Next 3 weeks of Toonami schedules revealed. Spoiler alert! No new shows!

[Toonamiguy321]

And they took this opportunity to quietly add Unicorn Warriors to the schedule without addressing its triple rerun status.

[Jman]

…I know this joke is way too obvious, but I can’t help it.

 

[OwlChemist81]

Another Summer of Genndy...

At least MHA is getting a rerun--that's a good move. And I really hope that May 13th 12:30 timeslot is at least a little flexible. PRIMAL needs to go the way of the dinosaur, but we both know it's gonna be relegated to 3 AM, worst-case scenario.

[katt_goddess]

a] They are trying to figure out what exact schedule will bring the most eyes to the table with Unicorn whatever. 

b] The programming in the pipes got caught in a bend and is slower than expected so they need to stretch things out without contracting anything. 

[Toonamiguy321]

Some other interesting observations we can skim from this news.

1. It looks like after one more bout of Primal diarrhea, this curse is finally going to be lifted from Toonami, and MHA will take up the torch as our late night rerun for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, that means if we get the FLCL sequels this year, they will likely rerun in their premier timeslot. So be prepared for that. 

2. The Facebook post heavily implies they are working on an actual show, likely for the 12:30 slot. So where does that leave AoT? I highly doubt Crunchyroll is so far behind on its dub that a late May premier would happen. Perhaps the 2014 deal did not include those specials as we had hoped. For now, as long as the dub does not release on CR, it still has a chance, but my doubts are growing. 
 

32 minutes ago, katt_goddess said:

b] The programming in the pipes got caught in a bend and is slower than expected so they need to stretch things out without contracting anything. 

This is what the Facebook post implied. But I cannot list any show I believe could be clogged up for essentially an entire month. They bought themselves till mid May to make an announcement. The only thing I could see having this much involvement on the Japan side would be one of the FLCL sequels. Hopefully that’s not the answer, because that is going to be a huge letdown for the fans. 
 

It also begs the question, why burn off MHA if you weren’t absolutely 100% sure what you were clearing it off for was ready? MHA could have given them 5 extra weeks of time had they not doubled it up in March. 

[katt_goddess]

45 minutes ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

 

It also begs the question, why burn off MHA if you weren’t absolutely 100% sure what you were clearing it off for was ready? MHA could have given them 5 extra weeks of time had they not doubled it up in March. 

Anytime someone does a quick burn of the 'premiers', I'm reminded that sometimes one person has the first-air rights of something but someone else has second rights and their stuff is coming due too. So the polite thing when possible is to blitz the first run stuff so it can be passed on and maybe that politeness translates into more first-air rights of things further down the road. In other words, you play well with others so here's some better choices of things. 

[Toonamiguy321]

8 minutes ago, katt_goddess said:

Anytime someone does a quick burn of the 'premiers', I'm reminded that sometimes one person has the first-air rights of something but someone else has second rights and their stuff is coming due too. So the polite thing when possible is to blitz the first run stuff so it can be passed on and maybe that politeness translates into more first-air rights of things further down the road. In other words, you play well with others so here's some better choices of things. 

Maybe, but who else needs MHA? Crunchyroll was first, Toonami was second. Is there someone else in line for it?

[OwlChemist81]

I never thought I would see the day Toonami is still on the air and yet things are worse than 2008. TWO HOURS of anime on [as] per week. That's ALL WE HAVE anymore.

Screw you, streaming monopolies. Here's to the glory days!

 

[PokeNirvash]

The second ACTN Dark Age, indeed.

[Jman]

10 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

The second ACTN Dark Age, indeed.

Except unlike the last one, anime is more popular than ever.  It’s just not available on Toonami.

[OwlChemist81]

Except for the "New-ish Big 3" and *checks notes* Food Wars, that's true. And Food Wars only has 2 months left.

[Toonamiguy321]

2 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Screw you, streaming monopolies. Here's to the glory days!

 

 

1 hour ago, Jman said:

Except unlike the last one, anime is more popular than ever.  It’s just not available on Toonami.

 

[Jman]

This is why Bleach is on Hulu.

[Sketch]

Well this frick’n sucks.

I was concerned they would rerun MHA at 12:30 if they had nothing but somehow they went with something even worse.

Welcome to GENNAMI and an hour of reruns starting the block until whatever the hell they are trying to get approved can finally air.

