With a heavy heart, we bid farewell to Food Wars! The Third Plate and Soma’s journey to becoming the number one chef in the Elite Ten. Between that and no new episodes of Black Clover, how will fans survive??
Just kidding! Food Wars! wrapped up its third season, and Black Clover is on a short break, but both titles will return in just two weeks. In the meantime, read on to see what you may have missed on This Week in Toonami.
This week Toonami announced what their schedule would look like once Fena: Pirate Princess joined the block. However, the big surprise about the full lineup for Aug. 14 is that Black Clover makes a return to its usual time at 2 a.m. Regarding the future schedule, fans were already aware of the two-episode premiere for the original. Still, it left many wondering what would replace Food Wars! since the third season finished. Toonami answered that by giving fans a fourth serving of the popular cooking manga. Food Wars!: The Fourth Plate will air on Adult Swim starting at 1:30 a.m. (just like the previous season).
The most surprising part about the schedule news was that Jason DeMarco mentioned that there will be six more originals coming through now to 2024. While they won’t be co-productions with Crunchyroll, the block has continued to look for more new content to air on Toonami for the future.
Toonami debuted a couple of extras for the fans during last night’s broadcast! Both a Harley Quinn promo (which will marathon the whole night on Aug. 7), as well as a brand new Fena: Pirate Princess promo. Many fans seem to be hyped for Harley Quinn making it on Toonami as well as seeing how Fena: Pirate Princess will look. It will be a sight to behold as Adult Swim inches closer and closer to the debut!
Are you interested in watching the virtual Crunchyroll Expo? Toonami fans might want to make time as there will be a few panels they’ll want to check out. An exclusive first look at Fena: Pirate Princess on Aug. 6 at 2 p.m. EST kicking things off. With the premiere getting closer, the excitement revolving around this title has been reaching critical mass, as fans will get a chance to see more about this new series!
There will also be a Blade Runner: Black Lotus panel at the virtual convention. The directors, Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama will be discussing the process of making the new series. Plus, according to the panel information, there will be a premiere of new content for the title. It will be an enlightening panel, and one Toonami fans should check out if they can!
Another panel from the virtual Crunchyroll Expo that caught our eyes is one involving Black Clover! Fans can join the Japanese voice of Asta and the series director of the series as they both take a look back at the journey of the story’s main protagonist. As the anime reaches its conclusion on Toonami, it might be fun to take a trip down memory lane at how Asta has morphed into one of the best knights for the Clover Kingdom!
You’ve heard of Anime Drip™, but get ready for Samurai Jack Drip™! Daylight Curfew is a label and creative agency that has collaborated with Adult Swim several times already for clothing collections featuring Rick And Morty, Thundercats, and even Toonami’s very own TOM. On Aug. 6, they are releasing a collection of Samurai Jack knit sweaters featuring the famous samurai himself and his nemesis Aku. These pieces are limited, so mark your calendar and set the alarm so you won’t miss it when it drops!
Weekly Shonen Jump announced that a new 73-page chapter of Bleach will be published on Aug. 10 to the surprise of many fans. This new chapter will be considered a “new episode” for the manga as the company celebrates the titles’ twentieth anniversary. The magazine teased the story of this new chapter as Ichigo has been invited back to the Soul Society, but…”. Bleach fans will not want to miss the next installment of the iconic franchise, and it should be looked at as an excellent way to get excited for the new anime adaptation coming!
Demon Slayer was once again in the news this week, but for a couple of good reasons. The film Mugen Train found its way back in the top-ten tickets sales in Japanese theaters, despite being away for the last couple of months. Of course, this shouldn’t come as a massive surprise since Japan is having another limited screening run in 380 Japanese theaters, according to ANN, from July 22 to July 29. This film continues to be a commercial success and showcases just how big of a property Demon Slayer has become. And the manga won an award this week! Demon Slayer won the Japan Cartoonists Association Award, adding more titles for the famous property!
Sticking with the award-winning topic, Junji Ito won two Eisner Awards for his two books Remina and Venus in the Blind Spot! Those who are Uzumaki fans should check out these two books of the acclaimed novelist!
And what can only be described as CJ’s worst nightmare, Epic Games obtained the rights to use Naruto in their hit game Fortnite. The game will be implementing the character into an upcoming Battle Pass. We are unsure if that means Naruto-like skins, new abilities, weapons, or whatever you get in Fortnite. But if you are into the game and love Naruto, you’ll want to check this out when it is live.
