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They might not get the premieres but it will probably air on the block. If it’s really ready soon then it will probably wait till Common Side Effects has been on for at least a month or end up as that show’s replacement. I don’t see it pushing Lazarus till later in the year but I suppose it is possible if it’s ready to air now.

He's had plenty of chances already and Uzumaki was the biggest mess yet but if he can't even get a great show out of Watanabe then he truly has no business overseeing these projects. I'd say he should have already been replaced in that division but who else would they get to run it? I guess it doesn't really matter because at this point its hard to imagine anyone doing much worse. But IMO they should just get rid of the division. They didn't need it to make things like Batman Ninja, Gotham Knight, Halo Legends or The Animatrix so they can easily go on without it.

Dr. Stone on January 25th is plenty likely enough but come to think of it so is Daima for January 25th. In both case they'd be 2 weeks behind CR (if Dr. Stone is a same-day dub). What I'm pondering is how they might shift things around to make room for either of those before Mashle season 1 ends. I honestly don't want them to bury IFG at 3am if they have nothing else to air ahead of it but Dressrosa One Piece and other reruns. I think this would be a good compromise... 12:00 AM - Dr. Stone Science Future / Dragon Ball Daima 12:30 AM - Mashle 01:00 AM - Invincible Fight Girl 01:30 AM - Blue Exorcist 02:00 AM - One Piece 02:30 AM - Dragon Ball Z Kai 03:00 AM - Naruto And on February 22nd Lazarus replaces Mashle causing this shift 12:00 AM - Lazarus 12:30 AM - Dr. Stone Science Future / Dragon Ball Daima 01:00 AM - Invincible Fight Girl 01:30 AM - Blue Exorcist 02:00 AM - One Piece 02:30 AM - Dragon Ball Z Kai 03:00 AM - Naruto But preferably they have this when Lazarus joins (option A) 12:00 AM - Lazarus 12:30 AM - Dragon Ball Daima 01:00 AM - Dr. Stone Science Future 01:30 AM - Invincible Fight Girl (will be replaced with a premiere on March 22nd) 02:00 AM - Blue Exorcist 02:30 AM - One Piece 03:00 AM - Dragon Ball Z Kai 03:30 AM - Naruto Or this (option B) 12:00 AM - Lazarus 12:30 AM - Dragon Ball Daima 01:00 AM - Dr. Stone Science Future 01:30 AM - Blue Exorcist 02:00 AM - One Piece 02:30 AM - Invincible Fight Girl (maybe replaced by Sailor Moon on March 22nd) 03:00 AM - Dragon Ball Z Kai 03:30 AM - Naruto I have also been rethinking my year projections with regards to Get Jiro and My Adventures with Superman. I think Get Jiro has to start earlier than December unless it's just 4 episodes because Max won't take a break. Lack of concrete information has me leaning toward a late 2025 broadcast if its not in 2026 so it's basically November or nothing without a break for Thanksgiving. It may be overly ambitious to expect it, but Superman potentially could return by June. Fall is a more reasonable expectation but we really have no idea how far along that is. But if it is coming in by Summer then maybe RickAniMorty will get replaced by reruns of the first two seasons. It's not the most optimal place to rerun the show leading up to a season 3 premiere but it is somewhere they could toss it on without much concern. I'm sure none of us would prefer that over getting a premiere earlier in the block but it is none the less an option. And regarding Lazarus, while February 22nd certainly seems feasible, international PR tipped us off on Ninja Kamui and so far nothing has been said about Lazarus airing in February, reports from international network only mention Common Side Effects will air in February. That said, it only takes a week of buying time to make March the month Lazarus premieres and they have various ways of stalling a week. I fully expect them to finish Lazarus by May 24th and it could have either a 2 episode premiere or a 2 episode finale between March 1st and May 24th. I doubtt they can resist the urge to marathon all 13 episodes over 2 weeks much like Ninja Kamui last year. They'll probably do the same with Rooster Fighter later in the year.

