Now, courtesy of my hosts at Toon Zone, here is the interview in its entirety:

Toon Zone: So, Sean, what's your official job titles and responsibilities at Toonami?
Sean Akins: Oh, wow, really difficult question off the bat (laughs). The official job title is creative director for Cartoon Network, but specifically deals with franchises. I manage Toonami and Miguzi, Miguzi more from a promotion and brand image kind of perspective, and Toonami I'm slightly more involved in the programming, so I'm kind of in control of both those franchises look and feel, and on the Toonami side, a little more programming involved, but again the programming is a sort of a group decision. There's a bunch of different factors that weigh in, and people that weigh in to those discussions.

TZ: Has any of that changed with Toonami since you started?
SA: Not really, I was kind of like that from the beginning, though it wasn't necessarily spelled out. It's always been sort of like it is right now.

TZ: Something that has set Toonami apart from the crowd is the amount of detail and attention you guys give to the packaging. What was your favorite style, like the Neo Goth from 2003 or the current one?
SA: It was the goth stuff, that old English text that didn't play very well around here. We thought that was the best thing, I think we were a little too early, because when we dropped that stuff, nobody else was really doing it, nobody had really embraced that style. It was new, and people hate and fear new things. But when we did it, we were finally able to push it through, it was, I think, somewhat short-lived, but it had a decent run. And as soon as that stuff went away, you saw every brand imaginable using that typeset and start working that into their image. So I think that we were, maybe, eight months ahead of our time, when it came to that.

TZ: So, they started kicking in around the end of 2003?
SA: Yeah, something like that. Nike did their whole line of girls athletic apparel with that sort of style, Tommy Hilfiger started doing that sort of style, the Nike thing extended into the Jordan brand, and Jordan was doing old english. We began to look around - I'm not saying we had anything to do with it - I think it was kind of a bunch of different designers and different places saying what kind of what workd and their brands went there. We just kind of got out of the gate a little bit faster.

TZ: You were ahead of the game?
SA: Yeah, sort of. Not really ahead of the game, but I think we were, we just made that decision a little bit early and people were like, a little like shocked by it.

TZ: I think everyone was glad to see the pipes get a rest.
SA: Oh my God, we were so over the pipes. Like, that was ridiculous. That thing went on for way too long. That wasn't even supposed to be an official thing, and it just . . . *UGH!*.

TZ: It just came about?
SA: Yeah, thank God the pipes are gone. IT was just depressing, the funny thing was, after we got done with that, with that particular redesign, we put them up side-by-side on a print out, and it just, there's no comparison. Like, the pipes are so awful. the new stuff had life and so much more dynamic. And I think certainly arresting, visually arresting when you saw it. It allowed us to really kind of stand apart from the rest of the stuff on Cartoon Network, making our own strong identity. That's what I like. That being said, I don't dislike the current look, I think. The current look has been very successful too. It's sort of what you would expect, the thing that I liked about the Goth stuff was it was so unexpected.

TZ: You had Rurouni Kenshin on there, which it kinda fit with.
SA: If it works good enough, it feels comfortable. When you try a new style and feel comfortable around the property, but certainly like if you had gotten a bunch of people in a room to guess what the next Toonami look was gonna be, chances are it would have never ended up there, which was what kinda pushed us in that direction.

TZ: You wanted to surprise us.
SA: Yeah, but the current look, we think is very good. It's very meat-and-potatoes kind of what you would expect.
TZ: It's kind of simplistic but works well.
SA: Given what they want, exactly. That being said, I think it's very successful too, but if you ask me what my personal favorite, it has to be just this last one.

