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Eh... it's maybe in the top 10 original anime of 2024 which is admittedly pretty good but it says more that so many anime originals aren't particularly good.

One Piece animation has become consistently impressive since Wano it’s absurd to say otherwise. Animation doesn’t save the pacing of Wano but Egghead has been quite good. Well worth the win against the weakest arc of Demon Slayer that was supposedly a bit heavy on filler despite running the equivalence of 11 eps. There’s no accounting for taste… especially in Ninja Kamui’s case this instance. The other 5 original anime nominations were barely noticed by comparison but at least 3 were much better and I doubt any of them were worse than Kamui. So ironic that CR acknowledges Toonami’s original anime they had no involvement in but maybe because Aniplex has the rights in Japan there was a little push to recognize Kamui. No doubt Lazarus will be nominated next year. Imagine the gloating DeMarco would be doing on social media right now if he was still on there.

Seems like HBO Max will be mostly HBO and DC films/shows with a dash of Adult Swim (and other adult animation), a dash of Discovery shows and some things acquired or made specifically for the service. There will probably be a kids (and family) section but it's gonna be mostly movies but the Boomerang section is out and the CN section might be too. Kids shows will end up on other streamers and the older library titles will go to places like Tubi along with MeTV Toons. Tubi hasn't gotten a CN show yet to my knowledge but they probably will eventually.

Honestly was starting to look like Naruto if not also Sailor Moon would stick around but they did start airing on May 31st so they can still air on May 31st even if it's technically June 1st by the time they do air. Best case scenario, they actually have another acquisition to either stick at 1 or 1:30 and One Piece takes the full 2AM hour followed by Lazarus Sub. If they do that then we're better than BACK we're STACK, at least until Lazarus ends.

Imagine if WB/D cuts the cable networks loose and actually tosses WBA in with CN because they don't give two shits about animation? They'd probably sooner horde whatever library titles they can which Hulu, Netflix or Amazon doesn't want right now but maybe they dislike animation THAT much.

I don't see this as anything more than a playful jab and an acknowledgement that Smiling Friends has enough of a following for The Simpsons to riff on it. Some of the writers probably genuinely like Smiling Friends.

I mean if it really is beating TTG premieres which air directly before it then they have every reason to renew it. I suspect they already intended to do two seasons and the movies and are just announcing it now because it didn’t flop right out of the gate.

Wow, Bleach brought all the boys to the yard and most of them stayed at least through One Piece. Maybe they even stuck around for Naruto and Sailor Moon.

CN isn’t quite dead yet and Iyanu is doing well with their kid audience, is getting another season and some movies. So maybe CN on cable still has a future? Scratch that, the network is dead. They still air Gumball like 3 hours a day but Hulu / Disney+ gets the new season/series first and possibly exclusively in the US. It will air on CN internationally but that might not include the US. Given that I will theorize Adventure Time spin-offs might still go to HBO Max but I strongly suspect the new Regular Show series will end up on Hulu. Youth targeted DC stuff in the works could go to HBO Max but Amazon or Hulu or even Netflix seem plenty likely. Best case scenario, these shows still air on CN after they stream elsewhere but I have my doubts.

It’s not a union dub? For some reason I thought it was. Lodge would not return for a non-union dub anyway. Wendee Lee showed her whole ass while Anaris handled the situation with a lot of grace and professionalism. Studiopolis and/or Viz messed up bad with how all of that was handled. Everything from allegedly mistakenly recasting because they thought Lee wasn’t available to how they attempted to fix it later. I think the recast was intentional like some other recasts and while I don’t think that was fair to Lee, if she made a stink to the producers to get the role back before she acted so unprofessionally on social media then I wish whoever decided had kept Anaris in the role. She sounded great anyway.

Last week I was frustrated at how they keep failing to move the needle and while you might argue this episode didn’t do much, it feels like some actual progress to me. I think with the Chris situation and the revelations about how Hapna may have been developed we’ve moved toward endgame but I suppose it could be a bunch of nothing, particularly the Chris stuff. It was obvious Hersch was involved with Skinner but why does she see Axel as the crucial piece? Hopefully not some BS that isn’t well explained.

Well now they have promoted it on-air during the block intro. New clips of course but that's really cool of them to do.

True, we probably already suffered the brunt of it even if Bleach was where most of the budget went. Basically if they got the next part of BE and Mashle they’re pretty well set. Was the suffering worth it though? That’s the real question. And once again we have an example of a long span of time when they end up playing reruns instead of something fresh just so they can avoid paying to air anything that isn’t what they see as a sure bet. It’s popular shounen or nothing with few exceptions. If they’re pulling Moon eps from VOD then it’s probably gone by June. Might as well throw on subbed Lazarus at 3am.

