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It's gonna get 4 slots, it would be pretty tight to fit into 3.5 The question to me is whether they run Dr. Stone that night to avoid getting 3 weeks behind. They'll run Demon Slayer if it's in December because they are bound and determined to finish Mugen Train by Christmas.

Linear cable is dying more and more every year but more so than that, linear cable aimed at children is hitting critical lows and it seems like a lot less children's television is being produced even for streaming. Adult Swim has eaten up basically all worthwhile time on The Cartoon Network, WBD is killing more of their remaining kids shows, Nickelodeon networks are being eyed for either big changes or removal from cable packages and with all the media consolidation there's a lot less companies attempting to make kids programming even for streaming services. There's dozens of free streaming kids programs but the vast majority of them are from decades ago and probably entertain 30+ adults more than kids. Many of us grew up in an era when Saturday morning cartoons, weekday afternoon blocks and kid-targeted cable networks were a significant part of growing up in the US. Now these things are considered relics of the past and kids aren't clamoring for these institutions for entertainment. I never thought I'd see the day when it looked this likely for not only Cartoon Network but also Nickelodeon to go off the air. They probably won't but they will continue to stagnate as long as the companies that own them wont make much of anything for them to air.

Now we see the year will finish out strong but we can also assess the cost of that. Was Demon Slayer the show they were teasing back in Spring? It's a reasonable theory but not necessarily the case. Other reasonable theories are that they were expecting 3 months worth of Attack on Titan this year and they were probably banking on Witch from Mercury, Bleach and possibly other shows. They might be able to get them eventually and I doubt they've given up on trying to get them. They probably didn't have a lot of money to play with if they were saving a bunch for Demon Slayer or Bleach. I can understand going after big shows but they seem to be trying to live beyond their means instead of figuring out a way to live within their means. Hard to believe they couldn't get anything from Sentai, Discotek or Viz. The block looks healthy now but that's not likely to last if they keep doing what they have been doing. The massive amount of inactivity was frustrating and a short burst of new programming in the last two months doesn't make up for that but it does put it closer in line with prior years.

So probably all that's left to predict for December is whether we get the Attack on Titan special that month or not. I still see it as a strong possibility for December 16th after Demon Slayer and possibly also Dr. Stone Watch this post age poorly instantly

I’d still welcome it airing. Maybe it can replace Dr. Stone in February.

Yeah they usually take certain holidays off but it’s often the case when they take other weekends off they make up for it by airing regular lineups on Thanksgiving or other holidays.

Random stab but if CR doesn’t mind lending old shit then I could see them finally trying Fairy Tail if they felt they needed a long series for the back half. Or go full nostalgia with Yu Yu Hakusho or the original Naruto. But I personally hope they don’t feel the need to grab another long old show and instead use the slot to cycle 3-6 month long old shows for variety sake. I also would not be surprised if their originals and acquisitions output is heavy enough next year that they can use the entire 2am hour for recent reruns and if any additional time is needed they should creep forward. Say for instance they did get at least the Entertainment District arc of Demon Slayer if not the Swordsmith arc. They’ll definitely rerun as much Demon Slayer as they can get. They could do a full rerun of Dr. Stone New World starting before IGPX would end. They might very well grab 3am back for reruns before Shippuden ends and then drop 3am again once 2am is freed up.

It’s still in the process but currently these two episodes are scheduled for 2:30am on the next two weeks. Hopefully Jose and Brady can keep up with the weekly schedule.

If they could only afford Mugen Train until next year or Sony doesn’t let them get the next arc quite yet. Hopefully neither are the case but either could be. But it would be pretty stupid for Toonami to make a contract for only Mugen Train and not get The Entertainment District episodes at the same time. I think they got those two but probably have to wait a bit longer for the Swordsmith arc unless Sony is feeling very generous.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding you but are you saying they can preempt the whole lineup on November 25th? They still won’t finish Mugen Train if it doesn’t air on either November 25th or December 23rd. They could have preempted Mugen Train on November 25th if they doubled it on Nov 18th but they didn’t. So that said I think we’ll either have a mostly regular schedule on Nov 25th or a complete regular schedule. It actually takes about a week to dub a standard episode of a simulcast if they have the materials in a timely fashion. Since this is more like a movie it could go a little faster because they can record each actor in longer sessions and that makes scheduling less complicated but 3 weeks is still pushing it. December 2nd might be doable but they might as well run it on Dec 16th. So probably this: Nov 18th - DSMT 3 / Stone / OPx2 / Shippuden / IGPX Nov 25th - DSMT 4 / Stone / OPx2 / Shippuden / IGPX Dec 2nd - DSMT 5 / Stone / OPx2 / Shippuden / IGPX Dec 9th - DSMT 6 / Stone / OPx2 / Shippuden / IGPX Dec 16th - DSMT 7 / Stone / OPx2 / Shippuden / IGPX OR Dec 16th they run the Titan finale with DSMT ep 7 and maybe Dr. Stone Unless they scale back One Piece to start Scavengers in December

