Adult Swim's New Kid-Friendly Direction

[harry580]

well go blame YouTube, the fact kids are watching YouTube makes it worse on hindsight, I mean, we have things like elsagate and people like cosmodore & edp445

 

[Checkerboard]

I agree with Lucario that Pokémon will never get anything pg let alone ma. Its heyday may be over and it is becoming slowly run into the ground, or rather naturally phased out or obsolete, at least the anime, but that won't make them suddenly go dark. I would like that. But I'm not the majority expecting something else. As a brand it's a safe haven for kids still. Similarly to Power Rangers which may be action etc. but they would never kill on that show. That fan film proved the line. Thus if they won't cross it then Pokémon sure as hell won't. The most you can expect are horror elements, suspense, magic and explosions.

Regarding Cartoon Network, yes, all you need to see to remember what it should be is this:

As for kids and social media, well... mainly parents' fault as they often are even below account age.

 

[PF9]

Light Lucario is right, TPC will never ever do anything adult oriented for Pokémon. That’s not their target demo and never will be. I don’t think they would ever even make something PG,

Marvel and DC have works that have all kinds of target audiences, so Pokemon doing that would not be out of the ordinary.

 

[Checkerboard]

Marvel and DC have works that have all kinds of target audiences, so Pokemon doing that would not be out of the ordinary.

That's like comparing apples and oranges. Marvel and DC always had those. Pokémon never. It started solely as a kids franchise.

 

[Conttactt]

Marvel and DC have works that have all kinds of target audiences, so Pokemon doing that would not be out of the ordinary.

And? That’s not relevant at all. TPC is VERY protective of their brand and keeping it exclusively kid friendly. If adults like it too, wonderful! But they are not going to make content that isn’t for children.

TPC has even gone after certain smut creators like Diives who started getting too popular. They don’t play around. Detective Pikachu is probably the most “adult” this franchise ever gets.

 

[Light Lucario]

I agree with Lucario that Pokémon will never get anything pg let alone ma. Its heyday may be over and it is becoming slowly run into the ground, or rather naturally phased out or obsolete, at least the anime, but that won't make them suddenly go dark. I would like that. But I'm not the majority expecting something else. As a brand it's a safe haven for kids still. Similarly to Power Rangers which may be action etc. but they would never kill on that show. That fan film proved the line. Thus if they won't cross it then Pokémon sure as hell won't. The most you can expect are horror elements, suspense, magic and explosions.

I wouldn't say that the franchise being slowly run into the ground. I can almost understand that impression, but I feel like that's too pessimistic for my tastes. Considering how successful the games and merchandise are, the idea that it's being phased out or obsolete is also pretty strange to me. It's easily one of the biggest franchises out there. Even if you look at just the anime itself, I don't think that really fits. Granted, I'm not sure if Horizons has really caught much attention despite being a major change to the status quo,but I wouldn't say that it's being naturally phased out or becoming obsolete either. It's still one of the biggest aspects of the franchise. When people think of Pokemon, most people would probably think of the games, the card game or the anime.

Marvel and DC have works that have all kinds of target audiences, so Pokemon doing that would not be out of the ordinary.

No, it would. DC and Marvel have always had more mature elements to their various properties. They don't market their characters specifically for kids or have their brands specifically family friendly like Pokemon does. Pokemon, by comparison, has always been aimed at kids. That doesn't change just because there are long time adult fans now.

Besides all that, you can still appeal to adult fans without making something edgy or more adult. They've arguably already done that with stuff like Pokemon Origins or even Legends Arceus. Those can still be enjoyed by children and adult fans, which is the most ideal approach to go for instead of alienating the target audience and completely ditching their family friendly image.

 

[Checkerboard]

What I mean is that the hey day of Pokémon is over. It reached a climax years ago and now is running from brand recognition. The cards and games are keeping it alive mostly. The anime just ended. Ash is gone. That was the face for 25 years. New stuff will never do as well. And the show isn't innovative and new as it used to be. The craze isn't there as it used to be where Pokémon is the only choice, only on tv at a certain time and everyone is watching it. These days it's more on Netflix and elsewhere if anything and there are literally hundreds of others of better shows to choose from. Sure, fans might continue to watch anything, but the average viewers might choose something else. The animes will continue for some years and the cards and games will too, but if I should say what's most popular right now from what I see it would be the cards. They recycle a lot, but manage to create. Then the games and merch. And then the shows. It probably differs market to market, but that's the vibe I'm getting. Horizons or whatever else they make might support the other stuff, but it's just not the same. The hype and mania on the streets... no. At this point it's just another option, not THE option nor THE show paving the way. Which is okay. No show stays #1 forever. Just slowly moving on to something else. It's actually good it ended and didn't zombie itself like the Simpsons. The best they could do is rerun the older seasons and release them where needed on DVD/Blu.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

