From the front page of AnimeSuperhero.com:
"It is safe to say that the American anime fandom would not be the large subculture that is, if not for Toonami and Adult Swim. Dragonball Z and Naruto are pop cultural touchstones because of their Toonami airings. Toonami is such a strong brand name that expectations of anything with this brand name attached are usually really high. The announcement of Toonami co-producing anime in 2018, starting with sequels to the iconic classic that is FLCL, got fans excited and nervous about the idea of creating a sequel that many people didn’t feel was necessary. Needless to say, the Toonami originals project has been extremally controversial.
How controversial? There have been seven titles released since the start of the Toonami originals line (ten if you count the four FLCL sequels as separate series): We have the FLCL sequels, Fena Pirate Princess, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Shenmue: The Animation, Housing Complex C, and Ninja Kamui. Of those seven titles, only one scored above a 7 on MyAnimeList (Fena Pirate Princess barely scraping it at a 7.07). Professional review sites like Anime News Network have been even less kind to these series than general audiences, seemingly eviscerating these titles with glee whenever they come out. Despite critics and audiences hating these series, Toonami continues to keep pumping them out with Lazarus and Uzumaki coming up and rumors of a possible adaptation of the Rooster Fighter manga (Rick and Morty: The Anime’s dub is set to debut on one of Adult Swim’s comedy nights, making it not a Toonami original by technicality only. For the purposes of this article, it will definitely be treated as a Toonami original). Is there hope for a Toonami original to break the curse, or will Toonami call it quits on originals? Let’s explore those topics."
Read the full editorial here.
"Editorial: Are Toonami Originals Cursed?"
"It is safe to say that the American anime fandom would not be the large subculture that is, if not for Toonami and Adult Swim. Dragonball Z and Naruto are pop cultural touchstones because of their Toonami airings. Toonami is such a strong brand name that expectations of anything with this brand name attached are usually really high. The announcement of Toonami co-producing anime in 2018, starting with sequels to the iconic classic that is FLCL, got fans excited and nervous about the idea of creating a sequel that many people didn’t feel was necessary. Needless to say, the Toonami originals project has been extremally controversial.
How controversial? There have been seven titles released since the start of the Toonami originals line (ten if you count the four FLCL sequels as separate series): We have the FLCL sequels, Fena Pirate Princess, Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Shenmue: The Animation, Housing Complex C, and Ninja Kamui. Of those seven titles, only one scored above a 7 on MyAnimeList (Fena Pirate Princess barely scraping it at a 7.07). Professional review sites like Anime News Network have been even less kind to these series than general audiences, seemingly eviscerating these titles with glee whenever they come out. Despite critics and audiences hating these series, Toonami continues to keep pumping them out with Lazarus and Uzumaki coming up and rumors of a possible adaptation of the Rooster Fighter manga (Rick and Morty: The Anime’s dub is set to debut on one of Adult Swim’s comedy nights, making it not a Toonami original by technicality only. For the purposes of this article, it will definitely be treated as a Toonami original). Is there hope for a Toonami original to break the curse, or will Toonami call it quits on originals? Let’s explore those topics."
Read the full editorial here.