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They are wasting no time rolling these out. Haikyu season 1 and more notably MHA seasons 1-4 along with the MHA Two Heroes movie are already up.

It’s somewhat realistic for Warner Bros Japan to produce 10 anime cours a year. They did so in 2022 I believe and almost that many in 2023 but they really should not be producing more than two a season if that.

If it’s an Aniplex show then the smartest play is MASHLE but if CR is willing to play then maybe they got the Sentai dub of Eizouken for their latest outside the box pick or DeMarco threw a bunch of money at Jujutsu Kaisen. Scavengers more than suffices if they don’t have an acquisition lined up and Superman isn’t ready yet. There’s also IGPX season 2 that could slot in the back while the Jump shows slide up to 1-2:30. They certainly could double up One Piece temporarily or DBZ Kai for that matter. Either could hold the slot till sometime in June when MHA probably will return.

More than TEN A YEAR? And of course only a few will Toonami ever get a sniff of. But really WBD, why?

I know the reviewer from Podcast ONA and honestly I don’t know what his beef is with Ninja Kamui but it’s definitely not winning him over.

This increases the chances that eventually they’ll be affordable enough and that CR is willing to share but I’m not counting on it.

I really thought they would get the remaster but for whatever reason they didn’t. Sure, jump at the chance to nab Paranoia Agent the second it’s available again but don’t get a remaster of one of your white whales from back in the day. Excellent use of budget DeMarco. Some major “how the hell did you not get these?” anime for me are Tiger & Bunny and especially Blood Blockade Battlefront. T&B might have had complications for a time due to the advertising on character models but what’s the excuse for Blood Blockade? It’s freak’n perfect for Toonami and from the creator of Trigun. I can’t imagine they had no interest. Honestly there’s too many anime to count which could have aired on Toonami. Still wondering if they even considered Ushio & Tora. It should be right up their alley.

How about some non-anime? Legion of Super Heroes was supposed to air on CN presumably on Toonami but it never did. I know the first season wasn’t highly regarded but the second season was quite a bit better. CN never aired the better seasons of The Batman either. Before it was confirmed for Kids WB the show that would eventually become Spectacular Spider-Man was potentially coming to CN. I think there was also a rumor that the MTV Spider-Man would rebroadcast on CN and possibly get another season. A real shame neither of those happened. Speaking of shows that never existed, the first Toonami original was supposed to be an animated series based on the video game Centipede. That would have been something. And before Mirage sold the rights to 4Kids there was a pitch for a TMNT cartoon at WBA that would have aired on Kids WB and/or Cartoon Network. The production art had turtles that looked very Mirage Volume 1 inspired. Years later when the 4Kids TMNT was on CN it really irked me that they NEVER tried it on Toonami even after Miguzi cut it loose. They could have paired it with Naruto on Toonami and relied less on toyetic anime and extra Teen Titans reruns. Likewise it was so strange to me that X-Men: Evolution was never even used as filler on Saturday Toonami while Jackie Chan Adventures and 2003 Astroboy were. Transformers Animated would have been nice in 2008 too, it was on Jetstream but not on the block proper. It freak’n sucks that Transformers: Beast Wars was only on Toonami for one week. Also very unfortunate that The Centurions, SWAT Kats and The Pirates of Darkwater never aired on Toonami in the early days. They were on the afternoon action blocks that pre-dated Toonami but weren’t even tossed on Toonami as a temporary stop gap. Any of them would have fit the blocks vibe in 1998 better than The Superfriends. They could have subbed in Silverhawks for that matter.

That episode preview ruined the cliffhanger!

Yoshi literally broke Chisato’s heart =< I say we let Majima fuck him and his secretary up!

Makes sense. I was wondering when if ever The Boy and the Heron would stream on Max.

I hope he gets to do a Flash anime.

Well that's quite a drop between Rick and Ninja Kamui. No wonder Toonami doesn't start any eariler.

Demon Slayer’s 45 min finale was gonna happen so I’m not adding points for that but the other things I do give them props for. They came into 2024 swinging and so far the only bummer was losing IGPX when we did.

That was a very unreasonable thing to suggest but it sure would be neat.

