Gunslinger Girl

[onebit]

Adult Swim must not have been aware this was available because it is scientificly impossible to choose to air Bleach over this.

And by scientificly I'm referering to cyborg schoolgirls with guns.

[Sketch]

I believe they turned it down (fools!) and that's why it's on IFC now.

[Kiryu]

I wouldn't want it at the expense of Bleach, mainly because its so short a series and Bleach is quite long, but I really wish Gunslinger Girl could've been on adult swim and got more recognition than it has on IFC. It really is a wonderful series, so full of destruction and blood and yet so emotional and touching. Ah well I'm just happy both shows are on the air. :D

[Karl Olson]

I think at the time it was made available to them, it might have been difficult to air (though it'd probably sail through standard and practices now.) Besides, something tells me this might have worked as well Paranoia Agent, IE: it'd have flopped, unless the European setting managed to provide it with a Bebop-esque advantage when it came to connecting to a Western audience. Don't get me wrong, it's a great show - one of my favorites - but I just don't think it'd ultimately work out in AS favor. It's just a little niche and artsy, if not out right otakucentric at the end of the day. When it comes to Madhouse series with great visuals and a heavy Western element or influence, I'd dare say Beck, Nana or Paradise Kiss might have a better shot at audience, except that AS really doesn't have a place for straight up character dramas.

[onebit]

Adult Swim can't show everything, but instead of repeating it they should occasionally throw in some experimental stuff during the second showing. Skip one episode of Futurama or Family guy at 2am and show something different (or be really crazy and show it at 2am on Friday).

Oh well, I'm sure this has been discussed to death. I'm just glad I caught this excellent series so I can Netflix it from the start now.

[Karl Olson]

But in that case, they should get more experimental than an action show. There are tons of more dramatic and more abstract anime out there. I mean, if they did want to start experimenting, I'd like them to push that to the limit. Gunslinger Girl is a fairly straight forward drama outside of the cybernetic kids. I mean, the depiction of Italian internal politics is actually shockingly accurate at points, and the visual reprasentation of Italy is correct down to which paintings are in the museums. Additionally, most of the ballistics is dead on as well, down to having guns the right size for the characters. In fact, that's part of the charm, or at least helps the viewer buy into the show.

As such, if they ever did think "this repeat stuff is garbage, let's get experimental!" I'd rather them push for stuff like Beck, Nana or Planetes at minimum - series drama/comedy takes the driver seat and action is much secondary, and preferably, I'd like to see AS push all the way into Haibane Renmei, Texhnolyze and the as yet unlicenced Kemonodzume.

In a nutshell, if AS ever decided that ratings didn't matter, experimentation did, they can push that way farther than just Gunslinger Girl.

[onebit]

Perhaps another problem is these shows are so far behind Japan. The hardcore fan has 1-2 years to rent these series before they air in America. If they could air the shows before they go to DVD there would be a larger audience.

[Karl Olson]

Perhaps another problem is these shows are so far behind Japan. The hardcore fan has 1-2 years to rent these series before they air in America. If they could air the shows before they go to DVD there would be a larger audience.

AS/CN pretty much always gets first dibs on FUNimation's content - they have an incredibly tight business relationship, and when AS does like a FUNi title, they get it before even the first disc is released, and will often finish airing the title on TV long before the DVDs are out in full (see: FMA, Trinity Blood.) In fact, FUNimation has pitched pretty much everything they import to AS and/or CN, sometimes repeatedly depending on changes in standards/programming in between pitches (IIRC, Kodocha was pitched atleast 3 times.) As such, it's not at all an issue of lag (as the hardcore people who illegally download fansubs aren't typically AS viewers, so they don't factor in,) it's an issue of what AS is interested in in terms of brand image and the current content standards. If they could have gotten it past Standards & Practices, CN would have already run Gantz and Elfen Lied, in as much as the head of the Anime side of AS (Kim Manning) really wanted those shows. However, at the time (and probably still to this day,) there was no way they could get them on air without editing them at Williams Street, and it's just not cost effective to edit in-house. It's better to just buy shows that don't require editing (or atleast editing that costs them money.) However, given that they can pretty much get anything FUNi they want as long as they don't get out bid, that suggests that they were never interested in Gunslinger Girl, as at the time it was being brought over by FUNi, no else made an immediate move on it either. It only got on IFC after they felt it was worse the risk to get something more than Samurai 7 (which coincidentally, is one of the few cases CN was outbid on an anime they wanted.)

[Kiryu]

While we're on the subject, I wonder what the deal was with Basilisk then? So far there hasnt been anything shown on it thats worse than what other series on AS have had, and it seems to be the kind of show they'd go after.

