Cartoon Network Dropping Gundam and Bebop?

Lhadatt was among several who noted unannounced changes in Cartoon Networks' anime lineup. It's easy to speculate that Mobile Suit Gundam and Cowboy Bebop were dropped because of Tuesday's terrorist attacks since each show has a fair amount of violence, but nobody really knows. You can see the evidence on Cartoon Network's Listings. Tonight, episode 5 of Bebop was scheduled to air: one of the best episodes, too.

Comments

Transformers episodes getting dropped, too

[Robotech_Master]

Some episodes of the new Transformers: Robots in Disguise anime show are getting delayed, too--for instance, episode 6, in which a skyscraper is blown up and a news announcer apparently makes a comment about "robotic terrorism," was skipped this time around. And I imagine that when the series goes into repeats the first couple of times, probably episode 1 (in which Megatron crashes through a skyscraper) and episode 2 (involving a terrorist bomb) will probably be skipped, too.

It's a bit of a dilemma, you see. On the one hand, every time we make some change to our daily routine because of this despicable terrorist act--dropping episodes, delaying the premiere of shows, editing the World Trade Center out of the Spiderman movie altogether--we are in some small sense handing the terrorists a victory, acknowledging that they've affected us exactly the way they wanted. On the other hand, people should have a right to watch TV to try to forget the tragedy for a while and destress from the whole thing without being reminded of it by what's on the set.

Hopefully the pre-emptions and delays will be only temporary, for just a month or two until such time as people are a little less sensitive. The Buffy episode that was delayed over Columbine was eventually aired, after all. The networks did pay money for these shows, and they'll want to use them sooner or later.