Breaking: Schedules for 5/7 and 5/14: PRIMAL reruns at Midnight; no new shows

[OwlChemist81]

Thoughts?

[Jman]

Somewhere Genndy is seething.

[Blatch]

Well, that's disappointing, but I think some internal politics we don't know about played a role in this. After the debacle of late last year with the block having to stall week after week because they couldn't get anything new, the Toonami crew now knows better and isn't going to test their luck. At least Primal S1 is only five episodes; whether a premiere of S2(?) or something new from Sentai follows it, I think we're on okay shape. Least I still gots Lupin to watch.

I also find it interesting that they're having AssClass lead off the block and moving One Piece up, both of which Sketch suggested. Granted, the former is only for a week, which makes me wonder why Primal is suddenly going to knock it off. Lately Toonami has been prone to bursts of micromanagement like this, whereas in the past the block would try to stay consistent as possible to help keep the ratings stable. Guess we're a long ways away from that era now.

[Sketch]

Blatch, Primal season 1 is 10 episodes not 5. 10 weeks leading with a rerun is a bad call.

My only guess for why Primal doesn’t just take Midnight on May 7th is timing it with the premiere of season 2 but it might be for arbitrary reasons.

They have provided us with a schedule update that does nothing to counter the growing concerns for how limited their options have become. They could not even get YashaHime back to plug one of these holes and given they filled all three with reruns it seems very unlikely anything new is coming until AC ends in June. If AC is replaced by YashaHime or Food Wars then  that’s going to look pretty dire as well.

Will nobody work with them or do they have so little budget left that they have to pace out the remaining acquisitions for the year? The folks declaring that the AMC buy-out is the end for Sentai on Toonami will have a field day with this schedule update, as will the folks that are saying Sony won’t let them get anything. Whether or not either is true this schedule looks like proof of both.

So probably nothing new till June. In the meantime, Toonami has constructed a schedule that has every reason to tank. Lupin and an hour of One Piece in the middle of a block that is lead off by a rerun. Assassination Classroom at 12:30am can’t hope to keep the rest of this lineup above water on its own.

One Piece is back at 1am like it’s 2013 but at what cost?
 

At least they didn’t go crawling back to Dragon Ball but they probably can’t afford it.

[CountFrylock]

33 minutes ago, Sketch said:

Blatch, Primal season 1 is 10 episodes not 5. 10 weeks leading with a rerun is a bad call.

My only guess for why Primal doesn’t just take Midnight on May 7th is timing it with the premiere of season 2 but it might be for arbitrary reasons.

They have provided us with a schedule update that does nothing to counter the growing concerns for how limited their options have become. They could not even get YashaHime back to plug one of these holes and given they filled all three with reruns it seems very unlikely anything new is coming until AC ends in June. If AC is replaced by YashaHime or Food Wars then  that’s going to look pretty dire as well.

Will nobody work with them or do they have so little budget left that they have to pace out the remaining acquisitions for the year? The folks declaring that the AMC buy-out is the end for Sentai on Toonami will have a field day with this schedule update, as will the folks that are saying Sony won’t let them get anything. Whether or not either is true this schedule looks like proof of both.

So probably nothing new till June. In the meantime, Toonami has constructed a schedule that has every reason to tank. Lupin and an hour of One Piece in the middle of a block that is lead off by a rerun. Assassination Classroom at 12:30am can’t hope to keep the rest of this lineup above water on its own.

One Piece is back at 1am like it’s 2013 but at what cost?
 

At least they didn’t go crawling back to Dragon Ball but they probably can’t afford it.

Yeah I Can't really see how they can treat this as positive news....as you said this line up looks like crap and leading off with a rerun is never a good idea

they really need to damage control  this announcement and quick because telling everyone

"Guess what no new shows and the leader of the block is a rerun" does not inspire confidence

Edited April 28, 2022 by CountFrylock

[PokeNirvash]

W  H  Y

Demarco needs to start playing hardball with FUNiroll, otherwise the dent I'm making's gonna turn into a giant-ass crater before next month is up.

