Can you see Super airing on Toonami and doing well?

[Lord Beerus]

According to a Toonami Pre-Flight episode lost to the ages, it isn't a sure thing that Super will air on Toonami because you bet your ass other networks will be after it.

Dragonball GT was a ratings juggernaut for Nicktoons, and that's GT.

Yeah, I definitely could see Cartoon Network and Disney Channel throwing their hats into the ring and bidding to get this show.

[Hellspawn28]

Cartoon Network would put Super on the worst time slot because they treat their 3rd party shows like shit. Disney XD could work, but I think Funimation will likely give the rights to Toonami sine it fits right at home with them. People want the dub so quick, but I don't want them to rush it.

[Bansho64]

I honestly don't think it'll do well. Especially considering the way the Toonami marketed DBZ to be such a mature, hardcore action series back in the day. A large part of the fanbase from then is going to come back just to see Super. The overall light tone is going to throw a lot of people off and give Super a bad rep. Hopefully this isn't the case when Super airs but it most likely will be what happens.

[DragonHermit]

I honestly don't think it'll do well. Especially considering the way the Toonami marketed DBZ to be such a mature, hardcore action series back in the day. A large part of the fanbase from then is going to come back just to see Super. The overall light tone is going to throw a lot of people off and give Super a bad rep. Hopefully this isn't the case when Super airs but it most likely will be what happens.

We were all little kids when we first saw DBZ. Most of us didn't even understand the significance of the "mature" stuff, but watched it for the kamehamehas, cool transformations, and awesome fights. That mature stuff was what kept most of us hooked in even after growing older. I remember watching "Fist of the North Star" as a kid, and all I recall was Kenshiro throwing 12 billion punches in a second. The post-apocalyptic, moral decay of society themes were way over my head.

What I'm mostly worried about, is that TV ratings have tanked for almost everything. It's not the 2000s anymore. It's an internet first world. I personally don't even watch TV.

[DragonHermit]

According to a Toonami Pre-Flight episode lost to the ages, it isn't a sure thing that Super will air on Toonami because you bet your ass other networks will be after it.

Dragonball GT was a ratings juggernaut for Nicktoons, and that's GT.

Just out of curiosity. Are there are any mainstream animation shows that aren't fully done digitally, that are a big hit in the US? Even One Piece has been sluggish there TV wise AFAIK.

Only one I can think of is Legend of Kora.

[Blade]

The internet said the same thing about Kai and that garnered the best ratings Toonami has ever gotten since it relaunched.

I guess we have to be aware that there is the nostalgia-play to factor into that. I mean, Kai is just a re-framing of a show that a lot of the faithful grew up watching. I'm not sure that it has much wider appeal in the States. I feel that if Super has a market on Toonami, it's going to be that same demographic.

Ideally, I'd love to see the show put out there in a more mainstream timeslot - and not even necessarily on Cartoon Network. I don't think that we'll ever get another Worldwide Dragonball boom, but it would just be nice to cast it out there to the kids and give the franchise a run at a fresh audience. Why not? It's how I got into Dragonball back when I was a kid, and I think that if the franchise is to continue, life needs to go on.

I don't really subscribe to the notion of being protective or embarrassed over Super - it is what it is, and whilst I've got a dozen qualms with the product, I think that it's one of those things where you have to let people make their own mind up. In my experience, kids are pretty good judges of basic product competency and story quality - if they don't buy into the story that you're selling on a superficial level - then you've got a big problem. Unlike most of us on this forum, younger people don't read too heavily into stuff beyond the suspension of disbelief or look for nits to pick at - they just take the story as it comes - and if it captivates their imagination in the process, then, in my opinion, the product is succeeding in doing its job.

Let's face it - none of us are getting any younger! We're an ageing fandom.

[DBZ_Lee]

I honestly don't think Toonami is the right network to air Super the first time around. The series is aimed at kids, so I assume that Toei (I don't know how much of a say they actually get on where it airs-or even if they care as long as they get their TV money) would prefer it airs at a time where their target audience is able to watch it.
A programming block that begins at midnight just isn't really appropriate to air a show who's primary target audience are children. It needs to be accessible on a mainstream TV station (and I'm sure there won't be a shortage of takers) I'm not saying it has to be CN or Nicktoons, but the latter would be very interested I'm sure.
Kai did exceptionally well for them, and went a long way in order to establish a new generation of fans for the franchise.

Toonami Asia is (as far as I'm aware) a 24hr channel?. So Toei would be ok with them airing it, as it will be accessible to the target audience. I do believe it will air on Toonami at some point (it's always possible) but certainly not until it airs on a mainstream channel first.

