Toonami Anime Block Ratings Improve in Week 2

Results go from "OKAY" to "We're doing well!"

When we checked in on Toonami ratings after the Adult Swim anime block's return, numbers were, as Jason DeMarco—former Toonami producer, now vice president of strategic marketing and promotions—put it, "OKAY." Thankfully numbers improved over the second week, with premiere episodes of Bleach, Deadman Wonderland, and Casshern Sins doing better than before.

DeMarco's response on Twitter improved, too. "We're doing well! I'm encouraged," he tweeted at someone with a mighty salacious Twitter handle.

Here's the ratings breakdown between weeks one and two:

Week 1:
Bleach: 1,060,000 (12 AM) and 580,000 (3 AM)
Deadman Wonderland: 860,000 (12:30 AM) and 557,000 (3:30 AM)
Casshern Sins: 796,000 (1 AM) and 488,000 (4 AM)
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: 699,000 (1:30 AM) and 473,000 (4:30 AM)
Ghost in the Shell: 2nd Gig: 698,000 (2 AM) and 450,000 (5 AM)I
Cowboy Bebop: 669,000 (2:30 AM) and 419,000 (5:30 AM)

Week 2:
Bleach: 1,274,000(12 AM) and 830,000(3 AM)
Deadman Wonderland: 1,107,000(12:30 AM) and 756,000(3:30 AM)
Casshern Sins: 938,000(1 AM) and 690,000(4 AM)
FMA: Brotherhood: 861,000(1:30 AM) and 664,000(4:30 AM)
GitS 2nd Gig: 836,000(2 AM) and 642,000(5 AM)
Cowboy Bebop: 857,000(2:30 AM) and 579,000(5:30 AM)

Premiere Average: 1,106,333 (UP from Week 1 by 210,000)
12-3 AM Average: 978,833 (UP from Week 1 by 181,833)
3-6 AM Average: 693,500 (UP from Week 1 by 199,000)

APRIL 27TH.

Why should you care about April 27th? Two reasons:

1. On April 27th, Toonami will relaunch with a new TOM, a new Absolution, and a new on-air look. We’ll share more details our new look as we get closer to that date!

2. IGPX IS COMING BACK!!

No, really. Thanks to our incredibly generous partners, thanks to a lot of folks doing a lot of paperwork, and thanks to the very unique and complex structure of the IGPX production deal, we were able to bring the show out of retirement so you guys can see it again, or for the first time!

Couple points: We will be very slightly shuffling the lineup to fit IGPX. We’ll announce that exact schedule closer to the 27th. It will most likely involve removing one episode of Bebop, taking us to a half hour weekly. Also, for those Megas XLR fans out there wondering if this means we can bring back Megas…. we can’t, sorry. Simply put, it’s a very different animal, and the exact elements that made IGPX’s return possible are not in place for Megas.

ANYWAY! We’re very excited to re-air, for the first time, Toonami’s only original series, and one we’re very proud of! We hope you guys enjoy it.

Watch this space in the coming month for more details about TOM 5, The new Absolution, the Toonami comic, the lineup for April 27th, and when One Piece is finally coming!

WE WILL NEVER STOP

Love, the Toonami crew.

April 27th Line Up - TOM 5 is COMING!

12:00 – Bleach

12:30 – (Uncut) Naruto

01:00 – Soul Eater

01:30 – Thundercats

02:00 – IGPX (RETURNS!!!!)
02:30 – Eureka
7
03:00 – Tenchi
 Muyo GXP
03:30 – Symbionic Titan
04:00 – Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
04:30 – Cowboy Bebop

05:00 – Inuyasha

05:30 – Inuyasha



One Piece news!

On May 18th, One Piece is coming back to Toonami! After talking to lots and lots of fans and a lot of internal discussion, we’ve decided to start at episode 207 with the “Ling Ring Long Land” arc (or “Davy Fight Back” arc as it’s also known). We know we’re skipping ahead a bunch, but we think this is a great place to start- plus, it’ll be in HD! For those of you who are worried you won’t be able to jump in to the story, don’t worry! Go to Funimation.com now and you can watch ALL of the older episodes, plus there are a bunch of cool little video “catch up” pieces for folks who just want the overview. In addition, our friends at Funimation are working on some “orientation/catch up” pieces we’ll be putting on Toonami.

Get ready to cast off, May 18th. Full lineup to follow shortly!

May 18th Line Up. ONE PIECE ADDED

5/18:

12:00 – Bleach

12:30 – (Uncut) Naruto

01:00 – One Piece

01:30 – Soul Eater


02:00 – IGPX
02:30 – Eureka
7
03:00 – Thundercats
03:30 – Symbionic Titan
04:00 – Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
04:30 – Cowboy Bebop

05:00 – Inuyasha

05:30 – Inuyasha



ANOTHER BIG HONKIN’ TOONAMI ANNOUNCEMENT:
Hey guys! It’s only been a week or two since we announced the happy news that we’ll be world premiering SPACE DANDY on Toonami in January, but we’ve got more big news we’ve been dying to communicate to you.
First, some bad news: Naruto will be leaving Toonami on November 30th. Don’t worry, it’s out there streaming in several places if you want to continue the story (and we think you should).
But the GOOD news is, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN is finally coming home to Toonami in January, premiering the same night as Space Dandy (final date tbd)!
And yes, it will be uncut. And glorious.
There’s more news coming down the pike, but for now, enjoy your regular Naruto eps and prepare to get caught up, because SHIPPUDEN. IS. COMING.
We’re excited! Hope you are too.
Stay Gold!
Love, the Toonami Crew

BIG HONKIN’ TOONAMI ANNOUNCEMENT!