After stopping the villains from flooding the city in My Hero Academia, Todoroki and Bakugo are interviewed by the local press about their efforts. However, Bakugo’s fiery temperament and Todoroki’s stoic tone make for an extremely awkward interview, much to their classmates’ amusement. Never one to miss an opportunity, Aizawa invites Mount Lady to UA so she can coach Class 1-A on hero public relations. Each student practices speaking an interview (with mixed results) and marketing themselves with a signature move. Later, the UA faculty meet to discuss the reinstatement of hero work studies by the Hero Public Safety Commission in response to an increase in villain activity. Todoroki reaches out to Midoriya and Bakugo privately and invites them to join him for training at his father Endeavor’s agency. Meanwhile, Hawks is still investigating the League of Villains undercover for the Hero Public Safety Commission. Despite doing what Dabi asks of him, Hawks quickly realizes that he’s not entirely trusted by the League just yet, and he requests that the Commission only communicate with him in code from now on. After the new year begins, Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugo set out for their first day at Endeavor’s agency. Bakugo butts heads with the fiery Number One Hero almost immediately, but Midoriya quickly jumps in, and thanks Endeavor for mentoring them. Suddenly, Starservant appears, using his glass manipulation “Quirk” to destroy nearby buildings and cars to build a giant glass bubble. Endeavor goes after him, and his three new trainees aren’t far behind. Endeavor destroys the object with his flames and then chases Starservant through the streets. Starservant’s minions try to catch Endeavor with a rope when he follows him down an alley, but Todoroki uses his ice “Quirk” to cut right through it. Just as Midoriya and Bakugo prepare to attack, Hawks suddenly arrives and makes quick work of Starservant’s lackeys. Afterward, he gives Endeavor a book and delivers a cryptic message, hoping he will understand while also not making the League of Villains even more suspicious. Later, Endeavor reads the book, and he realizes that Hawks has sent him a warning. Not only has the League of Villains grown more potent by the thousands, but they will also launch an attack in four months.
The three princesses are off to find another bounty in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon. Villagers have been mysteriously disappearing in a nearby village, so Jyubei sends the girls to investigate. When they arrive, they see that the town has been overrun with demon cats, and the residents are so obsessed with them that they neglect their other duties. Moroha and Setsuna mow down the demon cats and release the villagers from their trance. The girls then head up the mountain, where they find an old temple cared for by a beautiful monk named Ju-an. He seems to be unaware of the demon cats, but Setsuna and Moroha can smell them all over the temple grounds. Ju-an tells the girls the story of a priest who sealed a giant demon cat beneath the temple floor many years ago, which Setsuna believes is attracting the cats to the grounds. Later that night, she and Moroha discover giant cat demon bones beneath the temple, which suddenly spring to life and attack them. In the temple, Towa realizes that the demon cat spirit possesses Ju-an. Setsuna insists they kill the monk to slay the adversary, but Towa refuses. Instead, she uses her demon energy to absorb the cat spirit and exorcise it from the monk’s body. The regimental food war is underway in Food Wars! The Third Plate as Soma and his team take on Azami Nakamura and Central to save Totsuki Culinary Academy. Since this is no ordinary food war, bookmen from the World Gourmet Organization arrive to judge the competition. Soma and his team learn that Isshiki is not only childhood friends with their opponent Nene Kinokuni but also that he lived with her family to study traditional Japanese cuisine. He demonstrates his skills as he prepares his eel dish, but suddenly Isshiki reveals he brought experimental ingredients from the Kyokusei dorm that his classmates created. His friends are horrified that he chose this food war to play around with, but Isshiki assures his team that he chose this specific recipe because he believes in his friends who created the ingredients. In fact, it’s Kyokusei’s garlic chips that give Isshiki the edge over his opponent and ultimately victory. Nene vows to destroy Satoshi in the next round, but he warns her not to underestimate Soma as an opponent.
Much to everyone’s horror, Soma decides to stir-fry his soba instead of cooking it traditionally in the season finale of Food Wars! The Third Plate. In the end, Nene finishes her soba and kakiage first. The judges are thoroughly impressed by her technical skill and the delicate flavors. However, Soma’s haphazard cooking reveals the weakness in Nene’s technique when the judges point out that her soba lacks a similar strength in taste and texture due to a less than ideal cooking environment. Her years of traditional technique have made her less likely to adapt to varying environments, unlike Soma, who learned to cook in a restaurant where preparing food is constantly changing. Soma wins the round, and the regimental food war continues. The search for Orochimaru begins in Naruto: Shippuden when Third Hokage Hiruzen leads a mission to capture the legendary ninja. Orochimaru evades Hiruzen and is about the flee the country when Kakashi attacks. Orochimaru easily defeats Kakashi, but he is severely wounded when a snake with an explosive tag hidden inside its mouth approaches and the label detonates. Meanwhile, Danzo sends Kinoe to meet Orochimaru at the country’s border to help him escape. When he arrives, Kinoe is surrounded by a clan that lives there, thinking that he is an enemy. Kinoe reveals his alliance, and the clan backs down. A young girl recognizes Kinoe almost immediately, claiming that he is her brother Tenzo.
