Jman

Sky High was also a box office failure. It’s one of those films people would rather forget. I’m admittedly hoping this gets lost in Development Hell. I mean, Naruto’s had a director since 2018 and nothing.

This will be his international film debut...if it ever gets made.

Honest to God answer? Because a lot of times it doesn't feel like the kids shows are actually being made for kids. It feels like they're being made for 20somethings who watch them to feel validated about something? And it's kind of disturbing. I've gone off on Infinity Train repeatedly in this thread and how it deserved to be cancelled (and apparently was because kids weren't watching) but while there are some token jokes for kids, most of it feels like it's about the writer working through something traumatic including an interview one of their cancelled seasons was going to be about someone going through Alzheimer's. You seriously wonder why you got cancelled? The second admitted reason is because following ratings data on streaming services that aren't obligated to give it out is a pain in the ass and a half and that means I have to go to other means to see if the core audience is invested in it. Merchandise, the willingness of the primary audience to invest in the show, can be a fairly reliable metric when all else is absent. That's actually what made me find out just how unpopular Voltron Legendary Defender was with its primary audience, when Playmates out and out declared "no one buys the toys, no one cares". So you have all these unsuccessful shows, and you hear "new management" and you think, at the very least, we'll see something different. But apparently we're just going to get more of the same.

..No. We're more likely to get live-action movies back on Toonami. Of course, given that anime is the next frontier for live-action films now that all the good comics have been adapted, (case in point, Saint Seiya is apparently being filmed in Budapest as we speak), who knows?

The box office results clearly show that the Nielsen’s don’t work. I still remember once upon a time when it was rumored FX wanted to put AOT after Archer.

Steven Universe merchandise was such a spectacular failure most of it was marked at clearance by Season 2. Even if you like the show, which is fine if you do, the idea of something different would have been fun to see. Besides, I don’t have the vitriol for Steven that I do for Infinity Train or…The Owl House (not CN, but really the worst example of modern “action” cartoons.)

Apparently DeMarco is a big Steven Universe fan. DeMarco’s shit taste remains shit and I was delusional to think Western animators would do anything unique. Maybe the Europeans, but not the US. My fault for smoking the Hopium.

It’s the latter that worries me, particularly the aforementioned genre of “JESUS CHRIST SEE A THERAPIST, STOP TRYING TO PROJECT YOUR TRAUMA ABOUT NOT GOING TO PROM ON A KIDS SHOW” cartoons masquerading as action cartoons. DeMarco is old school as hell, but actually finding writers out there who will write the premises he wants and not stuff that either he disagrees with or he knows won’t sell a single dollar of merch (Oh hai Infinity Train) is a tougher task. The alternative is to pull yet more franchises out of mothballs and there’s only so many left. Would anyone be down for DeMarco heading a remake of Centurions? And yeah, I’m posting a lot of stuff Warner has the rights to just to poke around at what could be remade that hasn’t already.

So, yeah, original cartoons and anime. Who’s paying for it? And who’s writing it?

When there’s more money to go around, the people who generate it should be entitled to some of the wealth. Simple economics from an idealist perspective. Given what anime is generating in profits, the answer is “yes.”

We do shit on DeMarco here a lot, probably a bit too much sometimes, so I’ll say something nice. If he is genuine about what he wants to do, and I see no reason why he wouldn’t be, we could potentially see the end of “action cartoons” that boil down to “JESUS CHRIST SEE A THERAPIST, NO ONE WANTS TO WATCH A SHOW WHERE YOU RELIEVE YOUR TRAUMA OVER NOT GOING TO PROM”. (The fact that multiple shows fit that description shows how utterly sad the Western animation industry can be). In their place, we could see more genuine action cartoons, which in the West tend to be either DC comics stuff, (although Marvel threw their hat into the ring with What If?) or desperately trying to prove they’re anime. Going beyond that would be quite welcome. The problem is stemming from where are the ideas going to come from? Original ideas from Western writers is…yeah, and there’s only so many properties Warner has access to that actually fit the bill. What is he going to remake, Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers? Still, given his long career, I see no reason DeMarco won’t be able to produce something with at the very least, a quality premise. It’s all the other intangibles that worry me, stuff that he wouldn’t have direct influence over.

I've said it before and I stand by it, that because [adult swim] was in a very unique position as the only major long term anime block in the US despite a few competitors that have come and gone, and with that came a very, VERY smug attitude. "We decide what you watch, we decide when it airs, and you're a dumb weeb." It's why "DeMarco's shit taste" is a meme around here, and why the man seems to completely despise streaming services, because they destroyed his powerbase and grip on that subculture.

Anime fans have always had a victim complex of sorts. Late 90s/early 2000s, you kind of get it. Today it just feels…needlessly reductive. That despite being a multi billion dollar industry it’s as fragile as a Faberge egg and the people making money off it secretly despise it and want to destroy it with boring, milquetoast garbage. It’s 2021. I said it in another thread, the days of Shaman King edited to hell for Saturday mornings have been replaced by uncensored streaming in both English and Japanese.

I’m more wondering what DeMarco has to work with now that CR is gone. Is it going to be all originals? With what money? Is he going to dig into the Hanna Barbera license chest? Is he going to make a Sky Commanders anime?

Netflix is the one that loves the bigass robots (yeah they made Voltron but we forgive them. Somewhat). If anyone makes Exaxxion it will be them. I could see DeMarco try to make Bean Bandit a thing.

Update from DeMarco’s Twitter - He’s promising “real anime”, which is definitely shade at their departing friends at CR.

He's a king without a kingdom.

Then - Saturday morning, edited to heck, US theme song. Now - Streaming uncensored, both languages the click of a button. A lot changes in 15 years, huh?

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2021/08/09/crunchyroll-now-joining-funimation-global-group?utm_source=community_cr&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=news_en&referrer=community_cr_twitter_news The merger is official. And with the merger comes companies struggling for a piece of the pie. The problem is, where does Toonami get shows from with most of the anime on lockdown from two big companies that don't want to share?

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2021/08/09/crunchyroll-now-joining-funimation-global-group?utm_source=community_cr&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=news_en&referrer=community_cr_twitter_news Anime in the US is now a two company war. On one side, the new CR/FUNimation conglomerate, on the other side, Netflix and its endless cash reserves and desire to greenlight just about anything.

JoJo traditionally did very poorly on Toonami while it actually has done considerable business for Netflix. They took a slight dip in the pool with commissioning the Kishibe Rohan spinoff, but here it looks like the middleman has been cut out.

A month’s subscription is cheaper than tickets for those movies at the theater.

Simulcasts for manga. And a way to circumvent delays.

The only reason DeMarco got JoJo was to keep it off Netflix. And it did middling ratings on Toonami but was very successful on Netflix. So it makes sense.