It's February 2015 All Over Again

[PokeNirvash]

Here's how it's going down: Feb 22, we lose 11PM and MHA breaks for one week while Dr. Stone finishes up. Then Feb 29, MHA returns to replace Dr. Stone and we lose the 3AM reruns. Like when we got KLK, we're back to 3.5 hours by the end of this month.

I highly advise that you not use this schedule downtick to rage about the continued lack of Mob II.

Edited February 6, 2020 by PokeNirvash

[Sketch]

Now I am getting concerned. It’s still 7 premieres for now but when MHA’s season ends I would not be surprised if they lose 11:30 as well. Definitely shades of 2015 but it’s a less dramatic retraction this time.

This is a strong sign that Toonami’s acquisition budget has taken a hit and they’re at the point where reruns aren’t doing well enough to justify having any, so they have trimmed the fat entirely. It’s simply more economical to rerun comedy after Toonami. I expect extra FOX reruns to show up after Toonami. So much for trying to be less reliant on those.

If you’re legitimately concerned with Toonami’s well being the best thing any of us can do is watch it live, watch it on demand, live tweet it and tell others it exists. Toonami is far from cancelled but they clearly have reached the point where the ratings are becoming a concern again.

And I AM annoyed this means they won’t be airing Mob yet and you can’t tell me not to be.

Edited February 6, 2020 by Sketch

[Top Gun]

Well that's...less than ideal.  Cuts aside, apparently the thing with MHA skipping a week is because FUNi had to take a week or two off from the simuldub, so they want to make sure they have enough of a buffer.

[OwlChemist81]

To be fair, it is actually June 2016 all over again. From June to September of 2016, the block ran 11:30-3.

I was afraid that when Dragon Ball Super ended, we might not be able to hang on to 11 PM. Man, I hate being right!

Hopefully the 11 PM timeslot is reserved for some hot new simuldub April show and we just have to take our lumps in March.

In the meantime, let the speculation fly as to what they're doing with the 11 PM timeslot. My guess is that they could be rerunning PRIMAL there. In fact, that would work out in both cases, since Primal could run from February 22nd to March 21st. Could Toonami somehow pull off enough of a coup that they premiere a show a week BEFORE Japan on March 28th?

[Jman]

Original programs cost money.

Seriously, if there was ever a time to use that Crunchyroll partnership and get shows from CR to fill slots, now is the time.

[Sketch]

14 minutes ago, Jman said:

Original programs cost money.

Seriously, if there was ever a time to use that Crunchyroll partnership and get shows from CR to fill slots, now is the time.

I seriously doubt those shows are just free or even relatively cheap. But I do wish WarnerMedia would throw Toonami a bone.

[EmpressAngel]

25 minutes ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Could Toonami somehow pull off enough of a coup that they premiere a show a week BEFORE Japan on March 28th?

No. 

[Blatch]

This is pretty worrying. I actually think the worst part is the sudden deletion of an hour of reruns. Could they have at least let TPN finish all its episodes? This move gives the impression that the Toonami schedulers thing the ratings aren't good enough and they want immediate improvements, which goes against DeMarco's comments that the block has been doing fine and even better than ever at some points. I mean, I haven't heard him say that for a while, but I assume this has still been the case up to now.

At least when the sudden cuts in 2015 took place, we still had a hype new show coming in. But we don't this time, and the next premiere slot doesn't open until April. It's a good thing the Toonami staff didn't put a negative spin on this news, because I'm sure us fans will be annoyed either way. 😬

[Ginguy]

March is basically basketball for Turner, so Toonami losing a couple slots shouldn't be a big deal.

The problem is, and always has been, that Toonami is not doing a very good job engaging and building an audience. It is a niche market to begin with, so the only way to get consistently good shares is to actively engage with that audience, social media interactions, special programming event involving the audience (Tom responding to questions et al). Even things as simple as reacting to "watch party" photos or short vids would go a long way to building and engaging the audience.

 

  I do things like this all the time, in fact most of my work involves volunteer engagement. It doesn't really take much to get people to buy in to something, it just takes consistent involvement and a positive attitude. (i.e. DeMarco not trolling people on Twitter/Ask)

 

 

 

 

[Daos]

Time for some Goblin Slayer!

[The1gairon]

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh... 😮

[The1gairon]

The downer? The shows will only air an hour to a half hour earlier for ONE WEEK.

