Is Toonami Rewind a failed experiment?

[Conttactt]

Some have said Checkered Past was also a failure, yet it's been running for almost a year.

The difference here is Checkered Past is free to operate. It doesn’t have nearly as high of expectations as a block with expensive acquired content.

A lot of Checkered Past outrage also comes from people upset that CN is dying. They perceive it as a failure for a different reason than its actual performance.

 

[JMTV]

A lot of people are saying it’s too soon to say, but did you think they were just gonna give this block 6-12 months to get sorted out? It’s been given a chance and clearly the higher ups aren’t happy with the direction so far.

I know this may sound like an unpopular opinion, but....yes?

I don't know. I'm not going to cry doom and gloom on Toonami Rewind just yet, but what they're doing so far, they could've done better.

 

[Markus Nelis]

Not everything is failed. I'm saying to those of you who answered yes. I'd say bring it on with even more programming blocks if possible. Saturdays are currently empty. Maybe some DC shows like Young Justice or Justice League Action could work. If they could air Cartoon Cartoons, they can definitely air some action shows.

 

[aegisrawks]

Some have said Checkered Past was also a failure, yet it's been running for almost a year.

Checkered Past actually scored a place in the Top 200 reruns, ratings are good.

 

[Conttactt]

I know this may sound like an unpopular opinion, but....yes?

I don't know. I'm not going to cry doom and gloom on Toonami Rewind just yet, but what they're doing so far, they could've done better.

That’s not how AS operates. If a something can’t get a foothold in 2-3 months, they are just gonna cut their losses. If the block is struggling now, it’s not gonna do any better in 6 months.

 

[JMTV]

That’s not how AS operates. If a something can’t get a foothold in 2-3 months, they are just gonna cut their losses. If the block is struggling now, it’s not gonna do any better in 6 months.

True, but like I said, I'm not going to playing taps on Toonami Rewind just yet.

 

[Rynnec]

Rewind shot itself in the foot immediately by a) airing only once a week and b) having a schedule composed solely of slow-paced longrunners. They either should have had Rewind air every other day (like Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) or started with SM and Naruto + two other 2 cour shows.

 

[Conttactt]

Rewind shot itself in the foot immediately by a) airing only once a week and b) having a schedule composed solely of slow-paced longrunners. They either should have had Rewind air every other day (like Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) or started with SM and Naruto + two other 2 cour shows.

That’s tricky though. They air it once a week as an experiment to see if it’s sustainable, which it seems not to be. Had they started with 3 days a week, we may be in a position now where it’s getting cut to just Friday, which looks much worse than the Naruto speed up. More times a week is also much more cost, and the budget doesn’t seem to be in a healthy place right now. There is also the problem of consistent commitment. Setting aside 3 days a week every week is a lot to ask in 2024. Eventually you have viewers who think Rewind is cool, but never watch it because it requires too much effort.

IMO their biggest mistake was trying to double dip Kai. One half of Rewind was a show that aired just 2 months prior, rather than being a show that had not been on cable since 2018. So people watched SM and just bailed, and Naruto was just a bonus casualty to that since people didn’t come back.

 

[Rynnec]

That’s tricky though. They air it once a week as an experiment to see if it’s sustainable, which it seems not to be. Had they started with 3 days a week, we may be in a position now where it’s getting cut to just Friday, which looks much worse than the Naruto speed up. More times a week is also much more cost, and the budget doesn’t seem to be in a healthy place right now. There is also the problem of consistent commitment. Setting aside 3 days a week every week is a lot to ask in 2024. Eventually you have viewers who think Rewind is cool, but never watch it because it requires too much effort.

That is true, but otoh it's easier to get through those shows on a semi-daily basis than it is once a week. Like someone earlier said, a lot of Toonami's popularity in the weekday era was being able to air 100+ episode shows daily and thus circumventing the pacing issues they had. Airing Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball once a week doesn't really do that.

That's why I prefer if they started with at least a couple 2-cour shows to test the waters. 4-cours at max. Keep Sailor Moon and either Naruto or Kai to keep the schedule stable and have a good anchor.

IMO their biggest mistake was trying to double dip Kai. One half of Rewind was a show that aired just 2 months prior, rather than being a show that had not been on cable since 2018. So people watched SM and just bailed, and Naruto was just a bonus casualty to that since people didn’t come back.

It really feels that the second Kai was just a temporary placeholder for another classic show they couldn't get the rights to in time. (probably a CR one like Yu Yu Hakusho).

