The State of Toonami 2024 (Part 3 of 3)

Continuing where we left off, I have to acknowledges that Adult Swim seems to be the home of originals on Cartoon Network, and they’re investing in a lot of original programming. Toonami is a home for a lot of those action-packed originals.

Granted the first batch of originals, most of which were co-produced with other partners including Crunchyroll, came and went barely moving the needle. Blade Runner: Black Lotus, Fena: Pirate Princess, and Shenmue the Animation will likely never see the light of day again. Housing Complex C lasted as long as a sneeze and just as memorable as one. Toonami had more luck with the four FLCL “sequels” and Ninja Kamui, the latter of which had very good numbers during its run in Spring 2024.

As Kamui was winding down, Toonami began pushing another high-profile project. No, it wasn’t Uzumaki, which had been delayed numerous times since it was initially announced in 2019 mostly because of the COVID-19 epidemic that’s still going on and various other production factors. 

It also wasn’t the return of My Adventures with Superman, which was now a Toonami exclusive, the first DC series to premiere new episodes under the brand since Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, and (at least in the US) Beware the Batman. 

It was for an anime spinoff of the popular Adult Swim original series Rick and Morty. The new series, Rick & Morty: The Anime, premieres on August 16 and arrives on MAX the next day but it encores two days later on Toonami where it will air as the headliner to open the block every week.  

I have to be frank with you though. Reruns of Rick and Morty: The Anime shouldn’t be the first series on Toonami every week.  

It’s one thing that the series is an encore of something that aired previously in the week, which isn’t all that unprecedented. That’s how Primal, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, and the first season of My Adventures with Superman aired on the block in the past. What’s unprecedented is that RMTA will be the first Japanese-language series to open Toonami, which would be fine and all if it wasn’t an encore of something that was already on the MAX streaming platform days before it aired. It kind of defeats the uniqueness of what Toonami is supposed to have. RMTA feels like a cash grab for a series that is probably the biggest original property Adult Swim currently has and owns outright which already has a lot of real estate on the block every night of the week, including the hour before Toonami. 

Not every Toonami fan likes Rick and Morty, and not every Rick and Morty fan likes Toonami or anime, if I’m being honest. The R&M fans interested in RMTA will mostly watch the dub days earlier and throughout the week on MAX, and only a handful will watch the Japanese-language version on Toonami. Sure, it’ll have a bump for a couple of weeks, but don’t expect consistency every week. The crossover they think the series will have is not going to be there.

But you know what would have worked? The recent WBA Japan series, Suicide Squad Isekai, which has both Japanese and English versions of the series. If Warner Bros actually acted like a unified company, they would have done the Japanese-language experiment they’re doing for RMTA for this show. Suicide Squad Isekai would have been a much better follow-up to the second “season” of My Adventures with Superman. It not only would have been the first anime television series based on a DC property to air on American television and Toonami but also the first WBA series to be in a foreign language on US television serving as a headliner.  Instead, the series currently airs in dual languages on MAX and Hulu and will likely never air on Toonami. 

Damn show isn’t even exclusively on WBD’s own media outlets. 

It’s not like Toonami’s not getting original programming, they clearly are. Ninja Kamui was a breakout series this year, and the recently completed season of My Adventures with Superman was well-received. The latter has already been renewed for a third season, which currently in production and won’t be ready for a while. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ninja Kamui gets another season as well. 

The long-anticipated Uzumaki is finally premiering on September 28 (well, actually September 29) at 12:30 AM E/P on Toonami. Shinichirō Watanabe’s Lazarus is coming to the block in 2025. Rooster Fighter, a co-production with Viz Media, is also coming to the block. 

It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if by some twist of fate, Toonami would become the home of Get Jiro, an action-comedy series based on a Vertigo comic created by the late world traveler and culinary guru Anthony Bourdain, or Super Mutant Magic Academy, a fantasy comedy series based on Jillian Tamaki’s comic series and co-created by J.G. Quintel. If My Adventures with Superman, Rick & Morty: The Anime, and Invincible Fight Girl are any indication, Toonami’s lineup is going to be a hybrid of all sorts of original stories with action/adventure overtones ranging from heavy dramas to comic-inspired projects. 

Perhaps that’s the goal of the future of the block. Present it not so much as the animated equivalent to Shonen Jump but rather the animation equivalent of WEBTOON, Weekly episodic stories that meshes hybrid styles and influences and attracts all audiences while still bringing a variety of action programs as opposed to “just anime.” We're literally seeing the Adult Swim brand grow up with shows like Common Side Effects being what many of my friends call "an HBO-quality series" as a potential dramatic breakout when it premieres and actually being, well, adult instead of the edgelord frat boy humor that has been the norm for over 20 years. 

Maybe we’re finally about to see a version of Toonami that we’ve never truly seen before. A better cartoon show. They’re working with what they have to create something audiences have never seen. 

They’re not getting rid of anime by any stretch, but it is nice to see Toonami build up a format that embraces and showcases voices beyond Japan. 

Even as rumors of WBD potentially spinning off the linear channels (possibly including Cartoon Network/Adult Swim) are spreading, the promise of what Toonami is supposed to be is constantly changing, adapting to the marketplace, embracing its past, and still hopeful about its future. 

Folks will always complain about what the block does. They’ve been complaining about Toonami since 1997, and they’ll still complain about Toonami in the future. 

And yeah, I still believe Toonami will be around in some form a little longer. TV is a very fickle industry, and linear TV is in a very precarious place now. Nobody expected Toonami to be back after it originally ended in 2008. Nobody expected Toonami to still be on the air 12 years after it returned. Change is constant with the better cartoon show. Nobody knows what will happen a year from now when it comes to Toonami. 

Heck, nobody knows what’ll happen a month from now. 

The state of Toonami isn’t as bad as people think it is. It’s not completely great either. There are a lot of things I personally would like to see, especially more homegrown originals made by Cartoon Network Studios and international co-productions the network would own outright (and they’re currently doing that). We literally have a generation of animators and creators who grew up with Toonami who want to make shows for it. 

LET THEM! 

Ensure the future of the block by letting those who could forge its future actually create it. Warner Bros Discovery NEEDS a creative outlet like Toonami just as much as they need Adult Swim, especially if they want to expand their place on the world stage. If the world of Toonami ever needed heroes, that time is now. 

That time is now.