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We have marathon ratings to prove it as well as prime time ratings. They also gave it a whole hour on weeknights for a while so it clearly did fine there.

Dragon Ball Super reruns aren’t drawing viewers just because they air first. People really will watch DBS reruns regardless of when it’s airing. It’s comfort food like Family Guy, having the two back to back is a pretty unbeatable combo. That’s what they don’t want to give up.

While I'm generally for the live and let live mentality and am very capable of ignoring Super when it's airing... I'm not so easily dissuaded to ignore how Super's continued presence short-changes every other show on the block, especially the ones after 1am. I can't simply "switch off" how much that irritates me, so I can understand others who feel the same. It's difficult to find the balance between maintaining verbal pressure against DBS reruns and not letting the negative feelings consume me. It undoubtedly affects my enjoyment of the block. I'm trying to be happy about Dr. Stone and My Hero Academia but it's not easy to ignore the Goku shaped elephant in the room whenever something neat joins the block.

I think we're getting a bit hung up on the "nostalgia pick" comment though. I didn't necessarily take that as his game plan for replacing DBS. I heard it as two separate thoughts. He and Gill have some ideas for shows that could potentially replace DBS, that's one thought. The other thought is that no anime does as well in reruns as DBZ / Super, not even My Hero Academia, but maybe there's a show that can draw somewhere near that level and it might be another old favorite. That doesn't necessarily mean that a nostalgia pick should lead the block nor does it mean that's what he has in mind for when they collectively decide that DBS has outwore its welcome. If I had to guess what he might want to try in the top slot... Original series, the next season of Primal, a DC animated series if they could get one, the upcoming season of Bleach and maybe a hot anime they haven't aired before like Jujutsu Kaisen. And yeah he'd probably jump at the chance to air Sailor Moon if he could but I don't think he'd actually try Gundam Wing or G Gundam at midnight. Yu Yu Hakusho is a long commitment that they probably aren't sure would pan out.

I don't think anyone who regularly live tweets the ToP actually mind that DBS is still airing in the lead. At least not very much.

If they really think a nostalgia play is the way to go then they should try sticking Naruto Shippuden at midnight. I know it didn't do fantastic at 10pm but it might be able to beat DBS reruns.

Well I sure as HFIL don't promote Super airing beyond griping that it's airing (and never during the broadcast because I'm not even home by then most Saturdays). It would however be odd for Toonami News or Toonami Squad to just pretend Toonami started at 12:30am so I don't see that happening.

Then I consider this interview a success.

Now there's an expectation that any week they tune in there will be Dragon Ball Super at midnight. Not before midnight. Not after midnight. Specifically midnight. It's what viewers expect and it's what advertisers expect. And truthfully it's not usually a detriment for any show to be directly after DBS at the 12:30 slot. The problem is they have a stacked line-up and shows like Dr. Stone get 1am AT BEST when the 2nd slot is already occupied by the show that should be at midnight. And some shows end up premiering after 2am. Toonami's only dub premiere in May will be moved to 2am. Granted it's the not well received second season of The Promised Neverland but it still seems like a waste to put the only dub premiere that late. It would also be less of a problem if DBS was at 11pm or even 11:30pm instead of having 4 straight American Dad episodes in prime time but that loops back to the prior statement, everyone expects DBS at midnight and moving it earlier doesn't help it do better. They should be preparing for when Family Guy leaves by building up something else on Saturday but its clear they are going to ride that 11pm hour of Family Guy as far as they can before they abruptly get thrown off.

Overall a great line-up. It's a bit cold to move Neverland to 2am but it's not a good adaption anyway. Though for consistency I would have opted to move Food Wars to 2am and leave Neverland at 1:30. It's not a big jump regardless. I'm thrilled to have Dr. Stone back and having it air right next to MHA. But you know... that fark'n Dragon Ball Super rerun just sucks the life out of any good change the block makes.

Yeah this probably isn’t at least mostly Jason’s decision. AS programming decides the schedule and contracts often dictate when shows can air. AS schedules are a bunch of stubborn nimrods though and Jason will defend anything they do.

Oh man... they’ll probably recast Haru too.

