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“This is the story of how I became the world’s greatest hero. Sure, but not just me. It’s the story of how we all became the greatest of heroes.”
– Izuku “Deku” Midoriya, My Hero Academia (Season 6, Ep. 24)
This is the Toonami Trending Rundown for the month of April 2023. This month marked 11 years since Adult Swim gave us the “Night no 90’s Kids Slept,” reviving the block for a night as an April Fools stunt that ultimately revived the block less than two months later, which continues every Saturday to this day. Among the highlights from the month, Toonami ran the final five episodes of My Hero Academia season 6, while Food Wars continued with its fifth and final season.
In regards to trending for the entire month of April, #Toonami trended in the United States on Twitter alongside My Hero Academia (save for April 29-30, as the season finale aired the week before) and Food Wars. #Toonami also trended on Tumblr alongside My Hero Academia (also save for April 29.)
As the wait begins for My Hero Academia season 7, it should be noted that while Toonami does have a new show coming to replace it (though encore runs of MHA will air at the back-end of the lineup in the meantime), the network is waiting for the green-light from the upcoming show’s license holders in Japan to announce and begin airing said new show. So, for until at least May 13, the midnight hour will begin with the airing of this week’s Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and encore airings of Primal.
Regarding these delays, Jason DeMarco explained the issues in a Twitter thread:
“Here’s what’s unique about our block: all the anime. All licensed anime releases have to be approved by the rights holders in Japan. So, when we want to announce a new season of, say, My Hero… the licensor has to GET PERMISSION from the rights holder in Japan. So sometimes we have to wait. And wait. And wait. For someone in Japan at whatever company owns the rights to the show (frequently a giant manga publisher) to grant us permission. This is not a thing in any other sector of media. But it IS a big thing in Japanese business. Announcing w/o permission could get our licensors in trouble with their rights holders. They can’t afford that and neither can we. A function of the archaic way some elements of Japanese business culture work. That’s about 85% of most of our schedule delays. The rest are internal network/company things that are a fact of the way giant megacorps run. And this actually does happen to other networks, it’s just that Toonami is lucky enough to have a passionate fan base who CARES about schedule changes. Most other networks don’t! 👍🏼 Anyway, sorry for the delays in schedule announcements! But most of the time there’s basically nothing we can do about it, and trust me- it frustrates all of us far more than any viewer. But it is what it is. Our hands are pretty well tied here.”
SPIRAL CURSE DEMARCO on Twitter: “Here’s what’s unique about our block: all the anime. All licensed anime releases have to be approved by the rights holders in Japan. So when we want to announce a new season of, say, My Hero… the licensor has to GET PERMISSION from the rights holder in Japan. https://t.co/IfmR8GK4nM / Twitter”
Here’s what’s unique about our block: all the anime. All licensed anime releases have to be approved by the rights holders in Japan. So when we want to announce a new season of, say, My Hero… the licensor has to GET PERMISSION from the rights holder in Japan. https://t.co/IfmR8GK4nM
Tune in tonight for the hour-long premiere of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, among other great moments. Until next time, congratulations to UConn and LSU for winning the men’s and women’s basketball national championships respectively, and stay gold as always.
Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.
April 1-2, 2023 Trends
United States Trends:
- #Toonami [#13]
- #MyHeroAcademia [Trended with #Toonami]
- #FoodWars [#13]
Tweet Counts:
- #Toonami [6,057 tweets]
Tumblr Trends:
- #Toonami [#7]
- #My Hero Academia [#10]
April 8-9, 2023 Trends
United States Trends:
- #Toonami [#9]
- #MyHeroAcademia [Trended with #Toonami]
- #FoodWars [Trended with #Toonami]
Tumblr Trends:
- #Toonami [#4]
- #My Hero Academia [#6]
April 15-16, 2023 Trends
United States Trends:
- #Toonami [#7]
- #MyHeroAcademia [Trended with #Toonami]
- #FoodWars [#28]
Tumblr Trends:
- #Toonami [#4]
- #My Hero Academia [#10]
April 22-23, 2023 Trends
United States Trends:
- #Toonami [#13]
- #MyHeroAcademia [Trended with #Toonami and #FoodWars]
- #FoodWars [#26]
Tweet Counts:
- #Toonami [3,008 tweets]
- #MyHeroAcademia [7,561 tweets]
Tumblr Trends:
- #Toonami [#2]
- #My Hero Academia [#3]
April 29-30, 2023 Trends
United States Trends:
- #Toonami [#12]
- #FoodWars [#13]
Tumblr Trends:
- #Toonami [#1]
Everything’s going to be fine. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.
