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Eh… if they value Daima as much as they valued Super then 11:30 isn’t entirely off the table but that’s only if it’s required by Toei or (much less likely) they actually have 5-6 other premieres airing at the same time as Daima. But yeah it’s probably only going to happen if Toei insists on it. If Toonami has Daima then they probably will announce it soon. Friday seems likely. And if they aren’t starting it till Jan 11th then they will announce a marathon for Jan 4th (probably Fight Girl but they could certainly f around and run a DBZ Kai marathon or something). Really wondering if CR will upload the first 3 episodes of Daima on Jan 10th, just 2 eps or only the first one. And maybe just maybe Toonami will air more than 1 ep the first night. It’s already a long first episode but they could maybe show the first two as an event premiere. It’s wishful thinking I know.

Jan 4th on Toonami isn’t improbable yet but Jan 11th seems much more likely unless CR gets the dub exclusively for a bit.

Welp Family Guy is back in January airing 10-11:30 and unless they lost King of the Hill or Bob’s Burgers that means they can easily fill 5pm-10pm with 3 episodes of American Dad, 3 episodes of Bob’s Burgers and 4 episodes of King of the Hill before Planet Namek even explodes so you might be right about them only getting 50-52 eps of DBZ Kai Guy.

I’m not surprised. Once Disney let CC have it non-exclusively it was a very real possibility for AS to get it back. I think we know why Rewind is plowing through Goku vs Freeza and just dropped Naruto outright. The experimental phase is over. Bow down to the Disney owned overlords as AS 5-11:30 becomes FXX Mini 5-7pm King of the Hill x 4 7-8:30 Bob’s Burgers x 3 8:30-10 American Dad x 3 10-11:30 Family Guy x 3

That seemed like pretty significant moment and all I could think was "you couldn't have done something more dynamic with the posing or the camera position?" The trailers have shown off some pretty nice stuff but that scene ain't it.

Pretty sure they have 98 episodes of DBZ Kai and that's one reason why they kept it doubled up for a few months and are now doing 4 episodes a week. Logically the original schedule could have lasted about a year if it stayed as it was. 46 episodes of Sailor Moon, 98 episodes of DBZ Kai and 52 episodes of Naruto. I can't imagine they only bought 50 or 52 because that doesn't quite finish Freeza but they wouldn't have gotten precisely the amount to finish Freeza either so it was probably the original 98 episodes of Kai and they haven't reacquired the Buu saga yet. I'm not entirely ruling out they only got 50 or 52 but theoretically they planned on bringing back Kai even before Rewind was in the cards and were aiming to use it as 2 years of filler on Saturday Toonami since Naruto Shippuden was ending. Unlike Sailor Moon and Naruto, they're just using the tapes they already had and it's a deal with Toei not Viz so I think they just talked to Toei and got the okay to use those 98 tapes again for a modest fee. I guess we'll see what happens in January. Naruto has 13 episodes left in that batch of 52 (not too mention the episodes that were skipped). But between skipping episodes and the sudden removal with episodes remaining it looks like they might be cutting their losses with it. I'm not exactly crying over it but it's more than a little baffling to me considering Naruto ruled Hulu for years. Yet with DBZ Kai and Sailor Moon drum up interest still, Naruto doesn't seem to be doing it. I have always felt it was the odd man out due to the other two being significantly older looking and more associated with Toonami. I do recall some flack directed at them for including Naruto instead of another "classic" Toonami show but I didn't think that discourse would actually amount to people not rewatching such a beloved and iconic series. There's a good chance Sailor Moon will return early next year but it's a bit ambitious to expect a new deal to be made before the 2nd or 3rd week of January. Maybe they'll at least do some reruns starting in January. I don't know what would be worse at this point, for the DBZ Kai x 4 block to do better than Rewind has thus far or for it do badly and ultimately shelve Rewind faster. My minimal hope is they resume a regular line-up airing the remaining Naruto episodes (but even if they do that, they'll have left the viewers hanging for over a month so good luck getting them to come back), reruns of Sailor Moon (starting around where Jupiter is introduced or at least once Mercury is introduced) and whatever episodes of DBZ Kai they have to show. Then they get Sailor Moon R and swap out Naruto for something else if they're done with it. Gonna really suck if Naruto stops at episode 52 AGAIN (like in 2013 and 2014) though better than if it stops at 39 in the middle of the chunin prelims. Man... back in June Rewind seemed bursting in potential while Checkered Past was squandering what it had. Now it seems like the opposite at least to an extent. Though we'll never know how much better Rewind might have done airing daily as opposed to once a week.