Ideally, I'd love to see the show put out there in a more mainstream timeslot - and not even necessarily on Cartoon Network. I don't think that we'll ever get another Worldwide Dragonball boom, but it would just be nice to cast it out there to the kids and give the franchise a run at a fresh audience. Why not? It's how I got into Dragonball back when I was a kid, and I think that if the franchise is to continue, life needs to go on.

Let's face it - none of us are getting any younger! We're an ageing fandom.

This. I couldn't agree with more. Dragon Ball needs to grow if it is going to continue at all, and in order to do that, needs to be put out there in front of a new generation of fans - not just old guys like myself, but it needs to make new, young ones.
I'm sure FUNimation are already looking at potential suitors with as regards to airing the show, and most likely, will have an announcement (hopefully) before the end of the year about the licensing acquisition at the very least.

[Hellspawn28]

What I'm mostly worried about, is that TV ratings have tanked for almost everything. It's not the 2000s anymore. It's an internet first world. I personally don't even watch TV.

I think you mean early 2000's. I don't think things in late 2000's (2007-2009) are not much different now. People still watch TV (Game of Thrones, Flash, Arrow and Walking Dead are still view highly today). Super will do just fine on Toonami. Late night anime has done fine in the past on TV like Inuyasha, Death Note, Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan. Attack on Titan become more popular when it start airing on TV in the US because it had good marketing and had a good time slot. Akame Ga Kill, Kill la Kill and Parasyte did pretty well on Toonami too. I started to see more merchandise for those shows like at Hot Topic since they air on TV. If Toonami can air on 11:30 PM again, maybe they can use that timeslot for Super.

A programming block that begins at midnight just isn't really appropriate to air a show who's primary target audience are children. It needs to be accessible on a mainstream TV station (and I'm sure there won't be a shortage of takers) I'm not saying it has to be CN or Nicktoons, but the latter would be very interested I'm sure.

You could say the same for Naruto and One Piece which are market to children, but they air late on night in the US. Naruto was on Disney XD at one point and it seem like it didn't do so well on Toonami.

[Super Sayian Prime]

At the very least the regurgitated BOG and ROF arcs will lose ratings, people who've only seen those movies once will probably think "hold on... haven't I seen this already?" and probably switch channels.

I guarantee you the silent majority watching Toonami won't have seen either of those two movies. Even if they did, they don't seem to mind watching Kai, a show whose plot you can spoil by reading a Wikipedia article written 10 years ago.

Just out of curiosity. Are there are any mainstream animation shows that aren't fully done digitally, that are a big hit in the US? Even One Piece has been sluggish there TV wise AFAIK.

Only one I can think of is Legend of Kora.

Everything is animated digitally now. Korra was too.

[DBZ_Lee]

A programming block that begins at midnight just isn't really appropriate to air a show who's primary target audience are children. It needs to be accessible on a mainstream TV station (and I'm sure there won't be a shortage of takers) I'm not saying it has to be CN or Nicktoons, but the latter would be very interested I'm sure.

You could say the same for Naruto and One Piece which are market to children, but they air late on night in the US. Naruto was on Disney XD at one point and it seem like it didn't do so well on Toonami.

Disney XD made edits to Naruto, which they wouldn't have to do to Super as I've seen nothing in it which would require an edit, maybe the one scene with Vegeta bleeding.
One Piece is an exception I feel, Toei know its nowhere near the popularity of Dragon Ball in the West, and have probably resigned themselves to the fact a mainstream prime time slot isn't going to happen now after 15+ years (the 4kids dub probably saw to that in my opinion).

Also, Naruto isn't a Toei property, Studio Pierrot are more in-tune with the times, and are probably happy for it to air on Toonami.
At least Viz attempted to air it on a daytime channel, but the fans weren't happy with the edits.
Super needs to be accessible to its target audience, as Dragon Ball is among the most popular anime in the West, if not the most popular.

[DBZAOTA482]

It's going to bomb so hard. Dragonball''s name won't save this mockery and I'd be surprised if toonami isn't afraid of this.

Give me a break. The internet said the same thing about Kai and that garnered the best ratings Toonami has ever gotten since it relaunched.

The original Kai was overall pretty well-received from my experience. The only people who didn't like it are FUNi Z fanboys/fangirls.

The only people I'd happen tuning into Super are people who grew up on Dragon Ball.

[KidGoku>3]

Would be nice if Disney could get it. DBZ would not be a good fit but DBS would be perfect. It'll reach an even bigger audience with Disney channel and who knows maybe Disney will acquire the movie rights which would be a dream come true because they are the only studio trustworthy with their material for the past decade. They did exceptional with Marvel and Lucasfilms. They will respect the source material and treat it with care. I'm not even sure if it'll be live action (which might not work) but one thing is for sure Disney makes good movies with their properties. Look at The Jungle Book. I mean if they can make Guardians of the Galaxy work surely DB could work too. It had a live action raccoon lol and a walking talking tree. This november Doctor Strange is out and it has multiverses, alternate dimensions, mindbending realities stuff we've never really seen before on this scale. Disney is the only studio I'd want as a fan because of their amazing track record for the past decade. Fox is just AWFUL.

