Adult Swim Gets Three More Anime Series

E-Rock-23 writes "Toon Zone ran a story earlier this month with regards to three Anime series Cartoon Network acquired for it's Adult Swim block. Reign, Lupin III, and Trigun are slated to join the already impressive Anime line-up next year. Lupin is slated to start airing on January 13, and the others are TBA." Trigun is a great match fo Toonami- everyone should check it out. And I've been wanting to see the Lupin III TV series for years, so that ought to be great fun as well.

Comments

I still want a dedicated anime channel, though

[MtViewGuy]

While adding more series to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block is nice, unfortunately CN still has a bad habit of editing Japanese anime series various reasons. =(

I'm hoping that ADV Films' plan for a true dedicated anime TV channel becomes reality very soon. That way, we can see anime series UNCUT the way it was shown in Japan, even if we have to dub the voices. Of course, it would also be nice for some anime series to be shown on this channel in the original Japanese with subtitles for the purists, too. =)

Re:I still want a dedicated anime channel, though

[bludstone]

http://www.theanimenetwork.com/

Lots of info there. Its going to be comcast V.O.D. in the Philadelphia-area.

Looks interesting.

Re:I still want a dedicated anime channel, though

[Minna Kirai]

That was flamebait, you know very well that porn/hentai is just a tiny fraction of anime. (The majority of it is toy commercials for 7
-year olds!)

But I must reply to tell you that "something recently in the news" was that animations of children engaged in sex is legal, even though the Republican Congress is trying to change that.

Wow,

[CaptainPsyko]

From the article...

CN's successful block of late night animation for adults, Adult Swim, will air five times per week beginning Sunday, January 12, 2003. Airing from 11 pm to 2 am, ET/PT, Sunday to Thursday, the block will offer the hit series Futurama, quirky original animated series including Home Movies, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, and stunning action/anime series such as Cowboy Bebop and InuYasha.

And to think, CN used to be the Hanna Barbera and Hanna Barbera Imitators Network.

Wow. This is gonna be awesome. Not just Cowboy Bebop. Not Just Aqua Teen and Sealab (both brilliant!), But now Futurama, Home Movies, Trigun, Reign... whats next, are they going to buy syndication rights to The Critic? it's the only thing I can think of to make CN better. That or a Freakazoid revival. Just for nostalgias sake. I loved that show.

Re:The Tick, perhaps?

[NeuroManson]

Ummm, one: Plank is a "character" from Ed, Edd, and Eddy, the imaginary playmate of one of the weird neighborhood kids.

Two: Ed, Edd, and Eddy are not part of Toonami (which seems to oddly enough focus more on non anime, other than Dragonball/Z, shows that have nothing to do with the original subject matter of Toonami). http://ccf.toonzone.net/ed-plank.gif

Three: The character you're thinking of is "Little Wooden Boy", a temporary replacement sidekick for Arthur after he and Tick break up after a spat: http://home.earthlink.net/~auspice/LWBCard.jpg

I don't see anything adult..

[stratjakt]

..about the anime block they have now. Maybe Cowboy Bebop could classify as adolescent, but the others don't seem any more 'adult' than Dragonball Z or Voltron.

Sunday's block I recognize as adult-themed, Harvey Birdman, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, The Brak Show, Mission Hill, Home Movies - they all have mature themes and humor.

I've seen some stuff like Akira or Ghost in the Shell or Baoh - that comes off as adult. Inuyasha looks like Sailor Moon, though.

Are the japanese series' editted so much that they just come off as kids shows?

It seems they're just calling the saturday block 'adult' to get more 10-12 year olds to watch it.

Re:I don't see anything adult..

[E-Rock-23]

You're absolutely right, sortof. The only reason these are remotely considered adult series is because of two main groups: The FCC, and the Religious Right. The Pat Robertson crew wants to force it's own moral code, based on a 2000 year old story book, on everybody, and the FCC, a government body, is too afraid of catching flak from them to oppose it and loosen its restrictions on TV broadcasting.

Dragonball Z in its original form, by those Religious Right standards, is nowhere near for kids. They'd have a fit if they knew what a potty mouth Son Gohan really is. One of Son Goku's first lines when he meets Raditz is "Get the fuck off of my planet."

