If you have digital cable (and I imagine this will also apply to satellite) and are itching to catch some Death Note without paying extra, SCREAM is on free preview for all of October. Check it out and let them know you're enjoying their run of the series.

Quick reminder that Death Note is now running on SCREAM Sunday-Wednesday nights at 12:30am EST and repeating at 4:30am EST. It's not the greatest slot, but if we do everything we can to show enthusiasm or appreciation for the series running on SCREAM (or actually watch the show, especially if you're in the west), it could be a positive thing for anime properties on other Corus stations. Not entirely sure what that would include, but hey!

EDIT: I should note that, going by the guide on my digital box, Death Note's scheduling on SCREAM is very inconsistent. Not only does it not air at the regular timeslot on many days, it also airs at random times on some other days! I saw some airings scheduled for 6am as well as 2pm on random days, so I strongly recommend that you keep close tabs on the station's actual schedule if you intend to catch it on the station.

On a bit of an unexpected note, YTV has seemingly revived its Anime On-Demand service, now specifically branding it as Bionix On-Demand. A bit of a curious move, considering the sudden contraction the block suffered this summer, but all of the major recent titles are there with new titles updated each month. Perhaps they figured they could make more money off of older programming this way rather than actually airing reruns?

Considering that Canadian broadcasters seem to be exercising the belief that on-demand services are on the cutting edge of technology and innovation as far as broadcasting is concerned, this is kind of cool. But I'll be a bit more excited when we finally see Bionix Online - especially considering that the woefully US-only ad-based streaming website Hulu.com is now hosting both subtitled and dubbed episodes of popular anime series' from FUNimation and Viz. Hopefully they commit to it and this service eventually becomes available in Canada, because this is a real step forward, my friends.

Of course absolutely none of the above mentioned affects me, because being in western Canada, I can get neither Hulu.com through the internet, nor Bionix On-Demand through Shaw Cable! What a world.

by: TheVok

Wow, the egregious trend continues: Canadian channels adopting American branding. As though E!, MTV2 and Nickelodeon weren't bad enough, now our premium movie channels are kowtowing to the mighty HBO (as though they hadn't already) and 'launching' a superficially rebranded channel.

We ALREADY get these shows at the same time as the Americans. And we got some past shows like Ali G and Oz for cheaper, as they aired here on basic cable.

The only interesting news is the promise of "movies, comedy specials, live concerts, sporting events and documentaries that previously weren’t available in Canada" ... but these guys will need to be held to their word, given how much of the rest of this launch is just misleading fluff.

Shameless gushing from TVGuide.ca. (Click article title to read the rest.)

by: Thedormin

So after years of being on Cartoon Network in the US has canceled their anime block "Toonami"

You can read about it here: http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=26153

Now given what we know about YTV and how they seem to like the path of the Cartoon Network does that mean that Bionix's days are numbered?

I certainly hope not but given some of the moves that YTV has done recently I have to wonder if this news could give YTV the thinking and reason to kill anime altogether.

EDIT: Or it could indicate nothing, and we'll see Gundam 00 on TV by the end of the year. Let's be optimistic people! - Jesse

A little over a week ago, the CRTC finally released two documents related to the recent, apparently urgent, matter of funnelling public money toward the production of Canadian productions on platforms of new media, as well as the possibility of enforcing Canadian Content rules on the internet. One is a report denoting the urgency of harmonizing television and internet regulation in regards to broadcasting. The lengthy report written by Finance and Economics Professor Eli Noam (who is not Canadian) demonstrates a blatantly simplified view of internet broadcasting which basically establishes the two as interchangeable technologies. The CRTC is by no means expected to abide by these recommendations, but the fact that a man with such a view would even be asked to draft such a proposal is definitely worrying. Such an implementation would ensure that Hulu.com and other similar services never make their way into Canada.

At the same time, the feedback was collected from the public forum which the CRTC launched several months ago to gauge public opinion on new media broadcasting. The results showed an overwhelming desire for no type of regulation to be implemented on the internet apart from the insurance of Net Neutrality. The only problem is that less than 300 people participated in the forum at all! As concisely as the argument was made, the weight that such an argument will carry against the outdated opinion of a lone policy expert can't be said for certain.

MEANWHILE, IN AMERICA...

If you didn't catch its initial run on the now defunct KidsWB!, I hope that you managed to catch the debut of The Spectacular Spider-Man on Teletoon last weekend. It's definitely a series I recommend sticking with - even if it leaves you feeling sceptical at first, it's not the type of show that will take long to win you over. It's definitely one of the best animated series' to come out in the past few years, but while season two is set to debut next year, any continuation beyond that is completely up in the air.

Due to the network change in the US, the show is a the whim of Sony's internal bureaucracy for a third season pick up. As it stands right now, the (mostly freelance) staff is slowly being laid off, which will make it harder and harder to resume production if a third season is greenlit. I should point out that the first DVD of the series is going to be released tomorrow. It seems quite likely that sales figures of this release will be a key factor in the show's continuation even more than is usually the case.

With that in mind, I urge anyone who is a fan of the series to pick up the first volume. Even if you'd rather wait for a boxset or Blu-Ray release (and I personally fall into both camps), this one DVD may be the most important release this fantastic series sees

EDIT: In case you didn't know, The Spectacular Spider-Man airs on Teletoon Sunday mornings at 10:30am EST/PST.

It looks like Corus-owned specialty station SCREAM is going to be giving Death Note a run starting later next month. Are they just dumping the show or actually hoping that Death Note will attract new viewers to the station? I think the show's timeslot will tell us the answer to this quandary.

Death Note
Sundays – Wednesdays @ 12:30am beginning Sunday, September 21

*SCREAM PREMIERE*
A new anime series comes to SCREAM. Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects, but he’s bored out of his mind. All that changes when he finds a mysterious notebook dropped by a rogue death god.

Thanks to forumer Spike for pointing this one out.

(Note: click "read more" to view full article)

One great thing at the con this year was that actual Ocean Studios representatives were back putting on their own industry panels, most of which were based off of their current productions. One such production was the current installment in the Gundam franchise, Gundam 00, a series Bandai is really gunning on rebooting the Gundam phenomenon in the United States with its upcoming premiere on Sci-Fi. However, despite this, the Vancouver talent pool still gets the honour of providing the voice work for the series. And of course, Brad Swaile is playing the main character.

The entire first episode made its North American debut during the panel in its completed dub form, much to the surprise of the audience who were expecting to only see clips as was usually the case for these events. Hopefully we'll more screenings like this come out of Ocean presentations in the future.

(Note: I will be unable to provide photos for these reports for a few days. I should also have a video to provide. Please bear with me, as I will have that taken care of very quickly. Please click on the title to view the full article.)

Friday began with a rather bittersweet revelation: the Walk-Off was not, in fact, the most popular event at the con this year. That honour, without any doubt, went to the registration line. Before this date, the very first Anime Evolution in 2003 still had by far the worst handling of both reg and pre-reg attendees I had seen at a con. Well, I have to say that this year was pretty much comparable to that year, only with the total number of attendees quintupled. It's quite common that people will always point out the line-ups at any particular con are the worst they've ever seen without actually drawing accurate comparisons, simply for the sake of qualifying the chaos currently around them. But trust me on this folks - this was bad. The number of people walking around the convention without bothering to pick up their badges was almost sympathetic.