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CN's desire to attract more girls in the afternoon seemed to be a short lived one as they soon enough were back to being a boy's club for the most part. However, rather than return Toonami to weekday afternoons they got rid of afternoon action all together outside of maybe Ben 10 or Pokemon on occasion and dedicated even more of their schedule to playing the same comedies as they would in prime time and other parts of the day. Jim Samples stepping down after the Aqua Teen Bomb scare in Boston dramatically changed the network and it's goals. Even temporarily putting animation production on the back burner to churn out a bunch of live action shows. They eventually refound their footing with animated comedy but they stopped giving action animation adequate support and slowly but surely they phased out pretty much all of it. Adult Swim scaled back anime when they gained additional airings of FOX comedies and got better ratings from rerunning their own shows than anime but they never stopped playing it. As long as Mike Lazzo runs Adult Swim, Toonami isn't getting cancelled again. The only real danger is for them to lose some time but they've managed to make the block very cost effective to the point that they are at least breaking even on most shows including Naruto and One Piece which I figure have only become more affordable since getting shifted to the back of the block. There's a danger with doing "just well enough" though. They seem like they're on the road to complacency largely relying on Dragon Ball to keep the casual audience watching and also relying on the established fanbases more than looking to introduce fresh things. I'd certainly like to see more from the "fresh things" category.

Well that was quite a rant about Adult Swim. Aqua Teen ended but Robot Chicken is still in production IIRC. Just how much do you think those actors get paid? Animation for a single episode of Venture Bros. costs roughly 300,000 dollars. The 26th highest paid actor on US television per episode is Peter Dinklage on Game of Thrones. He gets 150,000 per episode. http://www.bingewatched.com/15-highest-per-episode-paid-tv-actors-time/ I'd have to figure the actors on Adult Swim live action shows get paid quite a bit less than the 26th highest paid actor. So while it's nowhere near as cheap as using talent with little to no notoriety it's still considerably more affordable than animation. In all likelihood Super's 8pm airing wont be able to do better than a 0.4 18-49 and something around 1 million total viewers. The 11:30pm airing which more people are likely to tune in for, that will also have the benefit of a Family Guy lead-in, is sure to manage 0.5 18-49 and 1.2 million at the lowest but more likely to get around 0.6 18-49 and above 1.3 million. DBZ Kai following that may actually crack 0.7 18-49 and 1.5 million due to less competition and the fact that it's the only airing once a night. And don't worry about losing a Family Guy, they'll still have double Family Guy as a lead-in. 10:30-11:30. Keeping DBZ Kai at midnight is likely the insurance policy for any kind of problematic Super viewership split. If they were following Super with pretty much anything else then I'd be a bit concerned but they are taking back 11:30pm the right way this time. They're letting people know a month in advance and they're adding a slot, not just shifting earlier so DBZ isn't leaving midnight where people expect to see it. If Super's 8pm airings choke, they will most likely switch to 11:30 premieres and 8pm encores like they had with Kai. Or they may stick with it as long as the Toonami airings don't look to be negatively affected by the 8pm premieres if that's what it takes to appease Toei. I honestly don't think the shift earlier this year caused their ratings to decline, I think that decline was going to happen either way because all of Adult Swim declined this year and so did the rest of cable. The timing merely made it seem like it was because Toonami tried to air earlier and added Gundam. That sort of thing only should have tripped up the audience a few weeks at most but it wasn't until One-Punch Man came along that things got back on track. Now that it ended things are down again despite moving back to midnight. I very much believe they can sustain 11:30 and even 11pm. They have enough huge titles to do it once they can secure Attack on Titan season 2. However, maintaining momentum from 11pm to 1am will prove difficult if the audience doesn't take a liking to JoJo or they get another series that can keep the DBZ viewers but the expectations for 1am-3:30 seem to be relatively low. Unfortunately airing earlier than 11pm puts Toonami up against a lot more sports and cable premieres but if it cannot hold it's own against all that then it's strength seems rather artificial. Though the same can be argued for most of what Adult Swim airs after 11pm, FOX reruns are very reliable for those hours anything else they try tends to be short lived. If Super does well at 8pm they might even try One Piece and/or Shippuden premieres in those hours that'd be a good way to open up some space on Toonami without pulling those series off the air.

Hunter's violence is probably too much for 9pm TBH, better off airing One Piece in prime time since it's much tamer overall.

Since it's long running they may not do topicals forever but I could see them doing them for at least a season. However, I would think the topicals would be be for the 8pm airings so maybe those wouldn't even use Steve Blum though it would see more fitting than Howard Parker. It's certainly possible they'd get one of the cast members of Dragon Ball Z to say the "on the next all new Dragon Ball Super". Maybe Sonny Strait, wouldn't that be a neat throwback to TOM 1? I could certainly see Chris Sabat doing that as well or maybe Sean Schemmel if they want it to be like Goku is narrating but that would be maybe too campy for the audience they'll be trying to attract. Maybe the topicals would mention both the 8pm and 11:30 airings but they really should promote the 8pm airing on Adult Swim and not just the Toonami aring.

Definitely. 11:30 wasn't coming back for just anything but now I'm pretty convinced they'll shoot for 11pm with Samurai Jack and the potential for Attack on Titan premieres to carry the slot after that. I don't know if it would be sustainable after Titan ends but they ought to be able to. Bigger names and really only big names at this point though it may not remain that way it does seem to be the direction everything is heading in. I guess when you have the resources to get the biggest shows you don't seek out the diamonds in the rough very much.

I adore JoJo but if Part 2 doesn't hold DBZ better than this then I honestly think they should swap it and Hunter which has almost always held its lead well and is ramping up. I feel if HxH is pushed to 2am this year that they have made a huge mistake casting it aside so soon. It hasn't ever really done badly regardless of the slot and that ought to be rewarded instead of punished. They should at least keep it at 1:30 if they don't see fit to move it up. Though double DB is a tough act to follow for anything short of One-Punch or Attack on Titan premieres, it may vey well be the case that this audience isn't going to appreciate JoJo. It's a darn shame but they shouldn't let JoJo stay at 12:30 if it can't hold DBZ at least as well as Gundam or Dimension W.

I can't say I agree.

The problem there is what's good is highly subjective... To some what's good is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Hunter x Hunter and One Piece To some what's good is Sword Art Online, Akame ga Kill and Black Lagoon To some what's good is Universal Century Gundam, Voltron and Robotech To some what's good is Attack on Titan, Hellsing Ultimate and Death Note To some what's good is Space Dandy, Michiko & Hatchin and FLCL To some what's good is Cowboy Bebop, Big O and Ghost in the Shell To some what's good is Naruto, Dragon Ball Z and Bleach To some what's good is Sailor Moon, InuYasha and Code Geass To some what's good is Tiger & Bunny, Blood Blockade Battlefront and One-Punch Man To some what's good is Ushio & Tora, Magi and Log Horizon I know a guy who loves SAO and AGK and thinks FLCL and Cowboy Bebop are trash and wont even respect them for their influence on anime and popular culture. I know far too many people who only like Dragon Bal Z, Attack on Titan and maybe One-Punch Man or Naruto. I know people who dislike pretty much all shounen and only want Toonami to play seinin anime. I know people who genuinely enjoyed DImension W or Tenchi Muyo GXP. I know people who thought Michiko & Hatchin was an inspired picks for Toonami and people who thought it was the worst thing they ever aired. I know people who love KILL la KILL and I know people who loathe it. I know people who are complaining to Toonami to air Tokyo Ghoul and others who are thankful it hasn't aired and are hoping it never does. I know people who would love to see Young Justice on Toonami and I know people who would be furious if it ran on Toonami. I know people who are excited for Samurai Jack and FLCL revivals and I know people who consider them a huge waste of money. I know people who think Toonami is nothing without DBZ and people who think DBZ is the worst thing to ever happen to Toonami on Adult Swim. I do not envy Jason and Gill having to consider all that. They know they can't ever please everyone so they largely go after the shows that get the most requests and occasionally get shows specifically because they wanted to air them. Though I do think they need to spend more time checking these shows, especially now that they barely have any slots rotating shows in and out.

Romantic as that statement was, the rest of Adult Swim isn't the enemy. I would take Dragon Ball Super showing up on Adult Swim as a sign that Disney and Nicktoons didn't want it. The chances of Disney or Viacom not being able to outbid Turner are pretty slim. Saban's Vortexx block isn't around anymore and that was the last children's venue that had interest in Dragon Ball Z after Nicktoons unceremoniously kicked it to the curb after it did so well for the network. I thought DXD could have been interested but that was probably just wishful thinking. Fine sure, just have it on in the background I guess but I would think this would offer you the rare opportunity to watch the show earlier and then be able to focus more on discussing it during the encore airing rather than just posting during the ad breaks. Though for that matter we could certainly discuss the show on here as it airs at 8pm. EST.

At this point I pretty much only watch One Piece on Toonami. I never seem to carve out the time to watch a bunch of episodes of it so I'm going to be behind for a long long time.

Beyond the live-action nonsense in 2008, Snyder honestly was preferable to the current head of CN. At least back then there was some semblance of variety on CN and decent amount of action cartoons airing.

Funny, I'd say Super has the least business airing on Adult Swim, yet it's going to air on Adult Swim even outside of Toonami. Go figure. But seriously, that should be on a children's network, it requires next to no censorship aside from God, Satan, Hell and death.

You would think Adult Swim was trying to be greedy or screw over Toonami when they're on the same dang side to begin with. : The 8pm airing was probably something Toei wanted in return for letting Toonami air it at 11:30pm. I have no doubt they wanted to market Super as broadly as possible and air it on a children's network but the options are so limited now that they settled for Adult Swim. If you ever want to see action air before 11pm, I recommend we all watch the 8pm airing or both I suppose. If the 8pm airing gets no support it only proves that action can't succeed in prime time. Which is a sad statement considering Toonami was airing 7PM-11PM on Saturday nights for 3 years and airing in the early evenings for even longer than that.

Zeni are you at least happy they are airing Gundam Unicorn? They do in fact work too hard. They arguably put too much effort into their packaging. On the week's they run marathons they make a new set of bumpers for the commercial breaks. They could simply repeat the same bumpers every slot but they go that extra mile for whatever reason. They make something new for the block most weeks out of the year and also do immersion events. They give every series premiere promotion and promote any deviation from the regular schedule and every change to the regular schedule. No other part of Adult Swim has regular line-up promos that include every show that is airing. The amount of effort they put into promotion and packaging is far and beyond any other venue out there. And the Toonami staff don't even get paid for all that. They are definitely working too hard and bless them for it. Toonami definitely has an identity Zeni, you simply don't like what it is. The home of mainstream action animation on basic cable. Arguably still the home of the best action cartoons on US television.

The amount of money Adult Swim is spending on action programming is astonishing at this point. I'd have to figure this dipped beyond the usual Toonami budget big time. Something only allowed because it's fark'n Dragon Ball and it prints money. They'll probably make an exception for Attack on Titan season 2 next year as well. It exciting to see Adult Swim go above and beyond for action though a bit less so since so much of their spending is just on Dragon Ball series.

It's a brave new world now. They'll probably get 11pm for Samurai Jack and encore it at 8:30pm or even premiere it at 8:30pm with 11pm encores. I feel like they're kind of blowing their load with this by airing both at the same time but I suppose airing Super as soon as possible is the priority here. I figured they'd just skip Buu if they had Super but I have once again underestimated how far they will go not to drop a show mid-run.

