The Doubled Up One Piece Situation

[CountFrylock]

as we all know One Piece recently went from two episodes per week on toonami to one episode per week and with it's infamous pacing

one episode per week is garbage

so i ask you...why do you think that second episode was removed?

nothing was gained from it's removal and as far as we can tell it's not a temporary decision

[PokeNirvash]

Eh, it's not that garbage. Sure, it's not ideal, but personally, I don't really care about its pacing as much as you do. Not to mention Punk Hazard's only 50 episodes long so the single-up situation won't be a real issue until we get into Dressrosa (assuming that we even get those episodes).

[Blatch]

This could be a case of them being afraid Crunchyroll wants to take the dubbed episodes away, so they're going to one at a time for now to buy some time. I don't know if that's the case, and I'm not sure if it is given that Toei is apparently responsible for this most recent run, but it's fun to speculate. Maybe there are budget issues (because when are there not?), maybe they just don't want the block running for too long, maybe they even want to keep some episodes banked up in case something happens. I'm not too concerned about it, but then again, I don't watch this show.

[Toonamiguy321]

If we apply Demarco’s words on this matter from the past, every single episode they air costs them money. The reason One Piece stayed at one episode it’s entire run up to its cancellation was that a second episode was a similar cost to an entirely separate show. If that’s still the case in 2022, OP has been burning 2x money the entire year. 
 

As annoying as that is to non OP fans, there’s no argument that content access has been very difficult this year, it’s not like the good times of 2019 where the block was overflowing with shows and needed every slot available to it. I think there are a few possibilities for why they are making the change now. 
 

1. Crunchyroll has sealed up the loophole Toonami used at the start of the year, and the block now has a finite amount of episode left before it’s removed from the schedule again. No telling if that’s in X amount of weeks or the end of this arc, but Demarco is fearing the bottomless well may have a bottom.

2. Toei has either raised the price due to perceived success of Film Red, or Toei simply no longer cares to keep the show on the block. As with above, that pushes them to conserve the episodes they do have. 
 

3. Zaslav has decreed that Toonami needs to lower their expenses, and cutting an OP episode was the easiest way to do that without actually getting rid of anything entirely. 
 

Whatever the case may be, I have my doubts the Two Piece combo is coming back anytime soon. I find it very suspect that Toonami chose to shroud the cut hour and cut OP episode under the DST schedule so they wouldn’t have to speak a word about the change. 

[OwlChemist81]

If Season 6 of MHA actually shows up, #1 can't be the case. #2 and/or #3 could still hold true though.

Edited November 15, 2022 by OwlChemist81

[Sketch]

Grexeno on the Toonami Escape Podcast had a reasonable theory. Toei only wanted them to double up One Piece until Film Red hit theaters. It’s otherwise rather odd that double OP ended right when Film Red hit theaters.

Though honestly my best guess is Toonami initially bought to the end of Punk Hazard and aren’t certain what 2023’s budget will permit so they don’t want to blow through the rest when things remain in flux. Either that or they were only doing double One Piece for as long as they had 4 hours to fill and they were finally told to scale back so they feel less obligated to fill 2:30 with a premiere.

I feel like they doubled it up to give it the best shot they could to see if it could be a mainstay again but now that they’ve seen it’s modest performance doesn’t look capable of growing much, they have to consider if buying 100ish episodes of Dressrosa is worth the commitment. I certainly hope Toei didn’t just jack up the price because of Film Red actually doing respectable in theaters here but I suppose I would not rule that out.

[Toonamiguy321]

3 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

If Season 6 of MHA actually shows up, #1 can't be the case. #2 and/or #3 could still hold true though.

Every potential deal from CR going forward should be considered stand alone. They may be able to work some magic on MHA while at the same time CR tightens up the door on Toei content. As I mentioned when MHA was confirmed for a short rerun, landing S6 is certainly something to be excited about, however it’s not a confirmation that Toonami can freely access CR shows again. I think the best way to put it is every CR show we manage to get on the block should be considered a small miracle. Can another happen? Maybe. Is it guaranteed? Not at all. 
 

