Some people feel that Toonami skews younger audiences than SVES, which is pretty untrue. Afterall, the shows on SVES are seen by younger audiences when they're seen on Kids' WB and when they were on Toonami. The thing is that there are still people that feel that the way Toonami is branded badly and very unmarketable to a mass audience. Those folks feel more at ease with Saturday's presentation of shows, not unlike Toonami's but more retro-based, falsely making the equation that retro = aimed towards older viewers.

Is Saturday's presentation working? That's questionable. There aren't many ratings reports showing that SVES is doing ratingswise (and yes, I still believe that the Nielsen ratings system is not only inaccurate, but is also a joke). Most of them are showcasing single shows that are often seen throughout the network's schedule. Toonami's ratings aren't revealed much either. Sure, we'll get age-based ratings once in a while, but for total viewership, you don't see many reports about them for some odd reason.

Also, one cannot avoid the fact that much of Saturday's success is due to the shows the block has access to. Most of the shows migrated from Toonami, where they made their daily premieres. These shows made an impact on Toonami where they were once exclusive franchises. Because of the shows' familiarity and marketability, Cartoon Network decided to move them over to Saturday nights, which traditionally is one of the lowest-rated nights of the week. Yes, there are a few franchises that have premieres on those nights, but the bulk of the night is reruns that have already been seen and franchises that the network wants to bury because they've been overran.

A question popped up in my head though. If SVES is supposed to be a cornacopia of action franchises and aimed towards all age groups according to time periods, then why aren't there any Adult Swim action shows on SVES? I'm not just talking about the older ASA shows that aired on Toonami first. I'm talking about a show like InuYasha, Trigun, heck, even Bebop. They could easily run those Parental Guidance disclaimers before airing them late at night when kids aren't likely going to air. The whole "we don't want to air adult-oriented shows on weekends because kids will be watching in droves" excuse doesn't wash anymore. Adult Swim aired during the summer, and no problems occurred. The world didn't end. Parents (for the most part) didn't cry bloody murder because they saw a bloody murder in a cartoon. If SVES was indeed a great cross-section of action franchises that air on Cartoon Network, then I wouldn't have a problem with it. Instead, it's just Toonami done (slightly) better with the kids' market.

Toonami isn't perfect by any means. With the competition getting better, is Toonami becoming obsolete?

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