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Gurren Lagann wasn't on Netflix back in 2009. I think I heard SyFy actually outbid them for Gurren but I forget where I heard that. Soul Eater did end up on Netflix well before Toonami aired it but it wasn't available there until a while after it was on home video and the FUNimation Channel. You are probably right about the cost of licensing shows between 2008 and 2012. And Japanese rights holders are likely the reason why DBZ, One Piece, Detective Conan and other huge anime never ran on The FUNimation Channel. Conan was at least on FUNimation's short lived syndicated block on ColoursTV but I'm pretty sure it was never on The FUNimation Channel. Bandai probably threw Code Geass at Adult Swim and I've heard it theorized that Aniplex gave them a sweet deal on Durarara (they probably also gave them a good deal on the first SAO in 2013). Viz likely gave them a good deal on Kekkaishi but by the time InuYasha: The Final Act and Tiger & Bunny were available to dub, things had changed. It seems crazy that Adult Swim wouldn't pay whatever they had to for the last arc of InuYasha but I suspect Viz lwasn't willing settle on a price that AS was willing to pay at the time. That gave Viz the opportunity to make TFA's dub (and several others) Neon Alley exclusives. I didn't consider the sudden spike of patriotism as a reason why Turner would suddenly obtain the broadcast rights to G.I. Joe but that was probably a factor. The broadcast deal for Demon Slayer was secured before FUNimation started simuldubbing shows for Aniplex. Same goes for The Promised Neverland. Both of those deals were secured before Sony started folding Aniplex operations into FUNimation. Aniplex previously only simuldubbed one show for themselves, that being Durarara x2. They usually wait until a series has concluded before they even start dubbing it but they made a few exceptions. It does seem evident that Toonami got Demon Slayer and The Promised Neverland as soon as they could in order to the dub premiere streaming elsewhere first. And those deals with Aniplex seem to keep those shows from streaming dubbed on any service until at least a year has passed. The dub for the first half of Alicization is finally being added to Hulu in August. TPN's dub was recently added to FUNimation. No sign of Demon Slayer's dub on FUNimation's service yet but with the home video release happening this Fall, that seems like just a matter of time.

They put up 5 episodes (of Tower of God) about a month ago on HBO Max and were adding another one every week. It was always about a week behind CR's stream of the dub and it was only the dub.

There's a number of shows it could be. Mob season 2 for one. We know DeMarco loves Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken and he supposedly likes Shield Hero. But with Tower of God recently leaving HBO Max, I feel like that's a strong sign. If it turns out it is Tower of God then once again it's simply too easy to see what was coming. I don't expect they'd get the dub premiere for God of High School but that would be a very good thing for them. If working with CR really only came down to Toonami's autonomy being challenged (as opposed to budget concerns) then it looks like DeMarco may have reached breaking point.

So I just got this email and I'm pretty sure this is the only place it's said that a new show announcement is coming from Toonami and Crunchyroll "Stay inside with us this weekend. We're bringing the casts and creators of Robot Chicken, Rick and Morty, Samurai Jack and more straight to your couch — new details just released. Tune in for Toonami Edition and a special show announcement from Adult Swim and Crunchyroll. Plus, witness the very first virtual Cosplay Cup in real time and enter to meet & greet a mystery member of the Adult Swim family live on our Instagram." We can hope it's God of High School but considering it was literally just removed from HBO Max and is mostly dubbed, I suspect Tower of God is coming in August.

