October 21st, 2008: So What Happens Now?

As I write this, nearly a month has passed since Toonami's demise. The final lineup was nothing to write home about, it was a pair of new Naruto filler, a random Ben 10: Alien Force episode, and a Samurai Jack rerun, which had been the lineup since late May. Still, Toonami did try to inject some final spirit into the dying moments of the block, making TOM silent during the Samurai Jack bumpers and offered a final message to its viewers after the show was over, telling them to stay true to themselves: "Stay gold." Then, ensuring the block ended with a "bang", they has TOM utter the word in the style of Spike Spiegel of Cowboy Bebop as he took off into the sunset.

What has happened since then?

The Cubs got swept in the first round of the MLB playoffs (what else is new?)

The Miami Dolphins, 1-15 last year, handed the New England Patriots its first regular-season defeat in nearly two years.

The stock market went into freefall and the federal government is being forced to bail out banks left and right.

Tina Fey is scary good at mimicking/parodying Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidental nominee.

The anime classic Now and Then, Here and There concluded on Sci-fi Channel. Sci-fi has surrounded its Gurren Lagann-backed Ani-Mondays with modern shows meant to appeal to Ani-Monday's demographic like Lost and Scare Tactics instead of ancient reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Twilight Zone. Sci-fi has the first season of Gundam 00 set to premiere after the conclusion of Gurren Lagann, continuing Ani-Monday's new tradition of a cutting-edge series airing in the first half of the block and an older, more obscure series/OVA airing in the 2nd half. Finally, Sci-fi announced that Gurren Lagann has brought the best ratings to Ani-Monday in the block's existence.

"Cascade (Live Version)" by Tycho, the song that was playing during Toonami's final seconds, has spread over the Internet, though I doubt it will become a Top 40 hit anytime soon.

Naruto, instead of airing two new episodes a week on Toonami, now airs a new episode once every two weeks unpromoted behind whatever animated action movie CN feels like running (and underpromoting), starting with a lightly-edited Batman: Gotham Knight.

The massively-hyped Star Wars: The Clone Wars, broke Ben 10: Alien Force's record for most-watched series premiere on Cartoon Network.

Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? And yet it still feels like Toonami died yesterday.

In hindsight, I honestly feel like an idiot for never seeing the end coming. Right until the blog gaijinside revealed Toonami's end I believed that the block could and would get better. It felt better than relentlessly doomsaying like certain people I've met on Toon Zone (I'm not naming names). I felt that the block could still provide some worth to Cartoon Network and its demos.

But Cartoon Network threw it all away, catching me completely off guard and revealing that I am a misleading imbecile.

In fact, it seems Cartoon Network has thrown virtually everything away from before Stuart Snyder became in charge of Cartoon Network. It did not take very long, but virtually everything that ran on Cartoon Network before fall 2007 has been minimized, ended, or canceled.

The desperation to have the network completely overhauled has destroyed Toonami, destroyed anime in general on the network, destroyed Adult Swim's action lineup, destroyed or will destroy seven CN original series (Foster's, Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Codename: Kids Next Door, Ben 10, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, and Camp Lazlo), some of which were beloved, others not so much, all in the span of a year. Cartoon Network has begun ignoring its license to use Ninja Tune music, instead licensing music from little-known electronica artists who don't provide the intensity, creativity, and quirkiness of a typical Ninja Tune artist. Even two of CN's signature voices, Peter Cullen and Steven Jay Blum (aka TOM), have done essentially zero work for Cartoon Network post-Toonami. It just feels like everything that was pre-Snyder has been thrown in the garbage regardless of it being good or not.

But that is a rant that will happen later, if at all.

So what happens now, on a Cartoon Network that no longer has Toonami?

Comedy still dominates the lineup in general and likely will for a while. Star Wars, once it has enough episodes along with The Secret Saturdays, may get reruns, but for now CN is all about bringing the laughs.

The packaging is minimalist but wonderfully engaging with the creative "Nood" bumpers. However, the Nood packaging for the new action block, "You Are Here", leaves much to be desired (which I get into later in the article).

