Demon Slayer returns to Toonami November 11th with the Mugen Train arc

[Jman]

This is a shocker given how Demon Slayer has been cleaning up everywhere it’s aired, and frankly, seemed outside Toonami’s budget.

[PokeNirvash]

"So, uh... sorry about the FLCL threequels, if the half-hearted assurance there won't be any more wasn't apologetic enough."

[Toonamiguy321]

Well, that wasn’t on my bingo sheet. Know why? Demarco said they wouldn’t fucking air it so I watched it on my own. 
 

Note it’s specifically the Mugen Train arc, which is only a meager 7 episodes. Thanks for stalling the entire year to spooge the entire budget on a half season Demarco! I assume the double up is to make sure we get it all squeezed into 2023. 

Also notice on the graphic, one less slot. I told y’all a cut was coming. Not a big fan of the block ending on a :30 though. 

[PokeNirvash]

I think I've got an explanation for that one...

 

[Toonamiguy321]

2 minutes ago, PokeNirvash said:

I think I've got an explanation for that one...

 

Nope, I have pointed that out before, almost every graphic they release leaves the Loren Ipsum in tiny font in that exact same spot. Here’s tonight schedule, go ahead and enhance 

[atomicinumatt]

Bahahaha Demon Slayer!

I mean, could it be better? Sure, but we are still getting stiff people do not expect. I am happy with this! 

[[classic swim]]

1 hour ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

Well, that wasn’t on my bingo sheet. Know why? Demarco said they wouldn’t fucking air it

Thanks for stalling the entire year to spooge the entire budget on a half season Demarco! 

 

Demarco is such a fucking bitch, dude. 

Why are his nipples protruding after years of being molested by his step dad?

[Sketch]

Totally unexpected at this point and arguably a big deal but I’m honestly disappointed for several reasons.

1) Screws over barely month old Dr. Stone a bit to air episodes that are years old and they could have done right by both shows if the block was airing an hour earlier 

2) It certainly looks like they sacrificed most of the year’s activity for one big show, we’ll see how it pays off or doesn’t 

3) They went back to a known quantity instead of trying anything else first which isn’t helping them beat the “nothing but big shounen” accusations

4) Also not helping them beat the “spend all day hoping Sony will call back” accusations

5) The block is all Shonen Jump battle anime again unless they’re actually is a rerun at 2:30 that doesn’t fit that criteria 

6) I’d much rather keep double One Piece than lose a slot

I’d caution not to consider this a sign that Crunchyroll is back at the table. Aniplex still operates with some level of autonomy even though Sony owns both. Previously the issue was Demon Slayer became too expensive for Toonami. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that it’s a series they previously had a contract for just like Food Wars, My Hero Academia and Dr. Stone and Attack on Titan. If Jujutsu Kaisen, Spy x Family, Chainsaw Man or another series with no prior contract shows up on Toonami, then we can start to entertain the idea of Crunchyroll regularly making deals with Toonami.

[Toonamiguy321]

23 minutes ago, Sketch said:

1) Screws over barely month old Dr. Stone a bit to air episodes that are years old and they could have done right by both shows if the block was airing an hour earlier 

 

Being honest, I’m a little grateful we are even in a situation where it feels like a show is being shafted. The entire year has been nothing, so being in a scenario where it feels like multiple shows could be the lead show feels good. Personally I think this is just gonna be a one week thing, DS will cut down to one slot the following week and Dr Stone will slip into 12:30. The open slot will either go back to OP, or be cut to give us a clean 12-2 runtime. I think DS in the lead is the right choice just on popularity alone. Even with Demarco pushing some viewers away by telling everyone they would never air it, it’s still leagues more popular and might even be able to scratch that 300k mark we haven’t seen in a long long time. 
 

30 minutes ago, Sketch said:

2) It certainly looks like they sacrificed most of the year’s activity for one big show, we’ll see how it pays off or doesn’t 

3) They went back to a known quantity instead of trying anything else first which isn’t helping them beat the “nothing but big shounen” accusations

4) Also not helping them beat the “spend all day hoping Sony will call back” accusations

Even if DS does good, no single show is a magic cure-all to Toonami’s problems. Yea, this is a nice pickup, but if you polled the audience on if they wanted a consistent year of rotating B shows, or a year of reruns and stalling just for one part of DS, I don’t think DS would win. It’s concerning for next year, are they gonna blow the whole wad in January for the next part too? 