There was this strange era of ASA when they went from relying heavily on FUNimation shows to avoiding working with FUNimation. Maybe they felt real burned by Detective Conan, Shin Chan and I dunno... Trinity Blood I guess. It's frankly a good thing they didn't give up on FUNimation after Blue Gender impressed no one and Yu Yu Hakusho better with kids. The fact they didn't get Soul Eater or Baccano or Darker than Black never sat well with me. They eventually got Soul Eater but the other two never got a shot before FUNimation lost the rights. Actually I should factor in that around the time ASA stopped acquiring shows from FUNimation was also around the time that CN pulled One Piece and Dragon Ball Z both on-air and on Toonami Jetstream. It really seems like something soured between CN/AS and FUNimation around then. AS still got FMAB but I mean there was no way they'd let that one slipped by them if they could prevent it. Their relationship with FUNimation didn't seem to get patched up until Toonami returned in 2012. Kekkaishi is another curious situation given how things were going with Viz at the time. Viz was Toonami's most significant partner from around 2004 until the block was cancelled. They partnered with CN for Toonami Jetstream as well. Kekkaishi felt like a show that would have ended up on Toonami with minor edits in 2006 but in 2010 CN was done with non-toyetic anime. Maybe Viz tried to stick that one on DXD with Naruto Shippuden or maybe they didn't even bother trying that. Whatever the case may be, you really gotta wonder why they got Kekkaishi but did not get the original Hunter x Hunter anime, Buso Renkin or Monster. All of which were better fits for ASA than Kekkaishi though maybe they felt HxH 1999 looked too old. What a shitty time line we lived in where SyFy got Gurren Lagann, Gundam 00 and Monster and ASA didn't.

G.I. Joe was a interesting situation. It was like one day Ted Turner woke up and decided to buy the rights to the old G.I. Joe cartoon for CN and Boomerang. It was entirely out of the blue and at a time when 80s cartoons other than Dragon Ball were not particularly common on CN or even Boomerang. I figure that Toonami ran it on The Midnight Run (exclusively) for the nostalgia. At the time the daytime block was heavily depending on Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball and was also airing G Gundam. G..I. Joe and G Gundam was an interesting pairing for the last Midnight Run block in the CN era. It is my understanding that by around mid-2001 the Toonami crew didn't get nearly as much say in what the block was going to air. They could make suggestions but ultimately they had to air whatever CN wanted them to. That's around when they aired Card Captors. Sometimes they would get shows they would have liked to air but they would receive less than optimal versions of those shows (4Kids One Piece being a big one of those but DeMarco also likes Card Captor Sakura). Kenshin might have been something they sought out but the majority of whatever aired on Toonami after Outlaw Star and The Big O in 2001 was basically whatever Bandai or some other company threw at Cartoon Network (for better or worse) and you might even say they mainly got OS and Big O simply because they were shows Bandai had on hand. Tenchi was probably one of the only anime franchises that the Toonami crew brought to the table without a distributor getting the ball rolling. In 2002 they ended up airing Hamtaro simply because it was anime and Toonami was where they felt all anime should be airing at the time. Once they acquired Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, CN wasn't so gung-ho about limiting anime to Toonami blocks and instead used those shows in prime time among other places on the network.

Well that's on par with a week lead by a new episode of My Hero Academia. Sigh... people just wont stop watching Dragon Ball Super.

The first episode of this new batch was overall quite good. Especially the first scene the final scene. I could have done without them lingering on a particular scene in the middle though... Sure is nice to see the other characters again.

The first episode of God of High School was pretty dope. It left a stronger first impression than Tower of God to be sure (by having a much more visually interesting battle royale). I'm all for Toonami airing it. Unfortunately I don't think the company that charged its own streaming service 425 million dollars to be able to stream Friends is just going to throw Toonami a bone. I don't really know what happened with gen:LOCK but I get the feeling God of High School won't be as affordable. At least not any time soon.

The dub has been added to FUNimation’s site/app, in case anyone wanted to finish it.

Clover Works gave a studio tour during the Aniplex Online Fest which pointed out multiple departments were working from home and other departments were working with around half their staff out of the office.

It’s a solid special. I don’t want to spoil anything but it was interesting and enjoyable.