TZ: The intros - Toonami always used to give shows a 30-second custom intro, but with the new look, some shows get a seven-second one with the original intro, others get a full 30. What makes the decision?
SA: A bunch of different factors weigh into that. A lot of times when you get a show from a distributor, part of their thinking is they're going to try to extend this property to other areas, vis a vis DVDs and CDs. If they have a signature theme song they're attached to, they want to hear that.
TZ: The Rave-olution (Rave Master's North American theme song)
SA: Right, exactly. You see where I'm coming from. Toonami, we always felt that was another way to extend our brand and to own these individual shows that went into the block by giving them a "Toonami Intro," and then once you've made that decision, the decision to remove the opening that it comes with is sort of second nature. You don't want to see two opens back-to-back, it's just kinda silly. So, if they are real sticklers and they want to hear that theme song, it's going to make all the difference to them, we have been allowing that to happen, and when that situation arises, we put the short intro on it.

If we're allowed to do what we want to do, and extend the brand, then we usually give it it's own intro and remove the one it comes with. It started off, that's a thing we started with some of the first Toonami incarnations.

TZ: Back to Moltar (the original host of the Toonami block)?
SA: Way back when. Mainly, it started way back when it was mainly started back then because the shows we were picking up were some older shows, and the intros were just horrible. They were just awful. We still get in trouble with a lot of fans when we talk about it, a lot of fans want to hear the old, horrible theme songs, and why they want to hear that, I have no idea. I assume that they want to hear it because they don't get to hear it. They feel like they're missing out on it and they want to hear it, but if we had never done any of this, there would be no clamor for anyone else anywhere to hear those theme songs. They're never any good, their always fairly awful. But, it's something that the fans had responded to, it's one of those things gets batted back and forth all the time.

I thought it was our chance to sorta flex our muscles a little bit to further the brand, but the fans look at that like it's something that they're losing opposed to something that they're getting, then it's not worth our time and effort. We used to pour our hearts into those things, and we still do the ones we get to do, and if just shows up to people like "Oh, this is Toonami's intro; they're blowing away the real intro," then maybe we'll stop doing it. But I always thought what we did was top notch. I thought the opens we would put on were certainly better than the opens that were on there already, but like I said, it all comes down to what the fans want.

TZ: You know there's a website devoted to them online.
SA: Yeah, we're familiar with, The Arsenal, you mean? We go there all the time. That's how I check and make sure everyone's doing the work I've assigned. I know if I don't see it on the Arsenal, it hasn't been on the TV. So that's my little quality control is the Arsenal.

TZ: One of my favorite intros was the GI Joe one, you guys took the old monologue and updated it.
SA: Yeah, that was a great one. That was one of those that we had an oppurtunity to do it, everyone was so familiar with the existing open, because it had aired on domestic, so people had seen it, and it didn't show up so much as a loss, and it was only on at night, I think, so you get a little more latitude.

TZ: So what decides the regularity of the promotion? Rave Master didn't get advertised until the day it aired, Gundam SEED's long promo has only aired a handful of times.
SA: I wish I knew the answer to that question (laughs). It's several factors, running a network's a super-complicated thing, and we're just one spoke in the wheel of it. We try to get whatever promotion we can get, and if the network's doing other stuff, then they have to promote that as well. Sometimes, a show that's acquired takes a backseat to a show that was made, produced originally. So if it's a show we're kinda getting for not much money and trying it out, it's always going to get bumped for a show that we've spent all this money to create.

TZ: Like, Justice League Unlimited would take precedence over Rave Master.
SA: Yeah, that's correct. I mean, it sort of shakes out like that. Sometimes the rules aren't quite hard and fast. Generally speaking, when you have a show that's been originally produced by the network, that's kinda gonna take precedence, and that only makes sense, because the investment is higher, so you have to sorta support your investments, and at the same time, trying to support all the shows on the air and all the different brands. You have Sophie's Choice at times, I'm not the guy that makes the final decision. Sometimes, I'm the horse that gets shot, so it just sort of depends on timing, what else is going on, what we have going on, and what other shows we want to support too. Because we have a long block, with many different shows on it, we can't put a promo for every different show on, and we sorta have to pick the ones we think will be most helped by the promotion and the ones we want to most associate the brand with. It's a mess, it's like a big battle every month.