The only reason I’m still holding out for the Titan special is the fact the dub hasn’t streamed. We’ll see how long that remains to be the case.

And as for who else gets the dub of MHA? That would be Hulu. If memory serves, they usually get it a year after Crunchyroll but they might get it a little quicker now.

[CountFrylock]

1 hour ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

 

 

why do we keep acting like Jason Demarco has the final say when he's not even captain of toonami anymore?

another thing we were just told that it's The Japanese License Holders that have to approve a show-pick up not the localizers

lastly everything at CN/AS is a mess right now due to WBD

[Toonamiguy321]

32 minutes ago, CountFrylock said:

why do we keep acting like Jason Demarco has the final say when he's not even captain of toonami anymore?

 

He is the one who has been talking up this acquisition the past few days. Reasonable conclusion that he is pretty involved with it.

33 minutes ago, CountFrylock said:

another thing we were just told that it's The Japanese License Holders that have to approve a show-pick up not the localizers

lastly everything at CN/AS is a mess right now due to WBD

This schedule gap has been here since February. They have had more than a reasonable amount of time to get something sorted out. Especially since they burned off MHA, that was a big beacon to the viewers that they had something cooking that needed to get on right now. 

They say be patient. We already did that. If people need to clown on them a bit to pass the time, I think the audience has earned it at this point. 

[CountFrylock]

1 hour ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

He is the one who has been talking up this acquisition the past few days. Reasonable conclusion that he is pretty involved with it.

This schedule gap has been here since February. They have had more than a reasonable amount of time to get something sorted out. Especially since they burned off MHA, that was a big beacon to the viewers that they had something cooking that needed to get on right now. 

They say be patient. We already did that. If people need to clown on them a bit to pass the time, I think the audience has earned it at this point. 

Demarco's little more than an adviser on toonami since his promotion  it's Gill Austin who probably works the magic on team toonami(someone who doesn't really use social media so demarco has to be the block's mouth-piece even though his role is smaller since his promotion)

when nothing at CN/AS has been going right for a long time it's a bit unfair to pin this all on toonami being incompetent

 

[Jman]

10 hours ago, Sketch said:

Well this frick’n sucks.

I was concerned they would rerun MHA at 12:30 if they had nothing but somehow they went with something even worse.

Welcome to GENNAMI and an hour of reruns starting the block until whatever the hell they are trying to get approved can finally air.

The only reason I’m still holding out for the Titan special is the fact the dub hasn’t streamed. We’ll see how long that remains to be the case.

And as for who else gets the dub of MHA? That would be Hulu. If memory serves, they usually get it a year after Crunchyroll but they might get it a little quicker now.

If it helps any, I think Genndy hates this as much as Toonami viewers do.  This is also why I think logically speaking their biggest potential get for 2024 is Creature Commandos rather than any of the hot anime releases.

Warner is a mess right now, so it is what it is.  

[Sketch]

1 hour ago, Jman said:

If it helps any, I think Genndy hates this as much as Toonami viewers do.  This is also why I think logically speaking their biggest potential get for 2024 is Creature Commandos rather than any of the hot anime releases.

Warner is a mess right now, so it is what it is.  

As much as I’d love to see that happen the fact that WBD won’t even let Toonami have Young Justice or a regular airing of Harley Quinn even now gives me serious doubts but maybe that can change if they’re willing to air My Adventures with Superman on Adult Swim.

[OwlChemist81]

You know what crossover SHOULD happen? My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic on [as]! There are like 9 seasons of that, right?

What's the matter? WBD?

[Sketch]

Ah terrific, Primal season 2 restarts from the top for that hour this Saturday. They just aired episode 3 (13) last week so they aired those two episodes less than a month ago. There’s 10 episodes of Unicorn and 10 episodes of Primal season 2. They’re probably going to keep that Genndy hour for the whole 10 weeks. Whatever they’re waiting to announce either warrants expansion (ahahaha) or waits for Food Wars to finish. Hopefully they have the good sense not to stick whatever that is behind two reruns.

[Toonamiguy321]

27 minutes ago, Sketch said:

Ah terrific, Primal season 2 restarts from the top for that hour this Saturday. They just aired episode 3 (13) last week so they aired those two episodes less than a month ago. There’s 10 episodes of Unicorn and 10 episodes of Primal season 2. They’re probably going to keep that Genndy hour for the whole 10 weeks. Whatever they’re waiting to announce either warrants expansion (ahahaha) or waits for Food Wars to finish. Hopefully they have the good sense not to stick whatever that is behind two reruns.