I asked my friend who speaks Japanese if what was said at the panel did translate to “streaming” and he said it translated to “delivered” as in the dub will begin delivery in August. At any rate, it seems Aniplex intends to dub this season ASAP. As for Jason and Adult Swim/WarnerMedia, some conglomerates are more progressive than others but at the end of the day they don’t want to turn off any consumer or potential consumer. Both Anime Expo and Warner Media would not allow a shirt that says fuck racism to be seen on video message but such a shirt could probably be worn at the office of Adult Swim. I doubt Jason would ever wear that shirt during Toonami Pre-Flight even though they say fuck on those from time to time. You can certainly work for a big conglomerate and still be anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-classism, anti-big merger or even anti-capitalism. You definitely can work for a huge corporation and be anti-Trump or anti-GOP. I’m a conservative person by my values but I think the GOP regularly fucks America over and some very wealthy Democrats do as well so I’m basically anti-rich at this point. Warner is getting just about as bad as Disney with regards to swallowing up the industry and there are ramifications to that, mainly job loss. Is it hypocritical to work for Warner or Disney if you purport to be anti-big conglomerate? I suppose, but you don’t have to like everything your employer does in order to be happy to work there. Especially if your employer isn’t doing anything heinous.

Aniplex posted the SAO panel on YouTube. This is what was said.

Personally I don't think they should get shows because they're loaded with T&A. But they shouldn't ignore shows that are great just because they are loaded with T&A.

They wanted KILL la KILL, albeit in spite of fan service.

They might wait 6 or so episodes for a good buffer (or however long until a slot opens up this Fall) but they might risk airing it after just 4 episodes so they don’t have to replace PA with another rerun. But if they already had a replacement for PA then they can wait till Mob’s season ends and be 6 episodes behind or wait for the next opening.

I can't verify this because I missed the panel but a handful of people who saw the SAO Alicization panel during Aniplex Online Fest this morning said they heard SAO's dub would return in August. I don't know if that means they'll resume dubbing in August (more likely) or it will air in August. Here's one tweet.

Most of those don't even do well enough to air at 8pm or 5:30am. They've tried Space Ghost, Birdman, Brak, Sealab and Home Movies in those slots and they never managed to survive. The bar is low these days but it apparently still isn't that low. They still have Bob's Burgers until I believe Fall of 2023 but once they lose Family Guy in Fall of 2021 they really ought to give up the 8pm hour to avoid stretching their higher rated programming too thin. Either that or give it to reruns of anime since CN isn't going to make good use of the additional hour anyway. I really hope to see something like this in Fall of 2021 08:00 - My Hero Academia 08:30 - Dragon Ball Super / Z Kai / Various short anime 09:00 - American Dad Hour 10:00 - Bob's Burgers Hour 11:00 - Rick & Morty Hour 12:00 - Various Originals 12:15 - Various Originals 12:30 - Various Originals 12:45 - Various Originals 01:00 - Various Half Hour Originals 01:30 - Venture Bros. 02:00 - American Dad Hour 03:00 - Rick & Morty Hour 04:00 - DVR Theater Hour 05:00 - Bob's Burgers Hour

It had something for everyone. Anyhoo, 2 episodes are dubbed already. That's a good sign that FUNimation will prioritize Fire Force and be able to dub one episode a week. It is very likely they get materials for dubbing early due to co-producing Fire Force. It remains to be seen if they can manage to dub one episode a week for the entire season but this still bodes well for a potential Toonami broadcast in early to mid August.

On one hand it didn't really hurt MHA much if at all but on the other hand... it was total bullshit.

I figured this wasn't airing in Japan until 2021 but at least it's January. I'm looking forward to it.

I feel they should give up the 8pm hour but the reality is prime time is valuable ad-space for adult targeted ads and its not as useful for ads targeting kids.

It’s entirely possible they got pressured to swap Bobs to 8pm because American Dad is often TV-14. And along with that they decided to move encores of Bob from the middle of the night to 5am for a similar reason. Bob’s is the most PG sitcom they have and MHA pushes TV-14 often. It’s not unlikely that someone finally decided taking TV-14 shows out of the 8pm and 5am hour was more important than using Bobs where it would usually get better ratings. So it might not just be a performance issue for MHA.

I’m pretty sure they already paid for the 2nd half of SAOAWotU and they might have negotiated early this year for Fire Force season 2 but that’s a bit less likely.