Toonami

[Dr. Insomniac]

I guess DeMarco knows who I am now.

[Daxdiv]

I didn't make the screencap. BOO! Imagine a comment from a guy with a way lower follower count getting under your skin like that.

[Dr. Insomniac]

His rebuttal doesn't make sense either. Because while I respect Gundam as a concept, Bandai's a toy company. Gundam is made with toys in mind in the same way Barbie is made with toys in mind. Sure, you can argue one has the better story than the other, but they are both made with the intent of shilling toys to audiences. And DeMarco pretending otherwise is hypocritical, especially when Toonami's had a history of airing shows like Zoids, Duel Masters, several Transformers shows, Pokemon, etc. He's well within his right to say he doesn't care for toyetic media, but hearing him say it is comparable to hearing a Hasbro exec say it. A glaring lack of self-awareness.

And I see he didn't acknowledge my other tweet asking how his LOTR movie that's mostly made just so WB can keep the LOTR rights for a few more years is less of a product than the Barbie movie.

[Avaitor]

We already said this in private, but it's hypocritical to call Barbie a toy commercial when you're responsible for a Shenmue series. At least the Barbie movie is looking to be intentionally subversive, while Shenmue was just a book report adaptation.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I saw him shit on Chloe Zhao a few days ago for directing a Diablo commercial, and yeah, going from directing a Best Picture to working for Blizzard doesn't exactly look great (and even then, so what? Lots of BP winners end up making shit just to pay the bills only a few years later), but a guy making a failed Shenmue show picking on others for making video game commercials is such a "pot meet kettle" moment. Maybe if he quit his smug parade and put more time in overseeing production of any of these Toonami original shows, one of them might actually be good. Instead of making petty snipes while other places are offering better action cartoons and anime than Toonami.

[Daxdiv]

Don't understand shitting on making an ad for a new video game, even if it's from Activision/Blizzard. Especially with gaming evolving into a multi-million/billion dollar industry that can go toe to toe with Hollywood Movies/TV Shows & the fact that there are some good adaptations out right now. Hell, when I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 3, when I sat down & saw the ads before the film started one of them was for Diablo IV. I overheard one person thinking that it's ad was a movie trailer & was surprised it was for a video game.

I will say, I hope whatever else he's overseeing becomes a hit, since other series he backs usually has a "Oh yeah, that was a thing, right?"

[Rynnec]

And Shenmue's one of the better Toonami originals.

[Avaitor]

And Shenmue's one of the better Toonami originals.

Yeah, that's the sad thing, isn't it? It's still slow as molasses (which let's be honest, is a structural problem from the games- Shenmue was never going to be a great fit for the action block), but it at least is more solidly built than Fena and isn't as dry or ugly as the Blade Runner show. I'm hoping Uzumaki will be good, but the delays are not encouraging.

I really do care about Toonami and its legacy, and I still find the people who dedicate their entire internet personas to badmouthing DeMarco offputting, but he makes it hard to root for him sometimes.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, in the end, I'd prefer if Toonami produced TV that was worthwhile, and it'd be nice if the block expanded rather than dry up like this, but much of that is nothing but personal nostalgia at this point. Nostalgia can only go so far, especially when it's for a programming block in contrast to the shows themselves. And if Toonami died like right now, for me, it'd matter as little as Saturday Morning blocks dying out. Sad from a sentimental point, but practically, I can find most if not all of the shows Toonami aired, most of the shows Toonami would air, and places with Steve Blum's voice elsewhere.

And as I also said privately, Toonami's mostly hanging on because of its Hartmanesque "Respect us because we created your childhood!" personality that both the brand and DeMarco emanate instead of offering anything new to the table. It all comes off as an old garage band still desperate for their big break insisting they're putting out transgressive hits but are just shitting out mediocre dad rock.

[Rynnec]

DeMarco and co's rather outdated grasp on anime fandom certainly isn't helping either. You know your out of touch with modern anime viewers when you expect an audience of 18-35 year olds to get excited for Boruto, or tune in at 3am to watch ages old Naruto episodes.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I mean, if Toonami went back to being a weekday block, airing long shonen shows with a huge cache of episodes like Naruto would have worked, because many of those series benefit more from being seen in bulk. But right now, it's like if Comet reran one episode of X-Files or Stargate a week.

Honestly don't get who's watching Naruto on AS. I assume most of the fans have already finished the show years ago, and any newcomers will be lost without watching the last few hundreds of episodes so they'll just go on streaming to figure out what the hell a Naruto is. Is it just for people who love rewatching the show, but not enough to binge it or watch more than 1 episode a week, or even start again at the beginning?

[Avaitor]

I can kind of understand why Shippuden still gets consistent ratings since it's a dub premiere and there's surprisingly still a market that will blindly eat up everything Naruto... aside from Boruto for whatever reason. Although I do kind of get that too, it's even more kiddy than the original series and it came out too soon to feel nostalgic about the franchise. At least with Yasahime, they waited a few years after Inuyasha ended the anime to cash in on its nostalgia.

What really made them look like they're out of ideas is when One Piece returned. The series has underperformed twice on the block, and just isn't as big of a deal stateside as it is elsewhere. I'll grant that from what I see, it doesn't seem like as much of a ratings sinkhole anymore, but I wouldn't have put all of my eggs in that basket for a third time.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Though calling them dub premieres is doing a lot of weightlifting here since I think they wrapped up recording all of Shippuden 4 or 5 years ago. I'm pretty sure anybody who blindly eats up Naruto no matter what wouldn't be patiently waiting every Saturday night for an episode a week instead of going on Crunchyroll, Tubi, Pluto, and other unmentionable sites and watching hours of episodes anytime they want. But I know there are people watching, it's just I don't really get it unless it's the equivalent to people who leave their TV on when falling asleep.

[Daikun]

My Adventures with Superman premieres July 6 at midnight.

[Avaitor]

The first two schedules for July have been released. The first will feature another Unicorn marathon, while the eighth will air the first two My Adventures With Superman episode, which gives them another week to find their replacement for Food Wars... if we get one.