai for some easy, lower cost pickups, the singular tradeoff being they aren’t the top shelf titles of the season. But instead, they would rather dump all their eggs into one basket and attempt to throw the basket at a very small chance to secure ONE of their former shonen mainstays. If we do land S6, that’s great. I’m not taking away from that fact, and it will do wonders for the midnight slot. But let’s not ignore the sacrifices required to secure that one show (if we even get it) 1. One hour of the block gone 2. Lost one premier slot 3. Months long stretch of schedule uncertainty 4. Arguably some sacrifices earlier in the year, such as leading with Primal reruns for 20 weeks, were made to pay for a big ticket pickup. And I will reiterate, that’s if we even get the show. Because right now, the only thing confirmed for next weeks block is MiA airing at 12:30. And we all saw how quickly that promise went out the window earlier this week.

Toonami also almost never debuts a promo on the block itself, but rather on Facebook. You should know this!! All delays except Christmas and New Years have been proven to be entirely pointless. It’s not about ratings anymore, it’s about stalling for time because whatever they are working on for midnight isn’t done.

As much as they don’t want to admit it, they likely know as well as we do that very few people actually care about marathon nights. It’s wasted effort to promote it this late. Plus, the last on air info was MiA airing at 12:30. That might trick a few unsuspecting people who would normally skip to tune in for a slot or two before they realize they got duped. Now, the real concerning thing is it seems like the December 3 schedule isn’t going to get a promo tomorrow. So once again, we are left wondering if they have even secured anything for midnight.

It’s funny to see “web dub pirations” as a concern, in what I believe was 07-08. It wasn’t easy to pirate stuff back then, especially not in a quality worth watching. I do miss the era of AS tsundere anime block where they act like it’s an abhorrent waste of money and effort yet they continue to buy stuff for it anyway. I swear every other bump about DRRR! was about how terrible it’s ratings were and wishing they could cancel it. Yet they even aired the OVA episode after all that hemming and hawing

Wasnt he signaling some time last year that he wanted to step down, but then got talked back into it? He has earned this. If you ever needed to find a promo or special, all you had to do was find Caboose’s channel. He did a meticulous job. Seems like the Toonami Digital Arsenal was never able to recover from its issues which no doubt made this job harder.

For the first 8 or so years of the revival, they had the elite squad of monkeys in charge of Toonami. The ones that got the good bananas. There were never periods of confusion or want for clarification. They kept the fans informed of every change well ahead of time. It’s only in recent years that nearly every slight change to the schedule throws the entire block under a shroud of mystery until less than a week before it airs. Back in October is felt like a brief return to form when they announced all October plans at the start of the month, but that quickly faded. Everyone expected a MHA S5 marathon. It was by far the number one prediction, one people were making back when the rerun was first announced for only being 3 episodes. We didn’t need it hidden like this till 6 days before the block aired. At least back during ASA, they were pretty explicit that they didn’t give a shit about their anime block. It made it kind of funny when they would announce a show for a crap timeslot and immediately follow up that they expect it to do terrible. Now it feels like they just don’t care.