Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal joins Toonami under the guise of a Thanksgiving marathon

[3ngag3]

I know Genndy himself said he didn't want this on the block, but with the way things have been going, this was inevitable.

Edited November 16, 2020 by 3ngag3

[PokeNirvash]

Genndy probably noticed Primal was doing worse than he imagined in its "on regular [as]" format, called up Demarco and told him, "Do whatever you want with it, I don't care anymore."

[Sketch]

Given this is being used to promote HBO Max, I wouldn't be surprised if business dad told Genndy that Primal will air on Toonami that night and there's nothing he can say to stop it.

Fun fact: The first time Cartoon Network allowed Samurai Jack to air on Toonami was also as a marathon back on Saturday December 28th 2002. Jack didn't get to air on weekday Toonami until Fall of 2003.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Sketch

[Jman]

The audience will appreciate it.  I know Genndy feels like Toonami limits the audience, but still.

[Sketch]

5 minutes ago, Jman said:

The audience will appreciate it.  I know Genndy feels like Toonami limits the audience, but still.

Hopefully it's performance that weekend (which probably wont be that negatively affected by the holiday) compared to how it's done on Sunday lately will show Mr. Tartakovsky that Toonami isn't a bad place for his action dramas at all.

[Sketch]

1 hour ago, Sketch said:

Given this is being used to promote HBO Max, I wouldn't be surprised if business dad told Genndy that Primal will air on Toonami that night and there's nothing he can say to stop it.

Fun fact: The first time Cartoon Network allowed Samurai Jack to air on Toonami was also as a marathon back on Saturday December 28th 2002. Jack didn't get to air on weekday Toonami until Fall of 2003.

Now that it looks like Adult Swim is having several marathons specifically to promote HBO Max as part of WarnerMedia's big Thanksgiving weekend push for HBO Max, I'd say my theory has a lot of merrit.

Originally Primal was going to have a marathon that Sunday, just 5 episodes. Now it will have a marathon on Toonami for all 10 episodes. Sunday will now be an ATHF marathon.

In order to include Toonami in this push they would have to use a show that's also on HBO Max, ergo Primal. Though they could have used Samurai Jack if Primal was an absolute no go for Toonami.

[CountFrylock]

3 hours ago, Sketch said:

Hopefully it's performance that weekend (which probably wont be that negatively affected by the holiday) compared to how it's done on Sunday lately will show Mr. Tartakovsky that Toonami isn't a bad place for his action dramas at all.

i don't think any holiday will be negatively affecting any shows for awhile since people aren't suppose to be out partying anyways and getting together in large groups

i wonder if they'll skip out on one of the december marathons as a result since we've already had a promised neverland marathon for october and a primal marathon for november

wouldn't make much sense to do two marathons in december like usual knowing that

plus there isn't really thing they gotta buy time for

assassination classroom is an old dub

fire force season 2 has enough dubbed episodes that knocking one marathon off in december shouldn't matter

and I'm assuming SAO's dub for war of underworld part 2 is finished

[Sketch]

3 minutes ago, CountFrylock said:

i don't think any holiday will be negatively affecting any shows for awhile since people aren't suppose to be out partying anyways and getting together in large groups

i wonder if they'll skip out on one of the december marathons as a result since we've already had a promised neverland marathon for october and a primal marathon for november

wouldn't make much sense to do two marathons in december like usual knowing that

plus there isn't really thing they gotta buy time for

assassination classroom is an old dub

fire force season 2 has enough dubbed episodes that knocking one marathon off in december shouldn't matter

and I'm assuming SAO's dub for war of underworld part 2 is finished

How about buying time for whatever will replace SAO in February? If that particular show is Attack on Titan, the extra week would probably be helpful though maybe not necessary since starting it in February gives them a good buffer to begin with.

I do rather hope they don't run a marathon on December 19th. I can agree with doing one on the 26th but the 19th is many days away from Christmas and there's less reason than ever to be concerned with people traveling several days around Christmas.

