Greeting fellow fans. It’s been a bit since I’ve done something on the site but I figured since our “wonderful” creator Paul Pescrillo asked be about something in particular I figure I would do a bit of a retrospective on all the debut episodes of everything that’s aired on Toonami so far.

So. Let’s begin with the obvious.

Akame Ga Kill aired this week at 1,822,000 total viewers and holy hell that’s a lot. Rather impressive for a show that seemed more under the radar than hyped. Though my twitter isn’t all the large so I probably missed the fandom marching in like their god appeared.

But let’s look back on all the other shows that have appears. Remember too, earlier shows started at a MUCH lower viewer count so all things in consideration.

2012
  • May 26
    • Deadman Wonderland; 12:30 am: 860,000
    • Casshern Sins; 1:00 am: 796,000
  • Aug 18th
    • Samurai 7; 12:30 am: 627,000
    • Eureka 7; 1:30 am: 516,000
  •  Oct 6th
    • Symbionic Titan; 2:00 am: 717,000
    • Thundercats (2011); 2:30 am: 727,000
  • Nov 10th
    • Tenchi Muyo GXP; 12:30 am: 806,000
    • InuYasha; 5:00/5:30 am: 522,000/496,000
  • Dec 1st
    • Naruto; 12:30 am: 925,000
2013
  • Feb 16th
    • Soul Eater; 1:00 am: 920,000
  • Apr 27th
    • IGPX; 2:00 am: 848,000
  • May 18th
    • One Piece; 1:00 am: 995,000
  • July 27th
    • Sword Art Online; 2:00 am: 930,000
  • Aug 17
    • Star Wars: The Clone Wars; 3:00 am: 727,000
  • Aug 31st
    • Kickheart; 2:30 (ish) am: 708,000
  • Oct 26th
    • Fooly Cooly; 2:30 am: 629,000
  • Dec 7th
    • Akira; 12:00 am: 981,000
    • Summer Wars; 12:00 am: 1,362,000
    • Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shambala; 12:00 am: 1,064,000
    • Trigun: Badlands Rumble; 12:00 am: 1,223,000
2014
  • Jan 4th
    • Space Dandy; 11:30 pm: 1,135,000
    • Naruto: Shippuden; 12:00 am: 1,084,000
  • Feb 1st
    • Samurai Jack; 4:00 am: 557,000
  • Feb 22nd
    • Blue Exorcist; 1:30 am: 842,000
  • Mar 22nd
    • Black Lagoon; 2:00 am: 941,000
  • May 3rd
    • Attack On Titan; 11:30 pm: 1,341,000
  • May 10th
    • Beware The Batman; 3:00am: 694,000
  • Aug 16th
    • Gurren Lagann; 2:00 am: 728,000
  • Sept 13th
    • Hellsing Ultimate; 3:00am: 837,000
  • Nov 15th
    • DBZ Kai; 12:00 am: 946,000
    • InuYasha: The Final Act; 2:00 am: 881,000
  • Dec 13th
    • Fullmetal Alchemist: Sacred Star Of Milos; 1:00am: 469,000
  • Dec 20th
    • DBZ Movie: Broly; 1:00 am: 1,175,000
2015
  • Feb 7th
    • Kill La Kill; 12:30 am: 1,211,000
  • Mar 28th
    • Sword Art Online II; 1:00 am: 992,000
  • June 20th
    • Michiko & Hatchin; 1:00 am: 1,141,000
  • Aug 8th
    • Agame Ga Kill; 12:30 am: 1,822,000

Wheu….that’s a mouth/type full.

So, per the obvious. Ya. Agame Ga Kill ends up taking the cake for the best debut for all of Toonami. Honestly, I’m not sure what to say about that. Most of the time there’s external shows that end up taking viewers away.

UFC, Specials, other stuff…so I’m rather surprised that AGK ended up getting so much. Not to mention the 2 million for DBZ Kai which nearly beat Family Guy this week. So beyond the massive “Nothing under 850K” we get the first 2 million of the new block!

I’m expecting some people to ask about X show but I’m only really going off of new stuff. Though I may have added some older stuff too. It’s what I’m doing on short notice (Paul was AMAZING giddy for me to do this) so just enjoy the ratings and the records broken!

 

COMMENT!!!

15 COMMENTS

  1. I love how people used to say that Sentai Filmworks shows wouldn’t work on Toonami. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but the ratings for August 8th respectfully disagree…

  2. Akame is far and away the champ. It’ll be hard for any show to top that but I hope Parasyte can. I mean most debuts were not even the highest rated episodes for those shows but Akame defied that after a monumentally high rated DBZ Kai.

