By Dogasu
Posted 05-23-2001

Anyone who's ever talked to me knows that I'm an anime fan.  I was an anime fan long before I even knew what this "Pocket Monsters" thing was.  Whether it’s mainstream anime or anime that’s so obscure that it’ll never be picked up here, I like it.  There are very few anime that I don’t like.  I’m all for the exposure of anime on television.  It enables a person who’s never seen a particular series to preview it and he can see whether or not he wants to invest in that series.  Thanks to the mainstream of anime, I discovered the delightful series Outlaw Star and I’m now buying the DVD’s.  Without Toonami, I probably would’ve never experienced this series.

It’s a good thing to get it out there to the people.  And it’s about time that America hops onto the anime bandwagon.  Did you know that the United States is just about the only country in the world that HASN’T finished all of Dragon Ball Z?  Or Sailor Moon?  The United States has been really behind as far as anime goes, and we’re finally catching up.

A big reason for the rise of anime in America is the aforementioned Cartoon Network Toonami block.  It started out as a two-hour block featuring “the best action cartoons,” and some of those just happened to be anime (or pseudo-anime, like “Thundercats”).  At first, the network got anime that had been dropped from syndication (Dragon Ball Z, Robotech, Sailor Moon) but soon the block aired anime exclusive to the network (Gundam Wing, Big O).  No other television network in America has gone to so much trouble to bring so many different anime programs to our shores. Sure, the Sci-Fi Channel has aired anime in the past, but it hasn’t given it the exposure or the treatment that Cartoon Network’s given it.

Anime took off because Cartoon Network gave these programs decent timeslots.  Instead of airing them when everyone was still in school, Toonami aired these programs right after kids got home.  Now that people actually got to SEE Dragon Ball Z (after it was fished out of that horrid 6:00am on Saturday mornings timeslot it had in syndication), people started liking it.  Anime was becoming known in America. More tapes were sold.  More merchandise was made.  And more importantly, more titles were picked up as a result of better sales all-around.  Toonami’s a good thing, despite some of the complaints against it (absence of opening themes, weird censors, etc.).  For the most part, everyone likes Toonami, including the die-hard “if-it’s-not-subtitled-I-won’t-watch-it” anime fans who will never admit that they watch the block.

But something happened recently.  On May 14, 2001, Toonami was cut down from three hours to two.  Why?  Were ratings going down?  Not at all-in fact, the opposite’s true.  Is it a network decision?  Nope.  So why?  Why the change?

It’s all because of Kids’ WB!  More specifically, the WB Network. 

Y’see, AOL and Time Warner recently bought all the networks founded by Ted Turner (CNN, Turner Classic Movies, the WB!, Cartoon Network, etc.).  Before, each channel had its own separate agenda and networking plans, and more or less had the freedom to do whatever it wanted with its programs.  Well, now that the networks have been bought, the AOL half of the buying team decided to get rid of all the separate agendas in favor of one large plan.  They gave the task of making this plan to the Warner Brothers Networks.

One of those decisions was made by Kids’ WB! because it didn’t want Toonami’s afternoon competition.  Basically, Toonami was killing Kids’ WB!’s afternoon ratings.  From 4pm-5pm, kids were tuning in to Toonami shows, not Kids’ WB!’s Pokemon reruns.  Kids’ WB! wanted their ratings back.  So what’d they do?  They requested Cartoon Network to have Toonami air an hour later.  Toonami agreed.  Now, kids wouldn’t be tempted to watch Toonami and would instead watch Kids’ WB!. 

Another reason for the change is the change in national television viewing habits.  People watch less and less TV everyday.  Video games, the Internet, DVD’s, and other media are making viewership decline.  Advertisers would rather advertise on the Internet or at the movies rather than TV.  Therefore, networks must carefully choose when to run advertisements.  Instead of having advertisers of Kids’ WB! and Cartoon Network competing against each other from 4pm-5pm, the Warner Brothers Networks decided to concentrate their advertisements on Kids’ WB! from  4pm-5pm, and then on Toonami from 5pm-on.  That’s the logical progression of young viewers-they’ll watch Kids’ WB! until 5pm, and then switch to Cartoon Network.  So they’ll get the maximum exposure to the advertisers under the new plan. 

While Kids’ WB! benefits from all this, Cartoon Network gets the third degree.  First of all, Toonami had to chop two shows off its block to make up for the time difference.  Bye bye Gundam Wing and Big O.  Then it decided to air Dragon Ball Z twice a day (to make way for the original Dragon Ball which will air in June), so that meant getting rid of another show, Sailor Moon.  There goes a bunch of ratings right there.  Toonami’s ratings will most undoubtedly drop as a result of this.  It might even be cancelled.

And it’s all because of Kids’ WB!.  If your ratings from 4pm-5pm are dropping, analyze the situation and work to fix it.  What can you do within your own company to remedy the situation?  How about not airing Pokemon so many times a day.  Twice a day for two years is a bit of an overkill.  Do they honestly think that fans tune in to Pokemon EVERY time they air it?  Heck no.  In addition, they could do something that they’ve needed to do for a long time…AIR POKEMON EPISODES IN THEIR ORIGINAL ORDER!!  It’s not really that hard to do.  It would enable new fans to become new viewers without being confused.  It would enable established fans to view the story in order and rediscover why they like the series in the first place.  Look at Toonami.  All the episodes of their programs are shown in order.  You don’t see the Sailor Senshi fight Queen Beryl one day and then fight the Amazoness Quartet the next and then fight Black Lady the day after that.  It wouldn’t make sense.  It also doesn’t make sense for Satoshi to have Lizardon obey him one day and then have Lizard ignore him the next. 

Another thing Kids’ WB! can do to boost ratings is to treat their anime better.  Look at “Cardcaptors.”  Most of the changes made from the original version were just Nelvana following Kids’ WB!’s instructions.  THAT particular dub made many anime fans hate Kids’ WB! forever.  No one wants Kids’ WB! to get a hold of an anime series because we all know that it’ll get hacked to bits. 

Now that the initial change has been made, what does the future hold?  For starters, the two networks will begin sharing shows.  Toonami will air Cardcaptors for three weeks (in order…oh wait, this is the dub we’re talking about…it has no order) starting June 4th, and if it does well enough, they’ll air the show on a regular basis.  In exchange, Kids’ WB! will air old reruns of Dexter’s Laboratory and Powerpuff Girls.  In addition, this fall Kids’ WB! will air its own Toonami-it’ll have Tom and the openings and such, but the Kids’ WB! block will contain Kids’ WB! shows like the Jackie Chan Adventures, Pokemon, and Cardcaptors. So out of all this, Kids’ WB! gets two of Cartoon Network’s most popular shows, the already popular and recognizable Toonami name,  and no competition from 4pm-5pm.  Meanwhile, Cartoon Network will get a crappy anime dub and an hour taken off of its most popular block on the network. 

Which is bad news for Cartoon Network’s shows.  Cartoon Network is a cable network and people have to pay for cable.  So there’s more freedom on cable, as far as show lengths and censorship is concerned.  You couldn’t get away with airing those 40-minute long Tenchi Muyo episodes on regular TV.  So if some of the Cartoon Network shows are brought to Kids’ WB!, the shows may be altered from the versions aired on Toonami.  Cartoon Network already gets complaints about the violence in Powerpuff Girls, so just think of the cuts that will be made when Kids’ WB!’s more strict censors take over. 

Kids’ WB! is causing the downfall of Pokemon.  They ruined Card Captor Sakura.  And now they’re threatening all anime on American television.  Something needs to be done and done quickly before we get a dozen Cardcaptors on our hands.