Toonami schedules for December are now up, Mashle and Rick and Morty the Anime will be the holiday season marathons

[Jman]

Looks like the Flop Girl is being wrapped up on the 21st for a fresh new year.

[Toonamiguy321]

Well, no real surprises here. I knew they wouldn’t leave IFG hanging, and the double Kai makes sense given it’s significant pace increase on Rewind and their strange refusal to remove it from Saturday or just return the block to 6 slots. 
 

Knowing their mannerisms I knew nothing new would start this late in the year. Logically, MHA S7 drops as our new lead show the first week of January. Who knows what the future for Daima is, hopefully not Toonami. 

[3ngag3]

Toonami Rewind is seemingly not immune to the marathon curse as there will be a DBZ Kai Marathon on December 6th.

 

 

[Toonamiguy321]

48 minutes ago, 3ngag3 said:

Toonami Rewind is seemingly not immune to the marathon curse as there will be a DBZ Kai Marathon on December 6th.

 

 

It’s not a rerunathon though, that’s 4 new episodes. The Facebook post also makes no mention of that being for only one week. We will know tonight when the schedule populates.

[Mr. Idea Box]

This is what I expected, and yet I shouldn't be surprised. I only hope Dragon Ball Z Kai isn't the only thing Rewind airs in December.

[Toonamiguy321]

4 hours ago, Mr. Idea Box said:

This is what I expected, and yet I shouldn't be surprised. I only hope Dragon Ball Z Kai isn't the only thing Rewind airs in December.

Your hopes are ignored, Kai confirmed for another 2 hour stretch on 12/13. I think it’s safe to say it’s a month of Rewind Kai. 
 

That said, the episode for 12/6 have changed. What was 4 premier episodes is now 4 reruns. Meanwhile, 12/13 is showing 4 premiers still. So either 12/6 changed in error (unlikely) or 12/13 will also be revised to 4 reruns. 
 

They may as well leave Rewind in 2024 cause it ain’t gonna survive a month of reruns

[Mr. Idea Box]

25 minutes ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

Your hopes are ignored, Kai confirmed for another 2 hour stretch on 12/13. I think it’s safe to say it’s a month of Rewind Kai. 
 

That said, the episode for 12/6 have changed. What was 4 premier episodes is now 4 reruns. Meanwhile, 12/13 is showing 4 premiers still. So either 12/6 changed in error (unlikely) or 12/13 will also be revised to 4 reruns. 
 

They may as well leave Rewind in 2024 cause it ain’t gonna survive a month of reruns

If they're gonna have a month of DBZ Kai with reruns, at least air two "new" episodes minimum. If it's just going to be three old episodes and a Saturday simulcast, then I can take an extra day of Checkered Past for a month.

[Sketch]

4 hours ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

Your hopes are ignored, Kai confirmed for another 2 hour stretch on 12/13. I think it’s safe to say it’s a month of Rewind Kai. 
 

That said, the episode for 12/6 have changed. What was 4 premier episodes is now 4 reruns. Meanwhile, 12/13 is showing 4 premiers still. So either 12/6 changed in error (unlikely) or 12/13 will also be revised to 4 reruns. 
 

They may as well leave Rewind in 2024 cause it ain’t gonna survive a month of reruns

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.

Edited 3 hours ago by Sketch

[Toonamiguy321]

57 minutes ago, Sketch said:

Sailor Moon has 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.

This is about the time of the year where talks about next years budget allotment comes in. It would not surprise me at all if there has been a meeting to discuss what the money spent on Rewind (and taken away from Saturday) has achieved. Aside from being a novelty people talked about for a few weeks, it’s otherwise been a whole lot of nothing. Big expensive, basically zero return. You could even argue a negative return because of what Saturday had to sacrifice for it. I could see the final consensus being burn off what’s left of Rewind, and refocus on getting Saturday back on track. 
 

If people didn’t watch these shows in the often begged for after school time slot just like the good ol days, they ain’t gonna watch them at 2am either. No more money should be going out on reruns until the block is back to 5 premiers. We started 2024 with 5 premiers, and are ending it on a pitiful 3. Cancel that expensive Kai contract and get something new. 
 

As for Daima, it may not be announced now, but now it’s got 5+ weeks to get announced for somewhere that isn’t Toonami. DB fans will get increasingly irritable at the lack of news, and I can’t imagine it goes all the way to 2025 without a release. I’m keeping my money on MHA for January. As you said, and I have also mentioned in the past, with how far behind it is, there is little harm sweating one more month of wait. Better to have a clean transition in January then cram it on now just to put it on break in a few weeks. 

[Sketch]

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.