Toonami

[Avaitor]

AND they're going back to episode 1 for Naruto. It feels like a waste, but they probably still have the rights to the series and want to use them, while they could probably only get the rights to the first season of Sailor Moon.

At least air the arc you skipped on Rewind first instead of going back to the (boring) beginning again.

[Daikun]

War of the Rohirrim is coming to streaming this Friday.

Oof. Failed so quick in the theaters, I bet.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Here's something I don't get about DeMarco's ashcan copy LOTR movie. It got a wide release, 2800 theaters according to BoxOfficeMojo. But then that new Clint Eastwood movie, Juror #2, that I've heard people raving about as a return to form for Eastwood, only got 35 theaters and got kicked to a streaming release shortly after. I don't understand the logistics there. Why give DeMarco better treatment than Clint fucking Eastwood? And you can argue "Well, audiences might have been more receptive to a spin-off of one of the biggest fantasy film trilogies of all time over a somber legal drama", but most people I knew saw War of the Rohirrim for what it was, a cynical attempt to prolong WB's LOTR rights by taking a couple sentences from the books and stretching that to a whole movie. They didn't bother with it, but it's clear most people didn't based off its financial performance.

But whatever the case, more people should wonder why the producer of a failed Uzumaki adaptation and all those shitty FLCL sequels is getting better deals than one of Hollywood's living legends.

[LumRanmaYasha]

There's actually some history to why WBD is treating Juror #2 this way. Eastwood's last film, Cry Macho, was a flop. Apparently WB execs believed it would be, but took a chance on it and made and released it anyway in light of Eastwood's history with the studio. After the WBD merger, David Zaslav complained to the Board about WB losing money on the film and favoring Eastwood, infamously stating "It's not show friends, it's show business." In his pursuit of cost-cutting, Zaslav has repeatedly shown no respect for filmmakers or the legacy of WB as a studio, evident in how he tried to shutter TCM until Spielberg, Scorcese, and PTA intervened. So though Juror No. 2 was greenlit, because Zaslav didn't like how Cry Macho performed, it was only planned to be a streaming-only release at first. The limited theatrical run was likely done as both a favor to Eastwood and to give it some awards consideration chances, though because Eastwood's films haven't had major Oscars success in ten years, the studio itself isn't pushing it as one of their FYC's. TLDR, the short answer is that Zaslav probably just dislikes Eastwood, and is just a bad studio head and businessman who frequently makes decisions that alienate and insult filmmakers, artists, and audiences alike.

As for why WotR got a wide theatrical release, I'm sure that was part of the stipulation to hold on to the film rights for LotR. In any case, the main exec producer and creative lead responsible for the conception and creation of the film was Phillipa Boyens, who wrote the screenplays for the previous LotR films. DeMarco's involvement is because the film is animated and he's in charge of WBD's anime and theatrical adult animation productions, but this is more of a project he was put in charge of after it was decided it was going to be an animated film than one he was responsible for initiating like Uzumaki. Moreover, the decision to give it a wide release is because it's a Lord of the Rings film. None of the previous films flopped for WB, even though The Hobbit films had declining box office grosses. So I just think they assumed the film wouldn't flop because of the recognizability of LOTR brand, but the marketing wasn't convincing enough, the cynical narrative behind why it was created was a turn-off, the early critical reviews killed a lot of casual interest, and quite frankly anime is just still very niche in the US and even films from major franchises rarely have grosses over single-digit millions over here, so the film was always going to be a hard-sell and have niche appeal to even fans of the original films.

Anyway, I actually saw the film last night, it's pretty good. I honestly think it's a shame the cynical narrative around it has overshadowed the actual merits and flaws of the actual film. The production has issues; while the camerawork is ambitious and the backgrounds are gorgeous, the character animation can often be stiff, the compositing of characters in backgrounds can sometimes feel incongruos, and any CG elements like fire are noticeable, distracting, and look bad on a big screen. But narratively the film is pretty solid and felt it had a point and purpose to it, easily more than most of what was up for The Hobbit films. So I respect it more creatively than a lot of franchise films I saw this year. If you want to see a film that was created for cynical reasons that was made by talented people that is truly creatively bankrupt, just watch Mufasa (or don't, you'd be much better off).

Also,    Long time no post, lots of changes have been going on in my life since I was last really active here. But miss y'all and enjoy checking in on you guys and the forum from time to time.  Hope y'all are doing well and will have happy holidays! <3

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, happy Christmas Eve.