I doubt DeMarco is the only problem but he was the least involved in Suicide Isekai Squad and it was either that, the fact that WB/D doesn't just let people do whatever they want with DC characters or a combination of both which lead to that co-pro turning out better than everything else DeMarco got a producer credit on since taking his current position. We'll see how Ninja Batman 2 Electric Boogaloo turns out. I don't have high hopes and IMO Batman Ninja was quite a mess of its own but it was at least entertaining. But did we even need THAT much less another one? Warner Japan makes fine anime for the most part but when Warner US gets involved quality tends to go out the window with or without DeMarco. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with The War of the Rohirrim, it could definitely be a better movie but far worse movies have done well in the box office. I also doubt it would have done better or been better without DeMarco and Joseph Chou involved. Kenji Kamiyama's track record is looking pretty bad these days as well but his two most visible flops (Black Lotus and Rohirrim) did involve DeMarco and Chou. Not sure who decided to focus on Hera but I suppose the movie would have been more popular with a male insert lead, focused more on Helm or following the cousin who became the king in the end. If it was live action it might have done a lot better but also would have cost a lot more to make. Anybody with half a brain knows a 2D animated drama is a tough sell to theater audiences and only a handful of 2D animated movies did impressive numbers since 2020 (all of which were Japanese in origin). At first it looked like WB/D was taking a big gamble but we all should have realized from the start that all they cared about was extending their license for the brand so they can do more with it when they feel like it. Lose a bit of money now to make a lot of money later, who cares if that very visible failure for a 2D animated movie further diminishes the chances that more 2D animated films will be made and released in theaters right? I guess I'm the sucker for taking this project in good faith and wanting to support it in theaters in hopes to see more 2D animated theatrical films be made.

Probably not in any meaningful way. Even so, less than 20 million in the box office for a 30 million budget certainly isn't an endorsement for 2D animation (which usually costs much more than that if it's made in the US) and one could hope WB/D will never attempt to make a theatrical movie again. At this point it's safe to say the world is better of if WB/D entreily stops co-producing anime for the US market.

Yeah if it is Dr. Stone then you can bet CR won’t let Toonami say anything till 1-2 weeks before broadcast so they can start streaming episodes before Toonami even hints they will air the show. I suppose that’s the most desirable play the block can feasibly make to look like they have a leg to stand on in 2025.

Yes they very well could repeat RickAniMorty again or maybe do 4 weeks of Uzumaki.

Or they blank the schedule for Jan 25th and wait another week to reveal anything…

I only had 3 episodes there because it’s 3 usable weeks left in the year. I was expecting 10 eps but now that you mention that, maybe it’s only 3 to 6 eps. And also they probably won’t start a show on AS in December anymore because they don’t take holiday weeks off on Max. They can save Get Jiro till early 2026 unless it ends up being 3-4 episodes total. Well Guy, you’re not wrong about MAWS season 3 not being guaranteed for Adult Swim and Toonami but I’m remaining optimistic that it won’t be exclusive to Max. I don’t really expect an announcement this Friday unless it’s for Lazarus coming in February but it sure would be nice to know something is joining on Jan 25th.

I'm personally hoping MAWS season 3 is coming in 2025 but DC shows take their sweet time so I'm not counting on it to be ready for the movie hype. It can maybe show up for Fall depending on how far along production is right now.

Well anyway... It's the last day of 2024 so here's my 2025 forecasts, there's several ranging from absolutely boring to getting everything I feel I can reasonably ask for as long as Crunchyroll keeps various shows out of reach. But of course this is just some shows I think they might be able to get and Wind Breaker is probably the least likely to be on their radar but maybe it's a Lycoris Recoil situation. Feel free to substitute that with any other feasible Aniplex of America license that can fill 12 weeks. I didn't include any scenario where Blue Exorcist doesn't continue because I don't want to believe they are giving it the royal treatment right now for nothing but maybe I'm being too optimistic about that. I decided not to punt Fight Girl down to 3am when Rickdub ends but that is certainly a possibility if they have enough new things to fill earlier slots. I do think DanDaDan is within reach so I include it several times. I'm banking on Dr. Stone Science Future for most of these builds but I made one where even Dr. Stone is off the table. I also made a version where they decide to prioritize getting Sailor Moon R even though I don't actually think that's the best use of money right now. I also have a scenario where they can get a bunch of fresh stuff and also include Sailor Moon R. Optimistically they're back to 3 premieres by January 25th or mid February but with how they have built the January schedule it would take some abrupt changes to get back to 4 premieres before March. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HT_pmN_L3efCAbopFVuXh2rSJXK6rMqpOJekI54yRFg/edit?usp=sharing

The only way we’re getting back to 5 premieres is if Naruto or Kai leave or shift down and One Piece returns to 2am. I’m a for all of the above. But I’ll settle for 3 premieres that aren’t One Piece.

