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Over the past few years, it has become distressingly alarming how little new content has filled Toonami, with the span from 2020 to today seeing the Adult Swim block getting very little in terms of “new” shows and instead has found itself relying on existing series to fill its lineup. While it perhaps was a good idea for them to pick up One Piece again as they may have foreseen that there would be a drought of new content (plus the audience seems to like One Piece enough to want to stick with it for an hour), the honest truth is that acquiring new shows has gotten increasingly complicated as the industry has consolidated after Sony bought up Crunchyroll in 2021. Along with this, the budget cuts due to the merger between Warner Brothers and Discovery likely means that whatever plans the team at Toonami had this decade have fallen apart piece by piece. To give them credit where credit is due, Toonami has managed to grab some new titles, such as Made in Abyss, Zom 100, and Lycoris Recoil just to name a few, but plenty of anime that would have been perfect fits for the block haven’t aired yet or worse, potentially will never air, at least not in my lifetime. With the lack of new content and the block over-relying on hits like Dragon Ball Z Kai and the previously mentioned One Piece, it feels like they have to rely more heavily on the original anime that they have produced for Adult Swim, such as Ninja Kamui, FLCL Grunge/Shoegaze, and the upcoming Rick and Morty anime alongside former Cartoon Network series that moved to the network, such as Invincible Fight Girl, My Adventures with Superman, and Unicorn Warriors Eternal. I have my own personal opinions on their anime originals, and especially if you read my Ninja Kamui review, you’ll see I do not think highly of them. If those are meant to be the new anchors, then they misjudged how people would perceive these new shows. I view the Adult Swim/Toonami original anime titles as supplemental titles meant to fill time rather than be events, although I am sure Adult Swim thinks differently, wanting these things to do well for them, with a successful broadcast on the network itself as well as finding an audience on Max the day after they air. While that is all well and good, the reality is they have to be decent shows in order for them to achieve those goals and though I am sure the ratings tell the network that people liked the originals they have run so far, most of the critical response and fan response has been a big old “meh,” which could be an article of its own. I have one thought, and it is this: What is there to look forward to if you aren’t interested in the original projects or the freebie shows from CN? So far, the only compelling reason to keep watching Toonami is to get a TV run for already accessible dubbed series such as My Hero Academia and the earlier mentioned series Lycoris Recoil and Zom 100. Granted, if you are already a massive anime fan, chances are you are already deeply tuned in and aware of the heavy hitter shonen series that are the bread and butter of Toonami, Adult Swim’s goal is to get the casual person who watches linear TV to discover these shows and watch them on their airtime, not through other means, which in 2024 is pretty much a unicorn as even the most casual of casual viewers are aware of the biggest names of these shows. If one household already has a Netflix account and they can watch a show like One Piece or My Hero Academia through it, why would anyone watch it on Toonami? I understand that acquiring heavy hitters like the massive amount of Shonen Jump anime Toonami has aired over the years is a draw, but that well is drying up for them. With increased competition from big players such as Disney and Netflix acquiring the huge titles such as Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean, these sorts of big titles that would’ve been perfect fits on the late-night action cartoon block are gone and out of reach. Perhaps not forever, but by the time these kinds of titles could come to the block, most of the viewers who would have ever been interested in checking those out have already done so. Plus, Naruto Shippuden is slowly crawling to its end with episode 500 scheduled to air on August 24th, 2024, and the manga for My Hero Academia ends August 5th, meaning the final season will probably be scheduled to air sometime next year. All of this is compounded with Disney and Netflix throwing money around, so what is left to land on Toonami to be interested in as a viewer? That’s obviously a question that Adult Swim needs to figure out the answer to for themselves, but I don’t know what they can do at this point if they continue to struggle to acquire new content. Well, are the originals they’re putting out enough to be sustainable? I would argue they aren’t, since they aren’t putting out any new originals currently to fill up their entire lineup, and I’m not expecting that to happen unless some serious cash flow goes into the Adult Swim division of Warner Brothers Discovery. As a fan, do I just expect the lineup in a few years from now to just be three hours long with an original or two, followed by an hour each of One Piece and DBZ Kai? I don’t think that’s a good lineup or really offers any variety outside of just pleasing whoever’s left.
One thing that continues to bother me is the fact that Toonami still has assorted industry partners, and yet we don’t see anything of substance from them. We recently got Demon Slayer alongside Lycoris Recoil from Aniplex, but then once again, nothing as of late. I can understand that Demon Slayer’s next season may come sometime down the road; that could even be sometime soon, or much farther out, but either way, it isn’t as if Aniplex of America is lacking in offerings. They still have plenty of shows in their own catalog like Sk8 The Infinity or Cells at Work that Toonami could air, and while maybe they aren’t the hottest shows, they have an audience and those titles could easily benefit from a Toonami run. The same could be said for Sentai Filmworks, who they have partnered with to produce dubs for their originals including the earlier mentioned shows Ninja Kamui and Shenmue The Animation. They have also worked with Warner Brothers recently on their latest partnership to produce the dub for Suicide Squad Isekai. It’s obvious WBD/Adult Swim still partner with Sentai when they want a cheap dub put together but any new show acquisitions for the block from Sentai are a rarity, which is, quite frankly, pretty dumb. A few years ago, I could probably make a case that Sentai didn’t have many new shows that Toonami would be interested in, but considering the number of content droughts the block has seen in recent times, Sentai tends to have a solid number of shows that would be great picks for the block, even if they are more niche. What matters is that they have their fans, really, what harm could it do if something like Ushio and Tora or Call of The Night were to air on the block?
Again, these are questions Adult Swim has to answer and for all I know, they could’ve tried to acquire plenty from these distributors and things didn’t work out for one reason or another. Still, I find it ridiculous that as a viewer, to see the block without new content filling it gives me less of a reason to tune in or to care what happens. Yes, the Dragon Balls, Narutos, and One Pieces built Toonami into what it is today, but leaning on those classics cannot be the continued strategy to carry the weight of the block, especially when Toonami is still trying to chase the white whale that is Crunchyroll. If they can get Crunchyroll back on board with licensing content, then the block could remain healthy, but at this point in time, it feels like a farce. Chasing something that won’t likely happen anytime soon and the continued pursuit has likely created a distraction for Adult Swim alongside with producing their mediocre originals. I can only hope that Adult Swim and the people running Toonami can figure it out sooner rather than later because as a fan, although I don’t have concerns of Toonami going away, what I fear is that people will start to leave because you aren’t offering any value to them.