We'll never see a series like Ranma 1/2 on American TV thanks to the Right. Sex is a big part of the comedy on that show, since Ranma is often turned into a girl and back, resulting in breasts and butts hanging out all over the place. In Japan, that show IS for kids, as is Dragonball. Sexually, the Japanese aren't as "pent-up" as we are "supposed" to be.

Only when we get a channel that shows un-cut Anime (which we'll have to pay for, and will probably be an upper tier channel) will we see them in their original form, instead of chopped to hell to appease the FCC, and therefore appease the Religious Right. From here, my .sig speaks for itself...

Re:I don't see anything adult..

[PhoenixFlare]

You dare mock Voltron!!??

Expect my die-cast metal Voltron to arrive later this afternoon, and destroy you by firing lion heads into your...spleen...or something.

Seriously though, at least for Inuyasha....

In some of the episodes i've seen lately-

A small girl dies in a fire, and comes back as a vengeful spirit to murder her brother and mother.

A very close friend of the main character's was killed in the past, and is resurrected by a witch as a sort of pieced-together zombie, then proceeding to try and violently murder Inuyasha.

An evil mask comes to life, and goes around possessing bodies and literally melting random people to get more useable material to make a body from.

Does this sound like kid-show material to you, really? Also, I was never able to force myself to watch Sailor Moon, but i'm pretty sure it's nothing like the two. I have a feeling you saw that there's a school-age girl as a character, and immediately formed the impression.

Oh, and Cowboy Bebop is "maybe" adolescent? Watch the whole series and say that, I dare you.

Ok

[.sig]

But they'd better not replace SeaLab 2021 or Harvey Birdman.... Best quality programming on TV these days....
(Seriously though, they are good for a laugh more often than I'd expected, and I loved catching 'The D' on SpaceGhost Coast-to-Coast.)

Re:Ok

[Nightpaw]

Yeah, but what the fuck happened to Sealab this past Sunday? When irreverent postmodernism actually comes around full circle to its non-ironic origin, well, that's just going too far.

Trigun

[Bartmoss]

Trigun is one of my favorite Anime shows, ever. So the end is a little anticlimatic, okay. But the build-up is awesome, the characters are great, and it has a wonderful mix between action, serious drama, and comedy/slapstick. Everybody should check this show out. But do not stop watching, the first few episodes are really pretty silly (in a good way in my eyes), the story unfolds later.

Re:Trigun

[porkchop_d_clown]

It's an anime that will make the National Rifle Assc. proud

Hang on - the hero is a staunch pacifist who doesn't even shoot a person (as opposed to things) for the first several episodes - and when he does hit someone, it's by accident and he drops everything to make sure they get medical care.

Not quite as "gun crazy" as people might seem to think, I think.

Re:I assume..

[Apreche]

Actually you assume wrong. Adult swim will be changing its viewing times. Cartoon Network feels that by showing Adult Swim on the weekends it leaves too many kids able to watch it. Since they can stay up late. So they are moving toonami or somethign else to late night weekends and moving adult swim to EVERY WEEK NIGHT when kids wont be awake to watch it.
This means 5 new episodes of lupin a week. Every day M-F at midnight. ph33r me watching all of them and buying all the DVDs. Lupin is SO AWESOME.

Quality line-up?

[kakos]

While Toonami is a good and cheap way of watching anime, I would have never called their line-up quality. At best, they have the mediocre shows that are cheap to get. Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Gundam, etc. These are all alright, but not great. Definately not what I'd call quality.

Inuyasha is the only really good anime at the moment. Trigun will add another, but it is still a lackluster line-up.

Trigun

[Deathlizard]

I Figured they would show this series sooner or later, considering that a lot of their series are licenced from Pioneer and all.

For those of you not familar with the series, it's best Described as a Post Apocalyptic Western. Lots of gunfighting, more gunfighting and even more gunfighting. It's an anime that will make the National Rifle Assc. proud.

3 things should be considered about it however.

1) Vash (the Main Character) is really crazy in the beginning. If your expecting a Cowboy bebop character like spike from the beginning you're going to be disappointed. He gets more serious towards the end of the series.

2) It's story builds over time. Things will happen that will make you say "How the hell did he do that". Just keep thinking to yourself there's a $$60,000,000,000 reward on this guy for a reason.

3) Dont ask about the Cat. :)

CN: Down the tubes

[Ripp]

Come ON, CN, just create an all-anime channel like the silly "all-60s-70s-craptoons" boomerang and get it over with, and return CN to its former glory.