Anime looks to be said and done at this point. Never mind that there are still many series ripe for a pickup that could become successful. When even Naruto isn't worth CN's time anymore, it's clear that CN is finished with anime other than what they have personal interests in (such as Bakugan). Adult Swim looks to be done with anime as well, having only acquired one new anime series this year (Code Geass, and I'm including the 2nd season, R2, as part of the CG umbrella), that is currently sentenced to 5 a.m. EST on Sunday mornings. I am not counting Moribito (which was shoved to 5:30 a.m. EST on Sunday mornings after a mere 3 episodes) as part of that because the TV deal was apparently inked in 2007 but was delayed because of Geneon collapsing.

For now, action movies run on Saturday nights, and comedy movies air on Sunday.

There will be more comedy cartoons (such as the new Adventure Time that was originally going to be part of Nicktoons Network's Random! Cartoons) on the way in 2009. Batman: The Brave and The Bold will come in November and take up one of the slots in the three-hour "You Are Here" block to provide a dose of comedic villain-beatups. Toonami Jetstream still says that there will be plenty of new stuff on the way, and since the latest Samurai Jack episode uploaded there looks to remain until early 2010, it seems that Jetstream will be sticking around for a while.

Cartoon Network's gotten better and has become a more watchable network overall (other than the incessant Johnny Test reruns taking up three or four hours of the network each day). But at the same time, CN is breaking so much with its past and traditions that I cannot help but feel that I am not watching the Cartoon Network I knew anymore.

Action has taken a back seat to comedy since mid-2007 and as someone who enjoys both it gets monotonous to just watch the same comedy over and over again. I am watching a lot of the shows that I genuinely enjoy wave sudden goodbyes and vanish without a trace. I'm seeing Naruto slowly lurch to the finish line in the closest thing CN has to a graveyard slot, likely to simply stop without continuing into Naruto Shippudden.

"You Are Here" frankly seems to insult Toonami at times, as it is literally the exact opposite of Toonami in every way. The Southern-accented announcer has zero interaction with the audience other than pitching the shows to you as you watch them like a used car salesman. The music lacks personality. The diversity of the block is pathetic compared to the very first Toonami lineup, and lacks all of the special extras that were part of that lineup. Not to mention the block's name seems to mock the intelligence of children everywhere.

I just see a network out to get the bottom line, nothing more. Despite the charm of the Nood bumpers, Cartoon Network has finally become a soulless corporate entity and nothing more, like every other TV channel out there.

It's still a good network. But there is no longer a connection there anymore. Regardless of what comes, I don't think anyone will have that deep personal connection to CN ever again like people did from the good years to the bad years when Toonami was still in existence. The fact that people care enough to whine about CN's state on message boards should speak volumes to CN, but they have sought to ignore those that care and concentrated solely on the bottom line. This is especially true in the case of Adult Swim, which earlier this year announced that they were going to stop paying attention to their message board. This approach has gotten CN and AS success in the ratings, but it has cost me whatever connection I had with the networks and has probably done the same to others. Now, it is simply watching another TV channel that has good and bad programs.

Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way. Maybe I'm not. I don't really know. I suppose what will happen from now on is that CN will be just another TV channel and nothing more. Maybe good programs will come on. Maybe bad ones will enter the airwaves.

I guess that is the way things are going to be from now on. Perhaps I'd attempt a protest, but I honestly don't see much of a point in it. CN is hellbent on their current direction and dragging AS along with it; there's nothing that can be done to stop them especially as they've been getting better ratings with the new approach.

So that is what is going to happen now. No more gambles. No more new talent. Stick to the established productions and artists and the "sure things". Everything that does not meet that will get unceremoniously shunted aside if the network has it still and will be rejected if it is pitched. The fact that the Cartoonistitute will concentrate almost entirely on established artists instead of providing a good balance of experienced and new talent should be unnerving at the absolute least.

It's not a bad situation. It's not a good situation. It's just...there. And that's what Cartoon Network and Adult Swim are probably going to be from now on now that they have become completely isolated from their viewers.

Just there.

 

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