Couldn’t tell ya. They could have easily bought 3-6 weeks rerunning an FLCL or brought back GITS, Samurai Jack, Superman or Unicorn (which is oddly airing right after Toonami at 3am, starting this weekend). Its downright bizarre to be putting Jose and others into a simuldub type crunch just for a remastered version of IGPX, a show they have had opportunities to rerun for years but haven’t touched since it was pulled mid-run in 2015. At any rate we know the schedule for the 18th now and this might be the schedule till December 23rd if they don’t preempt the regular lineup on November 25th. After 3 marathon weeks in October, maybe they won’t immediately disrupt Demon Slayer and Dr. Stone after 2 weeks. And the titanic question left to answer is when do we get the last Titan special? December 16th would be nice but unless they stick it at 1am they would have to preempt Dr. Stone an extra week. Though waiting till Dr. Stone is over seems excessive and with the holidays booting it for 2 weeks minimum, I suppose booting it a 3rd week isn’t a huge deal. However if Demon Slayer continues immediately into the next arc which begins with a double-length episode then it’s a bit more complicated to air the Titan finale before Dr. Stone wraps.

If Toonami doesn’t immediately continue to The Entertainment District arc of Demon Slayer, Dr. Stone might get the top slot at least briefly. But I suppose in that scenario Uzumaki or Scavengers could join in January.

It had a marathon on December 28th 2019 but there was one strange week in 2020 (shocking right?) when MHA took a night off and Dr. Stone lead the block. It was also the week the first season ended and Toonami lost 11pm. I think that’s it for Dr. Stone leading the block. I also don’t like that month old Dr. Stone is getting sidelined by 2 year old episodes of Demon Slayer and wish they would swap Demon Slayer is still the hotter property so I get it. It’s hilarious given Demon Slayer was practically buried on Toonami in 2019 even behind old episodes of Food Wars. My how things have changed.

So November 18th ends up being about what I expected. I didn't need to be so concerned that One Piece was down to one episode again. I still kinda feel like Dr. Stone should have waited till the 18th to start rather than to have it start at 1am and then move up the next week but viewers should be able to deal with that fine enough. I'm thrilled that IGPX is sticking around and that Toonami is not losing the rerun slot. It's just weird when the block ends on the half hour instead of the hour. It's still weekly Shonen Jump followed by one show that isn't from that magazine but having refurbished IGPX in there does add some robot action and some slice of life in futuristic Japan to balance out all the fantasy settings. Yes I realize FLCL fits that bill too but we've seen plenty of FLCL in the past few months. This line-up is so watchable to me that I might even sit through Shippuden live to make it all the way to IGPX. If they continue immediately into the Entertainment District arc of Demon Slayer after the holidays, it will be interesting to see how they handle that season both starting and ending with long episodes. They probably don't want to burn through those episodes but I could see them run some of the standard length episodes back to back leading into the long season finale. If they continue to operate with One Piece flexibility then its never too much trouble to make space for a long episode of Demon Slayer. They could feasibly go several months before "needing" Scavengers Reign now but I do hope they air it in a timely fashion.

Funny thing though, he didn’t know about it becoming a regular addition this soon. It’s still in the process but hopefully there won’t be any hang ups. The upcoming holidays should stagger the airings a bit but this is still a bit of a gamble that nothing will go wrong.

That would be great but these are my expectations even though I think it would be stupid to wait to start Scavengers Reign until early 2024 Either this if they're airing over Thanksgiving weekend: 11/18 - DS / Stone / One Piece x 2 / Shippuden / Rerun 11/25 - DS / Stone / One Piece x 2 / Shippuden / Rerun 12/02 - DS / Stone / One Piece x 2 / Shippuden / Rerun 12/09 - DS / Stone / One Piece x 2 / Shippuden / Rerun 12/16 - DS / Attack on Titan 2 Hour Finale 12/23 - Demon Slayer Mugen Train Marathon 12/30 - Attack on Titan Finale Part 1 and Part 2 Or this if they don't want to premiere anything on Thanksgiving weekend: 11/18 - DS / DS / Stone / One Piece / Shippuden / Rerun (same as 11/11) 11/25 - Demon Slayer Mugen Train Ep 1-4 Marathon 12/02 - DS / Stone / One Piece x 2 / Shippuden / Rerun 12/09 - DS / Stone / One Piece x 2 / Shippuden / Rerun 12/16 - DS / Attack on Titan 2 Hour Finale 12/23 - Demon Slayer Mugen Train Marathon 12/30 - Attack on Titan Finale Part 1 and Part 2 Maybe the Titan Finale can premiere on 12/02, in which case just flip the schedules for 12/02 and 12/16