[Vyse]

In terms of Gunslinger Girl being on IFC and not AS, I think it's better off without the Swim. I don't have IFC, even after my parents upgraded to digital cable (damn you, Comcast :mad: ), but TV Guide the magazine has plugged Gunslinger Girl and Samurai 7 numerous times, with both shows achieving highlighted mini-blurbs and best-bets-of-the-week status. In terms of promoting anime to average people, this is way better than Williams Street's PR department. I have a feeling Paranoia Agent could have worked on IFC.

[Karl Olson]

While we're on the subject, I wonder what the deal was with Basilisk then? So far there hasnt been anything shown on it thats worse than what other series on AS have had, and it seems to be the kind of show they'd go after.

As with Samurai 7, they might have been outbid. Also, the oddball character designs might have scared them off. Given AS' track record so far, they don't particularly go for offbeat character design unless it's something from a legendary director (IE: Katushiro Otomo or Satoshi Kon.)

In terms of Gunslinger Girl being on IFC and not AS, I think it's better off without the Swim. I don't have IFC, even after my parents upgraded to digital cable (damn you, Comcast :mad: ), but TV Guide the magazine has plugged Gunslinger Girl and Samurai 7 numerous times, with both shows achieving highlighted mini-blurbs and best-bets-of-the-week status. In terms of promoting anime to average people, this is way better than Williams Street's PR department. I have a feeling Paranoia Agent could have worked on IFC.

That's a good point. IFC's managed to get it's foot in the door of mainstream publications a lot better than WS/CN as of late. I certainly doubt Gunslinger Girl would have recieved any TV Guide attention had it been relegated to a 1:00am slot on Saturdays. I mean, the fact that AS has had seminal anime series in their hands like Cowboy Bebop, GitS:SAC and Paranoia Agent, and yet has been some what inept at getting much in the way of internal marketing done, yet alone external marketing is fairly troubling. When a digital/dish-only network can better turn the heads of TV Guide, you're doing something wrong.

[livingfruitvirus]

As with Samurai 7, they might have been outbid. Also, the oddball character designs might have scared them off. Given AS' track record so far, they don't particularly go for offbeat character design unless it's something from a legendary director (IE: Katushiro Otomo or Satoshi Kon.)

Kim Manning said they wanted Samurai 7 and IFC did outbid them on it.

In terms of Gunslinger Girl being on IFC and not AS, I think it's better off without the Swim. I don't have IFC, even after my parents upgraded to digital cable (damn you, Comcast :mad: ), but TV Guide the magazine has plugged Gunslinger Girl and Samurai 7 numerous times, with both shows achieving highlighted mini-blurbs and best-bets-of-the-week status. In terms of promoting anime to average people, this is way better than Williams Street's PR department. I have a feeling Paranoia Agent could have worked on IFC.

Despite the PR, the amount of people who tune in to IFC daily is still a 5 digit number. It would be like if the show was on Fox without any promotion. It would probably still score at least 2 million viewers just because it's on Fox.

[Karl Olson]

Kim Manning said they wanted Samurai 7 and IFC did outbid them on it.

Right, and I think the same thing might have happened with Basilisk considering how quickly it came to IFC once Funimation started dubbing it.

Despite the PR, the amount of people who tune in to IFC daily is still a 5 digit number. It would be like if the show was on Fox without any promotion. It would probably still score at least 2 million viewers just because it's on Fox.

Yeah, but it's still kind of weak that IFC can manage to get PR attention with similar content to ASA, yet ASA anime has had virtually no attention from magazines, newspapers, etc.

[The Myst]

Yeah, but it's still kind of weak that IFC can manage to get PR attention with similar content to ASA, yet ASA anime has had virtually no attention from magazines, newspapers, etc.

That's because Adult Swim doesn't care about anime.

[Kiryu]

That's because Adult Swim doesn't care about anime.

I wish they would just do the black and white bumps during the anime parts of the block as well, it surely couldnt be that hard, seeing as they used to do it that way kind of. Have a little tidbit about the show, some news on upcoming shows, brief overview of the show thats on, etc. so it might be more appealing to someone casually flipping through the channels or who has it on after the comedy shows but isn't really a fan yet. As it is the action portions of the block always feel a bit disjointed from AS as a whole, like it doesn't matter as much to them, which it may not but it'd be nice to have some solidarity!

And while I'm sure they care about anime or they wouldn't even have it on, they certainly bash and/or ignore it enough that I almost start to wonder sometimes...

[Master Moron]

Yeah, but it's still kind of weak that IFC can manage to get PR attention with similar content to ASA, yet ASA anime has had virtually no attention from magazines, newspapers, etc.

That's because Adult Swim doesn't send out screeners of the anime.

Though, there were blurbs in TV Guide for Blue Gender and FLCL. That was, what, four years ago? I don't read the print version of TV Guide anymore, so I wouldn't know if they've had any more blurbs about Adult Swim anime since.