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They primarily air earlier because they’re originals but Swordsmith being older is also a factor.

Tune in and harass us in the chat! You can listen to the whole 2 hours of rambling and ranting here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2215244229

I guess I’ll give the people what they want

CJ has fallen off the face of the internet. I’m honestly a bit concerned about his headspace. No ire should be directed at Jeff for this thread and he certainly didn’t pay me to draw attention to it. I felt his three part editorial was better suited to a separate discussion than tossing it into one of the current news threads. Pretty sure he’s not obese either but that’s neither here nor there.

"Considering the marketplace isn’t the same as it was a dozen years ago, it’s better than it has any business being, but there is a lot of room for improvement." If you really want some bullet points of the things he brought up... I mean you can probably guess what they are can't you? The network has faith in Toonami and will continue to create original series for it and acquire shows when they can. It's much harder to get acquisitions because distributors have their own platforms to support. Toonami has to go after the most recognizable names because that's what the network believes people will watch. Nostalgia sells and it works for Toonami but they can't rely entirely upon nostalgia. Rewind airing the uncut HD versions of shows instead of the old edited tapes only makes sense. Airing subbed Rick & Morty: The Anime on Toonami isn't a good idea but doing that with Suicide Squad Isekai would have been. Cartoon Network is in a worrisome state but it too is not going off the air any time soon. Probably the most interesting point he brought up is that Toonami's future probably incorporates more western animation. I'm going to keep these paragraphs as is because I find them particularly worth reading: "It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if by some twist of fate, Toonami would become the home of Get Jiro, an action-comedy series based on a Vertigo comic created by the late world traveler and culinary guru Anthony Bourdain, or Super Mutant Magic Academy, a fantasy comedy series based on Jillian Tamaki’s comic series and co-created by J.G. Quintel. If My Adventures with Superman, Rick & Morty: The Anime, and Invincible Fight Girl are any indication, Toonami’s lineup is going to be a hybrid of all sorts of original stories with action/adventure overtones ranging from heavy dramas to comic-inspired projects. Perhaps that’s the goal of the future of the block. Present it not so much as the animated equivalent to Shonen Jump but rather the animation equivalent of WEBTOON, Weekly episodic stories that meshes hybrid styles and influences and attracts all audiences while still bringing a variety of action programs as opposed to “just anime.” We're literally seeing the Adult Swim brand grow up with shows like Common Side Effects being what many of my friends call "an HBO-quality series" as a potential dramatic breakout when it premieres and actually being, well, adult instead of the edgelord frat boy humor that has been the norm for over 20 years. Maybe we’re finally about to see a version of Toonami that we’ve never truly seen before. A better cartoon show. They’re working with what they have to create something audiences have never seen. They’re not getting rid of anime by any stretch, but it is nice to see Toonami build up a format that embraces and showcases voices beyond Japan."

This man is the reason I host a Toonami podcast and he's still got it. Part 1 https://t.co/BaO0xHPQ15 (a relatively short introduction) Part 2 https://t.co/MEIuJmnDVh Part 3 https://t.co/tgjgqSu0mn

Absolutely freak'n nuts that they're starting Toonami with an hour of subtitled shows. They went from barely acknowledging they run Ninja Kamui subbed at 3am to sticking subbed anime at the top of the block. Toonami viewers are anime fans and most aren't strangers to watching subs but if they're bothering to watch dubs on cable television then they probably prefer watching dubs. So why even do this on Toonami? Seems like an odd pivot even if it gives both the sub and the dub some limelight in the midnight hour. There are other options for midnight premieres of the subbed versions besides the first hour of Toonami. They could for instance do a subbed anime hour (or longer with HCC, FLCLs or Ninja Kamui) on Thursday or Friday and run the dubs on Toonami. Admittedly they could do worse than Uzumaki subbed in the midnight hour as a short test of the Toonami audience's interest in subbed broadcasts. The IP is prestige enough to attract both current viewers and new ones including people who dislike dubs. RickAniMorty subs on the other hand have several points against going against them. Not all Toonami fans are R&M fans, some straight up hate that show and have no interest in some Japanese writer's interpretation of the brand. A relatively small amount of R&M fans watch Toonami now and subbed airings of the a dub they could watch on Thursday aren't going to get them to tune into Toonami unless they can't stand the dub voices and also don't have Max to watch the sub on Friday or at their own leisure. I'm not sure if I want this to succeed or fail but regardless of my feelings on the matter I think I can say more objectively that this is likely to fail miserably. Maybe Demon Slayer can salvage things but probably not and this will inevitably knee-cap the performance of Uzumaki if they don't at least swap that to midnight when the time comes. Toonami will survive this experiment but it could end up weakening the blocks position within the network and that's the last thing we need.