Sketch has a good point too. Dressrosa is a major commitment, even at 2 episodes a week. And even hardcore fans of the series had their tolerance tested during that arc. If it was up to Demarco, it would stay. If others higher up need to be convinced, they may opt to end the series run on a positive note at the end of Punk Hazard. OP has done better at retaining viewership than it’s 2013-2017 run, but it also has not done anything spectacular to justify renewal for such a long arc that is certain to suffer from viewer decay. 

[Sketch]

I don’t think Crunchyroll can tighten the door on Toei shows as long as Toei holds the streaming rights (and broadcast rights) which they do in most cases. One Piece, Kai, Super and potentially any future Dragon Ball series won’t get locked down unless Toei lets Crunchyroll have those rights exclusively and I foresee Toei continuing to be too hands on to do that. However, it’s only sensible at this point to operate under the expectation that nothing is certain.

If MHA season 6 comes then it’s a good prospect but not a guarantee other prior licenses will return (Dr. Stone, Fire Force) and Crunchyroll can make them as expensive as they want to if not outright refuse them unless a Japanese company forces them to cooperate.

[Toonamiguy321]

9 hours ago, Sketch said:

I don’t think Crunchyroll can tighten the door on Toei shows as long as Toei holds the streaming rights (and broadcast rights) which they do in most cases. One Piece, Kai, Super and potentially any future Dragon Ball series won’t get locked down unless Toei lets Crunchyroll have those rights exclusively and I foresee Toei continuing to be too hands on to do that. However, it’s only sensible at this point to operate under the expectation that nothing is certain.

If MHA season 6 comes then it’s a good prospect but not a guarantee other prior licenses will return (Dr. Stone, Fire Force) and Crunchyroll can make them as expensive as they want to if not outright refuse them unless a Japanese company forces them to cooperate.

CR may not be able to do it by force, but they can do it through negotiation. Toei is desperate for OP to have a western presence, and CR can play into that to get them to back away from handing out the rights to the show behind their back. 
 

IMO CR is thinking towards the future. Decade old episodes of OP aren’t worth worrying about, but a new season of DB is. They are going to want any Toei loopholes sealed up tight before a new DB is announced so that they can be it’s exclusive home. I agree Toei will still want their fingers in it, we know from past seasons they don’t take kindly to certain dub choices, but I think they can be convinced that a midnight Saturday cable run is a waste for such a big show. Really, we know that seed is already planted considering the ridiculous 8pm premier deal they forced for a big chunk of Super. 

[OwlChemist81]

The end of that is what forced Super to be pushed to 10:30 and 11 PM. That's the main reason Toonami stayed at 11 PM in 2019; DBS premieres there were an acceptable compromise, since when it first premiered, Toonami aired it at 11:30, which for some reason was unacceptable for premieres.

[Sketch]

I think it didn’t take even a year for Adult Swim to prove to Toei that 11pm and even midnight on a Saturday was a better time slot than 8pm.

[Toonamiguy321]

4 minutes ago, Sketch said:

I think it didn’t take even a year for Adult Swim to prove to Toei that 11pm and even midnight on a Saturday was a better time slot than 8pm.

I think what Toei wanted was for DBS to be accessible to children. But we know CN hasn’t touched anime since 08, and even if they did agree to take it, they still would have had to do some mild censorship. So the next best compromise was giving it to AS and having them air it as the bridge between CN and AS. 
 

What Toei seemed to not understand is kids love Adult Swim and always have. The difference between 8pm and 11pm was negligible. Having it premier with the rest of the anime on Saturday was the best option for both Toonami and Toei. 

[OwlChemist81]

Bakugan: Battle Planet and Bakugan: Armored Alliance aired on CN from 2018-2021.

Toyetic as hell, but it WAS technically anime!!

Edited November 18, 2022 by OwlChemist81

[Sketch]

Yeah they ran a toyetic anime but they must have had no interest in DBS over on the CN side, otherwise Toei would have given it to CN in a heart beat.