I totally called Bertie being their daughter before the squad realized Ruff and Tumble were married. Entertainment value wise eps 5 and 6 were alright but they are seriously dragging their feet with only 4 episodes left and they decided to make this conflict a 2 parter? Not the most economical use of the time they have left. Seems like Andy will only have time for one small tournament after she finishes training. Ruff and Tumble actually seemed to be wrestling in that fight against Poblana but then she busts out the DBZ shiz on them. And they called her out on it too (kinda like Mr. Satan in the Cell games). So is the show acknowledging it's not really doing wrestling? Was the reception of Poblana's unorthadox techniques the reason she wants nothing to do with wrestling now? What's the message even gonna be in the end?

That’s impressive. I need to go pick up my copy reserved at the local comic shop soon.

Speaking of typical cable scheduling… Kai x 4 continues on Dec 20th It will be eps 40-43, if eps 44-47 air on Dec 27th then they’ll reach Super Saiyan Goku Gotta wonder how long Kai x 4 will last at this rate. My guess would be until the end of the Freeza battle a few weeks into January. They really just dropped Naruto mid chunin exam prelims for 3+ weeks. That’s pretty bogus.

Good point, they can just have Fate fill the hour every week. That’s a bit boring to do but that’s typical cable TV scheduling.

Naruto and Ichigo can continue to suck it. One Piece won the long game against both and Dragon Ball remains undefeated.

I’m just going to enjoy old video games and old anime, mostly whatever I already own a copy of because obviously I don’t trust those things to remain conveniently available if they even are currently.

Gotta wonder what else besides Fate UBW that the new block will show. Some weeks Fate would fill the entire thing but they can pair it with something most weeks. If it's pulling from Aniplex titles maybe Erased or Madoka if they're going for a moody block or Magi if they want to air it with another fantasy. Perhaps Irregular at Magic High School, Darwin's Game, or the Asterisk War? It would be much less interesting to show something that's already aired on Adult Swim but SAO, FMAB and Gurren Lagann are easy marks. Maybe even the dub premiere of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai? If they can actually get something from the Crunchyroll side of Sony... that would be a pretty sizable F-U to Toonami. I don't expect they can afford that but who could say? Speaking of those hour episodes. The first two episodes are both about 50 mins long. That might be a tough pill to swallow for their viewers. We might be looking at a block death speed run record given that. Can it even get to the first normal length episode in the 3rd week? Best of luck with that.

So Toonami will show a preview of the series this weekend. What a tease... https://www.instagram.com/reel/DC207bmM9UN/?igsh=ZThveGh5eHFtNnNl

Uh... perhaps it is the US channel. If so then their anime.com block hasn't launched yet. The website hasn't fully launched yet either. Makes me wonder what else they're showing in their Anime Hour and how long it can even last given Chiller's block was gone in like 3 weeks.

Probably should have been an MMA show. I think Mucha Lucha better repped wrestling. But that aside, I’m still enjoying the journey despite this being the weakest episode yet. Lots of needless squabbles. Mikey braking the vase dramatically was pretty funny though. I was wondering how an earnest guy like him and a scammer could effectively work together but of course Craig just uses Mikey as a threat to get what they need.

Sure gonna confuse the few people who were watching it but if you had to skip 1 ep it isn’t the worst one to miss.

It seems Fate has other plans… it’s a Canadian cable channel AXS TV Toonami can potentially get it but probably not unless Aniplex really pushes for it I see Lazarus coming in as early as mid-February or March around Toonami’s anniversary but yeah it probably depends on what they have in January

Yikes really? Edit: I guess they felt a Rick thon was better to run on Thanksgiving but will it return the following Thursday or is it just done? I guess we’ll see

All but certain Fate UBW is coming to Toonami, there’s no other channel that would touch it.

