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For one thing, Aiko the planet girl doesn’t show up until episode 3 out of 6. So no she’s not particularly well built up. That episode only shows she’s not the cutesy girl she pretended to be. When it is revealed she’s a countermeasure to Medical Mechanica it’s just like sure whatever. Progressive was full of memberberries and various moments that aped the original. That is a big criticism for the first episode in particular. And Kanti was there because… people like Kanti. Jinyu was indeed awesome and makes Prog worth existing if Hidomi’s story didn’t (but it did). Hidomi’s story about accepting change and finding a reason to live when she basically no longer wanted to exist was compelling enough. Haruko got just about as much focus though and her story was all about going after Atomsk again. Don’t get me started on that other faction that was trying to harness N.O. energy. Pets got an episode. It was heavily focused on her relationship with Kana though. As I said, it’s a bit subtle but you can notice Pet’s attitude and how Kana’s actions lead to their falling out. I felt Alt better fits the mold of playing around with the concepts in FLCL but being its own thing. It also offers a character who is largely the opposite of Naota. Jason doesn’t make the music, how many music producers and talent coordinators do you ever hear about? The ones you do were probably famous performers at some point. You apparently don’t even hear about Run the Jewels in your circle of podcasts and such, they’re not Beyonce or Drake popular but they’re not that obscure either. They give away a ton of music but I assure you music distribution makes AS money one way or another. And playing the music videos you destain can serve to bolster business relationships if nothing else. I doubt Toonami always made money. If I had to guess, it probably didn’t until at least mid 2013 if not 2014 when Titan hit or 2015 when DBZ Kai found its stride. Ratings and ad revenue probably piqued in 2015 unless comparatively Super improved upon that. He’s not introducing anime fans to anime they might not be aware of because it’s all hyped new shounen and sequels for the moment. However, Space Dandy, Parasyte, Dim W, Michiko & Hatchin, Casshern Sins, Deadman, Pop Team Epic, Megalobox and to a lesser extent KILL la KILL, Akame ga Kill, Food Wars, Dr. Stone, Fire Force and The Promised Neverland are fine examples of that (quality of two or three aside). But to his credit Pop Team, Megalobox and Neverland were timely pick-ups in the past two years that shows he’s still capable of finding gems. His more obscure show preferences tend to be 80s and 90s anime though. I would not call Utena and Magical Knight Rayearth mainstream though Utena is considered a seminal classic. Probably more often unable than unwilling. That’s business for you. Has anyone ever considered that a big reason why hit shows end up on Toonami has to do with the fact that distributors want those shows to air? Especially if the Japanese producers have a say (and they often seem to, at least for Jump shounen). When their library deal with FUNimation ended around probably 2016 with Champloo it became increasingly rare for them to air backlog shows from any distributor. The demand has shifted to “the new hotness” for better or worse. They realize they cannot get just any show so they are co-producing more unique anime to air the kinds of anime they want. That’s what’s on the horizon. It won’t be the only fresh content though. There’s 10 months left in this year and only one of those six productions will feasibly air this year. You can bitch about Soma and Naruto till the cows come home but they’re both earning their keep. Yeah the space is once again quite limited but Is it really in the network’s best interest to have premieres at 3:00 and 3:30? The rest of Adult Swim aside from the really really obscure stuff doesn’t premiere outside of the 9pm-1am time frame and most only premiere between 11pm and 1am. 2am hour premieres is an oddity that only Toonami maintains and 2am hour premieres are debatably a waste of resources. Even 3 hours of premieres was unthinkable for Adult Swim before Toonami hit its stride in 2013.

Looks like Kai is back at 8pm on Saturday on March 14th and MHA encores run at 8:30pm. Also Bobs Burgers is off Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday they replaced it with Rick & Morty and a 10pm airing of The Boondocks. One late night Boondocks on Saturday is replaced with Venture Bros. Nice to see The Boondocks in late prime time.

They probably can get away with the MA for that one episode. It was hardly necessary anyway. Maybe it could get a rerating.

They did want the original staff, particularly Tsurumaki the director but he told them to get new blood to come up with their own take on FLCL.