[CountFrylock]

https://ask.fm/Clarknova/answers/158456361705

his response

" I dunno, why are you pissing in MY ear about it? I don’t control, or have a say in, the schedule. "

Edited February 7, 2020 by CountFrylock

[PokeNirvash]

30 minutes ago, elfie said:

The downer? The shows will only air an hour to a half hour earlier for ONE WEEK.

Uh... no? Where'd you get that idea?

[3ngag3]

Basically, dumping new shows right away got out of hand and now they have to roll back due to budget.

Edited February 7, 2020 by 3ngag3

[CountFrylock]

11 minutes ago, 3ngag3 said:

Basically, dumping new shows right away got out of hand and now they have to roll back due to budget.

eh....with that in mind it really does sound like the block's gonna become super stale

 

[The1gairon]

3 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

https://ask.fm/Clarknova/answers/158456361705

his response

" I dunno, why are you pissing in MY ear about it? I don’t control, or have a say in, the schedule. "

... I think it's finally time DeMarco should get off social media.

[Jman]

26 minutes ago, elfie said:

... I think it's finally time DeMarco should get off social media.

If only.  He’s clearly not equipped for it.

Then again he’s not equipped to take on streaming services either.

[AnimationFan14]

5 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

https://ask.fm/Clarknova/answers/158456361705

his response

" I dunno, why are you pissing in MY ear about it? I don’t control, or have a say in, the schedule. "

[Sketch]

While I usually am willing to believe Jason, if programming had asked them about culling Toonami a couple of months ago... then why did they bother keeping 3:30AM just to rerun The Promised Neverland? Hell, they could have dumped the Titan rerun after the holiday break if they were intending to retract slots starting in 2019. Intentionally keeping rerun slots for about two months doesn't really jell with that reasoning.

 

[CountFrylock]

38 minutes ago, Sketch said:

While I usually am willing to believe Jason, if programming had asked them about culling Toonami a couple of months ago... then why did they bother keeping 3:30AM just to rerun The Promised Neverland? Hell, they could have dumped the Titan rerun after the holiday break if they were intending to retract slots starting in 2019. Intentionally keeping rerun slots for about two months doesn't really jell with that reasoning.

 

none of it adds up and there's not much demarco can say to calm everyone down because in such a short amount of time the block's lost two shows and gained nothing back

there's now this fear in some of us that Higher up's are starting to see toonami as a waste of resources and as such are cutting their budget drastically

it's the only explanation why we'd have our rerun slots abruptly pulled....unless someone can think of a better one

i don't wanna hit the panic button on this but demarco's comments on ask.fm where he stated this wasn't their decision mixed with his later tweets saying that it actually was....makes it seem like there's something bigger

going on and Demarco's trying to act as Damage control with A Little Positive PR Spin on the situation

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by CountFrylock

[OwlChemist81]

I want to believe there's some silver lining to this dark cloud, like perhaps a Dragon Ball run on weeknights, but if so I have yet to see it...

[CountFrylock]

2 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

I want to believe there's some silver lining to this dark cloud, like perhaps a Dragon Ball run on weeknights, but if so I have yet to see it...

i don't really think A DB Run On Week Nights would help soften the blow that much honestly

 

 

[Blatch]

Well, having six new Toonami shows in production certainly assuages my fears. It doesn't make much sense that they're getting rid of an hour of reruns despite knowing about it ahead of time and slotting in different shows after the fact, but perhaps DeMarco still wanted them to get a partial run?

23 hours ago, Ginguy said:

The problem is, and always has been, that Toonami is not doing a very good job engaging and building an audience. It is a niche market to begin with, so the only way to get consistently good shares is to actively engage with that audience, social media interactions, special programming event involving the audience (Tom responding to questions et al). Even things as simple as reacting to "watch party" photos or short vids would go a long way to building and engaging the audience.

Blade Runner and Uzumaki coming down the pike gives them a golden opportunity to advertise. Just throw some ads on TNT during the NBA playoffs saying "Hey world, anime is cool, and we've got some great new shows! Come on over and give them a try." And air them more than once, which was seemingly the case back when the FLCL sequels were being hyped.