I do as well. I didn't bother with a pie in the sky alternative build this time but maybe I'll add one later.

We can certainly hope they have enough left in the budget to run MHA S7 and get two additional acquisitions by years end. Maybe we had all those droughts mid-year because they're attempting that? I just try to stay realistic with these things.

Here's some projections for if they're aiming to start MHA season 7 in November. It will take a marathon but it works out pretty well all things considered. There's also a no MHA S7 option. I threw in Urusei Yatsura to replace Shippuden in that one but it makes for a lot of shifting in short succession because of Uzumaki. In the scenario where they get MHA, I think they won't have money for two additional acquisitions so I'm defaulting to Mashle for the Aniplex packaged deal theory and saving it for November leaving double One Piece to cover Shippuden's slot until Uzumaki starts. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fUKIXX1WniiivIIxEhUcY1YoSF8Z_QN7rLfcKTZqqzI/edit?usp=sharing

Sony just made them worse MHA S6 reruns, what a tease. They can double up or marathon on November 2nd (barf I know) if they’re aiming for S7 to start before 2025. Honestly wish they’d rerun Lycoris or ZOM 100 instead but as per usual 3am is nothing I concern myself with. Ninja Kamui feels out of place in a sea of bright colorful shounen and should really move to 3am but it’s nearly done anyway so whatever. Still no IGPX season 2 I’ll admit though that MHA reruns taking 3am is a curveball I didn’t anticipate. And this means they’re actually going to restrain themselves from airing dubbed RickAniMorty late on Saturday, probably because it’s rerunning on Sunday at midnight. Hey here’s an idea for programming… premiere the dub on Sunday after the dub airs on Toonami and don’t bother with Thursday premieres! Genius right? It remains to be seen how they handle replacing Shippuden but maybe it won’t just be something they currently have on hand afterall. They seem oddly determined to hold onto 3am when they could have just given it up.

I suppose MHA could replace Shippuden if they get it soon but at that point they might as well save it for November when they have 3 show openings rather than bring it in then move it in 3 weeks when Uzumaki starts then move it back up when 3 shows end. It’s bad enough they’re gonna push Demon Slayer to make room for Uzumaki because they can’t even give Toonami 11:30 temporarily to house Uzumaki or RickAniMorty and not bump every other premiere later for 4 weeks in the process. The only reason I think they would opt for starting something else before November is to avoid having 3 holes on November 2nd (November 11th if they stall with an extra marathon).

RickAniMorty is 10 episodes and will finish on October 19th with Uzumaki AND Swordsmith Village. That's how it maths without interruptions anyway. Despite their claims that Uzumaki dubs will premiere on Thursdays, I still think they'll sneak the dub airings into the backend of Toonami with the RickAniMorty dubs. Primal season 3 would have been shown at SDCC if it was airing this year, fugget a'bout it. Expansion is some very wishful thinking I'm afraid. If Aniplex bundled something with Demon Slayer like they may have with Lycoris Recoil and Demon Slayer prior, then I do think it will be Mashle. It's not the only option but it's the one that makes the most sense for them to pitch to Toonami. Signs do point to OG Naruto replacing Shippuden and it gives them the perfect excuse to show episodes 8-19 which Rewind skipped in a lower profile time slot. But I'm sure we all hope they have something more interesting than that or Boruto to replace Shippuden and OG Naruto can fill a rerun slot when Ninja Kamui cycles out. November is anyone's guess at this point but they will have 3 shows ending in October and the chances of a triple premiere aren't very good so they might stagger the premieres by having IFG or MHA premiere with an hour then start another show the week after if they don't just fall back on double One Piece or a rerun.