TZ: So, what happened with Sara and the Clydes? They got redesigns, and people are saying Sara looks like a Halo character . . .
SA: (laughs) Yeah, I mean, they got redesigned. That's kind of what happens. I think the redesign for Sara was somewhat successful, even though it's still a little unfulfilling. We're going to continue to redesign those things, and continue to push that. We're limited on the animation end, and that we have to make use (of what we've got). It's sort of an economy of shots. We don't have the ability to just create new animation every week, so that's kinda what feeds into it. And some of the stuff we're not totally satisfied with, but, you have a budget. You make one shot to get a bunch of animation, you have to use that for a certain period of time before you can make new, just to kind of make it work financially speaking, so kinda in there. We liked getting Sara off the monitor, letting her be a 3-D character, that was the major step for us. I agree with some of the haters out there who think it's not up to standards, I think we can certainly push that, and that's the plan. The Clydes, on the other hand, I think are fantastic.

TZ: They're like mini-Transformers.
SA: They're don't really transform, they're like little bumblebees. We've always tried to just take chances with the Clydes and just make them different things, and they're supposed to be fun. Just a fun part of the block, a fun piece of geometry that the animators can play with. We can have some fun making little pieces up, and I think those things are fairly well designed. I like the way they look, but then again, they're not permanent either. They'll be going away sometime, whenever we redo everything.

TZ: Last year, you had the floating Emoticons, as some called them.
SA: Yeah, I thought those were awesome, we built like 8 or 9 expressions, and you could just slide the bar back and forth to where you want it. I loved the fact that they floated around, looked like sunflowers. We got a lot of flack for our image being so hard. We tried to make the happy fun little Clydes and bounce and that a little bit (like that). And I thought that kind of worked. As a matter of fact, I've always been into all the Clydes we've done, I think they've all been fairly cool from the very first one.

TZ: The Satellite one (Clyde 49 - jh)?
SA: Yeah, it looked like a really simple satellite that a 3rd grade CGI artist could render and model for us, which is, I think, what happened. Even up to the ones we have now, I think those have been fairly successful, but that's like a little - those things, I think, are easy to make. The secondary characters that don't have a lot of emphasis and don't do a whole lot, are just kind of around. It's easy to make those cool. It's harder to do a primary character that you need to connect with and invest in emotionally. That sounds like I'm giving it too much power. If it's a character, you want to hear what that character's saying, it's a little bit more difficult.

TZ We were all shocked when TOM died... the first time.

SA: I know, well, that was the greatest, that was awesome. That was a tremendous success as far as I'm concerned. That first stunt we did, that set the bar for us. We've done other animation that rivaled it, but we've never been able to cliffhanger it like that and make it make so much emphasis on it, and that's sorta because it was a perfect storm, supporting the brand, window in the calendar, all that sponsorship support, it was just one of those things that happened. I don't know if we can ever have it happen again, but we're trying to do big things like that, and it's just difficult to get all that together.

TZ: Cartoon Network seems to have struck a deal with Ninja Tune for music. What are the limits of the use of their label, if any?
SA: Toonami actually struck that deal, that's just "us." So, we have access to much of the Ninja Tune library, excluding some artists that have co-producer credits on their stuff. If it's artists that Ninja Tune owns outright, we pay Ninja Tune sort of a blanket license to be able to use a lot of their CDs and a lot of different artists. It works out well for us, we get access to a lot of the music which we think is very, very good as well as a lot of different types of artists, a lot of different styles, you've got DJ Food and Online Tobin and like a bunch of differnet guys. We still continue to work with other artists outside on an individual basis, Dangermouse still does a lot of our individual beats, we're working with Mad Lib, we're working with Animals on Wheels, there's a bunch of different guys we're working with, it's just guys that we like. The Ninja Tune deal was a great way to get a bulk of stuff that we didn't have to compose ourselves that we thought fit the brand and that we could make cool spots out of.

