Reviews & Features Discussion

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Excellent article, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. Yoshihiro Togashi could learn a thing or two from that as well (unfortunately).

This is why 90% of so-called "dark" and "gritty" things turn me off, especially in anime. I'm all for mature story-telling and such, but it has to be handled with VERY talented writers who have the clear mindset of an experienced adult and know what the hell they are talking about. Either that, or if you can't write that kind of story, then it should be more along the lines of Death Note where the author clearly knew that he wasn't telling a mature story and instead focused on making the tale more of a noir rather than trying to make it realistic in any resemblance of the word. The problem is, there are way too many shows that think they are being mature and telling a gritty story that adults would truly appreciate, but more of than not the writers behind these are so aimed at getting down the feeling of being dark that they completely overlook what makes dark story-telling interesting and believable in the first place.

Stuff like Higurashi (and Kai), Madoka Magica, and anything from Naoki Urasawa pretty much get that. We find the dark story-telling to make a more intense atmosphere but we want to keep watching because we are generally given reasons to care about these characters and what they have to go through (Kino's Journey counts as well, even though I'm not the biggest fan of that anime, myself). If you take something like....Gantz, on the other hand, its just a mere joke in comparison to these series. It tries to be cool and edgy and dark and just falls flat in every facade when you come down to the simple fact that 99% of its characters are ass-holes who deserve to die, while the few that are actually "in danger" of being likable and identifiable are killed off and forgotten about quickly. That's what ticks me off the most, actually. When a good character dies a death he doesn't deserve, that's understandable, but when he's just treated like common trash by the characters and the writer himself and quickly cast off and forgotten about, that really gets under my skin in a way that I can't describe. Its one thing that REALLY ticked me off about the early portions of the Chimera Ant arc in Hunter X Hunter, especially since its from a mangaka who I expected would know better.

[Foggle]

Great article, however I do think there was some light at the end of the tunnel in Kiritsugu's story arc via Shirou. He finally realizes his mistakes, and saving the one boy who would eventually become a legendary hero is his redemption.

[Avaitor]

I just realized that I haven't read some of the blog's more recent articles, so while I was going on to check them out (great as always, btw), I couldn't help but notice that the person who runs the Weekenders tumblr blog returned my favor of posting their blog in my review by linking to the article on there.

Awesome!

[Foggle]

http://animationrevelation.com/readables/?p=1234

New article by Dalek!

[Lord Dalek]

So yeah... why can't they run Hunter X Hunter really.

[Rynnec]

Excellent article, Dalek.

As someone who still watches Toonami, I agree with what you said for the most part (though, I don't think Zatch Bell and IGPX are as bad as the other shows you mentioned). For all the boasting Jason and the Toonami crew did about Nu-Toonami not being a nostalgia block, that's exactly what it is right now. The energy that Nunami had when it came back just disappeared after Deadman ended. It's fun watching Naruto, IGPX, and SBT reruns, and I'm glad that I was finally able to see TCats for myself, but I'd much rather have new, but cheap acquisitions than reruns in the long-term.  There's a lot of shows in Funi's SAVE pile that Toonami could've aired for cheap, but chose not too since Seinen doesn't do to well because people love their generic shounenshit way too much. Yeah yeah, the big 3 are all airing on the same channel back-to-back, now can we please get some variety? Yeah, seinen gets bad ratings, but that didn't stop them from giving IGPX and Eureka Seven another shot, and I don't think anyone wanted the latter back (if you're going to bring back a show that bombed, why not something that's actually fast paced and entertaining like S-CRY-ed, or a show that people actually want, like Samurai  Champloo?)

What's even sadder about Toonami's pick ups is how "safe" they've been. Toonami rarely ever played it safe back in the day, the fact that it aired shows like Outlaw Star and Tenchi Muyo in the daytime (as well as saturday mornings, in Tenchi's case) is proof enough of that. Hell, it's worst periods were when it was playing it safe. As it stands now, the only real "risky" thing they've done since Deadman ended was the Evangelion movie night, along with the music videos that aired in-between. I know a lot of people will be quick to blame Neon Alley for Toonami's lack of decent pick-ups, but the thing is, Viz apparently wants some of their NA premiere shows on Toonami. At this point, I find it hard to believe there's much in the way of Toonami picking up Blue Exorcist or Tiger and Bunny at this point, hell, I'll even take Rinne no Lagrange over what we have now.

With SAO coming in august, the only thing stopping the rest of this year from becoming a total dud for Toonami is the "mystery show" they've been teasing, and that's probably just going to end up being something like the ever generic Guilty Crown.

Sorry if my rambling isn't very consistent, I just got a lot to say about Toonami.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Even though I like the packaging, bumps, and pretty much the stuff that make Toonami, well, Toonami besides the shows, I admit that the lineup right now is far from ideal, and honestly, a senin dominated lineup is what I would like best too, aside from the odd exception. So I agree with the mood of disappointment, as I'm not big on long-running shonen and repeats dominating Toonami either and would like better "adult" shows than Casshern Sins and Samurai 7, both of which I actually LIKE mind you, but I'd definitely take Black Lagoon or Fate/Zero over them in a heartbeat. what we've got now isn't the worst lineup ever, but it's mostly reruns of series I just like, so really the only thing worth it for me is the One Piece/Soul Eater hour, and I've seen the episodes of those shows that they are currently showing before, so I really only watch cause I have a nielson box and want to support the shows I actually really enjoy on Toonami.