Edited April 28, 2022 by PokeNirvash

[Jman]

13 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

W  H  Y

Demarco needs to start playing hardball with FUNiroll, otherwise the dent I'm making's gonna turn into a giant-ass crater before next month is up.

Problem is Crunchyroll has all the cards here and absolutely zero incentive to play nice unless Toonami gets a lot more promotion or a more attractive timeslot.

Yeah, this is lame.  I know Peacemaker is off limits, but they couldn’t even get Harley Quinn?

[CountFrylock]

17 minutes ago, Jman said:

Problem is Crunchyroll has all the cards here and absolutely zero incentive to play nice unless Toonami gets a lot more promotion or a more attractive timeslot.

Yeah, this is lame.  I know Peacemaker is off limits, but they couldn’t even get Harley Quinn?

warner isn't gonna give toonami anything

[Jman]

3 minutes ago, CountFrylock said:

warner isn't gonna give toonami anything

Well Warner is ceasing original show development for TBS and TNT.  Content has to come from somewhere unless they just air sports, reality shows, and wrestling.

[katt_goddess]

Kind of meh on this. And not just because of Genndy's supposed bitchery about it being on Toonami-time the first time around [ which is just plain bitchery - don't complain about potentially being placed in a niche time slot when you are a niche artist to begin with ] . Primal is decent but not quite the attempted tone of Toonami in general. If it's going to be a lead-up, it should bork over a slot on the [adult swim ] proper side. I don't want to have to sit through a program that barely interests me in order to watch actual anime programs I tuned in for. 

I'm willing to deal on behalf of the need of a placeholder program until things get finalized but that doesn't mean I can't complain about it. It's the internet after all. 

[Blatch]

3 hours ago, Sketch said:

Blatch, Primal season 1 is 10 episodes not 5. 10 weeks leading with a rerun is a bad call.

I see. Hmm... at this point, my biggest hope is that this rerun is somehow temporary and they're waiting for the ink to dry on an upcoming contract, but the rest of your post didn't inspire confidence. And Primal S2 is probably going to become a Toonami original just so they have something to tide us over with until the next round of co-productions starts. In that case, I haven't seen any of this show, so I'll start with S1.

If AMC really is preventing Sentai from licensing out to Toonami, then that's just galling, especially after Made in Abyss gave me newfound optimism regarding this block. I hope it's not true, if only because I've started to wonder what the future is going to be like, and things have gotten pretty existential. 🥴

[MasqueradeOverture]

Imagine if this incarnation of Toonami ends after the 11 year mark as well.

[Sketch]

31 minutes ago, MasqueradeOverture said:

Imagine if this incarnation of Toonami ends after the 11 year mark as well.

It will have been a good run, longer than anyone should have expected and much closer to going out on their own terms than 2007 and 2008 were.

[StarPanda]

Tight 

[Blatch]

1 hour ago, Sketch said:

It will have been a good run, longer than anyone should have expected and much closer to going out on their own terms than 2007 and 2008 were.

It could be that we're in the twilight of this version of Toonami's existence, but I don't see it that way. It's not an original theory, but I think the block is only going to end when Jason says so. And why would he have any reason to? Action animation has been in [adult swim]'s blood since the very beginning. So long as they keep making new action shows, Toonami will be able to air them, and the block will have value. At this point, the question becomes if they'll be able to air anything else. It's also funny that you mention the TOM 4 era, because in my personal worst-case scenario, I see Toonami reverting to a two-hour block like it was in the dark ages, only instead of an hour of Naruto filler buoying the block, it's an hour of One Piece. They could lead off with any co-pros they're making, and then tack on a classic rerun at the end. Would you be willing to continue watching if it came to that?

[EmpressAngel]

I'm guessing contract disputes plus budget constraints are really biting us in the ass. The Funi/CR merger's been handled pretty poorly in other aspects, so it really wouldn't surprise me  if getting new content from them is less about bad blood or money issues and more about Sony's goons just simply not having whatever necessary legal details fully ironed out to give Toonami broadcast rights for new shows yet. Meanwhile I'd be shocked if they weren't trying to save every penny they possibly could for Bleach, because there's no way that's not gonna come with a huge price tag. Although with Netflix's current issues, they might actually have a better shot of picking that up.

