First, the results of our last poll!
Would you like to see classic Gundam shows (ie: the original series, Zeta Gundam) air on YTV?

Yes --> 84.5%
No --> 15.5%

Like I mentioned before, YTV doesn't seem to be getting a lot of email requests in for the classic Gundam shows, even though this would be the ideal time to be airing them with the popularity that the franchise has amassed thanks to SEED. So if you want to see the original shows, start sending those e-mails! (info@ytv.com)

Anyway, about Naruto. Despite some inevitable fan-bickering, the dub is of very good quality, and most of the things people were worried about are complete non-issues. Name attacks are translated adequately, original BGM is intact, and all of the character names are pronounced exactly as they're supposed to be. (Some people still insist that "€œNaruto"€ isn'€™t being pronounced right, but rest assured, it is. Even hardcore fans had several mispronunciations for it long before it was licensed, but the emphasis is on the first syllable. Don'€™t you forget it.) But there are some problems with the presentation that I think need to be assessed.

First and foremost, YTV only airs it one time a week. I realize that there'€™s probably some strange politics going on behind the scenes with the show, given the last minute delay for the Canadian premiere date, but this isn't right. Personally, it'™s going to be impossible for me to catch every episode at its current timeslot, and I’m sure that a lot of other fans would like just one more timeslot either later on Friday nights or on another night of the week so that the main timeslot doesn'€™t need to feel like a commitment. It seems pointless too, since Fridays at 1:30am are occupied by a repeat of a repeat of Gundam SEED, and Mondays at 11:35pm are occupied by Dragonball – both spots which seem far more viable for a Naruto encore. And we certainly shouldn'€™t be dodging the fact that Cartoon Network currently has around four airings of the same Naruto episode each week, the newest one being on Saturdays at noon.

Which brings me to the next point: despite many of the things which have been kept in despite the standards other Toonami shows have been held to in the past (recall that Miriallia had her knife digitally removed in SEED), Naruto is still quite heavily edited, with virtually anything Viz has premission to edit being cut out to give you every incentive possible to buy the uncut DVD boxsets. It was even confirmed at some industry panels over the summer that some key points in certain upcoming battles are going to be altered to a considerable degree to coincide with Cartoon Network'€™s standards. Even though we still have some static blood and sharp objects flying freely, make no mistake that Naruto is a show that has been toned down considerably for a younger audience, and if Cartoon Network considers the show appropriate for early afternoon on Saturdays, I don'€™t think it'€™s appropriate at all that YTV has slapped it with a disclaimer citing scenes of violence. Doing that just cheapens the disclaimer itself, and doesn'™t set a very good precedent at all for the type of material it should be able to cover.

Despite maintaining many elements that keeps it in tune with the original to a degree, Naruto is still a localized show for kids through-and-through. You can'€™t claim that a tiger is a zebra just based off of the pattern of its stripes, and I would say that the replaced opening and ending credits are what drives home the fact that this isn't really a Bionix kind of show. Overall, I'€™m not really sure if Naruto is an appropriate show for the block. It'™s not a huge deal right now, since YTV isn'™t making many other shows available to them and airing the series on Bionix after Inuyasha is probably an adequate marketing gimmick (not as good a marketing gimmick as actually advertising the damn show would be, but we all know that'€™s crazy); but since it is essentially a localized kids show, I feel that it should be bumped down from the block at some point into the 8pm-9pm hour. I mean, Naruto is going to be around for 3-4 years: that'™s valuable space it'™s taking up!

Which brings me to the topic of my latest poll: Should Naruto leave Bionix at some point? Consider what I'™ve mentioned above: personally, I think it should. I mean, it'€™s great that we’re getting the show so fast, but it really would make a better Dragonball replacement.

Oh, and you probably noticed the technical error on Friday's airing of Ghost in the Shell. Thankfully nothing important was lost, but it'€™s still a bit disappointing that this kind of thing is still happening frequently. Be sure to catch the Thursday airing, which should be free of glitches.

Original date: September 16, 2005

Just in case you had forgotten, since YTV doesn'€™t seem to want to bother advertising one of their biggest acquisitions ever, Naruto debuts tonight at 9:30pm. Catch it, because there won’t be any encores at all.

Also, it seems that I was mistaken last week about the new episodes of ATHF and Brak, since Teletoon deemed it necessary to run through all of Star Wars: Clone Wars and Ryan for the second week in a row. They should be debuting tonight, but with Teletoon you just never know.

I don'€™t think there'€™s much that needs to be said about YTV'€™s new look. It's just plain awesome. For the first time in years and years, YTV is cool. Now let'€™s hope it stays this way!

One minor little niggle would have to be the inconsistent disclaimers. There clearly was a disclaimer made specifically for Ghost in the Shell, citing violence, coarse language, and the fact that the show was for an older teen audience, that aired on the show'€™s future timeslot on Thursday night. However, when GitS actually aired on Friday night, it didn'€™t use that disclaimer. Since there was no footage cut from the first episode (and let'€™s hope it stays that way!), I'™m pretty sure that this was a mistake on the part of the programming department. There was also a new disclaimer introduced for SEED which stated that it contained scenes of violence and was intended for an older youth audience. Let'€™s hope that things are straightened out this week and that both SEED and GitS run with the correct disclaimers this time around!

Also, Naruto debuted this weekend on Cartoon Network. I don'€™t think there'™s anything left to be said, really. I'm happy with how well Viz handled the content for Toonami and kept the BGM untouched, but I am immensely disappointed with their decision to replace the opening and ending themes. I have to say that because of that, I'm not quite as enthusiastic about it airing on Bionix.