[CountFrylock]

let's just hope the block doesn't get stale as a result of this.....black clover  naruto shippuden and food wars have three slots locked down

 

 

[CountFrylock]

On 2/6/2020 at 3:27 PM, Sketch said:

I seriously doubt those shows are just free or even relatively cheap. But I do wish WarnerMedia would throw Toonami a bone.

so do i....it honestly feels like they aren't really taken seriously by WarnerMedia

[ben0119]

THIS IS PATHETIC!  AND BULLSHIT!

[ben0119]

On 2/6/2020 at 7:28 PM, 3ngag3 said:

Basically, dumping new shows right away got out of hand and now they have to roll back due to budget.

DeMarco is a known bullshitter.  He's spinning more than his current display name.  Not too long ago I saw him comment something to the effect that Toonami is cost efficient and pulls its own weight, actually makes money!   When before it had always been thought that Toonami was a passion project money sink.  And remember how they always used to say they don't get paid to work on Toonami?  So somehow it went from being something they can't even get paid for to afford to run, to a well-oiled efficient machine, to all of a sudden it's too expensive and unwieldy.  Ok then.  Whatever you say DeMarco.

And now he says he isn't in control of the schedule?  Then what the fuck does he do?  He must have some control, or they'd still have the ASA schedule monkey nonsense going on.  Even with the different and larger, arguably better, quality-wise, show selection, even with these sorts of shake ups, its always been scheduled far more logically than ASA ever was.  So don't give me that shit, DeMarco.

I'm not able to read Sketch's question and answer on Ask at the moment.  The site appears to be afflicted with malware?  I go to DeMarco's Ask and almost instantly get hit with that fake contest winner thing.  Wtf?  I'd have to get on the PC where I have Adblock installed to use the site, which I don't feel like doing right now.  But man, that is annoying.

And to the people I saw telling DeMarco on Twitter they prefer Toonami this way.  Fuck you.

[ben0119]

On 2/7/2020 at 5:06 PM, CountFrylock said:

let's just hope the block doesn't get stale as a result of this.....black clover  naruto shippuden and food wars have three slots locked down

DeMarco - claims to know block shrinkage was coming

Also DeMarco - gets Food Wars

I mean he shouldn't have gotten it in the first fucking place, but to lock up a slot with Food Wars of all things, when you know you're going to lose time slots is pure madness!

[ben0119]

 

I saw this thing DeMarco retweeted and got my hopes up that the contraction was just temporary for 2 weeks until they had new shows ready. *sigh*

[Sketch]

12 hours ago, ben0119 said:

DeMarco - claims to know block shrinkage was coming

Also DeMarco - gets Food Wars

I mean he shouldn't have gotten it in the first fucking place, but to lock up a slot with Food Wars of all things, when you know you're going to lose time slots is pure madness!

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.

[Sketch]

13 hours ago, ben0119 said:

DeMarco is a known bullshitter.  He's spinning more than his current display name.  Not too long ago I saw him comment something to the effect that Toonami is cost efficient and pulls its own weight, actually makes money!   When before it had always been thought that Toonami was a passion project money sink.  And remember how they always used to say they don't get paid to work on Toonami?  So somehow it went from being something they can't even get paid for to afford to run, to a well-oiled efficient machine, to all of a sudden it's too expensive and unwieldy.  Ok then.  Whatever you say DeMarco.

And now he says he isn't in control of the schedule?  Then what the fuck does he do?  He must have some control, or they'd still have the ASA schedule monkey nonsense going on.  Even with the different and larger, arguably better, quality-wise, show selection, even with these sorts of shake ups, its always been scheduled far more logically than ASA ever was.  So don't give me that shit, DeMarco.

I'm not able to read Sketch's question and answer on Ask at the moment.  The site appears to be afflicted with malware?  I go to DeMarco's Ask and almost instantly get hit with that fake contest winner thing.  Wtf?  I'd have to get on the PC where I have Adblock installed to use the site, which I don't feel like doing right now.  But man, that is annoying.

And to the people I saw telling DeMarco on Twitter they prefer Toonami this way.  Fuck you.

He makes an interesting analogy.

 

[Daos]

Don't believe anything Demarco says and you'll be fine. How much warning did he give when Toonami got canceled last time?

[OwlChemist81]

It's not happening this time. They have lots of originals coming; they said so. Now could it NOT AIR every Saturday night? Yes, I COULD see that happening. Long runners like Black Clover and Shippuden have become Toonami's "bedrock" though, so something would have to happen to them.

[Sketch]

2 hours ago, Daos said:

Don't believe anything Demarco says and you'll be fine. How much warning did he give when Toonami got canceled last time?

