But I did notice that it begins with the Noitamina anime block logo, which is a late night block that tends to skew adult. I mean, not everything in it has ecchi stuff, some it just demographically more mature, like Honey and Clover (man, this animation block’s been around for a while). So why did this VERY shonen-y show end up there. I mean, Hunter X Hunter is pretty violent at times but it still gets prime time.
noitaminA doesn't really mean what it used to. It started out as an "adult" programming block. But adult in the truest of sense, and not just cheap/lazy code for a bunch of juvenile violence and sex. Most of its shows were adaptations of praised literary works, and had Josei/Seinen sensibilities, and were more at home at arthouse theaters rather than other typical late night anime, and dealt with adult characters with adult issues. But after a certain point, the programming block's founder was either sacked or moved on to other things, and you started to get a lot more questionable content that stopped being so mature and wholesome, and started to be "mature" with air quotes.
I put the dividing line at Psycho-Pass in 2012. (I think you could make an argument that the dividing line was a few months earlier at Guilty Crown, but it's still mostly around the same time.) After that point, you started to get a lot more horny, male-gazey, problematic, juvenile shows, and the shows that felt at home with the origins of the programming block became more and more immature and male-oriented. Before Psycho-Pass, the horniest shows on noitaminA was shows like
Tatami Galaxy and
Moyashimon. That treated sexuality in a much more mature, matter-of-fact, facet of the human condition rather than its raison d'être and never really indulged in trying to create titilating imagery for the sake of arousal. And action/violence became much more common place. Post Psycho-Pass however, you have a growing preponderance of immature, teenage, horny, brain-dead power fantasies that instead of being gender neutral or female-oriented, are clearly just for a straight male audience only. Shows like
Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, or
Punch Line, or Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress[/i], or
Scum's Wish, or
Inuyashiki, or
The Promised Neverland. To the point where the block is now just indistinguishable from the rest of late-night seasonal anime.
There's still gems that make their way to the noitaminA programming block that felt at home in the original intent of the block like The Great Passage, or Wotakoi, or Sarazanmai, or even Millionare Detective. But long gone are the days where you knew every show was going to be entertaining and lacked problematic aspects. I used to watch every noitaminA show without fail for a decade, and now I don't bother unless the show just happens to be worth watching.