How can Toonami bring in more fans?

[Bansho64]

It seems like not many kids are into the series like there apparently was back in the day. I've met some kids in my school who like Dragon Ball but they're mainly the older 12th grade kids and most them only remember it from back in the day. I myself was just a toddler so I don't even remember how it must've been. I don't know if it was a combination of good marketing and airing times but from what I hear the fanbase was HUGE back in the early 2000s and the 90s. I hear it was mainly because of the way Toonami marketed Z back in the day but did that really help that much? What can they do to bring in more fans?

[Adamant]

What in the world is a "Toonami"?

[Bansho64]

What in the world is a "Toonami"?

It's the block on Cartoon Network that aired multiple animes (The DB franchise included). They are now currently airing Kai.

[fadeddreams5]

Well, first of all, the block the Toonami is on will forever prevent it from attaining the popularity it once did. In the '90s, Toonami aired every weekday at a specific time. Nowadays, it's been relegated to the latest (or earliest) block on Saturdays/Sundays--a time many people are asleep or out partying at.

Secondly, the '90s was very different. For example, the internet wasn't what it is now and netflix didn't exist; the only way to watch your shows, or any show, was to wait and see what came on. This still holds true in many households, but a lot of people have substituted cable altogether with those other services I mentioned. I'm sure many people in this very forum can admit they barely watch TV or know what's on in these channels they used to watch. As a result, kids aren't as ecstatic to return from school to watch something on television. They probably prefer browsing the web.

So yeah, as far as mainstream popularity goes, it's pretty hard for any anime to catch on nowadays as they did back then. At least, from what I see.

[samuraix123]

Dragonball seems to have its highs and lows. there's some years it just kinda floats around and things get released for it here and there to keep it alive but then out of nowhere we get a surprise like Super! Super's announcement set the internet on fire(regardless of anyone's opinion on it now) and i'm wondering how many people got back into the series just for the sake of a new series getting announced? And as much as I love Toonami...I just don't see how it could pull more people into the series than the Internet or just buying the DVDs/Blurays?
Would a lot of people be able to keep enough interest who has never seen the series to keep watching 1 episode every weekend compared to how they used to be back in the day when you watched it everyday after school? The reason why I say that is because when Super was airing the fight between Goku and Beerus I remember seeing a lot of people hating that it was taking so long and dragged out before it ended. I'm kinda in that boat right now with a show called Hunter X Hunter. I don't watch much Anime today but I kinda wished they'd just release it to buy instead of me having to wait every weekend to watch it. at least back in the day when you watched long fights in Z you had to wait until the next day until they took a break for a while.

Edit - Looks like fadeddreams5 beat me to it! haha Definitely agree

[Bansho64]

From the posts that I'm reading, it seems that a changed schedule would be very beneficial to gain more viewers. It'd be nice to hear kids trying to get home as fast as they can in order to catch Dragon Ball Z I think another thing that might help is more promos. I've been watching some of the promos that Toonami used to advertise the series and they're actually not half bad! I may not have liked the theme of them but I can agree Toonami succeeded greatly in getting people looking forward to watch the show.

[Hellspawn28]

Toonami only airs late at night now on Saturdays. Anime is mainly market to geeky/nerdy people over the age of 13. It's not a mainstream thing that can bring in millions like The Flash, Arrow, House of Cards, Breaking Bad, The Wire and Game of Thrones can. Most people that stay up for Toonami now are teenagers and college students. In the 90's and most of the 2000's decade, anime was more common on TV before streaming kicked off like 10 years ago. DBZ was also big on TV because Cartoon Network is a channel for kids and there was more kids in the 90's and early 2000's compare to now. Not to mention anime is mainly market to older people because it's easier to keep it uncut. That's why a Sunday morning show like One Piece is market to kids in elementary school in Japan while it's market to people over 13 in the US.

[VegettoEX]

Toonami succeeded not because of its marketing, but because it aired right after school in America at a time when people actually had cable TV and internet speeds were still up and coming. The marketing and complementary programming was all second to that. It was a relic of its time and is unlikely to see a repeat performance. There is little Toonami as an entity these days can do to usher in the incredible mainstream success and popularity it garnered and fostered 15 years ago.

[Hellspawn28]

Kids these are not into action cartoons compare to the 80's, 90's and early-mid 2000's. Most kids shows these days are comedy shows. CN was even surprise that most people watch Young Justice are older teens and adults. Some people believe that kids find serious cartoons to be boring. If Samurai Jack came out today, it would be campy and silly. Even the newer Powerpuff Girls seems to be tamer than the original show which was market to kids from 5-10.

[Cipher]

I get the impression that it's sort of a niche relic now, targeted at nostalgics and those already likely to seek out anime/action cartoons?

So, no -- it's never going to bring in a larger group of fans, even if it pulls decent numbers for what it is.

