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Let’s be a wee bit reasonable here. Starting a show three weeks before Uzumaki and having to shift it down for 4 weeks then preempted for at least 1 then maybe moved back up isn’t a great way to start a show. It makes more sense to wait till November when they’ll have 3 openings besides replacing Shippuden. That’s the mess they made for themselves. But yeah… no one should have put any stock in DeMarco saying there was a plan for replacing Shippuden. They aren’t yet using OG Naruto for filler which is surprising to me but maybe that’s coming in November.

Sure both blocks could be gone in due time regardless but that end is only sure to come sooner if they get Family Guy back. AS would love to do what FXX does and honestly if they got Family Guy back it might be enough to completely boot the CN side if not at least minimize it to 6am-3pm. Which as Guy suggests would make even more space for Checkered Rewind but I also don’t want AS to expand any further. Maybe just maybe if they can’t afford Family Guy then the demise of PGish nostalgia blocks will get CN back a few hours. Unrealistic I know but I will dream dammit.

Making sure they don’t lose American Dad and Bob’s Burgers for two. What good is it if they get Family Guy back but lose both of those. You want 6+ episodes of Family Guy before 12am? Since we’re specifically talking acquisition budget here I won’t factor originals because WBD seem plenty willing to spend money on a bunch of those that they can also stream on Max. If they can afford to keep Dad, Bob and bring back Peter do you really think they’ll just air less of Dad and Bob? Obviously not because they know it works. Adding back Family Guy means they can move FOX reruns even earlier on weekdays and we can kiss Checkered Past and Toonami Rewind goodbye as 5pm-12am becomes an hour of KotH followed by 2 hours each of the other 3 or 2 hours of KotH up first and one hour of Family Guy at 11pm if they can only afford that. But let’s say you are correct in thinking Toonami’s budget has been so bad because they’re trying to get Family Guy back. Wouldn’t we all rather they give even a fraction more of that money to Toonami so we don’t have constant dry spells? As I said, AS does well enough without Family Guy so I’d rather see them use their hours more creatively than fill even more of them with FOX reruns. You can’t reproduce the success Family Guy had on to AS in previous years today so why bother footing such an expensive bill for diminishing returns? But hey if this desperation move from Comedy Central actually gets them to chart frequently then I’ll entertain the reasoning that Family Guy is something AS should invest in again.

I never said I thought they had the money to reacquire Family Guy. You’re the one who brought up the possibility that they have been saving up for it and that could be a reason for Toonami’s sparse acquisitions. AS does not need that excuse to under fund Toonami.

I’d rather see them cut back on hours than spend a boat load on Family Guy just so they don’t have to run Bobs and Dad as much. It’s a shame they are allergic to airing Futurama at a decent time except occasionally on a Sunday instead of a movie. I understand the argument that AS always played Family Guy the best but if people are so set on seeing it uncut it’s all on Hulu. Seems odd people would be that concerned about time cuts when some many of them had Family Guy on primarily as easy viewing or background noise.

That’s pretty evident

We don’t need Family Guy airing on 4-5 linear channels a week. If they brought it back to AS the improvement to the ratings probably wouldn’t be substantial at this point. Even if they were, the cost would offset the gains significantly and the reality is AS is already airings 13 hours a day without it and it’s doing plenty well enough.

Mostly there were no AS promos or Toonami goodies so they could fit enough real commercials in. No time to shill RickAniMorty till later in the block.

I guess I didn't know WBD was involved in this at all. I thought it was a Sony project that would be distributed by Sony. At what point did WBD get their grubby little hands on it? Is it because Genndy is back at "Cartoon Network Studios"? I had full intention to see this in theaters, maybe more than once. That said, I'm a weirdo who appreciates animated films of all kinds and am far from the typical audience and while the prospect of seeing it released in theaters is enticing, it's better off not having that pressure to perform.

They primarily air earlier because they’re originals but Swordsmith being older is also a factor.

Tune in and harass us in the chat! You can listen to the whole 2 hours of rambling and ranting here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2215244229

I guess I’ll give the people what they want

CJ has fallen off the face of the internet. I’m honestly a bit concerned about his headspace. No ire should be directed at Jeff for this thread and he certainly didn’t pay me to draw attention to it. I felt his three part editorial was better suited to a separate discussion than tossing it into one of the current news threads. Pretty sure he’s not obese either but that’s neither here nor there.