It wasn’t built up as well as it could have been but Kana had that fall out with Pets coming. Kana regularly meddled in her friends affairs for her own benefit and eventually they called her out on that. If you pay attention to Pets in every episode you can see the destain she has for Kana’s selfish behavior. It’s subtle and nuanced. I think Alternative is a much better written story even if they don’t stick the landing at the end. If you want to talk about things coming out of nowhere, plant girl mcguffin in Progressive takes the cake. Visually Progressive did some interesting things but the story was too beholden to the original and focused on Haruko’s obsession with Atomisk of all things. Jinyu depicting Haruko’s inner turmoil was a neat idea though and Hidomi’s story was fine, the rest was a mess or just memberberries. The interesting thing about Pro and Alt is people have differing opinions on which was better. I know two people who love FLCL to death and one liked Pro more and the other thinks Alt is as good as the original. Maybe they were more involved in IGPX scripts then, I don’t really know but I’m pretty sure they weren’t credited as episode writers. They definitely gave input on the story and characters regardless. You’re probably underselling what AS and DeMarco have accomplished in the music industry. What other TV network promotes more artists? Hell, what other music supplier spotlights so many new artists? You’re probably not well informed on that subject. That said, I would not say DeMarco in particular is as much of a taste maker as that article title implies. If you wanted Toonami back and you want it to stick around then you kind of are asking them to do it for no additional pay because that’s the only way it was going to happen. Now that choice helps keep costs down and ensures Toonami makes money for Adult Swim rather than just breaks even. It is their choice not to demand additional pay for working on Toonami but if they didn’t make that choice it would be harder to justify keeping Toonami around. It’s pretty dang likely that Toonami would not exist without DeMarco guiding it. I doubt anyone else at AS wants that responsibility. They could simply do things the ASA way again because that was even more affordable. FUNi has the biggest titles (DBZ, MHA, AoT, etc) but before Sony bought them they were no match for CR in sheer number of titles licensed every season. That’s changed though. CR still co-produces the most anime though. Basic bitch shounen gets views. That’s probably the biggest difference maker between ASA and Toonami aside from having a recognizable brand. ASA was content to only air only 2-3 basic bitch shounen most of the time while Toonami airs significantly more all of the time. I think AgK was trash as well but it certainly did well. But what exactly do you even want them to air that would feasibly do well?

Impressive work. I'd love to see someone try this with One Piece because the episodes are hella padded by around Enies Lobby.

It's been mused that some day Toonami might be run by Crunchyroll. There's really no telling whether that would be better or worse than what we have now but I'm weary of that happening. CR has a small anime block in Brazil that has aired the likes of ReZero, Black Clover and I think KonoSuba among others. If the block had to rely mostly on CR's licenses and obviously only on the ones that got dubbed... that's not the best catalog honestly. Get ready for Highschool Prodigies Isekai, Bookworm Isekai, Cute Girls Isekai and their crowning achievement Slavery is Fine Isekai aka Rising of the Shield Hero (I don't hate that show or any of those shows BTW). Sure there's ReZero, KonoSuba, Mob Psycho season 2 and gems like Somali and the Forest Spirit but their dub catalog is full of some really mediocre stuff. Toonami is better off occasionally borrowing from that catalog instead of relying on it. CR probably wouldn't want to cannibalize their streaming numbers either and that's probably a big reason why we haven't seen more of their shows on Toonami yet. Even if they were running Toonami they'd probably still put the streaming service first and I wouldn't expect them not to because it has always been their bread and butter. If you think Toonami feels like simuldub leftovers now hoooo boy it could definitely be worse. If it gets to that point, HBO Max would probably premiere those other four Toonami original series before the block would air them. That said, if it's just one or two rotating slots, Toonami should totally play whatever gems they can get from CR. I just strongly doubt they can have them for free.

