The Adventures of Jason DeMarco's Impromptu Q&A Tweet Fest Sesh

[The1gairon]

DeMarco was bored so he answered a few Toonami-related and music-related questions.  No major news was announced, but he did share some previously-unknown bits of trivia.

 

[OwlChemist81]

Yeah, I'm the one who asked if there was new music from The Pillows in the sneak premiere and got the "yes" answer!!

[The1gairon]

Other notes

- Rerunning Countdown and Scavengers was Mike Lazzo's idea.

- Making everything on Toonami Japanese was also Lazzo's idea.

- MIND GAME came about because Toonami had never, or barely, worked with GKids prior to last weekend, and GKids said they had it available, and Jason and Gill both love the movie. It airing the same year as Devilman Crybaby was probably a coincidence. GKids now owns pretty much all the North American rights to Ghibli movies, so this is good to open a relationship with them in case Toonami ever wants to air Ghibli movies again.

- DeMarco doesn't know if Adult Swim will manage a sale for The Pillows' new music.

[The1gairon]

- He digs Devilman Crybaby, but didn't love it.

- Block is still doing great!

- This April Fools prank took 3 months of work.

- He would love to air Slayers, or Patlabor, or Gunbuster, if they weren’t all too old.

- He doesn't consider FLCL 2 and 3 "my BIGGEST dream project", and there is one other project he is working on that could be!

- He is "actively working on" more original Toonami-funded shows.

- Williams Street isn't hiring (at the moment).

- To get your music on Adult Swim's seasonal music showcase, DeMarco has to essentially come across it by himself, like it, and reach out to you.

[PokeNirvash]

2 hours ago, elfie said:

- He is "actively working on" more original Toonami-funded shows.

Probably the reason why we haven't been getting any new shows this year (yet).

[The1gairon]

1 hour ago, PokeNirvash said:

Probably the reason why we haven't been getting any new shows this year (yet).

Like, slouching above a drafting table animating it all himself....

[ben0119]

On 4/3/2018 at 12:16 PM, elfie said:

- He doesn't consider FLCL 2 and 3 "my BIGGEST dream project", and there is one other project he is working on that could be!

- He is "actively working on" more original Toonami-funded shows.

 

Oh, good.  Hopefully it's not something Toonami related.

So we can look forward to more sequels and revivals that no one asked for?  So much for Toonami being subversive and ahead of the pack.  The creatively bankrupt Hollywood and lowest common denominator TV networks Demarco loves to rail against, he is quickly becoming.  That, or we can expect something IGPX-level. 

And yes, the money being blown on these Howard Hughes ventures could be spent on licensing new shows people have been requesting.

Edited April 7, 2018 by ben0119

[The1gairon]

13 hours ago, ben0119 said:

Oh, good.  Hopefully it's not something Toonami related.

So we can look forward to more sequels and revivals that no one asked for?  So much for Toonami being subversive and ahead of the pack.  The creatively bankrupt Hollywood and lowest common denominator TV networks Demarco loves to rail against, he is quickly becoming.  That, or we can expect something IGPX-level. 

And yes, the money being blown on these Howard Hughes ventures could be spent on licensing new shows people have been requesting.

You tend to jump waaay ahead to conclusions very easily.

[Sketch]

1 hour ago, ben0119 said:

Oh, good.  Hopefully it's not something Toonami related.

So we can look forward to more sequels and revivals that no one asked for?  So much for Toonami being subversive and ahead of the pack.  The creatively bankrupt Hollywood and lowest common denominator TV networks Demarco loves to rail against, he is quickly becoming.  That, or we can expect something IGPX-level. 

And yes, the money being blown on these Howard Hughes ventures could be spent on licensing new shows people have been requesting.

