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New year, new disappointing lineup. Announced on Friday, February 7th, Toonami’s new schedule for late February 2025 has been revealed and it is a whole lot of nothing. Fooly Cooly Grunge returns to the lineup at the behest of no one, with Invincible Fight Girl kicked off mid-rerun, and Blue Exorcist expanding to an hour. To put it bluntly, this lineup sucks, and judging from what the community is saying on platforms like Twitter and Bluesky, no one is happy with this. Obviously, Toonami has suffered droughts of content before. In 2023, that was the experience for a majority of that year and while good shows did end up coming, that was at the very end of the year. I thought that they fixed that in 2024, as last year, the block was, for the most part, pretty consistent on grabbing new shows either when another show ended, or if not immediately replacing a show, filling the hole with a new title within a wait of a month or two. However, it’s clear that was a farce because this year, thus far, is atrocious. The block started off the year with no new shows, instead moving Mashle to midnight and having Invincible Fight Girl reruns after it. The only new additions, if you want to call them that, were former Toonami Rewind shows, Naruto and Sailor Moon, joining the lineup at 2:30am and 3am respectively. With nothing new to whet our palette in the immediate future, all eyes are now on Lazarus, which Adult Swim itself has confirmed will premiere sometime in April. I have made my stance clear on where I fall with these Toonami originals: if you want my thoughts on them, you can read my Uzumaki article from last year or check out old Toonami Squad Sessions Podcasts or Toonami Faithful podcasts I have been on where we’ve discussed this topic. At this point, I have talked about it to death to the point that I have nothing new to say on the topic, but I will repeat myself in saying that at this point, since we have nothing to look forward to for the next month or so, Lazarus cannot come out and just be “good,” “fine,” or “mid,” it has to be great.
Last year, in terms of Toonami’s original output, we had three shows premiere for the declining block: Ninja Kamui, Rick and Morty The Anime, and Uzumaki. I understand with Rick that it was a show forced onto them by the network, and it’s probably the first time since Tenchi Muyo GXP that everyone in the community agrees that it sucked, and it’s clear no one liked it, not on Toonami or Adult Swim itself. With Ninja Kamui and Uzumaki, “disappointing” is the best word to use to describe those. Both started off with a lot of promise, but collapsed during their run in a spectacular fashion that leaves me rather baffled because both should have been big hits that would have still been talked about for months after they ended, but instead, they left viewers with a sour taste in their mouth. However, this issue isn’t just centered around one thing; it never is with something as complicated as making a show or acquiring content. The lack of communication from the network, the lackluster schedules, the block no longer having much interaction with fans, and Jason DeMarco, the only public-facing head who talked to fans about the block, has left social media for good. These issues pile up and now, for us hardcore Faithful, we are left waiting for something to happen with no real word from Adult Swim on what’s going on. Granted, they aren’t obligated to tell us anything, and it was always nice when we did get an answer from someone at Williams Street, but it’s clear now, that just isn’t what Toonami is anymore and hasn’t been for quite some time. Seeing the block in such an anemic state is a bitter pill for me to swallow and it would go down easier if these originals were something to look forward to, but at this point, I get the impression everyone is sick of waiting. We waited patiently for five years since Uzumaki’s initial announcement in 2019 and that let everyone down. Now, in 2025, there is no more room for error. The trust that these originals will be worth the wait has been eroded and now with everyone looking at Lazarus with a wait-and-see approach, on if it’ll be great from beginning to end. Given the pedigree of the director involved, Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy), it has potential to be great, but I am at arms-length with it. I will give Lazarus a fair shot and will be honest when it comes to my opinion on the series if I am able to review it and/or be able to check it out on the block, yet I can’t help but be dissuaded from the notion that this could be great. Instead, I can’t stop thinking “what if it’s another failure or a show that does not live up to the years of hype?” It was announced in 2023, and hyped up more recently with extensive convention tours and screening the first episode to attendees of those conventions. Obviously, Adult Swim believes that this show will be massive, but the same could be said for Uzumaki, or the FLCL sequels, or Blade Runner Black Lotus or… I think I’ve made my point. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I have enough egg on my face from these other originals that it’s hilarious to believe that we as fans gave them the benefit of the doubt that many times, but enough is enough. I’m still unsure of how Lazarus will turn out in the end, but one thing is clear: if it comes out and lands with a thud, the future of the block and these originals will be rocky if not completely dead.
