I firmly believe one of the only ways to drag anime out of it's current rut on American television would be to get Naruto back on basic cable prime time and that means... not airing it on Adult Swim.
I also thoroughly believe that if the Turner networks had any interest in the franchise again they would air it on CN's hours rather than Adult Swim's due to their successful history with the show and also due the fact that it was always marketed to younger audiences in America.
And I'm still going with the theory that Adult Swim wont get another long-a.ss shounen until Bleach is over. In the meantime, Cartoon Network has nothing like Naruto for Naruto to compete with so it's much more likely to air on CN than Adult Swim if the rights end up in Turner's hands again.
I might watch it if it aired on Adult Swim (I'm watching Bleach again at any rate) but I'm rather put off with the idea that it would take a very long time to get to any "new" episodes and if Viz keeps releasing the show in the mean time they may never catch up if Adult Swim only aired it on Saturdays.
None the less the very idea of Naruto Shippuden airing on Adult Swim still doesn't sit well with me. It's not an adult show, it's not even that mature. And sure Adult Swim has aired other shounen, tamer shounen even but they should be doing less of that not more.
Naruto is already marketed to older viewers in plenty of ways and that should be sufficient for them. I strongly believe Naruto Shippuden should be aimed at the young boy audience the series was intended for. Young boys of previous generations got DBZ and Naruto on Toonami shouldn't the young boys of this generation get Naruto Shippuden? Cartoon Network wouldn't require the edits DXD did, afterall the first Naruto series was shown nearly uncut and Naruto Shippuden doesn't regularly push beyond TV-PG-V.
You wont get the most out of a propety like Naruto by just airing it for adults.
That said, I don't believe for a second that Naruto Shippuden would not do decently on Adult Swim. Based on the show's success on Hulu it might even be able to beat Bleach. It is afterall one of the most streamed shows on Hulu up there with Family Guy and The Simpsons. And while I would usually say that much existing exposure would hurt a show's potential ratings and I still assume that to be the case, Naruto Shippuden is likely to succeed because of it's far from burnt out.
But Adutl Swim is part of Cartoon Network and if Cartoon Network was interested in Naruto again they wouldn't air it on Adult Swim. Chances of Adult Swim going after Shippuden are slim to none. The staff of Adult Swim consider Naruto and in turn Shippuden to be more up Cartoon Network's alley despite having aired some ever tamer shows on Adult Swim over the years. If it's going to return to Cartoon Network it wont be on Adult Swim's hours and that suits me just fine because IMO it should be marketed to all audiences not just the older fans.
Ya'll can hope what you want but I don't see it happening. And for the record, Disney XD probably still has the rights at the moment.
HELPeR for the TOONAMI, Mobile Suit Gundam, Dragon Ball Z, Harvey Birdman and Perfect Hair Forever boards. Feel free to ask me anything on those topics.
sketch only puts the arrogant whiney punks in their place... sort of like batman, except on the {AS} boards - THECZAROFGNAR
Sketch, should we make sure it's imprinted on your grave stone "He felt very strongly that Bleach belonged on Toonami!" - .hack-SIGN_John
"We aknowledged that Toonami is cooler than us... and they aknowledged that we're full of ****." [adult swim]
AdultSwim.com is part of Turner Entertainment Digital which is part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network.