TZ: Speaking of spots, how do the commercials and intros come about? Does the whole gang get together, watch a few episodes and decide how they go about?
SA: Usually, the group is fairly tight-knit. There's not many of us, there's maybe four or five guys who would spearhead a project like that. Like, the shows will come in, I'll kind of review, I'll figure out who's best suited for which project, I usually try to assign producers to shows they like or a project they'll have fun on. That emotion generally comes through on the work. If you have a guy, or a girl, who's working on something he or she doesn't like, I can usually feel that when the final product comes around. So, I try to work around with the personalities inside the group and then once it's assigned. That's kind of a lead producer who takes on that project. But everyone kind of watches it, it's really sort of a group thing.

We're really a tight-knit family here at Toonami, so everybody is always up everybody's business. If we don't want that, or it isn't really working, that's just sorta how it has to be, because that's how I set it up. It's fairly organic, there's no hard-and-fast rules, but generally it's like one person is assigned to it, one person will write the script, the script goes around if it's a promo. For the opens, the producer will be sorta familiar with the show and the material, like the different key shots or scenes and then a lot of the open is sorta clips and music driven, and that falls on the back of the editor.

We have some of the most talented editors in the area, I think, in my group working over at Williams Street. That's their paticular contribution, their creativity. Because the opens are just straight editiorial really to music that builds to a logo reveal. You can't really script that, you have to start cutting it, and how that works with the music and how the cuts work together is all editorial. I'm truly blessed to have a lot of really talented people on the team, and that's kinda how it goes down.

TZ: That's what sets you apart from the crowd.
SA: I hope so, I don't know. It seems like it's killing us sometimes, and it seperates us other times.

TZ: So, when Miguzi was introduced at the upfronts, there was an elaborate backstory explaining how Erin, the host, came about this underwater spaceship. Will this story ever be revealed on air?

SA: We're trying to. Whenever you try to reveal backstories in CGI, it comes with a big ticket. Just having her look at the camera and wave costs me several thousand dollars. We certainly want to tell those stories, what we run into is this environment is maybe not purposed to do long form stuff, so it may not ever be possible. We're trying to get into the place where we can do specials and stunts with that environment and cast of characters, like Toonami was doing them. It would be a creatively whole different tone, but sort of the same deal.

We're hoping to be able to get the greenlight to make a lot of animation. The quantity of that animation depends on the funding we can get. We certainly want to try to extend those a little bit, and build that into something that could sustation shorts, could sustain a special, maybe 22 minutes. All that stuff is on the drawing board right now, we're trying to write stories that we'll find compelling and see if we can grow that into something of that nature.

TZ: Some of us thought that, when it was announced it would be an underwater spaceship, it might be the remains of the Absolution or something.
SA: We almost did that. Just the fact that they're on a spaceship at all is sorta homage of where we came from, and it was funny, we just tried to set up a yin and a yang, I guess that would be a yin, with Toonami and Miguzi. Toonami's outer space, Miguzi's inner space, Toonami's few characters, Miguzi's a lot of characters, Toonami is darker and cooler, Miguzi is brighter and funner. So we had all these things kinda to play off of, and that's another great thing to do when you're running sort of a group of creative people; you have to give them a variety of things to work on or else they get burned out. That was sorta of a response to that, like that's kinda how the idea came about. Even though Miguzi's certainly targeted a different demo and age group.

TZ: It's rumored that you were a driving force behind Tenchi Muyo and FLCL. Does the "Approved by Sean Akins" seal give more chance for a show to be acquired?
SA: Not at all. It's probably less chance for a show to be acquired. Tenchi came out of Toonami, that was sorta one of the acquisitions Toonami drove back in the day. Fooly Cooly kind of the same thing, but my nom de plume doesn't hold any water around here. Jim Samples, that's the guy who makes things happen around here.