And seeing it laid out like that, I get it on a business level, as it's been a while since Eastwood's made a film as commercially big as American Sniper or Gran Torino, even if it looks bad for WB producers to do this. Like the lead is Nicholas Hoult, and they're marketing his bald head in all the Superman promos. Nobody at WB could think of a way to market a movie starring him, JK Simmons, Kiefer Sutherland?

As for WotF, I haven't seen it yet, but it's like what I said earlier about taking notes from the book appendices and turning that into whole movies or shows like Rings of Power or that Gollum spinoff I read about last month, it's hard for me not to feel glum about all of that. To a great degree, because it kinda reinforces why the Tolkien estate won't let WB adapt any Silmarillion shit, Children of Hurin, or anything else outside of The Hobbit and LOTR. It distressingly reminds me of Sony's Spidey-adjacent movies, though the latter has less of an excuse from what I heard (according to a recent article, they can totally have Tom Holland show up and do things and Disney can't do anything about it, but don't out of a sense that audiences won't accept him in 2 universes). And I'm not even inherently against adaptations that scrape the bottom of the barrel to turn into whole stories, since I like the James Bond movies and they've squeezed everything they can from the Fleming source material. Or how one of the best Star Wars entries is based off of some guy from Rogue One. But there's something off about doing it to LOTR.

I'll also admit that while I stand by a lot of my criticisms regarding DeMarco's productions and Toonami's recent years, I'm aware that most of it's incensed by finding his behavior annoying, and I probably wouldn't be as bitter without that. Because when it comes down to it, I would like Toonami to be as relevant as it was back in the early 00s, even if the practicalities for that seem less possible with each passing year. And I've read the news regarding Crunchyroll screwing up and the licensing turf war between them, Hulu, Netflix, and so on when it comes to grabbing up the newest anime, which does leave me wistful of the days when finding these shows on TV all packaged together was easy.

[Daikun]

Sailor Moon is moving to the main Saturday block on January 25.
And it's not the R season. Get ready for a year's worth of reruns!

[Dr. Insomniac]

Oh boy, 3 AM reruns of a show I used to watch on Saturday mornings as a little kid. Super.

Even more absurd is seeing people on TZ wonder about the ratings, and what ratings? It's about as graveyard slot as you can get. It's like caring about the ratings for a 4 AM rerun of Suits or Bob Hearts Abishola on local TV.

[Daxdiv]

People are really paranoid about ratings for this block since One Piece left before they could show the Saboady Archipelago arc on the network. Sailor Moon airing at 3 AM is another case of... Why though? I get it's old and you went through it on Rewind, but you didn't have the rights to air anything else?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Paranoid over what though? Best-case scenario is they get 9-year-old episodes of One Piece on 1:30 AM. Worst-case scenario is that they have to pirate episodes or get Crunchyroll. It's not like if it fails, the dub will cease production.

I don't know, it's just weird seeing people talk about Toonami as if it's still the only playing field when it comes to watching anime. Even for people who can't afford to pay for a streamer or have the moral queasiness that prevents them from just googling a place to watch free anime, there's still Tubi, Pluto, Kanopy, Hoopla, all that. I just don't get the brand loyalty to Toonami in 2025, especially the kind of loyalty that rationalizes why watching old Sailor Moon episodes at 3 AM is a good thing for both block and consumer. It's like if Nickelodeon brought back U-Pick Live but made it a late night Saturday block, and we saw people talk about the importance of airing Jimmy Neutron reruns on 3 AM. It all just seems ridiculous to me. And yeah, NickRewind, but even that felt like something that was a cute nostalgia gag on a niche TV channel and nothing more than that. Not like hearing Toonami fans insist that it's important to air Sailor Moon on TV even though it's hardly lost media, or acting as if 3 AM is somehow a viable timeslot and "good exposure for the genre". That TZ Toonami thread feels like a straight-up bizarro world because I hear both of those arguments, and why? The original target audience for Sailor Moon was kids, not anoraks who stay up all night. And it really feels like the more hardcore Toonami fans have completely forgotten that.

[Daikun]

Sailor Moon airing at 3 AM is another case of... Why though? I get it's old and you went through it on Rewind, but you didn't have the rights to air anything else?

Better that than Rick & Morty: The Crapime.
I'm glad that Sailor Moon is getting a second chance, but I have some issues:

1) Why wait till January 25? Why not do it on the same day that Naruto migrates to the main Saturday block from Rewind? Why do we have to stick with R&M instead for a couple of weeks? (Yeah, I know it's tomorrow, but still.)

2) Don't air it at 3AM. DBZ Kai should be in that slot--it's been rerun the most and aired way too fucking much. SM should be at 2AM instead.

3) Just air the R season already! We just spent the last 6 months watching season 1 and you're making us sit through it again? Don't waste our time like this.