Nicktoons to Air DragonBall Z Kai
Remember how weird it was when we found out that Naruto Shippuden would be airing on Disney XD? Well that was nothing compared to this. Nickelodeon revealed in their recent upfront event that FUNimation's DragonBall Z Kai would be airing on their Nicktoons Network beginning this May, the same month the DVDs & Blu-rays begin going on sale. That's right- DBZ on Nickelodeon. The world's going to end, & hell has frozen over. Anyone wanna guess how this is gonna work?
This also brings up the question: has Cartoon Network given up so much on anime that they don't even want to air DBZ anymore? Despite that though, there is a plus side with Kai going to Nick. It'll allow a brand new generation of kids to be exposed to the greatest anime series of all time. Granted it'll probably be heavily edited & the viewers will be younger than what Toonami skewed to, but its still brand new exposure to a new audience. Well ACTUALLY this would be true if the series were in fact on Nickelodeon. Instead, it's going to its sister network, one that many kids don't even have, & the ones that do usually have it up high in the channels numbers.
Then again, this seems to go with a recent trend of Nicktoons Network getting exclusive action series. Indeed, Nicktoons is becoming a lot more action-oriented then its comedy-driven main channel. It is the only place in the US to catch Wolverine & the X-Men as well as Iron Man: Amored Adventures. & Nickelodeon itself is no stranger to anime. Back when I was a kid, a number of cartoons from Japan aired on the channel, the most famous of which being the Littl' Bits. Though back then no one really knew it was anime, or what anime even was. & a bit more recently, Nick tried out airing the Speed Racer 2000 about 10 years back. That unfortunately didn't turn out so good for them, but I think they'll have a much better chance for success with DragonBall Z Kai.
Press Release: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2010-03-11/top-ranked-nickelodeon-announces-its-2010-11-season-programming-slate-at-annual-upfront-presentation