TZ: Alright, FUNimation's one of Toonami's greatest partners over the years, with Dragonball and Yu-Yu Hakusho. They're currently doing Tenchi Muyo GXP and the new episodes of Tenchi Muyo. Was Tenchi a good enough success to look at picking these shows up?
SA: It was, it'll depend on- we'll certainly have conversations with FUNimation, we have conversations with all the properties that they have, and they have been one of our best, sort of, distributors. Certainly Dragonball Z was our biggest show of all time, kind of what helped make Toonami what it is. They have made an invaluable contribution to the network and the brand. Anything they're doing, we're going to have a conversation with about to find out, and certainly it wasn't a bad ratings score, it did okay, and it's going to largely depend on what the new series looks like and how it feels and whether we think it would fit in. I know that it's happening, but I haven't seen a whole lot of material.

TZ: ADV, on the other hand, seems like a touch-and-go relationship.
SA: Well, they've got their own thing going on.
TZ: The Animé Network?
SA: We've been in conversations with those guys, we kinda know everybody. It has to make sense, we have a decent relationship, but a lot of their shows don't necessarily fit into what we're doing. You have to remember that before the Animé Network started, they basically were a video kind-of licensee. They put out DVDs and stuff. The animation and properties they have are gonna work in a DVD market don't necessarily work in the children's television business. They're going to go for stuff that's a little more racy, a little more aggressive, and we can't necessarily do that.

We might could edit some shows, but then, Tenchi's a show that we had to a tremendous amount of editorial on, like hundreds of thousands of dollars of work to get it ready for the air. That stops making sense after a while. Especially if there's other shows out there that can work that we don't have to edit. I don't necessarily want to get edits from the local distributors, because I don't think they have the expertise or the compassion to really do a good job, so it's either like I could get a bad cut of a show that's just gonna make everyone mad, and the fans of that show are gonna be like "Why is this show all hacked to pieces?"

Toonami looks weird, and it's one of those situations that it's hard to work out. If the original content isn't necessarily conducive to going to the TV. It's not a touch-and-go relationship, we just kinda are doing slightly different things, although we did have a conversation a couple a weeks ago about trying to get some shows; again, it's the same problem.

TZ: Can you mention any names?
SA: (Laughs) Can't mention any names... (Since the original interview, Adult Swim has aired ADV's Super Milk Chan, and in fall 2003, will air Neon Genesis Evangelion in its entirety - jh)

TZ: How does the acquisition process go exactly? Do they just throw stuff to you, or do you say "Hey, that'd be a great show for Toonami", or...
SA: It's a mix of both. We've got a person at the network who's in charge of acquisitions, and at the same time, if we see something in the market place, we can bring to the attention of the network. If people are into it, we'll pursue it, getting the license and putting it on. It can come from us, or another one of our distributors who get a line on it and can send it to us to check out. It happens every single imaginable way from our acquisitions person going to a big animation convention that she thinks might work, or us seeing a bootleg DVD we think is cool and trying to track down who owns the rights, and when it's coming to one of the other big toy companies that has a line on something and send it over. So, it happens in every way, there's no real one formula.

TZ: Escaflowne and Slayers are two shows you expressed interest in in the past. Do you have any idea if their contracts have expired, and if so, do you still want to air them, either on Toonami or Adult Swim?
SA: I think both those shows are cool, at this point now, they're old. You know what I mean? When it was hot, we have to either be on the cutting edge or making it, and if we're going back and licensing older shows, they just end up looking older. If it's a name people have kinda heard before, it doesn't tend to rate as well. Escaflowne was the big thing was there's no way to get around the blood mixing inside the robot. Your skin has to be broken, your blood has to mix, and that's kind of a big deal. That's more Evangelion, but Escaflowne was kind of the same thing. And it was just hard for us to get that through.

Slayers was another one of those that just never happened for one reason. I still think Slayers is a good show. Just because they're older, you know what I mean? There will be brand new shows right now that would financially make more sense to put on than an older, kind of a fan favorite. Every time we've tried to go back and get a show that seems to have a strong following and it's a little bit older, it's never really worked. It's always kinda let us down and not been a great story. It's really better for us to try to stick with real current and try to stay new. Not saying it will never happen, but generally that's how it shakes out.

