Topic: TOONAMI IS ON RIGHT [tornado fang]ing NOW

[Protoman Blues]

It sure was. That's the dub Toonami had at the beginning up until Goku fought Recoome. Then they announced they were continuing DBZ and everyone was stoked because before that we were LITERALLY left with...

"HAS GOKU BECOME A LEGENDARY SUPER SAIYAN? FIND OUT IN THE NEXT EPISODE OF DRAGONBALL Z"

...only to have it cut back to the first episode of DBZ. All that wait for Goku to arrive, he starts kicking the Ginyu Forces' ass and then NOTHING. It suuuuuucked. So yeah, that was a huge reason Toonami became so successful, in addition to all the other anime they started bringing over. Hell, it's what got me into Gundam & Gunpla.

[Police Girl]

Didn't Toonami air the Ocean dub for a while too before switching over to the Funimation dub?

[Protoman Blues]

Yeah. I thought I said that. Haha, if not I apologize.

The Ocean Dub was the one they originally aired before Funimation came along to continue the show when Goku fought Jeice and Burta.

[Police Girl]

Yeah. I thought I said that. Haha, if not I apologize.

The Ocean Dub was the one they originally aired before Funimation came along to continue the show when Goku fought Jeice and Burta.

Nah, you did say it. I'm an idiot and wasn't reading.
I know a lot of people prefer the old Ocean dub but I think I only ever saw like three episodes of it. I never really cared for DBZ back then since it was usually on before I got back from school or if it was on after I only ever seemed to watch episodes where nothing happened.

So seeing that DBZ Kai is coming to Toonami, maybe now I'll be able to watch it. 98 episodes is much less of a time allotment than 291 episodes is.

[Sakura Leic]

Yeha the only worth while episode from the Original you should watch is when Goku and Piccolo learn how to drive, just for the sheer absurdity of it.

[Police Girl]

You know, Daylight Savings time is a thing.
You know what else is a thing? Cooler's Revenge.

yay reruns.

[Police Girl]

So we all knew DBZ kai was airing on Toonami.

What we didn't know was if the show would be aired in 4:3 in an awful stretched format, cropped to 16:9, or whatever.

The promo they aired last night is indicative of how it'll be aired, proper 4:3 aspect ratio with "Space Bars" on the sides.

I wonder if they'll do the same for the other 4:3 shows (Narutard, Bebop, etc.)

[Police Girl]

Attack on Titan and Bleach end next week on November first.

Titan's sticking around on its same timeslot though, while DBZ Kai takes Bleach's Timeslot.

Hellsing is ending too on Nov. 8, but its just getting cut off as to not undercut the sales if the last few episodes apparently. (Actually nobody knows what the hell is going on Broadcast rights might be [tornado fang]'d or something.)

And as so many people have been wishing for since it was released, Inuyasha: The Final Act is finally found its home on Toonami, they're going to try and keep edits to a minimum but will edit to TV-MA if they need to.

[Police Girl]

There was an AMA on Reddit earlier this week, I'll post the highlights. I removed the stuff that was not directly relevant to Toonami,but the whole list is here.

Last night, Jason DeMarco had an “Ask Me Anything” session on the Toonami sub-Reddit which yielded some interesting bits of intel about various things. Here’s a recap of his answers. He stated he would make no announcements during the AMA session but there was a lot of stuff in the works. You can read the entire thread here but below are the tidbits we found informative and/or interesting. Fair warning, there is a lot here.

He couldn’t say how long Intruder 2 is expected to be but Jason did state it will be a multi-week event. Also expect another trailer and/or teaser for Intruder 2 but definitely not this year.

The comic is still be made and will be held to launch with the Intruder 2 event.

No Clydes animation this year, maybe next year.

While there’s nothing to report on a possible continuation of Space Dandy, Jason noted that Adult Swim would be interested in being a sponsor for the Space Dandy movie that Watanabe wants to make.

Jason noted that the odds of another series getting aired in the US before Japan are small.