[Sketch]

3 hours ago, Blatch said:

It could be that we're in the twilight of this version of Toonami's existence, but I don't see it that way. It's not an original theory, but I think the block is only going to end when Jason says so. And why would he have any reason to? Action animation has been in [adult swim]'s blood since the very beginning. So long as they keep making new action shows, Toonami will be able to air them, and the block will have value. At this point, the question becomes if they'll be able to air anything else. It's also funny that you mention the TOM 4 era, because in my personal worst-case scenario, I see Toonami reverting to a two-hour block like it was in the dark ages, only instead of an hour of Naruto filler buoying the block, it's an hour of One Piece. They could lead off with any co-pros they're making, and then tack on a classic rerun at the end. Would you be willing to continue watching if it came to that?

A two hour block with an hour of One Piece? That’s appointment television for me.

As long they make new shows themselves, I’ll probably always tune in for those.

[PokeNirvash]

And as usual, Angel has the smartest way of thinking about this news designed to make people claim the sky is falling on impulse. Like this douchecanoe straight from the bowels of /co/.

Some people just shouldn't have Twitter accounts.

[CountFrylock]

10 hours ago, Blatch said:

It could be that we're in the twilight of this version of Toonami's existence, but I don't see it that way. It's not an original theory, but I think the block is only going to end when Jason says so. And why would he have any reason to? Action animation has been in [adult swim]'s blood since the very beginning. So long as they keep making new action shows, Toonami will be able to air them, and the block will have value. At this point, the question becomes if they'll be able to air anything else. It's also funny that you mention the TOM 4 era, because in my personal worst-case scenario, I see Toonami reverting to a two-hour block like it was in the dark ages, only instead of an hour of Naruto filler buoying the block, it's an hour of One Piece. They could lead off with any co-pros they're making, and then tack on a classic rerun at the end. Would you be willing to continue watching if it came to that?

I really hope it doesn't come to that because then it just screams "2008 Toonami" and i think saturdays are better reserved for toonami than just another night for adultswim comedies since most of those don't have enough episodes to air consistently and it would get just as stale as them airing rick and morty all the time

i like seeing the community react to episodes and talk about them....if it went down to just an hour of one piece  a classic rerun and some original series

then i don't think it'll be the same

[Jman]

It's right after a bunch of new shows.  I wouldn't sound the "Toonami is DEAD!" alarm just yet, but I think everyone knew that the all the mergers and purchases, combined with Warner Media deciding to just sell their anime distributor, was going to make this a pretty tough stretch of time.  Uzumaki is still coming out, and I presume DeMarco has money for something to go, especially as Netflix eschews more artsty productions in favor of whatever can secure more subscribers.

Linear TV, for better or for worse, is simply not how people consume stuff like anime anymore.  We don't live in the days of Blockbuster where the court of public opinion and limited selection would probably shame most people from watching stuff like My Hero Academia, let alone Bastard!!  That made blocks like Toonami invaluable, but no more.

[Ginguy]

Not surprised honestly.

The money isn't there for a niche product that doesn't produce much in terms of revenue. Uzumaki will air when it is ready, but probably not to much in the way of ratings, and possibly Bleach, though it might be financially out of reach.

 

[Nablonsky]

AEW to the rescue

Edited April 30, 2022 by Nablonsky

[CountFrylock]

people might say people won't believe demarco if he says anything about this on twitter

however i don't think staying quiet is much better since leading the block with a rerun is never a good idea and two shows concluding with no replacements is sure to leave a sour taste in many fans mouths

the current stuff going on as a result of the merger with discovery adds to fan curiosity and i think it's best to de-spell such thoughts rather than let them spread

Edited April 30, 2022 by CountFrylock

[Jman]

11 hours ago, Nablonsky said:

AEW to the rescue

Yeah, get Danhausen on the case.  He’ll get more viewers than Primal reruns.