Agree that it’s not a good look for them that spent this entire year begging at Sony’s feet for a tiny scrap instead of calling Sentai. We can officially mark this year down as only have 3 pickups and 0 non sequel shows. A first time low. 
 

36 minutes ago, Sketch said:

5) The block is all Shonen Jump battle anime again unless they’re actually is a rerun at 2:30 that doesn’t fit that criteria 

6) I’d much rather keep double One Piece than lose a slot

A saving grace here is unlike 2018, they aren’t all copy and pastes of Naruto and OP. Dr Stone is light on the battle aspect, and Demon Slayer is right on the brink of fitting an older skewing magazine. Would I like more variety? Absolutely. But with Demarco’s shonen obsession and refusal to branch outside of sequels, this is about as diverse as we can ask for. 
 

I’ll never grasp their attitude towards One Piece. In theory, if their relationship with Toei is as good as they claim, they should have no shortage of episodes. Perhaps the renewal period is coming up and they aren’t going to? Or maybe we are overthinking it and it will just fill in the time left open if DS trims down to one episode. 
 

44 minutes ago, Sketch said:

I’d caution not to consider this a sign that Crunchyroll is back at the table. Aniplex still operates with some level of autonomy even though Sony owns both. Previously the issue was Demon Slayer became too expensive for Toonami. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that it’s a series they previously had a contract for just like Food Wars, My Hero Academia and Dr. Stone and Attack on Titan. If Jujutsu Kaisen, Spy x Family, Chainsaw Man or another series with no prior contract shows up on Toonami, then we can start to entertain the idea of Crunchyroll regularly making deals with Toonami.

Absolutely, I believe I said this when they got MHA as well. When CR brings a brand new deal to the table, we can consider them an ally. Until then, it’s best to assume they are begrudgingly giving up shows because AS found some loophole to leverage their old deals to get new seasons. 

[Sketch]

True, the double up of Demon Slayer could be just one week and then Dr. Stone is back at 12:30 and One Piece is back to 2 episodes but if that was the plan they might as well have held back Stone till 11/18 rather than premiere both the same night.

Either way I don’t see double Demon Slayer lasting because it’s an odd number of eps and the next arc starts with a 46 minute episode. The double up was probably just to ensure they finish by Christmas. They can either double it up two weeks if they run no premier on November 25 or they can scale down to 1 episode and keep the schedule till Dec 23rd consistent.

In my brain I was completely forgetting about Dr. Stone when I said all battle shounen. 😅 Though this arc will involve more fighting than some previous ones I think. Dr. Stone does help the variety to be sure. Demon Slayer and Shippuden are still pretty similar but it’s not nearly as bad as when the block had HxH, Black Clover, MHA and Boruto which all were cut from the same cloth as Naruto (though HxH’s story predates it).

I know they’re movies/tv specials but Attack on Titan still counts so that’s 4 acquisitions this year. But yes they were sequels. They haven’t added a non-sequel acquisition since Made in Abyss season 1 early in 2022. That’s pretty freaking abysmal.

[katt_goddess]

Just when I splurged on the boxed set [ and ended up reading the last 10 books in frenzy of book lust <.< >.> ], naturally this happened.  

But good, I want to watch the rest of the series even if it's in extended pieces. I don't want to subscribe to Crunchyroll at this time just to watch it because I have far too many physical things to watch on my end first. If I ever clear the entertainment slush pile, then maybe. 

[Blatch]

Well, so much for DeMarco having to air Velma.

This is good news. Not much to it other than that. Granted, it's not as good as it could've been given that this is years-old sloppy seconds. Would've been better if they'd been able to air the Mugen Train movie instead, that pandemic-era smash hit, since this adaptation of it is apparently inferior in every way. But hey, we didn't think Toonami would be able to do this, so good for them.

I personally think this is an act of mercy on CR's behalf rather than Toonami figuring out a loophole or scrounging up enough money to meet their unreasonable demands. And in regards to next year, while they might blow the budget to smithereens getting the Entertainment District arc, I'm a little more optimistic on that front. Between a pandemic, an ugly corporate merger, and then multiple strikes in the entertainment industry, Warners hasn't had a normal year since 2019, but they're going to next year barring something really unexpected, so I think they'll be a little more charitable toward the block. I mean, who knows if there will be anything left to license, but if so, they can always spend it on such banal desires as a packaging refresh.