Considering they are occasionally outbid for a hit property I gotta ask, do you think it's reasonable for Adult Swim to pay whatever it takes to get shows like My Hero Academia and Sailor Moon Crystal? Considering acquisitions are something they cannot pay off through merchandising, sublicensing and home media putting a ton of money into an acquisition only makes sense if it's a slam dunk like Family Guy or Dragon Ball. They can only use acquisitions to get ratings and potentially prop up their original series with a strong lead-in. Obviously, DBS and DBZ Kai were not cheap but I figure all the 100+ episode series cost quite a bit to acquire and so would some shorter shows like Attack on Titan and One-Punch Man. It's very likely that they could not have afforded their current line-up back in 2014 much less 2013. For a while, they had 8 premieres going, even 9 temporarily. They probably got a great deal on some of those shows but none the less the network had to have been paying a lot to maintain even 7 premieres. I'd say they're definitely spending plenty of money on Toonami outside of original productions.

However, having exclusive shows is important and that's why Netflix and Amazon produce anime now and it only makes sense for Toonami to do the same if they want to have exclusive content as well. When most of what is airing on Toonami already simulcast when it aired in Japan there's not much incentive to tune in unless you will only watch dubs and even then several of those dubs are streaming, will be streaming shortly after airing or already streamed legally much less illegally. The more people abandon traditional cable the more people will get their anime fix where it's more convenient and less costly than a cable subscription. Simuldubs and original anime are the best ways to stay relevant in this global market. Simuldubs are great but if there's a production delay (and those happen all the time) its tough to make that work on a weekly television schedule. With an original series or co-production, the network can make sure they'll have a smooth roll-out. I'm sure someone like yourself who dislikes a deviation from your routine would be pretty annoyed if they started a new anime and then had to preempt it a week or two because of a production issue. And the nature of American television where shows often enough will only air a few episodes before getting pulled from the air has cemented the mindset that if a show is not on for even one week much less a few then it's probably not going to air again. So there are some definite hurdles when it comes to airing simuldubs that are not co-productions overseen by the network.

Anime fans would prefer a Toonami that's closer to the Japanese season model but acquiring anime is not Adult Swim's primary venture by any stretch so they cannot be expected to pick up a bunch of anime every season like Crunchyroll or Sentai. Though I do wonder if they could potentially license anime directly like Netflix, Crunchyroll, Sentai, FUNimation, Viz Media, etc. I would think that would at least allow them to make money off of the license depending on how the contract is structured. Going way back to 2008, I do believe Cartoon Network licensed Bakugan directly from the Japanese producers. Perhaps one-day Adult Swim will do the same for something that isn't an original co-production but they'll probably stick to either co-funding so they have unlimited usage like with GITS and Dandy or co-producing like with IGPX and FLCL 2/3.

[ben0119]

On 4/9/2018 at 12:12 AM, Sketch said:

Considering they are occasionally outbid for a hit property I gotta ask, do you think it's reasonable for Adult Swim to pay whatever it takes to get shows like My Hero Academia and Sailor Moon Crystal? Considering acquisitions are something they cannot pay off through merchandising, sublicensing and home media putting a ton of money into an acquisition only makes sense if it's a slam dunk like Family Guy or Dragon Ball. They can only use acquisitions to get ratings and potentially prop up their original series with a strong lead-in. Obviously, DBS and DBZ Kai were not cheap but I figure all the 100+ episode series cost quite a bit to acquire and so would some shorter shows like Attack on Titan and One-Punch Man. It's very likely that they could not have afforded their current line-up back in 2014 much less 2013. For a while, they had 8 premieres going, even 9 temporarily. They probably got a great deal on some of those shows but none the less the network had to have been paying a lot to maintain even 7 premieres. I'd say they're definitely spending plenty of money on Toonami outside of original productions.