TZ: Well, everyone's happy that Lupin's still on the air.
SA: Yeah, Lupin. I love Lupin. We were actually talking about getting some other Lupin movies. I'd be interested to see what happens with Lupin. I don't know the numbers if it's really burning up the charts. It's certainly a great franchise, like Lupin's a really cool character. There's a lot of great work out there; it'd be interesting to see where that thing goes. Again, Adult Swim's not necessarily my deal. That's not even a dotted line. That's more of a blurry line.

TZ: Toonami's helped get some new episodes of old shows on the air, like ReBoot and The Big O. Is there any series you'd like to see continued?
SA: The Big O, we co-produced that second season. I thought the Big O was a great project, I liked it a lot. I think it's a little bit too cerebral, it started off on Toonami and moved to Adult Swim, and it did okay but it wasn't really burning it up. I would love to see that finished, but I think the likelihood of that is slim to none. Mainly these days, we're trying to make new shows, co-produce new shows and get some new things on the air instead of looking back.

TZ: Anything guaranteed to come down the pipe? We knew of Rave Master back in 2003.
SA: There's nothing that I can really talk about. I wish I could tell you like "The big new hit show coming to Toonami is 'x'," but there's nothing I can really talk about. Some things are looking really good, but nothing is definite, and I can't say anything until the paper is signed.
TZ: Don't want Fox to hear about your latest show and then get it? (Toonami originally wanted to acquire Escaflowne and Slayers, but Fox snatched them up, actually airing Escaflowne briefly and edited a couple of episodes of Slayers but not airing them - jh)
SA: If they care, I certainly don't want them to hear it. I don't know that anybody's afraid of us, but if they are, I certainly don't want to give them any advantage.

TZ: With the new demographic shift of Toonami and the creation of Miguzi, and Adult Swim's success, some shows might seem perfectly fit to one block, while others are bordering on another block. Teen Titans airs on both Miguzi and Toonami, and Yu Yu Hakusho and Inuyasha both share what a lot of people consider to be the same level of violence and drama. What decides where these shows go?
: That's a very complicated decision as well. The guy who's in charge of programming these days is not so into isolated content for franchises; he thinks that, like Teen Titans is an example of that, it's a show that is working in both applications, both on Toonami, both on Miguzi, both at night on just normal Cartoon Network. I think it's more where the brands can be leveraged against our new shows that are popular and working is how that usually breaks out. There's not real hard-and-fast rules about that.

What kept Inuyasha off of Toonami was the first episode where he's impaled to the tree with the arrow. Kagome's removal of the arrow sets into motion the entire deal, the whole thing, him being freed from the tree. And Toonami at the time, you couldn't impale anything to a tree. And the thing about it is that he's a guy, he's a boy impaled to a tree. And if I go "No, he's a demon dog monster from another dimension", they're like "It looks like a guy, it's a guy impaled to a tree."

TZ: Well, he does have long flowing white hair.
SA: I tried that one too. He's got dog ears as well, wearing a strange crazy outfit. They're like "he's a guy impaled on a tree." And you can't do that on Toonami, and that's what got it on Adult Swim. The whole thing's fantastic, it's a fairy tale, blah blah blah... the lawyers don't look at it like that. If you press play on the VCR and it's a guy impaled on a tree, it's a guy impaled on a tree. They don't want to hear any backstory. So, that's kinda what lead that to happen. And then Yu Yu, I could just eek it in to Toonami, and I wanted it to be there. It comes down to the specifics of the property, exactly what happens, exactly what is the action that makes this adult or not, and then you make the call from there.

TZ: New episode of Cyborg 009 and .hack have been premiering on Friday nights at 1AM. Why are they premeiring unadvertised, and how come they're not on Toonami?
SA: They don't get a number is the real answer to that. I could probably come up with some other flowerly language, but they don't get a real number. .hack is a beautiful show, Masuma-san, the director of that, actually directed the IGPX pilot. That show is difficult to understand, and really hard for the layman to get into. It's tough to be surfing around and get to that show and watch it, just because it's very complicated. So that hurts it's importance. Cyborg never really performed well, and I don't know why.

