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“Maybe we didn’t save Superman, but we saved you, Clark. We saved the future…didn’t we?”
– Lois Lane, My Adventures with Superman (Ep. 05)
This Toonami Trending Rundown is a double-feature for the nights of July 4-5 and 11-12, 2026. This year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and much like the fine people of the United States of America in general, Toonami remains persistent during both good times and bad.
For the social media buzz on the night of July 4-5, #Toonami trended in the United States on Twitter alongside My Adventures with Superman, Blue Lock, and Tokyo Revengers. And this all despite 4th of July celebrations were going on at the same time.
Meanwhile on the night of July 11-12, #Toonami trended in the U.S. on Twitter alongside My Adventures with Superman, and Tokyo Revengers. #Toonami also trended on Tumblr alongside #dc and My Adventures with Superman.
The feature for July 4-5 was a game review for Planet of Lana II, a puzzle platformer developed by Wishfully and published by Thunderful Publishing. It received an 8.5/10 score.
And the feature for July 11-12 was a new Toonami ID, where TOM gets a drink at the water cooler. You can check it out below:
At the Annecy International Film Festival last month, Adult Swim and Cartoon Network as a whole has continued to confirm their commitment to Toonami, and more original anime is presently in the works. According to Cartoon Network president Michael Ouwellen: “We’ve got some other things in development that I think people will be very surprised about in anime. It’s a little too early, but Jason and I are conspiring a little bit.”
Adult Swim will once again be at San Diego Comic-Con, and fans headed to San Diego next week will definitely want to check out the Adult Swim on the Green for some fun events and potentially new announcements. The “Night of New Screening” will take place on the Green on Thursday night, July 23 (compared to Saturday nights in previous years). And there will be panels for Adult Swim on the Friday July 24 in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront, including those for Common Side Effects at 12:00 p.m. PDT, President Curtis at 1:00 p.m., My Adventures with Superman at 2:00 p.m., and Rick and Morty at 3:00 p.m.
Once again, I’ll be attending SDCC on behalf of Toonami Squad so keep an eye on our social media channels for any news and updates on the ground.
adult swim on X (formerly Twitter): “Here we go again. See you real soon, San Diego Comic-Con. 🔗 https://t.co/K0sRUPDIoj pic.twitter.com/acFKvYF8aJ / X”
Here we go again. See you real soon, San Diego Comic-Con. 🔗 https://t.co/K0sRUPDIoj pic.twitter.com/acFKvYF8aJ
The 4th of July weekend also marked the weekend Anime Expo took place, and there were plenty of news from franchises from Toonami’s past and potential future. Some of the news of note include:
Bandai Namco on day 1 of AX hosted a Sword Art Online panel to commemorate the release of the newest SAO video game, titled Echoes of Aincrad. Attendees got a first look at the game that is focused on the first floor of Aincrad, which would make its release a week after AX on July 10th. Fans also got a preview of the first 20 minutes of a special anime based on the game, which was released to the public on Bandai Namco’s YouTube for a few days. Compared to previous SAO games, Echoes of Aincrad has indeed been given an English dub, with Bryce Papenbrook returning as Kirito and Cherami Leigh as Asuna, alongside new and returning voices including Kieran Regan as Zash.
In addition, on the Monday after Anime Expo, Aniplex revealed some new details and a teaser trailer for the next upcoming Sword Art Online feature film. Titled, Sword Art Online the Movie – Integral Domain -, the film’s storyline will feature an original story concept written by series creator Reki Kawahara that is set for release in 2028. Canonically, the film will take place following the Alicization story arc that made up season 3 and the future Unital Ring story arc, which Kawahara is presently in the process of writing. This will be similar to Ordinal Scale, in which that film took place in between the Mother’s Rosario and Project Alicization arcs, but remained canon overall to the storyline.
During the Aniplex panel on the Thursday of AX, a new trailer for Mashle: Magic and Muscles season 3 was revealed. Titled The Tri-Magicathlon Divine Visionary Final Exam Arc, the new season will begin broadcasting in Japan in January 2027.
The Los Angeles Dodgers held a “One Piece” night, during their July 2nd game against the San Diego Padres, where attendees were given a Dodgers branded Straw hat and limited edition cards of the One Piece trading card game, Monkey D. Luffy throwing out the ceremonial first pitch, and Toei showcased a Dodgers-themed short of the Strawhat crew on the video board.
