Looks like Bandai has a new playmate outside of the Toonami sandbox where they shared a lot of their toys like Gundam, Outlaw Star, and The Big O. Surprisingly, this new playmate is right outside of Silicon Valley at . . . TechTV?
TechTV recently revealed on the uberpopular tech show The Screen Savers that anime will premiere on their network starting on Monday, December 30, but the anime community were buzzing about which shows would air on the network, or even if it would be a part of a block ala Toonami.
This weekend, TechTV began running promos for the new acquisitions, tentatively called Anime Unleashed, with a couple of notable shows such as Pioneer's Serial Experiment Lain and a pair of Bandai/Sunrise releases, the space drama Crest of the Stars and the surreal sci-fi mecha series with dark horror overtones and slapstick comedy Betterman (at least these are the ones readily identified in the promo by the anime community, there are a few shows that haven't been ID'ed yet) . It's not revealed exactly how the series will be presented (either in a block format, which many fans are expecting, or a daily strip showcasing a different series each day), and a press release is eminent in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned.
Crest of the Stars and Betterman will be the first Bandai productions to air outside of Cartoon Network since Vision of Escaflowne's short-lived run on Fox Kids in Fall 2000.