How much of it did you actually watch?

It’s already available on 3 platforms, MBS probably won’t charge AS two golden nuts to be the 4th place to show it months after the others. AS definitely won’t get season 2 any faster though.

They’ll air ep 19 on May 17th. Parasyte started Oct 3rd 2015 and the rerun was hastily finished with a mini marathon on Oct 1st 2016 but we know the deal was made months prior to October so I’m pretty sure the deal date doesn’t set the 52 weeks, the broadcast date does.

If it was an hour block I could stomach the thought of them reairing 1-52 for the upteenth time but wasting a year on that shit for the 3rd time on Saturday Toonami since 2012?

Restarting Naruto again is such a slap in the face. They’re still adding eps on-demand inexplicably but nobody will bother watching it that way when Hulu gives you the full OP and ED uncut experience. They probably have it for a year which means the contract will end around May. Just trudge along through Zabuza then pull it after episode 19 and I won’t consider this a complete waste of time. However if they pull it early due to lack of interest even in the low stakes 2:30 slot that cements it, Naruto has no juice left. And I suppose the fact Naruto is restarting but Sailor Moon isn’t is probably a good indication it didn’t meet expectations. But on the other hand, would they really double up a show for 4 months if it was doing the worst? They could have just pulled it. There clearly was no clause in the Naruto contract that every episode has to air so they aren’t likely to have such a clause for Sailor Moon. Yet there’s no rerun. Even if they planned to get Sailor Moon R soon it makes little sense to have no reruns reminding people the show is on TV. Unless it costs extra to rerun it there’s no good reason not to throw it on after 2am besides low viewership. That really bums me out. I think they should at least try reruns before they kick it to the curb.

I feel like this was a excellent prologue (as compared to Unicorn which was pretty lousy prologue) and I dearly hope it somehow did well enough in some way so we get another season.

I actually wasn't going to say Sailor Moon is proven because 5pm performance on a Friday evening means little compared to 12:30am performance on Toonami. We don't actually know how Sailor Moon did with any demographic of note beyond social media reception which was pretty divided between people who loved having it back on TV and the people who bemoaned it wasn't nostalgic enough. You actually think it's better to get the scraps of Viz's catalog over Sailor Moon R? Several of those shows are single seasons with no continuation. Accel World might be something or maybe Mr. Osomatsu if we're going Pop Team Epic levels of out of the box but Sailor Moon R is still reasonably a better choice than either of those or anything else Viz can offer Toonami that hasn't already aired on the network. I will continue to shake my fist that they didn't air Tiger & Bunny before Netflix got season 2. Not sure what the limits are with Aniplex but I don't think they're going to be able to get more than 2 at a time, in which case I roll my eyes even more at bringing back Blue Exorcist over anything that hadn't already aired on the network. At least Sailor Moon is an entirely different dub all the other HD remasters Toonami has picked up besides Kai were the same old dubs (in all cases for the better but I digress). I suppose I'm willing to believe your "can't promote it till the check clears" theory with Assassination Classroom given the late promotion. In which case they didn't plan as well this time but I'm not willing to write off January entirely just yet. As Bryan mentioned, MHA season 7's dub is already partially on Hulu and the 2nd half joins in January. Seems like they might be the reason why Toonami hasn't been able to get it yet, just like back in 2017. Also seems like CR might have outbid to exclusively stream Daima's dub. If it doesn't show up on Hulu or Netflix soon then that's pretty solid evidence CR managed to pull that off. Given CR was in charge of dubbing it, maybe they had some weird deal where CR offered dubbing services as part of their bid to sway things in their favor? Since Toei controls the license they normally would be paying for the dub like they do with One Piece and did with Dragon Ball Super but if CR could have offered them a big discount or outright battered dub services to secure exclusivity for the dub on top of paying whatever Toei asked.

