The appeal of Adult Swim

Anonus · 2018-04-30 19:34:25

It was never quite for me apart from, like, SGC2C (mostly before there was ever an AS), ATHF before it went to shit, and The Brak Show before it went to shit

I also blame its expansion for CN spending most of the time since 2001-02 or so being a demographic-pandering mess or embracing AS-esque hideousness

So yeah, why celebrate Adult Swim? I feel like it mostly embraced/codified the nihilistic, sophomoric sense of humor plaguing "adult comedy" animation, and I admit that it is weirdly disturbing to see Toonami but in HD and TOM is allowed to swear now.

vtk · 2018-04-30 19:48:33

Living in a dorm and staying up obscenely late all the time, I found Adult Swim to be perfect for having the TV on but not necessarily paying attention to. The good stuff commanded my attention, while the not so good stuff I could mostly ignore until I found a reason to like it.

Comedy Central also had a late night cartoon block. It was pretty good, as I recall.

Crystal · 2018-04-30 19:52:17

Comedy Central Avenue

Tachyon · 2018-04-30 20:01:02

rick and morty is pretty good imo

Anonus · 2018-04-30 21:04:33

I would watch it if I did not find it so offputting

★ ~ S U M M E R ✿ S A U S A G E ! ~ ★ · 2018-05-07 05:14:54

everything's good until it's not

Anonus · 2018-05-07 05:18:03

Yandere Waifu said:
everything's good until it's not

basically

Salix Babylonika · 2018-05-07 10:53:21

[adult swim] will be in my good graces for as long as it continues to A) be one of the only remaining outlets for anime on linear TV in the west and B) give airtime to off-the-wall shit like Off The Air.

Anonus · 2018-05-07 11:29:10

does anime really do that poorly on linear TV here

like am I hanging out in a skewed sphere? does it just resonate more with geeks and artists?

Tachyon · 2018-05-07 11:34:19

outside stuff aimed at little kids, anime is still pretty niche so yes

Salix Babylonika · 2018-05-07 11:37:53

Anonus said:
does anime really do that poorly on linear TV here

like am I hanging out in a skewed sphere? does it just resonate more with geeks and artists?

as far as I'm aware Toonami is the *only* remaining dedicated anime block on TV, and even they don't stick to it 100%.

you'll get the occasional thing picked up by like, SyFy, or somebody, but outside of that it's pretty rare other than children's dubs (which tend to be hackjobs even today. Watch the english dub of Yokai Watch sometime for an example. Or hell, Glitter Force).

Anonus · 2018-05-07 11:38:57

i'm still kinda weirded out by that

like, you have an entire generation that ran home from school to watch Pokémon, Digimon, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh!

those shows have been so many fans' gateway drugs...

Anonus · 2018-05-07 11:39:14

is animation ever gonna beat the "kids' stuff" stigma?

Salix Babylonika · 2018-05-07 11:40:30

I mean like, no, probably not.

Comic books still haven't and superhero shit is more "mainstream" than ever. But popularity doesn't correlate 1 to 1 with respect or understanding, and there's a much bigger difference between mainstream american cultural norms and the various sets of Japanese culture that produce anime.

Tachyon · 2018-05-07 11:41:28

tbf these days anime does tend to get broadcast more than any other cartoons produced outside the West Coast, i think?

i haven't seen any figures on this but it is my experience

Salix Babylonika · 2018-05-07 11:41:59

more than like, Russian and Central European stuff I guess.

Tachyon · 2018-05-07 11:47:12

well definitely that

but i mean, how many cartoons are there on linear broadcast TV that were produced in, say, the Midwest, even?

like yeah anime is very niche but this is still relative

Salix Babylonika · 2018-05-07 11:49:02

to be honest other than web animation (which is a very tiny industry), if there is animation outside of what is broadcast on TV stations in the states, I'm not aware of its existence.

Tachyon · 2018-05-07 11:54:03

i mean that was probably a bad example, the Midwest is not exactly renowned for its animation industry

the East Coast and Canada have had some stuff

but certainly outside North America i can only think of one or two French cartoons that have been dubbed for US broadcast, never mind Eastern Europe

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:10:33

honestly the creative industries outside of New York and LA simply do not have the backing of the Hollywood system

if there's animation studios in places like Chicago (which is pretty much the only heavyweight midwestern city these days) they're probably tiny and don't do work for TV or anything

StarToons was based there and its existence was a struggle

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:11:39

I mean, would anybody with capital put a full-time TV/movie animation presence in Detroit, or Minneapolis/St. Paul, or Cleveland, or even Philadelphia or Atlanta?