 

[CountFrylock]

nobody has anywhere else to go so what are they suppose to do except watch toonami?

i hope demarco and crew realize they don't need to do the traditional two december marathons when there's a global pandemic and nobody's suppose to having parties or whatever

 

 

Edited November 17, 2020 by CountFrylock

[OwlChemist81]

1 hour ago, CountFrylock said:

nobody has anywhere else to go so what are they suppose to do except watch toonami?

i hope demarco and crew realize they don't need to do the traditional two december marathons when there's a global pandemic and nobody's suppose to having parties or whatever

 

 

Speak for yourself; I've been QUITE active this 2nd half of the year, since I live in a red state!

But I digress. I wonder how many total shows Toonami has aired in 2020?

1. My Hero Academia
2. Dr. Stone
3. One-Punch Man
4. Fire Force
5. Food Wars!
6. Demon Slayer
7. Black Clover
8. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind
9. Naruto: Shippuden
10. The Promised Neverland
11. Attack On Titan
12. Sword Art Online: Alicization - War Of Underworld
13. Dragon Ball Z Kai
14. Paranoia Agent
15. Mob Psycho 100
16. Ballmastrz 9009
17. Dragon Ball Super
18. Samurai Jack (Season 5)
19. Batman: Year One
20. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Parts 1 & 2)
21. Batman: Gotham Knight
22. Assassination Classroom
23. Gemusetto: Death Beats

And so PRIMAL makes the 24th show/movie series on Toonami this year! Not bad for a year which was hilariously hobbled by a deadly pandemic!

Edited November 17, 2020 by OwlChemist81

[CountFrylock]

regardless there's something about primal that makes it seem out of place on toonami

no matter how many times people like to say this is the perfect toonami show....just the way it's structured and the way it plays out

doesn't make me think "Toonami Fans would love this!"

 

 

[PokeNirvash]

Primal's got action.

Toonami's an action block.

I can see the connection.

[CountFrylock]

1 hour ago, PokeNirvash said:

Primal's got action.

Toonami's an action block.

I can see the connection.

there's a difference between Primal Action and the action we usually see on toonami

one is typically of the superhero/shonen  variety with very few exceptions

where as the other represents savage brutality and tragedy

something toonami doesn't deal with that much unless it's a horror show of some kind

 

 

[MasqueradeOverture]

6 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

there's a difference between Primal Action and the action we usually see on toonami

one is typically of the superhero/shonen  variety with very few exceptions

where as the other represents savage brutality and tragedy

something toonami doesn't deal with that much unless it's a horror show of some kind

 

 

You forgot about that Junji Ito show coming.

[CountFrylock]

9 hours ago, MasqueradeOverture said:

You forgot about that Junji Ito show coming.

which is a horror show

[MasqueradeOverture]

3 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

which is a horror show

Didn't read that part.

Although Primal is pretty horrific at times. There's even a fuckin' zombie episode.

[CountFrylock]

1 hour ago, MasqueradeOverture said:

Didn't read that part.

Although Primal is pretty horrific at times. There's even a fuckin' zombie episode.

however i don't think it's officially classified as a horror series...

despite all that...can't imagine how the tom/sara promo for the primal marathon will be

how do you hype up a marathon for a series like primal in the way that the toonami hosts usually talk up marathons?

best you could do is just have tom and sara incoherently yelling then it pans to primal and says "Primal Marathon Next Saturday Only On Toonami"

[Sketch]

16 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

however i don't think it's officially classified as a horror series...

despite all that...can't imagine how the tom/sara promo for the primal marathon will be

how do you hype up a marathon for a series like primal in the way that the toonami hosts usually talk up marathons?

best you could do is just have tom and sara incoherently yelling then it pans to primal and says "Primal Marathon Next Saturday Only On Toonami"

TOM and Sara tend to just make banter. I would imagine they'll say something about how neat it would be to live with a dinosaur. Primal has plenty of stuff for them to comment on.

[mochi]

On 11/16/2020 at 3:20 PM, 3ngag3 said:

I know Genndy himself said he didn't want this on the block, but with the way things have been going, this was inevitable.