Anyone else severely distraught with their near annihilation of their looney tunes programming?

*ALL* of your new CN original shows blow, and blow quite hard. This is almost like Sci-Fi turning into the "Anything but sci-fi" network...

The Reason

[tomzyk]

I can't help but think that they reason they have changed so drastically is that they have realized that they get more ADULT viewers that CHILDREN viewers. Well, at least in the evenings.

It just makes sense for business: when the preschoolers/toddlers are at home, they should be showing cartoons like Smurfs or whatnot. (ok, I have no idea what they show during the day. Fortunately, I have a job.); when the gradeschoolers get home, show the new He-Man and Transformers; when the adults get home (and after the kiddies go to bed) show the more adult toons, which would include the "classics" like Bugs and Daffy and Hanna-Barbera shows (which we grew up watching) as well as the more "adult" oriented animation series as well... ones that have more of a plot (or more violence or whatever your tastes may be) rather than just big-headed, happy-voiced characters that have a problem and solve it (sometimes TWICE) in a half-hour show. (referring to PowerPuff Girls... which I personally like to watch, but I'm a freak like that so... eh. I digress.)

I like the change they've made. Others may disagree (college students who now have to wait until late-night to watch their shows, unemployed people, people whoe work the graveyard shift, etc...) but to each, their own.

settle on a schedule PLEASE

[emptybody]

It would be nice if they could settle on a schedule.
They introduced a bunch of mature comics and then went and shuffled them around.
I understand that January was supposed to be when the newer schedule was launched. Why was InuYasha ALREADY on twice in a row this weekend? ( I liked it but it was not supposed to be till Jan.)

I am psyched that they have many more series. They just don't have to slam them through. Take the lesson from SouthPark and others. Show last weeks show AND this weeks show this week. This keeps folks caught up that would otherwise drop out after missing a key episode.

20 years ago UHF25 in boston got it right with ForceFive. Each weekday had it's own speficic 30min show. PLUS 30min of starblazers (their big hit) Not sure if it was new one day/wk, reruns the rest. Just expand this concept to a 2-4 hour block.

I am still waiting for the rental stores to have as much anime as there is in the record stores.
(record stores? what're those?)

SamGoodie has more anime this fall than I have ever seen in one place. Why can't blockbuster etc. get a real anime section? They don't really need to have 10 copies of each. 2-5 of each series would be fine. (Heck there are 5 blockbusters within 10 miles so they could each carry one So long as they have a public accessible linked availability system.)

NOTE TO TOONAMI:: DO NOT CENSOR THE ANIME

The block is called ADULT swim.
If it is on CABLE the FCC has no say about "adult scenes, language, nudity) Only if it is on airwaves. It starts at 10:PM any parent who lets an impressionable kid watch at 10:PM deserves to have their trailer burned up in a pseudo beavis-copycat way. (yeah right - your kid - who has always been allowed to light fires in the living room - was copying BnB when he torched the trailer. I must have missed that episode.)

If you want to include transformers and GIJOE in the block, start at 8:PM with them. Don't waste my adult time on shows for kids who should already be asleep.

DVD links

[overunderunderdone]

I've been wanting to see the Lupin III TV series for years, so that ought to be great fun as well.

Well you can get Lupin III on DVD, as well as Trigun and Reign

Edited Trigun?

[zaren]

I recently finished watching the Trigun series on DVD thanks to Netflix [yes, it's an affiliate link, so sue me ;)], and other than a bit of blood here and there, and maybe a bit of excessive gun violence, I can't see too much that would be edited; certainly there isn't much in this series that isn't shown on various police dramas these days.

I've also seen the first few Bebop DVDs thanks to Netflix, and other than a shot of a nudie mag that was edited, I don't recall much in the way of "edited" segments that CN ran. If someone could point out any major edits between the Bebop DVDs and what's shown on CN, I'd appreciate it :)

Re:Edited Trigun?

[Kintanon]

Does cartoon network still have Spike smoking tooth picks?
In the original run (When they ran it at 3pm or thereabouts) a few years ago they editted out all of the cigarettes and replaced them with tooth picks. But they didn't edit out the smoke. So there were about 2 dozen shots of spike standing around with a flaming toothpick in his mouth....

Kintanon

Re:what movies?

[jaybird144]

The full title is Martian Successor Nadesico, just for an FYI.

