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They’ll probably rerun OPM season 2 but it doesn’t have to be immediately after it ends. It could replace TPN for instance. I won’t rule out the possibility that they won’t have another show ready by the 3rd week of January but they probably will have one. If not, Fire Force ends very soon after and Dr. Stone also ends early in 2020. So it would not be horrendous if they got down to 8 premieres. They should probably just drop a slot instead of adding a third rerun though.

I'm all good with a rerun replacing Lupin. 9 premieres is plenty. The Promised Neverland is a good show to replay. Moving up Dr. Stone is fine but it seems a shame to leave Demon Slayer so late. I guess it does fine where it is and they don't want to shake things up too much. I'm guessing whatever is replacing One-Punch Man was deemed unsuitable for 11:30PM so they moved Dr. Stone up, either that or they just wanted to move Dr. Stone up regardless.

They tried to get Yuri on Ice...

Which part is that?

Here’s a question. Would you give up 2 hours of Toonami a week if it meant they never took a week off?

And by comparison, AS shoves less ads down our throats compared to many. It’s not gonna get better though.

Adult Swim tends to run shows that are 23 mins or less per half hour. Many anime run 24-25 mins in length. They run anime with shortened OPs and EDs so they can have at least 6 minutes of ad space per half hour not counting their own bumpers and promos. One major change from when AS was airing full OPs and only trimming EDs was ASA had minimal packaging. Toonami bumpers take up about 40 seconds per half hour so even with trimmed OPs and EDs a 22:30 episode of Fire Force fills 23:10 give or take and longer shows with Toonami bumps can end up being 24 mins or a bit longer. Shippuden runs short due to having no opening on Toonami so that’s usually where the occasional music video will air. So I ask you, would you prefer anime to usually have full OPs at the cost of any kind of Toonami packaging with TOM and Sara? Because that’s probably the only feasible trade-off due to the run time. Aside from pulling an Ani-Monday and cutting episode content instead of the OPs. And if you think that’s bowing down to commercial overlords, the average 60 minute basic cable show runs 41-43 mins. That’s 17-19 mins of commercials. It used to be 44-45 mins and once was even 50 mins. Ad space became much more important over the years. So the AS average of only 14-16 mins of commercials per hour is notably less intrusive, especially because they only do 1 break in the middle of a show and 1 break between shows as opposed to 3-4 breaks.

It sucks for Toonami but these companies with their own streaming platforms probably should be offering the best shows they have exclusively to their paying subscribers for at least a week or two. If Toonami wants to circumvent that they have to make it the deal worth while. Before they could guarantee greater exposure by simply airing shows but now they can't really make that claim despite how many homes have Cartoon Network still. I don't think the lack of FUNimation simuldubs was entirely due to FUNimation taking some balls and going home though. Toonami's strategy in 2016, 2017 and especially 2018 was largely to depend on proven franchises. There were probably a lot of shows that FUNimation pitched to Toonami that ultimately were passed over for Hunter x Hunter, Gundam: IBO, One-Punch Man, JoJo, more DBZ Kai, Dragon Ball Super, Gundam Unicorn, a new season of Samurai Jack,Tokyo Ghoul, Lupin the 3rd, an fresh run of Outlaw Star, more Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, sequels to FLCL, Boruto, Mob Psycho 100, more SAO, etc. Come 2019 they seemed a bit more willing to try untested properties like The Promised Neverland, Food Wars, Fire Force and Dr. Stone. Dimension W was the last time they dared to pick up a show around the time it started airing in Japan. FUNimation probably wanted Fire Force to be as visible as possible but Toonami was committing to a show that had only just started airing in Japan. I think someone making decisions finally realized that it was important to get shows while they are still hot. Not everyone will wait. At this point I'm feeling like a sucker for not watching Mob Psycho 100 season 2 yet but I hope my patience will be rewarded soon.

I’m just a repair man. You let me in.