TZ: Some shows have kind of disappeared from the block. Rurouni Kenshin left, Astro Boy disappeared and a review at IGN said it would be airing in the fall, and the toys say "airing on Cartoon Network", He-Man seems to be disappearing, and Transformers Energon has been relegated to weekday mornings. Did those shows not get the numbers, or...?
SA: Combination of the two. We've got our fingers crossed that some of those shows may be coming back. I can't really tell you which ones. Some of them are hopefully coming back, and some of them are gonna be hooked up. I know Energon's gonna come back at some point. Kenshin, we've all got our fingers crossed. (Since this interview, Transformers Energon had a brief run on Miguzi, and Rurouni Kenshin had a brief run on Toonami, both around October 2004 - jh) What were some of the others you named? I forgot.
TZ: Astro Boy and He-Man.
SA: Again, Astro Boy didn't get a really strong number. We love Astro Boy, Williams Street has a life-sized Astro Boy at the front door.
TZ: As seen on Adult Swim.
SA: We think it's . . . I dunno. Tezuka's a genius, it seemed like, for one reason or another, (the current Astro Boy series) just didn't work, people aren't getting it, or we're not doing it right, I dunno. But they never really showed up to watch it. That's the main thing. Even if I personally love a show, if people aren't showing up to watch it, it's gone. Like, you can't hang on. This is TV, and if it doesn't happen, it's not gonna. You're gonna move along. And a lot of that is sorta what happened to other shows. Some of those are definitely coming back; He-Man, I would imagine, is gonna come back, but I'm not sure about that. We did He-Man and Transformers at the same time, and both had mixed results. So, we're kinda just looking at both of those and seeing what the best application and what's the best way that Cartoon Network can do it.

TZ: A lot of fans loved Zoids: Chaotic Century. The show premiered new episodes on the morning, then on Toonami, which got pulled right before the Final Four. What's the story behind that?
SA: Well, we brought those Final Four back, and aired them as a special...
TZ: . . . on a Saturday.
SA: We did that just for the fans, because that was another one that didn't get a very good number. But I hate ending shows mid-run, that just sucks, but you know. When you have to take a huge financial hit and nobody's watching, the business guys don't care if the 11 or 12 fans that are tuning in get to see the conclusion of this story arc. They're like "we need a, this is killing us, it's gone." So, I always hate doing it though, and we had a little bit of leverage, so we did those Final Four as a special. That's the deal with that. It's never really a mystery; if shows disappear, it's because they weren't working. If they were getting good numbers, you'd still be seeing them. We would be juicing it until the last drop comes out.

TZ: Dragonball Z was on there for a long time.
SA: Exactly, Dragonball GT's still on the air, probably will be the rest of this year and maybe the next. It's our highest rated show, every Saturday. Justice League just beat it out with a huge push, premiere episodes, lots of marketing, print ads, lots of stuff. And it just beat it out by a tenth of a rating point. GT is still there, still has a huge following, still has a lot of fans that tune in like clockwork every Saturday night.

TZ: Are you guys going to be looking at the redub of Dragonball Z?
SA: We would be, we're certainly gonna be looking at any of that Dragonball Z stuff that happens. It's been such a bread-winner, we'll look at all of it. I like the original dub myself, so...
TZ I'm a dub-fan myself too.
SA: The first 52 that were done at Ocean, I thought were the best. Those were different times, and that was long ago. When they changed the voices the first time, we were all like "Oh no! Don't do that!" (laughs)
TZ: I think they kinda grew into it.
SA: Yeah, they did. After we saw the first couple, we were like "I don't think that's really good...", and they were like "Well, just give it a little bit of time; it's kinda hard to nail this thing right off the bat." As the show matured and the actors got more familiar with the characters, the writing came along, they really started to get it down and did a good job.

