Posts Tagged “Adult Swim”

When I began composing this in the afternoon, I thought it would be just another collection of news items baked into a Potluck post but then a few more things came to light this evening and the above image suspiciously gained more relevance.

UPDATE 1/18 12:37AM PST: AnimeNews.biz has issued a retraction to their story about Best Buy and how they shelf anime in their stores. Instead of removing sections entirely, they are “in the process of realigning the anime section of each store depending on title popularity”. I have accordingly adjusted that portion of this post.
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Just under two months after being shoved off into crack of dawn Sunday programming, Code Geass will shift forward to 2:00am late Saturday night beginning this weekend to mark the start of season 2, or R2 as the kids call it. (The first season began airing at 1am prior to the September change.) R2 had already begun when episode 26, “Day A Demon Awakens”, aired at 5:00am last weekend and that episode will be replayed during the new time slot this Saturday.

Also moving back to a more viewer-friendly time is Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, now at 1:30am rather than 5:30am or 2:30am, but with a caveat: the first ten episodes will be rerun. The first two DVD volumes covering the initial seven episodes were released by Media Blasters yesterday but there is no explicit indication of when future volumes will come out or when newly dubbed episodes will air, although mid-January seems like a good time for new episodes since the run of rehashes will conclude by then. MB CEO John Sirabella said they were “rushing their way through” the series back in August during their Otakon panel.

Other changes involving new episode premieres are Bleach (now on #87) falling back two hours from 11pm to 1am and Shin-chan returning at 2:30am (was at 12am before shelved) picking up where it left off with episode 47.

The three remaining hours from 3-6am will now be occupied by reruns of fan favorites such as FLCL, Death Note, Ghost in the Shell SAC, Cowboy Bebop, Big O, and… InuYasha, all of which are starting from the beginning. The absence of Fullmetal Alchemist in the revised schedule means its latest attempt at reruns has shut down after episode 7, the first major downer in the series.

Overall, re-establishing a continuous five-hour block of anime should increase bleedover viewership and bringing back old standards like FLCL, Big O, and Cowboy Bebop will attract those who didn’t see them during their previous countless airings.

I have previously written about Adult Swim’s Saturday night schedule in terms of debuts but this time it is a frustrating schedule change that I am alerting people about. ANN reports that as of Saturday Sept. 13th, Bleach will jump ahead from 12:30am to 11pm while Code Geass and Moribito fall back FOUR HOURS to 5am and 5:30am, respectively. (Here’s the full-res four-month schedule I saved this afternoon.) Why was this done? To make room for reairings of their original 11-minute comedies, of course! Other differences are the complete removal of Shin Chan (12am, 3am) and Inuyasha (reruns at 5am and 5:30am) along with a weekly reairing of Fullmetal Alchemist from the beginning at 11:30pm, the time slot it once occupied when the second season began the broadcast.

The main reason I’m irked is that I now have to set a recording for Moribito on the cable DVR, which is not a big hassle. The underlying reason is that the network is prioritizing its own shows over outside content in order to help people “catch up” if they missed an episode of Assy McGee, Tim and Eric, and other less serial content. This IS a smart business move in terms of promoting their in-house content but I wonder how Bandai and Media Blasters feel about their shows being shoved off into the least favorable times available. I think this could be a reflection of how non-Shonen Jump anime might fare on American television in the near future. I prefer AS’s natural commercial breaks over Sci-Fi Ani-Monday’s unnatural ones and don’t want to that disappear but expanding to a relatively broader audience (frankly not a large jump, considering the intersection of both viewer groups) has the potential to bolster sales a little bit.

The latest TV schedule posted on the Adult Swim website reveals that Code Geass will premiere on the late-night block April 27th at 1:30am. That happens to be a week after the dub’s debut at New York Comic Con (April 18-20); the English version of Lucky Star will also be screened sometime during the convention.

Announced last December, the localization cast for Geass features many “stars” including Johnny Yong Bosch (Renton, Eureka Seven; Ichigo, Bleach) as Lelouch, Kate Higgins (Talho, Eureka 7; Sakura, Naruto) as C.C., and Yuri Lowenthal (Sasuke, Naruto; Alviss, MÄR) as Suzaku along with some lesser-known voices like Karen Stressman (Soifon, Bleach) as Kallen and Rebecca Forstadt (Rika Furude, Higurashi; Suiseiseki, Rozen Maiden) as Nunnally. Having a lot of talent does not guarantee a great dub, however. The morning after the episode airs, I’ll probably download it from Cartoon Palace and write some impressions but until then, I will attempt to catch up on the first season before the second season premieres in Japan next month. Ah, spring break is only two long weeks away…

There still hasn’t been a date announced for the DVDs but I think the first volume will be released some time in early summer, June/July – leaving the possibility for a promotion timed just before Anime Expo as was done with Haruhi – but that’s just some speculation on my part.

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Tonight, I watched the first dubbed episodes of Trinity Blood and Bleach as well as continuing my weekly Eureka Seven fix. I found Trinity’s dub to be pretty good and Bleach was also enjoyable…for the five characters that were heard. I’ll have to watch a couple more of each (especially Bleach) to get a good feel of the English adaptations but for now, I’ll just say they’re not bad. Read the rest of this entry »

Proud to bring you cheap-ass screenshots!

Over the past week I watched six episodes of Eureka Seven I had recorded off the television using that time-tested technique called “setting a tape”. I haven’t seen the series since school ended in mid-June so hopefully I can get back into it as I’ve enjoyed it thus far. Eureka 7, Robot Chicken, and newcomer Metalocalypse are the only things I watch on Adult Swim anymore, although I’d like to give Bleach and Trinity Blood a try when they start airing next month (Sept. 9). But for now let’s roll some tape!

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