There’s kind of no telling what Toonami will pick up in early 2020. There aren’t exactly any obvious picks in the upcoming Winter season. I strongly suspect Mob will replace Saitama but as for the rest of the shows, there’s really no telling what they will air. Boruto could be back sooner than later. SAO Alicization season 2 is taking a break and finishing in Spring. They may run the first half in February or wait until they’ll be able to air the whole season without a break. I have no idea when Neverland’s second season will air but it doesn’t seem to be Winter. Its rather exciting to not have many obvious choices. Toonami could try some interesting things.

Is your house appropriately both mouth burning hot in some parts and also ice cold in other parts?

We all basically do that with some shows currently airing on Toonami. Personally there are some shows I don’t mind waiting to watch (Dr. Stone, Fire Force, OPM S2, JoJo, Demon Slayer, Food Wars, Lupin) and some shows I like being up to date on whenever possible (MHA and SAO currently). I waited for the dubs of OPM, DS, JoJo and Lupin and did not keep up with the subs so that they’d be new to me on Toonami. Fire Force is close enough and not a must watch so I can wait. I just haven’t been diligent with Dr. Stone lately so now Toonami is almost up to where I left off. But I will admit I have considered finishing the second season of OPM subbed but I’d still rather watch the dub.

Expected /10

People are more likely to travel for big holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. It’s not that people don’t watch TV during those holidays but many are less likely to be able to maintain their regular viewing habits while traveling. They’re also more likely to watch event programming, especially holiday centered specials and sports. So networks don’t tend to air their regular programming on the weekends surrounding major holidays. When you go on a trip, are you always able to watch Adult Swim where ever you go? Hell, with all the cord cutting going on folks are much more likely to visit a relative who does not have access to Adult Swim live or on-demand. And if you’re on a trip and having a good time doing something out of the ordinary on Saturday night, will you really make sure to watch Toonami? On convention weekends and family trips, I generally don’t. I’m too busy to stay up late watching Toonami and too busy to watch it on-demand until I get home. Same goes for watching streaming shows even if I have my phone and access to the internet. I’m not forgoing a rare opportunity to watch my regular anime. So I honestly appreciate a week off from Toonami in those instances.

A little too accurate

Yeah I was surprised to find that Kono Oto Tomare (a Saturday show) and Africa Salaryman (a Sunday show) didn't upload new dubbed episodes on Thanksgiving weekend but it makes sense. They get MHA episodes early but if there's a week off in Japan, they'll have to take a week off as well. That has already happened once and could happen in late December.

There's still hope for the 4th Plate 😰

So both the 4th of July and Halloween are on a Saturday next year. You can bet that both will be marathon nights. We’re probably looking at 5 to 7 weeks off in 2020 because of that. While part of me believes that people will do that, if we look at the performance of Dr. Stone which is a good month or so behind the dub stream, it does not seem to be hurting it significantly. It doesn’t lose to Fire Force which is only a week behind and it holds the dub premieres of OPM just fine. Then there’s Food Wars which is years behind the streams that are widely available, and it’s doing as well as dub premieres. Maybe some really popular shows would do better if they weren’t behind streams but it honestly doesn’t seem to matter as much as we thought. Not every potential viewer cares to pay for FUNimation on top of every other streaming service they may have.

I mean don't even joke. If they actually tried to air a DBS marathon for four hours every Saturday for a year, it would probably do better than a regular lineup of Toonami. It could go either way with the marathons next year. I had hoped that they have seen enough evidence this year that reinforces that holiday weekends aren't necessarily bad for ratings. Preferably they don't have 7 in 2020 but I doubt there will be less than 6.

We still post podcasts 2-3 times a month. Go to the Sound Cloud. Yes I'm plugging my Sound Cloud 😁

It almost feels like nothing's changed at all...

Interestingly enough they seem to be uploading DBZ Kai episodes as if it was still airing. They have added episodes 53, 54, 55 and 56 over the past four weeks and I don't suspect they will be stopping any time soon. I kind of wondered if their Kai license was only renewed for the first 52 episode season but it seems they at least renewed the first 98 episodes. It will be a good long while before we may know if they have renewed the Final Chapters though it wasn't that long ago that some Final Chapters episodes were still streaming. DB is entirely off the schedule for now but it may very well return to weeknights whenever Adult Swim gets 8pm back. That would be the best way to make use of 131 episodes of Super and 167 episodes of DBZ Kai. And if it doesn't return to weekdays then I would definitely expect it to return to Saturday prime time.

