EVA Unit 100

What is the current line-up on the linear Anime Network? (This is for the 3 or 4 of you who actually get the channel) I just want to know and am curious about the complete organization.

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]it means even if 4Kids gets their grubby hands on unlicensed Shonen Jump anime (i.e. Naruto and Hunter x Hunter), there's always a chance that Funi will save the day. ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] FUNi will get Hunter X Hunter from the begining. My reasoning: they got Yuyu Hakusho, and they'd want this to follow up as "the next Yuyu Hakusho" from a marketing perspective of DVD sales and viewings on CN. Sony has Naruto, and will announce it at AnimeUSA. My reasoning: if no one gets Naruto by the end of the year, every title in Shonen Jump America will be licenced except for Naruto and Hikaru No Go, and we all know Viz is sitting on the rights to the latter. The former Naruto, is obviously going to be the next big thing in America and every company would want their grubby little hands on it. One online anime magazine article said that One Piece and Naruto would be scooped up by a bigger, richer company such as 4Kids or Sony. Since 4Kids got One Piece and the fact they have no room for it on the FOXBox, then they don't have Naruto, and perhaps that article got insider information from those two companies. In that case, Sony has Naruto and has been dubbing it for at least half a year. Or perhaps 4Kids got Naruto AND One Piece but realized they had no room for Naruto and that it was too much of a pain to edit (they could butcher it up to a new level of terribleness, but if they couldn't do that the the Toei version of Yu-Gi-Oh, then Naruto would be a harder challenge), and thus passed it on to another company, in which FUNi would be first in line and they'd get the show. Either way, one company will announce it at AnimeUSA or else we are DOOMED!

Just so you know, I gre up during the "Pokemon generation." I hated the show, and not having cable prevented me from getting much exposure to the good anime. Then I saw Spirited Away and loved it. Metropolis scared my sister to death so my family tried to stay away from anime but I continued staying up late to watch .HACK//sign or Inu-Yasha (I had cable by then). Then I showed my mom Rouroni Kenshin and our family got back into the swing of things with anime.

I'm not sure if this would go in this forum or Movies, Music, and TV but I put it here because it involves anime. So what parodies of anime have you noticed on American TV? First of all MEGAS XLR comes to mind. All that show is is basically a bunch of mecha parodies thrown together with a loose plot linking them. Samurai Jack has done several parodies of Akira, Totoro, Gundam, Metropolis, and Lupin 3rd. Homestar Runner.com has the StrongBad Email "Japanese Cartoon." (My personal favorite of all of these) Both The Simpsons and South Park have spoofed the Pokemon craze. Freakazoid was spoofing anime before anime was cool over here. Teen Titans has done some FLCL spoofs. There were DBZ spoofs on Billy and Mandy and Codename: Kids Next Door. There was an Animatrix parody on Codename: Kids Next Door. Conan O'Brian did a bit a few years back about Cowboy Bebop. Evangelion was loosely tributed on an episode of Invader ZIM. Can you think of any other anime parodies on American TV?

Pity: Kira Yamato (Being stuck in a war that he disagrees with, forced to fight against his best friend, taken advantage over by psycho-hottie Flay, you have to feel sorry for him) Spike Spiegel (His brother is evil, he lost his love, and he has a terrible past) Soujiro (Could have been a hero, but ended up a bad guy) Beyond the Grave (He was betrayed bigtime) Worship: I'm not THAT crazy ;) Fear: Lord Shishio (He bit Kenshin's shoulder off. 'Nuff said)

