Crunchyroll Social Media manager discusses promoting anime, says we are in a “post-Toonami” world.

[Jman]

https://fansubbing.com/2020/12/30/an-interview-with-miles/
 

Namely that Toonami is no longer the tastemaker for anime in this country, nor are its fans at the mercy of DeMarco and Adult Swim.

 

[PokeNirvash]

The world will only be "post-Toonami" once Toonami gets canceled again. And last I checked, it's still on the air. So fuck you, Miles.

[The1gairon]

1 hour ago, Jman said:

https://fansubbing.com/2020/12/30/an-interview-with-miles/
 

Namely that Toonami is no longer the tastemaker for anime in this country, nor are its fans at the mercy of DeMarco and Adult Swim.

 

What makes me think the link actually doesn't mention Toonami anywhere in that page, and that you're just projecting?

[Jman]

20 minutes ago, elfie said:

What makes me think the link actually doesn't mention Toonami anywhere in that page, and that you're just projecting?

That you didn’t read it.

Quote

In the same way that the move from 3 channels to 500 on cable led the way to stratification of audiences across the US media landscape, so has the fact that anime is popular enough now that nearly every anime gets a wide release in English timed with its Japanese broadcast. No longer are the days of Toonami or SyFy serving as tastemaker, or only the best series getting high-quality fansubs. Cowboy Bebop was required watching 20 years ago, and now, the percentage of anime fans who have taken the time to visit this classic would probably shock the average fan my age.

Anime is a medium, not a genre,

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by Jman

[Ginguy]

That explains the "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I heard earlier....

 

[EmpressAngel]

I think calling it "post-Toonami" is a bit of clickbait point twisting, since the block does still have a place in the anime game. Them not being the only legitimate place in town for anime is just a simple fact.

[OwlChemist81]

Not only that, but it might be about to take Crunchyroll's place on HBO Max, so there!!!

[brianycpht]

Well, Toonami doesn’t do much to remain a tastemaker, often relying on “requests” of shows that are already popular. Kim Manning even recently acknowledged that this strategy has backfired on them because people tend to request things they’ve already watched and won’t tune in again.
 

I don’t think the people who run the block are avid seasonal watchers either and would be aware of shows beyond the biggest Shonen or if a creator they liked made it. By the time they are aware of it, it’s past it’s peak  popularity 

They used to have the luxury of time between a Japanese broadcast and a dubs release so they can take the time to see how a show turns out. At least then they would debut the show in English. Now, Funimation is becoming more of a competitor in that regard. They would rather debut it in English themselves and still give Toonami an opportunity to air it later. But Toonami basically can’t do what they did in the past if dubbers would prefer to be their own distributors as well

How Yashahime didn’t debut on the block first is beyond me 😂? 

Edited January 6, 2021 by brianycpht

[CaptainStarwind]

On 1/4/2021 at 7:04 PM, EmpressAngel said:

I think calling it "post-Toonami" is a bit of clickbait point twisting, since the block does still have a place in the anime game. Them not being the only legitimate place in town for anime is just a simple fact.

Yeah I'd have to agree with this.  It seems very much like clickbait to say we live in a "post-Toonami world" when all that really mean is that Toonami (and US terrestrial television in general) no longer has the influence it did on what shows become popular like it did 15-20 years ago. 

[Sketch]

3 hours ago, CaptainStarwind said:

Yeah I'd have to agree with this.  It seems very much like clickbait to say we live in a "post-Toonami world" when all that really mean is that Toonami (and US terrestrial television in general) no longer has the influence it did on what shows become popular like it did 15-20 years ago. 

I honestly wonder if shows like Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing and Yu Yu Hakusho would be such fan favorites if they never aired on Toonami. And likewise for Bebop, FLCL and InuYasha on Adult Swim. If all those shows went under the radar in the early 2000s, would they have significant fandom in the US today? And let’s not forget both DBZ and Sailor Moon nearly died in syndication.