Landon McDonald actually sounds a lot like Vic and took over for Rohan and a character in Bungo Stray Dogs, I also think Xander Mobus can do similar voices to Vic's but FUNimation's go to Vic replacement seems to only be Johnny Yong Bosch. He took over for Broly and Sabo and now he's filling in a Scythe as well. I wonder if Vic gave Johnny his blessing for taking all his FUNimation roles or something or if the directors at FUNi just think he's a good substitute. Johnny certainly has notoriety and that's one reason why Vic got the roles he did so perhaps they feel it's an "equivalent exchange". Now just imagine Johnny returning as Ichigo but also taking over Ikkaku in Bleach. Yeah... probably not gonna happen but it'd be interesting. Xander would be a good choice for Ikkaku though. Regarding the first segment of the episode: I appreciate we're getting a chance to see how recent revelations for Company 8 affect Iris. It only makes sense for her to have a crisis of faith after finding out the Holy Sol Temple was created by one of the White Clad. But that one guy from Company 1 made a good point about what they're really putting their faith in. It was also good to hear Shinra talk about how difficult it is for him to put infernals to rest but he's grateful that he hasn't become numb to it. And they juxtapose that thoughtful segment with Assault's special training to defeat Tamaki. That was certainly a choice. I do appreciate that they show a goofy side to many of the members of the White Clad but not so much that the group loses it's threatening aura.

This isn't the first time Warner has attempted to reboot ThunderCats as a movie. I remember that old screen test. I'm more than a little bit concerned that this is also the guy who directed Netflix's Death Note movie but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

That'sa nice! I do not tolerate this Gridman slander and count me among the people who feel physically pained by how well GXP is ranked.

I dunno about that. The visuals for OPM season 2 were a huge let down but the story was basically there. Tokyo Ghoul Root A is fair comparison here but I have to say I managed to get more out of Root A then I've gotten out of the 2nd anime season of The Promised Neverland and that's a dang shame because the first season was great. If you thought they stood around and talked a lot in season one, season two take that to a whole different level. There's a bunch of scenes where they kids are just standing around as something is explained to them where in the manga the reader was treated to a depiction of what they're talking about. So it's pretty dull even when the story takes interesting turns. On top of that the anime by-passes what a lot of people consider to be the best arc of the whole story and that's just a waste. And the viewers won't even see the disappointment coming because the first few episodes are thrilling. So I expect plenty of people will watch the first episode and be like "oh people didn't know what they were talking about, this is good" but they'll see soon enough that the anime is writing checks it can't cash.

Tell me about it.

According to Douglas, various networks have been cracking down on ratings info being offered to the public. The days of seeing the exact 18-49s may be over.

I get that. I really want to see Godzilla vs Kong on a huge screen but I’m not risking it at this rate.

I will not. I’ll wait for digital.

I mean you say shounen but there’s quite a range of genres among shounen manga/anime. Food Wars, Neverland and Assassination Classroom are rather different beasts than Dragon Ball and Naruto. Ass Class is probably the closest thing to Dragon Maid aside from Tenchi GXP and maybe FLCL. Horror anime wise it’s really just been Parasyte, Tokyo Ghoul, Demon Slayer (if you count it) and Neverland. All but Neverland had plenty of action. Uzumaki is a horror story that won’t be action oriented and they’re co-producing that one. FLCL Alternative was basically a slice of life show outside of the occasional robot encounter. But after Pop Team Epic, I think just about anything is possible if they like it or it’s requested enough (if they can acquire it of course).

At this point, it wouldn't surprise me very much. They seem increasingly more open about trying other genres and Dragon Maid fits in a Tenchi kind of way.

I really didn't want to see Shaman King end up on Netflix first. It won't be simulcast here and I'll be honest I have no qualms about hitting the high seas to keep up with the Japanese broadcast.

I'd probably say Food Wars but I like Gridman the most at the moment.

If they were anticipating a two week delay or longer, they wouldn't be rerunning the latest episode first. Hell it would have made sense to rerun at least two episodes unless they were very sure they only needed one week. Granted, another power outage could happen but that's not their expectation. Meanwhile, the probability of Dr. Stone coming soon isn't looking quite as good. There's no episode this week and there wasn't one last week of either. There will probably be one next week but that's anyone's guess.