[CountFrylock]

i don't know why anyone here keeps mentioning AEW like it's something that could be added to toonami in the united states....

it's not....

[PokeNirvash]

Some people just really fucking love wrestling.

[CountFrylock]

58 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

Some people just really fucking love wrestling.

WCW Never aired on cartoon network so I'm not sure why anyone thinks AEW Would air on toonami

realistically there's only a couple explanations for this schedule

1.using primal S1 to lead into S2

2.they are trying to work out a deal for some crunchyroll content and negotiations are taking longer than they expected and Primal S1 is only being used to stall until the deal is finalized

3.same case as above but with sentai content(although I doubt that would be as much trouble acquiring as Anything they'd have to talk to sony about)

I Have a hard time believing they weren't even trying to get anything and they have nothing at all to give us right now....so sony being stubborn hardasses and making contract agreements a pain in the ass seems likely

Edited April 30, 2022 by CountFrylock

[Top Gun]

6 hours ago, PokeNirvash said:

Some people just really fucking love wrestling.

"De gustibus" and all that.

[Blatch]

7 hours ago, PokeNirvash said:

Some people just really fucking love wrestling.

And a lot of anime fans, regardless of what genres they prefer, have a fondness for wrestling. I am not one of them, but I don't question it.

[Sketch]

13 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

people might say people won't believe demarco if he says anything about this on twitter

however i don't think staying quiet is much better since leading the block with a rerun is never a good idea and two shows concluding with no replacements is sure to leave a sour taste in many fans mouths

the current stuff going on as a result of the merger with discovery adds to fan curiosity and i think it's best to de-spell such thoughts rather than let them spread

Based on 10 years of DeMarco trying to explain why things are as they are… I’d say he’s better off staying quiet. The only good spin for this is confirming it means Primal season 2 premieres on Toonami.

Let’s just hope Primal season 2 will bump off the reruns by June or early July. A marathon on 05/28 could burn off the other 8 episodes after just two weeks of this underwhelming schedule.

He won’t be able to say a thing about season 2 until AS announces the premiere date.

[Sketch]

11 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

WCW Never aired on cartoon network so I'm not sure why anyone thinks AEW Would air on toonami

realistically there's only a couple explanations for this schedule

1.using primal S1 to lead into S2

2.they are trying to work out a deal for some crunchyroll content and negotiations are taking longer than they expected and Primal S1 is only being used to stall until the deal is finalized

3.same case as above but with sentai content(although I doubt that would be as much trouble acquiring as Anything they'd have to talk to sony about)

I Have a hard time believing they weren't even trying to get anything and they have nothing at all to give us right now....so sony being stubborn hardasses and making contract agreements a pain in the ass seems likely

4) They can’t afford to run all their acquisitions for the year without spacing some out. If YashaHime or Food Wars replace AC then that will be all but confirmed to be the situation.

[katt_goddess]

Party foul.

There is no 'four' . 

[ben0119]

PATHETIC! 

YOU HAVE FAILED US FOR THE LAST TIME, DEMARCO!

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by ben0119

[CountFrylock]

10 hours ago, Sketch said:

4) They can’t afford to run all their acquisitions for the year without spacing some out. If YashaHime or Food Wars replace AC then that will be all but confirmed to be the situation.

i could understand them having some problems late in the year but it's may and if they are already struggling with the budget then that's depressing

nobody wants a repeat of what happened last year

Edited May 1, 2022 by CountFrylock

[Jman]

3 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

i could understand them having some problems late in the year but it's may and if they are already struggling with the budget then that's depressing

nobody wants a repeat of what happened last year

Maybe so, but it’s not “Toonami or suck a lemon” anymore.  
 

I think that’s the irony of the situation.  As anime becomes easier to access for just about everyone, casting off the yokes of old stigmas and obscenely priced DVDs, Toonami’s pickings have become slimmer and slimmer.

[Blatch]

On 4/29/2022 at 12:46 AM, Sketch said:

A two hour block with an hour of One Piece? That’s appointment television for me.

As long they make new shows themselves, I’ll probably always tune in for those.