By the time Naruto, FMA and Bleach were gaining momentum from fansubs, a cable broadcast was still helpful but arguably not necessary for a big shounen to become a hit here. That was even before simulcasts much less simuldubs. MHA has gained very little from airing on TV and arguably even DBS has gained little from airing on TV. Demon Slayer’s popularity has next to nothing to do with Toonami and One Piece gained interest after leaving Toonami.

The only things that can potentially benefit from a Toonami broadcast are lesser known shows and originals. But Toonami still needs to balance that with some shows that casual viewers will definitely care to watch. Ergo DBS and MHA.

[ben0119]

On 1/9/2021 at 2:11 AM, Sketch said:

I honestly wonder if shows like Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing and Yu Yu Hakusho would be such fan favorites if they never aired on Toonami. And likewise for Bebop, FLCL and InuYasha on Adult Swim. If all those shows went under the radar in the early 2000s, would they have significant fandom in the US today? And let’s not forget both DBZ and Sailor Moon nearly died in syndication.

By the time Naruto, FMA and Bleach were gaining momentum from fansubs, a cable broadcast was still helpful but arguably not necessary for a big shounen to become a hit here. That was even before simulcasts much less simuldubs. MHA has gained very little from airing on TV and arguably even DBS has gained little from airing on TV. Demon Slayer’s popularity has next to nothing to do with Toonami and One Piece gained interest after leaving Toonami.

The only things that can potentially benefit from a Toonami broadcast are lesser known shows and originals. But Toonami still needs to balance that with some shows that casual viewers will definitely care to watch. Ergo DBS and MHA.

It's depressing to me think of a reality where I never saw those shows.

Bleach, Naruto, and FMA still gained from TV airings.  A lot of people were introduced to One Piece back then that way too.

As for more recent years, yeah you are probably right these shows may not gain as much, but they still gain some.

And I want to say there was a show or two that saw a decent upsurge in popularity from airing on Toonami in recent years but I can't think of what it was.

[Jman]

I will be forever baffled by how OP did middling on Toonami for years and then got a huge boost from airing the first 120 episodes on Netflix to the point they publicly complimented it.

Guess the LA OP is a decent investment.  And so is the LA Yu Yu Hakusho.

[PokeNirvash]

3 hours ago, Jman said:

I will be forever baffled by how OP did middling on Toonami for years and then got a huge boost from airing the first 120 episodes on Netflix to the point they publicly complimented it.

Could be that they aired it from the start instead of from #207 where you needed a PowerPoint presentation to make sense of the story so far if you were a newbie.

[Top Gun]

Exactly. The Toonami broadcast was severely hamstrung from the outset, much like the rest of the show's history on US television. The initial run of FUNi episodes on OG Toonami picked right up from That-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named at the start of Jaya/Skypeia, but it got cut off halfway through. Fast-forward several years, and the new Toonami run skips a few dozen episodes and starts with the next arc. I know they probably didn't want to start such a gargantuan property all the way back at the beginning, and I'm sure FUNi had a vested interest in promoting sales of the more recent parts of their release, but a neophyte viewer was going to have no context whatsoever for the characters or their relationships. It didn't help that they started off with the most filler-esque canon arc of the entire series, one that even a lot of long-time fans don't particularly like. Ironically, the preceding G8 Arc was filler that felt like canon and receives almost universal praise, and it honestly would have been a much stronger starting point to hook new viewers.

I'm not sure what the solution was in terms of how to handle the series. Honestly it's the sort of thing that just about requires a daily timeslot, so that people can watch or DVR whole chunks of episodes at once and get caught up in something resembling a reasonable amount of time. But with how things went, I think most of the people who were watching were like myself, Toonami viewers who were already established fans of the series. The fact that it's done very well on streaming venues that have every episode from the beginning posted is proof that there are plenty of people out there willing to binge it.

[Sketch]

17 hours ago, Jman said:

I will be forever baffled by how OP did middling on Toonami for years and then got a huge boost from airing the first 120 episodes on Netflix to the point they publicly complimented it.

Guess the LA OP is a decent investment.  And so is the LA Yu Yu Hakusho.

When did Netflix publicly compliment the performance of One Piece?