There's probably some teleconferencing, but say they're giving input on designs, logos, marketing materials, scripts, etc. they can do plenty of that work at their own office in Atlanta via email. I happen to like IGPX and FLCL Alternative. Both were competently written and pretty entertaining. FLCL Progressive, much less so but it had some moments. Jason and Gill didn't write those scripts. The only scripts they occasionally write are for promos and Toonami T.I.E.s when they don't use a professional writer for T.I.E.s. Blade Runner scripts are being handled in the US by professional writers. You may think the singles program is a waste and you're probably not the only one who does but its become a big part of Adult Swim's identity in the industry and like the article says Jason is kind of a big deal in the music industry and Adult Swim with him. The man brought together Run the Jewels, he should be thanked forever for that much. It's not a sob story and it never was one. Rather it's something that says they actually care a lot about Toonami and are willing to do that work on top of the work they already were doing at Adult Swim for no additional pay. Jason is likely paid plenty well as manager at Adult Swim but the daily operations for Toonami is like extra credit for him and Gill. Steve and Dana get paid for their voice work. CGI animators get paid for their work. Script writers hired for these originals get paid for their work. I would think the video editors are paid for at least the promos for Toonami but the extra things like game reviews and the occasional original music video are probably also extra credit. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them are paid salary as opposed to hourly. I really doubt anyone is banking over-time to work on Toonami stuff. Toonami makes money by attracting unique advertisers with programming that's not as expensive as FOX reruns. When it's about 3 hours it is largely self-sufficient and doesn't need a ton of money to operate outside of licensing shows and the occasional CGI refresh. Part of the reason why it's self-sufficient is because some of the labor is done at no additional cost and without siphoning too much time away from promoting the rest of Adult Swim's programming. You say someone could probably do a better job and there's probably someone who exists that can do it better but you don't really understand the logistics of the job. You seem to think it's just picking shows out of a huge pile of available ones whenever there's an opening and the rest is basically auto-pilot. You don't seem to realize that not just anyone can negotiate with Japanese companies and US licensors to get shows. Jason has more than 20 years under his belt of working with these companies and building a relationship with them. In the streaming age those sorts of relationships are how he has managed to get shows that would have otherwise been streaming exclusives. That unfortunately doesn't mean he can get just anything he wants because Toonami can get outbid but brings shows to the table. Someone who has been working at Crunchyroll or FUNimation for a while could probably handle those negotiations and potentially get better shows, but not just anyone working in the industry would be capable of doing that. I'd have to figure back in 2005 as long as CN had enough money to please the licensor they could have gotten basically any kids anime they wanted but things have changed dramatically since then and it's mainly those long standing relationships that keep Toonami in the game now. That and the Japanese companies that prefer to have their shows air on TV even if it's late at night. Considering Toonami has aired something around 40 anime that didn't previously air on Adult Swim since the block came back in 2012, it's reasonable to think they've considered at least 100 or more additional shows over that time frame and we have no idea how many were no-go at the time and if they still are. Even Crunchyroll can't get everything they want anymore. Hell, FUNimation got quite a lot more simulcasts this season than CR did. I do think they should have an intern whose primary duties should include researching shows for Toonami if for no other reason than to have a younger persons input. That's probably an affordable solution. But the company probably looks at the fact that there are already three people who regularly contemplate which shows should air on Toonami and consider that plenty. I mean in the ASA days it was basically just Manning and sometimes Mike Lazzo. Still, I'd like to see someone else take some of the burden off of those three since they're occupied with lots of other things. It's an objective lie that nobody wanted more FLCL aside from Adult Swim but it's subjective whether or not they gave FLCL fans something they wanted. A lot more people wanted an ending to Samurai Jack though. Sequels and reboots are a tired thing that Hollywood does but it's not always without merit. It remains to be seen what the other 4 projects are but I'd like to think at least 2 or 3 aren't sequels, reboots or spin-offs. Then again, who is really gonna complain is Adult Swim co-funds a final season for Bleach or an adaptation of the Trigun Maximum manga? Like I said, not all sequels aren't without merit.

Both of these things can be true and are not mutually exclusive: 1) Programming wanted to fill the 4AM slot so they took the 4AM slot and now wants 11PM and 3-4AM as well 2) Jason and company were willing to give up the 4AM slot and also willing to trim Toonami down to 3.5 hours and they discussed this with programming when they asked how they felt about giving up some slots Programming wanted those slots and Jason and company took the opportunity to trim Toonami down out of preference. Ultimately they couldn't say no to programming but in this case they didn't want to say no. Near as I can figure they were probably expecting to lose 4AM and then 11PM but maybe expected to keep 3-4AM for an hour at least until Neverland finished. That way it would have been a more gradual reduction instead of mostly happening all at once. But programming decided to take 3-4AM as well.

Uzumaki is basically the only original that could air this year. Blade Runner isn't happening this year, the guys directing it are busy with their CGI Ghost in the Shell anime right now. Unless they can actually air something this year that they haven't announced yet, it's Uzumaki (4 episodes) or nothing. They definitely have two openings this Spring before additional seasons of Fire Force, Dr. Stone, Attack on Titan and MHA are feasible. One might go to Mob season 2 but there's really no telling at this point. I expect that they'll be willing to add slots on the fly in order to start airing those new seasons whenever they are available. Theoretically that means they'll have a few potential openings unless they just wait for another opening before starting one of those sequel seasons. To air them in a timely manner (which is important) they won't always wait for those sparse openings.

They can do a lot of production work in Atlanta, it doesn't all have to be in person in Japan but they do take multiple trips to Japan every year. Far from every week or every month though. Make no mistake though, they're not just handing over money and leaving the rest to the Japanese producers. Blade Runner is getting written in the US and I'm sure they're overseeing those scripts. Jason is Senior Vice President of Adult Swim on-air. He basically oversees all the on-air promotion. If it airs on Adult Swim and it isn't a show, then he made it happen. Bumps, show promos, special advertisements made by Adult Swim are all overseen by Jason. He also coordinates musical talent to be used on Adult Swim and for their music distribution like the singles program. Those are the managerial duties that Jason is actually paid to do. But if you also think putting on even 3 hours of anime a week is so easy that a child could do it, you have no idea the weekly logistics that go into that even when there aren't frequent show rotations.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be proud of every expansion Toonami earns or is granted and also prefer a shorter block due to the exponential amount of additional promotion, packaging and curating work the expansions create.