  3. If I had to guess, the ratings will drop but still be at slightly-higher-than average numbers by next week, and then business as usual the week after.

    I really think AGK just got really lucky. Surely the hype surrounding Resurrection F had a huge hand in DBZ’s massive success this week. And when TOM said there would be a premiere right after, almost everybody decided to stick around to check it out.

    The stars aligned last weekend, and I don’t think that’s likely to happen again. I’m not sure it even CAN happen again, the whole “new show premiering after DBZ Kai the same week a new DBZ movie is in theaters” thing. There simply could not have been better timing to debut a brand new show.

    • This +5.

      Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if AGK gets about 1.3 mil next week. Given more standard trends, probably 1.1 million. I totally agree that Resurrection F played a lot into it as many people who probably didn’t know Toonami was on probably learned about it and went to watch it and AGK. The drop after is the bigger indicator of it’s potiental to be good for ratings though. Only a drop of 200k or 65k A18-49 is huge for the show.

      So it’ll be hit and miss as to where the show goes.

  4. The “Quality” of shows have definitely improved, that and certain shows/events aren’t sucking viewership away. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and not the high before the decline.

  5. The downside with some of these comparisons is shows like Gurren Lagann were several years old when it aired on Toonami, and many people have seen the show. That said, new and dub premiers like Akame and Kill La Kill shows there is a market to air a big show on TV before online streaming. That said, I am surprise how SAO 2 didn’t crack a million, but it was at a later slot compared to many new show premiers.

    • SAO squandered a lot of its good will with the fairy dance arc, and turned off a lot of people. It continues to be the most polarizing show on the block. Its either genius, or horrible with nowhere in between

        • And there are a lot of really cool moments of Season 2, but at least for me I keep coming back to the problem that every character fits into 3 types; women who want to bang Kirito, men who are sex crazed perverts, and Kirito. Ive heard nothing but positive things about the Mothers Rosario arc so hopefully it will leave the block with a better impression then season one.

          • I actually enjoyed the Mother Rosario arc. It’s not as serious as the GGO arc, but it was more heart felt and didn’t focus on Kirito for a bit.

            Also I feel like many anime and games the male protagonist is the ultimate ladies man. Especially if you played the Persona games.

          • I love the Persona games and I guess it doesnt really bother me as much there because the women all have strong unique personalities and the men do as well. Ill leave it at that. This should be a happy thread. I dont want to turn it into an SAO critical analysis, and be like that awful One piece sucks guy who dominated every thread like the plague.

      • Honestly to me the show is really sweet at times, at times and no doubt A1 knows how to make quality fights. SAO is just flooded with some bad storyline moments that kill the show, without noticing how on point the animation or soundtrack really is. Season 2 is definitely better entertainment-wise, but behold though after the butchering the show will never return to its charm because of those moments from season 1; part 2. If they were to do a season 3 they definitely would have to focus hardcore on the storyline and make sure the scenes are on point.

  6. Well, AmbientVirus is right: Debuts are one thing, but a show’s overall performance on Toonami is a better indicator of the audience’s attitude toward it. I hope the ratings and trendings for “Akame Ga Kill” continue along a high curve during the course of its run. Judging from Episode 1 alone, I liked its dark tone and level of violence. Neither were as extreme as “Hellsing Ultimate,” which I didn’t care for.

    I hope that shows like “Akame Ga Kill,” “Black Lagoon” and “Attack on Titan” become more prevalent on Toonami. Don’t get me wrong … I love “DBZ Kai” and “Naruto.” But shows like “Kill La Kill,” “Tenchi Muyo GXP” and, frequently, “One Piece” contain elements of such “silly ridiculousness” that they radically “transform” the mood and the tone of Toonami. I realize that the block can’t comprise all “serious” anime. Hopefully some humorous shows can be found that aren’t necessarily “goofy.”

    Right now, the Toonami block is an amazing lineup. I think it’s taken awhile to get here after the reduction to 3.5 hours, but it was worth it. I wouldn’t change a thing. THANK YOU, TOONAMI!

    • I would love to see another “silly” or comedy back on the block. Especially now since Toonami leads back into AS Comedy it would make some sense to have a more comedy focused show at the end after AoT ends (depending on what’s available.) Assassination Classroom sound like a good fit but I don’t think they team would want to put a preimere that late anymore. If it was a pure comedy, it may work but the fans would have to get over the idea that Toonami is purely a “action” block for that to work.

      Which after the failure of GXP, probably not.

  7. The big thing here is also to remember that it was the dub premier for a very popular show. The dub cast had not been annouced, and it also gets the stream numbers in that time. Add in no physical release date and this has some real potential. This,show balances humor and dark very well, but a lot of dark,guys. Enjoy the,ride

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here