[space ghost is fuc-]

[DangerMouse]

Aww yeah.

[CountFrylock]

I just can’t be excited for this because I watched this stuff long ago on crunchyroll(same goes for S2/S3) and I was convinced demon slayer returning to toonami would be like hell freezing given previous demarco comments on how uncooperative Sony was being 

Edited October 29, 2023 by CountFrylock

[Toonamiguy321]

Make of this what you will, online schedules have updated to reflect the graphic we were given. But 2:30, and for whatever reason, 3:30 are still hidden/undecided. The UWE in the TBD sandwich starts this Saturday and is confirmed to not be part of the block. 
 

Doesnt 100% confirm the cut, but it mirrors last years cut where the former Toonami time was given to a Toonami fitting show to ease people into the change. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Superman parked at 2:30. 

[OwlChemist81]

IGPX Remastered continuing confirmed:

Also, looks like the reason for the double-debut of DS: MT is to get the whole arc in from 11/11 to 12/16.

It will be interesting to see if they keep the "normal" 11/18 lineup on 11/25, but at least for now it seems DS: MT stays at midnight.

[Toonamiguy321]

Lol did the guy from Discotek panic that he was gonna break an NDA or something? Because we took a huge leap from “guys chill it’s nowhere close to being done!” to “it’s on the normal schedule starting 11/11!” 
 

IGPX aside, this is shaping up just as I predicted. Actually, I originally was of the belief IGPX was the new 2:30 show before that dude said it wouldn’t be, so I’d say my track record is 100% here. Aside from marathons (which I don’t care about) this schedule is locked in till next year, so we finally have a bit of a reprieve for checking for updates. 

[CountFrylock]

I think it’s fair to say this year was a dumpster fire for toonami and them likely paying out the ass to get demon slayer back doesn’t change that   If anything it makes me disappointed that they’ll sink so much time and money into something that most fans likely watched somewhere else long ago 

[Jman]

The counterpoint for better or for worse is that people are watching it.  It kicked Castlevania Noctune’s teeth in bad enough the show might not get a third season.  It’s something that will get attention outside of Dr. Stone and Attack on Titan Plantasm whenever the dub is cleared.

[CountFrylock]

26 minutes ago, Jman said:

The counterpoint for better or for worse is that people are watching it.  It kicked Castlevania Noctune’s teeth in bad enough the show might not get a third season.  It’s something that will get attention outside of Dr. Stone and Attack on Titan Plantasm whenever the dub is cleared.

But was it  really worth flushing most of the year down the toilet for one show?  People watching demon slayer in droves on streaming doesn’t mean jack shit for toonami   There’s no incentive for me to stay up to watch DS on toonami after I have already seen it on cr 

Edited November 1, 2023 by CountFrylock

[Toonamiguy321]

29 minutes ago, CountFrylock said:

But was it  really worth flushing most of the year down the toilet for one show?  People watching demon slayer in droves on streaming doesn’t mean jack shit for toonami   There’s no incentive for me to stay up to watch DS on toonami after I have already seen it on cr 

It was not, and it’s a point of concern going into next year. They used UWE and Superman as a cheap time filler to make things feel less stagnant, and next year they can use Rick and Morty anime and Scavengers to fill time and not spend money as well. Ninja Kamui and Lazarus have bigger episode counts so they won’t be the forgotten sneeze FLCL was.

Since they got Mugen Train, is stands to reason that other seasons of DS are also obtainable. Immediately or if they have to wait for it to age more is up in the air, but I fear we will see a repeat of 2023 in 2024 as they pool nearly all the budget together to attempt to land more Demon Slayer and make an honest attempt at landing Dragon Ball Diaper. Our only hope would be someone else landing an early exclusivity deal on DB that would at least have them not bother trying to get it this year. 
 

I do wonder how they will deal with stalling efforts without Naruto. Losing an anchor show is probably going to be their biggest challenge of 2024, especially if they are dead set on only chasing popular sequels.

