"Toonami" News & Discussion Thread

[Space Cadet]

1. That would be a huge amount of work to go through hundreds of episodes and edit them to suit someone's subjective definition of a well-paced show. Yes, a lot of anime were edited/spliced/merged/what-have-you in the 90's, but that was when the industry was more prosperous, they were still figuring things out, and they had to cut things for the censors. And as for 4kids, well...they were 4kids. I think they kinda got off on it.

2. However good their intentions might be in such an endeavor, and even if they did it well, you know there's gonna be backlash from the anime purists.

The only time I could see this happening is whenever One Piece finishes airing, Toei could do a "One Piece Kai" 10-15 years down the road, but we're too far away from that right now.

 

[Light Lucario]

I'm kind of shocked to see how casually people here are taking the fact that they're skipping some massively important story arcs in One Piece - I mean, are Toonami-only viewers just supposed to assume they all took a nice long vacation after Thriller Bark? It's gonna be really awkward when they get to the tournament in Dressrosa and they see what the prize is.

Honestly, I don't think that they have a lot of options here. I don't think that continuing where the Toonami airings left off would have really worked. I think that they still would have been difficult for casual fans to jump right back from there. I don't think people will be that confused, if only because we have the Internet. The episodes are available for people to watch and even if they don't want to do that, they can easily read a summary of the events of the arcs on a One Piece wiki. It isn't the best solution, but I don't think casual fans will be that clueless or that hopelessly lost about One Piece just because Toonami skipped ahead again. I know that those arcs are pretty major for the series and characters, but if you haven't seen or read the entire series up to those points, I'm not sure it really would hold the same kind of weight or impact on the audience either.

People would have been freaking the heck out if this was the manner in which One Piece was reintroduced to Toonami even just a couple years ago. But I guess it goes to show 1. beggars can't be choosers, and Funimation probably let them have these episodes 200-back from where their dub currently is probably at a discounted rate, and 2. nobody cares anyway because anyone who cares about One Piece probably caught up long before.

I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure that people would have been just as happy about One Piece's return to Toonami and TV in general even if this happened a couple of years ago. People much more familiar with One Piece seem pretty accepting of this choice too. I also wouldn't say it's a matter of nobody cares because people already invested in the series would have caught up by now. I think it's more like there isn't a perfect solution since Adult Swim isn't going to give One Piece a weeknight slot to go through hundreds of episodes. Even if they did, there's no guarantee that it would be successful or attract enough of an audience to keep it going long enough to actually cover all of the pre-time skip arcs. I think most fans are just happy with One Piece getting another TV run, especially when it seemed unlikely that they'd be able to get it back.

Here's a thought - if they want to catch up sometime before Adult Swim declares bankruptcy, maybe go back to the old 4Kids trick of merging episodes. No, seriously - it would actually be justified and quite welcome in these later arcs. They've gotten to a point where they're soon gonna have more episodes than chapters, and it sometimes takes 2 or more episodes to adapt a single 19-page chapter. I appreciate their decision not to go the Naruto/Bleach route of painfully long filler arcs interrupting major canon story, but it honestly becomes unwatchable at times, certainly on a weekly basis, you almost have to binge while doing housework or something. Here's a tip - any time you see a scene with characters running to/away from something, just fast-forward. Chances are those characters will be running for 17 episodes straight before they escape/reach their destination.

I think that would be far too time consuming for Funimation to do. I have heard about how slow paced the series gets in the later arcs, which is one reason why the series doesn't really work well on a weekly schedule, but I don't think that they'd be willing to put so much time, money and effort on recaps for the general audience to be brought up to speed when the episodes are available on their site.

I could see Toei eventually pulling a DBZ Kai with One Piece down the road after the anime has finally ended, but I don't really think that either Toei or Funimation would be interested in merging episodes together like that while the anime is still running at least.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

The only time I could see this happening is whenever One Piece finishes airing, Toei could do a "One Piece Kai" 10-15 years down the road, but we're too far away from that right now.

Couldn't agree with you more on that.

 

[WickedChild]

You're talking to a generation who grew up with DBZ without first seeing Dragon Ball. And it's not like Toonami-only-viewers live in a bubble. We're all adults here. We're capable of doing research. Now, is this an ideal situation? No, but nothing about One Piece's broadcast history in the US has been.

Yeah of course, we live in a world of wikis and recappers, but god dang that's a lot of plots, subplots, supporting characters, worldbuilding, and so many intertwining elements that will play big in later arcs. It's a lot more going on than in your typical One Piece arc, and a lot of people and things and ideas introduced. You're asking your audience to do a lot of homework there.

Realistically, I don't think there's any actual expectation that they'll ever catch up. If they were serious about doing so, why not skip right to Zou, where the current dub is? Just show the new eps that Funi is releasing right now. And if that's not the goal, why skip anything? Why skip some but not all? What's the benefit there?

What I think this actually is, is Demarco tacitly admitting that Toonami is basically a Nick at Nite block now. And yes, that's an exaggeration, but it's where it's headed, clearly, and has been for a while. That is to say, nobody tunes in to Nick and Nite to watch Friends or Full House or whatever they air now, to actually follow what's going on in those shows. It's casual viewing, something you have on in the background, or while you're just bored, or for nostalgia, or whatever. Nobody cares about the actual content of a Nick and Nite show, if they did they'd just binge the show on Netflix or wherever it streams.