[Sketch]

7 hours ago, Top Gun said:

Exactly. The Toonami broadcast was severely hamstrung from the outset, much like the rest of the show's history on US television. The initial run of FUNi episodes on OG Toonami picked right up from That-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named at the start of Jaya/Skypeia, but it got cut off halfway through. Fast-forward several years, and the new Toonami run skips a few dozen episodes and starts with the next arc. I know they probably didn't want to start such a gargantuan property all the way back at the beginning, and I'm sure FUNi had a vested interest in promoting sales of the more recent parts of their release, but a neophyte viewer was going to have no context whatsoever for the characters or their relationships. It didn't help that they started off with the most filler-esque canon arc of the entire series, one that even a lot of long-time fans don't particularly like. Ironically, the preceding G8 Arc was filler that felt like canon and receives almost universal praise, and it honestly would have been a much stronger starting point to hook new viewers.

I'm not sure what the solution was in terms of how to handle the series. Honestly it's the sort of thing that just about requires a daily timeslot, so that people can watch or DVR whole chunks of episodes at once and get caught up in something resembling a reasonable amount of time. But with how things went, I think most of the people who were watching were like myself, Toonami viewers who were already established fans of the series. The fact that it's done very well on streaming venues that have every episode from the beginning posted is proof that there are plenty of people out there willing to binge it.

I suppose G8 would have been a better start than Foxy. I honestly think skipping straight to when Aokiji showed up would have been the best place to start in the HD episodes. If Foxy wasn't so loaded with filler it wouldn't have been too bad of a place to start but it just feels like it drags on and on. If not for all the extra padding it would have been a short warm-up for the build story coming in Water 7 but because of that padding it quickly outwears its welcome. Then they have the stolen memories arc which does offer insight into the backstories of the characters but in a pretty obnoxious way. So while it would initially be perplexing for Foxy to be on screen for a moment when Aokijii arrives, that's over in mere moments and Aokijii leaves a compelling first impression.

Being a long time fan of these characters I can't easily see things from the perspective of someone who has never seen any One Piece before but I don't think it's that difficult to pick up the show after most of the crew has been introduced. Starting back at Jaya might not have been a terrible choice either but starting back at episode 1 would mean taking 3.5 years to get to where Toonami left off in 2008. How much more disappointing would it have been if they started at the top and didn't actually reach beyond Skypiea?

Water 7 overall is a fantastic arc but I'll grant you that major moments within it wouldn't have nearly as much impact for someone who hasn't seen the previous arcs.

Maybe starting from the top would have succeeded and it would still be on today (and they'd be somewhere in Thriller Bark by now) but unless they swapped to the cropped HD masters (which are lousy in their own way) they would have ended up airing the SD episodes stretched to 16:9 for over 4 freak'n years. And that would have been pretty awful to see.

[ben0119]

I have been in a pirate mood lately since this nostalgia-rific LEGO set came out and I got it for Christmas.

I've been going on a pirate movie marathon.  I already watched Disney's Peter Pan, Hook, Disney's Treasure Island, Cutthroat Island, and the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies again.  I ran into a road block as On Stranger Tides is inexplicably not on Disney Plus.  I don't understand why a legacy licensing deal would cause them to take something off that was already on the platform??  I'm sure there are some other pirate movies I could watch too.  Lots of good, old ones.  But not sure which ones to watch.

But I may just get back to One Piece too.  Funi still has my place saved.  Episode 512.  

But I still don't know what having super powers has to do with pirates. >_>

Edited January 17, 2021 by ben0119

[EmpressAngel]

You missed the best one.

[PokeNirvash]

Does Captain Phillips count as a pirate movie, or is it too true to life to properly count?

[Sketch]

The Straw Hats are much more treasure seekers than pirates. It’s kind of how they get away with being the heroes. They usually help people and they don’t pillage. The navy and the world government is constantly shown to be corrupt with a few exceptions among the leadership so naturally outlaws end up being the foil to their twisted ideals. There are plenty of pirates who act like pirates though. Many without any super powers.

I suppose you could argue there is also more to being a pirate than stealing, at least in the romantic sense of what it means to live the life of a pirate. But from a marketing standpoint pirates sound more interesting than sailors or even world trekking adventurers.