Turner to launch Toonami Channel.... in Asia.

[ChibiGoku]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...oonami-channel

I'm... not even sure what to make of this, really...

EDIT: Eh, may as well include the post here, for those who don't want to click the link:

Turner Broadcasting System Asia announced on Tuesday that it will launch a multi-language Toonami channel in early 2013 across Southeast Asia.

Toonami, which is based on the same programming block on Cartoon Network, will be a 24-hour channel that Turner Broadcasting System Asia describes as "the ultimate home of the superhero." The channel will feature anime and animated action-adventure series. The official announcement noted that the channel's line-up will include Dragon Ball Z, along with other animated series such as Young Justice, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Sunny Saha, the Senior Vice President and Managing Director for Entertainment Networks at Turner International Asia Pacific Limited, said, "our aim is to make Toonami a socially-charged, multiplatform experience for fans, by fans. We'll invite input from viewers on everything from programming to showcasing fan art submissions on-air and online."

Turner Broadcasting System Asia will also launch the Cartoonito channel that will feature animation catered to younger viewers aged 3-7.

Adult Swim, the cable and satellite network that is paired with Cartoon Network, relaunched its Toonami programming block in the United States in May. Cartoon Network had previously ended Toonami in 2008 after an 11-year run.

[wjbraden]

Two words. Holy Crap!

Awesome news. Apparently Turner hasn't forgotten the Toonami branding overseas as well. Hopefully it will be better than the UK version turned out to be!

[aegisrawks]

I really hope Turner launches a Toonami Channel. It deserves one.

[wjbraden]

I'm guessing this is for Australia too? Hopefully this means that madman has a part in this and that the English dub of One Piece can at least air on TV there, since it can't air here in the US.

[Raidon Makoto]

Holy crap. Looks like I need a Slingbox now.

[Ishtar]

The only way I think the US would ever get a Toonami channel of our own would be if they rebranded Boomerang as Toonami to compete with Nicktoons and Disney XD. However, I get the impression that Turner would rather not do anything with Boomerang. This Asian channel could be a test, but then again we never got our own Toonami channel after the UK had their own for a few years.

[Lord Mawdryn]

Yeah, I can't see them doing anything with Boomerang but keeping it the home of older Cartoon Network & Hanna-Barbera shows. They do run older episodes of Pokemon (including the more recent Battle Frontier series), but I think that's the only anime that runs there.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

Things to point out: no mention of whether this will be Toonami with TOM or a channel simply called Toonami, nor does there appear to be any mention of whether this will be a part of a commonly boght channel package.

[Sketch]

A Toonami Channel for Asia and possibly Australia. Very cool. Hopefully it works out better than Toonami UK did.

As for us getting more Toonami goodness? Not dang likely until someone else runs Turner's youth and young adults entertainment division. The current heads have no love for action animation.

[bla2772]

if it is like regular toonami with tom and sara and stuff that would be amazing and if they had like the rising sun and midnight run...but i doubt it will be anything like that i think its gpna be just like nicktoons no tom and chilish shows and bumps:/

[Daikun]

if they had like the rising sun and midnight run...

I don't think so. I believe those only occurred in the U.S. Also, it's going to be 24 hours, so they won't really need such blocks. (Unless it's maybe Adult Swim, where they can show more mature programming.)

but i doubt it will be anything like that i think its gpna be just like nicktoons no tom and chilish shows and bumps:/

It's going to have Batman, Young Justice, and DBZ, among others.

[wjbraden]

There's now a website for the channel, which will launch 12/1/2012. http://www.toonamiasia.com/


From the looks of it, the channel will have Generator Rex Star Wars Clone Wars, DBZ, DBZ Kai, Avenger Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Green Lateran TAS, Young Justice, Batman Brave & The Bold, Inazuma 11, Ironman Armored Adventures, Thundercats 2011, Transformers Prime and more.

Sounds pretty good to me!

[Sketch]

Inazuma Eleven too.

It's a darn shame that the owners of the rights to all those shows in America would prevent any one channel from being that awesome here. Though I suppose given time and money The Hub could pull it off some day. Vortexx could also but with heavy censorship.

It's off to a great start but hopefully it doesn't degrade like Toonami UK did.

[veemonjosh]

From the looks of it, the channel will have Generator Rex Star Wars Clone Wars, DBZ, DBZ Kai, Avenger Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Green Lateran TAS, Young Justice, Batman Brave & The Bold, Inazuma 11, Ironman Armored Adventures, Thundercats 2011, Transformers Prime and more.

