5 Reasons Why I don't Think Adult Swim Hates Anime
I've noticed that there has been this belief spreading across the web, especially YouTube, that the people who run Adult Swim hate anime and anime fans. A while back I had a heated debate against one of the most vocal supporters of this theory (I won't name names, but those well versed in the YouTube anime crowd could probably figure it out). He had a video of Funimation voice actor Greg Ayres complaining about [as]'s jokes about anime. This YouTube user and I got into a heated debate, and he ended up saying that I had "Adult Swim's cock way too far up my throat", which he then proceeded to block me. He had accused me of blindingly accepting what Adult Swim and the Toonami crew had been at saying. Of course when I didn't take what HE said at face value he got ticked off. Double standards can be quite the pain.
The thing is, I have accepted what [as] had said about anime and Toonami, but it's not because I have a blind devotion to them. I accept what they say because I have reasons to believe they actually care about anime. In fact, I have come up with five.
1. Williams Street (who created and runs [as]), brought us Toonami in the first place
Williams Street (then Ghost Planet Industries) created Toonami, which was first broadcast in March 1997. Toonami was created as a block to showcase action animation, which eventually included the introduction of plenty of anime into the States, creating the anime craze of the early 2000's. There had been notable anime in the States since the 60's, but nothing that could be considered immensely popular. Toonami had anime from the very beginning with the 80's anime Voltron, which was soon followed by its contemporary Robotech. But Toonami's decision to pick up Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, two anime that had done mediocre in syndication in 1995-96, was the one that helped Japanese animation become the phenomenon it was. Why then, would Williams Street (the people who would eventually run [as]) have bothered at all with anime if they hated it so much? Certainly they wouldn't have plucked those two "failures" from syndication, and they wouldn't have made anime popular in doing so.
2. Adult Swim is the last major US channel to still air anime aimed at a mature audience, and has done so for over a decade
"Put the kids to bed, and get ready to get down."
Toonami had a late-night version called "The Midnight Run" for several years from 1999. It eventually spun off into Adult Swim's action block that started in early 2002. [as] has never dropped off the anime block from Saturday since it's premiere. It's been over a decade now, and anime is still on Saturdays. I would say if they did hate anime, they would have ousted it from their lineup many years ago. If not then, it could have been in the last few years at least, because they had a pretty compelling reason to.
3. They have done this despite anime having terrible ratings for the last few years, even when the competition has moved on and anime fans have largely migrated to streaming
Anime was a hot commodity in the late 90's and early-to-mid 2000's. Many TV networks, such as TechTV (later merged with G4), Anime Network, and Sci Fi (now Syfy), all had anime on their schedules, and it was making good money for them. Then anime became less and less profitable for TV, which was hastened by the rise of internet streaming. The answer that I get when I ask the "[as] hates anime" crowd about why do they air anime is that they are forced to by someone(s) higher up than them. Even Greg Ayres said this in the video.
I could believe that if it was 2003, but its not. Unless these higher-ups hate making money for some reason, there is no logical answer for why they would force [as] to air anime way after it was profitable. As for why Mr. Ayers would claim such a thing at a Q&A, he did say that he only heard about it, but he didn't say that he knew about it firsthand. It could have been a rumor he heard or read, and it is likely that it was. When you look at the big picture, this claim doesn't add up that well at all.
4. There was effort put into the Toonami April Fool's prank and revival
Stuff like this can't exist without some work put into them
One of the biggest surprises of 2012 was Adult Swim bringing back Toonami for one night on April Fool's. The best part about it is that it led to Toonami's revival later that May. Both the prank and the revival required effort. [as] had to make deals with distributors to have been able to pull the prank off at all. The revival saw the TOM 3 and Absolution Mk. II CG models revamped for HD, and the premiere of two shows. This continued with more shows added to the lineup after others had ended, with the return of IGPX this Saturday (April 27), and One Piece this May. I should also mention that a new model of TOM and the Absolution will premiere with IGPX. Not only this, but the Toonami team set up a Tumblr to stay connected to the fans, and they released a new Toonami music collection for free last Christmas.
What's my point in saying all of this? The point is that a great amount of effort was put in to bringing back Toonami. I don't know about you, but I don't put effort into helping bring back something I hate. If [as] truly did hate anime as much as is claimed that they do, they wouldn't have bothered doing the April Fool's prank, let alone have a full Toonami revival. Worse, they could have "brought back" Toonami by reusing the old TOM footage, not bringing Steven Blum on board, and adding in no new shows. Instead, they put some effort and put out an enjoyable programming block. This isn't to say its perfect, but its a better job than it would have been if anime was something [as] hates.
5. Anime distribution companies like Funimation and Viz still do business with Adult Swim
Now, some of you might be thinking from my third point "Isn't Greg Ayres in the anime industry? Shouldn't he know more about it than you and me?" I would say that yes, he knows more about what's going on than most fans, but he's no authority on it. Not only that, but I would counter his claim of Adult Swim's hatred of anime by asking "Why then does Viz and Funimation continue to do business with them, especially since they now have more viable options for anime than cable TV?" With internet streaming (illegal and legal) being the name of the game for the North American anime industry right now, the fact that we're still seeing distributors making deals with a TV network is telling. It says that the distributors see in Adult Swim a desire to keep anime on the airwaves, and that they're willing to make deals to achieve that.
With my five reasons finished, I should probably address the thing that started this whole thing: the "We hate anime" bumps on [as].
The bump that started countless arguments across the Internet
The thing is, Adult Swim is famous for their very, VERY weird sense of humor. There has been numerous jokes pulled on those bumpers throughout their decade-plus history on the air. But when they decide to air a bump poking fun at anime, people decide to say "See! They hate anime SOOO much that they even say it on the air!" Let's use this logic on another bump which most people would consider a joke:
Now, if we were to take this literally like some people have taken the anime bumps, then we are to believe that Adult Swim is watching us where we are right now. Ridiculous, right?
Take the anime bumps. If what they said on them was their true feelings about anime, then why would they even have anime in the first place? Would Funimation and Viz stand for their fans being maliciously insulted? Of course not. Yet Adult Swim keeps putting on their shows every Saturday night, years after those bumps have aired. If that is hate, then I have no idea what love is.
EDIT: I've since noticed that Greg Ayres, on his Twitter, has been supporting Toonami since its return (though his starring role in Deadman Wonderland might have something to do about it).
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