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]That's a fantastic idea for a topic, EVA Unit 100. However, I had to merge it over here because anything related to television line-ups--whether real or hypothetical--should be restricted to this sticky. Hopefully your post will help revitalize the discussion. ^_^ EDIT: And here's my dream Toonami/Adult Swim schedule. Though I've included ADV series as well as unlicensed anime, I am trying to be mildly realistic. Sadly, this means no shoujo. [b]Toonami [Saturday][/b] 8.0: Hunter x Hunter 8.5: Yu Yu Hakusho 9.0: Bleach 9.5: One Piece 10.0: Case Closed 10.5: Inuyasha [b]Adult Swim [Saturday][/b] 11.0: Full Metal Panic! 11.5: The Mars Daybreak 12.0: Chrono Crusade 12.5: Kurau, Phantom Memory 1.0: Samurai Champloo 1.5: Cowboy Bebop [b]Adult Swim [Weekdays][/b] 12.0: Naruto 12.5: Full Metal Alchemist 1.0: Get Backers 1.5: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Please don't take this seriously, folks. I'm worried that someone's going to see the word "Naruto" and automatically go into cardiac arrest. :p ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] Toonami Saturdays is 4 hours, not 3. For the first hour, perhaps put 1 American action show and 1 lighter anime. 4Kids got One Piece. Unless you would have the FUNi uncut dub there, it's a bad choice to put it on Toonami. Although I'd like Inu-Yasha and Case Closed to make the jump to Toonami, I don't see them airing on Saturdays. Since Toonami could easily grab 10-11 on weekdays and if 009 and .HACK// are any indication, a Friday Midnight Run is possible, I'd put those shows there. Samurai Champloo and Ghost in the Shell are way too late on your AS schedules. Everyone knows that they will be the next Cowboy Bebop-esque phenomenons, so they should air to head off the line-up. At least until they have aired every single episode. Naruto doesn't belong on Adult Swim. I personally think it should be on Toonami. Everyone knows that Naruto will be the next big thing with the "tween"/young-teen set, and Toonami aims to that group. AS fairly got FMA, and FOXBox unfairly got One Piece, so Naruto should go to Toonami. Kenshin was more mature content-wise, and even in its editted-for-Toonami version, it got away with quite a lot of stuff such as some blood and Sanosuke saying "danmit" and Kamatari's attraction to Shishio and refferences to gambling and drugs and stuff. Naruto at TV-PG at 10.0 on Toonami would allow Naruto to keep a lot of stuff intact while still being able to milk out the money for CN.

[quote name='DetectiveMikeRS']My mom has nothing against me watching anime at all. She even watching the uncut episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho with me at times. My dad lets me watch it but he makes fun of it because he still has a grudge on Japan after Pearl Harbor even though it happend 11 years before he was born and all that, he doesn't like Japan for that one incident. Then he goes on making fun of the names of characters, the title of the show, the character design, etc.[/quote] I wonder how your dad would react to Grave of the Fireflies or (although it would be a bit more of longshot) Gundam with their anti-war messages and stuff.

[quote name='Dagger IX1']EVA Unit 100: I think many people's objections to mature anime stem more from the fact that it's shown on Cartoon Network than anything else. They automatically associate the channel with childen (which makes sense, at least to a certain extent). In the end it's more visceral than logical.[/quote] Well, if that is the reason, then why do quite a few of these people watch Futurama, Sealab, Aqua Teens, etc. nightly, and perhaps even watch a few of their daytime shows out of nostelgia or some appeal? The thing is that people are scared of what they are unfamiliar with, so even people who watch CN for Family Guy will turn off the TV once Inu-Yasha starts.

My rankings: 1. Gundam SEED (All of the action and drama that made past Gundam series great, but with stronger focus on the character relationships, a more up-to-date view of the future, and a unique art style) 2. Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (Often cited as the holy grail of Gundam; I prefer SEED myself, but the intense story and ultra-cool mecha designs make me understand why so many think that) 3. The 8th MS Team (The shorter length and slightly bigger cast allow it to show 0079's message without becoming too preachy or repetitive; plus it has the best dub) 4. MSG Movie Trillogy (The classic story of 0079 condensed into a smaller package with more action) 4. Mobile Suit Gundam: 0079 (Important, influential, classic) 5. Turn A Gundam (Truely original) 7. Gundam Wing: Endless Watlz (Pulls all of the pieces together for Gundam Wing while keeping the original show's best qualities) 8. Mobile Suit ZZ Gundam (A good sequel to Zeta, although not quite on the par) 9. Mobile Suit Gundam: 0083 (A different look on the One-Year War) 10. Mobile Suit Gundam: 0800 (Another alternate viewpoint) 11. Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (Good animation and a cool story, but the main characters just aren't that likable) --------------------------(the line between what I like and what I dislike)--------------------- 12. Mobile Fighter G Gundam (It gets a bit wierd, and I don't like the Gundam-meets-DBZ premise) 13. G Savior (Exactly why no one but WETA Workshop should even dare making a live-action anime) 14. SD Gundam (Super-Deformed version) (Just not my style of humor) 15. SD Gundam Force (Superior Defender version) (An action show with no action, a comedy show with no comedy, irritating characters, and can't even pass for the name "Gundam") --------------------(the line between what I dislike and what I haven't seen)----------------- Haven't seen: F91 Gundam, Victory Gundam, Gundam X, Gundam SEED Astray, Gundam SEED 2: Destiny