Aniplex also hosted a Demon Slayer panel that commemorated the successful release of the first of three Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle films over the past year. It was revealed that part 1 of Infinity Castle will be available to purchase digitally (including the likes of Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango, Google Play, and YouTube) and will be available for streaming on Crunchyroll (and Netflix internationally in some countries) beginning on July 28. No word yet on other outlets such as a Blu-ray release at this time.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (English) on X (formerly Twitter): “#NEWS Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle I is coming to @Crunchyroll on July 28!The film will also be available to buy on digital in select territories including North America on July 28!Pre-orders begin July 4 on select platforms.#AX2026 pic.twitter.com/cDyk3TBKTN / X”
NEWS Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle I is coming to @Crunchyroll on July 28!The film will also be available to buy on digital in select territories including North America on July 28!Pre-orders begin July 4 on select platforms.#AX2026 pic.twitter.com/cDyk3TBKTN
Viz Media hosted a Bleach panel on the 4th of July inside Crypto.com Arena and they showcased a brand-new trailer for the upcoming 4th and final part of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. Fans lucky enough to get in the arena were able to see an advanced screening of the first episode. Masakazu Morita and Johnny Yong Bosch, the Japanese and English voices of Ichigo Kurosaki were among the panelists, and they shared some behind-the-scenes stories and acted out some of Ichigo’s famous lines. And Tite Kubo even presented Johnny a Shikishi drawing of Ichigo, as his token of gratitude for voicing him over the years. The final chapter will officially begin streaming on Hulu and Disney+ weekly starting on July 25.
After a nearly five-year hiatus, the Black Clover anime is making its return and Studio Pierrot released a brand-new trailer for the upcoming second season. Crunchyroll has confirmed that they will be simulcasting and simuldubbing the new season of Black Clover, and is scheduled to premiere this October.
A new trailer for the upcoming 4th season of Tokyo Revengers was revealed, which will cover the Three Deities Arc. The new season is scheduled for release this October 2026 on Disney+ and Hulu.
As always, if you want to see any of these shows return to Toonami in the future, continue watching and giving your support to the block every Saturday, and send your show requests to Toonami’s Facebook page. We also recommend letting the show’s respective licensors know through their respective social media outlets.
Physical media and media preservation have been taking a back seat these past few years, as media and tech conglomerates have been increasing following the “streaming is the future” mantra, to the detriment of consumer choice and ownership rights. On July 1st, Sony has made the controversial announcement that they are ending production on physical discs for PlayStation titles by January 2028 in addition to shutting down the PlayStation store on the PS3 and PSP by July 2027. This is a complete 180 from over a decade ago when in response to Microsoft proposing a controversial DRM scheme for Xbox One physical games (which was scrapped prior to launch), Sony assured fans that they would do no such thing for the PS4.
While disappointing for those who want Sony to continue distributing physical media, it is not a surprising move by Sony in recent years, given that Crunchyroll has been rolling back output of physical media themselves since they shut down Rightstuf (and merged its operations into the Crunchyroll store) and scaled back linear television broadcasts since they burned bridges with Toonami shortly following the Funimation-Crunchyroll merger. And this past week, Crunchyroll added fuel to that fire by announcing that the Crunchyroll store will only be available exclusively to subscribers of Crunchyroll’s Mega and Ultimate Fans packages starting in August 2026.
Of course, Sony’s disenfranchisement of Toonami viewers and non-Crunchyroll subscribers, combined with the proposed WBD-Paramount-Skydance merger (which is presently under litigation due to antitrust concerns) continues to make its impact on the Toonami schedule, as both Blue Lock and Tokyo Revengers won’t be renewed for season 2 anytime soon. Come August 1 both shows will be replaced in the interim with a doubleheader of FLCL Alternative from 12:30-1:30 a.m. Eastern.
As I mentioned in my previous Op-Ed “The 2020’s Anime and Streaming Service Bubble Burst,” Toonami has served as a bellwether for the overall health of anime and manga in the west, and Crunchyroll’s monopolization of anime alongside other factors have put this industry back in an environment similar to the previous anime bubble burst back in 2007-08. Fans understandably aren’t happy and they should keep continuing to put the pressure on both Sony and Warner Bros Discovery and demand better from them. But it’s gonna be up to fans voting with their wallets that will ultimately get either of these companies to reverse course. And while I think no Toonami viewer or anime fan should be subscribing to Crunchyroll or be giving a cent to Sony right now, how one should “vote with their wallets” ultimately is ultimately up to you.
Until next time, stay gold, and feel free to donate to Mike McFarland’s GoFundMe if you can as he continues his battle against glioblastoma.
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.
July 4-5, 2026 Trends
United States Trends:
- #Toonami [#9]
- #MyAdventuresWithSuperman [#14]
- #BlueLock [Trended with #Toonami, #MyAdventuresWithSuperman and #TokyoRevengers]
- #TokyoRevengers [#13]
July 11-12, 2026 Trends
United States Trends:
- #Toonami [#12]
- #MyAdventuresWithSuperman [#15]
- #TokyoRevengers [#20]
Tumblr Trends:
- #Toonami [#7]
- #my adventures with superman [Trended with #toonami]
- #dc [#6]
Love Conquers All. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.
