Future uncertain as Toonami UK is bought by Five

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
According to UKAnime.com, Five (UK TV channel 5) have bought the Toonami license from Turner Broadcasting (citing the license ownership details recently updated by OFCOM).

At this early stage, it's impossible to tell whether or not this will effect the future direction of the much criticized Toonami TV channel, which despite it's "Toon" inflicted name, has in recent years skewed its programming from cartoons to live-action sitcoms in an attempt to halt failing audience figures.

Keep in mind that Bravo acquired the "Adult Swim" brand of programming (presumably from Turner) and they now air a late night block of animated comedies (none of which are anime, unfortunately).
 
It should be interesting, though I suppose Five may use Toonami to farm out their new/under performing teen-sitcoms :(

The chance of more anime suddenly appearing on their schedule seems remote, but clearly the channel needs a change of leadership. I would love to see Cowboy Bebop and FLCL on late night Toonami; they would quickly become cult favorites.
 
Cowboy Bebop really needs a DECENT run in the UK. If it were given a real chance it could do pretty well. Especially with the high quality of the dub and heavily western influenced music. It would be nice to see a return of
Outlaw Star as well.
 
Now five can smart about this and post some hit anime like the US.

Or they can be stupid and we'll have some 2+ cartoons which no one could bear to watch.

They have nick jr bbc3 etc for the latter

So lets hope for the first one :wink:
 
i think Five could do a better job with this. IF cowboy bebop can get a run on late night toonami then i think it would be quite popular.
 
Rember in the uk toonami is registered as a child channel which basically means they can't air any violent shows etc.

Now five would have to register the channel as a teens channel or something like that so it can show moderately violent shows and some swearing.

Cowboy bebop has

1.smoking which the uk is hugely against gotta cut that
2.nudity even flashing of a boob :shock: they gotta cut a few scenes there.

With a lot more so it's either late night or major cutage.

Also rember anime in the uk is still viewed as cartoons with boobs that are to big sex etc etc.

So you need a show that will catch someone straight of cowboy bebop in the beginning makes little to no sense someone watching it on the of would be lost and probably give up.

Stick some stuff like bleach(self explanatory in the beginning)
trigun(funny and appealing)

Stuff like that then you put stuff like bebop and flcl and you build up from there.

Or we could just be looking at woody wood pecker and mr men.
 
I don't think much will change to be honest. 5 likes their American rubbish, it seems so the likelihood of anything as far as anime goes is a longshot. They may, just maybe, show IGPX but I really can't see them going for anime when they have practically no experience of the medium on any of the channels they currently own.
 
I disagree nick. I think Bebop is one of the best first steps into getting into anime. If people turn it on for the first time on a random week i'd say it's still very easy to follow since most episodes are stand alone and the episodes that do follow the main story are watchable and easy to understand without any explaination of the show beforehand, just like the movie.

I think it's the best choice because of the many western references and martial arts themes. As a fan of Bruce Lee and martial arts movies one of the things that helped me get into it from the first episode was spotting the references (like the fact Spike does Jeet Kune Do). It's also easy to watch with characters that are likeable, at times very funny but without being too abstract.

If the violence is a problem they could air the US version that was on Adult Swim which was edited slightly, digitally removing some blood. I don't see a problem with the smoking, people are aware of the risks and if they think it's still cool to do then it's their own fault isn't it. Plus they aired Outlaw Star in full which had much more nudity and about the same amount of smoking as Bebop.

On a different note have Five ever shown anything anime related?
 
Only good can come of Channel 5 buying Toonami. the channel will become like its father. and by father i mean CNX the secong coming is apon us people
 
WTFDaveMustaine said:
I disagree nick. I think Bebop is one of the best first steps into getting into anime. If people turn it on for the first time on a random week i'd say it's still very easy to follow since most episodes are stand alone and the episodes that do follow the main story are watchable and easy to understand without any explaination of the show beforehand, just like the movie.

I think it's the best choice because of the many western references and martial arts themes. As a fan of Bruce Lee and martial arts movies one of the things that helped me get into it from the first episode was spotting the references (like the fact Spike does Jeet Kune Do). It's also not easy to watch with characters that are likeable and at times very funny but without being too abstract.

If the violence is a problem they could air the US version that was on Adult Swim which was edited slightly, digitally removing some blood. I don't see a problem with the smoking, people are aware of the risks and if they think it's still cool to do then it's their own fault isn't it. Plus they aired Outlaw Star in full which had much more nudity and about the same amount of smoking as Bebop.

On a different note have Five ever shown anything anime related?
Click to expand...

True suppose thats why outlaw star was always popular but I'm going by what happened the last time bebop was shown in the uk it didn't go down that well.

I still wouldn't hold my breath for bebop though.

I don't think five has ever aired anime but for a more toon orientated channel anime is a must to check out.
 
I don't see what this has to do with anime. I see it as a kid's cartoon channel being bought by a mainstream TV channel. There's nothing that rings anime there to me.
 
Gotta rember when toonami started up about 20% of it's schedule was anime.

Now thanks to british ofcom it's now 2%anime

5% pokemon

and the rest you can play with 8)

Either way even if it means it gets restored to how it was 3 years ago then it's a start 8)
 
Lupus Inu said:
Everyone is putting too much hope into Cowboy Bebop, I'd say something that is much longer on there like say... Inuyasha.
Click to expand...

Although Inuyasha would be more appropriate in some ways, I dont think it would have the same effect on new fans as something like Cowboy Bebop would.
But as has been said above, the chances of any anime being played is unlikely.
 
You've all commented about things from the past.
I dare not disagree that Outlaw Star (maybe C.Bebop since I've not seen it.) was great. But they may want to buy "newer, hipper and upcoming" items. Also, Toonami is called Toonami for a reason. If it was all Anime, they'd loose fan-base on more american/western style cartoons.

I wouldn't say that would be a bad thing for us fans, but it's highly unlikely that more than 50% of a channel (unless it's like Funimation Channel) would dedicated itself to anime.

But like you guys and gals, here's hoping for some decent stuff. Otherwise, I'm sticking to my DVDs. :)
 
Well I don't really think we have got anything to lose on this because toonami is pretty bad at the moment. If they were to put anime on tv I would hope it would be something like school rumble or ther funimation licences.
 
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