Odds & Ends: Pokémon Journeys: The Series on Teletoon, Corus has Toonami co-pros, Metalions on YouTube
Breakdown
Pokémon Journeys: The Series on Teletoon this May
Earlier today, the Pokémon Company International revealed when the 23rd season of the Pokémon anime series will debut in Canada. Pokémon Journeys: The Series will premiere on the English-language Teletoon on May 9th at 12PM, with a broadcast on the French-language channel set to kick off later this year.
Pokémon Trainer Ash Ketchum has a new plan: see the world! But first, he and his partner Pikachu are headed to the opening of the Cerise Laboratory, a research facility dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of Pokémon in every region. Ash meets Goh, another boy with boundless curiosity about Pokémon, and both are overjoyed when Professor Cerise asks them to become official research fellows. With Ash as determined as ever to become a Pokémon Master, and Goh aiming to catch one of every Pokémon (including the Mythical Mew), our heroes are in for adventure and excitement as they explore the wide world of Pokémon!
Simply known in Japan as Pocket Monster, the OLM-produced series debuted on TV Tokyo last November.
The new season has seen a shakeup on international distribution outside of Canada. Journeys will debut in the United States on Netflix this June, marking the first time the franchise has skipped linear television in that market. In the United Kingdom, Sony’s Pop channel will run the episodes this September. New seasons had typically aired on CITV.
Update (5/7/2020): To celebrate the premiere of Journeys on May 9th, Teletoon is running a marathon of episodes from the prior season between 10AM and 12PM. The channel will re-broadcast the 21st feature, Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us, at 9PM that same night.
Toon-A-Vision adds Cogeco to its distribution roster
Atlantic Digital Networks’ linear children’s channel Toon-A-Vision launched on Cogeco’s platforms yesterday. The channel is available to all subscribers at no additional cost. The launch adds to the Halifax-based broadcaster’s carriage, which also includes Bell and Eastlink. Adam Mimnagh, president of Toon-A-Vision, promises more is on the way. “Our expansion plans continue. We’re in talks with other providers and it looks like we will be available to more customers nationally and internationally very soon.”
Adult Swim Canada programming deal includes Toonami originals
During last Saturday’s Toonami Pre-Flight show, Adult Swim’s Jason Demarco and Gill Austin confirmed that Corus Entertainment’s rights to Adult Swim programming include the block’s original anime co-productions. Upcoming projects such as Sola Digital Arts’ Blade Runner: Black Lotus and Production I.G.’s adaptation of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki manga series would be easily obtainable for the Canadian channel.
During the response, both DeMarco and Gill encouraged fans to tell Corus that they want Toonami on the channel – adding that the company has access to all of the branding produced for the U.S. block.
WildBrain Spark streams Metalions, Tobot: Galaxy Detectives on YouTube
WildBrain’s London-based digital network subsidiary WildBrain Spark has picked up the latest shows from South Korea’s Young Toys. The environmental-themed Metalions launched globally on YouTube on March 27th. The company’s official English Tobot channel uploaded a trailer for the most recent incarnation of the franchise, suggesting it’s headed to the streaming platform sometime soon.
Vancouver’s Ocean Productions is behind the English version of both, with Metalions recorded at the Alberta-based Blue Water Studios. Tobot: Galaxy Detectives is a joint production between the BC and Alberta locations. Both shows air on linear television in South East Asia, with Metalions debuting on MediaCorp’s Okto in December 2018. Tobot: Galaxy Detectives runs on Okto and Cartoon Network Philippines.
Frissons anime block heads into reruns
Frissons TV’s run of Dance in the Vampire Bund and High School of the Dead ended last weekend. The French-language horror channel is set to re-air Shigurui in those timeslots beginning this Sunday.
Thanks Adam, Jesse and John.
I Miss Bionix 
Well, speaking of the English Teletoon channel, they really missed having these adult cartoon shows around during the nighttime because these shows are now on Adult Swim.
Also, It’s really interesting to see Toonami make its debut here in the Great White North.
As part of the programming deal with Adult Swim Canada, I was hoping that the channel would air some original Toonami programming, shows that have never aired in Canada. What can I say about that?
Not terribly surprising to hear that Corus would have access to anime series produced directly for Adult Swim – I’m really surprised they haven’t aired FLCL Progressive/Alternative yet though – and going forward, they may probably also be able to get Crunchyroll-partnered co-productions as part of their programming agreement easily enough. But as long as they continue to make acquisitions from outside of the immediate AT&T/WarnerMedia family, things may continue to be difficult for a would-be Toonami Canada. Just because Corus would have access to Toonami’s US branding/packaging doesn’t mean they would be able to air any of them that reference, say, Dragon Ball Super or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
The FLCL sequels were met with a thud upon debut in the U.S. That’s a country where the original series left an impact. Imagine in a country where it was just another direct-to-video anime release. Given that and the short episode count, it’s not shocking to me that Corus hasn’t run it yet. They can afford not to. If they have the rights, maybe they’ll show up as filler one day? Maybe not.
As for the packaging, when the channel launched, I same this promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7hn3Co8R5Y I thought it was teasing One Punch Man … until I found out the bumper was from the U.S. block and no one at Corus knew it was a reference to a show they didn’t have the rights to.
“until I found out the bumper was from the U.S. block and no one at Corus knew it was a reference to a show they didn’t have the rights to.”
Is that confirmed, though? It could be that they just didn’t care.
I’d like to see them air the FLCL sequels (it’s not like reception in the US has prevented them from showing anything else from AS’s library), but it’s a little less straightforward since they would need to first acquire season 1 from Funimation, who will almost certainly require them to purchase a package deal of shows. Multiple shows would require them to have more of a strategy from the get-go, and airing the sequels alone would likely just be seen as sloppy and careless.
On one hand, it would make sense for them to carefully plan a Toonami block closer Blade Runner’s premiere. On the other hand, they could also just license Dragon Ball Super from Toei and slap it on weeknights now and have it attract thousands of viewers, but still won’t for some reason.
Airing the FLCL sequels without airing the original would be sloppy and careless? Sure, but what else is new?
If anything has been made clear to me over the years about Canadian-run, and specifically Corus-run, digital-cable American-branded specialty channels, is that they get the library output agreement for the specific channel’s programming and call it a day. They do _not_ make any outside acquisitions. (Stuff like Archer and Harley Quinn being exceptions because they are from legacy programming agreements with Teletoon.)
And honestly, with cable TV in general on the downswing, they’re not going to spend another dime on additional programming just to better match their American counterpart.
But I would love for Corus to prove me wrong.
Technically the Fox shows (can we still call them that?) are third party acquisitions as well. It’s obvious why they’re there, but ASC already has more third party content than most other Corus channels. At the same time, we haven’t seen AS originals technically owned by third parties like The Boondocks and Children’s Hospital show up, so they’re obviously selective in what they pick up.
Right now I think the most likely scenario for a Toonami Canada would be adding “garnish” for the debut of Blade Runner and Uzumaki, since the Toonami connection is going to be heavily emphasized for those titles. Not to mention there are apparently six other co-productions in the pipeline. It would be nice to see even minimal acquisitions for that, but it’s also entirely possible that Toonami will wind up being nearly 100% co-produced content at some point, even in the US. I guess that would work out for us?
Speaking of Teletoon, they really miss airing these adult animated shows but the French version of this channel airs these shows at night while the English version airs more of the same kids stuff over and over like it’s no problem. How will this affect these programming strategies?
Also, this probably wasn’t supposed to be what it looked like when Corus gained control of the acquisitions so what’s that got to do with it?