Just finished the Momocon panel. Here are some notes:
DBZ: They have wanted to air DBZ Kai since day one. They had to wait until the rights were available.
Movies: DeMarco loves Redline and would love to show it. The right situation needs to present itself (aka. be cheap). In general, showing movies is tricky because it's using money to pay for one time use where that money could instead be used to acquire an entire show.
Potential of Future Shows:
- Lupin: DeMarco likes Lupin but they have nothing to announce.
- Cyborg 009: Don't expect it in the future. It's not on the hotlist.
- Oban Star Racers: They didn't comment but noted there was interest from the attendee.
- Kill la Kill: DeMarko likes the show but the nudity might be a problem. "We're looking at it, I know... I don't know." He gave a wince that didn't inspire confidence. :/
- Sailor Moon Crystal: They are VERY aware of the fan demand for this show. Talked about getting inundated by requests every ten seconds for a solid week from people on Tumblr. They are looking at it. Big on their radar from fan demand alone. "No announcement
at the moment."
- Fairy Tale: No current plans. They like it but no announcement.
- Death Note: Dana (Sara) likes that show. Possibility, yes. Direct plans, no.
- Transformers: Have not gotten a lot a lot of requests and chances are very slim they will ever show it now that Hasbro has their own channel.
How they pick shows:
- DeMarco, Gill, and Ken Manning at Adult Swim look at how much money they have available. That's the number one thing.
- Research what they personally are excited about and mostly what the fans are talking about. DeMarco said that he can confirm that people online have told him about shows and that has led them into looking into those shows. Those suggestions matter. When you say things on Tumblr or tweet him on Twitter suggestions for shows they listen and take those suggestions into consideration.
- What do the partners have to show. Partners will sometimes come to them and suggest shows they'd like to see on Toonami.
- Think about what shows they have. What shows are like that? What shows are different? Do the shows they're thinking about "feel like Toonami"?
Censorship: They share the channel with Cartoon Network. Because of this, they have stricter rules regarding nudity and language than a channel like Comedy Central (who DeMarco says pushes the envelope). This is mostly because of advertisers. So don't expect much language or nudity in the future unless (he jokes) there were ever a 24 hour Toonami channel. They liked Black Lagoon enough to just air it with all the bleeps rather than skip the show entirely because of the language.
Toonami Archives: They use YouTube to find old Toonami footage. They love all that stuff being out there. They also mentioned Toonami Arsenal.
Air times: Toonami will likely never go back to the early afternoon airing because it's an Adult Swim thing now and no longer a Cartoon Network thing. Also, they can't likely can't pull ratings like Family Guy on other nights of the week. However, if the block does expand it'll only be in duration on Saturdays. DeMarco joked "20 hours of Toonami!"
Attack on Titan: If season one does well, they want to air season two. DeMarco said this very matter-of-factly as if it was a pretty certain conclusion.
Tom Action Figure: DeMarco would LOVE to sell Tom action figures but it's not likely to happen right now.