"Considering the marketplace isn’t the same as it was a dozen years ago, it’s better than it has any business being, but there is a lot of room for improvement." If you really want some bullet points of the things he brought up... I mean you can probably guess what they are can't you? The network has faith in Toonami and will continue to create original series for it and acquire shows when they can. It's much harder to get acquisitions because distributors have their own platforms to support. Toonami has to go after the most recognizable names because that's what the network believes people will watch. Nostalgia sells and it works for Toonami but they can't rely entirely upon nostalgia. Rewind airing the uncut HD versions of shows instead of the old edited tapes only makes sense. Airing subbed Rick & Morty: The Anime on Toonami isn't a good idea but doing that with Suicide Squad Isekai would have been. Cartoon Network is in a worrisome state but it too is not going off the air any time soon. Probably the most interesting point he brought up is that Toonami's future probably incorporates more western animation. I'm going to keep these paragraphs as is because I find them particularly worth reading: "It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if by some twist of fate, Toonami would become the home of Get Jiro, an action-comedy series based on a Vertigo comic created by the late world traveler and culinary guru Anthony Bourdain, or Super Mutant Magic Academy, a fantasy comedy series based on Jillian Tamaki’s comic series and co-created by J.G. Quintel. If My Adventures with Superman, Rick & Morty: The Anime, and Invincible Fight Girl are any indication, Toonami’s lineup is going to be a hybrid of all sorts of original stories with action/adventure overtones ranging from heavy dramas to comic-inspired projects. Perhaps that’s the goal of the future of the block. Present it not so much as the animated equivalent to Shonen Jump but rather the animation equivalent of WEBTOON, Weekly episodic stories that meshes hybrid styles and influences and attracts all audiences while still bringing a variety of action programs as opposed to “just anime.” We're literally seeing the Adult Swim brand grow up with shows like Common Side Effects being what many of my friends call "an HBO-quality series" as a potential dramatic breakout when it premieres and actually being, well, adult instead of the edgelord frat boy humor that has been the norm for over 20 years. Maybe we’re finally about to see a version of Toonami that we’ve never truly seen before. A better cartoon show. They’re working with what they have to create something audiences have never seen. They’re not getting rid of anime by any stretch, but it is nice to see Toonami build up a format that embraces and showcases voices beyond Japan."

This man is the reason I host a Toonami podcast and he's still got it. Part 1 https://t.co/BaO0xHPQ15 (a relatively short introduction) Part 2 https://t.co/MEIuJmnDVh Part 3 https://t.co/tgjgqSu0mn

Absolutely freak'n nuts that they're starting Toonami with an hour of subtitled shows. They went from barely acknowledging they run Ninja Kamui subbed at 3am to sticking subbed anime at the top of the block. Toonami viewers are anime fans and most aren't strangers to watching subs but if they're bothering to watch dubs on cable television then they probably prefer watching dubs. So why even do this on Toonami? Seems like an odd pivot even if it gives both the sub and the dub some limelight in the midnight hour. There are other options for midnight premieres of the subbed versions besides the first hour of Toonami. They could for instance do a subbed anime hour (or longer with HCC, FLCLs or Ninja Kamui) on Thursday or Friday and run the dubs on Toonami. Admittedly they could do worse than Uzumaki subbed in the midnight hour as a short test of the Toonami audience's interest in subbed broadcasts. The IP is prestige enough to attract both current viewers and new ones including people who dislike dubs. RickAniMorty subs on the other hand have several points against going against them. Not all Toonami fans are R&M fans, some straight up hate that show and have no interest in some Japanese writer's interpretation of the brand. A relatively small amount of R&M fans watch Toonami now and subbed airings of the a dub they could watch on Thursday aren't going to get them to tune into Toonami unless they can't stand the dub voices and also don't have Max to watch the sub on Friday or at their own leisure. I'm not sure if I want this to succeed or fail but regardless of my feelings on the matter I think I can say more objectively that this is likely to fail miserably. Maybe Demon Slayer can salvage things but probably not and this will inevitably knee-cap the performance of Uzumaki if they don't at least swap that to midnight when the time comes. Toonami will survive this experiment but it could end up weakening the blocks position within the network and that's the last thing we need.

I do as well. I didn't bother with a pie in the sky alternative build this time but maybe I'll add one later.