REPLACE GEEMUSETTO DEATHBEATS WITH PRIMAL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!!!

[Sketch]

Nah man, Gemusetto is a network premiere.

[CountFrylock]

On 11/18/2020 at 11:25 PM, Sketch said:

TOM and Sara tend to just make banter. I would imagine they'll say something about how neat it would be to live with a dinosaur. Primal has plenty of stuff for them to comment on.

followed by the goriest scenes you can image from primal and panning back to the duo saying "On Second thought It'd be a living hell..."

[PokeNirvash]

Maybe if you're human, yeah, but TOM's a robot and SARA's a hologram, they probably don't share those same concerns we do.

Edited November 22, 2020 by PokeNirvash

[CountFrylock]

regardless i guess my problem is that Primal's more of a depressing horrifying tale of tragedy than what toonami typically airs on the block

Yes Primal Has Action but it's not the "Action" you think of when you think toonami

and this is just my opinion but given how depressing this year has been  i don't really need an entire marathon that makes me feel like shit

because the entire atmosphere is hopeless despair

 

[Top Gun]

14 minutes ago, CountFrylock said:

regardless i guess my problem is that Primal's more of a depressing horrifying tale of tragedy than what toonami typically airs on the block

Yes Primal Has Action but it's not the "Action" you think of when you think toonami

and this is just my opinion but given how depressing this year has been  i don't really need an entire marathon that makes me feel like shit

because the entire atmosphere is hopeless despair

 

Then don't fucking watch it?

[CountFrylock]

6 minutes ago, Top Gun said:

Then don't fucking watch it?

no need to get so upset....I"m just voicing my opinion and my opinion is that i think people really paint primal as more of a toonami show than it really is

feel free to disagree with me that is your opinion and i accept that but my opinion cannot be changed

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by CountFrylock

[Top Gun]

There's no such thing as a "Toonami show" beyond action-oriented animation.  And Primal absolutely fits that, just as the final season of Samurai Jack did.

[Sketch]

1 hour ago, CountFrylock said:

regardless i guess my problem is that Primal's more of a depressing horrifying tale of tragedy than what toonami typically airs on the block

Yes Primal Has Action but it's not the "Action" you think of when you think toonami

and this is just my opinion but given how depressing this year has been  i don't really need an entire marathon that makes me feel like shit

because the entire atmosphere is hopeless despair

 

I mean despite their moments of levity... Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Casshern Sins,  Paranoia Agent, The Promised Neverland and Parasyte are like an endless stream of horrible things happening to their protagonists and side characters. I don't see Primal as any more intense or depressing as those shows could be. And people want to see ReZero on Toonami when that's trauma after trauma. The only thing that makes Primal seem ever so slightly odd for Toonami is it's lack of much dialogue but there were episodes of Samurai Jack which next to no dialogue as well.

Ultimately, it's action animation. That was at one point the only criteria for a show to be on Toonami.

[Jman]

9 hours ago, Top Gun said:

There's no such thing as a "Toonami show" beyond action-oriented animation.  And Primal absolutely fits that, just as the final season of Samurai Jack did.

This is very true.  The only real issue is Genndy himself has gone on record saying he didn’t want it on the block because he feared it would limit the audience.

[CountFrylock]

10 hours ago, Top Gun said:

There's no such thing as a "Toonami show" beyond action-oriented animation.  And Primal absolutely fits that, just as the final season of Samurai Jack did.

except the transition from what airs now to something like samurai jack wouldn't be as much of a mood whiplash as primal would be

Imagine going from assassination classroom straight into primal....

and then afterwards it would be another mood shift as there's no way what comes after it would be as dreary or violent

nobody can deny that the tonal shift from anything toonami airs now to "Primal" would be hard to ignore

[CountFrylock]

10 hours ago, Sketch said:

I mean despite their moments of levity... Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Casshern Sins,  Paranoia Agent, The Promised Neverland and Parasyte are like an endless stream of horrible things happening to their protagonists and side characters. I don't see Primal as any more intense or depressing as those shows could be. And people want to see ReZero on Toonami when that's trauma after trauma. The only thing that makes Primal seem ever so slightly odd for Toonami is it's lack of much dialogue but there were episodes of Samurai Jack which next to no dialogue as well.