A marathon in the dead of the night using a show they have on hand isn’t by any stretch “more than enough” when the network has 5pm-6am to work with. If they didn’t recently bring back Kai I would agree that a video tribute was plenty but since they have the show they could reasonably do better than 2am-6am even last minute. I am glad they aren’t disrupting the premieres of note or delaying ZOM 100 in the process but they could have done pre-Toonami, Friday from 12-6 or any day from 5-9pm and not mess with anything important. The most on-air presence this potentially gets is TOM saying something at the top of the block to tell people to stick around. As a one-off airing 5pm-7pm would have been kinda weak too but if they started airing it 5pm-7pm every Saturday for a while that would be something. A real throw back to Toonami Super Saturdays. Airing it at 5pm or 7pm (just one ep) every weeknight would be even better but I know that much disruption to the norm is a tougher thing to pull off. All I’m asking is for them to better implement the broadcast rights they currently have. I wonder if 1:30 subbed Kamui will do well enough that they consider bumping it ahead of Battle Stadium DON. If they did that, it could be easy enough to double up Kai at 3am or even run it 3-6am every Saturday for a bit if this marathon drums up interest.

That’s about the bare minimum they could do for a marathon so I’m not too impressed. There’s two upsides. Not disrupting anything but One Piece and Shippuden and because it’s 2am it’s technically March 17th, aka Toonami’s anniversary. The legend deserves more than a 4 hour marathon in the dead of the night using the show they just happen to have on hand. They could have and should have done it 5pm-12am or if they MUST Rick then maybe 5pm-11pm with an encore 2am-6am. Eps 1-8 is kinda boring too. Why not major moments in the 98 episodes of Kai they probably have? Goons are bemoaning that it’s Kai but anyone with a lick of sense knows reacquainting Dragon Ball or the old dub of DBZ isn’t in the cards between what Toei is willing to offer and CR being buttholes. Maybe they could have played Super but Kai is a better tribute anyway.

They’re not likely to consider Hashira Training as season 3 part 2 even for contractual reasons. Mugen Train was just part of season 2 because Aniplex wanted it to air on TV in Japan before running Entertainment District. The others have been standard 3 month length seasons, albeit with some long episodes rather than 12-13 total. However… nothing says Toonami can’t buy two seasons at once. They might be allowed to do that if they wait long enough. That probably means Fall at the earliest for Swordsmith but it would have to be early 2025 if HT can’t air till a year after the Japanese broadcast starts. There’s almost no sense in waiting that long to air Swordsmith if they can show it sooner if it’s not in a packaged deal.

I had a feeling they could get ZOM 100 since everybody seemed to get it but I’m still a bit surprised they are showing it right now. That said, I do wonder if they were going to get it closer to the dub release but the production delays pushed it back. Feels rather out of season but it will make for a fun Spring show. I’ve seen all but the last 3 or 4 episodes and it’s a blast but it also resonates a lot with people tired of the daily grind. You know you’re in a bad place when a zombie apocalypse seems better than sticking with your insufferable job. There’s some poignant character focused episodes that give the show more meat on its bones than you might expect. It’s going to be a delight to experience it with the Toonami audience.

AS helped pay for Dandy but it’s not one of their co-productions. So it was Aska who saved Higan right? I think so and that might explain why Emma is on the AUZA identifies list and why Aska seems to also be voiced by Luci Christian. Emma is probably Aska.

So was Chisato

Again it’s one night so far. If this continues a 2nd much less 3rd week then your theory holds some water. Plenty of hardcore Toonami viewers are interested in rewatching Kai even at 2:30 but I completely agree it’s wasted at 2:30 and should be at 7pm or even filling 5-7pm on Saturday instead of KOTH. There was zero reason to re-up it for 2:30 but I do generally expect people will start tuning into it. It would be hilarious if they didn’t though. On to other business, the return of Superman is expected to be announced soon. If it resumes before Kamui ends or even replaces Demon Slayer then I must wonder if they’ll stick Kamui 2nd behind a Thursday encore. If they must stick Superman before Kamui then I hope they give Superman 11:30.

So you really think people bailed on the back half because IGPX left? Even most Toonami regulars are less interested in IGPX than DBZ Kai much less the casuals. Never thought I’d see you imply even Toonami regulars care that much about IGPX.

They’re not even remotely similar shows.

I can’t say I buy the theory that DBZ Kai replacing IGPX tanked the block. Why would a show at 2:30 make that much of a difference by itself? I mean who even knew about the change before hand besides people like us?