I would say the '90s. Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, 6/7 of Ranma, Rouroni Kenshin, Ghost in the Shell, and Mononoke all make my day. The '00s have been pretty good so far, with Furuba, Spirited Away, FLCL, The Big O, Gundam SEED, and Naruto, although the best of the '90s outwiegh all of these (except for Spirited Away and FLCL, which are Gods among anime). '80s obviously had some classics like Zeta Gundam, City Hunter, Macross, Miyazaki's stuff, and the first 1/7 of Ranma. Outside of Lupin and the original Gundam, the '70s were rather dull. Only liked Tezuka's stuff from the '60s, and anything before that is ancient.

With stuff like Blue Seed 2 being instinctive with companies and stiff like Big O II and Wolf's Rain II being funded by American studios, what animes need sequels? I think: Witch Hunter Robin--Needed more conclusion .HACK//sign--DUSK didn't answer enough Kenshin--3rd manga arc needs to be animated Evangelion--But only IF Hidaki Anno has learned how to make a good series finalle

About dividing comedy and action, where would action-comedy shows go? A good example would be Samurai Jack. An action show that has lots of drama and fights but doesn't take itself too seriously and will break into a joke or even entire comedy sketch episodes. Or MEGAS XLR. Tons of action but a lot of it is satirical of other action cartoons/movies/video games. Where would those go?

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman][color=darkviolet'] But what we have to remember is that this is America, where most cartoons are still for kids[/color][/quote] Yes, but even that's changed a bit. From the '30s to the '50s animation was just considered an "everyone" medium. Then from the '60s up to the early '80s the whole "cartoons are for kids" thing was put in place. From the late '80s onward America is in the middle between animation being "for kids" and "for everyone including adults." A lot of kiddy crap is put out, but we also have stuff like The Simpsons, South Park, Beavis and Butthead, Family Guy, Futurama, Aqua Teens, The Critic, Home Movies, even some shows like Ren and Stimpy and Pinky and the Brain that were advertised as kids' shows but weren't exactly meant for them. Currently, it seems the situation with anime (except for the overprotective soccer moms who won't let their kids say the word "stupid") is not that people are scared of a mature cartoon, but that it's unfamiliar. I know quite a lot of 25-year-olds who watch The Simpsons daily but would be confused and almost scared (of the mighty power of) something like Rouroni Kenshin.

OK, here is my list again with explainations: 1. The Simpsons (Possibly the best thing to ever air on TV, and has created lovable and realistic characters at the same time as serving up hilarious satires and gag-fests, despite a few dips in quality over the years) 2. Futurama (Once severely underrated, now iwth a happy home on Adult Swim where it is accepted for the futuristic, hillarious, and original show it was) 3. Pinky and the Brain (Witty, sarcastic, intelligent, clever, silly, utterly awesome) 4. Samurai Jack (With it's stunning animation, amazing direction, and over-the-top action, this is truely a work of art) 5. Animaniacs (Despite a few annoying characters, the Warners, Pinky and the Brain, and Slappy always had some sort of clever pun or wacky gag up their sleeve to make me laugh) 6. Invader ZIM (Completely whacked-out art, sick humor, and GIR. What more could you want?) 7. MEGAS XLR (A great satire on anime, action movies, wrestling, MTV, rock music, Godzilla, cars, video games, and overall teenage pop culture. Plus it has giant robots. Chicks dig giant robots.) 8. Aqua Teen Hungerforce (Terrible animation and a stupid plot, but the insane humor and great character dynamics keep me watching) 9. Family Guy (A gag-a-minute show that is utterly hillarious, but a mixed bag of characters ranging from pure comic classics to dumb Simpsons rip-offs pushes it down a bit) 10. Classic Tex Avery/Chuck Jones/Bob Clampett stuff (Gotta love the good old WB slapstick classics)

