Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

[busterbeam]

There is absolutely no way this isn't going to air on American TV... it's just a matter of where.

[Gendo'sPapa]

I can promise it's set for late late night on Adult Swim.

[NAveryW]

Only with heavy censorship. All the harsher swears will have to be both bleeped and pixelated. The sperm episode will most likely have to be cut.

[TehDonutKing]

Only with heavy censorship. All the harsher swears will have to be both bleeped and pixelated. The sperm episode will most likely have to be cut.

It could come on post-watergate.

[drinian]

It could come on post-watergate.

You're thinking of "watershed." I walked by the Watergate Complex in DC yesterday. But you're right; basically the only censorship on cable TV is self-censorship for fear of losing advertisers. Comedy Central has aired the South Park movie uncensored at 1 or 2 AM on Friday nights with sponsors who were willing to be associated with that. No doubt such an arrangement could be made, and they would corner the important insomniac demographic.

[Gendo'sPapa]

It can play uncensored. Well, as uncensored as it was in Japan (the Sperm episode will still have the little Black Censors I'm sure). But it will be a strictly late night affair. 1 AM or later.

Perhaps the curse words could be turned into a joke with sound effects to bleep out the fucks but otherwise it could play on American television without much issue as long as it plays late.

Honestly, I wouldn't miss the cursing for one. What made the cursing so hilarious in the original language was how sudden and goofily pronounced the English curse words would come. "Vat Da Fack!" In English the cursing wouldn't really be funny anymore. It would just be random swearing by people who speak English. Not so funny anymore.

[NAveryW]

Legally it could air at any time on cable. Everything on Adult Swim is post-watershed so it could legally air even on network TV. But their standards and practices wouldn't allow it. The swears and much of "Pulp Addiction" would have to go.

[TehDonutKing]

Comedy Central might allow it to go uncensored, but I doubt that they'd want to touch it in the first place.

[NAveryW]

This is a loop of the same conversation we had when the show started.

[drinian]

This is a loop of the same conversation we had when the show started.

Pretty much.

The real problem is that Gainax will want money up front for TV broadcast rights, but it's unlikely that it would become a runaway hit based on being broadcast on basic cable and so no network will choose to spend the money. The other option that people are forgetting is HBO or Cinemax. I mean, HBO made a reality show, "Cathouse," that was basically pornographic.

[Fireball]

We got DJ Brief in da house!

[gatotsu911]

Just started watching this with my anime club, and it is awesome.

I really hope it airs on Adult Swim (a good dub and proper exposure could do wonders for it), but yeah, there is a distinct chance that it will never get past the FCC. I hope I'm wrong, though, because the show is pure, concentrated awesome.

[C.A.P.]

P&S fans sure are amused easily...

[gatotsu911]

Oh c'mon, you can't appreciate a little unfettered madness every once in a while? I friggin' love Hiroyuki Imaishi.

[Mr. Tines]

P&S fans sure are amused easily...

There's no need for that sort of comment. If you want to be disappointed at the colossal waste of talent and potential it represents that is fine; being disrespectful of other forum members is not.

[C.A.P.]

There's no need for that sort of comment. If you want to be disappointed at the colossal waste of talent and potential it represents that is fine; being disrespectful of other forum members is not.

You know what, you're right. Here, let me fix my comment then...

The people who made P&S sure are amused easily...

Better?

[RMZX]

Just started watching this with my anime club, and it is awesome.

I really hope it airs on Adult Swim (a good dub and proper exposure could do wonders for it), but yeah, there is a distinct chance that it will never get past the FCC. I hope I'm wrong, though, because the show is pure, concentrated awesome.

FCC only has control over Basic Cable Networks (Fox, ABC, NBC.), They don't control what Cartoon Network/Adult Swim puts on the air (Or else every TV channel would be stuck with E/I programming in the early hours of the day.) Especially not post-watershed stuff.

[gatotsu911]

Well, I've heard tell that some anime (e.g. Ranma 1/2, Elfen Lied) have been flat-out rejected for airing on Adult Swim purely on the basis of content. If not the FCC, I don't really know who's in charge of these decisions, but it is a cause of some concern.

[drinian]

As I've written above, the FCC only has the ability to regulate the broadcast networks: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW, and a small smattering of others, mostly local.

Limits on what cable channels show are based on business realities. For one thing, cable networks usually want to project a unified image that covers all of their programming: Comedy Central, Lifetime, or Spike, for instance. Comedy Central only airs certain kinds of comedy; you don't see reruns of Leave it to Beaver there. And it would be brilliant if Spike started showing The Golden Girls, but that won't happen.

We know that Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt would be a late-night show on even the edgiest of these networks. We also know that Adult Swim already has very weak ratings; it's no coincidence that they were among the first broadcast networks to stream their stuff online for free. That was the best way to reach the target market -- shows that air at 1 AM are mostly just advertisements for the website, and for DVDs. This is the same system, incidentally, that allows for late-night anime in Japan, which are ratings disasters.

Gainax would basically have to provide the show to Adult Swim or Comedy Central for free to get them to consider airing it, especially because of my next point: PSWG already has an American licensor, lest you forget: Crunchyroll.

Comedy Central or Adult Swim would probably get a broadcast-only deal, meaning that they don't get the additional money from DVD sales that they do with their original series. That's not a total roadblock, as Adult Swim has aired plenty of anime. But with Crunchyroll already making it easy to watch in America -- and possibly restricting CC or AS from streaming the episodes on their own websites -- the executives behind these networks might decide that the complex licensing situation just isn't worth the effort.

I am, of course, not privy to the content of any of the contracts that have been signed between Crunchyroll and Gainax, for instance. But I am curious to see how the show makes it to a US DVD/Blu-ray release, let alone a cable broadcast.

Historically, Gainax and other anime studios have wanted up-front cash from US distributors in exchange for rights to their shows. That might have changed, but if it hasn't, it'll kill the chances of seeing this show on TV in the US until long after it's been localized. It's simply not going to be a big moneymaker, and these networks are run as businesses, not fan clubs.

Edit: It's also worth mentioning that there were very slight edits to FLCL and Evangelion itself when they aired on Adult Swim. But the content of FLCL in particular is not that much less offensive to American sensibilities than that of PSWG. Spike once aired a cartoon called Stripperella.

[Mr. Tines]

PSWG already has an American licensor, lest you forget: Crunchyroll.

But that license isn't necessarily indefinite -- word on the street was that the PSwG license wasn't going to run for very long after the simulcast.