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There have been several schedule announcements this week that caused a lot of confusion and displeasure amongst Toonami fans. As previously stated Toonami will be showing back-to-back episodes of Sword Art Online this Saturday, April 6th, this is all due to the glitch that happened on March 16th prompting Toonami to re-air episode 6 on March 23rd then that followed with a back-to-back airing of episodes 7 and 8 on March 30th because Megalo Box’s run ended on March 23rd and Toonami didn’t have a replacement ready. Toonami did eventually announce Megalo Box’s replacement on March 28th which was The Promised Neverland which would premiere on April 13th prompting Toonami to double up on Sword Art Online again on April 6th.
April 6th’s Schedule and The Confusion:
April 6th’s airing of back-to-back episodes of Sword Art Online brought some confusion with it prompting some conflicting reports on the matter, we weren’t sure if they would be airing two new episodes back-to-back or airing the previous week’s episode followed by a new episode as they did when Attack On Titan Season 3 Part 1 premiered. We decided to email our contacts at Adult Swim to find out and this is what we were told, Hi Joshua, Right now it appears there will be one new episode on 4/6 followed by a new one each Saturday afterwards.
However it has been revealed on Wednesday (04/03/19) that this Saturday night, Toonami will air two new episodes of Sword Art Online Alicization with episodes 9 and 10 airing from 12:30-1:30 am ET/PT. Jason DeMarco had change the airing strategy after this question by @Sketch1984 came into consideration, and was late to relay the message to the Adult Swim PR department.
As of 5pm C/T this evening Adult Swim PR was still not aware of the schedule change until we have informed them of what Jason had said.
The new grid has been sent out and schedules should be updated soon with the new information.
The full schedule for April 6th is as follows: (Times Eastern/Pacific)
11:00pm – Dragon Ball Super
11:30pm – Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
12:00am – My Hero Academia
12:30am -Sword Art Online: Alicization – Episode 9
1:00am – Sword Art Online: Alicization – Episode 10
1:30am – Jojo: Diamond is Unbreakable
2:00am – Black Clover
2:30am – Hunter X Hunter
3:30am – Naruto: Shippuden
3:30am – Attack on Titan
April 13th’s Schedule and The Major Shakeup:
On Monday, Toonami revealed that The Promised Neverland will make its premiere on April 13 at 12:00am Eastern/Pacific, to go along with a significant schedule shakeup by the Adult Swim scheduling department. Dragon Ball Super, Hunter x Hunter, and Attack on Titan are staying put at their usual time-slots, while SAO, Black Clover, and Shippuden airing earlier in the schedule, and My Hero Academia, Boruto, and JoJo: Diamond is Unbreakable airing later in the schedule.
UPDATE: The Promised Neverland has an air time. It will air at 12:00am starting April 13th. Also, the majority of shows have been shuffled around #ThePromisedNeverland #PromisedNeverland #Toonami pic.twitter.com/v5u0FapOut
— Toonami Squad (@ToonamiSquad) April 1, 2019
The announcement of this schedule did not have people pleased to say the least
and had some fans believing this might be an April Fool’s prank being pulled by Toonami, however it was later reveal to be indeed true.
UPDATE: @Clarknova1 has confirmed that this is indeed the line up starting 4/13. This is not an April Fools joke https://t.co/Cuux7rUMXn
— Toonami Squad (@ToonamiSquad) April 1, 2019
It was revealed that Toonami didn’t make the changes but Adult Swim Programming did. According to Jason DeMarco, “Adult Swim programming department wanted to switch things up based on performance metrics.” He went on to say, “As always, if it doesn’t work, we’ll switch things back.”
He also went onto say that something moving to the tail end of the premieres in the block does NOT mean they don’t care about it or it won’t support it.
No, it isn’t. I’ll say this once, and I hope you hear me: something moving to the tail end of the premieres in the block does NOT mean we don’t care about it it won’t support it.
— LORD DEATH DEMARCO (@Clarknova1) April 1, 2019
Jason also urged Toonami fans not to read too much into one schedule change.
I know reading the tea leaves is a fun hobby for some Toonami fans, but I urge you not to read too much into one schedule change. And I love Jojo.
— LORD DEATH DEMARCO (@Clarknova1) April 1, 2019
All the backlash from the schedule change caused Jason who was already not feeling well to leave Twitter for the rest of the day.
I started out this day in a horrible frame of mind and as usual, being online has made it worse. I’ll see ya’ll on the flip side. ✌🏼
— LORD DEATH DEMARCO (@Clarknova1) April 1, 2019
As our colleague @Sdurso5 said, Trust the process.
I will defend @Clarknova1 and the decisions to the face of this earth, trust the process https://t.co/KtWeupNCWd
— Steven (@sdurso5) April 1, 2019
The full schedule for April 13th is as follows: (Times Eastern/Pacific)
11:00pm – Dragon Ball Super
11:30pm – Sword Art Online: Alicization – Episode 11
12:00am – The Promised Neverland
12:30am – Black Clover
1:00am – My Hero Academia
1:30am – Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
2:00am – Naruto: Shippuden
2:30am – Hunter X Hunter
3:00am – JoJo: Diamond is Unbreakable
3:30am – Attack On Titan
UPDATE: The schedule is a-shufflin’ AGAIN
Toonami has just announced tonight (Thursday, April 4th, 2019 @7:14pm E/T) that after hearing fans’ concerns over the April 13th schedule shake up they decided to re-shuffle the line-up for April 13th. They stated that they hope this change please fans because there won’t be another change until they are ready to change it.
LINEUP NEWS: Your voices have been heard, and the lineup has once again been shuffled for April 13th #Toonami pic.twitter.com/mW4r3iIZVR
— Toonami Squad (@ToonamiSquad) April 4, 2019
Dragon Ball Super and Attack on Titan will still remain in their usual time-slots,
while SAO, Boruto and Shippuden now airing later in the schedule, and My Hero Academia, Black Clover and JoJo: Diamond is Unbreakable are airing earlier in the schedule.
The new schedule for April 13th is as follows: (Times Eastern/Pacific)
11:00pm – Dragon Ball Super
11:30pm – My Hero Academia
12:00am – The Promised Neverland
12:30am – Sword Art Online: Alicization – Episode 11
1:00am – JoJo: Diamond is Unbreakable
1:30am – Black Clover
2:00am – Boruto: Naruto Next Generations
2:30am – Naruto: Shippuden
3:00am – Hunter X Hunter
3:30am – Attack On Titan
The English Dub cast for The Promised Neverland still remains a mystery however we did reach out to Aniplex and they have stated to us via email, “Hi Joshua, Thanks for reaching out! We’re not announcing the cast yet, but we should very soon. I’ll be sure to reach out once we have. Thanks again!”
We will continue to bring any new updates on Toonami’s schedule and any announcements on The Promised Neverland’s English Dub.
Are you happy with the newest changes to the schedule compared to the original changes? Let us know in the comments below or on our social media accounts.