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A two hour block with an hour of One Piece? That’s appointment television for me. As long they make new shows themselves, I’ll probably always tune in for those.

It will have been a good run, longer than anyone should have expected and much closer to going out on their own terms than 2007 and 2008 were.

Blatch, Primal season 1 is 10 episodes not 5. 10 weeks leading with a rerun is a bad call. My only guess for why Primal doesn’t just take Midnight on May 7th is timing it with the premiere of season 2 but it might be for arbitrary reasons. They have provided us with a schedule update that does nothing to counter the growing concerns for how limited their options have become. They could not even get YashaHime back to plug one of these holes and given they filled all three with reruns it seems very unlikely anything new is coming until AC ends in June. If AC is replaced by YashaHime or Food Wars then that’s going to look pretty dire as well. Will nobody work with them or do they have so little budget left that they have to pace out the remaining acquisitions for the year? The folks declaring that the AMC buy-out is the end for Sentai on Toonami will have a field day with this schedule update, as will the folks that are saying Sony won’t let them get anything. Whether or not either is true this schedule looks like proof of both. So probably nothing new till June. In the meantime, Toonami has constructed a schedule that has every reason to tank. Lupin and an hour of One Piece in the middle of a block that is lead off by a rerun. Assassination Classroom at 12:30am can’t hope to keep the rest of this lineup above water on its own. One Piece is back at 1am like it’s 2013 but at what cost? At least they didn’t go crawling back to Dragon Ball but they probably can’t afford it.

Uzumaki does not involve Crunchyroll despite the fact it was originally announced at Crunchyroll Expo.

I think the Made in Abyss hour is still throwing off SBD. Both episodes of One Piece got 0.08 with 18-49 according to the text above the chart but no total viewership is listed for the 2am airing. I am genuinely surprised to see One Piece beat Lupin. Maybe under these circumstances, One Piece might even move up. Something else I find interesting, The Batman (film of 2022) had its prime time premiere on HBO that night. I guess as soon as a film hits HBO Max it can air on HBO. That’s an incredibly fast turnaround. Granted it got hammered by sports competition but seeing it only manage 544,000 viewers is shocking and seeing it lose to Shenmue and Titan in 18-49 is eyebrow raising to say the least (a massive difference in 18-34). How much is HBO Max eating the cable channels lunch?

Starting Toonami with that movie would definitely be bold. It would fill 2.5 hours by itself so that would be the best use for it. I had not considered them doing that to fill May 7th holes but I suppose they could do that. I’m really thinking 12am should potentially go to Assassination Classroom if they don’t have anything on deck that’s more notable than Food Wars and YashaHime. If they’re digging up more Sentai titles then I’d love to see Ushio & Tora. If Sentai has the broadcast rights to Vinland Saga (rather than Amazon) then that would be awesome for Toonami. But at this point one of my biggest hopes is the Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor dub that’s been in the works at Sentai Studios will air on Toonami. Some more potential Sentai titles: Land of the Lustrous, Grimoire of Zero, Girls Last Tour, Revue Starlight, FLIP FLAPPERS, Princess Principal and Chaika: Coffin Princess. Yes all female lead shows, go figure. Actually, if Sentai is dubbing The Executioner and Her Way of Life or I’m Giving Up Heroing (two different shows not one long light novel title) then either would be great dub premieres for Toonami. And if Sony is willing to play ball there’s Megalobox 2: Nomad, Dynazenon and dare I suggest Mob Psycho 100 or Jujutsu Kaisen (both are maybe only slightly more likely than Demon Slayer returning). Akudama Drive would be great for the block.

At least Lupin and One Piece didn’t lose to Shippuden but that sure was a drop from AC to Lupin. Honestly if they don’t have anything bigger than YashaHime or Food Wars on deck for May then they should probably give AC the lead until it ends mid June.