TZ: Uh, back to Zoids, what about Zoids Fuzors?
SA: Again, I don't know. Fuzors may happen, we'll have to see. Toonami this time, we really don't have a whole lot of slots. I think that would be a Toonami show if that went down, if we were really going to try and embrace it. We have Megas which is an original in there, Justice League which is an original, Dragonball's not going anyhwere, Rave and Duel Masters aren't going anyhwere. We just don't have a whole lot of room to play with. So, we kinda got around with one or two shows and if that doesn't happen, that's our whole deal for the year, we don't have that many openings.

TZ: People have been loving Duel Master's crazy "Samurai Pizza Cats"-type show.
SA: Yeah, it's working. Definitely, the first part of Toonami is what we've got to work on the most and try to get that audience in there.
TZ: It seems to aim younger.
SA: It's supposed to age up throughout the night, just our gut feeling of what kids will be watching when going to bed and more sophisticated stuff for the older crowd. It may be true, maybe we made that up, but that's kinda what's been driving the decision making process.

TZ: Speaking of younger shows, SD Gundam- Bandai said Season 2 would be airing on Cartoon Network, and it hasn't shown up.
SA: I would imagine that it would air, that was one of our most successful Gundam shows, but I don't know where.
TZ: It would be drastically different than Gundam SEED.
SA: (Laughs) Yeah, it would be drastically different than Gundam SEED. Gundam SEED's been kind of an average performer for us. It's been doing okay. SD was bigger. It appealed to a younger crowd, so it made more sense looking at a 6-11 number. That particular Gundam show makes a lot more sense than the others, which are very sophisticated. Which, actually, the scripting and the story writing kinda want you to be an adult, they don't have the super hardcore action to make it an Adult Swim show. Plus, Gundam's always been a Toonami thing, and I always love it, so we try to take care of those guys.
TZ: Everyone was kinda surprised of that Neon Laser Gun edit last week. (Gundam SEED had a normal gun edited out with a flashy gun)
SA: Um, yeah, well, yeah... (laughs) We've still gotta do that kinda stuff.

TZ: Sailor Moon . . .
SA: (laughs) Don't talk about it.
TZ: Don't talk about Sailor Moon?
SA: (laughs)
TZ: It was on there for a long time...
SA: LONG time.
TZ: First Toonami show to pick up new episodes. Any idea why it's kinda left the country recently?
: There hasn't been any real new stuff. Unless there's like a fresh look at that series, we've kinda have already done it. We can't continue to just put the old episodes on. It was part of Toonami for a long, long time, and it's one of those . . . we need to see like a whole new Sailor Moon identity if we're gonna think about doing that stuff. I just don't think it's happening.

TZ: Sailor Stars had no chance of being dubbed?
SA: I mean, ya know... it's one of those... we don't necessarily want to take on a whole deal because we don't know if it's gonna work out in the end. But if someone does it, then there's a chance, but it doesn't, you know, doesn't look too good.

TZ: Have you seen the live-action one they're running in Japan?
SA: I've seen clips of it, I haven't seen the whole thing. That's crazy.
TZ: It's messed up.
SA: It's crazy. The whole Sailor Moon thing's a little crazy if you ask me.

TZ: There's a Toonami channel in the UK.
SA: Oh yeah.
TZ: Do you have any control or connections with it?
: I have absolutely no control over that, and very little connection other than I send them all the stuff.
TZ: Any chance of America getting one?
SA: Um....I would say don't hold your breath. (laughs) Maybe, I doubt it.

TZ: Well, Sean, thanks for dealing with my questions.
SA: Thank you, man. Thanks for all the work Toon Zone does, you guys are a staunch supporter, and Toonami definitely appreciates all the fans out there. We're gonna try to keep doing what we're doing.
TZ: I've been watching the block, ironically, since the first time Chad showed up on Sailor Moon.
SA: (Laughs) Really? That's hysterical.
TZ: So, I guess it's kinda fitting.
SA: (Laughs) That was the way we hooked ya.