[quote name='Dagger IX1']\ In any case, at the moment Inuyasha is the only anime that draws enough viewers to even dream of competing with Adult Swim's wildly popular original comedy series (not to mention Family Guy and Futurama).[/quote] Correction: In any case, at the moment [I]Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, and Trigun are[/I] the only anime[I]s[/I] that draw enough viewers to even dream of competing with Adult Swim's wildly popular original comedy series [I]except for the mega-bomb Brak Show, the seriously underrated Home Movies, and any original that isn't on the weekday strip because Sundays are made for the AS internet geeks while weekdays go mainstream[/I] (not to mention Family Guy and Futurama). Yes, Inu-Yasha gets ratings. However, most of those ratings are 12-17 ratings, and sadly AS doesn't give a crap about what they (or, depending on the case, we) think and want to put their efforts into the 18-34 demographic. Toonami is hoping that they'll be able to push the limit enough to become a 12-17 aimed block, so Inu-Yasha airing pretty much the same standards as AS on Toonami would be a progressive step for Toonami. However, Toonami's old rep prevents the Inu-Yasha fanbase from trusting the block, and thus IY is a young-teens show stuck on an adults block. The average 18-34 year old would probably dismiss something like Inu-Yasha or Detecive Conan for a kids' show, so the group that AS wants to be for ignores IY. Lupin 3rd and Kikaider look too old and don't have the same pop cultural importance in America as they do in Japan, and thus they don't attract a lot of 18-34 viewers. Witch Hunter Robin and Wolf's Rain fall into the trap of being too slow for the average viewer, although The Big O, a rather slow series, was able to attract a decent amount of viewers due to the retro feel and faster action scenes. Overall, the average 18-34 year old viewer will most likely watch anime if it is fairly new, faster moving, and doesn't look like a kids' show on first sight, and Bebop, Tirgun, and FLCL are really the only ASA shows that fit those requirements. Ghost in the Shell should attract 18-34 viewers, Full Metal Alchemist will likely have an Inu-Yasha type fanbase although it may have more luck drawing in older viewers due to the fact the show is slightly more mature than IY, and Samurai Champloo will come someday to ASA and get great ratings.

1. The Simpsons 2. Futurama 3. Pinky and the Brain 4. Samurai Jack 5. Animaniacs 6. Invader ZIM 7. MEGAS XLR 8. Aqua Teen Hungerforce 9. Family Guy 10. Classic Tex Avery/Chuck Jones/Bob Clampett stuff

Here is my list, although I have a different perspective of what makes a movie a teen movie (my definition: stuff that teens actually LIKE!): Best: 1. Lord of the Rings (entire trilogy) 3. Princess Mononoke 2. The Matrix (original) Worst: Anything on the other worst lists LOTR, Mononoke, and The Matrix obviously don't go by your definitions of "teen", but since teenagers think they're cool, it makes them a lot more teen-oriented than Spy Kids, anything with Hillary Duff, and the Olsen Twins (come to think of it, those types of movies were really aimed at kids ages 10 and under as opposed to being for teens).