The only things I disagree with in this article is the notion Zatch Bell! is drivel (I'm not a superfan of it, but it's a lot of fun and has a good story and enjoyable characters), the idea that "catching Up" to the current crop of episodes of One Piece in Japan is really that much of a big deal to most of us U.S. fans (FUNimation has only just begun to release season 5, so it would still take years to catch up regardless of whether Toonami returned the series to television or not), and the statement One Piece's ratings haven't recovered, when in fact just last week it got a whopping 1.1 million viewers, which didn't beat what Bleach or Naruto got, but is still very rare numbers to achieve in the 1am slot and is an increase of 300,000 viewers over the previous week.

So yeah... why can't they run Hunter X Hunter really.

1. The new version is both unlicensed and not dubbed in the U.S.
2. Viz relinquished the rights to the 1999 version.
3. The dub of Hunter X Hunter 1999 is quite meh. It makes Naruto's sound look like Cowboy Bebop's.

[Lord Dalek]

The ratings were released about two hours after I wrote this. Shikatta ga nai.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So yeah... why can't they run Hunter X Hunter really.

Well, assuming it was licensed and Toonami still didn't pick it up, it'd be because its a shonen series that doesn't already have any nostalgic fan-base to exploit, doesn't have a lot of mainstream appeal, has many elements to it that require patience and investment to appreciate, and is generally more about following characters and their progression rather than having its characters follow along with whatever generic story of the day some hack writer came up with. In other words, its nothing that the current Toonami fan-base would actually watch.

[Rynnec]

They could just say that it's by the same guy that made YYH, and the nostalgiafags would eat it up.

[Lord Dalek]

You could say the same exact thing about Soul Eater but they did pick that up.

Hell its practically the same case with One Piece considering it just spent five years in the wilderness with no tv exposure, and the nostalgia factor it has is the bad kind.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I think it's pretty much established that the Toonami crew will air whatever shows they like or think are neat regardless of casual appeal or not. That said, I would say that they have been playing it safe with their choices right now, although I would only consider Thundercats, Tenchi Muyo! GXP, and Naruto to have been outright ratings ploys based on appealing to the nostalgia of hardcore fans/casual viewers. One Piece did okay back in the day but there aren't many people who have nostalgia for the 4Kids version, and the fact they are airing 200 episodes in and at a point at which people hadn't seen kinda weakens the nostalgic appeal of it in a couple of ways.

Oh, and Dalek, I have a question.

Well I can't say this is the worst block Toonami's had in a while (the infamous March 2006 lineup holds that title in perpetuity)

...are you not a Miyazaki fan? Cause half of March 2006 was the Month of Miyazaki. Plus, the lineup for the first two weeks of March 2006 wasn't even the same.

Spoiler

Mar 4, 2006


7:00PM Duel Masters 2.0 - "Duel-ercise" (NEW) 

7:30PM Teen Titans - "Snowblind"   

8:00PM Zatch Bell - "The Mystery of the Stone Tablets" (NEW)     

8:30PM Naruto - "The Tenth Question: All or Nothing" 

9:00PM Naruto - "Special Report: Live From the Forest of Death" (NEW)   

9:30PM 4Kids One Piece - "Chasing Luffy" (NEW) 

10:00PM Bobobobo Bo-Bobo - "World of Blabs-a-lot: The Sappiest Place on Earth!" (NEW) 

10:30PM Justice League Unlimited - "The Great Brain Robbery" (NEW) 



Mar 11, 2006



7:00PM Transformers Cybertron - "Critical" (NEW)   

7:30PM Teen Titans - "Kole"   

8:00PM Zatch Bell - "Dr. Riddles and the Majestic Twelve" (NEW)   

8:30PM Zatch Bell - "The Sixth Spell" (NEW) 

9:00PM 4Kids One Piece - "Oh, Brother!" (NEW) 

9:30PM 4Kids One Piece - "All Dried Up" (NEW) 

10:00pm Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo - "Good-bye Bo-bobo! The Final Showdown?" (NEW)   

10:30PM Justice League Unlimited - "Grudge Match" (NEW) 

[close]

And during the two weeks of March 2006 that the Month of Miyazaki was in, the only show that premiered new episodes was Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo.

Personally, I think the absolute worst Toonami lineup is either:

February 2007:

Spoiler

7:00PM Pokemon: Battle Frontier (rerun)

7:30PM Yu-Gi-Oh! GX   

8:00PM Teen Titans (rerun) 

8:30PM Naruto (rerun)   

9:00PM Naruto   

9:30PM 4Kids One Piece 

10:00PM The Prince of Tennis (with skipped episodes! For no reason!) 

10:30PM MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance (with skipped episodes! For no reason!) 

[close]

The Final Lineup: May-September 2008:

Spoiler

9:00PM Naruto (Filler) 

9:30PM Naruto (Filler) 

10:00PM Ben 10: Alien Force 

10:30PM Samurai Jack 

[close]

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, I think Toonami actually got worse and worse. It was basically completely unwatchable by the end.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah...looking back, while I liked watching most of the saturday Toonami lineups as a kid, I couldn't sit through them all the way now. A lot of the shows the block aired from the 2005-2008 don't really hold up all that well or are kinda meh to me, at least nowadays.

Toonami did help me become a fan of anime and good action cartoons in general though. In fact, without Toonami, I would have never become invested in the Dragonball franchise or One Piece, so I would have probably never read any manga, or watched any other anime like Case Closed or Yu Yu Hakusho, or become seriously infatuated with animation in general, and never would have discovered Toonzone, much less be posting here. Toonami single-handedly made me into the animation fan I am today, so I really owe it a lot in that respect, even if my current tastes make the lineups I watched as a kid undesirable to me.

And I also have to thank them for airing Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. I would not be the same person I am today without it. Seriously.

[Rynnec]

It didn't really help that there were a decent amount of shows that, while not really spectacular by any means, would've fit on the block, but didn't air because CN was too incompetent to pick them up (and the one they did went to [as]).