However, having exclusive shows is important and that's why Netflix and Amazon produce anime now and it only makes sense for Toonami to do the same if they want to have exclusive content as well. When most of what is airing on Toonami already simulcast when it aired in Japan there's not much incentive to tune in unless you will only watch dubs and even then several of those dubs are streaming, will be streaming shortly after airing or already streamed legally much less illegally. The more people abandon traditional cable the more people will get their anime fix where it's more convenient and less costly than a cable subscription. Simuldubs and original anime are the best ways to stay relevant in this global market. Simuldubs are great but if there's a production delay (and those happen all the time) its tough to make that work on a weekly television schedule. With an original series or co-production, the network can make sure they'll have a smooth roll-out. I'm sure someone like yourself who dislikes a deviation from your routine would be pretty annoyed if they started a new anime and then had to preempt it a week or two because of a production issue. And the nature of American television where shows often enough will only air a few episodes before getting pulled from the air has cemented the mindset that if a show is not on for even one week much less a few then it's probably not going to air again. So there are some definite hurdles when it comes to airing simuldubs that are not co-productions overseen by the network.

Anime fans would prefer a Toonami that's closer to the Japanese season model but acquiring anime is not Adult Swim's primary venture by any stretch so they cannot be expected to pick up a bunch of anime every season like Crunchyroll or Sentai. Though I do wonder if they could potentially license anime directly like Netflix, Crunchyroll, Sentai, FUNimation, Viz Media, etc. I would think that would at least allow them to make money off of the license depending on how the contract is structured. Going way back to 2008, I do believe Cartoon Network licensed Bakugan directly from the Japanese producers. Perhaps one-day Adult Swim will do the same for something that isn't an original co-production but they'll probably stick to either co-funding so they have unlimited usage like with GITS and Dandy or co-producing like with IGPX and FLCL 2/3.

Obviously not, but Demarco keeps saying how he can't get shows.  There will be competition, just like there was in the old days when Toonami had to compete with other actual TV networks which were interested in running anime at the time.  So I don't get all the excuses.  Does he expect to do business in a vacuum?  That's true but premieres are lacking at the moment and reruns are further encroaching.

Well we know there are still plenty of people tuning in, regardless of whether something was or is currently streaming elsewhere, in sub or dub.  I think that factor is overstated.  Not everyone has every streaming service it takes to watch every show, or necessarily goes out of their way to watch anime that way.  Yes more people are abandoning cable and the companies refuse to change their business model or lower prices.  Cable is on borrowed time in general so how much longer can Toonami last?  What will Demarco do when that day comes?  Commit seppuku?  In theory the dubbers should have access to all the material before it even airs, assuming the series is entirely completed before it starts airing, so there shouldn't be a delay.  But no, that would not be ideal.  I think random breaks and moving around in the schedule is what killed Revolution and V.  I seem to recall one of the networks blaming the fact that shows with overarching plots don't build viewers LOL.  And what's with shows taking mid-season winter breaks these days?  That never used to be a thing.  At least with Rebels it made sense to take a break during movie hype, but everyone else?  And Supergirl did that is now taking another break.  It's frustrating and does not inspire confidence.

I don't think anybody expects them to pick up that many shows.  They'd have to be on more than one day a week to even have room for them.  But decline of the past couple years is definitely noticeable, both in terms of number and how major the shows are they've picked up.  Think that is what they had to do with Gundam.  They made multiple trips to Japan to negotiate an end the Gundam embargo, directly with Sunrise.  But that was because they really wanted to get Gundam on the block for people that had been requesting it, and Sunrise is known to be difficult to work with.  Don't know if this would be repeated for other shows, though other shows may not be as much trouble to directly negotiate rights regardless.  Well I hope they make something good, unlike IGPX.  I also hope they stay away from retro fapfests like with FLCL, a show that was perfect as is and needed no sequel.  At least Dandy, GITS, and Big O were worthwhile.  With FLCL it remains to be seen.  I can say right now though that if they were going to spend that kind of money, it should have been on something else, something new, or if it had to be a sequel, one that was warranted.  But Demarco is too stuck in the past and in his own bubble.