Worlds collide in Attack On Titan when the Braus family goes to Niccolo’s restaurant per the chef’s invitation. Gabi and Falco tell Niccolo their true identities, realizing too late that the devil woman Gabi bragged about killing was the daughter of their host family and Niccolo’s love, Sasha Braus. Niccolo becomes enraged, and he threatens to kill the two children in front of the Braus family and other guests at the restaurant. When offered the chance to exact revenge on his daughter’s killers, Mr. Braus refuses because violence begets more violence. Suddenly, the Jaegerists arrive and hold the military officers at the restaurant hostage while Eren finds Mikasa and Armin to chat. Staff writer Umeko reviewed the episode in total during its initial airing, which you can read here! Android 17 continues to hold off Top’s attacks in Dragon Ball Super, but the giant’s newly unleashed Power of Destruction energy proves to be too powerful. Frieza blocks an attack from Top and uses his psychic power to freeze him long enough to throw rocks. Top breaks free, and he hurls ki blasts at both Frieza and 17. Suddenly, Top is hit by a stray attack from the brawl between Jiren, Goku, and Vegeta. Android 17 and Frieza are both struck by an attack from Jiren that their teammates dodged. Top makes Vegeta his new target, and he unleashes a barrage of blasts upon the Saiyan prince. He taunts Vegeta for clinging to his sense of pride, telling him that he will never overcome his weaknesses if he cannot let go of his promises to his family and friends. Vegeta doubles down on his resolve and begins to build up his ki, which Piccolo recognizes from the self-destruction attack that the prince used years ago in a fight against Majin Buu. Top also charges his energy for a Sphere of Destruction. Vegeta’s ki proves to be too powerful, overwhelming Top and pushing him out of the arena. Much to his teammates’ relief, Vegeta did not die in his attack, but he is entirely out of energy and can barely stand.
On the newest episode of the Toonami Faithful Podcast, CJ Maffris hosts a discussion on the top-five husbandos that have been on Toonami (with a few wiggle-room rules allowed). Joined by Varun “VLordGTZ” Gupta, Celia Rose, and Bryan “LaserKid” Johnson proceeded to break the host’s mind, and all gave lists that made CJ feel he shouldn’t be hosting more episodes like this. If you want a good laugh and find out what broke our host, definitely give this episode a listen!
A new episode of the Demon Slayer Podcast was published where VLordGTZ, Sakaki, and Marion “microwaevy” Pèna are joined by C. Larios from the Weekly Manga Recap podcast as they give a retrospective of the acclaimed manga. It has been a long and fantastic journey for Demon Slayer, so this episode is a must-listen if you want to hear how the property had humble beginnings to now becoming one of the biggest titles on the planet.
It was a busy week for Sakaki as he and Colton published another episode of their Dragon Ball podcast, Another Day, Another Adventure! The episode centers around episodes two and three, and both discuss their thoughts on the anime original Pilaf gang scenes and how it contributed to the pacing of the series. Fans of the OG series will have to find some time to listen to this episode.
On a new episode of Pop Deculture!, director of social media Celia Rose, Chad from the Macross Mecha Manual, and EXO from Macross Fan Central clear up confusion about viral video clips from the CR Fever Super Dimension Fortress Macross pachinko game released by SANKYO in 2009 that are often touted as rebooted footage from the 1982 series Super Dimension Fortress Macross. They also discuss if the original Macross should be rebooted with new animation, a la Starblazers: Yamato 2199. Take a look!
While Paul Pescrillo is still around to keep Toonami Faithful going, he wasn’t alone as the creator of the publication. Jose Argumedo is the other part of the two who help create this website. And while Jose has moved on to focus more on a professional career, we always enjoy hearing about his work in the anime industry! This week, he announced that he was freelancing for VIZ Media and edited a few of their trailers. The first one of his work debuted for the latest Blu-ray release of the original Naruto anime. If you’re a Toonami fan, you’ll want to check this out; it might feel a bit familiar. Congratulations on your fantastic accomplishment, Jose!
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C.J Maffris is the Editor-in-Chief at Toonamifaithful.com. He also produced and directed the Toonami documentary, What Toonami Means To Me. Feel free to follow CJ on Twitter @SeaJayMaffris
Celia Rose is the Director of Social Media for ToonamiFaithful.com. Feel free to follow Celia Rose on Twitter @planetstwinkle.