No I'm pretty sure they had already secured Assassination Classroom's second half with the tail end of the 2021 budget. and held it for January so they'd have something. But they moved like lightning to get Made in Abyss and reacquire One Piece in the weeks that followed. Even if the budget refreshes on January 1st, they (Kim Manning, Gill, Jason or whoever) have to be "on the clock" to make a deal and so does the other party so deals aren't getting made with the new year budget until after work has resumed. I don't believe it is exactly on the 1st of the year but it is within the first week. So I don't think we're seeing the 2025 budget in action yet but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was less than they had in 2024. Last year they had already secured more Demon Slayer and Lycoris Recoil before the new year and this year it seems the last of their budget went to grabbing Mashle and re-upping Blue Exorcist which would carry them into 2025. There's no doubt they were eyeing Daima and they probably hoped that was a big enough deal for the network to give them extra budget but it's not 2016 anymore. I could get into the technicalities of how Viz's dub of Sailor Moon R is new by many metrics and offers a very different experience than what aired over 25 years ago but the more worthwhile argument is it's something Toonami can feasibly get and those options are dwindling. We can speculate they're not talking to Sentai but we have no freak'n idea if that is the case or not. For all we know, Made in Abyss was all that could squeak by before AMC changed it's tune in a similar vein to Crunchyroll. Maybe it's not the best idea to outright abandon the option when they are down to 2 premieres?

Yep this sucks. Down to 2 premieres and they have an hour of reruns between them. Daima dreams are dead. They might get it a few weeks later but that’s yet another show they can only get after most people stopped waiting to watch it. If they can’t even get a Toei license the same week as CR they are absolutely cooked for airing acquisitions in a timely manner. Dr. Stone is our one hope and only if TMS makes it so. I have a bit of a hard time believing that Toei wasn’t willing to sell the TV rights of Daima to Toonami so more likely it came down to money. In the past, AS was willing to spend big to get Dragon Ball series and if that’s no longer the case then no acquisition is guaranteed if they don’t have the budget. But I won’t rule out the possibility that Toonami can get Daima once the budget resets. That’s just terrible planning on their part. Not so bad if it’s just a week or two but if it’s a month or more they really dropped the ball. Naruto moves to Saturday but no Sailor Moon? Way to get your priorities wrong. If it’s just 40-52 then whatever… they might as well air those. If they start from the top then cut it after Land of Waves ends and don’t renew it. At least we’re saved from double Kai. I’m hoping Sailor Moon being MIA means if anything they will pick up Sailor Moon R and just start there. But instead of a almost entirely pointless Uzumaki marathon (technically the first time Toonami plays the dub) I would have done a speed run of Sailor Moon airing every episode that introduces a scout then have weekly reruns of the last leg of the season after Venus is introduced. I’m rather surprised that Fight Girl is rerunning much less at 12:30am. Maybe it’s a good sign that they aren’t immediately tossing it out of the airlock? I get the feeling that IFG reruns and the Uzumaki marathon are trying to squeeze a bit more out of both with Family Guy around to lift the night. With the fat guy on (albeit hours earlier) they might actually do as well or better than the premieres did. Which is sad but ratings are ratings. Faithful’s advocate… they get something worthwhile by February with the budget reset but in the meantime we get the dregs and that’s not gonna help them retain their dwindling viewership. Their old tricks have long stopped working and they don’t have much of a leg to stand on. They need to look outside the box if they hope to appeal to anyone for much longer.

Sure, Sailor Moon is on Hulu but so are a bunch of other shows that people would like to see on Toonami, including some with over 100 episodes that have never aired on Toonami. I don’t think they should abandon the audience that was watching it on Rewind unless the numbers were dismal enough that they weren’t gonna get more even if they couldn’t bring back Family Guy.

Honestly surprised they posted a confirmation but it is appreciated. Now they had better give us a Saturday block update tomorrow before they F off for the holidays.

Seems like possibly the best outcome to avoid buyouts.

And that makes at least two weeks of the one hour Checkered Past block (still Dexter and Courage). Sunday didn't have encore airings of Family Guy late at night so it might only be airing in prime time now. How long will people sniff the "Toonami Rewind will be back" copium?