What I mean is that the hey day of Pokémon is over. It reached a climax years ago and now is running from brand recognition. The cards and games are keeping it alive mostly. The anime just ended. Ash is gone. That was the face for 25 years. New stuff will never do as well. And the show isn't innovative and new as it used to be. The craze isn't there as it used to be where Pokémon is the only choice, only on tv at a certain time and everyone is watching it. These days it's more on Netflix and elsewhere if anything and there are literally hundreds of others of better shows to choose from. Sure, fans might continue to watch anything, but the average viewers might choose something else. The animes will continue for some years and the cards and games will too, but if I should say what's most popular right now from what I see it would be the cards. They recycle a lot, but manage to create. Then the games and merch. And then the shows. It probably differs market to market, but that's the vibe I'm getting. Horizons or whatever else they make might support the other stuff, but it's just not the same. The hype and mania on the streets... no. At this point it's just another option, not THE option nor THE show paving the way. Which is okay. No show stays #1 forever. Just slowly moving on to something else. It's actually good it ended and didn't zombie itself like the Simpsons. The best they could do is rerun the older seasons and release them where needed on DVD/Blu.

Fair enough… this current generation with the Pokemon school is not really doing it for me. It felt like a rehash of Sun and Moon and just not what I’m looking for from the franchise. Maybe it gets better though. I didn’t make it far in the game or the anime.

They’ll never stop milking this franchise though. It isn’t 1999 where it’s the hot new thing, but it is still a very lucrative multimedia franchise. They just installed a new machine at the grocery store where it has Pokemon cards for sale. Some of the items you can order there are just cheap card packs but there are also items marked in the hundreds of dollars…

 

[Light Lucario]

What I mean is that the hey day of Pokémon is over. It reached a climax years ago and now is running from brand recognition. The cards and games are keeping it alive mostly. The anime just ended. Ash is gone. That was the face for 25 years. New stuff will never do as well. And the show isn't innovative and new as it used to be. The craze isn't there as it used to be where Pokémon is the only choice, only on tv at a certain time and everyone is watching it. These days it's more on Netflix and elsewhere if anything and there are literally hundreds of others of better shows to choose from. Sure, fans might continue to watch anything, but the average viewers might choose something else. The animes will continue for some years and the cards and games will too, but if I should say what's most popular right now from what I see it would be the cards. They recycle a lot, but manage to create. Then the games and merch. And then the shows. It probably differs market to market, but that's the vibe I'm getting. Horizons or whatever else they make might support the other stuff, but it's just not the same. The hype and mania on the streets... no. At this point it's just another option, not THE option nor THE show paving the way. Which is okay. No show stays #1 forever. Just slowly moving on to something else. It's actually good it ended and didn't zombie itself like the Simpsons. The best they could do is rerun the older seasons and release them where needed on DVD/Blu.

That does make a bit more sense, although I still think that claiming that the franchise is becoming obsolete or slowly phasing out really doesn't make any sense. Sure, the franchise and the anime in particular aren't in their hey day of popularity, but that isn't to say that they aren't successful just because there isn't such huge hype and Pokemania on the streets.

Being another option instead of The option or The show paving the way is not a bad thing either. Despite how the dub marketed it, there have been multiple series, not just one insanely long one thousand plus episode series. The anime was able to stay on cable TV for nearly twenty years before moving to Disney XD and even moving to Netflix was more about the changing TV landscape as opposed to the anime becoming less successful. I'd say that the anime is still an important builder of the series, but the video games are the actual foundation since that's where the series began in the first place and that's where new characters, location and Pokemon are introduced. Just because it isn't the #1 show, something that Pokemon hasn't really been since at least Johto or the first Advanced season, doesn't mean it isn't successful or that it is obsolete. A show can still be successful without being a huge craze for decades.

 

[Conttactt]

What I mean is that the hey day of Pokémon is over. It reached a climax years ago and now is running from brand recognition.

I don’t know where you are looking but this isn’t the case. I mean, I guess it’s the case if you are comparing to the madness hype in 1999, but it’s still a shockingly powerful franchise.

The games fly off the shelves every single time regardless of the controversial changes made to them

Stores still have sale limits on cards because of people scalping them

Pokémon Go is still active, and most of its downfalls are the fault of Niantic mismanagement, not the franchise itself

Pokémon continues to dominate fanart and its merchandise still sells very well

The only thing I could actually say is slipping is the anime. And not just because Ash won the league, it had been slipping for years prior to that. But once the rumors started that Ash might actually get that W, the hype came right back.

I’m not even much of a pokemon fan myself but I still find it hard to believe the franchise is slipping in relevance

 

[PF9]

Does anyone feel [adult swim] is getting too kid-friendly?

 

[Conttactt]

Does anyone feel [adult swim] is getting too kid-friendly?

