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Even the worst version of the Cowboy Bebop opening still uses “Tank” so it’s a pretty good intro compared to most.

Trying to get it “if it’s good” might be a safer strategy to avoid picking up a flop but waiting to see in this industry all but assures you will lose a shot at getting the show before it’s a hit and that much more difficult to get and less likely to be a hit specifically for a TV block.

Saturday Rick & Morty missed the list as well so you can’t really expect Primal to get on there much less Shenmue. American Dad had a pretty good July 2nd but not the other comedies. The performance of KOTH and Futurama both before and after Toonami makes a typical night of Toonami look pretty good by comparison. Though maybe the holiday weekend hurt those as well and they possibly do better on regular Saturdays? We might never know. Looking at this Saturdays and Sundays ratings, Lupin beat Birdgirl in some demos and totals and Tuca & Bertie barely missed the top 50 on Sunday and lost to One Piece in 18-49 and totals. The 2nd Tuca & Bertie was in Shippuden’s range. I feel bad for T&B because I thought they were good episodes. Hopefully it did/does well on HBO Max to make up for it.

I’d rather have Ushio & Tora and frankly I barely consider this an improvement over double Shippuden but it’s nice that they’re finishing YashaHime I guess. That was the lowest hanging fruit from Viz. Maybe this means the money is flowing again and they can add something interesting when the reruns cycle out in August. At the very least this could be seen as some assurance that they can get Bleach TYBW from Viz and Lupin probably will get replaced by a premiere rather than another rerun. I’m willing to believe this was always what they intended to replace AC with but they couldn’t make it happen as soon as they wanted. But if that is the case then the money might actually not be flowing and they had budgeted for YashaHime before the stoppage. We continue to wander in a very uncertain landscape.

Yeah that’s a relief.

AS cancelling shows after a few seasons is nothing new but I’m very bummed about Joe Pera in particular. The Eric Andre Show is the only live action show that is guaranteed to get another season on AS. Some would say AS bailing on live action programming is a good thing but I’m not celebrating.

2nd season gets an hour premiere on Thursday July 21st, will air weekly until all 10 episodes air and finish on September 15th. It sounds like season 2 will be presented as an on-going story rather than being more episodic like season 1 was. Makes sense given there’s an immediate goal now for our wandering warrior and his dino gal. A two episode premiere to start the season… Why do I get this irksome feeling that Toonami will only air one of those episodes on July 23rd and end up being a week behind the premieres because of that? I hope I’m wrong about that because that would needlessly kneecap the Toonami airing. That is presuming they even get to air season 2 that soon.

Okay so American Dad got 0.16 and Rick & Morty got 0.15 that night so the numbers for the 11pm hour are a bit softer than most prior weeks and Primal still held R&M decently. Perhaps the recent decline isn’t just due to AC leaving and Lupin being a much weaker draw after Primal. Either that or AC was somehow also lifting the comedies before Toonami in ways Shenmue and Titan failed to do.

If they expect to get the last part then I don’t think they’ll start Titan over from the beginning. Even doubled up they couldn’t rerun all 87 episodes before February of next year. They could however replay both parts of season 4 if they double it up for at least part of the time between mid August and next February. I do wonder how long their contract for the entire series will last after it ends. Possibly long enough for a rerun of the entire series? That would take two years in a single time slot and is much better suited for a weeknight strip. It would be nice to see those rerun slots go to IGPX and Space Dandy but they could also give Fena and Black Lotus another run or the Fooly Coolys.

Well I'm not surprised. I only had a little bit of hope they would introduce a new show after the marathon week but really had no earthly idea what they could pull in by then.

So it was the normal shows, the question is how did they do? I'm guessing Rick & Morty got less than 0.15 though I couldn't tell you why. If AC was the reason why Primal did so well then at the very least it was evident that AC didn't pair so well with Titan but maybe being the 2nd show on the block was enough to get more people watching the classroom? One night of data won't say one way or another by itself.

Rick & Morty on Saturday was the highest rated rerun for AS that week and 11pm Dad was the 2nd highest. Primal barely missed top 10 but that’s still quite impressive.

As always we appreciate your service.

It’s the first 7 episodes. How very pointless.

SONY!!!!!!!!!!!

So maybe Toonami eventually. That’s what I read from Jason’s response. In short if its an anime series (not film) co-production then WBD is all about putting it on Adult Swim and Toonami but if it’s a western action/drama then off to HBO Max it goes and Primal is the only exception for now. I suppose you could look at it another way. If WBD has to foot the bill for an animated action/drama series then they don’t think it’s worth it if it’s just for Adult Swim and they see HBO Max as the primary platform for that audience. Hence why they’re not sharing Young Justice.

I'd love to see that.

Well that doesn’t bode well for Lupin airing directly after Primal. Probably gonna lose 100,000 viewers from it every week. Nice to see AC finish so high. It came so close to 300,000.

Nah nah nah. Saitama should be played by Moby… or Jim Rash. I joke, they’re both too old.

He usually says it’s half over.

Ya know unless you count One Piece (which is surely a Toei contract), Netflix hasn't added anything under the Crunchyroll, FUNimation, Aniplex umbrella in a while. I think the last addition was SAO Alicization War of Underworld. I don't think they've picked up anything from Sentai all that recently either. I was thinking like season 1 before it, Demon Slayer season 2 would come to Netflix after CR/FUNi finished streaming the dub but so far that hasn't happened. It could still happen later this year but if it doesn't then I think we can take that as a clear sign that Toonami isn't the only platform that Sony isn't making new deals with. Also the first batch of anime licenses from Aniplex and Crunchyroll on HBO Max expired recently. Seems unlikely they will let the contracts be renewed no matter what HBO Max is willing to pay.

He was gone much too soon. His story is heartbreaking, they didn't find the cancer until he was already in stage 4. I really thought he was going to make it despite how advanced his case became. It's just too much. He was so talented and genuine and kind. Only the good die young. Rest in peace Billy. There was a Cells at Work story like that wasn't there? Man... I have the dubbed version of the opening song from the first season where he and Cherami sing. That song and Billy's voice was more morning wake-up alarm encouraging me every day. This hits as hard or harder than when Kirby Morrow passed away.

They don’t usually (if ever) get the TV rights but Discotek did help Toonami get Lupin Part 4 so maybe they can help them get something else in the future.

They have 11 followers and effectively no reach. Pretty sure I have seen their commentary on Anime Super Hero and 4chan. It certainly reads like them and regurgitates the same arguments. And on Twitter they follow Toonami Faithful staff, CN Schedule Archive and barely anyone else. I think they need a new hobby. One should not dedicate themselves so much to critiquing a television block.

You might be right but I won’t see that as much of an upgrade and I’d be annoyed if One Piece was pushed back down so soon. I don’t think double Shippuden will last more than a month or so but it could feasibly last a while if they hold off on adding anything else until the 3am shows are finished.