True, the double up of Demon Slayer could be just one week and then Dr. Stone is back at 12:30 and One Piece is back to 2 episodes but if that was the plan they might as well have held back Stone till 11/18 rather than premiere both the same night. Either way I don’t see double Demon Slayer lasting because it’s an odd number of eps and the next arc starts with a 46 minute episode. The double up was probably just to ensure they finish by Christmas. They can either double it up two weeks if they run no premier on November 25 or they can scale down to 1 episode and keep the schedule till Dec 23rd consistent. In my brain I was completely forgetting about Dr. Stone when I said all battle shounen. 😅 Though this arc will involve more fighting than some previous ones I think. Dr. Stone does help the variety to be sure. Demon Slayer and Shippuden are still pretty similar but it’s not nearly as bad as when the block had HxH, Black Clover, MHA and Boruto which all were cut from the same cloth as Naruto (though HxH’s story predates it). I know they’re movies/tv specials but Attack on Titan still counts so that’s 4 acquisitions this year. But yes they were sequels. They haven’t added a non-sequel acquisition since Made in Abyss season 1 early in 2022. That’s pretty freaking abysmal.

Totally unexpected at this point and arguably a big deal but I’m honestly disappointed for several reasons. 1) Screws over barely month old Dr. Stone a bit to air episodes that are years old and they could have done right by both shows if the block was airing an hour earlier 2) It certainly looks like they sacrificed most of the year’s activity for one big show, we’ll see how it pays off or doesn’t 3) They went back to a known quantity instead of trying anything else first which isn’t helping them beat the “nothing but big shounen” accusations 4) Also not helping them beat the “spend all day hoping Sony will call back” accusations 5) The block is all Shonen Jump battle anime again unless they’re actually is a rerun at 2:30 that doesn’t fit that criteria 6) I’d much rather keep double One Piece than lose a slot I’d caution not to consider this a sign that Crunchyroll is back at the table. Aniplex still operates with some level of autonomy even though Sony owns both. Previously the issue was Demon Slayer became too expensive for Toonami. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that it’s a series they previously had a contract for just like Food Wars, My Hero Academia and Dr. Stone and Attack on Titan. If Jujutsu Kaisen, Spy x Family, Chainsaw Man or another series with no prior contract shows up on Toonami, then we can start to entertain the idea of Crunchyroll regularly making deals with Toonami.

Wow it’s a dang movie this time. Gonna need 4 slots at 21-22 mins per half hour. They’d actually have to expand the block 1 night to air both parts. Might as well go all out and run the 2 hour finale followed by the first 1.5 hour special from 2am-3:30 then repeat the finale from 3:30-5:30 and either cap it off with an episode of Samurai Jack or Unicorn or just awkwardly transition to Futurama or another comedy. They’ll need a bit more time to dub the equivalent of 4 episodes but theoretically they could have it ready for December 16th, 9th or even 2nd.

I'll throw one additional consideration in for the heck of it. Maybe they don't dial Shippuden back to 1 episode like most of us are expecting. Maybe the whole 2AM hour is new Shippuden on the regular line-up weeks in November and December? We think they'd want to hold back Shippuden as not to lose a stable premiere but maybe they're thinking the opposite and want to finish it sooner in 2024 rather than later. If they have Scavengers on top of Dr. Stone then they could potentially have a full block of premieres if they keep Shippuden doubled up. It would be a nice gesture to the long time Shippuden viewers at least.

I didn’t say they were no longer on Crunchyroll. Fena, Black Lotus and Shenmue are still streaming on Crunchyroll in Japanese. Black Lotus also has a Spanish dub on CR but the other two do not. The English dubs of the first two were still available to buy as VOD and direct download on iTunes, Amazon and Vudu until now. Black Lotus was also still rerunning on Adult Swim Canada until about September.

All these and more have now been entirely removed for purchase on digital stores. That was the only remaining legal way to watch them (except for Fena and Black Lotus in Japanese on Crunchyroll). Oddly enough you can still buy Megas XLR and Sym-Bionic Titan on iTunes/Apple TV. I guess they were lucky to be written off before the streaming age changed which distribution rights are a affected by tax right offs.

I also have all the BDs and haven’t watched past the 2nd yet. Symphogear is rad.

Okay so IGPX might only air one night for now. Sounds like the materials won’t be ready for a full run yet. And 5 episodes definitely wasn’t an option. They have SOME other options for reruns but unless they start Scavengers on the 11th and keep double OP they might very well be hiding a block cut in the DST schedule again. 😒

Discotek seems to at least have the streaming rights to Gunbuster which of course they sold to Crunchyroll. If they have the TV rights then playing the new dub on Toonami would be fantastic. I know DeMarco likes Giant Robo at least so I wonder if he has pursued that one.