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They were pretty okay even at their worst until 2020 when they were hit with a combination of getting their budget cut after overspending in 2019 and then Covid delayed several shows and made it difficult to spend what meager budget they did have. Despite that they looked rather healthy in early 2021 but it didn’t last and they had nothing left in the tank by late Fall. That lack of budget was probably also due to WarnerMedia’s instability leading up to the Discovery merger. Crunchyroll didn’t want to work with them beyond partnering for originals (probably forced to by WarnerMedia) and Sony’s desire to own most of the industry only made that worse. FUNimation was one of their most reliable content providers until Sony bought them out and pretty much closed the doors once they also bought Crunchyroll. Sony wanted to keep it all to their own services but now that they’re willing to deal with Netflix for Demon Slayer and Toonami for MHA, perhaps they have realized they’ll make more money lending their shows than keeping them locked down. We can hope. WBD is not giving Toonami the resources it needs to be able to thrive, just barely what is required to survive. I still believe all they need to do to thrive is put on a good block with appealing shows but they lost the battle of relevancy to the general public the moment DBS stopped airing premieres. Even dub premieres of MHA probably couldn’t fix that but slightly used episodes definitely can’t. They can’t beat streaming, the most they can do is compliment it or provide a not terrible experience for people who still have cable and don’t subscribe to Crunchyroll or many other services. People like being able to tune in and be entertained a while and not have to search through dozens of options. But we are never going back to the point where there won’t be so many choices for entertainment.

An opportunity to air the remake of a legendary series? That’s so up their alley. Since Sentai got it, it should be a pretty easy to snag license. I’d say the same if Viz ended up with it. And yeah they also love Rumiko Takahashi stuff but thankfully unlike YashaHime, Takahashi actually wrote Urusei Yatsura. If it is Grunge they should be promoting it now but then again, Shenmue and Housing Complex didn’t get a lot of notice before they started. Just a few weeks in Shenmue’s case as I recall.

Sounds like he should have been tossed years ago. But what about royalties? Every time the show airs one of the episodes from the first 6 seasons in any country, Roiland is getting royalties for at least his vocal performances if not producer credit. But they’re not gonna stop airing the old episodes. He’ll be drinking from that sweet R&M teet for many years to come even if he’s thrown in jail.

Well now I am. 5 episodes is a very short order, especially if they’re 11 mins each.

Aqua Teen revival? You mean besides the shorts and the movie? Hmm…

While I'm leaning heavily on FLCL Grunge being one of the replacements, the other slot could prove surprising. I feel like they'll wait on Bleach until MHA ends because the 2nd part isn't simulcasting until Summer and once MHA ends what else will they possibly have for a big draw? Getting Bleach on in February probably won't help it do any better than it would in the Summer and if they get it now then they'll have to replace it three months. I still think they're eyeing Urusei Yatsura from Sentai. Even though a dub was announced months ago there's still no sign of it on HiDive. Probably just a coincidence but maybe they can get the dub premiere like Lupin Part 6. It wouldn't be particularly inspired to fall back on something like Jujutsu Kaisen but if Crunchyroll is willing to make a deal that wont break the bank, they'll probably jump on it. CR might throw Toonami another bone soon but I don't expect Demon Slayer, Mob Psycho 100, Spy x Family, Chainsaw Man or Trigun Stampede. All of those will likely remain out of Toonami's price range this year. If Titan ends up being two long episodes then this is a moot point but if it's 4-6 episodes in two batches the timing is about right for it to come in to replace FLCL Grunge in early April if Grunge is actually one of the February 18th additions. The Japanese broadcast of part 1 is set for March 4th and while they probably don't need a full month to dub it, it's well within the usual parameters. I believe Primal will also end the same night that FLCL Grunge would (March 25th) allowing Grunge to rerun in the back if they wanted to do that. Since there's only 3 originals expected this year (per DeMarco's recent AMA) it's pretty assured that's FLCL Grunge earlier in the year, FLCL Shoegaze in the middle of the year or as late as November and Uzumaki in October. Something is supposedly airing early in 2024 and that's probably Ninja Kamui. Of course if Grunge isn't ready in February then it can pop up a bit later this year and the space between FLCL seasons could be minimized. I don't think they'll end up loading all 3 originals back to back to back from mid-August to the end of the Year but that is an option.

Pretty sure that's just a goof. I noticed it years ago.

Perfectly balanced as all things should be?

