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Answerman - Why Did Only Cartoon Network/Adult Swim Stick With Anime?

The Syfy/Manga Entertainment deal lasted as long as it did because it coincided with [adult swim] largely shrugging at anime, so shows like Gundam 00, Gurren Lagann and Monster had an opportunity.

Disney didn't quite know what they'd gotten, but did a pretty game localization dub (still one of the best Western broadcast dubs to date, counting DiC's Sailor Moon),

EricJ2 wrote:

Disney didn't quite know what they'd gotten, but did a pretty game localization dub (still one of the best Western broadcast dubs to date, counting DiC's Sailor Moon),

Um, isn't DiC's Sailor Moon dub considered rather infamous? As I understand it, DiC changed a number of significant plot elements. Or am I misunderstanding your point?

Primus wrote:

Turner launched Cartoon Network because they owned a sizeable library of suitable content, including Hanna Barbera, so those weren't licensed shows. But your point isn't really wrong. In the 90s, Cartoon Network had little original material. It was largely library reruns. Warner Bros. Animation was focused on KidsWB, since that still had a significantly larger audience. Cartoon Network's viewership continued to grow, while KidsWB's shrank, CN launched its own production studio and then had the support of WBA.

This is true for most cable channels until the late 90s -- cable was a place to dump reruns, while original programming aired on the networks or in syndication. The exceptions tended to be cheaply produced programs like Talk Soup and Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

Nickelodeon was the real pioneer here. Hey Dude and Are You Afraid of the Dark were cheap programs, but they were original programming when no one else on cable was doing it.

Doraemon--which was pretty darn good, btw--didn't "flop", so much as it was buried by Disney X-D:
Since the license deal had been pushed by the Japanese licensors back when Doraemon was going to be the '20 Olympics mascot and needed the Western exposure...Disney didn't quite know what they'd gotten, but did a pretty game localization dub (still one of the best Western broadcast dubs to date, counting DiC's Sailor Moon), but since it wasn't their property and didn't have a proven track record, it was the second-half-hour "B-single" player to what was going to be their channel's money-series, "The 7D". (Which was more in keeping with the network's new attempt to clone CN's "x-treme" stoner-random incoherence.)

And nobody in the west knew WHAT the flaming heck Yo-Kai Watch was, except that A) its marketing was dominating headlines, B) just like Pokemon did fifteen years before....Ie., its popularity among Japanese kids who bought the toys, knew what Yokai were, and watched the show after school every day.
Had about exactly as much luck as trying to sell Pretty Cure to an audience that didn't consist of little afterschool Japanese girls who like mahou-shoujo.
You'd think Disney, still smarting from putting Princess Mononoke in theaters, would know that not everything over here is EXACTLY the hit it is over there.

I always wondered about that; when SciFi/SyFy moved Manga Entertainment's block to 2:00AM(?) I knew that the deal was close to expiring.....

Indeed. Most modern kids anime are so difficult to market toward mainstream audiences in the West that they either:
1. Get licensed by Crunchyroll and fall into deep obscurity on the streaming service
2. Never get licensed at all

Most of them are just too Japanese. They rarely focus on universal ideas that non-Japanese viewers can easily understand. And because they rely so heavily on merchandise sales, trying to pitch those Japanese-heavy concepts to potential North American merchandise partners is a non-starter. Not to mention that there's so much domestic animated kids shows dominating North American airwaves already that foreign shows wouldn't be able to compete well. I'm not even sure how many kids would get a kick out of Hanakappa, Anpanman, Danchi Tomoo, or Pikachin Kit. Mysterious Joker's action-centric content seems like a great fit for Disney X-D, but would they really want to air an anime about phantom thieves that steal riches (while avoiding the police) to kids?

Also, WowMax Next has been very quiet about their dubbed pilots of Ninja Boys: Quest for the Cosmic Front, PriPara, and Net Ghosts PiPoPa for a while. I'm starting to think that they're having trouble trying to find potential buyers for them.

They do, but they're the only kids network that's actually cares about anime that much. No one else wants to touch them. Not even networks that rely on acquired shows, like Qubo.

Chiller tried anime for a bit. It’s not like their channel has much original programming anyway, and hardly anybody watches it. They licensed four obscure shows from FUNi’s deep catalogue. They had Devil May Cry: The Animation, Black Blood Brothers, Is This A Zombie?!, and one more I can’t remember. Nobody cared, and it only lasted two weeks. I think I read somewhere that Chiller’s about to shut down anyway.

(EDIT: now that I look the original question mentions specifically Nickelodeon, which makes a lot more sense - the title of the article threw me. But it feels like Nickelodeon was never particularly animation-centric in the first place except for very early on, either - though that may be misperception on my part.)

The premise of this question (and some of the conclusions) feels a little off, because it ignores a lot of counterexamples; for instance, Fox's 4Kids block which had a substantial stack of shows, or Disney now, which has had its own anime block for a year running. Of course, these are all kids' shows - but that's essentially the point; those networks are kids' networks! Now, if the question is 'why wasn't Disney airing a late-night 'adult' animation block a la the anime Adult Swim?' then that might be another matter, but I think there are a lot of different answers for that one, with Disney's ferocious protectiveness of its image high on the list.

Just before the bubble burst, Nickelodeon had signed a MAJOR deal with PIXAR to create original content. I am sure that deal, good or bad, earmarked quite a bit of budget dollars. Nick was just coming off their "bring it in if it is overseas" period and was desperate to change themselves.

I was under the impression Tenchi Muyo only aired on Cartoon Network because somebody at the network really wanted it on TV. Same with Cowboy Bebop on Adult Swim.

I was under the impression Tenchi Muyo only aired on Cartoon Network because somebody at the network really wanted it on TV. Same with Cowboy Bebop on Adult Swim.

Those are both true. The Toonami crew loved Bebop, but the Standards and Practices department told them it was just too violent to edit to a children's level, which is why they were ecstatic about the creation of Adult Swim.

Um, isn't DiC's Sailor Moon dub considered rather infamous? As I understand it, DiC changed a number of significant plot elements. Or am I misunderstanding your point?