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I’m sure DeMarco has wanted to use DC films to patch holes as often as possible. I think this is just the first time WBD is willing to throw them a bone without something to promote. Nice to see WBD coming in clutch rather than Toonami having no options but doubling up One Piece and Naruto. Granted they can simply do that in March if nothing can be acquired before then. Yeah FLCL Grunge in March seems like a safe bet.

CR has no say with One Piece’s distribution but Toei is unpredictable at best.

One slot goes to Urusei Yatsura, hopefully as dub premieres from Sentai The other slot goes to one of the following: Lupin Zero, which can then be replaced by FLCL Grunge in six weeks FLCL Grunge (with not nearly enough promotion time) A yet to be announced dub premiere of Giant Beasts of Ars from Sentai (it's a co-pro so they probably want to push it) Akiba Maid War or another recently dubbed show from Sentai but there's literally no telling what Sentai titles they're looking at Food Wars Fifth Plate because CR might cave on that if nothing else Bleach, because if they can get it now they probably will even if it makes more sense to wait till closer to Spring so they can continue into the 2nd cour One Piece gets doubled up again because something didn't pan out or alternatively both slots get occupied by extra Naruto and One Piece for a week or so because nothing ever seems to go smoothly these days... but honestly I think they do have 2 shows coming this month it would just be foolish at this point to rule out another sudden drought

7 episodes is a real odd amount.

Vic would still be employable if he hadn’t tried to sue FUNimation for defamation. Plenty of creeps still work in the industry unfortunately and most are smart enough to lay low after they are MeToo’d. But don’t dismiss the many many many accounts of Vic preying on teenagers and his colleagues just because no one successfully filed charges. And don’t get me started on how disgusting it is that because he was a big draw, conventions invited him and FUNimation kept casting him even when they knew of his behavior. They enabled Vic and in some cases covered for him. The only solace there is in knowing that is also knowing the management that allowed that is no longer at the company formerly known as FUNimation.

What confirms that? EDIT: It almost most certainly is NOT a union contract. It's dubbed in Dallas.

Maybe I was but I’m not one to mix up One Piece things with other things. 😆

It might not be a pop culture reference like in Japan but R. Bruce Elliot’s narrator in Space Dandy was fantastic. It’s kinda true that Guardians of the Galaxy had a similar vibe to Space Dandy and used some of the same retro stuff. In that regard it sorta stole Dandy’s thunder. Watanabe threatening to punch the Animatrix producer cracks me up. And he literally only watched the opening scene of Netboy Cowflix before he deemed it “not Bebop” so uh… so much for any claims of getting Watanabe’s input. I feel like that was a claim but maybe I’m misremembering.

Yeah he retired from VA but it’s possible he would play a one-time role for NYAV Post. They managed to get Diraison to return for Guts after several years of not dubbing. Sinterniklaas has sway. I might be overthinking it though, Sebastian might be the name of the audio engineer or it could be someone who hasn’t dubbed before. But Black Lotus had screen actors so it could be Stan and I’m pretty amused at the prospect of Sebastian Stan voicing a character in FLCL Grunge.

Yet people are saying Adult Swim is being too hasty because the verdict hasn’t been decided. We all know WBD would rather jump through numerous hoops than boot Roiland but they had to do their due diligence here and look into the situation. Whatever they dug up had to be enough for them to expect Roiland is guilty of the accusations. Though I wonder if all his other projects would have booted him if Adult Swim didn’t do so first.

TMS surely was the ones who foot the bill for dubbing but it’s still very unexpected for Amazon Prime to stream a new dub.

So... do you think Sebastian in that call is Sebastian Stan? Wouldn't be out of the question for NYAV Post to grab a screen actor for one of their dubs.

Bleed him dry

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.