Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #82

Originally Posted on 09/10/2003 by Jeff Harris

You still haven't read Code's great interview with Toonami producer Sean Akins over at ANX? For shame, doc!

I read it yesterday and was very impressed with the questions Code asked and the answers Sean provided to the fans. At the end of the interview, I was kind of numb and learned a couple of things like:

Rurouni Kenshin had great ratings during its Toonami run. Unfortunately, those ratings didn't matter because they weren't from the targeted demo but from us older types.

- Cartoon Network doesn't want older types watching Toonami and sees the block as a kids' toy zone.
- ReBoot looks too old for Toonami and will never, ever return.
- CGI is too much money and traditional animation is (GASP!) much better.
- Giant Robot Week's mission was a failure, and its lifestyle was too extreme for the young virgin minds that the block wants the allowance money of.

That's just a sampler of the stuff I learned from the interview. To say that I was surprised about the comments made would be just pushing it. In all honesty, I was surprised that Sean's comments couldn't have come earlier, like, oh, around the time Hamtaro came on the block. Seriously, Cartoon Network seemed to try everything possible to get younger viewers to watch Toonami outside of slapping an orange and white ameoba logo on the corner of the screen with the word Nick on the side of the programming, and in some way, I understand why they'd want to do that.

After all, if the executives have the belief that Cartoon Network is just a kids network and want to sell ads for a kids demographic, then that should be a market they should try to aim for. Instead, a whole bunch of teens and young adults are watching Toonami in droves, drawn to the block and helping it be one of the highest-rated time periods for Cartoon Network. Now for an institution that believes in the power of these strange measurements called Nielsen ratings that don't really exist, you'd think that would be a great thing. But noooooooooo! Cartoon Network refuses to acknowledge the high ratings from older audiences and prefers to cater more towards the younger set.

That's a reason why they decided to make Adult Swim, a very fine block in its own right and a block I have absolutely nothing bad to say about. To CN's surprise, the older types not only enjoyed Adult Swim, but they kept on watching Toonami. Cartoon Network made SVES by siphoning a lot of Toonami shows to make up the Saturday night lineup.

But to the network's surprise, the older types not only enjoyed Adult Swim and SVES, but they kept on watching Toonami. Apparently, the fact that the core readership of this and other fine sites are still watching Toonami is irritating the hell out of Cartoon Network.

GOOD!

I find it funny that a network is irked by a strong viewership of older viewers on an afternoon programming block so much that they want to get rid of them. Whereas any other cable outlet will kill for strong numbers like those that Toonami pull in its time period as well as acknowledge those numbers in press releases, CN doesn't want any part of it, and to a guy like me, it's very frustrating. Out of everything that I got from Code's interview with Sean, the fact that Cartoon Network doesn't want to attract older viewers for Toonami at all left more of a sour taste in my mouth than the fact that ReBoot will never be reran on CN ever again, the apparent failure of Giant Robot Week in the eyes of the network (admittedly, it could have been a LOT better), and that old stuff has no place on Cartoon Network. Does it make me hate Toonami? Strangely not as much as I thought it would.

It's a bit of a downer, but that's the nature of the beast. That's the way the entertainment business is headed. Kids with short-attention spans that are drawn to heavily toyetic series and don't like to be challenged with shows with real plots and dramatic stories are apparently the audience that Cartoon Network wants for the Toonami block. It's a step backwards, but in all honesty, perhaps Cartoon Network should take a look at what was done with Toonami in years before as well as what SVES is currently doing on Saturdays (not counting the 4AQuickBuck shows on the block) to get an idea of what Toonami should be.

That's all I have to say about that for now.

And now, for something completely different.

Does anybody remember when DC Comics had a crossover between their marquee character Superman and the hottest toy franchise for the moment Masters of the Universe? It was back in the 80s and as twisted and strange as such an awkward crossover would be. Cue to 2003. Superman is undergoing a resurgence in popularity thanks in part to a slew of great stories from writers like Jeph Loeb, Joe Kelly, and Mark Waid and artists like Ed McGuiness, Jim Lee, and Leinil Yu, not to mention Big Blue's appearances on the small screen with Justice League and a twist on the pre-Superman years with Smallville (a series that Mr. Loeb recently joined the creative staff).

Thundercats is also getting a renaissance thanks to a trio of miniseries from Wildstorm Productions as well as crossovers with G-Force and the confirmation of a brand new OVA in the works. With Wildstorm writers and artists preparing to revamp the Superman titles in 2004, it was only natural that one of DC's rising stars, Judd Winick (he was the whiny cartoonist in the SF season of the Real World for those that don't know his writing talents from Green Lantern, Exiles, and the current Teen Titans-tie-in/relaunch The Outsiders) will handle a crossover between the Last Son of Krypton and the Thundercats coming this Novermber. And for those that were turned off by the psuedo-S&M outfits of the grown up Thundercubs, don't worry. They're kids in this crossover.

One more thing before I close off the Watchspace. After nearly 10 years, don't you think that FUNimation needs to make a new corporate logo? Seriously, it looked dated back when Dragon Ball was first nationally syndicated in '95 and it's really dated now, and the more I see it on shows like Yu Yu Hakusho, Blue Gender, and their other properties, the more I say, "Gosh, that logo's really old-looking."

That's the Watchspace and I'm history until the next time. Later all.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris
The X Bridge Creator/Webmaster
September 10, 2003