You better be telling us lies right now. April Fools is on the first, not the 26th. I’ll forgive you, if you just admit to making this up to get a rise out of us.

Please, be the liar I want you to be. My sanity needs it.

[Sketch]

I’m not lying about the restart 

It feels like a running gag that the episode title we least like to see is “Sea of Despair”

Edited April 26, 2023 by Sketch

[PokeNirvash]

I long for the day they restart at "Spear and Fang", like a sane person would after the second cycle through season 2.

Unfortunately, [as] programming continues to be as insane as ever.

[OwlChemist81]

1 hour ago, PokeNirvash said:

I long for the day they restart at "Spear and Fang", like a sane person would after the second cycle through season 2.

Unfortunately, [as] programming continues to be as insane as ever.

Seems like a law of the Zaslav reign of terror WBD era.

At least they haven't thrown up a 20th Anniversary remaster of Reign The Conqueror...

[Toonamiguy321]

6 hours ago, Sketch said:

I’m not lying about the restart 

It feels like a running gag that the episode title we least like to see is “Sea of Despair”

“We are close to announcing a new show”

”Here is Primal S2 again from the top”

Something here does not compute. Assuming the show they are allegedly so close to finalizing replaces Food Wars, thats like 6-7 weeks away. Maybe we have a different definition of what “close” means. 

[MasqueradeOverture]

Interlaced beta tape scans of Pilot Candidate confirmed for 5/20.

[Toonamiguy321]

Just something that’s been in my head I’d like some opinions on, I think I have floated the theory before but their chosen path forward has me thinking about it again. Do we think One Piece is out of here at the end of Punk Hazard? If they needed to buy 10 more weeks, I think the majority of fans would prefer an extra One Piece or Naruto over any reruns, let alone Primal S2. Naruto I can understand, in about a month and half, we can officially say Naruto has less than one year left on the block. While I’d love to get to the end sooner, I doubt AS wants that. One Piece though, has no excuse, unless of course, it’s more finite than we think. 
 

Unlike its last run, it’s ratings have been acceptable for its timeslot for the majority of its run. So I wouldn’t cite performance as a reason if they did get rid of it. The gargantuan size of the Dressrosa arc though may be an issue for them. At our current speed, it would take Toonami viewers over 2 years to finish the arc, thats a huge commitment people likely will not make. 
 

On one hand, with the dire state of the lineup right now, even considering they might drop one of their few new things is hard to believe. On the other, one of their justifications for getting One Piece back in the first place was to use its massive episode count as a means to fill gaps on the schedule when necessary. And since November, they have gone to a lot of effort to NOT do that. So could we be seeing the end of its run here soon?

[OwlChemist81]

I sure hope not. We're down to 2 hours of anime weekly as it is.

[Toonamiguy321]

1 hour ago, OwlChemist81 said:

I sure hope not. We're down to 2 hours of anime weekly as it is.

90 minutes in my eyes since one isn’t even new. 

If they did do this, something would have to fill the slot. More reruns would be the betting man’s choice, but they could always surprise us with something more finite. 

[Sketch]

I sure hope they continue One Piece. As it stands, for me, Toonami starts at 1am and ends at 2am.

[Jman]

8 hours ago, Sketch said:

I sure hope they continue One Piece. As it stands, for me, Toonami starts at 1am and ends at 2am.

I maintain that the next few months will be very interesting for that show.  I may be overestimating the Netflix show, but if that is a hit, I imagine Zaslav might have an opinion on the show continuing to air.  If that's not a factor, the pace of Dressrosa certainly will be.  

I can't predict anything else at this point unless DeMarco does want to raid the Sentai warchest.  Akhiabara Maid War is right there.

[OwlChemist81]

Realistically, here's how I think this may go:

4/29 (Saturday) - Toonami lineup airs as is with Primal hour leading the block.

5/2 (Tuesday) - Ratings come out and it's discovered that Primal tanked the lineup.

5/3 (Wednesday) - Toonami gets the green light not only to air the new show, but to premiere it 5/13 and replaces Primal with it at 12:30.

