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It's always been a bit puzzling why Crunchyroll seemingly doesn't want to lend shows to Toonami. The people that founded Crunchyroll and various staff have sung the praises of Toonami but it looks more and more like Crunchyroll wouldn't have partnered with Toonami if not for AT&T buying Time Warner. Time Warner was notorious for its lack of synergy, so while it made no freak'n sense that Warner's DC content was out of Adult Swim's reach it became the expectation when DeMarco made it clear they couldn't afford Young Justice or older DC series. Likewise, Crunchyroll even under WarnerMedia didn't want to do Toonami a solid unless it was a co-production that both Adult Swim and Crunchyroll helped fund. But it's somehow an entirely different story in Latin America where Crunchyroll continues to provide programming for the small nightly Toonami block over there. On the WarnerMedia side they wanted to make use of the Crunchyroll catalog for HBO Max and that may or may not have kept those shows off of Toonami. Warner could have really done Toonami a solid and let them run Harley Quinn season 2 instead of Primal reruns but that clearly didn't happen. It's not as if FUNimation hasn't played hard ball from time to time but I was really hoping that the merger with Crunchyroll would mean more CR titles would be on the table. Thus far it looks like the opposite has occurred. However, that might not be the sole or even primary reason for the drought in new content right now. The real issue could very well be Toonami's acquisition budget getting even tighter but on the other hand, I don't think they would have turned to double One Piece if money was the primary reason why they couldn't get shows from the FUNimation catalog right now. Whether its a lack of budget or a lack of viable options, things aren't looking great right now. All that said, I do think they will replace Ass Class with new content in June but I don't think they'll add more than 2 or 3 more acquisitions this year. And regarding Mob, I think I'll finally stop putting off watching season 2. I hear it's better than the first season but up until now I've lacked the motivation to watch it at my leisure because I didn't watch the simulcast when it was the talk of the town.

He's probably also saying there's still people out there that see a value in Toonami or at least implying that there should be.

Yeah the two burly newkama that nursed Sanji back to health and gave him blood transfusions are shown at the end of the lineup promo. BTW, they fixed the lineup promo to say Toonami is 12am-4am rather than 12am-3:30am. They also got the time right on the Ass Class promo this week, 12:30am instead of Midnight.

They took some subtle jabs at Netflix Bebop in the marathon promo back in January. At least that’s how the dialogue read to some. But they didn’t go full Jake Long on it.

As much as I dislike the newkama jokes in One Piece, the “up all night” line certainly works in context. Perhaps they could have spliced the dialogue with a different scene though.

Truthfully, TBS and TNT have been winding down on scripted shows for a while now but they WarnerDiscovery must really be intending to pivot both networks to include more live sports, unscripted tv series and movies on top of syndicated reruns of comedies on TBS and dramas on TNT to fill the day hours. Scripted live action series will be made almost exclusively for HBO Max. American Dad has a few more seasons under contract at TBS but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't renewed again. Hard to say if that culling of departments will bleed into Adult Swim but on the Cartoon Network side they just announced a couple more series in development so maybe the Adult Swim upfront later this month will put those concerns to bed.

Yeah... calling out Sony was not a good idea. Not doing so might not have improved the situation but doing so assuredly didn't help. DeMarco has never called the big shots at Adult Swim and now he's probably even less involved with the decisions pertaining Toonami outside of original productions but he does come off as a guy who will pass the blame when things go south and accept any praise lofted at Toonami. And he often rides a fine line between not trashing the management and not taking responsibility for mistakes until they are water under the bridge.

"Talented people are capable of understanding us" is a quote from Gundam Wing that was used in the Toonami music video titled "Space is the Place" He's making a nod to that.

They actually made a lineup promo? That's a nice change of pace. Despite the lineup being almost half reruns they somehow made it look presentable. At least they are giving proper on-air notice of the changes.

I saw this editorial on Crunchyroll and I find it interesting that it highlights Megalobox 2: Nomad and SSSS.Dynazenon while also name dropping One Piece, Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho and Assassination Classroom. Specifically mentioning Megalobox and Dynazenon? Granted Gridman and MB season 1 did simulcast on Crunchyroll while their sequels didn’t and were only just added to CR but I can’t help but notice the coincidence. https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2022/05/05-1/recs-check-out-these-11-shonen-series-now-on-crunchyroll?utm_source=community_cr&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=news_en&referrer=community_cr_twitter_news

Netflix got Shaman King and Eden’s Zero so I think they’ll be interested in new Bleach but one point against that is they never bothered to stream the rest of the series and I think only ever had up to the Bount arc if even beyond Soul Society. Though they do currently have two animated movies and the live action film so they have at least some interest in the franchise.

Viz might avoid Netflix after Netflix screwed them out of JoJo but yeah even with Netflix cutting back, they can probably outbid AS for Bleach. Regardless, Toonami probably won’t get more than 4 additional acquisitions this year so it’s best not to burn through one of those when they still have 5 premieres and probably will have 6 again in June or July.

At the very least they had to pay for Made in Abyss, Lupin and One Piece since January, possibly also Attack on Titan. That’s 4. Seems unlikely they will exceed the amount of shows picked up last year. Have you already forgotten how few things they picked up in 2021? Titan, Dr. Stone, Neverland, Food Wars, YashaHime and probably Assassination Classroom season 2 and a final renewal for Black Clover if that wasn’t paid in 2020. Gridman was 2020 budget. So we’re probably looking at 2-3 more acquisitions before 2023. Maybe 4 if 3 of them are 10-13 episodes in length. And if they’re saving up for Bleach and dare I say MHA season 6 (which they might get if the Japanese producers want it to air on TV) then they have to be frugal. The one thing I’m particularly concerned about is whether or not they intend to rerun Primal season 1 for ten whole weeks before starting season 2. That’s really gonna screw over AC in it’s final stretch along with everything else. They can feasibly recover when season 2 starts but a lineup featuring Lupin and an hour of One Piece is considerably nicher than last year’s lineup with MHA, YashaHime, Food Wars and Black Clover. AC getting replaced by Food Wars or YashaHime won’t likely help matters significantly. It’s a boon for Lupin and One Piece fans but not really anyone else.

It makes perfect sense really. The best way to avoid a serious drought is to pace out the acquisitions as well as the originals. If they can only afford 2-3 more shows this year and they're 12-26 episodes each then they shouldn't blow through them. Lupin finishes before November so that's 1 additional opening. Food Wars replacing Assassination Classroom would end by October so that's another potential opening. YashaHime replacing Assassination Classroom would end before December 24th with 2 weeks off. The midnight slot will probably be Primal Season 2, Uzumaki and then Housing Complex C but if they start Primal Season 2 before a full rerun of season 1 then they'll have some weeks between when Primal Season 2 ends and October when Uzumaki will start. We have no idea when Housing Complex C can start airing but unless they wait until at least October it won't last into 2023 either. And besides all that, if they are trying to get the new Bleach season and the new Gundam series before 2023 then they can't blow their budget on shows earlier in the year.

4) They can’t afford to run all their acquisitions for the year without spacing some out. If YashaHime or Food Wars replace AC then that will be all but confirmed to be the situation.

Based on 10 years of DeMarco trying to explain why things are as they are… I’d say he’s better off staying quiet. The only good spin for this is confirming it means Primal season 2 premieres on Toonami. Let’s just hope Primal season 2 will bump off the reruns by June or early July. A marathon on 05/28 could burn off the other 8 episodes after just two weeks of this underwhelming schedule. He won’t be able to say a thing about season 2 until AS announces the premiere date.

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.