Adult Swim Action
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adult Swim Action (ASA), is an anime block on Cartoon Network that airs on Saturday nights from 11:30p.m.- 2a.m. as a part of Adult Swim. ASA currently airs anime such as Bleach, Trinity Blood and Eureka Seven.
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[edit] History
Launched on February 23, 2002, Adult Swim Action originally ran on Cartoon Network Saturday nights from 11p.m.- 2a.m. (As of October 2003, a 2nd run from 2a.m.- 5a.m. was added to Adult Swim) At first, ASA ran Cowboy Bebop and potential Toonami series such as Gundam 0083, Yu Yu Hakusho (which was moved to Toonami in March 2003) and Pilot Candidate as well as former Toonami shows such as Tenchi Muyo!, Tenchi Universe (for one episode), Outlaw Star and Mobile Suit Gundam.
The original Adult Swim Action separated itself from the Sunday Adult Swim Comedy edition. ASA featured a thirty second opening theme that concluded with a robot voice (which was also present during commercial breaks) saying "All kids out of the pool- Adult Swim". The commercial bumpers were silhouettes with stylized music by Joe Boyd Vigil (who also did the ASA opening and much of the Toonami TOM Era music). InuYasha started on Adult Swim on August 31, 2002, marking the first anime premiere since the block's inception and also permanently displacing Pilot Candidate. In November of 2002, Gundam 0083 was re-placed with Gundam 0080 and in December of 2002, Outlaw Star left Cartoon Network for good to make room for a second InuYasha premiere.
January 4, 2003 was the last night of the original ASA programming. On this night Adult Swim played it's first movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, the conclusion to the unfinished Cartoon Network anime, Mobile Suit Gundam.
[edit] Cancellation
On January 13, 2003, Adult Swim Action Saturdays were cancelled and eventually Cartoon Network used it for the now defunct, Saturday Video Entertainment System programming block. ASA moved to weeknights dropping Mobile Suit Gundam and Gundam 0080 from Adult Swim but later adding new shows such as Lupin III, Reign the conqueror, Trigun as well as giving Inuyasha weeknight premieres and moving Yu Yu Hakusho and Cowboy Bebop over to weeknights. The robot voice, which had been the staple "host" of ASA was also gone. The Adult Swim logo and bumpers also underwent slight revisions during this time.
In March of 2003, Yu Yu Hakusho was moved from weeknight Adult Swim to weekday Toonami where it was edited to a Y-7 television rating. Yu Yu Hakusho is the only Adult Swim show to move from ASA to Toonami. In May of 2003, Adult Swim underwent a complete revamp that replaced the signature silhouette bumpers (ASA) and pool bumpers (ASC) with obscure black and white text cards.
Adult Swim weeknights went on to air more anime such as Kikaider and Blue Gender. In August of 2003, The Big O Season 2 premiered on Adult Swim Sunday nights, co-produced by Cartoon Network.
[edit] Rebirth
On April 17th, 2004, Adult Swim regained Saturday nights and played its second movie, The Animatrix. Saturday nights went on to become the new age of ASA programming, airing new shows such as Witch Hunter Robin and Wolf's Rain as well as the popular OVA, Read or Die. However, the mediocre ratings resulted in Adult Swim Comedy shows such as Futurama taking the early timeslots on Saturday nights. Case Closed, the popular Japanese anime series, premiered on Adult Swim in 2004 but was later pulled due to poor television ratings, appearing later only in reruns at an early morning timeslot. Also in 2004, Adult Swim made the acquisition of the popular anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
May 2003-Present
[edit] Future
In 2005, Adult Swim acquired the rights to and began showing s-CRY-ed (which had been on Adult Swim's "On Demand" service since 2004), Samurai Champloo and Paranoia Agent and also played several anime movies: Metropolis, InuYasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time, InuYasha the Movie: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass, Escaflowne: The Movie and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.
In October of 2005, Adult Swim began airing the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, a show which they had long sought to acquire. And on Halloween, ASA played the anime special, Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek.
2006 was a mediocre year for ASA. With Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell ended, the demand for new content increased. Adult Swim Action experienced a short-lived rebranding failure in summer 2006 as "Action Saturdays" which was dropped once ASC shows such as Futurama and Crayon Shin-Chan were added to the Saturday line-up. Inuyasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler premiered on Adult Swim in August of 2006. In September of 2006, Bleach and Trinity Blood arrived on Adult Swim and are currently in premieres on Saturday nights.
