Toonami

[Avaitor]

They did try to get Yuri on Ice a few years ago but that fell through. I think a sports anime could work now, but I don't know if that's too high of a priority for Toonami.

[Dr. Insomniac]

But what is Toonami's current priority? Because so far, it just sounds like "Churn out enough original shows until we find one that people actually cling on to". And who knows when that'll bear fruit.

Though I agree, it wouldn't kill them to try a sports show again. Maybe licensing's in the way. I know Blue Lock's Crunchyroll.

[Daikun]

The DC movies Injustice and Justice League vs. the Fatal Five are airing on February 18 and 25.

https://twitter.com/ToonamiSquad/status/1621292761335963649

[Daikun]

The One Piece/Toriko crossover special is airing on the block in March.

[Avaitor]

We FINALLY get a new(ish) show- Food Wars S5 on the 18th.

So, I enjoyed the previous seasons as kind of a guilty pleasure, but I hear that the last season is pretty rough even by its standards. Still, I'll watch it. I did sit through all of Promised Neverland's second season, after all.

[Daikun]

I'd prefer it if they aired it at 12:30 so One Piece could continue with its hour-long blocks and MHA won't catch up to the dub so quickly.

[Avaitor]

I'm hoping they have a plan for what comes after MHA, which is why they're doubling up on it. But I also kind of doubt that's the case, because yes, I think that double One Piece or Naruto would be the way to go instead.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Not sure what a feasible plan is, to be honest.

[Daikun]

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and My Adventures with Superman are going to Adult Swim now instead of Cartoon Network, and both shows will have encores on Toonami.

[Avaitor]

The schedule for the next few weeks were dropped, and to replace MHA, expect more Primal and Unicorn repeats...

Although DeMarco insists that they're working on the rights to air SOMETHING exciting, I'm guessing Dr. Stone season 3. And in his recent Twitter AMA, he also states that it's getting a little easier to work with Sony/CrunchyRoll, so that's something, right?

[Dr. Insomniac]

The thought came to me yesterday how Tubi, a smaller company than WB, can get the rights to all these anime and convince the rights owners it's okay to air them for free, while CN's struggling. Surely, Toonami could get the rights to some older, less well-known shows from the 90s or 00s and use that to buy time for a while before getting the bigger acquisitions they want, instead of endless repeats of the same shit. Even if Sony/Crunchyroll are hard to work with, what about all the other companies with the rights to anime? Wouldn't people at Gkids, Shout, or Discotek be interested?

[Avaitor]

Don't those companies mostly work with older titles, though? Toonami as of late has been reluctant to go back too far, and to be fair, I kind of get it. When they aired Outlaw Star again a few years ago, it didn't do that well in the ratings, despite its ties to the block at its peak. I think even far-more worn out Bebop repeats were beating it.

Still, at this point, ANYTHING would be better than airing Primal. Even going back to Bebop, GITS and Samurai Jack.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, though it would be really skewed of AS, the same AS that aired Off the Air, to be concerned about airing old anime of all things. Besides, do ratings really matter when Toonami's already on a graveyard slot? Nobody else airs specialized blocks on 1 AM on Saturday night for a reason. What is Toonami even really competing with anymore? Old reruns of 90s Day Fiance on TLC? Infomercials?

[Daikun]

Dr. Stone Season 3 is coming June 3.

[Avaitor]

Called it!

It's something, but these next few weeks are looking kind of dire.