The future of Dragon Ball in the U.S. is going to rely on getting it back onto kids' blocks a la Kai. Daily airing wouldn't hurt either. U.S. cartoons are rarely as serialized as Dragon Ball tends to be, and I suspect the airing of one new episode each weekday during its original Toonami run was a big part of what helped cement its popularity.

Super's in this odd spot now where it needs to do that and not alienate people by being a sequel to a sequel--it'd be awesome if there were one channel able to air Dragon Ball, Z/Kai and Super all at once, but that's probably never going to happen again.

[dario03]

From the posts that I'm reading, it seems that a changed schedule would be very beneficial to gain more viewers. It'd be nice to hear kids trying to get home as fast as they can in order to catch Dragon Ball Z I think another thing that might help is more promos. I've been watching some of the promos that Toonami used to advertise the series and they're actually not half bad! I may not have liked the theme of them but I can agree Toonami succeeded greatly in getting people looking forward to watch the show.

You probably wouldn't get a whole lot of kids running home to catch DB though. Nowadays almost everybody has DVR or streaming services online and people are more tech savvy. Its like how now if you are in a group and somebody starts talking about a show they will say something like "is everybody caught up, what episode are you on?" or somebody will yell out "wait don't tell me I'm a season behind!". Back in the day it was the opposite, if you missed a episode you would look for somebody to tell you what happened because it might be months before you could watch the episode on rerun. Well unless you had recorded it on vhs but most people couldn't even set a VCR clock let alone preset a recording The internet was getting big during the US height of DBZ but not everybody had it, a lot were on dial up, new episodes might not have been available for a decent amount of time after airing, file sizes were big and speeds were slow, and there was no legit streaming so you had to risk getting over 9000 viruses from downloading off of KaZaA or something like that.

Kids these are not into action cartoons compare to the 80's, 90's and early-mid 2000's. Most kids shows these days are comedy shows. CN was even surprise that most people watch Young Justice are older teens and adults. Some people believe that kids find serious cartoons to be boring. If Samurai Jack came out today, it would be campy and silly. Even the newer Powerpuff Girls seems to be tamer than the original show which was market to kids from 5-10.

Samurai Jack was supposed to be coming back this year. Haven't seen anything on it but the 6 second promo looks like the style it was in, supposed to be made by Genndy Tartakovsky and the same production team. And there was rumors that Young Justice might return (though that wasn't a ~2000 show).

[Hellspawn28]

Samurai Jack is coming back on current Toonami which is a late night block. Samurai Jack came out on the original CN. If it came out on current CN, it would be water down similar to the current PPG show.

[fadeddreams5]

Kids these are not into action cartoons compare to the 80's, 90's and early-mid 2000's. Most kids shows these days are comedy shows. CN was even surprise that most people watch Young Justice are older teens and adults. Some people believe that kids find serious cartoons to be boring. If Samurai Jack came out today, it would be campy and silly. Even the newer Powerpuff Girls seems to be tamer than the original show which was market to kids from 5-10.

I have to disagree. I have nephews who have gotten very into "serious" action shows (Naruto, Digimon, DBZ, Power Rangers (hey, it was serious to me when I was little), etc.)... once they're exposed to them. Those always peek the interest of young boys.

It just so happens... channels don't air very many of these sort of shows! If they do, it's at strange hours--not in the afternoon, for some reason. Naturally, a kid isn't going to get into something if they've never had the chance to experience it. Also, like I mentioned before, with the internet being the way it is and netflix existing, I feel kids no longer have the patience to wait for a new episode of a show to air, so episodic programs may seem more optimal for networks. =P

Comedy cartoons appeal to just about anyone. It's not really mutually exclusive. I loved Cartoon Cartoons in the '90s. I can still watch those shows as time wasters, and enjoy them.

[Xeztin]

Kids these are not into action cartoons compare to the 80's, 90's and early-mid 2000's. Most kids shows these days are comedy shows. CN was even surprise that most people watch Young Justice are older teens and adults. Some people believe that kids find serious cartoons to be boring. If Samurai Jack came out today, it would be campy and silly. Even the newer Powerpuff Girls seems to be tamer than the original show which was market to kids from 5-10.

I agree with this, if Toonami dropped all anime that it's airing at the moment and went with gag anime or the CN comedy route with a earlier time start it would be a hit. Most of what kid's this generation are interested in are Teen Titan's Go!, Uncle Grandpa, and TMNT. Hell, even Spongebob is loosing it's luster. Ever since that Chowder and Flapjack aired on CN, it was doomed to tread down that path.

[MCDaveG]

Toonami succeeded not because of its marketing, but because it aired right after school in America at a time when people actually had cable TV and internet speeds were still up and coming. The marketing and complementary programming was all second to that. It was a relic of its time and is unlikely to see a repeat performance. There is little Toonami as an entity these days can do to usher in the incredible mainstream success and popularity it garnered and fostered 15 years ago.

