Imagine you're in school (a good portion of you don't even have to imagine because you actually are in school). You know you have an assignment due on a particular date. You have to make sure you have everything written down, everything checked and double-checked, and everything ready to be presented for a grade. When the deadline looms, you have to make sure everything is straight, even if you have to burn the midnight oil to make last-minute corrections. You turn in your assignment on time to the teacher.
Meanwhile, the guy next to you had the same assignment. He had a nice shiny binder and a beautiful cover letter, but a lot was missing. He double-spaced the paper, which had a lot of information about a few things, but the paper was totally incomplete. He bypassed one particular topic in the paper that he had in his thesis statement by only talking about it briefly, setting up another question. In the end, it seems like he was expecting to get a good grade, even though his paper was half-done.
Cartoon Network, you are the second kid.
Yesterday, Cartoon Network laid down their agenda for the remainder of the year and a little into 2007. They announced several new properties coming to the network, movie acquisitions, and renewals. Some of it was pretty interesting. They still had no idea what their vision is, and they skirted the question of live-action properties on their network.
As for our favorite block Toonami, it's not what they announced that's a problem. It's what they didn't announce. The good news is that, at least in Cartoon Network's perspective, the shows on Toonami are performing to par. Naruto, Zatch Bell, One Piece, and Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo have all been renewed. Transformers: Cybertron is back on the Toonami lineup, and The Batman and IGPX are coming back. More movies were announced, including a trio of Marvel movies (which also includes the 2002 Spider-Man movie [yeah, the live-action one]). The only thing missing was the announcements of new anime properties.
Some folks were expecting to see properties like Bleach, Black Cat, and others announced, but instead, the big squadoosh. NO new anime properties were announced at all, which is causing some alarm in the otaku element of the Toonami fandom. That's not to say that they're not going to premiere any new anime titles on the block because they said explicitly that new shows are coming. They just didn't say what.
Still, that's no excuse. They could have done that for all of Cartoon Network's new acquisitions. Why would you host a pair of big smoozefests when you won't even announce EVERY NEW SHOW YOU HAVE? Either Cartoon Network wasn't ready or was just being lazy. They're still not answering that question for some time, and the acquisitions will be swept under to the usual channels rather than the big-time presentation given to the rest of the network's lineup.
Of course, there's always the possibility that Toonami and Adult Swim are sharing a media event later in the month, but nobody's talking.
Still, I'm very disappointed Cartoon Network. I thought this was going to be the year that you finally explain yourself. Instead, I find myself wondering why I even bother watching the network sometimes.
*end transmission*
Jeff Harris,
The X Bridge Creator/Webmaster
March 2, 2006