[Sketch]

3 hours ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

Lol did the guy from Discotek panic that he was gonna break an NDA or something? Because we took a huge leap from “guys chill it’s nowhere close to being done!” to “it’s on the normal schedule starting 11/11!” 
 

IGPX aside, this is shaping up just as I predicted. Actually, I originally was of the belief IGPX was the new 2:30 show before that dude said it wouldn’t be, so I’d say my track record is 100% here. Aside from marathons (which I don’t care about) this schedule is locked in till next year, so we finally have a bit of a reprieve for checking for updates. 

Funny thing though, he didn’t know about it becoming a regular addition this soon. It’s still in the process but hopefully there won’t be any hang ups. The upcoming holidays should stagger the airings a bit but this is still a bit of a gamble that nothing will go wrong.

[OwlChemist81]

If Demon Slayer is gonna be THE Midnight show from now through whatever Hulu already has, maybe we get 11:30 back in 2024 for stuff like Ninja Kamui and Lazarus? That would make this move make sense. IF we get both 2021+ seasons of Demon Slayer, that means the following:

November/December 2023: Mugen Train Arc

January-mid March 2024: Entertainment District Arc

Late March-May or June 2024: Swordsmith Arc

Ninja Kamui and Lazarus would make great lead-ins to Demon Slayer, but would they simply jettison it to 12:30 after Dr. STONE ends or cut back to one One Piece?

[Toonamiguy321]

1 hour ago, Sketch said:

Funny thing though, he didn’t know about it becoming a regular addition this soon. It’s still in the process but hopefully there won’t be any hang ups. The upcoming holidays should stagger the airings a bit but this is still a bit of a gamble that nothing will go wrong.

I just hope the pressure to get it done does not negatively affect the final product. Without a Toonami run, they could have taken their time and got it done when it was done. Now they are on a time crunch, assuming 11/11 is episode 3 they have to get that episode done in the next 10 days. Doable, but unnecessary pressure. 
 

21 minutes ago, OwlChemist81 said:

If Demon Slayer is gonna be THE Midnight show from now through whatever Hulu already has, maybe we get 11:30 back in 2024 for stuff like Ninja Kamui and Lazarus? That would make this move make sense. IF we get both 2021+ seasons of Demon Slayer, that means the following:

November/December 2023: Mugen Train Arc

January-mid March 2024: Entertainment District Arc

Late March-May or June 2024: Swordsmith Arc

Ninja Kamui and Lazarus would make great lead-ins to Demon Slayer, but would they simply jettison it to 12:30 after Dr. STONE ends or cut back to one One Piece?

Pretty unlikely, especially when accounting for other upcoming schedule gaps they have to fill. I don’t think Demon Slayer will fill midnight for a full year even if we take no breaks. Ninja Kamui is the only promise for 2024, Lazarus was just a hopeful 2024, so I can see that one falling into 2025 with their current track record on originals. I don’t think they would have any issue parking it at 12:30, and probably will do so when R&M and Scavengers make their appearance. Dr Stone will be gone in February and Naruto (at current pace) will be gone in June so there will be holes to fill.
 

One Piece is the eternally flexible slot. If they need room, they cut an episode. If they have room, they add an episode. 

[Sketch]

So November 18th ends up being about what I expected. I didn't need to be so concerned that One Piece was down to one episode again. I still kinda feel like Dr. Stone should have waited till the 18th to start rather than to have it start at 1am and then move up the next week but viewers should be able to deal with that fine enough.

I'm thrilled that IGPX is sticking around and that Toonami is not losing the rerun slot. It's just weird when the block ends on the half hour instead of the hour.

It's still weekly Shonen Jump followed by one show that isn't from that magazine but having refurbished IGPX in there does add some robot action and some slice of life in futuristic Japan to balance out all the fantasy settings. Yes I realize FLCL fits that bill too but we've seen plenty of FLCL in the past few months.

This line-up is so watchable to me that I might even sit through Shippuden live to make it all the way to IGPX.

If they continue immediately into the Entertainment District arc of Demon Slayer after the holidays, it will be interesting to see how they handle that season both starting and ending with long episodes. They probably don't want to burn through those episodes but I could see them run some of the standard length episodes back to back leading into the long season finale. If they continue to operate with One Piece flexibility then its never too much trouble to make space for a long episode of Demon Slayer. They could feasibly go several months before "needing" Scavengers Reign now but I do hope they air it in a timely fashion.