To be fair, dealing with constantly having to find shows to fill 5 hours without just resorting to reruns is a lot more work than filling 3 hours. Shows can take months to secure so if they are changing one out just about every month they have to plan well in advance and even then often enough things can go wrong. We have no idea how difficult it actually is to get any suitable show much less particular ones that are in high demand. I really can't get behind calling them lazy given everything Jason and Gill juggle at Adult Swim along with weekly Toonami production and working on 6 original series.

Well yeah, in the 8pm hour. 😐

Yeah seriously. I want some Primal Toonami bumps. Jack is moving from 5:30am where it is about to finish season 4. The first week of this schedule is the last episode of season 4. It’s been years since season 5 has aired so I’m hoping they continue into season 5 rather that start back over from episode 1. Space Ghost C2C is starting from episode 1. I’m thrilled to have it back on. The Boondocks is also a welcome return to Saturday late night. Its a solid lineup but it’s a shame they didn’t at least finish TPN before dumping that rerun. Honestly if filling rerun space is too bothersome for Toonami because it creates unnecessary work then they could run some anime after 3am without the Toonami branding.

Here’s post Toonami starting on Feb 29th 3:00 - Primal 3:30 - Samurai Jack 4:00 - The Boondocks x2 5:00 - Aqua Something You Know Whatever x2 5:30 - Space Ghost Coast to Coast x2

LOL CN sure didn't. They basically never give a clue when something is shit canned until it happens. Some people from Williams Street went to a convention that weekend (Dragon Con or Anime Weekend Atlanta I forget which) and said that Toonami was going off the air and people should tune in for the last broadcast that Saturday. They we're allowed to say anything sooner but obviously knew far enough in advance to make the sign-off video.

The way Soma lays into Subaru was straight up savage.

I'm guessing Dr. Stone season 2 wont air in Japan until October but it might be a July show like Fire Force again. I'm decided to put Food Wars on a break between season 2 and season 3 to squeeze another show in. Other than Mob and other sequels I left the openings blank and I decided not to include Boruto because if it was coming back it probably would have been when Fire Force ended if not when Dr. Stone does. I think they will get back to 3.5 by the end of the year if only to ensure they can air MHA, Titan, Dr. Stone and Fire Force all at once. That said, MHA hasn't had another season announced yet and probably wont until the end of the current season (just like last time). https://drive.google.com/open?id=1W0UiMUdPq_Nw9uEMwzOX9LAj6pisnWoXzJf-uXZ5b60

To be fair, in 2008 he barely worked on Toonami outside of promos and had no say in what was airing. Also, cutting down to 2 hours a week only 1 show in premieres and dropping every anime except Naruto was a pretty good indication that Toonami was as good as dead. We were just waiting for CN to finally pull the plug.

He makes an interesting analogy.

They got Food Wars more than half a year ago. They definitely were not considering scaling down at the time. The same week they added Gundam The Origin so both HxH and TPN would be replaced. Then soon after they brought in gen:LOCK, Fire Force and Dr. Stone and pushed Lupin to 3:30am to fit them. Then continued packing the lineup to the point they chose to drop Boruto just to be able to air JoJo at 2:30am. There’s no question that Food Wars was added to replace HxH as a long runner with the expectation that programming would want them maintain around 8 premieres. Given Jason’s preference for a smaller block, programming decides how long Toonami should be. They decided to extend to 6 hours with no encores and then 6.5 hours, they decided to retract to 3.5, they decided to move up to 11:30 and then back to midnight, they decided to add 11:30 and then 11 and add more time on the back here and there, they decided to start the block at 10:30 and then 10:00 and then 9:00 before moving back to 11:00 and now cutting down to 3.5 hours again. They change shit on a whim and try all manner of things including the occasional anime in the 8pm hour. Given the time slot dilemma, I kind of hope they take a break between seasons 2 and 3 of Food Wars this year. They might do that even if it means holding off on airing recently dubbed episodes. It’s anyone’s guess how that will pan out, now that Sentai has finally dubbed the 3rd season.

I definitely would prefer 4 hours in the scenario that they have 2-3 long running series. The wiggle room is nice. I’d like to dedicate one slot to shows from the past 5 years that got passed over. But if they used the time effectively, 3 hours is plenty.

That’s fair but unless shows don’t get more seasons that’s an inevitable situation for every noteworthy new anime. I’d say they should solve the space dilemma by ditching Shippuden and maybe Black Clover but that’s just my opinion.

Not in JoJo and Demon Slayer’s case but that’s true of 4 of their “premieres”