On Anime, the Cartoon Network, scheduling, and existential madness.

Cafe Society
1

Well, I feel the need to vent, even rant. Not about anything really mature or important—like politics, or how people I disagree with are moral degenerates, or why I get a rash and a fever after walking in the stupid grass—but about TV scheduling.

You see, late last year, the Cartoon Network started running the anime series “Fullmetal Alchemist.” Fun show. Engaging. Good story arc. Kinda like Escaflowne meets X-Files, only without the contempt.

Anyway, they were running it with episodes of Ghost in the Shell, on saturday nights. And it happens that GitS has a 26 episode run, while Fullmetal has a 36 episode run.

Well, after about six months, GitS ended it’s run. Fine. Great. Still ten more episodes of Fullmetal to go. Well, the next saturday, instead of running Fullmetal and GitS, the network ran a movie. Er, sure. OK. I guess everyone needs a break, now and then.

They ran a different movie the next saturday. The next couple of weeks, too. Um, alright.

Well, after that, they outright replaced Fullmetal and GitS’ spot on Saturdays with other. first-run anime series’, and moved the first two series to weekday nights (which, with Cartoon Network, means Monday through Wednesdays) Well, OK, I guess. Getting a little antsy, but I can go with that. It’s better than nothing, right?

So, they restart Fullmetal and GitS, starting with their first episodes. Alright, I expected that much. So it’s only, what, eight weeks until I start seeing new episodes of Fullmetal, right?

Well, time rolls by. Last week, they aired episode 26. So, late Monday night (or eeeearly Tuesday morning), I tuned in…

…to Episode 1. Again.

And I checked—Netflix doesn’t have the last twenty episodes, yet.

And on top of that, my browser locked up when I first was writing this post, so I had to re-type it. And then the SDMB went down for maintinence.

:: pause ::

You ever have one of those moments where you just wanted to give an inhuman screech, wrench your own head from your shoulder’s with a devil’s strength, and throw it, still screaming, through a plate-glass window, sending it flying the length of a football field before it crashes into a bustling sidewalk, cracking open and splattering horrified pedestrians with the sizzling goo inside?

Maybe I didn’t feel quite like that. But, for a few moments, I felt close.

I just hope my copy of Postal 2 comes in, soon. I’ll feel much better, then.

2

Er, no. But I love the image.

3

I have a feeling that they are saving the last half for the fall when the kiddies are back in college. Considering the action ratings slip over the summer that may be for the best. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the old ones. They slip little things in various episodes that don’t mean anything until you watch other ones. That and there are little things that I for one, missed (Scar’s explanation of Ed’s “circleless” alchemy for example).

4

Exactly. I have a source around here somewheres, but I can’t find it right now.

5

It’s a vent that would fit nicely into Cafe Society.

Veb

6

New eps of FMA start airing this August. Repeats of GiTS might start up again then as well (I too was irritated as I was watching the first season for the first time this run, and they stopped without airing the LAST TWO episodes! Arg.

On the upside, they will start airing Season 2 this fall, which is in my opinion much much better than Season 1. Fantastic work, is season 2.

7

[Adult Swim] is run by mutants and acid heads. What can we really expect from them?

8

Better? It gets better? That’s like having a better orgasm. Its’ possible, but heck, a bad one’s a good one.

9

TechTV’s “Anime Unleashed” segment has the same problem. They’ll show most of a particular series, get up to a cliffhanger, and then start showing something else the following week. Do the dweebs in charge of network programming think anime fans don’t want to see the end of the series for some reason?

10

Let’s not forget that they keep foisting Tom Goes to the Mayor on us, even though the ratings for the show are in the toilet, and they also dragged their feet about renewing the Venture Bros. to the point that it’ll be next year before we see any new eps. Obviously, this is where the folks at Fox get their schedulers from.

11

Don’t forget the potheads.

12

And yet Cowboy Bebop hasn’t been off the air for years. Yeah, it’s a great anime, but come on. Anyone who’s wanted to watch it has seen the whole series by now, probably more than once. If they insist in replaying certain things to death, then why don’t they change it up a bit? Air Outlaw Star again, or Tenchi Muyo; the stuff that got me hooked on Adult Swim in the first place so many years ago. (I’m also waiting for Inuyasha to just die already, but that’s another matter altogether…)
I can’t believe that news about Venture Bros. What on earth made them think it wasn’t worth renewing? Are they holding all their ratings charts upside down? That would certainly explain a few of their programming decisions…

13

They lost the rights to Outlaw Star several years ago.

14

And here I thought this was going to be a thread on Paranoia Agent. To be honest, I’m glad that so many series are continuing with new episodes into the summer. There’s so little to watch usually, summer becomes the Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul, where you’re too hot and sweaty to move yet there’s nothing on TV…