Amazon is just annoying because they get some of the best anime every season and most don’t get a physical release much less a dub. They do simulcasts, which is nice compared to Netflix, but the drawbacks are greater.

Rick and Morty will continue to premiere on Adult Swim and season 4 will be added to HBO Max sometime after it airs. I'd guess 6-12 months after depending on when season 4 ends. The Adult Swim section on HBO Max will be a curated selection of shows and basically just be where the series will be available instead of Hulu. I can't say for certain (because I have no insider info whatsoever) but I'm expecting at least a good many AS originals will still stream their backlog on the Adult Swim app and website but there may be some shows that will only have all their episodes available at one time on HBO Max. Overall the Adult Swim section of HBO Max just seems like a big fat F U to Hulu but the now Disney controlled Hulu probably would have gotten rid of at least most of the AS originals eventually anyway. HBO Max getting South Park is a much bigger F U to Hulu. It sounds like the Crunchyroll section of HBO Max will by no means replace CR as a service or weaken the value of having a CR subscription. I would be surprised if CR on HBO Max includes any series the CR didn't co-produce or is the master licensor of. The likes of Re:Zero, KonoSuba and Shield Hero are very probable but I don't think they'll be able to include series like My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball Super, Attack on Titan, Boruto or Sword Art Online. They probably will not be allowed to include backlog series from distributors such as RightStuf/Nozomi, Aniplex, Discotek, Toei, Sunrise, Sentai Filmworks, etc. The biggest question is if they will offer any simulcasts at all or if they will only upload series in batches? I'm leaning toward no simulcasts but it could go either way for Crunchyroll's own licenses. If they do not offer any simulcasts much less all the simulcasts for that season then VRV might actually survive, especially if HiDive and some of the other ad-ons want to stay bundled but cannot or do not want to be part of HBO Max. It would probably be better for VRV to close up shop though leaving only a reasonably priced Crunchyroll subscription and perhaps a special bundle to allow access to the full CR service to HBO Max subscribers. DC Universe is more than likely on the chopping block soon unless the comic portion is considered a big enough value. Little to nothing has been said of DC animated series for HBO Max despite Max declaring it will have all the DC films along with a new live-action DC series. Perhaps DC Universe will become even more animation focused while live-action productions move to HBO Max but as a subscriber to DCU I gotta say, I see no reason not to fold that library entirely into HBO Max. I don't want to pay 15 bucks a month for HBO Max and also have to pay 10 a month for VRV or 7 a month for Crunchyroll in addition to 7 a month for DCU. That's 30+ bucks a month on its own. I admittedly don't make use of the comic part of DCU but I'd definitely give that up to cut some costs but still have access to DC's animated series and features. The fact that CN has two series being sent directly to HBO Max is somewhat concerning. I'm also a bit frustrated that TBS didn't air Close Enough and now it will be an HBO Max exclusive and of course genLOCK season 2 is premiering on HBO Max as well. Those things aside, I don't see HBO Max as the death knell for CN much less Adult Swim, at least not for several more years. I could see Rick & Morty season 6 onward premiering on HBO Max if season 4 and 5's TV ratings disappoint but there's really no telling what can happen in the next 3-5 years. I could potentially see the Blade Runner series getting streamed on HBO Max before the Toonami broadcast but it will more likely be the other way around. I'm less concerned that Uzumaki will end up on Max first but both probably will be on Max under the CR or Adult Swim library eventually. Samurai Jack as well as Primal will both be in the Adult Swim library on HBO Max and chances are FLCL 2/3 will be either under Adult Swim or CR on HBO Max as well. For now it seems like HBO Max intends to take already streaming shows away from Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, etc while introducing new content and offering other niche content that doesn't stand much of a chance on TV. It's one half the Netflix killer beside Disney+. The streaming wars certainly look to be interesting so far.