We WISH.

It's always the most obvious choice. Well this ensures Toonami isn't a complete snore in August. Now we await the disappointing reveal of what they do when Shippuden ends. Aniplex is coming in clutch this year (Viz too). Hearing Aiko at Aniplex said "Toonami a special place in our hearts" gets me a little choked up.

Dressrosa’s pacing is worse than most One Piece arcs if not all of them. We’re just trying to ease that suffering a bit. There will certainly be a marathon on October 26th and maybe one on November 2nd to stall or milk Rickanime one more time but they’ll likely start IFG in early November so that could avoid more interruptions till the last two weeks of December. I won’t rule out the possibility of a Thanksgiving weekend preemption of some kind but it depends on what they have going on mid November. Another attempt to get people to vote? I suppose that could happen but maybe it won’t affect Toonami much if at all since they have 5 hours before Toonami to work with.

Wouldn't be the worst thing for double OP to replace Shippuden a few weeks but that's not preferable to a fresh show by any means. That said, Demon Slayer will only premiere for 11 weeks and be done by November unless they actually got the Hashira Training arc (fat chance of that) so they're probably gonna save a premiere for November given both Rickanime and Uzumaki will be done by then. A fine time to bring in Mashle or something else Aniplex might throw in with Demon Slayer or whatever else they might have acquired from the few distributors still willing to work with them. I see I was spot on thinking they would pair up Rickanime with Uzumaki at the top of the block for 4 weeks, I was also thinking a subbed power hour wasn't out of the question but I still didn't think they were crazy enough to do it. Evidently they are actually that crazy. I did not however bank on Uzumaki airing outside of Toonami on Thursdays. On one hand its pretty stupid for Toonami to not air the dub (they might still toss it in the back, we'll see) but on the other hand it's pretty cool that Adult Swim is willing to show the subbed airing before 3am. The thing that really brings the subbed hour down for me is the fact that Rickanime dubs premiere on Thursday and it looks like Max will have the sub before it even airs on Toonami (not confirmed yet but I'm very weary of that reality). And if the Demon Slayer panel doesn't tell us Swordsmith Village is coming on August 10th then hooooo boy. Hopefully they have something else before Uzumaki. Now for my thoughts on the previews... Uzumaki looks great. Hopefully the story isn't a mess due to pacing it for 4 standard length episodes. Rick and Morty: The Anime has a mid-2000s cerebral anime vibe and feels very little like R&M. It was rather confusing if there was even point being made in that first episode. The side characters in the dub also give it a mid-2000s sci-fi anime dub feel to me. Some of them were amusing. Morty's voice is good, Summer's is fine, Rick has his moments but Beth and Jerry just don't sound right. Luci Christian is voicing the new girl and she's great as per usual. Its just so freak'n weird to watch Rick & Morty dubbed by Sentai Studios. Overall, I didn't dislike it but I'm not eager to watch more. Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is very different for Adult Swim. Some dialogue is witty but it's not particularly funny and played straight even when things get ridiculous. The closest thing AS has shown to that is The Shivering Truth but that was dark humor most of the time and this isn't dark humor so far but maybe it could go that direction. Also it was shown in Spanish with English subs. AS really is open to subtitled shows now huh? Common Side Effects is also quite different from Adult Swim's usual. The closest comparison I would make is the Max series Fired on Mars. It has some jokes but overall it looks to be a serialized drama. It's got a interesting vibe and I'm the most excited to see more of that. I hope the audience is receptive to it because I want to see more mature animation like this. Invincible Fight Girl was not boring Kinikuman. I enjoyed the first episode a lot. Its a very silly premise but it had a lot of charm to it. The animation was great. This show looks expensive so the one season is probably all that we'll ever get. The wrestling was pretty brutal for CN daytime so I somewhat understand why they got cold feet but it should be fine for tweens. This show should be promoted to kids but it's a darn fine all ages show that I don't think would feel entirely wrong on Toonami next to My Hero Academia. With anime airing outside of Toonami and shows like WWSP and Common Side Effects being made for the network. I really feel like Adult Swim is looking to grow beyond it's trappings of being a stoner comedy block. I'm quite interested to see how these shows do with the general AS audience.