We can certainly hope they have enough left in the budget to run MHA S7 and get two additional acquisitions by years end. Maybe we had all those droughts mid-year because they're attempting that? I just try to stay realistic with these things.

Here's some projections for if they're aiming to start MHA season 7 in November. It will take a marathon but it works out pretty well all things considered. There's also a no MHA S7 option. I threw in Urusei Yatsura to replace Shippuden in that one but it makes for a lot of shifting in short succession because of Uzumaki. In the scenario where they get MHA, I think they won't have money for two additional acquisitions so I'm defaulting to Mashle for the Aniplex packaged deal theory and saving it for November leaving double One Piece to cover Shippuden's slot until Uzumaki starts. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fUKIXX1WniiivIIxEhUcY1YoSF8Z_QN7rLfcKTZqqzI/edit?usp=sharing

Sony just made them worse MHA S6 reruns, what a tease. They can double up or marathon on November 2nd (barf I know) if they’re aiming for S7 to start before 2025. Honestly wish they’d rerun Lycoris or ZOM 100 instead but as per usual 3am is nothing I concern myself with. Ninja Kamui feels out of place in a sea of bright colorful shounen and should really move to 3am but it’s nearly done anyway so whatever. Still no IGPX season 2 I’ll admit though that MHA reruns taking 3am is a curveball I didn’t anticipate. And this means they’re actually going to restrain themselves from airing dubbed RickAniMorty late on Saturday, probably because it’s rerunning on Sunday at midnight. Hey here’s an idea for programming… premiere the dub on Sunday after the dub airs on Toonami and don’t bother with Thursday premieres! Genius right? It remains to be seen how they handle replacing Shippuden but maybe it won’t just be something they currently have on hand afterall. They seem oddly determined to hold onto 3am when they could have just given it up.

I suppose MHA could replace Shippuden if they get it soon but at that point they might as well save it for November when they have 3 show openings rather than bring it in then move it in 3 weeks when Uzumaki starts then move it back up when 3 shows end. It’s bad enough they’re gonna push Demon Slayer to make room for Uzumaki because they can’t even give Toonami 11:30 temporarily to house Uzumaki or RickAniMorty and not bump every other premiere later for 4 weeks in the process. The only reason I think they would opt for starting something else before November is to avoid having 3 holes on November 2nd (November 11th if they stall with an extra marathon).

RickAniMorty is 10 episodes and will finish on October 19th with Uzumaki AND Swordsmith Village. That's how it maths without interruptions anyway. Despite their claims that Uzumaki dubs will premiere on Thursdays, I still think they'll sneak the dub airings into the backend of Toonami with the RickAniMorty dubs. Primal season 3 would have been shown at SDCC if it was airing this year, fugget a'bout it. Expansion is some very wishful thinking I'm afraid. If Aniplex bundled something with Demon Slayer like they may have with Lycoris Recoil and Demon Slayer prior, then I do think it will be Mashle. It's not the only option but it's the one that makes the most sense for them to pitch to Toonami. Signs do point to OG Naruto replacing Shippuden and it gives them the perfect excuse to show episodes 8-19 which Rewind skipped in a lower profile time slot. But I'm sure we all hope they have something more interesting than that or Boruto to replace Shippuden and OG Naruto can fill a rerun slot when Ninja Kamui cycles out. November is anyone's guess at this point but they will have 3 shows ending in October and the chances of a triple premiere aren't very good so they might stagger the premieres by having IFG or MHA premiere with an hour then start another show the week after if they don't just fall back on double One Piece or a rerun.

We WISH.

It's always the most obvious choice. Well this ensures Toonami isn't a complete snore in August. Now we await the disappointing reveal of what they do when Shippuden ends. Aniplex is coming in clutch this year (Viz too). Hearing Aiko at Aniplex said "Toonami a special place in our hearts" gets me a little choked up.

Dressrosa’s pacing is worse than most One Piece arcs if not all of them. We’re just trying to ease that suffering a bit. There will certainly be a marathon on October 26th and maybe one on November 2nd to stall or milk Rickanime one more time but they’ll likely start IFG in early November so that could avoid more interruptions till the last two weeks of December. I won’t rule out the possibility of a Thanksgiving weekend preemption of some kind but it depends on what they have going on mid November. Another attempt to get people to vote? I suppose that could happen but maybe it won’t affect Toonami much if at all since they have 5 hours before Toonami to work with.