Track record matters when there’s more seasons they can acquire and Sailor Moon is such an example.

Nah there's no question in my mind that more people are watching Kai on Saturday Toonami than on Rewind and the same would be true of Sailor Moon if it was on there. Sailor Moon could be the true long running replacement for Naruto and I'd be fine with that if it's at 2:30AM after One Piece and 4 other premieres. They'll waste any momentum they have with Sailor Moon if they don't bring it back soon and I do think that would be a shame. They've kept it double up for a reason I would think and it sure wasn't because they had lots of episodes to burn so despite not getting on the top 400 chart any week it probably met expectations if they relied so much on it lately. After all they could have kept going with double DBZ Kai because they have at least 98 episodes of that locked down but they chose to double up Sailor Moon and its probably because that was doing the best out of the 3 shows on there. Certainly the people who I know watch Rewind primarily (if not only) care about Sailor Moon airing. I'm not necessarily saying they should prioritize getting more Sailor Moon over something that's never been on the block but the people making the money decision will most likely recognize that Sailor Moon has a proven track record. Maybe just this once, I feel they should go with the known quantity rather than look for something else to spend part of the budget on. I think you're the rarer exception of someone who would prefer they abandon Sailor Moon in favor of something that's never been on TV before and they stand to piss off dedicated viewers if they drop Sailor Moon after just one season. Especially after all the years of hoping for it to return to television and with an uncensored dub no less. It's also quite a different experience from the old D.I.C. dub and a block premiere unlike Blue Exorcist, DBZ Kai and Naruto. I don't want it to take up a slot before 2AM but if there's money for shows after 2AM then I'm all for them airing Sailor Moon R uncut. Sure there's still 5+ weeks when Daima can drop on CR or another service before Toonami but why would they even need to wait another week when 3 or more episodes are in the can? Every week that goes by without an announcement puts the odds more in Toonami's favor because CR would absolutely be streaming it by now if it was their call and Toei doesn't really have a good reason to hold it back any longer unless they are trying to avoid a holiday hiatus on television. Dub production can take a few weeks off for holidays without the concern of running out of episodes before more are dubbed because there is already a running start but I will reason that production delays due to holidays is at least a reason to hold off till the start of December to launch the dub to increase the buffer enough to account for those delays. But again, I don't think that's necessary because there's at least 3 episodes already dubbed. Potentially several more because it sounds like they were working on this dub even before the Japanese broadcast. And they would be wasting the hype of the 3 day theatrical release if they don't start streaming the dub within a few weeks of that event or at least say something about it streaming soon. They're letting the iron cool off by not getting the dub up shortly after the theatrical release. Every week that there's no news the odds for Toonami getting it before streaming increase. It was 50/50 for a while but now it's looking 60/40 in favor of Toonami. And that's certainly a good thing because if they cannot land that deal then there is probably nothing they can get first hand except originals.