Cool. I mean, you're probably already watching OP subbed, but in that case, you must be a big enough fan to want to double dip.

4 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

i could understand them having some problems late in the year but it's may and if they are already struggling with the budget then that's depressing

nobody wants a repeat of what happened last year

If that's the case, then I think the newly-minted Warner Bros. Discovery is to blame. They probably suddenly slashed the budget to make up for... whatever. Same reason as TBS and TNT aren't making new scripted shows.

[Sketch]

16 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

i could understand them having some problems late in the year but it's may and if they are already struggling with the budget then that's depressing

nobody wants a repeat of what happened last year

It makes perfect sense really. The best way to avoid a serious drought is to pace out the acquisitions as well as the originals. If they can only afford 2-3 more shows this year and they're 12-26 episodes each then they shouldn't blow through them.

Lupin finishes before November so that's 1 additional opening.

Food Wars replacing Assassination Classroom would end by October so that's another potential opening.

YashaHime replacing Assassination Classroom would end before December 24th with 2 weeks off.

The midnight slot will probably be Primal Season 2, Uzumaki and then Housing Complex C but if they start Primal Season 2 before a full rerun of season 1 then they'll have some weeks between when Primal Season 2 ends and October when Uzumaki will start. We have no idea when Housing Complex C can start airing but unless they wait until at least October it won't last into 2023 either.

And besides all that, if they are trying to get the new Bleach season and the new Gundam series before 2023 then they can't blow their budget on shows earlier in the year.

[CountFrylock]

8 hours ago, Sketch said:

It makes perfect sense really. The best way to avoid a serious drought is to pace out the acquisitions as well as the originals. If they can only afford 2-3 more shows this year and they're 12-26 episodes each then they shouldn't blow through them.

Lupin finishes before November so that's 1 additional opening.

Food Wars replacing Assassination Classroom would end by October so that's another potential opening.

YashaHime replacing Assassination Classroom would end before December 24th with 2 weeks off.

The midnight slot will probably be Primal Season 2, Uzumaki and then Housing Complex C but if they start Primal Season 2 before a full rerun of season 1 then they'll have some weeks between when Primal Season 2 ends and October when Uzumaki will start. We have no idea when Housing Complex C can start airing but unless they wait until at least October it won't last into 2023 either.

And besides all that, if they are trying to get the new Bleach season and the new Gundam series before 2023 then they can't blow their budget on shows earlier in the year.

I'm not saying they should blow through them but if the budget is struggling not to run out by may then I Gotta ask how much have they already spent this year?

They Shouldn't be that low on funds already

Edited May 2, 2022 by CountFrylock

[CountFrylock]

22 hours ago, Blatch said:

Cool. I mean, you're probably already watching OP subbed, but in that case, you must be a big enough fan to want to double dip.

If that's the case, then I think the newly-minted Warner Bros. Discovery is to blame. They probably suddenly slashed the budget to make up for... whatever. Same reason as TBS and TNT aren't making new scripted shows.

I Hope That's not what's causing this

Edited May 2, 2022 by CountFrylock

[Sketch]

8 hours ago, CountFrylock said:

I'm not saying they should blow through them but if the budget is struggling not to run out by may then I Gotta ask how much have they already spent this year?

They Shouldn't be that low on funds already

At the very least they had to pay for Made in Abyss, Lupin and One Piece since January, possibly also Attack on Titan. That’s 4. Seems unlikely they will exceed the amount of shows picked up last year.

Have you already forgotten how few things they picked up in 2021? Titan, Dr. Stone, Neverland, Food Wars, YashaHime and probably Assassination Classroom season 2 and a final renewal for Black Clover if that wasn’t paid in 2020. Gridman was 2020 budget.

So we’re probably looking at 2-3 more acquisitions before 2023. Maybe 4 if 3 of them are 10-13 episodes in length.

And if they’re saving up for Bleach and dare I say MHA season 6 (which they might get if the Japanese producers want it to air on TV) then they have to be frugal.

