Ask John: Is the Cartoon Network’s Anime Broadcasting in Decline?

Question:
Why is Adult Swim and Toonami not so good anymore? A few years ago, before Adult Swim even appeared, Toonami had some good anime on there like Gundam Wing, Rurouni Kenshin, Sailor Moon, Outlaw Star, Tenchi Muyo and some others. And when the program was at its peak, they took off the shows and added Justice League and other not-so-good American shows. The same thing happened with Adult Swim. It started to show very good anime up until last year or a few months ago. Now all they’re showing are Inuyasha, Reign, Blue Gender, and the American shows. Why?

Answer:
Good and not good for the Cartoon Network’s broadcast schedule are both a matter of highly subjective opinion. Furthermore, what constitutes “good” is far different to anime fans than it is to the Cartoon Network. More than anything, it’s necessary to keep in mind that the name of the television network we’re discussing is “Cartoon Network,” not “Anime Network.” A number of the Cartoon Network executives and employees are acknowledged anime fans, and as a commercial business, the Cartoon Network chooses to broadcast English translated anime because they know that it attracts viewers. But also as a commercial business, the Cartoon Network has an obligation to organize its broadcast offerings around titles most likely to help the network succeed, not base its broadcast decisions on what will make a few thousand anime fans happy. For example, presently Spongebob Squarepants and Fairly Oddparents commonly rank in the top 10 most watched cable television programs in America. No anime titles break into that list. To provide a better, if slightly off topic example, when American DVD debuts like Finding Nemo and X-Men 2 can sell more than a million units a day while the entire American anime industry combined probably doesn’t sell a million DVDs in a year, it’s clear that domestic programming is still much more popular than imported anime.

The Cartoon Network carefully structures its broadcast schedule with the help of professional advisors and media analysts to maximize its appeal to the widest spectrum of viewers. The series that stay on the Cartoon Network and get repeatedly re-aired are the ones that attract viewers and bring the company profit. For example, The Cartoon Network broadcast episodes of the fan favorite anime series Evangelion and Nadesico, but according to Cartoon Network executive Sean Akins talking to Anime Insider Magazine, the ratings for “Giant Robot Week” were so bad that these series ever returning to the Cartoon Network are nearly zero.

So although anime fans are obsessively devoted, they still represent only a small minority of the Cartoon Network’s total regular viewer market. The fact that the Cartoon Network does limit the selection of anime it airs, and the fact that the Anime Network is still actually just a service offered by a limited number of digital cable providers, not an actual independent linear television network proves that anime is simply not popular enough in American mainstream society to support even a small cable television network broadcasting majority or exclusively anime programming.

Fans should be, and have reason to be thankful for the amount of anime broadcast by the Cartoon Network. And the Cartoon Network is committed to broadcasting more anime in the future, including Groove Adventure Rave, Witch Hunter Robin, and possibly titles including Wolf’s Rain. As a die hard anime fan longing for extensive support of anime on American television, you may be disappointed with the Cartoon Network’s offerings, but realistically evidence suggests that the Cartoon Network is already doing the best it can to support and broadcast English language anime on American television.