Maybe Hirsh wasn’t trying to hook up with teenage girls but Roiland definitely was a creep back then

So Crunchyroll is finally willing to sell the streaming rights to season 2 to Netflix. It won’t be an exclusive contract so the door is open for Toonami but it’s probably still too expensive.

You can list them if you want, I already looked up enough old schedules for this. Either way it’s pretty much just as likely that they’ll finish MiA and YashaHime the same night as it is that they won’t. But for instance, they could hold back YashaHime’s finale and have its last episode air the same night they start Urusei Yatsura for a Rumiko power hour. There a no “new seasons” of prior Toonami shows besides Bleach and things in the CR backlog but there is a Gundam series and a Lupin series (even if it’s 6 episodes). And in all likelihood, FLCL Grunge will be ready by February since they seem to be recording the dub now (based on Maki’s tweets). I trust they will start two block premieres in February whether it’s the same week or staggered. Might be best for promoting purposes to stagger them but their track record with promoting new shows before they start has been pretty shite in recent years. After February though… There might not be another big change to the lineup until MHA season 6 ends and Titan returns.

It’s Primal unless they pull it mid run or they abruptly change the already submitted schedule. If it’s anything else then expanding to 3:30 one week seems like what they’ll do. I’d be all for expanding to 11:30 but that’s probably not in the cards just yet.

A phobia of double premieres? I dunno about that. They‘ve done it several times, twice in 2019. I’m only counting 2 network premieres here. January 2014 Space Dandy and Shippuden January 2017 DBS and Gundam Unicorn (and DBZ KFC if you count it) August 2018 AoT S3 and JoJo’s DIU June 2019 Food Wars and Gundam The Origin November 2020 Fire Force S2 and Gemusetto Death Beats They haven’t done it since but it’s been rare when they could have besides January of 2022 but they opted to stagger those premieres to build out the lineup from scratch. It looks like for all intents they wanted to start MHA S6 the same night as Made in Abyss season 2 but couldn’t work out the deal that soon. So IMO they’re just as likely to start two shows the same week as they are to stagger them by a week.

They might still finish both the same night and bump Primal or One Piece off that week but it’s just as likely they’ll break between YashaHime’s final 2 episodes to stagger the premieres by a week. It would seem kinda stupid to do that though when they can easily bump Primal or expand for one night.

Raise our expectations? So much for that. Primal season 2 restarts. That’s getting next level mundane. Two runs and a marathon was plenty for now. I suppose it could be a placeholder but I get the feeling it isn’t.

When Adult Swim promoted it they did mention Cowboy Bebop but they did so in the same breath as Soul Eater and Fullmetal Alchemist which was more less saying Studio Bones made it. They never mentioned Watanabe in the promos but I wonder how the marketing was in Japan.

And come Friday they don’t bother to post a schedule update. 🤣

If he honestly feels Dandy was a mistake, that’s a real shame. Bebop and Champloo are fantastic and ionic but Space Dandy was truly art. I hope Shingo Natsume is proud of directing Space Dandy.

Definitely time to update the promo to include My Hero and Made in Abyss. Better do that soon before MiA ends.

They did immediately rerun both Prog and Alt they just didn’t run them again after. I’m not saying there’s no possibility of a hang up but I feel you are pulling this theory out of nowhere. It’s not like they reran the beloved original FLCL since 2018 either. They probably will rerun both Prog and Alt this year before Grunge and Shoegaze show up. And that schedule is likely exactly what will air on January 7th because they will be more than content to keep Primal on for two more weeks and avoid a schedule shakeup the first week back from the holidays. Even if the marathon makes it redundant. Remember when the Shenmue marathon didn’t do anything to accelerate the removal of Shenmue’s second full run?

I There should not be a legal roadblock to airing FLCL 2/3, those weren’t CR co-pros, CR only has the rights to stream the Japanese version and the dubs are still on the AS app and website. As for why they haven’t reran them since 2018… They probably realize they’re not gonna do great and overplaying them would only make them do worse. But now that there will be more, it’s finally time to reair them.

Oh we really are in isekai territory if they’re aging down the Justice League. Why not just use the teenage DC heroes for this instead of making the adults into teens?

Christmas Day, particularly later in the day is fair game for family targeted television premieres.

Prisoners get cable but not streaming I guess.

Crunchy knows there are viewers they can attract that are watching Adult Swim, it only makes sense to advertise there and AS is certainly not going to tell them they won’t take their ad-money. It may or may not have anything to do with their deal to air MHA season 6 but it’s far from the first time CR ads have aired on Adult Swim.