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.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Sketch

[Sketch]

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

[Daos]

3 hours ago, Sketch said:

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.

Yeah but did anyone give any warning? That kinda tells you how these guys run things.

[Sketch]

22 minutes ago, Daos said:

Yeah but did anyone give any warning? That kinda tells you how these guys run things.

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.

[Jman]

It’s a weird time for Toonami and WarnerMedia.  Given Crunchyroll’s presence on HBO MAX and the fact that they were given new offices, it’s clear anime is a big part of the streaming strategy for them going forward.  

The problem is Toonami is sort of a second cousin of that.  Shows that are available elsewhere along with some originals, all on a minuscule budget from the larger and better known Adult Swim brand.  As much as DeMarco hates it, he is no longer the arbiter for what is and isn’t popular in the anime community because it’s not just hardcore weebs asking for scraps anymore.

With every aspect of every channel focusing on original content, Toonami is a bit of an outlier still licensing from FUNi.  I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Toonami isn’t cancelled, but re-branded as a Crunchyroll block for maximum brand synergy at this point.

[The1gairon]

7 hours ago, Jman said:

It’s a weird time for Toonami and WarnerMedia.  Given Crunchyroll’s presence on HBO MAX and the fact that they were given new offices, it’s clear anime is a big part of the streaming strategy for them going forward.  

The problem is Toonami is sort of a second cousin of that.  Shows that are available elsewhere along with some originals, all on a minuscule budget from the larger and better known Adult Swim brand.  As much as DeMarco hates it, he is no longer the arbiter for what is and isn’t popular in the anime community because it’s not just hardcore weebs asking for scraps anymore.

With every aspect of every channel focusing on original content, Toonami is a bit of an outlier still licensing from FUNi.  I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Toonami isn’t cancelled, but re-branded as a Crunchyroll block for maximum brand synergy at this point.

With everyone's new favorite host! Crunchy Robot!

[PokeNirvash]

ToonamiRoll. I'd be on board with that, as long as they don't pull a Fried Dynamite on us.

[MasqueradeOverture]

13 hours ago, Jman said:

It’s a weird time for Toonami and WarnerMedia.  Given Crunchyroll’s presence on HBO MAX and the fact that they were given new offices, it’s clear anime is a big part of the streaming strategy for them going forward.  

The problem is Toonami is sort of a second cousin of that.  Shows that are available elsewhere along with some originals, all on a minuscule budget from the larger and better known Adult Swim brand.  As much as DeMarco hates it, he is no longer the arbiter for what is and isn’t popular in the anime community because it’s not just hardcore weebs asking for scraps anymore.

With every aspect of every channel focusing on original content, Toonami is a bit of an outlier still licensing from FUNi.  I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Toonami isn’t cancelled, but re-branded as a Crunchyroll block for maximum brand synergy at this point.

Most likely not a total rename (because if that's the case, what's the point off all the packaging?), but I could see it as Crunchyroll Presents: Toonami.

[The1gairon]

8 minutes ago, MasqueradeOverture said:

Most likely not a total rename (because if that's the case, what's the point off all the packaging?), but I could see it as Crunchyroll Presents: Toonami.

So like a corporation owning a revived retail store so it could remain open in a mall, like Toys R Us.

[MasqueradeOverture]

1 hour ago, elfie said:

So like a corporation owning a revived retail store so it could remain open in a mall, like Toys R Us.

Correct.

[Sketch]

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

[PokeNirvash]

Ooh, Space Ghost reruns! The rest of the schedule's pretty good too, I guess.

[Top Gun]

So one Toonami show, and another show that probably should have been on Toonami but Genndy complained.  I mean you might as well just keep the block packaging around it at that point.

[Sketch]

1 hour ago, Top Gun said:

So one Toonami show, and another show that probably should have been on Toonami but Genndy complained.  I mean you might as well just keep the block packaging around it at that point.

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.

[The1gairon]

21 minutes ago, Sketch said:

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.

Has AS ever aired anime outside of Toonami since it returned? Will they?

I still find it perplexing AS is trying to get more viewers in after 3 AM. What happened?

[Sketch]

1 hour ago, elfie said:

Has AS ever aired anime outside of Toonami since it returned? Will they?

I still find it perplexing AS is trying to get more viewers in after 3 AM. What happened?

Well yeah, in the 8pm hour. 😐