Today on their official Facebook, Toonami announced a couple of surprising pick-ups joining the block on February 7. The time-travel thriller Tokyo Revengers and the popular soccer anime Blue Lock. These series will be airing back to back starting with Blue Lock at 1 a.m. replacing Blue Exorcist and Tokyo Revengers replacing Mashle: Magic and Muscles at 1:30 a.m.
It’s been quite a while since Toonami aired a non-combative traditional sports anime so Blue Lock might seem like an unusual pick for the block, but it is a top-selling manga and already had a film in U.S. theaters back in June of 2024. To say it takes a wildly different approach to typical team focused sports stories would be an understatement.
In Blue Lock, Japan’s national team has grown desperate to produce an ace that can lead them on the world stage, so The Japan Football Union has gathered 300 of Japan’s best and hungriest youth players to compete in the Blue Lock program developed by football enigma Jinpachi Ego. The goal is to create the world’s greatest egotistic striker. High school player Yoichi Isagi enters this den of beasts knowing if he fails he’ll never be permitted to represent Japan in professional soccer, and the same is true of the other 299 players he’ll have to crush on his way to the top spot.
Toonami’s other upcoming addition, Toyko Revengers, is a suspense thriller involving time travel. After the death of his ex-girlfriend, Hinata Tachibana, Takemichi Hanagaki finds himself twelve years in the past. With his knowledge of future events he will do everything he can to prevent the Tokyo Manji Gang dispute that lead to Hinata’s untimely passing. However, he’s just one teenager, and rewriting the past is never easy.
These are a couple of excellent additions to Toonami that broaden the scope of action programming and increase the variety of the types of stories the block is currently presenting. Both have 24 episodes in their first seasons so they’ll have a good six months on the block at minimum. They also have additional seasons which could follow.
As a side note: Blue Exorcist will be leaving Toonami with a season left un-aired, and that tease back in late December is all we’ll be seeing of Dan Da Dan season 2 for now, but with Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War running short on episodes, either could return by mid-March.
Nonetheless, with two new additions bowing the same night in February, Toonami is off to an exciting start this year and clearly still capable of surprising us all. You can see the entire February 7 schedule below.
What are your thoughts on Blue Lock and Tokyo Revengers joining Toonami? Sound off in the comments.
Andrew “Sketch” Hingson is the C.O.O. at toonamifaithful.com. Feel free to follow Sketch on all things Toonami, Adult Swim, and show predictions on Twitter @Sketch1984
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