When inquired about Toonami merch, Jason replied “Merch… what a good idea!” Proceed to read into it. Likewise, when asked if they ever thought about doing a Toonami singles music program, Jason replied, “Not a bad idea!”

The post Hellsing Ultimate line-up will be announced soon, the 2:30 time slot will be going to a rerun (Rerun is Bleach, not starting from beginning, episode TBA).

No details can be given on why Hellsing Ultimate episodes 9 and 10 cannot air in November but they have not given up on airing them and hope to air them soon. They’re not sure if they would re-air the other 8 episodes of Hellsing Ultimate before airing 9 and 10 if those two end up airing a long time from now.

No movie announcements yet but Jason stated Miyazaki movies are WAY out of their budget.

Dragon Ball Z Kai will start with the opening FUNimation provides for them and will probably move to a custom intro but that decision is not 100% settled.

InuYasha: The Final Act will air one night with the full opening and have a shortened opening after that.

When asked about how they will air One Piece openings when the show loses its ending credits, he stated that the intros will likely stay 30 seconds. Jason also noted that One Piece is always fun to make bumpers for.

They will “get on” a Naruto Shippuden promo; he feels they owe the Naruto fans a promo.

They’re still working on getting Cowboy Bebop HD.

FLCL will not be returning to the block any time soon.

Big O season 2 will likely get another run when it finishes.

When asked about rerunning newer shows, he stated they have no choice but to air some reruns into the New Year.

Attack on Titan is re-airing because they do not currently have money to get another new show and because they can re-air Attack on Titan at no additional cost. It was the Programming Departments decision to keep Titan at 11:30pm because they expect it to do well there. When asked if Titan will eventually move down from 11:30 he said “we’ll see!”

When asked about whether airing a rerun before premieres discourages viewers from tuning in Jason replied, “Depends on the show. Plenty of shows rerun with decent audiences, plenty don’t. This perception of reruns as death is something that seems pretty unique to anime fans. Adult Swim is MOSTLY reruns. So is Toonami. So is all of TV, really!”

The Toonami budget resets in January.

The most clear note they received from “manipulate the manual” was to air more ADULT (read: dark) content and Hellsing was their first response to that.

When asked what he defines as “action”, Jason stated their definition of action was some sort of dramatic, usually physical, conflict that is ideally at the heart of the show driving it forward. He also stated that the main 3 things they consider when selecting show for Toonami is 1. They like it 2. It has enough action and 3. It has broad enough appeal to risk putting in front of a million or so people every week.

It’s easier financially to license “longer” shows and they feel the more settled the schedule is the more people have time to develop a habit of watching. The ratings are better when the schedule is stable. That said, Jason also hopes they will be able to pick up more series around 10 or so episodes in length and that Hellsing will not become a special case in that regard. However, they do not plan on moving from the model of airing longer shows for most of the block.

Shows from 2004-2007 are not considered too old for Toonami.

When asked about how old a show can be he said there was no hard and fast rule about that. Regardless of age, the show has to be relevant in a BIG way to the current audience. DBZ Kai qualifies but the list of shows that are that old and still relevant is a very short list. The same applies for movies.

When asked if there was any chance of a magical girl series airing on Toonami, he replied “anything is possible!”

Regarding shows they have that are free to air, he noted that pretty much everything in the back half of the block is free for them to air.

They understand we don’t like to see stretched shows and neither do they. He noted DBZ Kai is a special case that allowed them to maintain the 4:3 aspect ratio and they are going to see how that works out before committing to airing more shows with side bars.

Jason noted that one of the challenges in running the block that most people are not aware of is “the myriad legal challenges involved in licensing shows and airing them in the US, and even small things like opens/closes/eyecatches can be difficult to get worked out when receiving episodes. Working across language and geographical boundaries is hard, especially when dealing with something as complex as television and serialized storytelling. Honestly, so many things are involved in contractual stuff, you’d be amazed. It’s always something different and it’s always a miracle when something airs without a hitch.”

