Adult Swim News: “Smiling Friends” Series Order Update ; “Food Wars” ; “Rick and Morty”

 

 

Adult Swim will be releasing “Snake Jazz” as a single on Friday for various music download and streaming services.

The “Snake Jazz” bit emanates from the Rick and Morty episode “Rattlestar Ricklactica” that sees Rick and Morty fuck around with a planet filled with snakes. Some of the art that comes from said planet is snake jazz, a concept that you can see composer Ryan Elder put together in the clip below. New episodes of Rick and Morty return May 3rd only on Adult Swim.

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I hear a deal between Adult Swim and the producers of Smiling Friends are still ongoing, but both sides want to get a deal done. The network is blown away by the reception to the pilot episode of Smiling Friends not only on television but streaming numbers as well. The network will try to keep the pickup silent but that’s why you guys read us now, isn’t it?

Read our review of the pilot episode here.

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Toonami producer Jason DeMarco has every intention of bringing seasons three to five of Food Wars, but says that negotiations for a new deal are going to have to happen first. Here’s what he had to say:

FYI for those asking, we do intend to bring Food Wars S3-5 to Toonami eventually but it’s a different set of rights that will require a new deal to be struck. We are working on it, we’ll of course let you know when and if we make that happen. I love Food Wars!

— SPIRAL CURSE DEMARCO (@Clarknova1) April 15, 2020

This may seem like a lot of double talk, but I get where Jason’s coming from so…

Our Take

Food Wars is one of the rare anime franchises that pretty much get released physically first before it’s English dub is streamed or aired on television. For the show’s third season, the Blu-Ray released within a week or so of the HiDive premiere which, I can’t imagine, helps either formats. Comparatively, Funimation will stream an original series in Japanese, then (or sometimes at the same time) premiere the English dub, then send it to Toonami, then it gets released on home release which is the correct way to do it in 2020. Sentai still thinks that anime should be released like it’s 2005 which I think is where the negotiations are ongoing. If I’m Adult Swim, I’m pitching a Toonami premiere first before anything happens, then go from there.

Further complicating everything is that Adult Swim content is beginning it’s mass exodus from Hulu and moving on over to HBO MAX which launches in May. Hulu is a competitive service that currently has a syndication deal with Funimation already so Toonami’s only play for original airings is the fact that it dominates the linear platforms as the only place on American television to get anime.