 

[Markus Nelis]

Nostalgia blocks do well these days. It's doing fine. Better than CN's ratings these days. Relax y'all.

 

[Conttactt]

Nostalgia blocks do well these days. It's doing fine. Better than CN's ratings these days. Relax y'all.

Its ratings have not once been reported so I’m not sure where you are basing that claim from.

A healthy block that is “doing fine” doesn’t skip an entire canon arc of a show out of the blue.

 

[RedTail]

I've yet to tune in. Sailor Moon isn't really my sort of thing, and I've seen more than enough Naruto and Dragon Ball over the course of my life. The idea of having to digest the latter two at a clip of one episode per week is even more unappealing. Why even do that with reruns of long-running shonen?

 

[Conttactt]

I've yet to tune in. Sailor Moon isn't really my sort of thing, and I've seen more than enough Naruto and Dragon Ball over the course of my life. The idea of having to digest the latter two at a clip of one episode per week is even more unappealing. Why even do that with reruns of long-running shonen?

They were overly ambitious to try this block with purely long runners. It never feels like any progress is made on anything and that just pushes people into dropping the block sooner.

They came right out of the gate and said, hey you, can I take over your next 200 Fridays? Just 4 years bro, come on.

 

[Light Lucario]

I can't really blame them for going for long running series right off the bat. It isn't ideal for a weekly block. Even a 26 or 52 episode series would take a long time to cover on a weekly block. But I don't know if Toonami Rewind would have been approved if they hadn't gone for classic staples like DBZ Kai and Naruto. If they made it a weekday block, that would help with the pacing, but given how well anime outside of Toonami has done for Adult Swim, I can't really see them getting more than one day right away.

 

[RedTail]

I can't really blame them for going for long running series right off the bat. It isn't ideal for a weekly block. Even a 26 or 52 episode series would take a long time to cover on a weekly block. But I don't know if Toonami Rewind would have been approved if they hadn't gone for classic staples like DBZ Kai and Naruto. If they made it a weekday block, that would help with the pacing, but given how well anime outside of Toonami has done for Adult Swim, I can't really see them getting more than one day right away.

Yeah, it really needed to be either one night of short shows or multiple nights of long shows. There certainly are plenty of old Toonami and ASA series with 6, 13, and 26-episode counts. If the block absolutely had to be a once per week deal, they should've drawn from them instead.

 

[Bluebaron]

Im still hoping for ronin warriors.

 

[Light Lucario]

Yeah, it really needed to be either one night of short shows or multiple nights of long shows. There certainly are plenty of old Toonami and ASA series with 6, 13, and 26-episode counts. If the block absolutely had to be a once per week deal, they should've drawn from them instead.

I don't know if shorter series would have caught any attention for Toonami fans or causal fans though. Going with classic series from Toonami's Golden age would probably be a bigger draw. I don't know if Adult Swim would have allowed for a retro block if it was just made of shorter series either.

 

[Francisque]

Some have said Checkered Past was also a failure, yet it's been running for almost a year.

It's just wishful thinking

 

[RedTail]

I don't know if shorter series would have caught any attention for Toonami fans or causal fans though. Going with classic series from Toonami's Golden age would probably be a bigger draw. I don't know if Adult Swim would have allowed for a retro block if it was just made of shorter series either.

Some of that shorter stuff is from the early 2000s though. They could have aired something like Outlaw Star or one of the Tenchi series. Hell, WBD outright owns Batman: TAS, Batman Beyond, and Superman: TAS. Put them on.

 

[Light Lucario]

Some of that shorter stuff is from the early 2000s though. They could have aired something like Outlaw Star or one of the Tenchi series. Hell, WBD outright owns Batman: TAS, Batman Beyond, and Superman: TAS. Put them on.

I don't think that Outlaw Star or one of the Tenchi series would be a huge draw to casual fans compared to DBZ Kai and Naruto though. It would still be cool to have included some shorter series, but I can't really blame them for going with the more iconic long running series.

As for the DCAU shows, despite WB owning them, they don't seem like they would be free for Toonami to air. They typically save DC stuff for whenever they're airing a movie to tie in with a special event. At the very least, it doesn't seem like WB is particularly interested in letting more DC stuff on Toonami, so I doubt that they'd be willing to air them on Toonami Rewind. I don't think that it is as easy of a solution as you think it is.