[OwlChemist81]

The only problem is Dr. Stone kinda gets screwed by this scheduling scheme. It's gonna randomly switch back and forth between 12:30 and 1 depending on what they do with Demon Slayer, when it should probably be leading off the block as it did briefly I believe in 2019.

Or has it EVER lead off the block?

[Sketch]

4 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

The only problem is Dr. Stone kinda gets screwed by this scheduling scheme. It's gonna randomly switch back and forth between 12:30 and 1 depending on what they do with Demon Slayer, when it should probably be leading off the block as it did briefly I believe in 2019.

Or has it EVER lead off the block?

It had a marathon on December 28th 2019 but there was one strange week in 2020 (shocking right?) when MHA took a night off and Dr. Stone lead the block. It was also the week the first season ended and Toonami lost 11pm. I think that’s it for Dr. Stone leading the block.

I also don’t like that month old Dr. Stone is getting sidelined by 2 year old episodes of Demon Slayer and wish they would swap Demon Slayer is still the hotter property so I get it. It’s hilarious given Demon Slayer was practically buried on Toonami in 2019 even behind old episodes of Food Wars. My how things have changed.

[Toonamiguy321]

5 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

The only problem is Dr. Stone kinda gets screwed by this scheduling scheme. It's gonna randomly switch back and forth between 12:30 and 1 depending on what they do with Demon Slayer, when it should probably be leading off the block as it did briefly I believe in 2019.

Or has it EVER lead off the block?

The timeslot shift isn’t that big of a deal. If you are watching Toonami in 2023 you probably aren’t here for just one show so you are gonna catch it being only one slot off. With the pitiful state of the block this year I don’t think you will find anyone upset that Dr Stone has to air at 1am for one week. 

[Sketch]

If Toonami doesn’t immediately continue to The Entertainment District arc of Demon Slayer, Dr. Stone might get the top slot at least briefly. But I suppose in that scenario Uzumaki or Scavengers could join in January.

[OwlChemist81]

I have almost no doubt in my mind that they will. I mean, they COULD delay, but why?

[Sketch]

37 minutes ago, OwlChemist81 said:

I have almost no doubt in my mind that they will. I mean, they COULD delay, but why?

If they could only afford Mugen Train until next year or Sony doesn’t let them get the next arc quite yet. Hopefully neither are the case but either could be.

But it would be pretty stupid for Toonami to make a contract for only Mugen Train and not get The Entertainment District episodes at the same time. I think they got those two but probably have to wait a bit longer for the Swordsmith arc unless Sony is feeling very generous.

Edited November 2, 2023 by Sketch

[Jman]

For their sake, I hope the rumors the Infinity Castle arc is a movie trilogy aren’t true.

Edited November 2, 2023 by Jman

[CorbeauKarasu]

I'm glad. I was really hyped when I saw the announcement. Of course, I've already watched the Mugen Train arc, in both movie and series form. But it wouldn't be the first time I watched a show on Toonami that I'd already seen elsewhere. Yo can expect me here for it. Still, if FUNimation/Crunchyroll was gonna let us have more Demon Slayer anyway, I wish they'd done it back when it first premiered instead of making a big stink and then acquiescing after forever. This had better mean Toonami will get to air the next two arcs without any interference.

[OwlChemist81]

3 hours ago, Sketch said:

But it would be pretty stupid for Toonami to make a contract for only Mugen Train and not get The Entertainment District episodes at the same time. I think they got those two but probably have to wait a bit longer for the Swordsmith arc unless Sony is feeling very generous.

Considering the Swordsmith Arc debuted in April of this year, by the time it shows up on Toonami it would be almost a year old. Hopefully that's enough. But worst case scenario, we'd probably see Mugen Train/Entertainment District occupy rerun slots for a while.

[OwlChemist81]

3 hours ago, Jman said:

For their sake, I hope the rumors the Infinity Castle arc is a movie trilogy aren’t true.

I think the Hashira Training arc comes first...

[Blatch]

And there's more where that came from:

[Jman]

41 minutes ago, Blatch said:

And there's more where that came from:

Curious indeed.  Guess they’re treating it like Viz is treating Zom 100.  “Look, if you can pay for it, you can air it.”