Demand cartoon diversity: Cartoon Network

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Yeah Cartoon Network neo expand its line up. Really I think they could do some good by making Toonami prime time or putting a version of it back in its old time slot. The problem is Cartoon Network is run by idiots interested only in big merchandising deals and want to push all of the decent programming to the late late night block.

Yeah, a Toonami Kids thing might be good, having them air anime that can easily be watched by American kids without parents complaining about it in the first place. Only issue is that most of the anime that I can think of that would work like that are mostly ones that are generally aimed at girls, a demographic that CN seems to want to ignore. On the other hand, it could actually be a chance for Pretty Cure to be shown on American tv. But that's only if those people in charge have brains. And if Funimation (they are the ones that dub most of the anime on Toonami right now, right?) can get the rights to dub them.

The thing is Toonami doesn't have to be all anime either. They wanted to put the new Samurai Jack in the late block for some stupid reason. There's also wonderful cartoons like Transformers G1 and the original Thundercats that could capture a new audience of fans if shown in the late afternoons. The key is having a good line up and knowing when and how to do rotations. There's a reason Toonami failed originally and it was basically the same reason the Disney Afternoon tanked: They basically allowed certain shows to go on for too long and didn't replace anything with quality content after a while leading to a situation where people had gotten bored of what was good and not bothering to try the new.

Yea, that's true too, but again if they had any brains it could be used as a chance for anime to be dubbed that otherwise wouldn't be as well as giving a decent time slot to the kids anime they already have (Pokémon) in addition to any new cartoons that are more action oriented.

The old Thundercats cartoon could easily be shown on Boomerang instead though, and would probably be more at home there, and with regards to the Transformers cartoons, do they even still have the rights to air any of those cartoons? I'd figured they had gone off to Hasbro for them to air on their own channel.

Honestly things would be easier for those idiot execs if they weren't so focused on the little boy demographic.

i just checked the schedule. while they do seem to also play TTG, it's not as much. still it seems that they stick to a certain group of cartoons that appear to be "leftovers" from "yesterdays" CN. or maybe cartoons from the last 10 years.




I addressed that in one of my updates. I questioned just how much TTG merchandise was actually being sold. I checked the DVDs on Amazon (they didn't have many)...and each one was closer to 5000 on the chart. As for toys, maybe I should stalk the aisle at Toys R Us and survey the shoppers? Pokemon is played ONCE in the WEE early hours of the morning... but I see rabid rapid movement on their products. The games sell, the clothes sell, action figures, card games... what ever media format, it sells. Oh sure...Pokemon has been on longer. But at the rate CN plays TTG during the day...I feel both shows are even.

Thing is Boomerang is cutting into CN's ability to show quality old school programming. Now as far as the girl demographic goes I have this sneaking suspicion they feel that market had been cornered by Disney and MLP and thus have no desire to try to compete much less topple them in this regard and I can't really blame them either. Disney is a juggernaut with their princess line and MLP tends to speak for itself these days.

That said there doesn't seem to be as many independent cartoonists willing to work with CN on a girls cartoon show, not like back in the day. Remember Powerpuff Girls? That sort of thing just isn't happening as much and I have to wonder if it's because the executives went and pissed some of the cartoonists off. It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened.

Oh, I'm sure something happened between them and PPG creator Craig McCracken. Why else would his newest cartoon be on Disney XD? And I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't want to compete with Disney for the girl demographic, considering Disney is much better at making cartoons likable for people of all genders and ages. Same with Hasbro and MLP, although that may also have something to do with Lauren Faust's initial involvement with the newest cartoon. Again, I reiterate the fact that as it is right now, Steven Universe and We Bare Bears are the only cartoons I find worth watching that aren't Tom and Jerry or Looney Toons.

And that is why I tend to go to Netflix and Chrunchyroll for my entertainment needs. Not even those two shows interest me. I get Star Wars: Rebels through ITunes and that's it. If Toonami wasn't on so freaking late when I'm trying to sleep I would watch it, but even then there's only an hour of that block that I'm interested in and it's not worth staying up for when I can wait for it to show up on BD or Netflix, especially when I have a massive backlog on Crunchyroll to watch.

As I see it overall the following needs to happen:

1. They need to patron some talented up and coming cartoonists and I don't mean the Adult Swim crowd.

2. They need to set up a prime time block to show off these talents again.

3. They need to stop relying on one or two seeder shows for all of their advertising funding.

4.They need a Toonami block at a decent time.

5. They need to be more aggressive about getting good anime broadcast rights.

6. Someone has to kick the Mouse the in balls. Disney has basically become the Borg and if something isn't done soon, when the Mouse finally does fall to its own stupidity all hell will break loose in the animation world.

7. A large number of execs over at CN need to be fired. It's sad, but true. When you become profitable at the cost of gutting the network's programming you have not achieved anything other than inflicting a slow death on the network.

I'm gonna have to agree on pretty much all counts. Especially since at this point I do much of the same. Just replace Crunchyroll with other anime streaming sites. I watch more cartoons through Netflix than I do on TV now, whether it's one for kids or one for adults. At least all the good ones are on there. And honestly, with regards to Toonami, not really a lot on there I'd actually watch. Again, they need to have a day block with anime that would be kid appropriate without tons of editing. At the very least it would give Pokemon a consistent airing time that isn't super early or whatever. Maybe throw in Hamtaro reruns too (seriously, that's one of the hardest animes for me to find at all online, subbed or dubbed). Not to mention that there are plenty of anime that can appeal to boys and girls.

You know the point behind the "african prince died and left you his fortune, but there's some minor legal fees" email scam?
It's to weed out anyone who's too smart to fall for such a thing. What remains is the bottom 10%.
And sadly, that's who TV advertising is aiming for, nowadays. And since that's who pays for the programming, you get TTG, the "african prince died and left you his fortune, but there's some minor legal fees" of cartoons.

Samurai Jack and Sybiotic Titan were good (same artist actually); but they wound up unresolved, it's a real shame. To be fair though, I don't watch CN during the day. The adult-swim lineup is so diverse they've even branched into live-action.

My niece watches stuff like Steven Universe and Gumball; I was impressed by their production-value. I can see why teen-titans isn't a favorite though, even their theme song is too annoying to get into.

Samurai Jack is coming back!

Pretty sure CN tried having live-action shows in their line-up a few years ago. Destroy Build Destroy, Dude What Would Happen? and Outta Jimmy's Head are just a few examples I can think of. No one really liked the decision because, you know, there's a reason it's called Cartoon Network.

Some live action shows can capture the zaniness of a cartoon; "Black Jesus" is in the adult-swim lineup and it does well there. I doubt you'd see a show like it on other networks.

Oh I know. One such show that actually was part of Cartoon Network rather than [adult swim] that I actually watched was Level Up. That was a good show, and I kinda wish that it had stayed. Incredible Crew managed to be the same, but CN was starting to win back other viewers at the time they aired, unfortunately. If they can do something similar to Annoying Orange that isn't Annoying Orange then it would probably not piss people off and enable them to maintain viewers.

i've almost got 200 joining me in the demand for #CartoonDiversity.
keep spreading the word. thanx!

oh...and next week... Steven Universe is doing new episodes to celebrate Steven's birthday.