Pretty sure it's still a Viz license and it's possible the Disney exclusive window for part 1 has finally expired. It's still wild that Toonami got a show that has been in Disney jail rather than ANYTHING from Crunchyroll. But as we've seen with Family Guy of all shows, Disney will play if the money is right and it's not one of their darlings. If they did wrangle Bleach directly from Disney then that could open up some wonderful possibilities. Undead Unluck, Sandland, Loser Ranger are the easy marks but Heavenly Delusions and Summer Time Rendering would be phenomenal additions. I think they saved up for MHA and Daima and when neither happened they asked about Bleach again (I'm sure they looked into it years prior though) I was really holding out some hopium for Dr. Stone and grasping at straws that the Fire Force listing wasn't hogwash but now? I don't see CR coming to the table any time soon. It would be quite frustrating if they only half 3 months worth of Bleach for now and we should probably expect that and just be pleasantly surprised if they have more. Though part 2 is going to be 2 years old by Fall so that does seem reasonable. But man... while it's not surprising they wanted to air Bleach it's unreal that they got it back before the TYBW has entirely wrapped. If they have 2 parts now and can get 2 parts later that would work out nicely. Once Lazarus ends they can lead with Bleach and hopefully make room for Mashle season 2 or something much less expected. I won't say this line-up is all I would have liked since it's lacking Dr. Stone (if nothing else) but the fact they didn't just waste our time with Blue Exorcist reruns and the fact they brought Bleach back and the fact I'll have a whole block I would watch with 3 shows I haven't seen. That is indeed more than adequate. Coming back from 6 months of 3 premieres or less we couldn't have expected 5 in May and none of them being subbed Lazarus (which is already on Max). But I can't help but feel concerned that they spent most of their budget on Bleach and 5 premieres will only last as long as Lazarus does if even that long. Two Piece could continue or end any given week depending on if they bought more than 50 episodes this year but I kind of think they did buy extra One Piece because other plans didn't pan out (or in case future plans don't pan out). Otherwise they'd be pulling out subbed Lazarus by May 18th I would think. They have justified their 3.5 hour block length a while longer but we'll see if Sailor Moon and/or Naruto stick around past May. AS app is up to ep 57 which does happen to be expected end point for the deal based on the credit roll showing the 3rd opening and 3rd ending both running till ep 57 while they actually continue several more episodes. 57 is a strange place to stop though. It's right in the middle of Naruto's training with Jiraiya.

Apparently it’s also on CR and they just didn’t bother to mention that till the day of.

He’s at least part Latino but yeah. How did he not recognize Axel right next to him? 🤣 That’s not a bracelet you try to steal! Also seems to have hacking functionality built in so it’s not just a burden I guess. People will definitely direct their anger toward DeMarco for how inclusive this show becomes despite Watanabe’s history of being more inclusive than most. Trans characters are a particular hot button right now in the US and also considered trendy to include in any left wing produced media that doesn’t want to bow to Trump’s regime.

Didn’t even think about that but maaaaaybe. Also when Axel stole some clothes there was a very Dandy looking jacket.

They can certainly hold out till the week before. One slot can go to Lazarus subbed and the other could just be another rerun. Primal perhaps. And there's always dropping a slot but I think they'll have something other than One Piece or Lazarus sub at 12:30AM even if its another rerun. Wishful thinking they managed to get Dr. Stone, Fire Force or Daima for May 10th and we have to wait to see if they ever continue Mashle, Blue Exorcist or Demon Slayer. But if they have nothing they should just do this. 12:00 AM - Lazarus 12:30 AM - One Piece 01:00 AM - One Piece 01:30 AM - Lazarus Sub 02:00 AM - Naruto 02:30 AM - Sailor Moon Just run Suicide Squad Isekai or Scavengers already WTF WB/D!

Goose egg for Easter weekend. https://bsky.app/profile/spiralmaiden.bsky.social/post/3ln7lhmgrvs2e

No schedule update yesterday, probably to no one’s surprise. But Aniplex has a panel at Sakura Con today from 6:30 to 7:30 PM PST this evening. The timing is right to announce Blue Exorcist Kyoto Arc if nothing else.

TOHO handled this themselves though they did have CR dub it. So I can't say I'm too surprised by this.

Skipping a Naruto would put them in danger of not finishing Land of Waves if the show leaves in May but they probably weren’t thinking about that.

If THIS is what it is then it would explain why they tossed it to 3AM rather than air it earlier in the block to save some precious One Piece episodes or something. EDIT: I don’t think that video is what will be airing. Seems they made a vintage style anime for this. It's subtitled and could certainly turn off their regular viewers just by the look of it so 3AM is a much safer bet than earlier in the block but at this point they could have played it at 1:30 without much concern.

That’s a bit surprising. At least it is doing well on AppleTV digital sales so far.

So they moved the Thursday slot to midnight and moved the encores to Sundays. It has already lasted longer than some expected but its evident by now that they will keep running it because it's paid programming.