5/6 (Saturday) - Toonami lineup airs as-is with an hour of Unicorn Warriors Eternal (UWE) leading the block, and no Primal.

5/9 (Tuesday) - Ratings come out and Toonami improves but not by much. DeMarco and [as] freak out and swap the new show and UWE, then release the updated lineup on Facebook.

5/13 (Saturday) - New show at 12, UWE at 12:30, rest of the lineup as announced previously.

[we can only hope]

[Sketch]

They will probably keep Unicorn first if only because having a rerun in the middle tends to cause more problems than starting with one. Though if it does really bad they might even toss it to the back and move up the anime.

[Toonamiguy321]

1 hour ago, Jman said:

I can't predict anything else at this point unless DeMarco does want to raid the Sentai warchest.  Akhiabara Maid War is right there.

If the choice comes down to solely Demarco, One Piece is never leaving the block. If Demarco has to sell higher ups on a 2 year long arc, there may be an issue. Another issue in 2017 was the block had so much long running content there was no room for flexibility. So between its poor ratings and the need for space, dropping it made sense. Our current situation, the block has 3 reruns they can ditch before they need to talk about dropping OP. And with the struggles they are having just securing one show, I have my doubts they are doing that. 
 

1 hour ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Realistically, here's how I think this may go:

4/29 (Saturday) - Toonami lineup airs as is with Primal hour leading the block.

5/2 (Tuesday) - Ratings come out and it's discovered that Primal tanked the lineup.

5/3 (Wednesday) - Toonami gets the green light not only to air the new show, but to premiere it 5/13 and replaces Primal with it at 12:30.

5/6 (Saturday) - Toonami lineup airs as-is with an hour of Unicorn Warriors Eternal (UWE) leading the block, and no Primal.

5/9 (Tuesday) - Ratings come out and Toonami improves but not by much. DeMarco and [as] freak out and swap the new show and UWE, then release the updated lineup on Facebook.

5/13 (Saturday) - New show at 12, UWE at 12:30, rest of the lineup as announced previously.

[we can only hope]

The only way this would happen is if the audience actually tuned out. There are still a lot of fans who feel obligated to tune in regardless of what the block is airing to support it, and are completely oblivious to the fact doing so encourages them to stay the course. 
 

56 minutes ago, Sketch said:

They will probably keep Unicorn first if only because having a rerun in the middle tends to cause more problems than starting with one. Though if it does really bad they might even toss it to the back and move up the anime.

I agree with this. I hated 2020 when it went new - rerun - new etc. If we can’t avoid these reruns, I’d rather they all be contained either at the end or at the beginning so I only have to tune in for one chunk. 

[brianycpht]

4 hours ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

If the choice comes down to solely Demarco, One Piece is never leaving the block. If Demarco has to sell higher ups on a 2 year long arc, there may be an issue. Another issue in 2017 was the block had so much long running content there was no room for flexibility. So between its poor ratings and the need for space, dropping it made sense. Our current situation, the block has 3 reruns they can ditch before they need to talk about dropping OP. And with the struggles they are having just securing one show, I have my doubts they are doing that. 
 

The only way this would happen is if the audience actually tuned out. There are still a lot of fans who feel obligated to tune in regardless of what the block is airing to support it, and are completely oblivious to the fact doing so encourages them to stay the course. 
 

I agree with this. I hated 2020 when it went new - rerun - new etc. If we can’t avoid these reruns, I’d rather they all be contained either at the end or at the beginning so I only have to tune in for one chunk. 

I swear, this week there will still be people who go “Way to go Spear!” #Primal #Toonami during the whole hour. That’s what’s most annoying. There’s a few on Twitter who think it’s funny how many times it’s run and will probably try to get it to trend as a lark

Some fan site accounts will also highlight how “an hour of Primal season 2 kicks off the block…NOW! #Primal #Toonami” lol

We also can’t discount the possibility that the ratings for the hour will be on par with the MHA hour and it’ll completely vindicate their decision. Stranger things have happened 

 

 

[CountFrylock]

One Piece has to be doubled up at this point....the pacing is just going to get worse

[Jman]

35 minutes ago, CountFrylock said:

One Piece has to be doubled up at this point....the pacing is just going to get worse

I'm sure they would if only to fill up another timeslot, but it sounds like it's not their call.