Here's my perfect Toonami/ASA schedule: [U]Toonami[/U] [I]Saturday Prime[/I] 7.0: Sg. Frog/Duel Masters (rotation) 7.5: Yuyu Hakusho 8.0: MEGAS XLR/JLU/Samurai Jack/American action premiere rotation slot 8.5: Flame of Recca 9.0: Hunter X Hunter 9.5: Bleach 10.0: Naruto 10.5: Gundam SEED/Zeta Gundam/Gad Guard/mecha rotation slot [I]Weeknight Spotlight[/I] 10.0: Naruto 10.5: Detective Conan (it aims a bit younger than most of ASA, and if Toonami is going to fufill its promise to become a teen block, the show could still air in it's near uncut state) [I]Friday: The Midnight Run[/I] Midnight: Inu-Yasha (see Conan) 12.5: Rouroni Kenshin 1.0: Rouroni Kenshin 1.5: .HACK//sign 2.0: Saturday mecha premiere encore 2.5: Saturday Bleach encore 3.0: Saturday Yuyu Hakusho encore 3.5: Saturday Hunter X Hunter encore 4.0: Batman: TAS 4.5: Superman: TAS [U]Adult Swim Action[/U] [I]Saturdays[/I] 11.0: Ghost in the Shell: SaC 11.5: Samurai Champloo Midnight: FLCL/ROD/Tenchi Muyo/OAV rotation slot 12.5: The Big O 1.0: Outlaw Star 1.5: Wolf's Rain [I]Weeknights[/I] 11.0-12.5: Adult Swim Comedy 12.5: Full Metal Alchemist 1.0: Cowboy Bebop 1.5: Lupin 3rd

Tremaine, Pokemon did get the general publics' knowledge high, but it was negative attention, as opposed to the positive attention the other shows/movies got. Dragonball Z was much more popular in the US than in the UK at the time. DBZ flopped in syndication in the US, but once it moved to Toonami, it suddenly became red hot. This process might have occured at different rates and different times in the UK, but it happened pre-Pokemon in the US. As I said, people recognized Pokemon, but as a bad thing, and that isn't what we want. It wasn't Pokemon that got anime companies interested. Other sources did that. Streamline opened due to the followings of the few anime on Saturday morning TV in the '80s; Viz, AnimEigo, Manga Ent., ADV Films, and Central Park Media all opened due to the aftermath of Akira (and for the ones that opened after Manga Ent., Ghost in the Shell); Toonami pretty much saved FUNi and Bandai's butts by making DBZ and Gundam successes; Sony's American division expanded to anime possibly to get in touch with their Japanese division; Disney (albeitly reluctantly) is releasing the stuff due to the fact every animator in the world worships Miyazaki; and with Right Stuf, TokyoPop, Media Blasters, etc. it was just a matter of jumping on the bandwagon the other companies started. If anything, Pokemon just made a success out of 4Kids and expanded the world of anime for DiC, Nelvana, Saban, etc. AKA companies that could care less about anime and are prone to butchering. Yes, Pokemon opened up the world of Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and CardCaptors, but the thing is that all of those shows followed the same formula and style (although in their original versions, Yu-Gi-Oh was an ultraviolent twist on the formula, and CardCaptors was just a decent shojo show that just happened to include cards, but they were butchered up by the dubbing companies bigtime to fit the Pokemon mold). On the other hand, Cartoon Network and their Toonami and Adult Swim blocks were aiming for variety (i.e. Sailor Moon for shojo, Dragonball Z for fighting, Gundam for politics and giant robots, Tenchi for romantic comedy, Outlaw Star for sci-fi satire, The Big O for old-skool film nior with a hint of mecha, Cowboy Bebop for serious episodic sci-fi cop-show-style action and a drop of comedy, Inu-Yasha for romantic adventure and horror, Trigun for a slightly silly gun-fighting western, .HACK//sign for confusing futuristic drama, Yuyu Hakusho for a DBZ-style show slightly more mature in tone, Rouroni Kenshin for ultraviolent samurai drama, Cyborg 009 for a Tezuka-ish old-skool sci-fi remake, FLCL for just plain insanity, Witch Hunter Robin for gothic supernatural action, Detective Conan for mystery and drama, etc.), and thus they had/have a better chance of dragging someone in. Cowboy Bebop has converted pretty much every person over the age of 14 I know into an anime fan. In fact somtimes I even meet people at other boards who say that they "hate anime but saw an episode or two of Cowboy Bebop and it was pretty good." And you won't know how many stories I've read of Cowboy Bebop being a first hook for anime fans. It was Disney's (as a corperation, most of the individual animators love Miyazaki's stuff) fault for giving Mononoke and Spirited Away such little respect. However, in the few theaters it was in, Spirited Away did fantastic. Some people in the biz have calculated that if Spirited Away got a wide release and still kept up the by-theater-by-day income it had been earning in every theater, it would have made as much money as the opening weekend of the 1st Harry Potter movie! And after the Oscar, there is hope. Spirited Away got a semi-wide release in time between the Oscars and the DVD release, Miramax is rereleasing Mononoke (hopefully in more theaters this time), and rumors say that Howl's Moving Castle (Miyazaki's next movie) will get a wide release, a world record for a first release of an anime movie in America.

