Odds & Ends: Toonavision launches on Rogers, Shaw, and … Comcast; Canadian dub update
Breakdown
Toonavision launches on Rogers, Shaw, and … Comcast
Atlantic Digital Network’s Toon-A-Vision animation channel has expanded its reach in a big and unexpected way. The Dartmouth-based broadcaster launched a free linear and video-on-demand app through Rogers Ignite and Shaw BlueCurve at the start of the month. This also came with a surprise debut in the United States, as the same app is available to Comcast Xfinity users.
With the new availability comes a new site. Notably, it appears the company will be running separate schedules for Canada and the U.S. as the latter feed doesn’t include shows like Dragonforce or Future Card Buddyfight.
Toon-A-Vision launched in Canada back in 2018. The channel remains available on other Canadian providers like Bell, Cogeco and Eastlink through traditional means.
Cardfight! Vanguard: Will+Dress Season 2 and Glitzy Dolls Go Dating dubs launch, Dragon Quest game on the way
In a bit of Canadian dub update news, the second season of Cardfight! Vanguard Will+Dress launched on YouTube back on April 29th. Episodes of the dub, produced by Blue Water Studios for Bushiroad, stream weekly on the franchise’s official YouTube channel. The cast from the prior seasons return.
TV Tokyo debuted the English dub of Glitzy Dolls Go Dating on Hulu in the United States on May 1st. The stop-motion series, known in Japan as Aiseki Mogol Girl, originally ran for 12 episodes back in 2017. The English version, produced in Vancouver by Ocean, stars Caitlyn Bairstow as Chillie and Kazumi Evans as Sassie.
Square Enix hasn’t formally announced the voice actors for Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai, but a recently revealed trailer for the multi-platform action game suggests the anime’s dub cast will return. Toei Animation produced the English version with Ocean Productions and released the first 50 episodes last fall. As far as I’m aware, this will be the first Japanese-developed Square Enix console game to feature a Canadian voice cast. The company previously held a large development presence in Montreal, with those productions enlisting local talent. Dragon Quest games have traditionally been dubbed in the United Kingdom, but Dai is very much its own thing. Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai launches globally on September 28th.
Adult Swim Canada debuts first English-language original: Psi Cops
Adult Swim Canada is about to launch its first original English-language show. Psi Cops, produced in Vancouver by Wind Sun Sky Entertainment will debut on June 4th at 12:30AM. The 26×11-minute series was created by Bart Batchelor and Chris Nielsen, who also voice the two leads. The duo previously worked on Night Sweats and a variety of other projects for Mondo Media, including World Doctors.
Unjustifiably bold and unnecessarily creative, detectives Kydd and Felixx work as paranormal investigators at Psi Cops, a secret agency crammed into a shady office complex and helmed by true believer, Chief Beef. Alongside a rag-tag group of “experts,” each week we follow Kydd and Felixx out in the field as they investigate alleged sightings of aliens, ghosts, demons, and other hocus-pocus nonsense.
Three French Canadian originals have aired on the channel, including Doomsday Brothers and The Bizarre Stories of Professor Zarbi. The ongoing 20-episode animated adaptation of the Quebecois comic series Red Ketchup debuted on April 23rd. Those shows were produced in conjunction with Teletoon la Nuit.
YTV ends hosted content, including The Zone?
YTV viewers may have noticed that the channel appears to have dropped its hosted segments. The flagship afterschool block The Zone has been running without them for the entire month of May. The same is true for The Weekend Zone and Big Fun Movies.
Spencer Litzinger, who’s been a host for the channel since 2018, announced on Instagram that she landed a new job elsewhere but would “still host YTV here and there.” She posted a group photo with the rest of the channel’s recent on-air talent, where prior host Mark Suki commented, “now we’re all formers.”
YTV’s parent company, Corus Entertainment, hasn’t said anything official, nor have any local media publications covered the story. The Zone, with its hosted segments, had been on the air since 1991. Bristow Global Media (now part of Sphere Media) has been producing the segments for Corus at Corus Quay in Toronto since 2013.
Following up on an earlier story, the French dub of Beyblade Burst QuadStrike began airing on Teletoon in Quebec on May 21st. New episodes air weekly 12:30PM. The last season of the show began airing in English-speaking Canada on Cartoon Network in April.
I Miss Bionix 
Good to see Toon-A-Vision available on Rogers Ignite TV and Shaw BlueCurve TV as an app. But hopefully, the linear channels are made available.
It is very disappointing to see YTV get rids of its hosts for its programming blocks, without any fanfare or official announcement. Looks like the channel is on its last legs, and a guy named Younes Lazzali says that its broadcast license expires on August 18 of this year.
The channel’s blocks will continue without the hosts. It’s currently unknown if it and Treehouse will get revamped like TELETOON did.