[CountFrylock]

10 minutes ago, Jman said:

I'm sure they would if only to fill up another timeslot, but it sounds like it's not their call.

what is their call at this point? because it seems like toonami is just waiting to get table scraps and even that isn't guaranteed because with unicorn warriors we're getting table scraps of table scraps

[Jman]

Just now, CountFrylock said:

what is their call at this point? because it seems like toonami is just waiting to get table scraps and even that isn't guaranteed because with unicorn warriors we're getting table scraps of table scraps

[Sketch]

It’s pretty understandable if higher ups told Gill Austin that Toonami could not keep burning through two episodes of their One Piece stash per week. What doesn’t make sense is why doing that with MHA was approved instead.

Maybe they were just that desperate for a ratings boost to 12:30 but if that’s the case they sure did a shit job of letting their audience know that two new episodes were airing every week for a month and a half. Not one single mention of that in a weekly topical and the results? The 12:30 MHA didn’t do all that much better than an extra One Piece would have. But they probably made the right call not airing Foid Wars at 12:30 given it’s lost to One Piece a few times in recent months.

Of course, whatever was coming to replace MHA didn’t pull through yet but it’s hard to imagine whatever it is would be a better 12:30 show than new MHA. Probably not even Bleach is going to be that much of a draw.

[Toonamiguy321]

27 minutes ago, Sketch said:

It’s pretty understandable if higher ups told Gill Austin that Toonami could not keep burning through two episodes of their One Piece stash per week. What doesn’t make sense is why doing that with MHA was approved instead.

This is why I suspect they may not move into the next arc of One Piece. I’m not exactly sure where we are, but I think it has 10-15 weeks left of Punk Hazard. Had we doubled up, MHA would be done next month and that would be wrapping up too. 
 

Like I said, the entire purpose of getting OP was for it to do duty as schedule gap filler when needed. The fact that they go out of their way to not use it for that is suspect. 

If they do drop OP though, I have no idea what they would do with the slot. Since it’s anchor content, that might worry me that they are planning to sunset the block. In that case, perhaps double Naruto to get us to the end quicker, or they just trim off an hour. 

[Daos]

It's time for... 

 

[CountFrylock]

14 hours ago, Sketch said:

It’s pretty understandable if higher ups told Gill Austin that Toonami could not keep burning through two episodes of their One Piece stash per week. What doesn’t make sense is why doing that with MHA was approved instead.

Maybe they were just that desperate for a ratings boost to 12:30 but if that’s the case they sure did a shit job of letting their audience know that two new episodes were airing every week for a month and a half. Not one single mention of that in a weekly topical and the results? The 12:30 MHA didn’t do all that much better than an extra One Piece would have. But they probably made the right call not airing Foid Wars at 12:30 given it’s lost to One Piece a few times in recent months.

Of course, whatever was coming to replace MHA didn’t pull through yet but it’s hard to imagine whatever it is would be a better 12:30 show than new MHA. Probably not even Bleach is going to be that much of a draw.

i honestly think they squandered MHA S6

[Toonamiguy321]

13 hours ago, Daos said:

It's time for... 

 

The only thing I remember from this series is it’s one of the ones they let Ashly Burch have a lead role in. Crazy to think how fast her voice acting career exploded, from niche anime to prominent video games in less than a decade. 

[Jman]

Primal takes a break next week for an hour premiere of Unicorn Warriors Eternal.

 

So leading off with an hour of the kids show.

[CountFrylock]

14 hours ago, Jman said:

Primal takes a break next week for an hour premiere of Unicorn Warriors Eternal.

 

So leading off with an hour of the kids show.

okay first off we already knew that....it's not new info and second can you stop with this "LOL Toonami is leading off with a kids show" nonsense

 

[Sketch]

If you’re gonna air a PG show then I suppose it makes more sense to lead with it than air it at 2am but uh… One Piece is almost always TV-PG at 1:30 so *shrug*

At any rate they weren’t going to lead with Food Wars

[Daos]

21 hours ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

The only thing I remember from this series is it’s one of the ones they let Ashly Burch have a lead role in. Crazy to think how fast her voice acting career exploded, from niche anime to prominent video games in less than a decade. 

It's kind of a "B tier" generic anime, but it's surprisingly watchable and kind of underrated. Apparently it's very rushed and deviated from the Manga way too much, so people turned on it.