It hardly is changing. It adopted 2 early hours which it is using to nostalgia pander to its target demographic, and it’s inherited a couple CN shows, that once they are burned off will probably fade away and be forgotten. Everything else has stayed the same.

 

[mqg96]

There's nothing wrong with Gumball and TTG, it's just we're tired of seeing those shows. We wanna see something else.

and Nick has been doing this with SpongeBob SquarePants for nearly a decade longer compared to CN with TTGO or Gumball.

Pokemon as a franchise still has a more of an all-age/family friendly vibe that I don't think that they'd want to tamper with.

Just about everything you've said is spot on. I feel like card trading game franchises or franchises with unique animals that can be marketable as toys... like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Bakugan, Beyblade, Digimon, etc. are always going to appeal to kids more.

Other anime like DBZ, Naruto, Gundam or One Piece for example have action scenes that a kid can get into but have deeper and more mature plotlines. Plus the merchandise for those series aren't marketed in the same way as the series I mentioned above.

Yes... adults still enjoy the Pokemon franchise whether it's the games or the cards vice versa... there's adult streamers on Twitch or Kick who have built a following because of Pokemon.... and on the other end... a little kid can get into DBZ or Naruto just like I did when I was younger...

but in the grand scheme of things casually.... It's more likely that a young kid will be drawn towards toys for Pokemon or Bakugan... whereas it's more likely a teen or adult will be drawn towards shirts or hoodies for Demon Slayer or Naruto for example. So trying to market an R rated or TV-MA version of a Pokemon series just wouldn't work.

 

[JMTV]

and Nick has been doing this with SpongeBob SquarePants for nearly a decade longer compared to CN with TTGO or Gumball.

Exactly. That’s what happened when you made people lose interest watching your network. SpongeBob is no exception. I love SpongeBob, but I don’t want to watch that show all the time. I would rather watch something else.

Also, with the whole rated R Pokémon thing, no. I don’t want to see that. It just doesn’t work. End of story.

Now back on topic regarding Adult Swim….

It hardly is changing. It adopted 2 early hours which it is using to nostalgia pander to its target demographic, and it’s inherited a couple CN shows, that once they are burned off will probably fade away and be forgotten. Everything else has stayed the same.

Yeah, that’s one thing I do appreciate about Adult Swim. Unlike Cartoon Network, at least Adult Swim still stuck to their roots, and being more active with the community for many years.

Even if they are started to nostalgia pandered their own fans, at least they have a reason to. With the exception of their anniversaries on special occasions, CN rarely aired their classic shows on a regular basis anymore since they wanted to focus on the kids today. Yes, Ouweleen is trying to change that, but still. I can imagine that WBD can’t fixed the problem that’s already been made, so they felt Adult Swim is a much better option. So, there’s that.

 

[Tacomaster]

Does anyone feel [adult swim] is getting too kid-friendly?

That’s exactly what this thread is about

 

[PicardMan]

One thing I can't wrap my head around is why seemingly all action cartoons have been sent to Adult Swim seemingly at the last minute. It feels weird Cartoon Network keeps greenlighting action cartoons only to dump them to Adult Swim for being "too violent." It seems like people keep saying that kid shows on Adult Swim won't be a regularly occurring thing, but we keep getting them. It looks like those who predicted that Unicorn Warriors Eternal and My Adventures with Superman would be anomalies and 2024 would not have any more kid shows come to Adult Swim were wrong.

 

[Tacomaster]

Because if they claim they’re too violent, they can send them to adult swim, which means more profitable types of ads, more ads in general, and thus more money.

 

[JMTV]

Because if they claim they’re too violent, they can send them to adult swim, which means more profitable types of ads, more ads in general, and thus more money.

...and to continuing that vicious self-repeating cycle over and over and over again lol

(I hate it)

 

[Conttactt]

One thing I can't wrap my head around is why seemingly all action cartoons have been sent to Adult Swim seemingly at the last minute. It feels weird Cartoon Network keeps greenlighting action cartoons only to dump them to Adult Swim for being "too violent." It seems like people keep saying that kid shows on Adult Swim won't be a regularly occurring thing, but we keep getting them. It looks like those who predicted that Unicorn Warriors Eternal and My Adventures with Superman would be anomalies and 2024 would not have any more kid shows come to Adult Swim were wrong.

I think until we get actual hard confirmation from a reliable source, IFG coming to AS should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[Goldstar!]

Let's face it, folks. Cartoon Network is done. Adult Swim is the channel now, and while I still think that the AS branding is too niche to be the entire channel, AS is the only part of the channel that Michael Ouleween and WB care about, and that's the part of the network that WB is willing to do anything with.

It's a Catch 22 situation: No one is watching Cartoon Network because there's nothing good on it, and Warner Bros Discovery won't put anything good on CN because no one is watching it.

It's the Adult Swim channel, whether we like it or not. WB might try to keep the Cartoon Network name around in some form, but that's about the best that we can hope for.