Super encore at 11:30 (premieres at 8pm) Kai Final Chapters at Midnight https://www.facebook.com/Toonami/ Discuss Cheer Cry Vent Whatever

FUNimation did add swearing in the uncut dub of DBZ and Kai. They somewhat eased back on that later in Kai's uncut dub but early on there was a bit and even an S-bomb IIRC. Granted there are lots of ways to translate Japanese "swears" and they don't have to be as crass as the harsher known American curse words though so an s-bomb in particular is out of place in DBZ but at least they don't drop f-bombs like some fansubbers liked to do. I expect the uncut Super dub to be along the lines of Kai and relatively light on cursing but they are also producing a censored dub in case a children's network picks it up. Sabat confirmed that on Twitter recently. Mr. Satan would be Hercule, all mentions of God and death would be censored as well. You know just like the Y7-FV Kai dubs. As for violence. I have not seen Super beyond the first episode. I'm told there is an instance of stabbing but other than that it's not very violent. So it shouldn't need many visual edits for violence. I've heard something about Goku catching Bulma in the bath or taking a shower or something but that's easy enough to cut I would imagine. There's really no reason content wise it's too much for children's television.

A nice upswing from November. Hey AL while you're waiting for the rest of the ratings could you track down the series averages of Parasyte, AGK and Dimension W? And if you're willing also the series averages for KLK, SAOII, Michiko, Final Act and Champloo if you have them on hand? 18-34 averages for what is available along with 18-49 and total viewer averages. Only if you have them on hand, don't go to the trouble if you have to do all that math again.

Oh good you understand why they wouldn't air the only existing English dub. Here's the thing though, Build Fighters isn't getting a dub done in America. They already released it on Bluray and included the Asian English dub so you can consider the book pretty much closed on that baring very unlikely circumstances. Gundam really isn't sabotaging anything. It held DBZ about as well as anything else has for those 4 weeks and then it held One-Punch Man about as well as anything has held DBZ. I hate to say it but JoJo is actually proving more of a ratings problem than IBO. Toonami's ratings woes started around the time IBO started but not infact because of Gundam. Adult Swim declined this year across the board to the point that even Family Guy and DBZ can't get what they used to but so has the rest of cable so all things considered Adult Swim is still living at the top of the heap. As difficult as it may be to wrap our brains around it, these ratings aren't an indication that Toonami is doing badly or is even in trouble. It competes well just about every week and that's really all that matters.

Build Fighters English dub was recorded in Asia. No thanks. It's a good show though very intended for children but without a passable English dub they should not air it. I think the fact that even DBZ and Family Guy have done much worse than usual the past several months is indication Gundam is not the main reason the ratings are down. Gundam has managed an average very close to Parasytes despite everything being lower than when Parasyte was in premieres. Though I still hope Battle Tendency and Unicorn fair much better than Phantom Blood and IBO have since October.

If it airs on Toonami it's possible but very unlikely to hit that threshold right out of the park even with initial curiosity. The first couple of episodes are a little cute, kinda boring and very childish. About the same as Bleach filler but a bit more charming. With Adult Swim's ratings being down across the board lately I have serious doubts that Family Guy will regularly break 2 million viewers again. Maybe just maybe Super can actually beat the Family Guy episode that would air directly before it on the first week due to hype or some time after when the action kicks up. Its honestly very difficult to gauge how well DBZ Kai Buu saga or Super would do for Toonami other than better than Kai's average this year. DBZ Kai's 18-49 went from 802,000 down to 763,000 down to 700,000 and now 692,000 this month. Each week worse than the last. It's best in October was 851,000 but most of the other weeks it was below 800,000. So I honestly am not sure if Super could even regularly crack 900,000 18-49 but those would be super ratings for Adult Swim regardless.

I wouldn't go quite that far. They occasionally speed up a distributor regarding getting a show dubbed but if there is no dub planned they aren't known to get one in motion. They don't exactly have the financial clout with their regular budget to make dubs happen if they were not going to unless they wanted to air a show.

Viz licensed the show and said they were dubbing it quite a while before the cast was announced and Toonami announced they were airing it. While it's possible for Toonami to pick up a show from a Japanese distributor as they did with Sunrise for Gundam but that tends to require a prior relationship with the Japanese company. All you can really fault Toonami on in this case is perhaps not having Re:ZERO on their radar because it's not licensed. Even if it was on their radar there's only so much they can do to get it if the Japanese producers don't want to work with them directly.

To the surprise of probably no one. JoJo marathon on Dec 24th DBZ Kai marathon on Dec 31st