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The night of December 11-12 was the final “regular scheduled” edition of Toonami for 2021, as following the premiere of Blade Runner: Black Lotus episode 05, fans enjoyed a tripleheader of the final three episodes of Yashahime’s first season…or at least, it would have been. While Episodes 22 and 23 aired without a hitch, Episode 24 on the other hand, saw a major hitch when Episode 21 was re-aired instead.
Toonami Squad on Twitter: “Developing: It looks the folks at Cartoon Network master command are accidentally reairing Episode 21 instead of Episode 24, the season finale. #Yashahime on Toonami / Twitter”
Developing: It looks the folks at Cartoon Network master command are accidentally reairing Episode 21 instead of Episode 24, the season finale. #Yashahime on Toonami
Albeit rare, this isn’t the first time a mistake or glitch affected a show’s airing at Adult Swim. Back on March 16, 2019, the broadcast of episode 6 of Sword Art Online: Alicization froze mid-airing, which would be fixed and re-aired the following week. Earlier this year during the Harley Quinn marathon on August 7, 2021, the show’s season finale didn’t air, with a rerun of Episode 4 that aired earlier airing instead. And back on October 26, 2003, in what was supposed to be the finale of The Big O season 2, fans instead saw a rerun of Episode 20. This was later corrected a week later and the finale aired on November 2nd, 2003.
Fortunately, Toonami has apologized for the mistake and will be re-airing the Yashahime season finale. Earlier this afternoon, Toonami released their schedules for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day respectively. As the next few weeks will feature a movie and holiday marathons, fans will need to wait until January 1 at 12:30 a.m. Eastern/Pacific to see the finale on air. Blade Runner: Black Lotus, however, will still be airing new episodes during the next two out of three weeks (the exception being Christmas Day) in its regular timeslot at midnight.
https://twitter.com/Clarknova1/status/1470023113916227595
On the night of December 18-19, 2021, Toonami will premiere the 7th episode of Black Lotus, which will be followed with the airing of the 2003 anime anthology film The Animatrix. The Rick and Morty anime shorts and the rerun of Dragon Ball Super will end the night.
The airing will be done in part to promote the upcoming fourth installment to the Matrix franchise, The Matrix: Resurrections, releasing on December 22 in theaters and on HBO Max. In addition, according to executive producer Joseph Chou, the idea of a Blade Runner anime series came as early as when he was producing The Animatrix all the way back in 2001. That idea eventually culminated in what Blade Runner: Black Lotus is today, and airing The Animatrix at the same time Blade Runner: Black Lotus is airing makes sense.
On Christmas Day, the night of December 25-26, 2021, fans will get the opportunity to re-watch all seven episodes of Blade Runner: Black Lotus that have aired up to that point, with a side of Dragon Ball Super at 3:30 a.m. to round out the night.
Meanwhile, the broadcast of January 1-2, 2022 will ring in the new year for Toonami viewers, as fans will see the premiere of Episode 8 of Blade Runner: Black Lotus at midnight, followed by the re-scheduled finale of Yashahime at 12:30 a.m. EST. The remaining three hours from 1:00-3:00 a.m. will conclude with a marathon of Cowboy Bebop.
Cowboy Bebop was the first anime to air on Adult Swim upon the block’s launch in 2001, and was a part of the lineup when Toonami was revived in 2012. To this day, Cowboy Bebop remains an Adult Swim/Toonami staple, and it appears on and off the lineup every now and then. Cowboy Bebop is expected to remain on the Toonami regular schedule for the foreseeable future, on a timeslot to be announced. As mentioned by Jason DeMarco: “It will likely return to the regular line-up, picking up from where the marathon leaves off.”
This past month, Netflix released a live-action series based on the hit anime series, developed by Christopher Yost, and stars John Cho as Spike, Mustafa Shakir as Jet, Daniella Pineda as Faye, Elena Satine as Julia, and Alex Hassell as Vicious. While the show brought in a pretty good cast, the series failed to inspire viewers like the original did, thanks in no small part to lackluster writing, CGI effects, and action scenes, and the series was canceled after a season.
A second season of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, titled Yashahime: The Second Act, is presently airing in Japan and available for streaming on Crunchyroll, FunimationNow, and Hulu. At this time, it is unknown when Viz Media and Bang Zoom will have the dub for this new season ready for broadcast and streaming, and it is yet to be determined if and when Toonami will renew Yashahime for The Second Act.
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