Man, I think they basically hit every major action cartoon from the past 5 years that would perfectly fit Toonami.

I think I spotted Kamen Rider Dragon Knight in there as well.

[Sketch]

They should get One Piece but if they want to keep things PG I suppose that might be a problem.

[wjbraden]

Also they have the youtube accounts of CN Asia, Japan, Australia and NZ, and India linked on their page, so I'm guessing that means the channel will be available in all of those locations (probably the Philippines too).



I wouldn't be surprised if Naruto Shippuden ended up there too because it was on CN Australia until a few months ago when it was pulled. Hopefully they get One Piece there too, because that would really top things off as a perfect lineup in my opinion.

[Toons4ever]

Man, this is huge news! Maybe if we send enough messages to Toonami or adult swim they might consider bring the channel to the US. It's not like they haven't listened to there fans before right?

[Sketch]

Even if they did bring the channel over we wouldn't get the same shows. Many of the non-CN shows are on The Hub, DXD, Nicktoons and Vortexx in America and CN wouldn't be able to get them. They could instead use their current action library including the anime on Toonami for late nights. But sadly there's really no market for an all action cartoon channel in America right now.

[wjbraden]

So the I found the first schedule for Toonami Asia that starts 12/1 and I found a few things that were interesting.

1) Apparently Toonami Asia is going to replace Boomerang Asia (http://static.lowyat.net/uploads/att...0244_thumb.jpg). Not much of a loss though since most of it was preschool programming.

2) It appears that the schedule below is just going to be a special schedule, just for the channel's launch

3) A few of the slots shown on the TV Guide I found this info on were left blank for some reason.

So here it is:

12/1

5:00 AM Ben 10: Alien Force
5:30 AM Ben 10: Alien Force
6:00 AM Ben 10: Alien Force
6:30 AM Star Wars: The Clone Wars
7:00 AM Star Wars: The Clone Wars
7:30 AM Star Wars: The Clone Wars
8:00 AM Blue Dragon
8:30 AM Blue Dragon
9:00 AM Blue Dragon
9:30 AM ???
10:00 AM ???
10:30 AM ???
11:00 AM Ben 10: Alien Force
11:30 AM Ben 10: Alien Force
12:00 PM Ben 10: Alien Force
12:30 PM Justice League Unlimited
1:00 PM Justice League Unlimited
1:30 PM Justice League Unlimited
2:00 PM Iron Man: Armored Adventures
2:20 PM Iron Man: Armored Adventures
2:45 PM Wolverine And The X-Men
3:10 PM Wolverine And The X-Men
3:30 PM Ben 10: Alien Force
4:00 PM Ben 10: Alien Force
4:30 PM Ben 10: Alien Force
5:00 PM Blue Dragon
5:30 PM Blue Dragon
6:00 PM Blue Dragon
6:30 PM ???
7:00 PM ???
7:30 PM ???
8:00 PM Deltora Quest
8:30 PM Deltora Quest
9:00 PM Deltora Quest
9:30 PM ???
10:00 PM ???
10:30 PM ???
11:00 PM Generator Rex
11:30 PM Generator Rex
12:00 AM Generator Rex
12:30 AM Star Wars: The Clone Wars
1:00 AM Star Wars: The Clone Wars
1:30 AM Star Wars: The Clone Wars
2:00 AM Justice League Unlimited
2:30 AM Justice League Unlimited
3:00 AM Justice League Unlimited
3:30 AM Ben 10: Alien Force
4:00 AM Ben 10: Alien Force
4:30 AM Ben 10: Alien Force

[CartoonNetRulzz]

From the press release:

To kick off Toonami’s launch, budding science-fiction writers can play an active part in the channel’s origins which centers on NAMI, an A.I. lifeform from the future. From December 1 to January 31, fanboys and fangirls can pitch ideas as to how to complete NAMI’s story. The winning entry will be created into an animated clip for the channel and a customized printed comic book. For more information, head to ToonamiAsia.com.

Sadly, TOM won't appear on the channel. But come to think of it, that might not be bad actually. Because if they did have TOM, they would probably hire someone else to voice him and have him with a different personality. And I think most of us don't want to have a TOM like the UK did. So it's good they'll have their own mascot.

The special schedule for Dec. 1 is okay, but could have been better. I hope they add more shows to the schedule. They could add Samurai Jack, Megas XLR, the original Ben 10, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Ben 10: Omniverse and Sym-Bionic Titan. Especially the latter 2, considering Titan hasn't aired in Asia yet and Omniverse is a new show and they could air the new episodes on Toonami first. That could boost the ratings a bit.