So 12/06 looks to be 3 episodes that already aired on Rewind (32, 33 and 34) and 1 episode that has not (35). Then 12/13 is 4 episodes that are new to Rewind and I think that will stick because it would be next level ridiculous for them to repeat 2-3 of the same episodes every week in December. That said, I'm already side eyeing DBZ Kai getting two marathons back to back and that feels really bizarre if they were planning to give Naruto and/or Sailor Moon a marathon (Sailor Moon obviously being previously aired episodes) but if I look at it by priority so to speak then Kai getting the marathon on 12/13 probably makes more sense to them than giving that day to Naruto or Sailor Moon while they'll be more willing to run marathons of those two on 12/20 and 12/27 because they'll expect even less people are watching. So even though it will burn through their Kai supply much faster I could see them continue to run 4 new to Rewind episodes on 12/20 and maybe even 12/27. Unfortunately they could simply dial back to earlier episodes of Kai for two straight weeks. It would be nasty work if after airing episode 39 on 12/13 they go back to episode 1 or even Goku vs Vegeta and work their way back to episode 39 at the pace of 2 episodes a week again. And they might just do that But there's another option for 12/20 at least. Christmas programming boots Rewind entirely on 12/20. They might avoid that out of concern that people will think Rewind is cancelled, especially when the previous two weeks were Kai marathons but it could definitely happen. Stalling until January is typical Toonami behavior but with Sailor Moon possibly out of episodes and Naruto so unimportant that they don't shy away from taking it off for at least 2 weeks, what future does Rewind have if they don't get more Sailor Moon immediately? Sailor Moon going into rerun mode might not completely kill momentum but it will give people who were watching Rewind religiously much less reason to bother because they already watched those episodes. Daily reruns of episodes that already aired are one thing but people realizing they're in for between 23 and 46 weeks of reruns before Sailor Moon R shows up aren't gonna feel at all inclined to wait on that when Hulu is right there and always has been. Sailor Moon has not even once charted on the top 400 cable reruns while at least occasionally a Checkered Past show has and its by far the biggest draw Rewind has. Falling back on DBZ Kai entirely is a bad sign if ever we saw one. Perhaps the experiment dies here. If so then I hope they do grab Sailor Moon R and start showing that on Saturday Toonami around 2am. It would no doubt be easier to catch there for working adults than the 5pm hour. I definitely would rather have something entirely new to Toonami than for them to spend money on more glorified reruns but it would also be a shame to drop Sailor Moon which is well worthy of a spot and is airing uncut for the first time. It beats a second episode of DBZ Kai at least. Trying to stay positive on Rewind's outlook but even if they can get more Sailor Moon what else can they do besides plod through Naruto and DBZ Kai? Crunchyroll keeps Yu Yu Hakusho and probably Gundam series off the table as well as Outlaw Star and Tenchi (not that either could air uncut). Sentai lost their license to Big O so who even knows about that one? I'm almost surprised they haven't fallen back on Samurai Jack (they probably think it wont do well enough based on the Checkered Past performance). Throwing in a DC show would kick ass but WBD isn't about to do them that solid. While it seemed like there were lots of possibilities for the block at first glance and DeMarco got people hyped getting show requests the reality is their options are rather limited unless CR plays ball, Sunrise can deal with them for Gundam without CR getting in the way or WBD grants them permission to run a DC show or ThunderCats (the original). There IS East Blue One Piece which they could probably get from Toei and maybe they could get Bo-Bobo from them as well (they'd go through Toei, Discotek only has the home video rights). And regarding the main block that Rick and Morty: The Anime marathon blows chunks. Why not a IFG marathon instead? Why a Mashle marathon after 1 hour finale of Invincible Fight Girl? They could just run Mashle, Blue Exorcist and One Piece a half hour later it's not a big deal. Or honestly a marathon of IFG after the last two episodes would at least feel like a send-off while finishing it on a night with a Mashle marathon feels more like a burn-off. Oh but dear viewers I'm not ruling out the stupid possibility that January 4th will be an IFG marathon before the regular block resumes on January 11th. They shouldn't have to take January 4th off to stall but that's presuming they have MHA, Daima or something else lined up to start right after Fight Girl exists the ring and maybe that's presuming too much. MHA S7 not airing in December also blows chunks but I will at least rationalize they don't want to push Mashle and Blue Exorcist yet and had MHA S7 started on 12/7 then they 'd either have to take it off after just two weeks or the December 21st schedule gets even more off kilter with MHA S7, Mashle, Blue Exorcist and One Piece airing 1AM-3AM. They certainly could have done it but with how long they have already waited for MHA S7 there's no need to throw it on in December and cause a shakeup right before Fight Girl exists. It makes more sense to give it top billing after Fight Girl leaves and if Daima is also on tap then they can run Daima for the midnight hour on January 4th followed by Mashle, Blue Exorcist and One Piece 1AM-2:30AM and bring in MHA S7 the week after at 12:30AM. Its way cleaner that way and deals with Daima's long episode in a manner that doesn't have three shows shifting down one week then shifting back the week after. You might even see double Kai as a sign that they don't want to commit to something else in the rerun slots because another premiere is coming soon. All that said, MHA S7 is far from a sure thing and I honestly see Daima as the more likely addition in January because if Daima was going to streaming first it probably would have done so a week or two after the theatrical showing. The fact they haven't even announced plans for that puts the odds in Toonami's favor IMO but Crunchyroll is also notorious for dropping a dub mere days after announcing it is going to stream. In this case I feel like Toei would make some noise for at least a week or two before the launch but if CR is in charge of promotion then don't expect a big lead up even for something is notable as a new Dragon Ball dub. And ya know what? I'm enjoying Daima. The plot isn't fantastic but thus far I've been way more entertained than I was by the majority of Super or GT. Super straight up bore me and GT could be infuriating. Daima is fun, has great animation and fights that aren't just powering up and using beam blasts. It's got that OG Dragon Ball Toriyama flare that has been sorely missed. I'm on board with that airing on Toonami.