Working with Viz is very interesting. I've been saying for years that they should be getting in on the ground floor with a adaptation of a action manga and while this is far from the most conventional pick it also feels very Adult Swim and probably was an affordable project.

They certainly could announce Swordsmith Village at that SDCC panel. I didn’t know they were going to have one at the time so I hinged my hopes on the AX panel. The guest list implies a focus on the dub at SDCC while AX had the Japanese cast. So here’s hoping they do actually announce Swordsmith for Toonami at the SDCC panel.

I’d say Daniel is an idiot for mentioning Rooster Fighter but chances are AS PR won’t even look at this so Toonami Squad probably won’t receive ire for that.

I've been enjoying it as well. Seen the first 5 episodes.

I’m right there with you on wishing IFG would just air on CN time but alas the network has made their short-sighted decision. It will probably at least rerun at 7pm after Rewind but IMO it should premiere Fridays at 7pm not at midnight on a Saturday much less a Thursday. I don’t think IFG will be pushed to 2025, it was on the Corus press release for Adult Swim Canada’s Fall programming and the first episode is screened at SDCC this Friday. I very much expect it to air in November replacing Rickanime as the notable premiere on Adult Swim and Toonami with it. If Toonami gets Swordsmith Village on Aug 10th it finishes right before Halloween. That leaves it primed to rerun in the back starting in November while a one-two punch of IFG and MHA can lead Toonami into 2025. MHA could be in August instead with Demon Slayer taking a break till November but what better time to promote a new to Toonami arc of Demon Slayer than during a marathon of Demon Slayer? And as far as rerun options go, they potentially could give ZOM 100 or Lycoris another spin for variety sake. ZOM would certainly be appropriate for around Halloween. It could be used as a stop gap to fill Shippuden’s slot for a bit or replace Ninja Kamui. Rick dub is probably 3am starting August 17th with some Rick shorts filling the slot on August 10th baring a marathon. Uzumaki would surely get a sub or dub airing too but I think it would be ahead of Rick dubs either at 2:30 or bumping Rick dubs to 3:30 the last 3-4 weeks. Whatever they do probably will be mirrored by AS Canada like Ninja Kamui’s dual broadcasts were at midnight and 3am. I think Sailor Moon will remain exclusive to Rewind unless the block doesn’t survive till 2025 but they have a perfect excuse to run the skipped OG Naruto episodes as Shippuden’s replacement. But there’s something silly I really want them to do… Pair Naruto with the other audio broadcast of Uzumaki. Yes it’s stupid and those shows could not be much more different but come on Uzumaki hour!

The negative prediction is seeming much more likely at this point but your positive prediction kinda reeks too given it’s mostly reruns besides maybe Demon Slayer and MHA. You’re completely overlooking Invincible Fight Girl which is sure to air encores on Toonami if they don’t outright run the premieres. I’m at the point of expecting Uzumaki to run concurrently with the last 3-4 Rick subs and maybe they’ll do a subbed anime hour at midnight. Keeping room for that unfortunately kneecaps whatever might premiere Aug 10th or Aug 17th with Rick & Morty by pushing it to 1am once Uzumaki starts and IF they intend to run two originals concurrently in October then I could see them holding off on adding a 12:30 show in August and sticking to double One Piece till October. I really hope it doesn’t come to that. In November both Rick sub and Uzumaki will be over so IFG is primed to claim midnight but by then they desperately need a 12:30 show and it’s unlikely to be anything other than Demon Slayer Swordsmith or MHA S7. One or the other SHOULD start in August but at this point I see them saving one or both for November because there’s no word on Dr. Stone airing this Fall in Japan. I still think Mashle could be on their radar as one of the only new Jump anime Aniplex can throw at Toonami but if the budget is as tight as it looks to be, that seems more likely for early next year. Let’s also not entirely ignore Dragon Ball Daima even though 2025 seems much more realistic. If Shueisha wants it to happen, a dub could be cooking as early as November or December. MeTVs Saturday night block absolutely cooks Toonami so I am right there with ya.

And at this point I don’t think it’s coming till after the dub is finished streaming.

Not as many as if they actually played the Marineford arc of One Piece. What a shame.