The one thing I’m particularly concerned about is whether or not they intend to rerun Primal season 1 for ten whole weeks before starting season 2. That’s really gonna screw over AC in it’s final stretch along with everything else.

They can feasibly recover when season 2 starts but a lineup featuring Lupin and an hour of One Piece is considerably nicher than last year’s lineup with MHA, YashaHime, Food Wars and Black Clover. AC getting replaced by Food Wars or YashaHime won’t likely help matters significantly. It’s a boon for Lupin and One Piece fans but not really anyone else.

[CountFrylock]

I'm not sure how likely bleach is considering we're in that spot where toonami can't exactly outbid anyone for what they want

if someone else shows interest in bleach chances are they'll get it....as for MHA how many Japanese Producers would jump at the chance to have a show on toonami?

I'm only aware of Toei's feelings about Cable TV In The United states(Possibly TMS Too since I've heard once or twice that they had been eager to push lupin to be more popular in america)

[Jman]

Netflix is cutting a lot of content, but mostly their clout content.  Less animation about gay couples and foreign cultures, more Boss Baby and Baki.

Bleach falls in the latter.

[Sketch]

18 minutes ago, CountFrylock said:

I'm not sure how likely bleach is considering we're in that spot where toonami can't exactly outbid anyone for what they want

if someone else shows interest in bleach chances are they'll get it....as for MHA how many Japanese Producers would jump at the chance to have a show on toonami?

I'm only aware of Toei's feelings about Cable TV In The United states(Possibly TMS Too since I've heard once or twice that they had been eager to push lupin to be more popular in america)

Viz might avoid Netflix after Netflix screwed them out of JoJo but yeah even with Netflix cutting back, they can probably outbid AS for Bleach.

Regardless, Toonami probably won’t get more than 4 additional acquisitions this year so it’s best not to burn through one of those when they still have 5 premieres and probably will have 6 again in June or July.

[OwlChemist81]

1 hour ago, Jman said:

Netflix is cutting a lot of content, but mostly their clout content.  Less animation about gay couples and foreign cultures, more Boss Baby and Baki.

Bleach falls in the latter.

How in the hell is Bleach like Boss Baby!?

[PokeNirvash]

1 minute ago, OwlChemist81 said:

How in the hell is Bleach like Boss Baby!?

Popular enough for Netflix to want in on that action, doy.

[OwlChemist81]

10 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

Popular enough for Netflix to want in on that action, doy.

They didn't jump on Demon Slayer, which makes Bleach eat its own ass in terms of popularity.

I don't think Toonami will have any trouble picking up the continuation of Bleach when the time comes, especially if they're foregoing other popular shows like Yashahime.

[Jman]

30 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

Popular enough for Netflix to want in on that action, doy.

Bingo.  They both bring ratings, and so would Bleach.

[Jman]

18 minutes ago, OwlChemist81 said:

They didn't jump on Demon Slayer, which makes Bleach eat its own ass in terms of popularity.

I don't think Toonami will have any trouble picking up the continuation of Bleach when the time comes, especially if they're foregoing other popular shows like Yashahime.

Toonami ain’t got no damn money, and a narrowing pool of people who want to work with them.  If they get it, it won’t be first.

[Blatch]

Personally, I'm wondering if the return of Bleach is a big enough deal that Netflix would want dibs on it. It was a big franchise in its heyday, but the original anime ended over a decade ago. And consider all the people who love to say that the series was never good after the first arc, which might mute any nostalgia factor the new show has going for it. I guess we'll see what happens... and believe me, I want Toonami to get this one as much as the next guy.

I think the real test for whether this block will be able to keep punching above its weight is the next season of MHA. Either Crunchyroll is going to get it and may or may not let Toonami have it, or the Japanese companies take Sketch's suggestion to heart. But at that point, will they have enough money in the budget to air it anyway?

[Sketch]

Netflix got Shaman King and Eden’s Zero so I think they’ll be interested in new Bleach but one point against that is they never bothered to stream the rest of the series and I think only ever had up to the Bount arc if even beyond Soul Society. Though they do currently have two animated movies and the live action film so they have at least some interest in the franchise.