The deals Toonami makes are complex and EVERY deal is different. There are no rules. They will not divulge the details of any of their deals and they cannot give a list of every show they can currently air nor can they share their internal Standards and Practices. He did however make the general statement that heavily sexualized content in general will not be seen on Toonami and Jason dismissed the rumor that Kill La Kill had too much nudity for the S&P to clear.

Sometimes they request shows from licensors and sometimes licensors look to Toonami for exposure for certain series. It can go either way.

They currently acquire series from Aniplex, FUNimation and Viz Media but they hope to be working with other companies soon. Jason stated they are open to working with Sentai Filmworks.

Space Dandy happened because knew the people working on Space Dandy and said people came to Atlanta to pitch the show. They liked what they saw so they agreed to be a part of it. Jason noted you almost always need a US licensor in order to be able to get a show, even if it already has an English dub.

Since they air on Adult Swim they prefer to have more mature content but younger skewing shows are okay as long as they don’t skew TOO young.

Though it continues to be requested, Jason does not want to air Yu-Gi-Oh!

There are, sadly, very few Western animated action series that Toonami can have access to at this time.

There are still no plans to produce another original series a la IGPX. When asked whose soul did he have to sacrifice to get IGPX back on the air, he replied “Hahaha, MINE.”

Jason doesn’t think Toonami Jetstream will ever return.

I don't think I mentioned it already (and I apologize if I have) but December WILL be another month of movies, no damn clue as to what they'll be of course but I imagine that schedule will be out really soon.

[Phi]

There's no way I'm reading all that

[Police Girl]

Its not even that long. Lots of small blurbs.

[Amatiramisu]

It'd be so cool if Toonami did another Month of Miyazaki with some of his newer movies.

[Phi]

Now you're speaking my language.

[Police Girl]

It'd be so cool if Toonami did another Month of Miyazaki with some of his newer movies.

It would be cooler if they had the budget.

They do not.

[Police Girl]

Movie month stuff's been announced.

Hellsing 9 & 10's snafu has been sorted out and they will air as part of movie month.

December 6th: Hellsing Ultimate 9  and Summer Wars
December 13th: Hellsing Ultimate 10  and Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos
December 20th: Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan and Akira
December 27th: Evangelion 1.11 and Evangelion 2.22

A few reruns (Eva, Akira and Summer Wars) a few newcomers (Broly, The other FMA movie) looks good.

[Phi]

That FMA movie was shiiiiiiiit

And I never understood why Summer Wars was so highly acclaimed.

[Police Girl]

Its very pretty.

[Amatiramisu]

Yeah, I had to watch part of Summer Wars for my sociology class and it really is a very pretty movie. I'm excited they're showing it.

[ViperAcidZX]

I'm looking forward to Summer Wars.

[Phi]

It's average by today's standards. You'll find mere anime shows surpassing those visuals.

Anyway overall, I felt it was a decent movie. Not amazing like everyone says.

[Police Girl]

Toonami update:

New Year Schedule is in place.

Notable changes:

Bebop in HD! (Starting over from the beginning)
Inuyasha moves to 1AM
Deadman Wonderland returns, airing after TTGL (Which conveniently has a recap episode before starting the second part.)

In a first for Toonami, no FMA:B (I think it and Bleach have been the only shows that've been on the block since its comeback the entire time).

[ViperAcidZX]

Yay for Bebop in HD! Too bad Dish won't give me HD-quality broadcasting... I really should finish up Deadman Wonderland on Netflix, too.

[Police Girl]

Yeah, Charter can't give a good signal for me either, lots of artifacting and [parasitic bomb].

[Phi]

Deadman Wonderland is boring

[Police Girl]

Must you be so negative?

Other people liked it and I imagine people have been wanting to see it since it only aired at the beginning of the block back in 2012.

Besides, they're giving up the rights to FMA:B, it'll be gone for good. I only wish it was Bleach instead.