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:12:23

(Philadelphia is considered an "East Coast" city but it still has a high standing culturally and financially)

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:21:26

yeah, Hollywood is very insular and not very interested in having roots in much of America

like, you have your distressed faded cities/regions (e.g. Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis), burgeoning state capitals/college towns (e.g. Indianapolis, Columbus, Austin), and big metro heavyweights on and between the coasts (e.g. Boston, San Francisco, Dallas)

not attractive places for Hollywood to establish any sort of production operation, perhaps because they fear it would fuck with logistics and because there's "not enough talent" in those places (and Big Media is a bunch of conservative public companies that don't take the Field of Dreams tack)

Tachyon · 2018-05-07 12:30:41

so that leaves Japan, being an island country on the other side of the Pacific, in a funny position

because its animation industry is huge and thriving, but culturally it's very 'out-there' in relation to a Hollywood which isn't interested in establishing production outside certain parts of the United States

so my impression is that Japan-as-animation-heavyweight is definitely not ignorable on a global stage, but its impact on the American market is limited and overshadowed by the dominance of the West Coast

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:34:11

the Canadian and European animation industries basically subsist on peddling content for export, as best as i've discerned

Canada's industry also suffers from the fact that anyone with any ambition can just do their own thing on National Film Board grants

Tachyon · 2018-05-07 12:38:47

You say suffers, but surely that can also open it up for some creative efforts that quite possibly wouldn't see the light of day in the United States?

like Roch Carrier's The Sweater, which i remember you linked me a while back

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:40:10

The industry suffers but not the art

Tachyon · 2018-05-07 12:41:17

ah

please can you elaborate on that?

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:43:46

as for The Sweater, it is a very prominent canadian art film

Cartoon Network used to have a block of them called O Canada which i like never got to watch because it was on past my bedtime ;_;

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:48:56

I really wish I had more Canadian art films on hand, because they've always fascinated me

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:49:31

Tachyon said:
ah

please can you elaborate on that?

the commercial products are dreck

Tachyon · 2018-05-07 12:53:57

then i don't think that undermines my point, which is that i would have expected the grants to open up the playing field and allow the production and broadcast of art films that would otherwise be dismissed as not commercially viable (as well as, yes, some dreck)

Anonus · 2018-05-07 12:56:52

okay @Section42L @Heinzes

does this stuff get played on TV there much? or in any special showcases?

Tatterhood · 2018-05-07 13:20:43

Most of my exposure to NFB stuff was when I visited there a couple times as a kid and I just found out that they closed their public access areas in 2012 and I am so mad at Stephen Harper right now.

(Most likely I did know about this in 2012 and managed to forget in the interim.)

Anonus · 2018-05-07 13:21:08

That sounds awful

Tatterhood · 2018-05-07 13:23:50

The NFB was a great place to visit! I was gonna make a half joking post saying you should go to Toronto to visit it and then I looked it up and found out! What the FUCK reality.

Heinzes · 2018-05-08 08:23:29

unfortunately NFB stuff doesn't get widely shown much nowadays. they still fund productions, but not many. although, most of their past productions are easily accessible thru their website.

Calica · 2018-05-08 20:02:43

Anonus said:
i'm still kinda weirded out by that

like, you have an entire generation that ran home from school to watch Pokémon, Digimon, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh!

those shows have been so many fans' gateway drugs...

they're all cord-cutters now who watch their anime on netflix and crunchyroll lol

Epitome · 2018-05-08 21:17:20

Jane said:

Anonus said:
does anime really do that poorly on linear TV here

like am I hanging out in a skewed sphere? does it just resonate more with geeks and artists?
as far as I'm aware Toonami is the *only* remaining dedicated anime block on TV, and even they don't stick to it 100%.

you'll get the occasional thing picked up by like, SyFy, or somebody, but outside of that it's pretty rare other than children's dubs (which tend to be hackjobs even today. Watch the english dub of Yokai Watch sometime for an example. Or hell, Glitter Force).

don't listen to jane the english dub of yokai watch genuinely rules and i will hear nothing against it

Jane said:

Anonus said:
does anime really do that poorly on linear TV here

like am I hanging out in a skewed sphere? does it just resonate more with geeks and artists?
as far as I'm aware Toonami is the *only* remaining dedicated anime block on TV, and even they don't stick to it 100%.

you'll get the occasional thing picked up by like, SyFy, or somebody, but outside of that it's pretty rare other than children's dubs (which tend to be hackjobs even today. Watch the english dub of Yokai Watch sometime for an example. Or hell, Glitter Force).

Epitome · 2018-05-08 21:17:41

so wrong i had to quote it twice

Salix Babylonika · 2018-05-08 21:28:37

it does have a surprisingly kickin theme song

The appeal of Adult Swim

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