I first spotted this on a website of a TV trade I sometimes read, Broadcasting & Cable. I also saw this in an Anime News Network article. This news is for US readers.
Sci Fi’s Ani-Monday
Sci Fi Channel will be starting a 2-hour block of anime programming on Mondays called Ani-Monday. It will run from 11pm to 1am (Eastern Time).
It looks like Sci Fi wants to take a bite out of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block, aiming at the 18-34 male audience. If the Monday experiment works, then Sci Fi will probably strip the concept across the week (M-F). The content (movies, series, etc.) will be provided by Manga Entertainment, which is a division of Starz Media (which produces Sci Fi’s live action series, Painkiller Jane).
Ani-Monday will premiere on June 11, 2007 with the movie, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society. The following week will start the series:
- Noein – (11:00 pm)
- Tokko – (11:30 pm)
- Macross Plus – (12:00 midnight)
Sci Fi Network’s web news service, Sci Fi Wire, has posted additional programming info. Other titles include Blood: The Last Vampire, Ninja Scroll, Read or Die and Blackjack.
I think this is a great thing. The more channels playing anime the better. Also, this starts a bit earlier than Adult Swim – though I have to wonder if that will affect the types of animes that are shown.
@Kidan
Yes, more anime is a good thing.
Currently, Adult Swim actually begins at 10:30pm, Mon-Thu… though that will
change on July 6, when Adult Swim will be added on Fridays from 11pm to 6am.
When this happens, the other weeknight blocks will start at 11pm as well. Of
course, the anime block within Adult Swim doesn’t begin until 12:30am…which
is probably what you meant.
http://www.adultswim.com/schedule/index.html
For the near future (through August), Adult Swim’s programming will feature
mostly reruns of current shows. Ani-Monday will air Noein and Tokko at 11pm
and 11:30pm respectively. Through July 9th, midnight to 1am will feature
Macross Plus. July 16th and 23rd, midnight to 1am will have Streetfighter II.
On July 30th, a movie will run during the entire 2 hour block…Highlander:
Search for Vengence.
It will be interesting to see if Williams Street (Adult Swim) will try to get the
rights to other anime to compete head on with Sci-Fi or if they will continue to
produce and co-produce original series (like Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Robot
Chicken).
I’ve tried to watch Adult Swim occasionally, but I find a lot of the programming isn’t particularly “adult”. A lot of it could be classified as post adolescent at best. Shows like Bleach, Futurama, and Naruto just don’t speak to me. I’d like to see shows of the caliber of Gantz, Basilisk, and the like, but that seems to be out of the question.
@Chris
Yes, I agree that the use of the term adult in Adult Swim is a bit of a misnomer.
Though in defense of Adult Swim, even they didn’t consider Naruto adult enough,
which aired as part of CN’s Toonami block. Interestingly enough, someone wanted
Naruto on Adult Swim badly enough that they started a petition drive back in 2005:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/narutoanimeadultswim
ahh. Interesting. In one of my math courses a while back, there was this student that wore a Naruto headband every day. If this was highschool, I guess it would be okay, but this was in an upper division university class, so it was a bit strange. Guy kinda scared me, with his wild eyes and the like. I guess the Naruto fanbase is comprised of some pretty intense individuals.
Oh well, it’s not like I watch that much television anyway
I think Cartoon Network should make Adult Swim their own ‘in-house, subversive animated show’ time slot. There are too many non-anime series on Adult Swim anyway, so my not sever the connection and focus on sub-branding Toonami.
The more ‘dramatic’ anime series could get their own time-slot – someting like Toonami: Drama. Series like Naruto, FMA Bleach would be part of the ‘Toonami: Action’ block, whiles series like Cowboy Bebop would be part of the ‘Toonami: Classic’ block. Older series like Gundam could be ‘Toonami: Vintage’ or something.
Does anyone remember when Cartoon Network’s only anime time slot was ‘Saturday Anime’? They originally only showed anime films, but I can’t remember which ones. That was forever ago!
@David
Since Williams Street Studios produces both Adult Swim and Toonami (as well as Miguzi), I doubt if they will change anything that much. Adult Swim is about to get 7 days of programming…11pm – 6am Mon – Sat and 10pm – 6am on Sun. Toonami appears to have finally settled into the Sat. night (7pm – 11pm) time slot. Miguzi has been canceled. It doesn’t seem likely CN or Williams Street will make any big changes at this point. However, this does leave the door open for another network…which is why I hope Ani-Monday does well and Sci-Fi decides to strip it across the week and, perhaps, into the weekend.
If you are interested in Toonami’s history…it celebrated its 10th Anniversary in March…here is a link to a timeline:
http://www.thexbridge.com/timeline2.html
It does show that, at times, Toonami was treated like an unwanted step child.
I don’t remember many anime movies airing…though I do remember seeing Blue Submarine No. 6 and Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz.
Mochi – Cool!
Turns out I mixed up networks with ‘Saturday Anime’. It was Sci Fi, not Cartoon Network, lol. Their anime included Akira, Dominion Tank Police, Project A-ko and Robot Carnival. That was sometime in the ’90s.
I remember they showed Robot Carnival on Sci Fi so many times I had the story with the old man who escapes the hospital in his mecha-bed burned into my brain! They also showed a few episodes of Lodoss War and a few others. wow that was a long time ago. I think they eventually dropped all of their anime due to lack of interest at the time! Can you believe it?
@David
That explains why it didn’t sound familiar to me. Our cable company didn’t start offering Sci-Fi until the mid-1990s and for the first three years it was only
available as part of the higher priced packages. It wasn’t until 1998 or 1999 that it was part of the basic service.
As to why anime was dropped…according to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci_Fi_Channel_(United_States)
Now that it has returned to Sci-Fi, hopefully anime will have a more successful run.
mochi – Yes, I hope it’s successful too! I think networks have a better understanding of anime then they did back in the ’90’s, so hopefully it will please fans and help gain new ones!
@Chris
I’ve never had the pleasure (?) of meeting any big Naruto fans. From everything
I’ve read about them, they remind me of another group of intense fans…Trekkies.
I remember attending some Science Fiction and Star Trek conventions between the
cancellation of the original series and the release of the first movie. Most of the Star
Trek fans were regular people who just liked the show and wanted to see it return.
However, there was always a small group of very immersed fans. They went beyond
normal cosplaying staying in character all the time (possibly 24/7).
One similarity I see is the name describing the fans…for Star Trek, it is Trekkies and
for Naruto, it is Narutards. In both cases, it was a name given to them meant to
be derogatory, but both groups embraced their names and made them badges of
honor.
But there are differences…like when the groups formed. Trekkies appeared shortly
after the original series was canceled in 1969 and grew during the years between
the cancellation and the release of the first movie. The term Narutard appeared,
I believe, shortly after the anime started running in the US. Also, it seems to me
that Trekkies started to fade after Star Trek returned to television…though I could
be wrong.
Anyway, I guess the point of my ramble is that series tend to have some rather
extreme fans and some series have a much larger extreme fanbase than others.
lol I’m a NARUTARD!!! and proooouuuud of it yup!yup!