[DBZ_Lee]

I agree that Disney would be a very good fit for Super. They have the financial resources to really help push the show out to a completely new audience, not only in North America, but also in the UK, and other English speaking territories.

FUNi should seriously consider Disney, as they are in a perfect position to help promote the series domestically, and globally.
FYI Disney were simply the distributor for Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel Studios were the production team.

[MCDaveG]

The hate on the internet is just bunch of people, who are in orgasmic spasms from aquiring the internet connections and means to ventilate their hate somewhere, because in real life, they are little sad creatures.
Most of the people shut up and watch the TV shows, like we did, back in the day. Someone in the class said, that My Little Pony or Monster Rancher is shit, but majority just watched whatever and was happy about it and discussed it.
I've just rented Netflix and found out all seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which I loved when I was 7. Damn, I almost threw up from those dialogue and Shuki Levy's score in the mix.
We have saw some horrible stuff as a kids on TV.

[ParkerAL]

I suppose you could market Dragon Ball Super to kids in the States. Arguably, it's no worse a place to start following Dragon Ball's story than the Saiyan arc was for Millennial fans. In both cases, you start out with a large cast of characters you nothing about. If it worked once, it can work again.

[HAIKEN-00]

Realistically, as long as it's Dragon Ball, people will always tune in.

[MisterGuyMan]

Am I the only one that really wishes the American release is re-edited? I enjoyed watching it but for American tastes the first two arcs were really slow. Most any two episodes could be condensed into one and you could eliminate a lot of the bad art that way too. I feel weird saying that since I've generally always wanted to original version with no American edits but the pacing was just a mess in the Beers/Frieza arcs.

[NitroEX]

At the very least the regurgitated BOG and ROF arcs will lose ratings, people who've only seen those movies once will probably think "hold on... haven't I seen this already?" and probably switch channels.

I guarantee you the silent majority watching Toonami won't have seen either of those two movies. Even if they did, they don't seem to mind watching Kai, a show whose plot you can spoil by reading a Wikipedia article written 10 years ago.

I don't know about that. Both the new movies did very well for themselves in the box office and anyone who hadn't seen them can freely pick them up on DVD and Blu Ray. There's literally nothing stopping a Dragonball fan (new or old) from seeing these films as they're still widely available, the only issue I could see is the marketing but as far as I'm aware they seemed to have been marketed very well in the US.

In Kai's case, I don't think it's all that comparable with Super tbh. Yes, they're both reusing using old material but, with Kai at least, that was a big part of it's selling point. It was just a glorified rerun of Dragonball Z, a show that was already hugely popular and one that still held a big nostalgic following. Toonami markets it to the nostalgic crowd while the kids channels sold it as a new show, in both cases it worked because the kids had never seen DBZ in the first place and older fans just wanted their old show back.

With Super you have a new show that's supposedly a continuation of DBZ (even though it technically isn't..) and unlike kai, it can't just rely on nostalgia since the movies it borrows from are still brand new and widely available. The fact that it's a new DB show that basically offers filler versions of movie plots for the first 20 something episodes is going to negatively impact it's viewership in my opinion. Are today's viewers really going to be patient enough to sit through all that when the movies tell essentially the same story in a fraction of the time? I personally see it doing poorly across both young and old demographics of DB fans.

I suppose you could market Dragon Ball Super to kids in the States. Arguably, it's no worse a place to start following Dragon Ball's story than the Saiyan arc was for Millennial fans. In both cases, you start out with a large cast of characters you nothing about. If it worked once, it can work again.

Except that Z made a decent entry point to the series due to Gohan being a child and having things introduced to him for the first time (and by extension, the audience), if Pan or Uub were main characters in Super I would agree with you but it's not the case. I would also argue that the story of Z was also more interesting than what Super has to offer. Even on just a superficial level, a father saving his son from an alien in the first episode is far more engaging than Super's introduction of Goku farming and Goten and Trunks fighting a snake. Even in the second episode, Vegeta and Beerus are introduced in a very boring and uninteresting way. It's probably even worse on a new viewer who doesn't already know who these characters are.

[gokaiblue]

It will probably do rather well on Toonami and probably would only do well on Toonami. Most kids networks have given up on anime, especially ones like Dragon Ball Super. The only anime marketed to kids here anymore are ones that are mainly used to promote toys or video games.

[Bansho64]

If it is put on Toonami then I think it should run on weekdays somewhere between the hours of 3 and 5. If it's put at that timeslot then I feel that more kids would watch it. It'd be better if they ran DB and DBZK before they run Super though. That way, kids can learn story before they watch Super.