I think as the show continues they'll incorporate a lot of actual wrestling techniques but I suppose that remains to be seen. The fight against Immaculate was over pretty quick but felt more like wrestling than the one with Mbrandon. The fight against Mbrandon was mostly throwing Falcon Punches except when Andy failed to do the ankle crank. Then they went to straight up rapid Dragon Ball punches though revealing that Andy was actually not getting any hits in for most of that exchange felt at least a bit original. You probably have a point about the pitch using wrestling to get in the door. The network probably wouldn't commit to a martial arts show, maybe an MMA show but a wrestling show while wrestling remains one of the decent draws for cable at least makes some sense on paper. But so far none of the people involve have sighted wrestling anime as an influence which is pretty telling. That said, I know some people who regularly indulge in wrestling entertainment who are enjoying this show so that's something I guess. If we've learned anything from the droves of anime-inspired American cartoons its that there will never be another Avatar.

Kadokawa is on a ton of production committees. If this goes through it's going to give Sony a piece of the majority of the anime industry in Japan as well as a major book publisher. It would also add Book Walker, Comic Walker, J Novel and Yen Press to establish the manga / novel publishing stone in the infinity gauntlet beside the anime stone, the online market stone, the video game stone, and the film and television stone. The book angle is way more distressing than the rest of the Kadokawa anime getting distributed by a branch of Sony, they already get a whole lot of those between Crunchyroll and Aniplex. Owning the majority of FromSoftware is small potatoes compared to that. But the way Microsoft is fumbling non-stop has me concerned that PlayStation will be the only high-end console on the market while Nintendo does its own thing with underpowered hybrid consoles. I don't care if XBOX drops out but I don't want PlayStation to be the only option besides PC and Nintendo. People who are saying "keep that same energy you had about MicroSoft buying up Bethesda and ActiBliz being good thing" regarding this buyout are absolute morons. It's not even slightly comparable. Don't even get me started on the possibility of censoring content before it even leaves Japan much less once it gets over here but thankfully as censor happy as Sony has become with video games, they haven't really gone that direction with anime with a few exceptions. But manga and novels often push beyond what's acceptable for television in Japan so if they crack down on manga and novels that could certainly change things. But in general, nothing good can come from one corporation having such a massive foot print in US side of Japanese media distribution much less having an even bigger one in Japan. Unfortunately, Japan's anti-trust laws are even more of a joke than the US anti-trust laws so this very well could happen and the thought of it (especially owning Book Walker and Yen Press) makes me want to vomit repeatedly. Sony took Crunchyroll, FUNimation and RightStuf and combined them and the chimera is demonstrably worse than any of them were at their own personal worst. RightStuf was pretty golden so it has fallen the hardest. They used to have the highest quality package shipping and customer service and you bet your ass Crunchyroll Store doesn't even come close. And the Bluray releases are vastly inferior to when RightStuf's Nozomi was handling them. CR and FUNi were both crappy in their own ways and we got the worst of both worlds and there's still over 100 titles that didn't move over including Outlaw Star, all the old Tenchi series, The Slayers and Escaflowne. Even the (very great) dub of Stein's Gate isn't on there despite the sub being there. Make it make sense! I don't even want to think about how much this could ruin Book Walker and Yen Press (and all the other associated publishing arms). Book Walker has been my haven from bowing down to the Amazon overlords. And while Kadokawa is faaaaaar from sin but they're not Amazon. Sony? They're at least trying to be Amazon for Japanese media and merch and there doesn't seem to be anything that can stop them from consuming more of the market. I really like to buy media legally but with every merger, I keep having less and less companies I can stomach paying for this stuff.