Now, are you looking for anime movies, or anime series that have been released on film/DVD? If you're looking for movies, Princess Mononoke is generally pretty popular. It has also been redone with some pretty decent dubbing, if you don't prefer to listen to the original Japanese (as I do). Really, anything by Miyasaki is good. Escaflowne - The Movie is pretty good, too (better than the series, at least, IMHO). Akira is a classic. The Evangelion movies are decent, but tend to follow along in the "drug-induced insanity" mentioned in the parent. Metropolis is another very good choice.

As for series, there's so much variation, it's hard to say what to get without knowing a bit about the person you're buying for. You're most likely to find a lot of Dragonball and Gundam, which isn't terrible anime, but I personally think that there is plenty better. (I know I'm going to get flamed for this...) Many series have been released in DVD box sets, and I personally feel that this is a good way to go. It's nice to have all of the options that go along with DVD. Some good choices that may not have been mentioned already: Kenshin (both the series and Samurai X, the OVA), Escaflowne (the series), Fushigi Yugi, Serial Experiments Lain (one of my personal favorites), the list goes on and on.

It's sometimes hard to find anime. Suncoast usually has a decent collection. Sam Goody either has a very good collection or nothing past Dragonball...I've seen both. Virgin (If there's one near you) is another good choice. And there's always Amazon...

Hope this helps!

If your interested in that:

[NetGyver]

I recently saw an ad on TechTV about a new anime show coming entitled: Anime Unleashed.

Quote TechTV Press Release:

"For the first time ever, TechTV's Anime Unleashed will import series and movies from Japan to television viewers in the United States. Anime Unleashed encompasses the many forms of Japanese animation that truly know no boundaries. This program features not just a style of animation, but explores an entire genre where viewers may find sophisticated science fiction, fantasy adventure, romantic comedies, teen dreams or evenadult-only titles. Anime Unleashed exemplifies the difference between its titles and Western animation by exploring the depths of characters and contortions of plot. Viewers will encounter realistic scenarios, complex relationships and flawed personalities. Despite their deficiencies, the subjects of Anime Unleashed are beholden to their desires, their hopes and their dreams."

The format of the show will be in 30min slots, and the premiere starts on Dec. 30th. So mark your calanders and set your tivo's if you go them.

TechTV is also running ads for Anime Unleashed, and i believe(forgive me if i'm wrong) Akira was in the ads was well along with a few other popular anime characters that i don't know off hand.

--

I'm not much of an anime fan myself, but given the choice over general cartoons and anime, i'd go with the latter any time. hopefully this'll be to some interest for someone who's really into this sort of thing. I plan on watching it, just to satisfy my curiousity.

Re:G-Force

[farrellj]

G-Force, AKA Battle of the Planets, was a bad english dub/re-edit of Gatchaman (sp?). It was very, ah...adult Anime. Things like the two villians, one male, one female...well, they were the same person, I guess they figured that the US public couldn't take a "transexual"...and various charactors were having relationships with others...and the one that talked in beeps and chirps...well, in the original Anime, he had the foulest mouth on air. And that stupid robot was created to fill in places where things that were not suitable to senstative NA audiences...like the leader in a physical fight with the princess, etc.

ttyl
Farrell

Lupin!

[Lumpish Scholar]

Lupin III is a third generation French thief with a heart of gold; sort of a cross between James Bond and Bugs Bunny. He has two sidekicks, a Chicago hitman and a Japanese samuri (who were both sent to kill him and teamed up with him instead), and is constantly chased by an Interpol inspector and an army of Japanese police in riot gear.

The Castle of Cagliostro is one of my favorite movies, and probably Lupin at his best. It was directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Monokone, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind); several of his animated films have set records for biggest theatrical release of any films in Japan, live action, animated, whatever.

Warning: There was a great dub of The Castle of Cagliostro, and that translation is used for the subtitle; but the Americal release uses a really inferior dub instead (more swearing, completely missing the point of most jokes), so stick with the subtitled VHS release, or play the DVD with subtitled Japanese.

About Reign...

[MsGeek]

Do you remember Aeon Flux? Did you like it? If so, Reign will be right up your alley. Peter Chung created the show, and his distinctive artistic style is all over it. I suspect that the dubscripts will probably be extremely accurate considering that Chung speaks fluent English as well as Korean and Japanese.