Japanese companies will probably insist MHA and Dr. Stone air on Toonami even if Adult Swim doesn’t have first right to refusal on either. There’s really no telling what might replace Shenmue and AoT but if neither spot goes to a Sony licensed show that would seem to imply that Sony is blocking more than just Demon Slayer season 2. However, it might also be a matter of Adult Swim not seeking out any of Sony’s licenses that the companies could actually come to an agreement on. Toonami does tend to focus on the current big fishes when they aren’t chasing down their favorite franchises or directors (Lupin, Gundam, stuff from Watanabe, etc). No matter what it looks like from our perspective, it’s no doubt more complicated than Sony simply not wanting to do any future business with Adult Swim. I’d sooner believe that DeMarco, Austin and Manning are choosing not to consider a wider range of options than I’d believe Sony outright refuses to lease them anything. But I’m also very willing to believe Sony has upped the price of all their titles or at least the popular ones and they know Netflix would be willing to pay it for the sloppy seconds once Crunchyroll gets the benefit of the first run of a simulcast/simuldub. But I suppose it is equally likely that they intend to keep more titles as exclusives for Crunchyroll long term. Still I don’t think they’d be unwilling to let some shows go to Netflix or Toonami as additional exposure points. A Sentai Studios powered Toonami is an interesting prospect and I’d kind of like to see it. It would feel a lot more like pre-2016 before they indulged in getting every Shonen Jump series that seemed feasible. Nothing in the Sentai catalog could really work as a long-term headliner but original series will more often than not be the headliner this year and next year. They could potentially make do with a short Sentai license leading the block when there isn’t an original on hand. Though maybe they’ll be more inclined to hand the lead spot to YashaHime or even Food Wars since (story quality aside) they could probably do in a pinch. Either of those or a number of Sentai licenses could hold the fort as well as basically anything Sony has aside from Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer. Really those two are the only newish Jump Shonen that would potentially match MHA’s performance on Toonami. So does it even matter if Sentai doesn’t have many exceptionally popular anime for Toonami to pick from? At any rate, it will be interesting to see what they do the rest of this year.

Unless the dub is added to HiDive soon, the Part 6 dub will actually premiere on Toonami like Parts 4 and 5. Part 6’s dub might not even be on HiDive soon. For all we know, Toonami will have an exclusive window for a little while. But it’s equally likely that the dub will be on HiDive the next day or next week.

I wish they’d put Futurama right before Toonami but at least it airs after it.

Unless Netflix swoops in, I suspect the upcoming Gundam TV series will end up on Toonami thanks to Sunrise. Its downright ironic that underperforming series like Gundam, Lupin and One Piece are suddenly the most reliable licenses that they can get. They’re also lucking out that Titan’s Final season has a third TV cour coming next year.

The dub was probably handled by TMS again but yeah it’s more HiDive on Toonami.

The final battle is going to need all the time and love it can get and could do with some fleshing out. So I think that was a good call. Give us 10 to 12 episodes to adapt the last 9 chapters and not skimp on the details.

It’s gonna be site exclusive and subscriber exclusive to boot.

The dub of the movie is very good for the most part though Yuta’s voice at least takes a bit of time to get used to.

Oh you want a character to experience some long-term suffering? Just you f’n wait. There’s a situation in this series that makes Nina’s horrible fate seem pleasant.

The writer probably has a fondness for Toonami but apparently so does the founder of CR. Netflix also tweeted a shoutout to Toonami and that definitely felt disingenuous.

Props to Toonami for starting around 200k but not dropping below 100k. Everything after Titan was pretty neck in neck which allowed the 2:30am One Piece and the 3am Shippuden to beat Ass Class, Made in Abyss and the 2am One Piece with 18-49. Robot Chicken on Sunday also missed the top 50.

It would probably do even worse if they didn’t get the dub premiere.

The first one aired over 4 weeks at the top of the block last year. As memory serves, DBS reruns were the first show on the block at the time so I wouldn't blame anyone for missing these shorts last year.

I'm gonna guess it's because Viz doesn't edit the video of Shippuden episodes and the Blurays are soft subbed. That's why the EDs don't have translated credits either.

Toonami getting Primal season 2 would ensure eyeballs stay on the block once Shenume and Titan end. So I really hope that happens whether Tartakovsky wants it to or not.

Coming to HBO Max in March huh? I can't wait to not rewatch it.

The first episode of the Entertainment District was about 47 mins compared to an average episode of 23-24 mins. Basically twice the length. So the arc finale will probably clock in closer to 47 mins than 45 but that’s not 60 mins vs 45 it’s 60 mins of broadcast time with commercials. Same deal with Made in Abyss.

Silly me I did mix those up so it’s even more of a roller coaster going from Titan to Ass Class to Made in Abyss and finally to One Piece.