Anime has had a rocky history in America. First ignored, then negatively stereotyped, and now on the road to becoming widely accepted by the mainstream. So what animes had the biggest impact in America? As far as I'm concerned, outside of a few animes that might have opened up the gates for the first few American fans (i.e. Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Robotech, etc.), the first anime to have a huge impact in America was Akira. It pretty much opened the doors to anime being favored by the cult fans and the critics in America. Ghost in the Shell didn't have quite as great of an impact, but the smaller impacts it made (i.e. inspiring The Matrix) payed off in the longrun. Sailor Moon and DBZ also gathered cult followings (although their fans were a bit more, for lack of a better word, "odd" than those of Akira and GitS), and eventually burst into the mainstream when given the chance. Pokemon was definately a huge step in the wrong direction. It was a popular anime, but it was also rather terrible (even moreso in the editted dubbed version) and gave the public a view of anime, but a negative one. Gundam Wing, on the other hand, was a huge step in the right direction, as an anime to break into the mainstream while avoiding butchering and Americanization, as was Tenchi Muyo, which proved to American audiences that anime didn't have to be "epic" in order to be fun. Cowboy Bebop was not just a big step, but an elevator ride to an entirely new level. A fairly "mature" anime series 95% uncut on non-premium cable was deemed absolutely impossible, but Bebop made it possible, and it actually became a trend setter, with two blocks, Adult Swim Action and Anime Unleashed, spawned off its success. More recently, Spirited Away broke records as the first anime to win an Oscar (the 2nd biggest "geek accomplishment" at the Oscars only behind Return of the King winning Best Picture), The Big O was given new life thanks to Cartoon Network funding a second season, and Evangelion has gone down in history as the first show to air on ADV Films' Anime Network. So what do you think were big steps for anime in America?

Spirited Away obviously affected my life. Without it, I'd have never liked anime in the first place! :D .HACK//sign also affected me quite a bit. I was surprised to see a cartoon on TV so deep and confusing and serious, and I liked it! However, Evangelion has had the biggest impact in my life. It really changed the way I thought about, well, almost everything!

I think people should stop trying to figure out whether this show is a Yu-Gi-Oh rip-off or not. It is a Yu-Gi-Oh [I]satire[/I] that pokes fun of the gaming anime genre. I personally don't give crap about the plot. It's the random jokes that make it worthwhile. Who couldn't laugh at such great lines as: "How could you beat me with a card that looks like Ozzy Osborne?" "I'm going slo-mo!" "That comercial break felt like it lasted a week!" "I love flashbacks as much as the next guy, but we've seen this one twice!" "What happens to you every time you get kicked off screen anyway?" *pause* "You don't wanna know." "This is not a game, Shobu!" "Wait! This isn't?" "What's gone to that guy's head?" "Hey! How's it doing in Graceland?" "And then Hakuoh's heart grew three sizes that day!" And the Karaoke goblins rock too!

Spirited Away! Come on! With beautiful Studio Ghibli animation, a great score from Joe Hisashi, a lot of Miyazaki magic, and an amazing story, how could you not love this movie?

I'm allowed to watch anime on a case by case basis. Of course, at age 11 I can't watch Cutey Honey, but that's obvious and I don't even want to. The only animes I like that my parents have issues with are Excel Saga and Chobits. Not only do they let me watch anime, but they like to as well! Everyone in my family loves Miyazaki's stuff, Evangelion, Inu-Yasha, Fruits Basket, and Rouroni Kenshin. My mom loves Cowboy Bebop, Tenchi Muyo, Lupin 3rd, Wolf's Rain, Witch Hunter Robin, Love Hina, Kino's Journey, The Big O, FLCL, and Trigun. My dad isn't huge on anything but will watch anything good that's on. Overall, I'm pretty lucky.