That's funny, Dragon Ball airing after school was one of the main reasons we watched the series as a kids. it went bad when DBZ was rescheduled for prime-time, as sometimes, grandpa had a football or my dad had something really watchworthy.

[samuraix123]

From the posts that I'm reading, it seems that a changed schedule would be very beneficial to gain more viewers. It'd be nice to hear kids trying to get home as fast as they can in order to catch Dragon Ball Z I think another thing that might help is more promos. I've been watching some of the promos that Toonami used to advertise the series and they're actually not half bad! I may not have liked the theme of them but I can agree Toonami succeeded greatly in getting people looking forward to watch the show.

You probably wouldn't get a whole lot of kids running home to catch DB though. Nowadays almost everybody has DVR or streaming services online and people are more tech savvy. Its like how now if you are in a group and somebody starts talking about a show they will say something like "is everybody caught up, what episode are you on?" or somebody will yell out "wait don't tell me I'm a season behind!". Back in the day it was the opposite, if you missed a episode you would look for somebody to tell you what happened because it might be months before you could watch the episode on rerun. Well unless you had recorded it on vhs but most people couldn't even set a VCR clock let alone preset a recording The internet was getting big during the US height of DBZ but not everybody had it, a lot were on dial up, new episodes might not have been available for a decent amount of time after airing, file sizes were big and speeds were slow, and there was no legit streaming so you had to risk getting over 9000 viruses from downloading off of KaZaA or something like that.

Kids these are not into action cartoons compare to the 80's, 90's and early-mid 2000's. Most kids shows these days are comedy shows. CN was even surprise that most people watch Young Justice are older teens and adults. Some people believe that kids find serious cartoons to be boring. If Samurai Jack came out today, it would be campy and silly. Even the newer Powerpuff Girls seems to be tamer than the original show which was market to kids from 5-10.

Samurai Jack was supposed to be coming back this year. Haven't seen anything on it but the 6 second promo looks like the style it was in, supposed to be made by Genndy Tartakovsky and the same production team. And there was rumors that Young Justice might return (though that wasn't a ~2000 show).

I don't want to go off track or promote downloading sites but man...I remember using KaZa on dial up and it took foreeeever to get what you wanted. I spent over a week at the time and more trying to get certain things that I can get seconds/minutes now if I wanted it. I remember somebody had listed Broly dub so when It took me forever and a blue moon to download it....turns out it wasn't a dub. it was subbed...hahaha do you know how mad I was because of that! Those were the days

[samuraix123]

Kids these are not into action cartoons compare to the 80's, 90's and early-mid 2000's. Most kids shows these days are comedy shows. CN was even surprise that most people watch Young Justice are older teens and adults. Some people believe that kids find serious cartoons to be boring. If Samurai Jack came out today, it would be campy and silly. Even the newer Powerpuff Girls seems to be tamer than the original show which was market to kids from 5-10.

I agree with this, if Toonami dropped all anime that it's airing at the moment and went with gag anime or the CN comedy route with a earlier time start it would be a hit. Most of what kid's this generation are interested in are Teen Titan's Go!, Uncle Grandpa, and TMNT. Hell, even Spongebob is loosing it's luster. Ever since that Chowder and Flapjack aired on CN, it was doomed to tread down that path.

So this is something that I don't understand...Why don't they go that route that would be a hit? I mean, I don't watch much TV today but you'd think they would do something they seen they could turn a buck on? heck, it shocked the crap out of me when Thundercats 2011 got canceled from CN. that's the reason I never bothered finished watching it..what's the point ya know?

[Cure Dragon 255]

I dunno why you some of you are suggesting the lineup be filled with Gag Shows. What about Artistic Integrity? What about keeping action adventure shows alive? Where is anime supposed to air?

The ONE thing I concede is that DBZ does EXTREMELY well when aired after Family Guy. But that's that, I wouldnt change a thing about current Toonami.

[Xeztin]

I dunno why you some of you are suggesting the lineup be filled with Gag Shows. What about Artistic Integrity? What about keeping action adventure shows alive? Where is anime supposed to air?

The ONE thing I concede is that DBZ does EXTREMELY well when aired after Family Guy. But that's that, I wouldnt change a thing about current Toonami.

That's how I figured Toonami could bring in more fans, since its working for CN. It's not that I want it to happen because I don't. I want more anime and earlier time slots. Ever since the gag shows I mentioned like Chowder aired CN's been going down this road ever since which is why most kid's today just turn their backs on a show like DBZ... Action cartoon's on CN are on the verge of death, heck something with a story line on that network is on the verge of death.

[The Iron Fjord]

As far as I can tell, a dub of Super would bring in more people watching Toonami (getting it after DBZ Kai runs its course, especially if they dubbed the Buu Saga). Also, it was a bad idea to announce the FLCL reboot 2 years before it premieres, because it would slowly kill the hype it generated when it was first announced.