Ultimately, it's action animation. That was at one point the only criteria for a show to be on Toonami.

Did i watch a different show or something? because the primal i watched wasn't happy or an enjoyable romp

it was depressing and tragic with very little break from the madness

most of the shows you listed weren't constantly going nuts there was downtime  it wasn't just nonstop titan attacks or children being devoured by demons all the time

 

[Top Gun]

57 minutes ago, CountFrylock said:

except the transition from what airs now to something like samurai jack wouldn't be as much of a mood whiplash as primal would be

Imagine going from assassination classroom straight into primal....

and then afterwards it would be another mood shift as there's no way what comes after it would be as dreary or violent

nobody can deny that the tonal shift from anything toonami airs now to "Primal" would be hard to ignore

The block has had awkward tonal transitions between series since 2001.  This would be no different.

[OwlChemist81]

12 hours ago, Sketch said:

I mean despite their moments of levity... Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Casshern Sins,  Paranoia Agent, The Promised Neverland and Parasyte are like an endless stream of horrible things happening to their protagonists and side characters. I don't see Primal as any more intense or depressing as those shows could be. And people want to see ReZero on Toonami when that's trauma after trauma. The only thing that makes Primal seem ever so slightly odd for Toonami is it's lack of much dialogue but there were episodes of Samurai Jack which next to no dialogue as well.

Ultimately, it's action animation. That was at one point the only criteria for a show to be on Toonami.

I would also lump Gundam IBO Season 2 into those shows. But it was more of a Shakespearian tragedy than just an endless stream of horrible things. Even so, both halves of the show DID have their share of sacrifice (Biscuit in Episode 21, for example) as well as just hopeless death (Lafter in episode 41). It also seems to lack the Shakespearian standard of a "climax", although you could argue that the fight with the Mobile Armor in episodes 35-38 where all characters are on the same page to defeat a truly FEARSOME foe kinda fits the bill.

[3ngag3]

We're forgetting that Hellsing Ultimate exists again.

[Top Gun]

Hellsing Ultimate wasn't really grim in tone, though.  It was a brutal over-the-top spectacle of violence to the point of self-parody, and it was well aware of that fact, because it did everything with a wink and a nod.

[Jman]

An episode of Hellsing Ultimate has Alucard arguing with the spirit of his gun, who’s clearly supposed to be Bruce Willis.

You tell me the show was meant to be completely serious after watching that.

[Top Gun]

Or that moment when an imminent bloodbath between Alucard and Anderson was interrupted by...Seras leading a bunch of old tourists around the mansion to look at art.

[PokeNirvash]

And let's not forget the Major's war speech being followed up with this ending theme animation of all things.

 

[CountFrylock]

Most of the darker stuff adult swim has aired in the past had some downtime of some kind and wasn't just non stop misery

even attack on titan wasn't just titans eating people and there were moments where the characters weren't in peril

 

[Sketch]

On 11/22/2020 at 7:35 PM, CountFrylock said:

Most of the darker stuff adult swim has aired in the past had some downtime of some kind and wasn't just non stop misery

even attack on titan wasn't just titans eating people and there were moments where the characters weren't in peril

 

Spear and Fang occasionally have a nice moment. And it was also pretty comical at points when they didn't get along very well yet.

[ben0119]

Regardless of how one wants to categorize Primal, since Toonami made their NON-ACTION edict they can technically air anything animated.  Within reason of course.  We know they won't air any kiddy toyetic shows.

But having seen Primal I would say it was a decent fit and certainly a great show.  It wasn't THAT depressing either.  I mean it is not like anime is a stranger to tragic set ups and backstories either.  But I am glad they aired it since I never got around to watching it yet and I enjoyed it quite a bit!