Whether directly imported from Japan (Yu-Gi-Oh!) or just influenced by (Xiaolin Showdown), anime was undeniably huge in 2003. Yu-Gi-Oh! © 4Kids Entertainment. Xiaolin Showdown © Warner Bros. Television.

Janus, the twin-headed Roman god who gave his name to the first month of the year, was able to look backwards at the departing year and ahead to the new one at the same time. Here at the start of the 21st century he’d need a few extra heads to keep track of what the many TV channels programming cartoons were up to last year, or what they have up their sleeves for 2004.

With more than 20 years under his belt producing groundbreaking TV animation, Frederator’s Fred Seibert is as in good a position as anyone to judge what’s going on. “We’re in the midst of an embarrassment of riches, which is sort of the consequence of 10-15 years of creatively and business-wise doing better and better. We have had a couple of tough years but overall it’s been a good time.

“It’s also not like anything thrilling is happening. When you’re doing really well like we’re doing you don’t have that joy of the new, the exciting and the ‘oh my goodness it’s been bad for so long look how great it is now.’ Like we all take it for granted that it’s doing well.”

Exactly; for John Hardman, Kids’ WB!’s svp of programming, his biggest problem for 2004 may have been the success his channel enjoyed the year before. “Last year was an anomaly for us. We had three new series premiere in the fall of 2002 [¡Mucha Lucha!, Ozzy & Drix and What’s New Scooby-Doo?] and Yu-Gi-Oh! was white-hot at the time. They brought a lot of attention and new viewers to the network; what happened was we had our most successful year to date. We far outshined anything we had ever seen.

Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network tap the DC Comics library for another hit in Teen Titans. © Cartoon Network.

“We didn’t truly expect to maintain the same momentum this year. We came back with a lineup of all returning series, with nothing new to hype. All the other networks had series premieres in September, some of them had entirely revamped their slate. Kids did a lot of sampling the first few weeks of the season, they were going elsewhere.

“It was probably late October before the ratings started to settle down and become consistent week to week. Then, at the beginning of November, we introduced two new series. It turned out to be perfect timing for us, and that’s when we started to see the growth in our own ratings.”

According to Hardman, both shows debuted to strong ratings. Since then the martial arts themed Xiaolin Showdown has seen its ratings increase, while the superheroes of Teen Titans are about to take over the 9:00 am Saturday morning tent pole position.