It's going to be interesting to see what Toei decides to do with future DB series there's really no telling what could happen with the way the market is constantly changing.

[CountFrylock]

the only reason i continue to watch one piece on toonami is because the dub still isn't on crunchyroll....i could always switch to the subbed version but I've gotten so used to the dub voices that some of the ones in the original version i just have a hard time listening to(Such as Franky's)

 

 

[Top Gun]

*laughs in watching a single new OP episode per week for the past...oh, almost 15 years*

[OwlChemist81]

Like my new avatar? I found it prescient!

[PokeNirvash]

It looks like you'll beat the shit out of anyone who talks smack to you. I like it.

[ben0119]

I hope there weren't any nefarious reasons for it (it is pretty sus they low-key dropped an episode during daylight savings time switch though,) but it is true that each episode costs money.  Showing one less episode would save money.  But I don't know if that's just because Toonami needed to save the cash, or Asslav stepped in.  Would he even care what's going on with Toonami?

Why are Sony being such hard asses anyway?  I know Demarco bitching about the situation didn't help, but how did it get that way in the first place?  It's not like Toonami is a threat to them.  

I remember when we were told nothing would change when Sony bought Funimation.  That obviously wasn't true, since Funimation used to be one of their best partners.  Of course, Crunchyroll never wanted to cooperate even before Sony bought them.

The One Piece dub isn't on Crunchyroll?  Man, they still haven't gotten their shit together?  So the dub is on Funimation Now?  I take it there's still some other stuff only on Funimation Now that never got added to Crunchyroll?  They'll pry that Funimation Now subscription from my cold dead hands, by the way.

I also checked and saw the FAQ is completely the same... there's still no way to carry over qeue and watch history from Funimation Now to Crunchyroll, and I doubt that will ever get done, regardless of them claiming otherwise.

[CountFrylock]

35 minutes ago, ben0119 said:

I hope there weren't any nefarious reasons for it (it is pretty sus they low-key dropped an episode during daylight savings time switch though,) but it is true that each episode costs money.  Showing one less episode would save money.  But I don't know if that's just because Toonami needed to save the cash, or Asslav stepped in.  Would he even care what's going on with Toonami?

Why are Sony being such hard asses anyway?  I know Demarco bitching about the situation didn't help, but how did it get that way in the first place?  It's not like Toonami is a threat to them.  

I remember when we were told nothing would change when Sony bought Funimation.  That obviously wasn't true, since Funimation used to be one of their best partners.  Of course, Crunchyroll never wanted to cooperate even before Sony bought them.

The One Piece dub isn't on Crunchyroll?  Man, they still haven't gotten their shit together?  So the dub is on Funimation Now?  I take it there's still some other stuff only on Funimation Now that never got added to Crunchyroll?  They'll pry that Funimation Now subscription from my cold dead hands, by the way.

I also checked and saw the FAQ is completely the same... there's still no way to carry over qeue and watch history from Funimation Now to Crunchyroll, and I doubt that will ever get done, regardless of them claiming otherwise.

there's also the possibility that Toei has started charging more for One piece episodes due to Film red as already stated in this thread

it's interesting that an episode was removed right as Film Red was being advertised on television and had debuted in theaters

Edited November 20, 2022 by CountFrylock

[Toonamiguy321]

9 hours ago, ben0119 said:

Why are Sony being such hard asses anyway?  I know Demarco bitching about the situation didn't help, but how did it get that way in the first place?  It's not like Toonami is a threat to them.  

It may not be a huge one, but Toonami is still competition. CR seems to want to control as much of the western anime market as possible. What they aren’t able to buy, they will just wipe out of existence. 

[Jman]

Also, a lot of companies have fingers in the One Piece pie right now.  Crunchyroll is distributing the anime and animated films while Netflix is carrying the dub, movies, and is about to launch that live action debacle with the Game of Thrones level budget.  Toonami might be the odd man out.

[CountFrylock]

Yeah....Not liking this decision so far

one episode per week isn't enough