Hey everybody! Just wanted to drop you all a line and announce a couple pieces of Toonami news.

First, we are proud to announce that Toonami will be WORLD PREMIERING the new series from Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) and Studio BONES (FMA, Soul Eater, many more), SPACE DANDY! SPACE DANDY is a 26 episode series that will be premiering in the U.S. BEFORE it premieres in Japan (yep, you read that right)! Details on that to follow soon.

Oh, and when will it premiere? Sooner than you think- January 4th, at 11:30 PM.

"Did I just read 11:30?"

Yep, you read that right. Space Dandy will kick off an expanded 6-1/2 HOUR TOONAMI broadcast every Saturday. Toonami Faithful, we got our extra half hour!

Oh, you’re STILL not satisfied? Fine. We have some other great news that will be coming in the next few weeks, but until then we’ll drop one more little tidbit: In December, Toonami will take a break from our regular schedule and have a bit of holiday fun, with three weeks in a row of a movie special to kick off the block! What movies, you ask? Well, you’ll have to wait a bit on that.

Finally- if you have more questions about all this, GOOD- ask them here! We’ll be doing our monthly Toonami Q&A this Sunday from 11am et, to whenever we hit the tumblr post limit! Remember, your question could end up on our monthly on-air Tumblr Q&A session with Tom and Sara.

WHEW- okay. Keep your eyes locked right here over the next few weeks for more details on all of this, as well as some other VERY exciting developments we can’t talk about yet. And in the mean time, do make sure you check us out on November 2nd, when we’ll be airing some fun little surprises in the daylight savings hour (2am)!

WE WILL NEVER STOP

Love, the Toonami Crew.

TOONAMI DECEMBER MOVIES ANNOUNCEMENT:

Hey #toonami faithful! We’re back with some more good news. This December, Toonami will have a whole MONTH of movies to ring in the holidays! We’ll release the full air schedule soon, but for now, here are the GREAT movies we’ll be airing:

12/7- AKIRA- Yup. The most influential anime film of all time is coming to Toonami and kicking off a month of movies. That promo will be something to see, we’re tellin’ ya. By the way, the 25th anniversary remastered Blu-Ray was just released by our friends at Funimation, and man. It’s gorgeous.

12/14- SUMMER WARS- directed by Mamoru Hosoda, this modern classic is something we’ve had our eye on for a while. We think you’ll love it!

12/21- FULL METAL ALCHEMIST- THE CONQUEROR OF SHAMBALLA- FMA fans know how great this gem is. And so do we. Produced by Bones, the same studio who will be bringing you SPACE DANDY in January!

12/28- TRIGUN: BADLAND RUMBLE- Trigun is back where he belongs on Adult Swim, in a special one off adventure.

And that’s not all! We’ll also be doing a TOONAMI T-SHIRT GIVEAWAY for the whole month of December, AND you might see some interesting things happening with TOM and the Absolution!

Okay that’s all… for THIS week! Like we said, more details to come, and we hope you’re as excited about this holiday season as we are!

xoxoxoxo

Love, the Toonami crew.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



SANTA MONICA, CA (November 22, 2013) –Aniplex of America has announced on their Aniplex Live Show on Friday that their popular title, Blue Exorcist TV Series, will be making its U.S. network television debut on Adult Swim’s TOONAMI™ in March 2014. Details of the air date and time will be announced on a later date.

The Blue Exorcist TV Series is based on Kazue Kato’s hit manga published in Jump Square (by SHUEISHA) and it saw a multi-stream simulcast on websites such as Hulu, Crunchyroll (subtitled version), and as well as on Neon Alley (English dub version). In response to its worldwide popularity, the series was also adapted into a film and theatrically released across North America this past August.

Produced by the highly-acclaimed studio A-1 Pictures, (Sword Art Online, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Oreimo 2) the Blue Exorcist TV Series has gained popularity among its fans for its unique storyline and characters. Aniplex of America has released the Blue Exorcist TV Series on home videoearlier this year featuring both the original Japanese and English dub which features many popular voice actors such as Bryce Papenbrook (as Rin Okumura), Johnny Yong Bosch (as Yukio Okumura), and Christine Marie Cabanos (as Shiemi Moriyama).

Hideki Goto, President of Aniplex of America expresses enthusiasm for the Blue Exorcist TV Series being available to an even wider audience through TOONAMI™. “This title was popular among the fans while it was streaming, but I believe the fans were also very excited when they realized which English voice actors were cast to play their favorite characters. I’m very excited to be able to work with TOONAMI to bring Blue Exorcist to many more fans in the US.”