Demarco's been hinting at this on Twitter for a while now. Talking about how quickly things have changed, how Toonami's gonna have to change to stay alive, etc. They're simply not in a position to where they can get shows that people will be excited about, unless they make it themselves and it actually turns out to be really good (which hasn't happened yet). The only thing they can do is give viewers (primarily older viewers who still watch traditional TV) some comfort food. Does it really matter if you see the episodes in order, or follow everything that's going on in the story? Not really, because it's stuff you've probably already seen, but stuff you feel good about nonetheless. One Piece on Toonami is comfort food for anime fans, and of course Demarco loves it. It doesn't really matter what order they show it in. Basically, the Nick at Nite mission statement.

 

[Daikun]

Gill Austin has been promoted.

 

[veemonjosh]

Sentai Filmworks has finally announced a home media release date for the final season of Food Wars: April 12th.

So we'll likely get it in the coming months, possibly once Made in Abyss concludes.

 

[Space Cadet]

Jason DeMarco is doing a Toonami Q&A session on Twitter, so here's some of the highlights:


In terms of surprises for Toonami's upcoming 25th anniversary:



In terms of originals, there's plenty more coming down the pike:



They are trying to get the new Bleach series:



The network is pleased with the originals so far:



Jason answers why One Piece was able to come back, confirming that the asking price back then was too much for Toonami and now it's been lowered enough that they could afford it:

 

[Space Cadet]

Sorry for the double post, but here's a couple more tweets:

In terms of Uzumaki, it's not a Crunchyroll co-production, so it'll show up on HBOMax for streaming:



Someone asked Jason if they were desperate for content, what would air:




Jason explained what happened to the Toonami app:



Jason confirmed once again that Toonami is a "labor of love" literally:



Jason has given more info about what happened with Demon Slayer season 2: Mugen Train doing so well at the box office rose the price considerably:

 

[Yojimbo]

The answer to the Bleach and Demon Slayer questions are ominous...

 

[Daikun]

I guess they're done with the Clydes.

 

[JMTV]

I guess they're done with the Clydes.

Wait? They're not doing Toonami bumpers anymore? That's sucks. I wonder why they don't?

Also, what's Clydes? I never heard of it.

 

[Light Lucario]

I'm a bit surprised that their original series are performing well given that they don't really seem to be well received. I still think that Black Lotus is more watchable than Fena, at least at this point, but neither series have really caught on fire. If it wasn't for the last two episodes, I would have forgotten that Fena existed by now. The fact that they have three more original series planned for next year is a pretty big sign that Adult Swim still thinks that the block has value though.

I'm not surprised that the issue with One Piece was just due to the price. From what I remember, the ratings weren't outstanding, but pretty consistent and they made it clear that it was a price issue before.

I've been still relatively hopeful that they could get Demon Slayer season two in spite of DeMarco's earlier comments, but flat out stating that the movie's success made the season's price higher than they can afford is a lot more telling. I'd be kind of surprised if they already have difficulties in getting the new season of Bleach. It's been stuck in development for quite awhile, it won't even start until late this year in Japan and who knows when Viz will have the dub ready. I don't know how far in advance they have to plan to get a show, especially when streaming sites are grabbing them quickly, but it would still seem kind of early for the Bleach season to be out of their hands.

It is still kind of sad that they aren't getting paid for their work on the block. I'm not too surprised that that detail has been pretty consistent since the block was brought back, but after all these years, all of their work for the block and even getting original programs off the ground, you'd think that Adult Swim would pay them for their Toonami work too.

 

[Daikun]

Wait? They're not doing Toonami bumpers anymore?

They're still making bumpers. He's referring to the lineup bumpers that Toonami stopped making years ago.

Also, what's Clydes? I never heard of it.

They're Toonami's cute side mascots.

 

[JMTV]

They're still making bumpers. He's referring to the lineup bumpers that Toonami stopped making years ago.

Oooh okay. I understand.

 

[Daikun]

Toonami is finally working with Titmouse!


This is awesome! I've been wanting to see them collab for years!

 

[JMTV]

Toonami is finally working with Titmouse!


This is awesome! I've been wanting to see them collab for years!

That's cool.

 

[PicardMan]

I was thinking of resubscribing to Sling for Shenmue, but now I know that it's going to HBO Max, I just might wait for it to pop up there if it actually turns out well. It's kind of surprising that the 2021 originals are hits when Demarco said the FLCL sequels were huge flops. Crunchyroll burying Blade Runner: Black Lotus deep into the popular shows section of their website would seemingly indicate not many people are streaming it there. I guess Toonami is reaping more money from these co-productions than Crunchyroll is. Anyway, financial success and fan approval seem like two different things as people are pretty split about the quality of the originals. With so many originals being produced, surely some of them have to be good considering the law of averages? Of course, Crunchyroll has lots of terrible originals, so I guess it's possible that Toonami can make lots of stinkers. The trailer for Shenmue looks promising though and the best news about Uzamaki not being a Crunchyroll Original gives a lot of hope to it being good.

 

[Yojimbo]

No Fena Season 2.

In general anime news, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury comes out in Japan in October. I know Toonami has a "history" with mecha but... could be a good grab.

 

[Daikun]

No Fena Season 2.

Yeah, I saw that coming. What could they possibly do after that finale? They would have to pull off something even more ridiculous, like go into space or something.

 

[Space Cadet]

The interesting thing about the Fena news is that AS was going to pick up more episodes if the creator hadn't intended it to be one-and-done from the start. We assumed ratings would be the main reason why but it looks like the network was happy with the show.

There were a couple more tweets from Jason that came out after I posted, so I wanted to share it here. When it comes to Yu Yu Hakusho:



Looks like anime movies might be coming back to the block in the future:



Jason confirmed that there was talk of making a Toonami section on HBOMax but no idea if it'll happen:



Toonami can still air IGPX and Space Dandy since they're originals:



And finally, probably the most shocking thing about Netflix that Jason revealed: